Abstract
It is a long accepted fact that the advent of vehicle restraint systems such as seat belts and air bags have reduced injuries during collisions and saved many lives. Despite the acknowledged benefits it is still a matter of concern that there are a small number of cases where death results as a direct consequence of the use of the restraint sys-tems.
In such cases, it is often found that there are contributory factors, which may predispose a seat occupant to belong to a high-risk category. Such factors may be age, gender, body morphology and, possibly, even fitness. There have been many attempts to address some of these (eg, weight detection for babies - smart seats for motorcycles, determination of skeletal bone density) with varying degrees of success. It is felt by the authors that the route to success lies in integrating a range of sensory techniques in order to intelligently assess vehicle occupants for gender, age, height, and fitness. It is believed that simple time-history of occupant motion will enable the determination of head position in 3 dimensions and encumbrances (eg cigarettes, spectacles) at the time of impact. This will enable a truly sensitive deployment of restraints governing seat-belt pre-tensioning and front/side air bag inflatant injection profiles.
The paper describes the current work being undertaken by the Mechatronics Research Centre at Loughborough in conjunction with IRISYS Ltd concerning a low cost infra-red sensor integrated with other sensors in the cabin of a vehicle in order to determine and categorise a range of the above-mentioned parameters identifying occupants as high-risk.
The work is supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) by a quota PhD studentship administered by the Faraday PRIME partnership. The award is a CASE (Cooperative Award in Science and Engineering) type, which includes a significant industrial contribution from IRISYS Ltd.
The utilisation of a sophisticated static test rig allows testing of a range of people with age, gender, morphology and fitness differences in order to permit the generation of algorithms on embedded controllers to identify risk parameters and pass deployment parameters to the restraint systems. The embedded controllers will communicate via CAN-bus in order to integrate with accepted automotive standards.
The experimental programme has included simulated driving conditions and real crash testing in a vehicle with a human driver. This has provided valuable information and experience concerning operational envelopes and system robustness. Work is continuing to develop the system and to seek further commercial partners with a view towards developing a proposal to seek funding for a major research & development programme.