Effect of Airbag Deployment Phases on Tactile Occupant Detection Sensor

An airbag is a crucial passive safety system that protects an occupant in the event of severe vehicle collisions. Its restraint effect can be controlled only when the occupant's contact data with the airbag is available. A new capacitive tactile sensor is developed and installed on the airbag surface to provide the occupant's first contact time, contact area and position on the airbag. Based on this feedback, the airbag pressure can be controlled. An airbag deployment is associated with different phases from trigger to full deployment. Before detecting the occupant, it is important to know the effect of these phases on the sensor. In this paper, the phase effects of dynamic airbag deployment on the contact sensor during the simplified static deployment tests are analyzed and discussed. Time-to-first-gas, unfolding of the textile, inflation, and cable capacitance effects are the key points brought to discussion. The results reveal, no effects of time-to-first-gas and inflation on the contact sensor. While the unfolding and cable capacitance have significant effects on the sensor which should be accounted for the occupant detection algorithm.