State Estimator Design for Real-time Controlled Restraint Systems

In this paper, a method is presented to estimatethe motion of a vehicle occupant in frontal impact. Knowledgeof the occupant’s motion during a crash can significantly reducethe risk of injury, as restraint systems could be real-timeadapted to the optimal settings. It is shown that the chestacceleration of the occupant, an important measure of injury,is accurately estimated by filtering of the belt displacement atthe outlet side. Low order, nonlinear models are constructedfrom complex models, and a state estimator filter is designedusing a linearization of these low order models