A control algorithm for vehicular air bags based on semimetric spaces

摘要

Most on-board control algorithms for vehicular air bags rest on changes in acceleration. The on-board algorithm described in this paper, however, rests on changes in kinetic energy and linear momentum. The objective of this algorithm is to quantify the crash severity and to identify the crash configuration of a collision. These quantified and identified crash components determine whether activating air bags is required or prohibited and derive from a comparison of observed energy and momentum changes with representative changes stored in an on-board library. Observed and representative changes are compared by semimetric distances in special semimetric spaces. The implementation of the algorithm is specified by a numerical routine with parallel processing. And the speed, accuracy, calibration, and robustness of the algorithm are illustrated by forty-two contrasting test crashes.