Development of Active Head Restraint System, Considering Various Occupant Physiques, Positions, and Postures

摘要

Toyota Motor Corporation places the highest priority on improving real-world safety performance by considering the conditions of actual accidents, an approach that has led to several advances in active safety technology. One example is the Whiplash Injury Lessening (WIL) Concept Seat that is designed to reduce the load on the neck. This is a unique concept that lessens whiplash by simultaneously restraining the head and thorax of the occupant as much as possible, thereby controlling relative motions in a rear-end collision. This article describes the development of the Active Head Restraint (AHR) System, which is an advanced version of the WIL Concept Seat. This system is structured to further alleviate whiplash injury by moving the head restraint into an appropriate position in a rear-end collision to reduce the load on the occupant's cervical region. Additionally, in consideration of improving real-world safety performance, the system has been designed to be compatible with various occupant physiques, positions, and postures. In-house tests with dummies have showed that the system reduces the cervical injury criteria, and it is expected to have a similar whiplash-lessening effect in the real world.