摘要 |
A method of deploying a passenger side airbag as a function of the actual mass of the occupant on the passenger seat. This is accomplished by providing force sensors at one or more of the anchor pieces at which a seat belt is connected to the vehicle. The sensors may be strain gauges that measure the deflection of bolts connecting the ends of the seat belt to the anchor pieces. By sizing the nominal resistance of strain gauges at two anchor pieces, the two resistors can be put in a series circuit such that only the sum of the two resistances need be measured. The measurements obtained are then used to obtain the vertical components of force due to the seat belt. This value is then be subtracted from the total vertical force measured by a seat cushion weight sensor to determine the mass of the seat occupant. |