Real world crash injury studies of current seat belts indicate five limitations to occupant protection: head contacts with steering wheels for drivers, intrusion, rear loading by unrestrained objects, mispositioning of the seat belt and injuries from the belt itself. A restraint system of fixed characteristics cannot address the variations in weight, sitting position, biomechanical tolerance and crash severity which occur in the crash populations. Intelligent restraint systems have the potential to address these varying demands so that protection could be optimized for a specific person, in a specific sitting position in a specific crash. The techniques for achieving these aims are variable these aims are variable pretensioners, discretionary web locks and load limiters, position sensing, and airbags with variable inflation rates and volumes. (A)
Abstract