The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 17, 1998
Filed:
Feb. 26, 1996
Applicant:
Inventor:
Craig W White, Grosse Pointe, MI (US);
Assignee:
Automotive Systems Laboratory, Inc., Farmington Hills, MI (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
B60R / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
280735 ; 180268 ; 180271 ; 280806 ; 307 101 ;
Abstract
An integrated vehicle occupant energy management system (10) and method (100) performs front and side impact detection (102), determination of occupant position and type (106), and control of seat belt tension (104 and 108) and deployment of one or more air bags (114) from a single unit (12) position at the vehicle's b-pillar. Real time and dynamic management of occupant energy is provided to optimize energy absorption through seat belt tensioning as a first response to a crash situation, and follow-up deployment of one or more air bags as needed.