Pedestrian airbag technology:​ a production system

Jakobsson, Lotta; Broberg, Thomas; Fredriksson, Henrik Karlsson Anders; Gråberg, Niklas; Gullander, Christina; Lindman, Magdalena

Affiliations

Abstract

Pedestrians in conflict with passenger cars represent an important portion of all road user fatalities.

This paper presents the world-first pedestrian airbag technology offered in a production vehicle, being one way of addressing pedestrian protection, focusing on trying to help further cushion the impact for a pedestrian and also enable a sleek styling of the vehicle in question.

A description of the technology is provided as well as examples of tests for evaluating technical performance, head impact characteristics and overall technology performance.

Sensors in the bumper provide input to the pedestrian airbag control unit that determines if the system should be activated. The hood hinges are released and the pedestrian airbag deploys helping both to elevate the hood itself as well as helping to cushion a potential impact. The lift height is controlled and limited.

Numerous tests of the components and the system are performed in various situations, including different weather conditions, verified the technical performance and validated the complete chain of events from detection of a pedestrian leg to the final state of deployment.

Using head impactor tests, the head impact protection capabilities showed overall good performance. Impact towards the pedestrian airbag reduces the acceleration level as compared to without the airbag.

Overall performance of the complete technology, including head impact timing, airbag coverage and overall occupant kinematics was verified using a pedestrian prototype crash test dummy and four different pedestrian FE human models.

The pedestrian airbag technology as being one possible solution to cushion an impact helps to protect pedestrians in certain situations when struck by the vehicles front end with a consequent impact to the hood and the area around the windscreen wiper recess and A-pillar.

Links

URL: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/esv/esv23/23ESV-000447.pdf

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Cited By (4)

Year	Entry
2019	Isaksson-Hellman I, Lindman M. Real-world evaluation of driver assistance systems for vulnerable road users based on insurance crash data in Sweden. In: Proceedings of the 26th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 10-13, 2019; Eindhoven, Netherlands.
2014	Iwamoto M, Nakahira Y. A preliminary study to investigate muscular effects for pedestrian kinematics and injuries using active THUMS. In: Proceedings of the 2014 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 10-12, 2014; Berlin, Germany.444-460.
2018	Barrow A, Edwards A, Khatry R, Cuerden R, Schneider A, Labenski V, Veh U. Casualty benefits of measures influencing head to windscreen area protection. In: Proceedings of the 2018 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 12-14, 2018; Athens, Greece.442-453.
2020	Shang S. Pedestrian Whole Body Ground Contact Mechanisms and Head Injury Assessment Following Vehicle Impact [PhD thesis]. Trinity College Dublin; April 2020.