A sleeping occupant crash protection system includes an occupant sleeping compartment positioned within an autonomous vehicle. A substantially flat platform of the occupant sleeping compartment supports an occupant reclining in a horizontal sleep position. An elastic bedsheet is positioned in direct contact with an upper surface of the platform positioned between the occupant and the platform. A sensing system is in communication with the occupant sleeping compartment and triggers deployment of a bedsheet displacement system during a vehicle rapid deceleration event.

An apparatus for operating an airbag of an autonomous vehicle may include: an interior image sensor configured to capture an interior image of a vehicle; an input unit configured to receive collision prediction information from an autonomous driving system and the interior image from the interior image sensor; an airbag module installed at the front and side of the interior of the vehicle, and configured to deploy an airbag; and an airbag control unit configured to estimate the sitting position and dynamic behavior of the passenger from the interior image inputted from the input unit, estimate a collision status from the collision prediction information, determine an airbag to be deployed and a time to deploy the airbag according to the sitting position, and then output a deployment signal to the airbag module.

A method for adapting a triggering algorithm of a personal restraint device of a vehicle on the basis of a detected vehicle interior state of the vehicle. The method comprises detecting of key points of a vehicle occupant by an optical sensor device, ascertaining a vehicle occupant posture of the vehicle occupant based on the connection of the detected key points to a skeleton-like representation of body parts of the vehicle occupant, wherein the skeleton-like representation reflects the relative position and orientation of individual body parts of the vehicle occupant, predicting a future vehicle occupant posture of the vehicle occupant based on a predicted future position of at least one of the key points, and modifying the triggering algorithm of the personal restraint device based on the predicted future posture of the vehicle occupant. A control device for adapting a triggering algorithm of a personal restraint device is also disclosed.

Disclosed is a method for predicting collision severity, including: establishing a first learning model, and inputting vehicle data and collision accident scene feature data into the first learning model; obtaining a predicted collision acceleration curve outputted by the first learning model, the predicted collision acceleration curve being established based on a plane rectangular coordinate system; establishing a second learning model, and inputting the predicted collision acceleration curve, the occupant feature data and the restraint system feature data into the second learning model; obtaining a plurality of predicted collision kinematics and dynamics curves of human body parts outputted by the second learning model; generating a collision severity parameter according to the plurality of predicted collision kinematics and dynamics curves of the human body parts, the collision severity parameter being configured to evaluate the collision severity.

A monitoring system includes an imaging unit configured to capture a depth image including a distance to a monitoring target person in a vehicle cabin, an estimation unit configured to estimate a three-dimensional human body model of the monitoring target person from the depth image captured by the imaging unit, and a monitoring unit configured to detect a get-off motion by monitoring a motion of a monitoring target portion of the human body model approaching the monitoring coordinate regarding a door manipulation in the cabin on the basis of the human body model estimated by the estimation unit.

A vehicle comprises: a knee bolster; a movable obstruction disposed forward of the knee bolster; a seating assembly rearward of the knee bolster; a sensor that generates output; and a controller in communication with the sensor that (a) determines the attribute of the passenger from the output that the sensor generates, and (b) either (i) causes the movable obstruction to obstruct forward movement of the knee bolster based on the determined attribute of the passenger, or (ii) causes the movable obstruction not to obstruct the forward movement of the knee bolster based on the determined attribute of the passenger. The attribute of the passenger can be the weight of the passenger. The controller can cause the movable obstruction to obstruct forward movement of the knee bolster because the weight of the passenger is greater than a predetermined threshold weight.

A vehicle occupant protection device includes: a seat belt device having a selectable force limiter that is configured to switch a force limiter load from a high load to a low load; an airbag device that deploys an airbag in front of the occupant; a movement direction detector that detects a direction in which a head region of the occupant will move relative to the vehicle at the time of frontal collision; an initial position detector that detects a position of the head region prior to the movement; and a control unit that makes a determination whether or not the head region will move outside of an area of protection by the airbag based on detection results of the movement direction detector and the initial position detector and, in a case in which the determination is affirmative, maintains the high load of the force limiter load.

A vehicle occupant monitoring apparatus includes two or more imaging modules and a controller. The imaging modules each include: a light-emitting device configured to emit and apply light to an occupant in a vehicle; and an imaging device configured to perform imaging of the occupant to obtain an imaging image. The controller is configured to cause the light-emitting device of each of the imaging modules to apply the light when the imaging device of corresponding one of the imaging modules performs the imaging. The controller is configured to cause, in a case where contact of the vehicle with another object is predicted or detected, the imaging device to perform the imaging to obtain the imaging image while causing the light-emitting devices of the imaging modules to apply the light together, and monitor the position of the occupant on the basis of the obtained imaging image.

An impact motion tracking system for tracking an object in a three-dimensional space includes a motion tracking sensor that includes a housing, a magnetic measurement module, an inertial measurement module, and a transmitter module, which generates magnetic fields. The magnetic measurement module measures magnetic fields generated by the transmitter module and has a fixed orientation with the object. The inertial measurement module measures a linear acceleration or an angular acceleration and has a fixed positional relationship with the object. An electronic processor receives measured signals from the motion tracking sensor and derives an impact motion information for the object based on received measured signals from the inertial measurement module. The electronic processor derives a magnetic motion information for the object based on received measured signals from the magnetic measurement module and periodically calibrates impact motion information with magnetic motion information.

A method for operating an occupant protection device of a vehicle involves triggering an occupant protection mechanism, in the event of an imminent detected collision for the vehicle or of a detected collision of the vehicle. The triggering also depends upon detected image data of at least one interior camera of the vehicle and the triggering can be supressed based on the detected image data of the interior camera.