A vehicle seat occupant status classification system uses sensors in or associated with the seat to detect physical variables indicative of the presence, position, weight, capacitance or other physical characteristics of a seat occupant, in order to help decide whether or not to deploy a passive restraint such as an airbag during a crash event. These sensors are subject to failures during the useful life of the vehicle, the number of such failures being limited, but impossible to totally eliminate, in spite of the best known quality control. Some such failures may of the “stuck” sensor type, wherein the sensor itself is operable but cannot read the true value of the physical characteristic due, for example, to an object wedged under the seat. Others may be due to an electrically or mechanically failed sensor producing a floating signal having no relationship to the physical characteristic. The use of multiple, and to some extent redundant, sensors can provide the system with a reasonable level of operability even with one or more sensors failed or otherwise not providing an accurate output signal; but system performance may be somewhat degraded as a result.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds