Passenger air-bag study using geometric analysis of rigid-body motion

The goal of this research was to develop a system for measuring the force on the chest of an anthropomorphic test device (dummy) as it penetrates into an inflated-air-bag system during an impact. A spherical geometric analysis (SGA) method was developed to track dummy motion when film documentation was not reasonable, such as during air-bag deployment. The method uses three linear accelero-meter triaxial clusters for assessment of angular velocity and linear acceleration in a three-dimensional sense. From these measurements, angular acceleration and position, and linear velocity and position are derived.