TRW wants radar to see side-impacts coming
Earlier detection of collisions gives airbags more time to inflate
- Published in News.
Crumple zone: Radar could enable airbags to fire sooner in side-impacts
Tier one supplier TRW is developing radar systems that can detect potential side-impacts, reducing the response time for airbags and other safety systems to just 2ms.
Current technology relies solely on accelerometers mounted in the doors, which at the point of the collision send a signal to the restraint systems to activate them. That process can take up to 10ms.
Andy Whydell, TRW’s senior electronics product manager, said: “A side-facing radar system that can detect that you’re going to have a collision would give you more time to deploy safety systems.”
This would help to improve occupant protection – side-impacts give restraints very little time to inflate.
The gains delivered by radar could make it possible to introduce larger airbags.
Reducing activation times could also lead to the introduction of other safety technologies. TRW envisages mechanical systems such as locking bolts to secure the vehicle’s doors.
The radar technology is currently in the advanced development stage and TRW is working with OEMs on the project.
Certain aspects of the system still need to be refined, particularly failsafe modes.
“If a child kicks a football into the road and it bounces against the door, that could have a trace similar to the start of a side-impact.
“The system needs to be able to identify that scenario and reject it,” said Whydell.
