Active Sliding Mode Control of Vehicle Occupant's Motion in Front and Rear-End Collisions

Abstract

This paper presents the sliding mode control of vehicle occupant-seat frame on front- and rear-end collisions. A three degrees of freedom occupant model is derived and used to develop a sliding mode control algorithm which works along with other safety restraint systems in order to reduce the injury level of the occupants’ head and chest as well as safety belt force and neck torque. Simulation results for various crash conditions are compared to conventional restraint systems with and without safety belt force limiter for the nonlinear three degrees of freedom occupant model. The study shows that the chest and neck injury criteria in front collisions are significantly reduced by controlling the occupant’s seat frame via sliding surface control.