February 25, 1997 For Release Upon Receipt
Contact: Joan Schwartz 617/353-2240
BOSTON UNIVERSITY ENGINEERS DEVELOP "SMART SKIN" SENSORS FOR SAFER AIRBAG DEPLOYMENT
(Boston, Mass.) * Imagine an air bag system that can sense and react to the location and force of an impact, and take into account the sizes and positions of the passengers in the car. The technology for just such a system has been created and demonstrated at Boston University's Photonics Center by Dr. James E. Hubbard, Jr., senior systems engineer and Dr. Shawn E. Burke.
"This might be just the solution we are looking for to allow us to manage the energy with which an air bag is deployed and avoid the kind of tragic accidents we have been seeing," says Hubbard.
The simple, low-cost air bag control system developed by Hubbard and Burke uses sensors which are made of piezo-active materials (polymers) as "artificial smart sensing skins" which can obtain information over large physical areas. Their research, spanning a period of 10 years originally was developed to control vibrations in large space structures such as solar panels and space stations.
A "smart skin" made of piezo-active material can react to an impact by producing or changing a voltage output. This voltage change communicates information about the impact. Sensors created from these materials are low cost and extremely fast and accurate.
The system developed and currently being tested at the Center for Photonics by Hubbard and his colleague Dr. Shawn E. Burke, involves a smart skin sensor embedded in the seat of an automobile to provide information on the occupant's weight and where and how the occupant is sitting. The output of this sensor is sent to a logic based controller which uses a control principle known as "Fuzzy Logic" to decide in real-time whether to shut the system off or deploy the air bag at high or low speed.
Air bags in current use are generally activated by an explosive charge and move at a speed in excess of 200 mph. This can be extremely dangerous to small children, women of small stature and the elderly. According to the National Highway Safety Transportation Administration, 19 adults and 29 children have been killed in air bag deployments since 1991. Of the 19 adults, 16 were women 5'4" or shorter.
The automotive industry has been investigating several approaches to making air bags safer. These include complex and costly systems such as infrared and low light cameras, ultrasonic ranging devices or radar embedded in the dashboard, seats and/or roof of the vehicle. Simple solutions such as manual shut-off switches and seat weight sensors to turn the system off at a predetermined weight threshold have also been proposed as possible short term solutions. Two consumer groups, Public Citizen and the Center for Auto Safety have petitioned the government to require auto makers to install dual speed air bags in all new cars and trucks by the fall of 1988.
A second system, for side-impact air bags, has also been developed at the Photonics Center. It has been test by a major automotive supplier in several American model vehicles in full scale collision tests. The smart skin impact sensor is embedded in the body and/or bumpers of the vehicle and senses impact energy and location instantly. It's response time is several times faster than current front impact sensing technology and allows for an accurate and early decision on whether to deploy the air bag based on severity and location of the impact. The smart skin impact sensor will enable deployment in less than 5 milliseconds, or literally in the time it takes to blink an eye.
"I am very excited at the prospect of having a low cost, simple solution to a major national safety problem," says Hubbard. "But I am cognizant of the fact that historically it has been very difficult to have solutions developed outside of the automotive industry to be accepted as viable alternatives by the industry."
The Center for Photonics is an interdisciplinary center which draws upon the expertise of scientists and engineers from Boston University's Colleges of Engineering and Arts and Sciences. It also utilizes the talents of faculty from the School of Management to expedite the process in which basic research makes the transition from the laboratory to the development of a product for the commercial marketplace.
The Center was established with a $29 million grant from the Department of Defense in November 1993. In May 1997, it is scheduled to move into a $78.4 million, 235,000 square foot building currently under construction on Boston University's Charles River campus.
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