Passive restraint control system for vehicles

A method of determining passive restraint deployment for a vehicle having an accelerometer mounted therein comprising the steps of:

• generating an acceleration signal from the accelerometer;
• feeding the acceleration signal through a high pass filter to create an impact mode signal in a high frequency range;
• feeding the acceleration signal through a low pass filter in parallel with the high pass filter to create an impact severity signal in a low frequency range;
• creating a predetermined impact severity threshold;
• adjusting the impact severity threshold based upon the impact mode signal;
• comparing the impact severity signal to the adjusted impact severity threshold;
• and
• sending a deployment signal if the impact severity signal exceeds the adjusted impact severity threshold.

A system for determining the deployment of passive restraints on a vehicle having a single point impact sensor comprising:

• an accelerometer mounted within the vehicle for producing an acceleration signal;
• a high pass filter for receiving and filtering the acceleration signal to produce an impact mode signal;
• a low pass filter in parallel with the high pass filter for receiving and filtering the acceleration signal to produce an impact severity signal;
• and
• a microcomputer operative to receive the impact mode signal and distinguish between at least two different impact modes, receive the impact severity signal and determine an impact severity being experienced by the vehicle, and make a deployment decision based on the impact mode and the impact severity.