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Although lower extremity injuries are not life threatening (AIS less than 4), they are very debilitating and require long periods of rehabilitation. A possible cause of the ankle/foot injury in frontal crashes is the foot dorsiflexion resulting from intrusion of the toeboard. Ankle injury on the driver side in the same type of crashes may also be caused by the foot eversion or inversion as it slides off the pedals. In both cases, it is believed that bracing the leg is a major contributor to the injury mechanism. Another contributor to lower extremity injuries is leg interaction with the instrument panel (IP). This paper describes an activated seat design that acts to eliminate the interaction between the lower extremities and the vehicle interior. It also reduces the interaction between the legs and the IP by limiting the forward travel of the lower torso. Three different design approaches are presented in the paper.

The vehicle occupant restraint system is given a new definition to accommodate the new occupant restraint systems. This new definition is modeled after the classical automatic control theory. The flexibility of this new definition permits its expansion to adopt any future regulations and expectations. A need to achieve the optimal protection for a range of crash and occupant scenarios in addition to a variety of restraint system configurations is spelt out, and intelligent restraint system which will incorporate this is defined and discussed.