A Human-Airbag System for Hip Protection Using MEMS Motion Sensors: Experimental Feasibility Results

This paper describes the development of a human airbag system which is designed to reduce the impact force from slippage falling-down. A micro inertial measurement unit (muIMU) which is based on MEMS accelerometers and gyro sensors is developed as the motion sensing part of the system. A weightless recognition algorithm is used for real-time falling determination. With the algorithm, the microcontroller integrated with muIMU can discriminate falling-down motion from normal human motions and trigger an airbag system when a fall occurs. Our airbag system is designed to be fast response with moderate input pressure, i.e., the experimental response time is less than 0.3 second under 0.4 MPa (gage pressure). Also, we present our progress on development of the inflator and the airbags