Abstract: A rollover warning and detection method for a transport vehicle is adaptively adjustable to take into account the CG height of the vehicle. Measures of the vehicle speed, lateral acceleration and yaw rate are sampled during normal driving conditions and used to estimate the CG height of the vehicle. The centrifugal acceleration acting on the vehicle is calculated as the product of vehicle speed and yaw rate, and the CG height is estimated based on the relationship between the calculated centrifugal acceleration and the measured lateral acceleration. The estimated CG height of the vehicle is used to adjust various calibrated rollover detection thresholds so that algorithm outputs such as rollover warnings automatically take into consideration vehicle loading effects.

Abstract: An arming signal for enabling deployment of rollover safety devices by a vehicle rollover detection apparatus is based on an off-axis measure of vehicle acceleration. A low-g accelerometer mounted perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle but at an angle with respect to Earth's ground plane detects components of both lateral and vertical vehicle accelerations. The measurement angle is selected to apportion the lateral vs. vertical measurement sensitivity in accordance with calibrated lateral and vertical acceleration thresholds, and an arming signal is generated when a filtered version of the measured acceleration exceeds an arming threshold.