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Abstract

A rollover sensing apparatus and method are provided for predicting rollover and/or pitchover conditions of a vehicle. An angular rate sensor senses attitude rate of the vehicle, a first accelerometer measures horizontal acceleration of the vehicle, and a second accelerometer measures vertical acceleration of the vehicle. A current attitude angle is estimated with Kalman filtering and a future attitude angle is predicted at an advance time. The predicted attitude angle is compared to a threshold and an output is produced for indicating a predicted vehicle rollover condition based on the comparison. A vehicle rollover condition about the longitudinal axis of the vehicle is predicted by comparing a future roll angle to a rollover angle threshold, while a pitchover condition about the lateral axis of a vehicle is predicted by comparing a future pitch angle to a pitch angle threshold.

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First Claim