VEHICLE ROLLOVER SENSING USING SHORT-TERM INTEGRATION

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 and an accelerometer measures vertical acceleration of the vehicle. A current attitude angle is estimated by integration, and a future attitude angle is predicted at an advance time as a function of the estimated current attitude angle and sensed attitude rate. 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.