An occupant judging apparatus for a vehicle seat includes a load sensor assembled to a seat body, a controller for calculating a detected load value based upon an output load value of the load sensor and for performing an occupant judgment based upon a difference between the detected load value and a predetermined judging threshold value, and human body detecting means for detecting a human body approximately in contact with the seat body. The controller controls the occupant judgment based upon the detected load value and the predetermined judging threshold value in response to the detecting status of the human body by the human body detector.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is based on and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. .sctn. 119 with respect to a Japanese Patent Application 2001-137412, filed on May 8, 2001, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
A seating condition detecting system has four load sensors, a belt tension sensor and a self-diagnostic system. The first and second abnormal ranges are set for detecting abnormal operations of the system. The upper limit of the first range is set so that a total load becomes heavier as a belt tension becomes higher. The lower limit of the second range is set so that the total load becomes heavier as the belt tension deviates from the point at which the total load becomes lightest. When the total load falls in the first range or the second range, an abnormal operation of the seating condition detecting system is determined.
