Abstract
A common automatic seatbelt inertial sensor design, comprised of a constrained spherical pendulum, is modeled to study its motions and possible unintentional release during vehicle emergency maneuvers. The kinematics are derived for the system with the most general inputs: arbitrary pivot motions. The influence of forces due to gravity and constraint torque functions is developed. The equations of motion are then derived using Kane's method. The equations of motion are used in a numerical simulation with both actual and hypothetical automobile crash data.