Vehicle collision sensing system

• US 20070227798A1
• Filed: 03/29/2007
• Published: 10/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Nonaka, Toshihito, Takehara, Satoru
• Granted Patent: US 7,556,119 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 180/274
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/0006 Lateral collision
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/0136 responsive to actual contact with an obstacle , e.g. to vehicle deformation, bumper displacement or bumper velocity relative to the vehicle monitoring crash strength in combination with passenger seat detection B60R21/01558

Abstract

Right and left side pressure sensors are provided to left and right doors, respectively, of a vehicle to sense a pressure in a door interior space of the corresponding door. An ECU computes a corrective pressure change amount that is obtained by correcting a change amount of a pressure, which is measured with a collided side one of the pressure sensors arranged in a collided one of the left and right doors that is collided with an object, based on a pressure, which is measured with a non-collided side one of the pressure sensors arranged in a non-collided one of the left and right doors that is not collided with the object. The ECU determines occurrence of the collision of the object based on the corrective pressure change amount.

Claims

1. A vehicle collision sensing system that is provided in a vehicle to sense a collision of an object to a lateral surface of the vehicle, the vehicle collision sensing system comprising:

a plurality of pressure sensors that are provided to left and right doors, respectively, of the vehicle in such a manner that each pressure sensor is received in a door interior space of a corresponding one of the left and right doors to sense a pressure in the door interior space;

a correcting means for computing a corrective pressure change amount that is obtained by correcting a change amount of a pressure, which is measured with a collided side one of the plurality of pressure sensors arranged in a collided one of the left and right doors that is collided with the object, based on a pressure, which is measured with a non-collided side one of the plurality of pressure sensors arranged in a non-collided one of the left and right doors that is not collided with the object; and

a collision determining means for determining occurrence of the collision of the object based on the corrective pressure change amount, which is computed with the correcting means.

2. The vehicle collision sensing system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an acceleration sensor that is provided in the vehicle to sense an acceleration of the vehicle; and

a collided door determining means for determined the collided one of the left and right doors based on the sensed acceleration, which is sensed with the acceleration sensor, wherein the correcting means computes the corrective pressure change amount based on a result of the determination made by the collided door determining means.

3. The vehicle collision sensing system according to claim 1, further comprising a collided door determining means for determining the collided one of the left and right doors based on a change amount of the sensed pressure of each of the plurality of pressure sensors, wherein the correcting means computes the corrective pressure change amount based on a result of the determination made of the collided door determining means.