Airbag deployment controller and passenger protection device including the same

• US 20090167005A1
• Filed: 12/22/2008
• Published: 07/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Calsonic Kansei Corporation
• Original Assignee: Calsonic Kansei Corporation
• Inventors: Oowada, Tohru, Yagi, Toshinori, Asada, Ryuichi, Ooishi, Mineyuki, Ozawa, Tetsuya
• Granted Patent: US 7,896,392 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 280/735
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/01027 Safing sensors
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/0117 Noise
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/01184 Fault detection or diagnostic circuits
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/01322 comprising variable thresholds, e.g. depending from other collision parameters
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/0132 responsive to vehicle motion parameters , e.g. to vehicle longitudinal or transversal deceleration or speed value
• 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

An airbag deployment controller and a passenger protection device including the same are provided to prevent erroneous operation of an airbag due to noises and quickly deploy the airbag. The passenger protection device determines whether or not to drive an airbag unit, upon determining a detected value of a front acceleration sensor as being over a first collision threshold. Then, when determining to drive the airbag unit, the passenger protection device determines whether or not a detected value of a central acceleration sensor exceeds a second collision threshold. With the detected value being over the second threshold, it generates a driving signal and outputs it to the airbag unit in a final deployment control process. Thereby, the airbag unit operates an inflator to drive an airbag.

Claims

1. An airbag deployment controller using a plurality of electric collision sensors including a main sensor and a sub sensor to drive an airbag unit, comprising:

a deployment determining unit determining whether or not to drive the airbag unit according to a detected value of the main sensor;

a collision determining unit determining whether or not a detected value of the sub sensor exceeds a predetermined threshold which is set to be larger than an erroneous detected value due to a noise; and

a deployment permitting unit outputting a drive signal to the airbag unit when the deployment determining unit determines to drive the airbag unit and when the collision determining unit determines that the detected value of the sub sensor exceeds the predetermined threshold.

2. An airbag deployment controller according to claim 1, wherein:

the airbag deployment controller uses electric collision sensors including a first sensor and a second sensor to drive the airbag unit;

the deployment determining unit comprises;

a first deployment determining unit which sets the first sensor to be the main sensor and determines whether or not to drive the airbag unit according to a detected value of the first sensor, and

a second deployment determining unit which sets the second sensor to be the main sensor and determines whether or not to drive the airbag unit according to a detected value of the second sensor;

the collision determining unit comprises;

a first collision determining unit which sets the first sensor to be the sub sensor and determines whether or not a detected value of the first sensor exceeds the predetermined threshold, and

a second collision determining unit which sets the second sensor to be the sub sensor and determines whether or not a detected value of the second sensor exceeds the predetermined threshold;

the deployment permitting unit comprises;

a first deployment permitting unit which outputs a drive signal to the airbag unit when the first deployment determining unit determines to drive the airbag unit and when the second collision determining unit determines that the detected value of the second sensor exceeds the predetermined threshold,

a second deployment permitting unit which outputs a drive signal to the airbag unit when the second deployment determining unit determines to drive the airbag unit and when the first collision determining unit determines that the detected value of the first sensor exceeds the predetermined threshold, and

a final deployment permitting unit which outputs the drive signal to the airbag unit when one of the first and second deployment permitting units determines to output the drive signal to the airbag unit.

3. A passenger protection device comprising:

a plurality of electric collision sensors including a main sensor and a sub sensor;

the airbag deployment controller according to claim 1 using the plurality of electric collision sensors to control deployment of an airbag; and

an airbag unit being driven by the airbag deployment controller.

4. A passenger protection device comprising:

a plurality of electric collision sensors including a main sensor and a sub sensor;

the airbag deployment controller according to claim 2 using the plurality of electric collision sensors to control deployment of an airbag; and

an airbag unit being driven by the airbag deployment controller.