Occupant Seat Detection System and Method

• US 20090295554A1
• Filed: 05/01/2009
• Published: 12/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aptiv Technologies AG
• Original Assignee: Delphi Technologies, Inc. (BorgWarner Incorporated)
• Inventors: Hansen, Mark C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,154,394 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/425.5
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/002 Seats provided with an occupancy detection means mounted therein or thereon detection means responsive to presence or absence of children B60N2/266
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/5685 Resistance

Abstract

An occupant system includes a sensing device disposed in a seat and an electronic device configured to acquire data from the sensing device. The electronic device includes a system controller which uses that data to determine an appropriate system response. Data is acquired in at least two different system configurations and in at least two different time periods. A data set is created which represents a comparison of data acquired in the different configurations and times. The elements of this data set are compared to each other to identify anomalous data and respond accordingly.

Claims

1. An occupant detection system comprising:

at least one sensing device disposed in a seat;

an electronic device configured to acquire data from the at least one sensing device;

wherein the electronic device acquires a first and a second set of data during a first and second time period, respectively, each set of data comprising data acquired in at least two system configurations;

wherein the first and second sets of acquired data are compared to each other to create a set of change data; and

wherein a heuristic determines anomalous acquired data by comparing individual elements within the set of change data to each other.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the individual elements within the set of change data are compared to each other by determining whether all elements have an appropriate relationship to each other according to a predefined formula.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the relationship between the elements is that the values of all of the elements are equal to each other within a predefined range.

4. The system of claim 2 wherein an element of the set of change data which does not have an appropriate relationship to the other elements is modified to have the appropriate relationship.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the element is modified based on a known relationship between the elements in the set of change data.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the element is modified based on interpolation of the values of the other elements in the set of change data.

7. The system of claim 5 wherein the element is modified based on extrapolation from the values of the other elements in the set of change data.

8. The system of claim 2 wherein the element not having an appropriate relationship to the other elements is replaced with data that was acquired as a backup.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the electronic device acquires subsequent sets of data and the sets of acquired data are compared to each other to create subsequent sets of change data.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein an anomalous element in the first set of change data is compared with the corresponding element in other sets of the subsequent sets of change data to determine if the anomalous element consistently represents anomalous data.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein if an element consistently represents anomalous data, the system automatically adapts by changing the configuration of the system.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the system configuration is changed by modifying the operating frequency of the sensing device.

13. A method of detecting an occupant of a seat, comprising the steps of:

providing an occupant detection system including at least one sensing device disposed in a seat and an electronic device configured to acquire data from the at least one sensing device;

acquiring a first set of data which includes at least two elements, the at least two elements corresponding to the response of a system wherein the system is configured differently for acquisition of each of the at least two elements;

acquiring a second set of data which includes at least two elements, the at least two elements corresponding to the response of a system wherein the system is configured differently for acquisition of each of the at least two elements;

wherein each element of the first data set is acquired under the same system configuration as a corresponding element of the second data set;

comparing the individual elements of the first data set to the corresponding individual elements of the second data set to create a first set of change data;

comparing the elements within the first set of change data to each other to identify anomalous data.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising creating at least one subsequent set of change data according to the method used to create the first set of change data.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising comparing the elements of the first set of change data to the elements of the at least one subsequent set of change data to identify elements which consistently have anomalous values across the selected sets of change data.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising adapting the system automatically when an element with consistently anomalous values is identified.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein adapting the system automatically is accomplished by changing the operating frequency of a device used within the system for acquiring data.

18. The method of claim 13 wherein identifying anomalous data includes comparing the elements of the first set of change data to each other to check for consistency according to a predefined relationship.

19. The method of claim 15 wherein identifying elements which consistently have anomalous data includes checking for consistency according to a predefined relationship.

20. The method of claim 13 further comprising replacing an anomalous data element of the first set of change data with a value determined from the values of the other elements in the first set of change data according to a predefined relationship.

21. The method of claim 13 further comprising replacing an anomalous data element of the first set of change data with a value interpolated or extrapolated from the values of the other elements within the first set of change data.

22. The method of claim 14 further comprising replacing an anomalous data element of the first set of change data with a value interpolated or extrapolated from values of the corresponding elements in at least one of the at least one subsequent set of change data.