PERFORMANCE-BASED CLASSIFICATION METHOD AND ALGORITHM FOR DRIVERS

• US 20100121535A1
• Filed: 10/23/2009
• Published: 05/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations Incorporated (Motors Liquidation Co. GUC Trust)
• Inventors: Sala, Doral M., Deng, Bing, Neal, Mark O., Wang, Jenne-Tai, Lin, Chin-Hsu
• Granted Patent: US 8,606,465 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/45
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/003 characterised by occupant or pedestian
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/006 Type of passenger
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/01 Electrical circuits for triggering passive safety arrangements, e.g. airbags, safety belt tighteners, in case of vehicle accidents or impending vehicle accidents electrical circuits for transmission of signals between steering wheel and the vehicle itself B60R16/027; for electrically actuating belt retractor locking means B60R22/343

Abstract

A system and method for classifying the optimization of safety features on a vehicle for a driver of the vehicle based on the height and mass of the driver. The method includes determining a number of basic driver sizes based on driver height and mass and determining a driver'"'"'s seat position for each basic driver height. The method also identifies a set of tunable design variables that are used to adjust the safety features of the vehicle and performs design optimization analysis to identify an optimal design for the vehicle safety features for each of the basic driver sizes. The method then identifies the design from the optimal designs that provides the best performance for randomly selected reference drivers and classifies all drivers into a predetermined number of classifications where each classification represents a particular optimal design.

Claims

1. A method for classifying a vehicle driver for optimizing vehicle safety systems and devices for the driver, said method comprising:

determining a number of basic driver sizes based on population distribution for each gender;

determining a driver seat position for each basic driver height;

identifying a set of tunable design variables that are used to adjust the vehicle safety systems and devices;

performing design optimization analysis to identify an optimal design for the vehicle safety systems and devices for each of the basic driver sizes;

producing a predetermined number of randomly selected reference drivers;

performing crash simulations for each optimal design for each randomly selected reference drivers;

identifying the design from the optimal designs that provides the best performance for each of the randomly selected reference drivers;

classifying all drivers into a predetermined number of classifications where each classification represents a particular optimal design identified for each of the basic driver sizes; and

setting the vehicle systems and devices for a particular vehicle driver based on the driver'"'"'s height and mass using the classification and optimal designs.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein each driver size is determined by body mass and height.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein the driver population distribution of each gender represents statistics data collected by a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

4. The method according to claim 1 further comprising providing occupant crash models for each basic driver size from which the design optimization analysis is performed.

5. The method according to claim 1 further comprising providing occupant crash models for the reference drivers from which the crash simulations are performed.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein one of the vehicle safety systems is an airbag system and design variables for the airbag system include vent size and a time delay duration between first and second stages of airbag firing.

7. The method according to claim 1 wherein one of the vehicle safety devices is a seatbelt load-limiter and a design variable for the load-limiter sets the load-limiter tension.

8. The method according to claim 1 wherein the number of basic occupant sizes is four sizes and the number of classifications and designs is four.

9. The method according to claim 8 wherein the four sizes represent a 5^th percentile female, a 50^th percentile female, a 50^th percentile male and a 95^th percentile male.

12. The method according to claim 1 wherein setting the vehicle systems and devices for a particular vehicle driver includes determining a classification quantity based on the driver'"'"'s height and body mass and determining where that classification quantity falls relative to the optimal designs.

13. The method according to claim 1 wherein the number of reference driver'"'"'s is about fifty.

10. The method according to 1 wherein classifying all driver'"'"'s includes classifying the drivers based on a line defining a threshold where threshold lines separate each design classification in a reference system of body mass and body height.

11. The method according to claim 10 wherein classifying all drivers includes using an equation for each classification in the form of b=−

mx+y, where b is a threshold value, m is the slope of the threshold line, x is the driver'"'"'s body mass and y is the driver'"'"'s body height.

14. A method for classifying a vehicle driver for optimizing vehicle safety systems and devices for the driver, said method comprising:

determining four basic driver sizes based on population distribution of each gender in terms of body height and mass;

determining a driver seat position for each basic driver height;

identifying a set of tunable design variables that are used to adjust the vehicle safety systems and devices;

providing occupant crash models for each the basic driver size;

performing design optimization analysis to identify an optimal design for the vehicle safety systems and devices using the occupant crash models for each of the basic driver sizes;

producing a predetermined number of randomly selected reference drivers;

providing occupant crash models for the reference drivers;

performing crash simulations with four optimal designs using the occupant crash models for the randomly selected reference drivers;

identifying the design from the optimal designs that provides the best performance for each of the randomly selected reference drivers; and

classifying all drivers into a predetermined number of classifications where each classification represents a particular optimal design.

15. The method according to claim 14 further comprising setting the vehicle systems and devices for a particular vehicle driver based on the driver'"'"'s height and mass using the classifications and optimal designs.

16. The method according to claim 14 wherein one of the vehicle safety systems is an airbag system and design variables for the airbag system include vent size and a time delay duration between first and second stages of airbag firing and another one of the vehicle safety devices is a seatbelt load limiter and a design variable for the load-limiter sets the load-limiter tension.

17. The method according to claim 14 wherein the four basic sizes represent a 5^th percentile female, a 50^th percentile female, a 50^th percentile male and a 95^th percentile male.

20. The method according to claim 14 wherein setting the vehicle systems and devices for a particular vehicle driver includes determining a classification quantity based on the driver'"'"'s height and body mass and determining where that classification quantity falls relative to the optimal design.

18. The method according to 14 wherein classifying all drivers includes classifying the drivers based on a line defining a threshold where threshold lines separate each design classification.

19. The method according to claim 18 wherein classifying all drivers includes using an equation for each classification in the form of b=−

mx+y, where b is a threshold value, m is the slope of the threshold line, x is the driver'"'"'s body mass and y is the driver'"'"'s body height.