CRASH DETECTION

• US 20150051796A1
• Filed: 08/14/2014
• Published: 02/19/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Infineon Technologies AG
• Original Assignee: Infineon Technologies AG
• Inventors: LEVY, David
• Granted Patent: US 9,718,425 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/46
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/013 including means for detecting collisions, impending collisions or roll-over

Abstract

An implementation determines crash severity quantifier values based on crash sensor samples and determining an air bag firing based at least on the crash severity quantifier values.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining crash severity quantifier values based on crash sensor samples; and

detecting a crash based at least on the crash severity quantifier values.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein each crash severity quantifier value is indicative of a difference between a respective crash sensor sample and a first threshold.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining an air bag firing comprises:

processing a plurality of crash severity quantifier values which are based on consecutively sampled sensor output samples to generate a crash indication value; and

detecting a crash based on the crash indication value.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein determining the crash indication value based on the plurality of crash severity quantifier values comprises:

generating the crash indication value by digital filtering the plurality of crash severity quantifier values.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the digital filtering of the plurality of crash severity quantifier values includes at least one of the following filtering techniques:

a moving average filtering;

a low pass filtering;

a weighted average filtering.

6. The method according to claim 3, further comprising:

determining in parallel to the crash indication value a further crash indication value, wherein the further crash indication value is based on how many of the crash sensor samples exceeded a second threshold; and

wherein the crash is detected in case at least one of the crash indication value or the further crash indication value indicates a crash occurrence.

7. A method of determining a crash occurrence, the method comprising:

receiving samples of a crash sensor signal;

in a first processing path, generating for each sample a first digital representation indicative of an amount of the crash severity;

determining a crash occurrence based on the first digital representations.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

in a second processing path, generating for each sample a second digital representation indicating whether the respective sample has exceeded a threshold; and

determining a crash occurrence based on the second digital representations in case a crash occurrence is not determined based on the first digital representations.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the first processing path is parallel to the second processing path.

10. A device comprising:

a processing path to generate for each sample of consecutively sampled crash sensor samples a respective digital representation indicative of how much the respective sample exceeds a first threshold; and

a digital filter configure to receive the digital representations and to provide an output signal based on the digital representations; and

wherein the device is configured to generate an air bag firing signal based on the output signal of the digital filter.

11. A device comprising:

a first crash determining path configured to receive input samples based on a sensor signal of a crash sensor;

a second crash determining path configured to receive the input samples based on the sensor signal of the crash sensor;

wherein the device is configured such that the first crash determining path determines in a first crash severity regime an occurrence of a crash earlier than the second crash path would determine the crash occurrence and wherein the device is configured such that a crash occurrence in a second crash severity regime is determined by the second crash determining path.

12. The device according to claim 11, wherein the first crash determining path is configured to provide an indication of a crash occurrence dependent on the amount the input samples exceed a first threshold;

and

wherein the second crash determining path is configured to provide a crash occurrence indication dependent on the number how many times the second threshold is exceeded.

13. The device according to claim 12, wherein the first and second threshold have a same value.

14. The device according to claim 13, wherein the device is configured such that the second crash severity path is capable of determining at least in the second crash severity regime a crash occurrence when the first crash determining path is not indicating a crash occurrence.

15. The device according to claim 13, wherein the first crash determining path is capable of determining a crash occurrence based on assigning a crash severity quantifier value to each crash sensor output sample.

16. The device according to claim 11, wherein the second crash determining path has a minimum crash determination time and wherein the first crash determining path is capable to determine the crash occurrence in the first crash severity range within a time shorter than the minimum crash determination time.