Crash discriminator responsive to early-crush and multiple-hit scenarios
First Claim
1. A method for controlling actuation of a vehicle passenger safety device in response to an event possibly requiring actuation of said safety device comprising the steps of:
- receiving information representative of instantaneous vehicle acceleration;
storing a plurality of consecutive values for said received information in a storage means;
generating a first differential measure which is evaluative of one of said stored values relative to another of said stored values;
generating a measure correlated with the progress of said event based on said received acceleration information;
generating a measure which is evaluative of said received information in relation to a sampling period;
comparing each of said first differential measure, said progress measure and said evaluative measure to respective first, second and third threshold values;
determining if said comparing step is indicative of an occurrence of a first predetermined type of vehicle crash event; and
generating a default crash discrimination measure if said comparing step is not indicative of said first predetermined type of vehicle crash event, and a first alternative crash discrimination measure particularly correlated with said first predetermined type of crash event if said comparing step is indicative of the occurrence of said first predetermined type of crash event, wherein the generated crash discrimination measure is compared to an associated threshold value and said safety device is actuated if said associated threshold value is exceeded.
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Accused Products
Abstract
In a system and method for controlling actuation of a vehicle passenger safety device in response to an event possibly requiring actuation of the safety device, stored and rank-ordered values for received vehicle acceleration are used to generate a high-rank jerk measure (jH), a median-ranked acceleration value (aM) and a median-rank velocity measure (vM), while raw acceleration information is further used to generate an "event-based timer" or event-progress measure (t'"'"') . These measures (jH, aM, vM, t'"'"') are then used to generate a pair of event-identification measures (m1, m2) useful in identifying two specific crash types for which specialized acceleration-based event-severity measures other than the default event-severity measure (m0) are best suited, specifically, where a series of negative jerks occurring relatively early in an event from a high transitory acceleration identify the occurrence of a sizable vehicle crush, or where a series of small jerks occurring relatively late in an event above a minimum velocity identifies a "multiple hit" event.
34 Citations
28 Claims
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1. A method for controlling actuation of a vehicle passenger safety device in response to an event possibly requiring actuation of said safety device comprising the steps of:
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receiving information representative of instantaneous vehicle acceleration; storing a plurality of consecutive values for said received information in a storage means; generating a first differential measure which is evaluative of one of said stored values relative to another of said stored values; generating a measure correlated with the progress of said event based on said received acceleration information; generating a measure which is evaluative of said received information in relation to a sampling period; comparing each of said first differential measure, said progress measure and said evaluative measure to respective first, second and third threshold values; determining if said comparing step is indicative of an occurrence of a first predetermined type of vehicle crash event; and generating a default crash discrimination measure if said comparing step is not indicative of said first predetermined type of vehicle crash event, and a first alternative crash discrimination measure particularly correlated with said first predetermined type of crash event if said comparing step is indicative of the occurrence of said first predetermined type of crash event, wherein the generated crash discrimination measure is compared to an associated threshold value and said safety device is actuated if said associated threshold value is exceeded. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A system for controlling actuation of a vehicle passenger safety device in response to an event possibly requiring actuation of said safety device comprising:
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means for receiving information representative of instantaneous vehicle acceleration; means for storing a plurality of consecutive values for said received information; means for generating a first differential measure which is evaluative of one of said stored values relative to another of said stored values; means for generating a measure correlated with the progress of said event based on said received acceleration information; means for generating a measure which is evaluative of said received information in relation to a sampling period; first means for comparing each of said first differential measure, said progress measure, and said evaluative measure to respective first, second, and third threshold values; means responsive to said comparator means for determining the occurrence of a first predetermined type of vehicle crash event; and means for generating a default crash discrimination measure if said first predetermined type of crash event has not occurred, and a first alternative crash discrimination measure which is particularly correlated with said first type of crash event if said first type of crash event has occurred, wherein the generated crash discrimination measure is compared to an associated threshold value and said safety device is actuated if said associated threshold value is exceeded. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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Specification