Apparatus for and method of controlling activation of passive restraint
First Claim
1. An activation control apparatus for controlling activation of a passive restraint mounted on a vehicle, said apparatus comprising:
- acceleration measuring means for measuring a first acceleration acting in a first direction of said vehicle and a second acceleration acting in a second direction of said vehicle, which is different from said first direction;
first arithmetic and logic means for calculating a first arithmetic value from said first acceleration according to a specified arithmetic operation;
second arithmetic and logic means for calculating a second arithmetic value from said second acceleration according to a specified arithmetic operation;
projective component deriving means for setting a first vector that is along said first direction and based on said first arithmetic value and a second vector that is along said second direction and based on said second arithmetic value, deriving projective components of said first vector and said second vector in a specified projecting direction in a plane including said first vector and said second vector, and summing up the projective components thus derived; and
activation means for activating said passive restraint based on the sum of the projective components.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A CPU 30 first receives data of accelerations Gx and Gy applied respectively along a longitudinal axis and a lateral axis of a vehicle (S20). The CPU 30 then calculates an arithmetic value fx from the acceleration Gx in the longitudinal direction according to specified arithmetic operations, and calculates an arithmetic value fy from the acceleration Gy in the lateral direction according to specified arithmetic operations (S22). The CPU 30 subsequently projects vectors based on the arithmetic values fx and fy in a preset direction a to yield projective components of the vectors, and determines a sum fa of the projective components (S24). The CPU 30 compares the projective component fa with a threshold value fth(a) previously set for the direction a, and determines whether or not the projective component fa is greater than the threshold value fth(a) (S26). When determining that the projective component fa is greater than the threshold value fth(a), the CPU 30 generates an activation signal to activate air bag units 60 to 66 (S28). The structure of the present invention does not require the calculation of the magnitude or the direction of a composite vector, thereby being free from complicated and time-consuming arithmetic operations. No division is included in the required arithmetic operations, so that the result of calculation does not diverge.
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Citations
10 Claims
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1. An activation control apparatus for controlling activation of a passive restraint mounted on a vehicle, said apparatus comprising:
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acceleration measuring means for measuring a first acceleration acting in a first direction of said vehicle and a second acceleration acting in a second direction of said vehicle, which is different from said first direction; first arithmetic and logic means for calculating a first arithmetic value from said first acceleration according to a specified arithmetic operation; second arithmetic and logic means for calculating a second arithmetic value from said second acceleration according to a specified arithmetic operation; projective component deriving means for setting a first vector that is along said first direction and based on said first arithmetic value and a second vector that is along said second direction and based on said second arithmetic value, deriving projective components of said first vector and said second vector in a specified projecting direction in a plane including said first vector and said second vector, and summing up the projective components thus derived; and activation means for activating said passive restraint based on the sum of the projective components. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. An activation control apparatus for controlling activation of a passive restraint mounted on a vehicle, said apparatus comprising:
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acceleration measuring means for measuring a first acceleration acting in a first direction of said vehicle, a second acceleration acting in a second direction of said vehicle, and a third acceleration acting in a third direction of said vehicle, said first direction, said second direction, and said third direction being different from one another; first arithmetic and logic means for calculating a first arithmetic value from said first acceleration according to a specified arithmetic operation; second arithmetic and logic means for calculating a second arithmetic value from said second acceleration according to a specified arithmetic operation; third arithmetic and logic means for calculating a third arithmetic value from said third acceleration according to a specified arithmetic operation; first projective component deriving means for setting a first vector that is along said first direction and based on said first arithmetic value and a second vector that is along said second direction and based on said second arithmetic value, deriving projective components of said first vector and said second vector in a specified first projecting direction in a plane including said first vector and said second vector, and summing up the projective components thus derived to yield a fourth arithmetic value; second projective component deriving means for setting a third vector that is along said third direction and based on said third arithmetic value and a fourth vector that is along said first projecting direction and based on said fourth arithmetic value, deriving projective components of said third vector and said fourth vector in a specified second projecting direction in a plane including said third vector and said fourth vector, and summing up the projective components thus derived; and activation means for activating said passive restraint based on the sum of the projective components given by said second projective component deriving means. - View Dependent Claims (5)
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6. A method of controlling activation of a passive restraint mounted on a vehicle, said method comprising the steps of:
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(a) measuring a first acceleration acting in a first direction of said vehicle and a second acceleration acting in a second direction of said vehicle, which is different from said first direction; (b) calculating a first arithmetic value from said first acceleration according to a specified arithmetic operation, and calculating a second arithmetic value from said second acceleration according to a specified arithmetic operation; (c) setting a first vector that is along said first direction and based on said first arithmetic value and a second vector that is along said second direction and based on said second arithmetic value, deriving projective components of said first vector and said second vector in a specified projecting direction in a plane including said first vector and said second vector, and summing up the projective components thus derived; and (d) activating said passive restraint based on the sum of the projective components. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8)
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9. A method of controlling activation of a passive restraint mounted on a vehicle, said method comprising the steps of:
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(a) measuring a first acceleration acting in a first direction of said vehicle, a second acceleration acting in a second direction of said vehicle, and a third acceleration acting in a third direction of said vehicle, said first direction, said second direction, and said third direction being different from one another; (b) calculating a first arithmetic value from said first acceleration according to a specified arithmetic operation, calculating a second arithmetic value from said second acceleration according to a specified arithmetic operation, and calculating a third arithmetic value from said third acceleration according to a specified arithmetic operation; (c) setting a first vector that is along said first direction and based on said first arithmetic value and a second vector that is along said second direction and based on said second arithmetic value, deriving projective components of said first vector and said second vector in a specified first projecting direction in a plane including said first vector and said second vector, and summing up the projective components thus derived to yield a fourth arithmetic value; (d) setting a third vector that is along said third direction and based on said third arithmetic value and a fourth vector that is along said first projecting direction and based on said fourth arithmetic value, deriving projective components of said third vector and said fourth vector in a specified second projecting direction in a plane including said third vector and said fourth vector, and summing up the projective components thus derived; and (e) activating said passive restraint based on the sum of the projective components given in said step (d). - View Dependent Claims (10)
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Specification