Vehicle rollover sensing
First Claim
1. A rollover sensing apparatus for predicting an overturn condition for a vehicle, comprising:
- an angular rate sensor for sensing attitude rate of a vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof;
a first accelerometer for measuring horizontal acceleration of the vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof;
a second accelerometer for measuring vertical acceleration of the vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof;
a controller for receiving said signals from said angular rate sensor, said first accelerometer, and said second accelerometer and for estimating a current attitude angle, said controller further predicting a future attitude angle as a function of said estimated current attitude angle and said sensed attitude rate, and comparing said predicted future attitude angle to a threshold value; and
an output for deploying a vehicle overturn condition output based on said comparison.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A rollover sensing apparatus and method are provided for predicting rollover and/or pitchover conditions of a vehicle. An angular rate sensor senses attitude rate of the vehicle, a first accelerometer measures horizontal acceleration of the vehicle, and a second accelerometer measures vertical acceleration of the vehicle. A current attitude angle is estimated with Kalman filtering and a future attitude angle is predicted at an advance time. The predicted attitude angle is compared to a threshold and an output is produced for indicating a predicted vehicle rollover condition based on the comparison. A vehicle rollover condition about the longitudinal axis of the vehicle is predicted by comparing a future roll angle to a rollover angle threshold, while a pitchover condition about the lateral axis of a vehicle is predicted by comparing a future pitch angle to a pitch angle threshold.
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Citations
44 Claims
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1. A rollover sensing apparatus for predicting an overturn condition for a vehicle, comprising:
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an angular rate sensor for sensing attitude rate of a vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; a first accelerometer for measuring horizontal acceleration of the vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; a second accelerometer for measuring vertical acceleration of the vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; a controller for receiving said signals from said angular rate sensor, said first accelerometer, and said second accelerometer and for estimating a current attitude angle, said controller further predicting a future attitude angle as a function of said estimated current attitude angle and said sensed attitude rate, and comparing said predicted future attitude angle to a threshold value; and an output for deploying a vehicle overturn condition output based on said comparison. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A rollover sensing apparatus for predicting an rollover condition for a vehicle, comprising:
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a roll rate sensor for sensing roll rate about a horizontal axis of a vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; a first accelerometer for measuring lateral acceleration of the vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; a second accelerometer for measuring vertical acceleration of the vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; a controller for receiving said signals from said angular roll rate sensor, said first accelerometer, and said second accelerometer and for estimating a current roll angle, said controller further predicting a future roll angle based on said estimated current roll angle and said sensed roll rate, and comparing said predicted future roll angle to a threshold value; and an output for deploying a vehicle rollover condition output based on said comparison. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A rollover sensing apparatus for predicting a pitchover condition of a vehicle, comprising:
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an angular pitch rate sensor for sensing pitch rate about a lateral axis of a vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; a first accelerometer for measuring longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; a second accelerometer for measuring vertical acceleration of the vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; a controller for receiving said signals from said angular pitch rate sensor, said first accelerometer, and said second accelerometer, and for estimating a current pitch angle, said controller further predicting a future pitch angle as a function of said estimated current pitch angle and said sensed pitch rate, and comparing said predicted future pitch angle to a threshold value; and an output for deploying a vehicle pitchover condition based on said comparison. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. An apparatus for estimating a current attitude angle of a vehicle comprising:
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an angular rate sensor for sensing attitude rate of a vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; a first accelerometer for measuring horizontal acceleration of the vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; a second accelerometer for measuring vertical acceleration of the vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; and a controller for receiving said signals from said angular rate sensor, said first accelerometer, and said second accelerometer, said controller including a Kalman filter for estimating a current attitude angle. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22)
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23. A method for predicting an overturn condition of a vehicle, said method comprising the steps of:
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sensing attitude rate of a vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; sensing horizontal acceleration of the vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; sensing vertical acceleration of the vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; estimating a current attitude angle; predicting a future attitude angle based on said estimated current attitude angle and said sensed attitude rate; comparing said predicted future attitude angle to a threshold value; and deploying a vehicle overturn condition signal based on said comparison. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A method for predicting a rollover condition of a vehicle, said method comprising the steps of:
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sensing roll rate about a horizontal axis of a vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; sensing lateral acceleration of said vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; sensing vertical acceleration of said vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; estimating a current roll angle; predicting a future roll angle based on said estimated current roll angle and said sensed roll rate; comparing said predicted future roll angle to a threshold value; and deploying a vehicle overturn condition signal based on said comparison. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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37. A method for predicting a pitchover condition of a vehicle, said method comprising the steps of:
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sensing pitch rate about a lateral axis of a vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; sensing longitudinal acceleration of said vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; sensing vertical acceleration of said vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; estimating a current pitch angle; predicting a future pitch angle based on said estimated current pitch angle and said sensed pitch rate; comparing said predicted future pitch angle to a threshold value; and deploying a vehicle pitchover condition signal based on said comparison. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40, 41)
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42. A method of estimating a current attitude angle of a vehicle, said method comprising the steps of:
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sensing attitude rate of a vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; sensing horizontal acceleration of the vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; sensing vertical acceleration of the vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; processing said sensed signals with a Kalman filter so as to estimate a current attitude angle of the vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44)
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Specification