Activation control apparatus of occupant safety system

• US 6,327,527 B1
• Filed: 02/07/2000
• Issued: 12/04/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Iyoda, Motomi, Imai, Katsuji
• Primary Examiner(s): Camby, Richard M.
• Application Number:
  US09/499,309
• Time in Patent Office: 666 Days
• Field of Search: 701/45, 701/47, 701/46, 280/734, 280/735, 180/282, 340/436, 307/10.1
• US Class Current: 701/45
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/0009 Oblique collision
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/01006 Mounting of electrical components in vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/013 including means for detecting collisions, impending collisions or roll-over
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/0132 responsive to vehicle motion parameters , e.g. to vehicle longitudinal or transversal deceleration or speed value

Abstract

An activation control apparatus of an occupant safety system is an activation control apparatus 2 for controlling activation of airbag system 36 mounted on a vehicle in the event of the vehicle colliding with an obstacle, which has a front sensor 30B mounted in the left part of the vehicle, a front sensor 30A mounted in the right part of the vehicle, a collision type identifying part 42 for identifying a type of collision of the vehicle, based on values detected by the front sensor 30B and the front sensor 30A, and an activation control 40 for controlling the activation of the airbag system 36, based on the type of the collision identified by the collision type identifying part 42.

Claims

1. An activation control apparatus of an occupant safety system for controlling activation of the occupant safety system mounted on a vehicle in the event of the vehicle colliding with an obstacle, said activation control apparatus comprising:

first impact detecting means mounted in a left front part of said vehicle;

second impact detecting means mounted in a right front part of said vehicle;

likelihood computing means for classifying the collision of the vehicle under a frontal crash, an offset crash, and an oblique crash, based on values detected by said first impact detecting means and by said second impact detecting means, and computing a likelihood of the collision classified; and

activation control means for controlling the activation of said occupant safety system, based on said likelihood computed by said likelihood computing means.

2. The activation control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when said likelihood computing means classifies the collision as an oblique crash and computes the likelihood of the oblique crash, said activation control means controls the activation of said occupant safety system with reference to an oblique crash threshold corresponding to the likelihood of the oblique crash.

3. The activation control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when said likelihood computing means classifies the collision as an offset crash and computes the likelihood of the offset crash, said activation control means controls the activation of said occupant safety system with reference to an offset crash threshold corresponding to the likelihood of the offset crash.

4. The activation control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the collision is classified as an offset crash, said likelihood computing means further determines whether the collision is an ODB crash, based on the values detected by the first impact detecting means and by the second impact detecting means, and wherein when the collision is identified as an ODB crash and when a likelihood of the ODB crash is computed, said activation control means controls the activation of said occupant safety system with reference to an ODB crash threshold corresponding to the likelihood of the ODB crash.

5. The activation control apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said ODB crash threshold is so set that in a small deceleration range from occurrence of the collision a threshold corresponding to a strong-likelihood ODB crash is lower than a threshold corresponding to a small-likelihood ODB crash and that in a large deceleration range from occurrence of the collision a threshold corresponding to the strong-likelihood ODB crash is higher than a threshold corresponding to the small-likelihood ODB crash.

6. The activation control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of said first impact detecting means and said second impact detecting means is an electronic deceleration sensor.

7. The activation control apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising impact measuring means placed in said vehicle, wherein said likelihood computing means determines whether the collision is a soft crash, based on a measurement measured by said impact detecting means, and wherein when the collision is identified as a soft crash and when a likelihood of the soft crash is computed, said activation control means controls the activation of said occupant safety system with reference to a soft crash threshold corresponding to the likelihood of the soft crash.

8. The activation control apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said soft crash threshold is so set that in a small deceleration range from occurrence of the collision a threshold corresponding to a strong-likelihood soft crash is lower than a threshold corresponding to a small-likelihood soft crash and that in a large deceleration range from occurrence of the collision a threshold corresponding to the strong-likelihood soft crash is higher than a threshold corresponding to the small-likelihood soft crash.

9. An activation control apparatus of an occupant safety system for controlling activation of the occupant safety system mounted on a vehicle in the event of the vehicle colliding with an obstacle, said activation control apparatus comprising:

first impact detecting means mounted in a left front part of said vehicle;

second impact detecting means mounted in a right front part of said vehicle;

likelihood computing means for classifying collision of said vehicle under a frontal crash, an offset crash, and an oblique crash, based on a ratio of values detected by said first impact detecting means and by said second impact detecting means, and computes a likelihood of the collision classified; and

activation control means for controlling the activation of said occupant safety system, based on said likelihood computed by said likelihood computing means.

10. The activation control apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said likelihood computing means classifies the collision of the vehicle as a frontal crash when said ratio of the values is large, said likelihood computing means classifies the collision of said vehicle as an oblique crash when said ratio of the values is small, or said likelihood computing means classifies the collision of the vehicle as an offset crash when said ratio of the values is intermediate.

11. The activation control apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said likelihood computing means classifies the collision of the vehicle into either an ODB crash or an ORB crash, based on an initial deviation between the values detected by said first impact detecting means and by said second impact detecting means, and wherein when said collision of the vehicle is classified as an ODB crash, the likelihood computing means computes a likelihood of said ODB crash, based on said initial deviation.

12. The activation control apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said likelihood computing means determines that the likelihood of said ODB crash is strong when said initial deviation is large, or said likelihood computing means determines that the likelihood of said ODB crash is small when said initial deviation is small.

13. The activation control apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said likelihood computing means determines whether the collision of the vehicle is an ODB crash, based on the magnitude of a difference between the values detected by said first impact detecting means and by said second impact detecting means, and wherein when the collision of the vehicle is identified as an ODB crash, the likelihood computing means computes a likelihood of said ODB crash, based on the magnitude of the difference between the detected values.

14. The activation control apparatus according to claim 13, wherein said likelihood computing means determines that the likelihood of the ODB crash is strong when the magnitude of the difference between the detected values is large, or the likelihood computing means determines that the likelihood of the ODB crash is small when the magnitude of the difference is small.

15. The activation control apparatus according to claim 9, wherein each of said first impact detecting means and said second impact detecting means is an electronic deceleration sensor.

16. The activation control apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising impact measuring means placed in said vehicle, wherein said likelihood computing means determines whether the collision of the vehicle is a soft crash, based on a state of unevenness of a temporal change waveform of a measurement measured by said impact measuring means and wherein when the collision of the vehicle is determined as a soft crash, the likelihood computing means computes a likelihood of the soft crash, based on the unevenness of the temporal change waveform of said measurement.

17. The activation control apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said likelihood computing means determines that the likelihood of said soft crash is strong when the unevenness of the temporal change waveform of said measurement is large, or the likelihood computing means determines that the likelihood of the soft crash is small when the unevenness of the temporal change waveform of the measurement is small.

18. An activation control apparatus of an occupant safety system for controlling activation of the occupant safety system mounted on a vehicle in the event of the vehicle colliding with an obstacle, said activation control apparatus comprising:

impact measuring means placed in said vehicle;

soft crash determining means for determining whether collision of the vehicle is a soft crash, based on a state of unevenness of a temporal change waveform of a measurement measured by said impact measuring means; and

activation control means for controlling the activation of said occupant safety system, based on a soft crash activation determination map, when said soft crash determining means determines that the collision is the soft crash.