Control apparatus of occupant protection device
First Claim
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1. A control apparatus of an occupant protection device having a room acceleration sensor, provided in a room of a vehicle, for detecting an acceleration of the vehicle and outputting an acceleration signal representative thereof, comprising:
- at least one front acceleration sensor, provided in a front part of the vehicle, for detecting the acceleration of the vehicle and giving a sensor output representative thereof; and
a control unit, connected to said room acceleration sensor and said front acceleration sensor, for receiving the acceleration signal of said room acceleration sensor and the sensor output of said front acceleration sensor, and for driving the occupant protection device when integrated value of the acceleration signal of said room acceleration sensor exceeds a predetermined threshold value, said control unit detecting a variational quanitiy of the sensor output of said acceleration sensor based on sensor outputs of said front acceleration sensor at two different time points when the sensor output of said front acceleration sensor is a output caused by a collision of the vehicle, and increasing the integrated value of said room acceleration based on the variational quantity of said front acceleration sensor.
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Abstract
A control apparatus of an occupant protection device has at least one front acceleration sensor provided in a front part of a vehicle in addition to a room acceleration sensor provided in a room of the vehicle. The front acceleration sensor detects an acceleration of the vehicle and gives the control unit a sensor output representative thereof. The control unit, when the sensor output of the front acceleration sensor is a sensor output caused by a collision of the vehicle, detects a variational quantity of the sensor output of the front acceleration sensor based on sensor outputs of the front acceleration sensor at two different time points, and increases an integrated value of an acceleration signal of the room acceleration sensor based on the variational quantity. Then, when the integrated value of the room acceleration sensor exceeds a threshold value, the occupant protection device is driven.
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Citations
50 Claims
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1. A control apparatus of an occupant protection device having a room acceleration sensor, provided in a room of a vehicle, for detecting an acceleration of the vehicle and outputting an acceleration signal representative thereof, comprising:
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at least one front acceleration sensor, provided in a front part of the vehicle, for detecting the acceleration of the vehicle and giving a sensor output representative thereof; and
a control unit, connected to said room acceleration sensor and said front acceleration sensor, for receiving the acceleration signal of said room acceleration sensor and the sensor output of said front acceleration sensor, and for driving the occupant protection device when integrated value of the acceleration signal of said room acceleration sensor exceeds a predetermined threshold value, said control unit detecting a variational quanitiy of the sensor output of said acceleration sensor based on sensor outputs of said front acceleration sensor at two different time points when the sensor output of said front acceleration sensor is a output caused by a collision of the vehicle, and increasing the integrated value of said room acceleration based on the variational quantity of said front acceleration sensor. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
said control unit detects respectively variational quantities of sensor outputs of said plurality of front acceleration sensors, and increases the integrated value of said room acceleration sensor by adding a predetermined addition value to the integrated value when at least one of the variational quantities of said plurality of front acceleration sensors is larger than a predetermined value.
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5. The control apparatus of claim 4, wherein said control unit, when none of the variational quantities of said plurality of front acceleration sensors is larger than the predetermined value, decides whether the integrated value of said room acceleration sensor is larger than the threshold value, and drives the occupant protection device when the integrated value is larger than the threshold value.
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6. The control apparatus of claim 4, having first and second front acceleration sensors, wherein said first and second front acceleration sensors are provided near right and left portions of a radiator of a vehicle front, respectively.
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7. The control apparatus of claim 1, wherein:
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said control unit includes a conversion map representative of a relationship between the variational quantity and an addition value added to the integrated value of the acceleration signal of said room acceleration sensor, the conversion map giving a small value as the addition value when the variational quantity is small, and giving a larger value as the addition value according as the variational quantity becomes larger, and said control unit computes the addition value corresponding to the variational quantity of said front acceleration sensor based on the conversion map, and increases the integrated value of said room acceleration sensor by adding the addition value computed based on the conversion map to the integrated value.
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8. The control apparatus of claim 1, having a plurality of front acceleration sensors, wherein:
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said control unit includes a conversion map representative of a relationship between a selected variational quantity and an addition value added to the integrated value of the acceleration signal of said room acceleration sensor, the conversion map giving a small value as the addition value when the selected variational quantity is small, and giving a larger value as the addition value according as the selected variational quantity becomes larger, and said control unit detects respectively variational quantities of sensor outputs of said plurality of front acceleration sensors, selects a largest value out of these variational quantities, computes the addition value corresponding to the selected variational quantity based on the conversion map, and increases the integrated value of said room acceleration sensor by adding the addition value computed based on the conversion map to the integrated value.
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9. The control apparatus of claim 8, having first and second front acceleration sensors, wherein said first and second front acceleration sensors are provided near right and left portions of a radiator of a vehicle front, respectively.
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10. The control apparatus of claim 1, wherein said control unit detects a sensor output of said front acceleration sensor at a predetermined first time point after starting of the collision and a sensor output of said front acceleration sensor at a second time point after lapse of a predetermined time from the first time point, and detects the variational quantity of the sensor output of said front acceleration sensor by computing a difference between the sensor outputs of the first and second time points.
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11. The control apparatus of claim 10, wherein:
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said control unit includes a conversion map representative of a relationship between the variational quantity and an addition value added to the integrated value of the acceleration signal of said room acceleration sensor, the conversion map giving a small value as the addition value when the variational quantity is small, and giving a larger value as the addition value according as the variational quantity becomes larger, said control unit computes the addition value corresponding to the variational quantity of said front acceleration sensor based on the conversion map, and increases the integrated value of said room acceleration sensor by adding the addition value computed based on the conversion map to the integrated value, and said control unit, when the variational quantity of said front acceleration sensor has not been detected yet, decides whether the integrated value of said room acceleration sensor is larger than the threshold value, and drives the occupant protection device when the integrated value is larger than the threshold value.
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12. The control apparatus of claim 10, having a plurality of front acceleration sensors, wherein:
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said control unit includes a conversion map representative of a relationship between a selected variational quantity and an addition value added to the integrated value of the acceleration signal of said room acceleration sensor, the conversion map giving a small value as the addition value when the selected variational quantity is small, and giving a larger value as the addition value according as the selected variational quantity becomes larger, said control unit detects respectively variational quantities of sensor outputs of said plurality of front acceleration sensors, selects a largest value out of these variational quantities, computes the addition value corresponding to the selected variational quantity based on the conversion map, and increases the integrated value of said room acceleration sensor by adding the addition value computed based on the conversion map to the integrated value, and said control unit, when none of the variational quantities of said plurality of front acceleration sensors has been detected yet, decides whether the integrated value of said room acceleration sensor is larger than the threshold value, and drives the occupant protection device when the integrated value is larger than the threshold value.
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13. The control apparatus of claim 12, having first and second front acceleration sensors, wherein said first and second front acceleration sensors are provided near right and left portions of a radiator of a vehicle front, respectively.
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14. The control apparatus of claim 1, wherein said control unit detects successively the variational quantity of the sensor output of said front acceleration sensor by computing a difference between a current sensor output of said front acceleration sensor and a sensor output of said front acceleration sensor before a predetermined time whenever receiving the sensor output caused by the collision from said front acceleration sensor.
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15. The control apparatus of claim 14, wherein:
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said control unit includes a conversion map representative of a relationship between the variational quantity and an addition value added to the integrated value of the acceleration signal of said room acceleration sensor, the conversion map giving a small value as the addition value when the variational quantity is small, and giving a larger value as the addition value according as the variational quantity becomes larger, and said control unit computes the addition value corresponding to the variational quantity of said front acceleration sensor based on the conversion map, and increases the integrated value of said room acceleration sensor by adding the addition value computed based on the conversion map to the integrated value.
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16. The control apparatus of claim 14, having a plurality of front acceleration sensors, wherein:
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said control unit includes a conversion map representative of a relationship between a selected variational quantity and an addition value added to the integrated value of the acceleration signal of said room acceleration sensor, the conversion map giving a small value as the addition value when the selected variational quantity is small, and giving a larger value as the addition value according as the selected variational quantity becomes larger, and said control unit detects respectively variational quantities of sensor outputs of said plurality of front acceleration sensors, selects a largest value out of these variational quantities, computes the addition value corresponding to the selected variational quantity based on the conversion map, and increases the integrated value of said room acceleration sensor by adding the addition value computed based on the conversion map to the integrated value.
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17. The control apparatus of claim 16, having first and second front acceleration sensors, wherein said first and second front acceleration sensors are provided near right and left portions of a radiator of the vehicle front, respectively.
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18. The control apparatus of claim 1, wherein said control unit has a reference value for deciding whether the sensor output of said front acceleration sensor is the sensor output caused by the collision of the vehicle, and, when the sensor output of said front acceleration sensor is larger than the reference value, recognizes that the sensor output is the sensor output caused by the collision.
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19. The control apparatus of claim 1, wherein said front acceleration sensor is provided near a radiator of a center part of the vehicle front.
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20. The control apparatus of claim 1, wherein:
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said front acceleration sensor outputs an acceleration signal representative of the acceleration of the vehicle as the sensor output, and said control unit computes an integrated value of the acceleration signal of said front acceleration sensor, and detects the variational quantity of the integrated value.
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21. The control apparatus of claim 20, wherein said front acceleration sensor comprises:
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a piezo-electric element for detecting the acceleration;
an amplifier circuit for receiving voltage outputs of both ends of the piezo-electric element, and for outputting the acceleration signal by differentially amplifying the voltage outputs of the piezo-electric element;
a bias resistor circuit provided at an input side of the amplifier circuit;
a condenser inserted in parallel with the piezo-electric element so as to lower a lower cut-off frequency without increasing resistance values of the bias resistor circuit;
temperature compensation means for adjusting a gain of the amplifier circuit so that an output-temperature characteristic of the piezo-electric element is compensated; and
a reference voltage circuit for giving a reference potential to the amplifier circuit and the bias resistor circuit.
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22. The control apparatus of claim 1, wherein:
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said front acceleration sensor outputs an acceleration signal representative of the acceleration of the vehicle as the sensor output, and said control unit detects the variational quantity of the acceleration signal given from said front acceleration sensor.
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23. The control apparatus of claim 22, wherein said front acceleration sensor comprises:
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a piezo-electric element for detecting the acceleration;
an amplifier circuit for receiving voltage outputs of both ends of the piezo-electric element, and for outputting the acceleration signal by differentially amplifying the voltage outputs of the piezo-electric element;
a bias resistor circuit provided at an input side of the amplifier circuit;
a condenser inserted in parallel with the piezo-electric element so as to lower a lower cut-off frequency without increasing resistance values of the bias resistor circuit;
temperature compensation means for adjusting a gain of the amplifier circuit so that an output-temperature characteristic of the piezo-electric element is compensated; and
a reference voltage circuit for giving a reference potential to the amplifier circuit and the bias resistor circuit.
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24. The control apparatus of claim 1, wherein:
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said front acceleration sensor outputs an integrated value of an acceleration signal representative of the acceleration of the vehicle as the sensor output, and said control unit detects the variational quantity of the integrated value given from said front acceleration sensor.
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25. The control apparatus of claim 24, wherein said front acceleration sensor comprises:
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a piezo-electric element for detecting the acceleration;
an amplifier circuit for receiving voltage outputs of both ends of the piezo-electric element, for differentially amplifying and integrating the voltage outputs of the piezo-electric element, and for outputting the integrated value of the acceleration signal;
a bias resistor circuit provided at an input side of the amplifier circuit;
a condenser inserted in parallel with the piezo-electric element so as to lower a lower cut-off frequency without increasing resistance values of the bias resistor circuit;
temperature compensation means for adjusting a gain of the amplifier circuit so that an output-temperature characteristic of the piezo-electric element is compensated; and
a reference voltage circuit for giving a reference potential to the amplifier circuit and the bias resistor circuit.
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26. A control apparatus of an occupant protection device having a room acceleration sensor, provided in a room of a vehicle, for detecting an acceleration of the vehicle and outputting an acceleration signal representative thereof, comprising:
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at least one front acceleration sensor, provided in a front part of the vehicle, for detecting the acceleration of the vehicle and giving a sensor output representative thereof; and
a control unit, connected to said room acceleration sensor and said front acceleration sensor, for receiving the acceleration signal of said room acceleration sensor and the sensor output of said front acceleration sensor, and for driving the occupant protection device when an integrated value of the acceleration signal of said room acceleration sensor exceeds a threshold value, said control unit detecting a variational quantity of the sensor output of said front acceleration sensor based on sensor outputs of said front acceleration sensor at two different time points when the sensor output of said front acceleration sensor is a sensor output caused by a collision of the vehicle, and decreasing the threshold value toward the integrated value of the room acceleration sensor based on the variational quantity of said front acceleration sensor. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50)
said control unit detects respectively variational quantities of sensor outputs of said plurality of front acceleration sensors, and decreases the threshold value by subtracting a predetermined subtraction value from the threshold value when at least one of the variational quantities of said plurality of front acceleration sensors is larger than a predetermined value.
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30. The control apparatus of claim 29, wherein said control unit, when none of the variational quantities of said plurality of front acceleration sensors is larger than the predetermined value, decides whether the integrated value of said room acceleration sensor is larger than the threshold value, and drives the occupant protection device when the integrated value is larger than the threshold value.
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31. The control apparatus of claim 26, having first and second front acceleration sensors, wherein said first and second front acceleration sensors are provided near right and left portions of a radiator of a vehicle front, respectively.
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32. The control apparatus of claim 26, wherein:
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said control unit includes a conversion map representative of a relationship between the variational quantity and a subtraction value subtracted from the threshold value, the conversion map giving a small value as the subtraction value when the variational quantity is small, and giving a larger value as the subtraction value according as the variational quantity becomes larger, and said control unit computes the subtraction value corresponding to the variational quantity of said front acceleration sensor based on the conversion map, and decreases the threshold value by subtracting the subtraction value computed based on the conversion map from the threshold value.
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33. The control apparatus of claim 26, having a plurality of front acceleration sensors, wherein:
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said control unit includes a conversion map representative of a relationship between a selected variational quantity and a subtraction value subtracted from the threshold value, the conversion map giving a small value as the subtraction value when the selected variational quantity is small, and giving a larger value as the subtraction value according as the selected variational quantity becomes larger, and said control unit detects respectively variational quantities of sensor outputs of said plurality of front acceleration sensors, selects a largest value out of these variational quantities, computes the subtraction value corresponding to the selected variational quantity based on the conversion map, and decreases the threshold value by subtracting the subtraction value computed based on the conversion map from the threshold value.
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34. The control apparatus of claim 33, having first and second front acceleration sensors, wherein said first and second front acceleration sensors are provided near right and left portions of a radiator of a vehicle front, respectively.
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35. The control apparatus of claim 26, wherein said control unit detects a sensor output of said front acceleration sensor at a predetermined first time point after starting of the collision and a sensor output of said front acceleration sensor at a second time point after lapse of a predetermined time from the first time point, and detects the variational quantity of the sensor output of said front acceleration sensor by computing a difference between the sensor outputs of the first and second time points.
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36. The control apparatus of claim 35, wherein:
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said control unit includes a conversion map representative of a relationship between the variational quantity and a subtraction value subtracted from the threshold value, the conversion map giving a small value as the subtraction value when the variational quantity is small, and giving a larger value as the subtraction value according as the variational quantity becomes larger, said control unit computes the subtraction value corresponding to the variational quantity of said front acceleration sensor based on the conversion map, and decreases the threshold value by subtracting the subtraction value computed based on the conversion map from the threshold value, and said control unit, when the variational quantity of said front acceleration sensor has not been detected yet, decides whether the integrated value of said room acceleration sensor is larger than the threshold value, and drives the occupant protection device when the integrated value is larger than the threshold value.
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37. The control apparatus of claim 35, having a plurality of front acceleration sensors, wherein:
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said control unit includes a conversion map representative of a relationship between a selected variational quantity and a subtraction value subtracted from the threshold value, the conversion map giving a small value as the subtraction value when the selected variational quantity is small, and giving a larger value as the subtraction value according as the selected variational quantity becomes larger, said control unit detects respectively variational quantities of sensor outputs of said plurality of front acceleration sensors, selects a largest value out of these variational quantities, computes the subtraction value corresponding to the selected variational quantity based on the conversion map, and decreases the threshold value by subtracting the subtraction value computed based on the conversion map from the threshold value, and said control unit, when none of the variational quantities of said plurality of front acceleration sensors has been detected yet, decides whether the integrated value of said room acceleration sensor is larger than the threshold value, and drives the occupant protection device when the integrated value is larger than the threshold value.
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38. The control apparatus of claim 37, having first and second front acceleration sensors, wherein said first and second front acceleration sensors are provided near right and left portions of a radiator of a vehicle front, respectively.
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39. The control apparatus of claim 26, wherein said control unit detects successively the variational quantity of the sensor output of said front acceleration sensor by computing a difference between a current sensor output of said front acceleration sensor and a sensor output of said front acceleration sensor before a predetermined time whenever receiving the sensor output caused by the collision from said front acceleration sensor.
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40. The control apparatus of claim 39, wherein:
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said control unit includes a conversion map representative of a relationship between the variational quantity and a subtraction value subtracted from the threshold value, the conversion map giving a small value as the subtraction value when the variational quantity is small, and giving a larger value as the subtraction value according as the variational quantity becomes larger, and said control unit computes the subtraction value corresponding to the variational quantity of said front acceleration sensor based on the conversion map, and decreases the threshold value by subtracting the subtraction value computed based on the conversion map from the threshold value.
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41. The control apparatus of claim 39, having a plurality of front acceleration sensors, wherein:
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said control unit includes a conversion map representative of a relationship between a selected variational quantity and a subtraction value subtracted from the threshold value, the conversion map giving a small value as the subtraction value when the selected variational quantity is small, and giving a larger value as the subtraction value according as the selected variational quantity becomes larger, and said control unit detects respectively variational quantities of sensor outputs of said plurality of front acceleration sensors, selects a largest value out of these variational quantities, computes the subtraction value corresponding to the selected variational quantity based on the conversion map, and decreases the threshold value by subtracting the subtraction value computed based on the conversion map from the threshold value.
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42. The control apparatus of claim 41, having first and second front acceleration sensors, wherein said first and second front acceleration sensors are provided near right and left portions of a radiator of a vehicle front, respectively.
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43. The control apparatus of claim 26, wherein said control unit has a reference value for deciding whether the sensor output of said front acceleration sensor is the sensor output caused by the collision of the vehicle, and, when the sensor output of said front acceleration sensor is larger than the reference value, recognizes that the sensor output is the sensor output caused by the collision.
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44. The control apparatus of claim 26, wherein said front acceleration sensor is provided near a radiator of a center part of the vehicle front.
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45. The control apparatus of claim 26, wherein:
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said front acceleration sensor outputs an acceleration signal representative of the acceleration of the vehicle as the sensor output, and said control unit computes an integrated value of the acceleration signal of said front acceleration sensor, and detects the variational quantity of the integrated value.
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46. The control apparatus of claim 45, wherein said front acceleration sensor comprises:
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a piezo-electric element for detecting the acceleration;
an amplifier circuit for receiving voltage outputs of both ends of the piezo-electric element, and for outputting the acceleration signal by differentially amplifying the voltage outputs of the piezo-electric element;
a bias resistor circuit provided at an input side of the amplifier circuit;
a condenser inserted in parallel with the piezo-electric element so as to lower a lower cut-off frequency without increasing resistance values of the bias resistor circuit;
temperature compensation means for adjusting a gain of the amplifier circuit so that an output-temperature characteristic of the piezo-electric element is compensated; and
a reference voltage circuit for giving a reference potential to the amplifier circuit and the bias resistor circuit.
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47. The control apparatus of claim 26, wherein:
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said front acceleration sensor outputs an acceleration signal representative of the acceleration of the vehicle as the sensor output, and said control unit detects the variational quantity of the acceleration signal given from said front acceleration sensor.
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48. The control apparatus of claim 47, wherein said front acceleration sensor comprises:
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a piezo-electric element for detecting the acceleration;
an amplifier circuit for receiving voltage outputs of both ends of the piezo-electric element, and for outputting the acceleration signal by differentially amplifying the voltage outputs of the piezo-electric element;
a bias resistor circuit provided at an input side of the amplifier circuit;
a condenser inserted in parallel with the piezo-electric element so as to lower a lower cut-off frequency without increasing resistance values of the bias resistor circuit;
temperature compensation means for adjusting a gain of the amplifier circuit so that an output-temperature characteristic of the piezo-electric element is compensated; and
a reference voltage circuit for giving a reference potential to the amplifier circuit and the bias resistor circuit.
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49. The control apparatus of claim 26, wherein:
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said front acceleration sensor outputs an integrated value of an acceleration signal representative of the acceleration of the vehicle as the sensor output, and said control unit detects the variational quantity of the integrated value given from said front acceleration sensor.
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50. The control apparatus of claim 49, wherein said front acceleration sensor comprises:
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a piezo-electric element for detecting the acceleration;
an amplifier circuit for receiving voltage outputs of both ends of the piezo-electric element, for differentially amplifying and integrating the voltage outputs of the piezo-electric element, and for outputting the integrated value of the acceleration signal;
a bias resistor circuit provided at an input side of the amplifier circuit;
a condenser inserted in parallel with the piezo-electric element so as to lower a lower cut-off frequency without increasing resistance values of the bias resistor circuit;
temperature compensation means for adjusting a gain of the amplifier circuit so that an output-temperature characteristic of the piezo-electric element is compensated; and
a reference voltage circuit for giving a reference potential to the amplifier circuit and the bias resistor circuit.
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Specification
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Current AssigneeBosch Automotive Systems Corporation (Robert Bosch GmbH)
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Original AssigneeBosch Electronics Corporation (Robert Bosch GmbH)
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InventorsHeckel, Joerg, Miyaguchi, Koichi, Kanameda, Yasumasa, Ikeya, Sadao, Okano, Masami
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Primary Examiner(s)LOUIS JACQUES, JACQUES H
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Application NumberUS09/576,316Time in Patent Office652 DaysField of Search701/45, 701/46, 701/47, 701/36, 280/734, 280/735, 280/728.1, 180/271, 180/282, 307/10.1US Class Current701/45CPC Class CodesB60R 21/0132 responsive to vehicle motio...B60R 21/0133 by integrating the amplitud...
