External air bag occupant protection system
First Claim
1. A method of protecting an occupant of a vehicle from a collision between the vehicle and an object external to the vehicle, comprising:
- a. predicting if the vehicle is likely to crash with the object at an impact location;
b. determining a prediction of said impact location on the vehicle;
c. determining a size of the object; and
d. controlling an inflation of a plurality of inflatable confinements external of the vehicle responsive both to said impact location and to said size of the object.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A plurality of gas generators provide for controllably inflating a plurality of inflatable confinements responsive to a prediction by a predictive collision sensor of both a size of an expected collision object and an expected location of the collision. The inflatable confinements are associated with different zones across a door of a vehicle, each zone having an associated structural stiffness and level of proximity to the occupant. For a pole-like object expected to impact a relatively less-stiff zone of the vehicle, the inflatable confinements are controlled so as to deflect the point of impact towards a stiffer zone away from the occupant. For a barrier-like object, inflatable confinements associated with relatively stiff zones are inflated relatively higher than those associated with relatively less stiff zones so as to transfer impact energy to the relatively stiff zones.
107 Citations
54 Claims
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1. A method of protecting an occupant of a vehicle from a collision between the vehicle and an object external to the vehicle, comprising:
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a. predicting if the vehicle is likely to crash with the object at an impact location;
b. determining a prediction of said impact location on the vehicle;
c. determining a size of the object; and
d. controlling an inflation of a plurality of inflatable confinements external of the vehicle responsive both to said impact location and to said size of the object. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. An occupant protection system, comprising:
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a. at least one external air bag inflator module, wherein said at least one external air bag inflator module comprises a plurality of inflatable confinements and an associated plurality of gas generator modules, wherein said plurality of inflatable confinements are located so as to cooperate with a common side or end of the vehicle;
b. a predictive collision sensing system, wherein said predictive collision sensing system comprises at least one predictive collision sensor operatively coupled to the vehicle, and said predictive collision sensing system is adapted to provide i) an indication of whether the vehicle is expected to collide with an external object, ii) a measure of a size of the object, and iii) a predicted location on the vehicle at which the object is expected to collide; and
c. a processor operatively coupled to said plurality of gas generator modules and to said predictive collision sensing system, wherein said processor controls an actuation of at least one gas generator module responsive to said indication of whether the vehicle is expected to collide with an external object, said measure of said size of the object, and said predicted location on the vehicle at which the object is expected to collide. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51)
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52. A method of protecting an occupant of a vehicle from a rollover of the vehicle, comprising:
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a. predicting whether the vehicle is likely to rollover; and
b. controlling an inflation of at least one inflatable confinement external of the vehicle responsive to the operation of predicting whether the vehicle is likely to rollover.
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53. A method of providing for protecting an occupant of a vehicle from a rollover of the vehicle, comprising:
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a. providing for predicting whether the vehicle is likely to rollover; and
b. providing for controlling an inflation of at least one inflatable confinement external of the vehicle responsive to the operation of predicting whether the vehicle is likely to rollover.
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54. An occupant protection system, comprising:
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a. a rollover sensing system adapted to predict whether a vehicle is likely to rollover; and
b. at least one external air bag inflator module, wherein said at least one external air bag inflator module comprises at least one inflatable confinement and an associated at least one gas generator module, wherein said at least one inflatable confinement is adapted to deploy external of the vehicle responsive to a signal from said rollover sensing system.
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Specification