Automobile frontal collision location detection for coordinated activation of safety systems
First Claim
1. A safety system for a vehicle, said safety system comprising:
- a plurality of collision detection sensors coupled to the periphery of said vehicle and operable to generate at least one collision detection signal; and
a controller coupled to said plurality of collision detection sensors and comprising (i) a collision contact location estimator for determining a collision type, which includes determining a collision severity and a collision contact location on said vehicle, in response to said at least one collision detection signal, and (ii) a coordinated device activation system for performing at least one countermeasure in response to said collision type;
wherein said collision contact location estimator, in determining said collision severity, is operable to generate at least one collision severity signal corresponding to approximately KiVi(1−
e−
τ
t), in which Vi is voltage output from the ith collision detection sensor, Ki is an adaptive gain, and τ
is an adjustable filter time-constant.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A safety system (10) for a vehicle (12) includes multiple collision detection sensors (14), such as discretized patch sensors. The collision detection sensors (14) are coupled to a peripheral area (18) of the vehicle (12) and generate a collision detection signal (17). A controller (16) is coupled to the sensors (14) and determines collision type in response to the collision detection signal (17). The controller (16) performs a countermeasure in response to the collision type. The controller (16) may include a collision location estimator (22) for determining collision severity and collision contact location on the vehicle (12) and a coordinated device activation system (24) for performing the countermeasure.
32 Citations
15 Claims
-
1. A safety system for a vehicle, said safety system comprising:
-
a plurality of collision detection sensors coupled to the periphery of said vehicle and operable to generate at least one collision detection signal; and a controller coupled to said plurality of collision detection sensors and comprising (i) a collision contact location estimator for determining a collision type, which includes determining a collision severity and a collision contact location on said vehicle, in response to said at least one collision detection signal, and (ii) a coordinated device activation system for performing at least one countermeasure in response to said collision type; wherein said collision contact location estimator, in determining said collision severity, is operable to generate at least one collision severity signal corresponding to approximately KiVi(1−
e−
τ
t), in which Vi is voltage output from the ith collision detection sensor, Ki is an adaptive gain, and τ
is an adjustable filter time-constant. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
-
Specification