Method and apparatus for detecting a pedestrian impact
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of detecting an impact of a vehicle with a pedestrian, comprising the steps of:
- sensing deflections of a vehicle body panel at distributed sensing locations on said body panel;
identifying peak changes in the sensed deflection at each sensing location during impacts between said body panel and test objects of diverse shape and diverse mass at different impact speeds and sensing locations;
storing the identified peak changes in sensed deflection to form a body of baseline calibration data categorized by impact location, impact speed, test object mass, and test object shape;
detecting an impact between said body panel and an unknown object when the deflection sensed at one or more of said distributed sensing locations exceeds a threshold, and designating an impact location as the sensing location with highest deflection;
determining an impact speed between said body panel and said unknown object;
retrieving baseline calibration data corresponding to the designated impact location and the determined impact speed;
correlating peak changes in the sensed deflections due to the detected impact with the retrieved baseline calibration data to determine a shape and a mass of said unknown object; and
determining if said unknown object is a pedestrian based in part on the determined shape and the determined mass.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The collision of a vehicle with a pedestrian is detected based on the response of bend sensor segments affixed to a vehicle body panel such as a bumper fascia. The sensor data is processed to identify the location of an object impacting the body panel, and is correlated with calibration data to determine the shape and mass of the object. Impacts with pedestrians are discriminated from impacts with other objects based on the determined shape and mass.
42 Citations
9 Claims
-
1. A method of detecting an impact of a vehicle with a pedestrian, comprising the steps of:
-
sensing deflections of a vehicle body panel at distributed sensing locations on said body panel; identifying peak changes in the sensed deflection at each sensing location during impacts between said body panel and test objects of diverse shape and diverse mass at different impact speeds and sensing locations; storing the identified peak changes in sensed deflection to form a body of baseline calibration data categorized by impact location, impact speed, test object mass, and test object shape; detecting an impact between said body panel and an unknown object when the deflection sensed at one or more of said distributed sensing locations exceeds a threshold, and designating an impact location as the sensing location with highest deflection; determining an impact speed between said body panel and said unknown object; retrieving baseline calibration data corresponding to the designated impact location and the determined impact speed; correlating peak changes in the sensed deflections due to the detected impact with the retrieved baseline calibration data to determine a shape and a mass of said unknown object; and determining if said unknown object is a pedestrian based in part on the determined shape and the determined mass. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
-
-
5. Apparatus for detecting an impact of a vehicle with a pedestrian, comprising:
-
a set of sensor segments affixed to distributed sensing locations of a vehicle body panel to measure deflection of said body panel at said distributed sensing locations; a memory unit for storing a body of baseline calibration data obtained from peak changes in the measured deflections during impacts between said body panel and test objects of diverse shape and diverse mass at different impact speeds and sensing locations; and processing means for identifying peak changes in the measured deflections when an unknown object is impacted by said body panel, identifying the sensing location with highest peak change in measured deflection, determining an impact speed, correlating the identified peak changes in the measured deflections with baseline calibration data corresponding to the identified sensing location and the determined impact speed to determine a shape and a mass of the unknown object, and determining if the unknown object is a pedestrian based in part on the determined shape and the determined mass. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9)
-
Specification