Vehicle restraint device control method and apparatus using dynamically determined threshold
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of controlling a restraint device in a vehicle, the method comprising:
- generating one or more signals representative of an amount of acceleration by sensing an acceleration of the vehicle;
determining an absolute value of the one or more signals representative of acceleration to create one or more absolute values;
accumulating the absolute values to generate an accumulated value indicative of the energy dissipated in the vehicle;
determining from the absolute values a transformed acceleration value;
dynamically determining a threshold based on the transformed acceleration and the accumulated value;
wherein determining the transformed acceleration value further comprises one or more of quantizing the absolute values, mapping the absolute values, or low-pass the filtering absolute values; and
generating an activation signal when the accumulated value is above the threshold.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method of controlling a restraint device in a vehicle, and an apparatus employing the method. The method includes sensing accelerations of the vehicle, determining an energy value, determining a transformed acceleration, retrieving a threshold based on the transformed acceleration, and activating the restraint device when the energy value is above the threshold.
-
Citations
23 Claims
-
1. A method of controlling a restraint device in a vehicle, the method comprising:
-
generating one or more signals representative of an amount of acceleration by sensing an acceleration of the vehicle; determining an absolute value of the one or more signals representative of acceleration to create one or more absolute values; accumulating the absolute values to generate an accumulated value indicative of the energy dissipated in the vehicle; determining from the absolute values a transformed acceleration value; dynamically determining a threshold based on the transformed acceleration and the accumulated value; wherein determining the transformed acceleration value further comprises one or more of quantizing the absolute values, mapping the absolute values, or low-pass the filtering absolute values; and generating an activation signal when the accumulated value is above the threshold. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
-
-
6. A method of controlling a restraint device in a vehicle, the method comprising:
-
sensing a vehicle condition and creating a first signal indicative of the acceleration of the vehicle; high-pass filtering the first signal to create a filtered signal; determining absolute values of the filtered signal; determining a second signal from the at least one of the absolute values of the filtered signal; summing the absolute values of the filtered signal to generate an accumulated value indicative of the energy dissipated in the vehicle; dynamically determining a threshold based on the accumulated value and the second signal; comparing the second signal with the threshold; and generating a deployment signal based on the comparison. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
-
-
14. An apparatus for controlling a restraint device in a vehicle, the apparatus comprising:
-
a sensor configured to sense vehicle accelerations; an absolute-value module configured to create one or more absolute values of the vehicle accelerations; an accumulator configured to accumulate the one or more absolute values to obtain an accumulated value; a transformer configured to transform the accumulated value into a transformed value; and a signal generator configured to activate the restraint device when the accumulated value exceeds a threshold dynamically determined from the transformed value and the accumulated value, wherein determining the transformed acceleration value is accomplished by one or more of quantizing the absolute values, mapping the absolute values, or low-pass the filtering absolute values. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
-
-
22. A method of controlling a restraint device in a vehicle, the method comprising:
-
sensing at least one amount of acceleration of the vehicle; determining from the amount of acceleration a transformed acceleration; determining a velocity value from the transformed acceleration by integrating the transformed acceleration; retrieving a threshold based on the velocity value; determining from the at least one amount of acceleration an energy value indicative of the energy dissipated in the vehicle by determining an absolute value of the at least one amount of acceleration to create one or more absolute values, and accumulating the absolute values to generate an accumulated value; and activating the restraint device when the energy value is above the threshold.
-
-
23. An apparatus for controlling a restraint device in a vehicle, the apparatus comprising:
a processor configured to receive a sensed amount of acceleration of the vehicle;
determine a velocity value from the amount of acceleration;
retrieve a threshold based on the velocity value;
determine from the amount of acceleration an energy value indicative of the energy dissipated in the vehicle by determining an absolute value of the amount of acceleration to create one or more absolute values, and accumulating the absolute values to generate an accumulated value; and
generate an activation signal when the energy value is above the threshold.
Specification