Passenger protecting system

• US 7,513,525 B2
• Filed: 07/20/2006
• Issued: 04/07/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Ueno, Yukiyasu
• Primary Examiner(s): Ilan, Ruth
• Assistant Examiner(s): Brown, Drew J.
• Application Number:
  US11/489,882
• Publication Number:
  US 20070024037A1
• Time in Patent Office: 992 Days
• Field of Search: 280/735, 701/45, 701/46, 307/10.1, 340/436
• US Class Current: 280/735
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/01115 specific data frames
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/013 including means for detecting collisions, impending collisions or roll-over
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/0132 responsive to vehicle motion parameters , e.g. to vehicle longitudinal or transversal deceleration or speed value
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/0136 responsive to actual contact with an obstacle , e.g. to vehicle deformation, bumper displacement or bumper velocity relative to the vehicle monitoring crash strength in combination with passenger seat detection B60R21/01558

Abstract

A passenger protecting system is provided with at least two sensors which detect an impact to a vehicle, a determining unit for determining a collision with the vehicle based on detection signals of the sensors, and a communication unit through which the sensors are connected with the determining unit so that the detection signals of the sensors are transmitted to the determining unit. The detection signal of one of the sensors has a reverse polarity with respect to that of other of the sensors. Thus, the determining unit can be restricted from a faulty determination due to a fault of the communication path or the sensors, so that a misoperation of the passenger protecting system can be reduced.

Claims

1. A passenger protecting system comprising:

at least two sensors which detect an impact to a vehicle due to a collision;

a determining unit for determining the collision with the vehicle based on detection signals of the sensors; and

a communication unit through which the sensors are connected with the determining unit so that the detection signals of the sensors are transmitted to the determining unit, wherein

the sensors detect the impact in a width direction of the vehicle and are prepared so that the detection signal of one of the sensors has a reverse polarity with respect to the detection signal of other of the sensors, and wherein

when one of the sensors sends a positive detection signal and other of the sensors sends a negative detection signal, the determining unit determines there occurs the collision in the case where the detection signal of the one of the sensors is larger than or equal to a predetermined threshold value of the one of the sensors and the detection signal of the other of the sensors is smaller than or equal to a predetermined threshold value of the other of the sensors.

2. The passenger protecting system according to claim 1, wherein:

one of the sensors is a main sensor and attached to the vehicle at one side of the width direction of the vehicle;

other of the sensors is a sub sensor and arranged at a substantial width-direction center of the vehicle; and

the determining unit determines whether or not there occurs the collision in the proximity of an attachment position of the main sensor based on the detection signals of the main sensor and the sub sensor.

3. The passenger protecting system according to claim 2, wherein each of the sensors is an acceleration sensor.

4. The passenger protecting system according to claim 2, wherein

the one of the sensors is a pressure sensor for detecting an internal pressure of a door of the vehicle, and the other of the sensors is an acceleration sensor.

5. The passenger protecting system according to claim 1, further comprising

a passenger protecting unit, which is actuated to protect a passenger in the vehicle when the determining unit determines that there occurs the collision.

6. The passenger protecting system according to claim 1, wherein

the at least two sensors and the determining unit are connected with each other in series via the communication unit, which constructs a single communication path.

7. The passenger protecting system according to claim 6, wherein

the communication unit includes at least two bus lines for connecting the at least two sensors with the determining unit.

8. The passenger protecting system according to claim 7, wherein

the determining unit has a determining device for determining the collision, and a bus interface through which the communication path is connected with the determining device.

9. The passenger protecting system according to claim 1, wherein

the one of the sensors is positioned to have a reverse detection direction with respect to the other of the sensors, so that the detection signal of the one of the sensors has the reverse polarity.

10. The passenger protecting system according to claim 1, wherein

the one of the sensors is constructed to output the detection signal having the reverse polarity when being provided with a same detection direction with the other of the sensors.

11. A passenger protecting system comprising:

at least two sensors which detect an impact to a vehicle due to a collision;

a determining unit for determining the collision with the vehicle based on detection signals of the sensors; and

a communication unit through which the sensors are connected with the determining unit so that the detection signals of the sensors are transmitted to the determining unit, wherein

the sensors detect the impact in a width direction of the vehicle and are prepared so that the detection signal of one of the sensors has a reverse polarity with respect to the detection signal of other of the sensors, and wherein

the two sensors are attached to the vehicle at different positions of a longitudinal direction of the vehicle, and arranged at one side of the width direction of the vehicle; and

the determining unit determines whether or not the collision occurs in the proximity of an attachment position of one of the sensors based on the detection signals of both of the sensors.