Automatic door child safety lock release in a crash event

• US 9,334,681 B2
• Filed: 02/12/2015
• Issued: 05/10/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Continental Automotive Systems, Inc. (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Continental Automotive Systems, Inc. (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Fernandez-Aguilera, David, Carlos-Gonzalez, Arturo
• Primary Examiner(s): Jabr, Fadey
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ramesh, Krishnan
• Application Number:
  US14/620,879
• Publication Number:
  US 20160097224A1
• Time in Patent Office: 453 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: E05B 77/02 for accident situations
• CPC Class Codes: E05B 77/12 Automatic locking or unlocking at the moment of collision
• CPC Class Codes: E05B 77/26 specially adapted for child safety
• CPC Class Codes: E05B 77/54 Automatic securing or unlocking of bolts triggered by certain vehicle parameters, e.g. exceeding a speed threshold triggered by vehicle collision E05B77/12
• CPC Class Codes: E05B 81/58 including time control, e.g. for controlling run-time of electric motors

Abstract

An automated child safety unlocking system for automobiles which disengages the child safety locks and unlocks the doors at appropriate times during events such as vehicle crashes. The vehicle ECU continually monitors the status of the vehicle to check if a crash event has occurred via various methods such as the status of airbag deployment, accelerometers placed in the car, and crumple points. In the event of a crash the vehicle ECU transmits one of at least two CSL command signals a child safety lock ECU. The command signals are each specific to an event severity and event type, and the child safety lock ECU then interprets the signal and acts according to the signal type. If the data interpreted indicates a crash, the child safety lock ECU unlocks the child safety locks, and if it does not determine a crash has not occurred, the locks remain engaged.

Claims

1. An automated child safety unlocking system comprising:

two or more crash sensors each configured to generate a crash signal upon detection of an event;

a vehicle ECU configured to receive the crash signal from each of the two or more crash sensors, said vehicle ECU being configured to transmit one of at least two CSL command signals, said at least two CSL command signals are each specific to an event severity and event type, wherein the one of at least two CSL command signals generated by the vehicle ECU is transmitted with general signals over a general vehicle communication bus; and

a child safety lock ECU configured to receive the general signals transmitted through the general vehicle communication bus, wherein the child safety lock ECU filters the one of at least two CSL command signals from the general vehicle communication bus, said child safety lock ECU engages or disengages a child safety lock actuator depending on the one of at least two CSL command signals received by the child safety lock ECU.

2. The automated child safety unlocking system of claim 1 wherein the child safety lock ECU is configurable to adjust the amount of time before the child safety lock ECU disengages the child safety lock actuator depending on the type of CSL command signal transmitted by the vehicle ECU.

3. The automated child safety unlocking system of claim 2 wherein the type of CSL command signal is a pulse width modulated analog signal that has a default state that changes to one of at least two different states based on the event severity and the event type.

4. The automated child safety unlocking system of claim 2 wherein the type of CSL command signal is a digital signal.

5. The automated child safety unlocking system of claim 2 wherein the type of CSL command signal is a digital signal that instructs the child safety lock ECU to disengage or engage the child safety lock actuator depending on the type of CSL command signal transmitted by the vehicle ECU.

6. The automated child safety unlocking system of claim 1 wherein the child safety lock ECU engages and disengages the child safety lock actuator depending on the one or more of the following factors including:

configurable delay time programmed into the child safety lock ECU that starts counting delay time after reception of crash notification digital data as part of one of the at least two CSL command signals, configurable time based on the number of crash notifications received from the one of at least two CSL command signals, configurable time based on the one of at least two CSL command signals being an analog crash notification pulse and configurable based on the child safety lock ECU receiving a number of analog crash notification pulses as part of the one or at least two CSL command signals.

7. The automated child safety unlocking system of claim 1 wherein the child safety lock ECU is capable of transmitting though the general vehicle communication bus one or more CSL information signals wherein the vehicle ECU received the general signals transmitted through the general vehicle communication bus and filters the one or more CSL information signals.

8. The automated child safety unlocking system of claim 7 wherein the one or more CSL information signals contains information relating to the child safety lock actuator status, child safety lock diagnostics, data response, function execution response, customer diagnostic response data.

9. An automated child safety unlocking system comprising:

two or more crash sensors each configured to generate a crash signal upon detection of an event;

a vehicle ECU configured to receive the crash signal from each of the two or more crash sensors, said vehicle ECU being configured to transmit one of at least two CSL command signals, said at least two CSL command signals are each specific to an event severity and event type, wherein the one of at least two CSL command signals generated by the vehicle ECU is transmitted with general signals over a general vehicle communication bus; and

a child safety lock ECU configured to receive the general signals transmitted through the general vehicle communication bus and the child safety lock ECU filters the one of at least two CSL command signals from the general vehicle communication bus, said child safety lock ECU engages or disengages a child safety lock actuator depending on the one of at least two CSL command signals received by the child safety lock ECU, wherein the child safety lock ECU is capable of transmitting though the general vehicle communication bus one or more CSL information signals wherein the vehicle ECU received the general signals transmitted through the general vehicle communication bus and filters the one or more CSL information signals, the one or more CSL information signals contains information relating to the child safety lock actuator status, child safety lock diagnostics, data response, function execution response, customer diagnostic response data.

10. The automated child safety unlocking system of claim 9 wherein the child safety lock ECU is configurable to adjust the amount of time before the child safety lock ECU disengages the child safety lock actuator depending on the type of CSL command signal transmitted by the vehicle ECU.

11. The automated child safety unlocking system of claim 10 wherein the type of CSL command signal is a pulse width modulated analog signal that has a default state that changes to one of at least two different states based on the event severity and the event type.

12. The automated child safety unlocking system of claim 10 wherein the type of CSL command signal is a digital signal.

13. The automated child safety unlocking system of claim 10 wherein the type of CSL command signal is a digital signal that instructs the child safety lock ECU to disengage or engage the child safety lock actuator depending on the type of CSL command signal transmitted by the vehicle ECU.

14. The automated child safety unlocking system of claim 9 wherein the child safety lock ECU engages and disengages the child safety lock actuator depending on the one or more of the following factors including:

configurable delay time programmed into the child safety lock ECU that starts counting delay time after reception of crash notification digital data as part of one of the at least two CSL command signals, configurable time based on the number of crash notifications received from the one of at least two CSL command signals, configurable time based on the one of at least two CSL command signals being an analog crash notification pulse and configurable based on the child safety lock ECU receiving a number of analog crash notification pulses as part of the one or at least two CSL command signals.

15. An automated child safety unlocking system comprising:

two or more crash sensors each configured to generate a crash signal upon detection of an event;

a vehicle ECU configured to receive the crash signal from each of the two or more crash sensors, said vehicle ECU being configured to transmit one of at least two CSL command signals, said at least two CSL command signals are each specific to an event severity and event type, wherein the one of at least two CSL command signals generated by the vehicle ECU is transmitted with general signals over a general vehicle communication bus; and

a child safety lock ECU configured to receive the general signals transmitted through the general vehicle communication bus, wherein the child safety lock ECU filters the one of at least two CSL command signals from the general vehicle communication bus, said child safety lock ECU engages or disengages a child safety lock actuator depending on the one of at least two CSL command signals received by the child safety lock ECU, wherein the child safety lock ECU is configurable to adjust the amount of time before the child safety lock ECU disengages the child safety lock actuator depending on the type of CSL command signal transmitted by the vehicle ECU.

16. The automated child safety unlocking system of claim 15 wherein the type of CSL command signal is a pulse width modulated analog signal that has a default state that changes to one of at least two different states based on the event severity and the event type.

17. The automated child safety unlocking system of claim 15 wherein the type of CSL command signal is a digital signal.

18. The automated child safety unlocking system of claim 15 wherein the type of CSL command signal is a digital signal that instructs the child safety lock ECU to disengage or engage the child safety lock actuator depending on the type of CSL command signal transmitted by the vehicle ECU.

19. The automated child safety unlocking system of claim 15 wherein the child safety lock ECU engages and disengages the child safety lock actuator depending on the one or more of the following factors including:

configurable delay time programmed into the child safety lock ECU that starts counting delay time after reception of crash notification digital data as part of one of the at least two CSL command signals, configurable time based on the number of crash notifications received from the one of at least two CSL command signals, configurable time based on the one of at least two CSL command signals being an analog crash notification pulse and configurable based on the child safety lock ECU receiving a number of analog crash notification pulses as part of the one or at least two CSL command signals.

20. The automated child safety unlocking system of claim 15 wherein the child safety lock ECU is capable of transmitting though the general vehicle communication bus one or more CSL information signals wherein the vehicle ECU received the general signals transmitted through the general vehicle communication bus and filters the one or more CSL information signals.

21. The automated child safety unlocking system of claim 20 wherein the one or more CSL information signals contains information relating to the child safety lock actuator status, child safety lock diagnostics, data response, function execution response, customer diagnostic response data.