COLLISION SENSING SYSTEM
First Claim
1. A method of activating a safety device for vehicular passenger protection in a passenger compartment of a vehicle having a forward direction of travel in which it is susceptible to collision incidents in a frontal direction mode and in one or more angular direction modes, said vehicle having at least right side and left side acceleration sensors forward of said compartment, an acceleration sensor in said passenger compartment and a computer for continually processing acceleration signals from said sensors during vehicle operation, said method being executed on said computer and comprising the steps of:
- continually comparing at least one of said acceleration signals with a predetermined acceleration value indicative of a passenger threatening collision and, if a said signal exceeds said value, proceeding with the following steps;
integrating each of said acceleration signals over time to determine a current sequence of velocity values for each of said sensor locations;
integrating each of said velocity values over time to determine current displacement values for each of said sensor locations;
comparing said velocity values with predetermined threshold velocity values for said sensor locations as a basis for determining whether a frontal mode collision situation requires safety device actuation;
comparing selected of said velocity and displacement values with predetermined corresponding velocity and displacement threshold values as a basis for determining whether an angular mode collision situation requires safety device activation and, if any one of said frontal or angular collision mode comparisons requires activation; and
activating said device.
13 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A computer based method for activating a vehicular safety device for passenger protection is disclosed. The method uses two front-end acceleration sensors and a passenger compartment sensor. When a collision situation is sensed, current acceleration data is integrated to produce velocity and displacement values for the sensor locations. The velocity and displacement values are selectively used in at least three vehicle collision mode analyses. Examples of such collision modes are a full frontal mode, an angle mode and an offset deformable barrier mode. Each collision mode has sub-modes corresponding to the desired levels of airbag inflation. When appropriate threshold values are exceeded, device activation for one or more activation stages is initiated.
24 Citations
23 Claims
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1. A method of activating a safety device for vehicular passenger protection in a passenger compartment of a vehicle having a forward direction of travel in which it is susceptible to collision incidents in a frontal direction mode and in one or more angular direction modes, said vehicle having at least right side and left side acceleration sensors forward of said compartment, an acceleration sensor in said passenger compartment and a computer for continually processing acceleration signals from said sensors during vehicle operation, said method being executed on said computer and comprising the steps of:
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continually comparing at least one of said acceleration signals with a predetermined acceleration value indicative of a passenger threatening collision and, if a said signal exceeds said value, proceeding with the following steps;
integrating each of said acceleration signals over time to determine a current sequence of velocity values for each of said sensor locations;
integrating each of said velocity values over time to determine current displacement values for each of said sensor locations;
comparing said velocity values with predetermined threshold velocity values for said sensor locations as a basis for determining whether a frontal mode collision situation requires safety device actuation;
comparing selected of said velocity and displacement values with predetermined corresponding velocity and displacement threshold values as a basis for determining whether an angular mode collision situation requires safety device activation and, if any one of said frontal or angular collision mode comparisons requires activation; and
activating said device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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Specification