Vehicle rollover sensing using short-term integration
First Claim
1. A rollover sensing apparatus for predicting an overturn condition for a vehicle, comprising:
- an angular rate sensor for sensing attitude rate of a vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof;
a short-term integrator including a finite impulse response filter for integrating the sensed attitude rate signal and producing an estimated current attitude angle;
a predictor for predicting a future attitude angle as a function of said estimated current attitude angle and said sensed attitude rate;
a first comparator for comparing said predicted future attitude angle to a threshold value; and
an output for deploying a vehicle overturn condition based on said comparison of said first comparator.
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Abstract
A rollover sensing apparatus and method are provided for predicting rollover and/or pitchover conditions of a vehicle. An angular rate sensor senses attitude rate of the vehicle and an accelerometer measures vertical acceleration of the vehicle. A current attitude angle is estimated by integration, and a future attitude angle is predicted at an advance time as a function of the estimated current attitude angle and sensed attitude rate. The predicted attitude angle is compared to a threshold and an output is produced for indicating a predicted vehicle rollover condition based on the comparison. A vehicle rollover condition about the longitudinal axis of the vehicle is predicted by comparing a future roll angle to a rollover angle threshold, while a pitchover condition about the lateral axis of a vehicle is predicted by comparing a future pitch angle to a pitch angle threshold.
231 Citations
26 Claims
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1. A rollover sensing apparatus for predicting an overturn condition for a vehicle, comprising:
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an angular rate sensor for sensing attitude rate of a vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; a short-term integrator including a finite impulse response filter for integrating the sensed attitude rate signal and producing an estimated current attitude angle; a predictor for predicting a future attitude angle as a function of said estimated current attitude angle and said sensed attitude rate; a first comparator for comparing said predicted future attitude angle to a threshold value; and an output for deploying a vehicle overturn condition based on said comparison of said first comparator. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A rollover sensing apparatus for predicting an overturn condition of a vehicle, comprising:
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an angular rate sensor for sensing attitude rate of a vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; an accelerometer for measuring vertical acceleration of said vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; a short-term integrator including a finite impulse response filter for integrating said sensed attitude rate signal and producing an estimated current attitude angle; a long-term integrator for integrating said sensed attitude rate signal over a delayed period of time, said long-term integrator producing an output which is further used to determine said estimated current attitude angle, said long-term integrator being responsive to said measured vertical acceleration; a predictor for predicting a future attitude angle as a function of said estimated current attitude angle and said sensed attitude rate; a first comparator for comparing said predicted future attitude angle to a threshold value; and an output for deploying a vehicle overturn condition based on said comparison of said first comparator. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A method for predicting an overturn condition of a vehicle, said method comprising the steps of:
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sensing attitude rate of a vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; integrating said sensed attitude rate signal with a short-term integrator having a finite impulse response filter and producing an estimated current attitude angle as a function of said integration; predicting a future attitude angle as a function of said estimated current attitude angle and said sensed attitude rate; comparing said predicted future attitude angle to a threshold value; and deploying a vehicle overturn condition based on said comparison. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A method for predicting an overturn condition of a vehicle, said method comprising the steps of:
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sensing attitude rate of a vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; sensing vertical acceleration of the vehicle and producing an output signal indicative thereof; integrating said sensed attitude rate signal with a short-term integrator having a finite impulse response filter and producing an estimated current attitude angle further as a function of said short-term integrator; integrating said sensed attitude rate signal over a delayed period of time with a long-term integrator and further estimating said current attitude angle further as a function of said long-term integration; predicting a future attitude angle as a function of said estimated current attitude angle and said sensed attitude rate; comparing said predicted future attitude angle to a threshold value; and deploying a vehicle overturn condition based on said comparison. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26)
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Specification