Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Vehicle subsystem or accessory control
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-28
2001-11-27
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Vehicle subsystem or accessory control
C280S734000, C280S735000, C180S232000, C180S271000, C340S903000, C340S435000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06324454
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an activation control apparatus of an occupant safety system for controlling activation of the occupant safety system which provides protection for vehicle occupants in the event of a vehicle collision.
2. Related Background Art
The vehicles now available are often equipped with an airbag system for providing the protection for vehicle occupants in the event of a vehicle collision. This airbag system is provided with a device for controlling output of an inflator, based on the magnitude of colliding speed (reference is made to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-29494). The airbag system is designed to compute the collision speed based on the integral and derivative of acceleration detected by acceleration sensors and control the output of the inflator, based on this collision speed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The airbag system described above had a delay in detection of the acceleration or the collision speed, because there was a limit to placement of the acceleration sensors in close vicinity of colliding part and impact upon collision became hard to be transmitted to the acceleration sensors if placed far from the colliding part.
An object of the present invention is to implement accurate judgment of a type of collision by accurately detecting the impact upon collision and optimize the output of the inflator of the occupant safety system in accordance with the type of collision.
An activation control apparatus of an occupant safety system according to the present invention is an activation control apparatus for controlling activation of the occupant safety system mounted on a vehicle in the event that the vehicle collides with an obstacle, the activation control apparatus comprising first impact detecting means mounted in the vicinity of a colliding part of the vehicle, second impact detecting means mounted behind the first impact detecting means in the vehicle, and output control means for controlling an output value of an inflator on the occasion of activation of the occupant safety system, based on values detected by the first impact detecting means and the second impact detecting means.
The output value of the inflator herein can be a gas ejection power of the inflator or a gas ejection amount of the inflator per second. The phase “controlling an output value of an inflator” means adjusting the output to an appropriate value in an adjustable range in the case of the inflator that permits stepless adjustment of the gas ejection power or ejection amount, or adjusting the output of the inflator to either a high output or a low output in the case of the inflator that permits two-step adjustment of the gas ejection power or ejection amount.
Since this activation control apparatus of the occupant safety system is constructed to control the output value of the inflator on the occasion of activation of the occupant safety system by the output control means, based on the values detected by the first impact detecting means and the second impact detecting means, i.e., based on the values detected by the detecting means disposed at the positions different from each other, it can activate the occupant safety system at the optimal output according to severity of collision.
The activation control apparatus of the occupant safety system is also characterized in that when an integral of the value detected by the second impact detecting means is in a range smaller than a second predetermined value, which is, for example, the right edge of threshold
60
of
FIG. 4
, threshold
66
of Figs.
8
A and
8
B, or threshold
74
of
FIG. 11
, and when an integral of the value detected by the first impact detecting means is greater than a first predetermined value, which is, for example, the lower edge of the threshold
60
of
FIG. 4
, threshold
66
of
FIGS. 8A and 8B
or threshold
74
of
FIG. 11
, the output control means controls the output value of the inflator to a value greater than when the integral of the value detected by the second impact detecting means is in the range smaller than the second predetermined value and when the integral of the value detected by the first impact detecting means is smaller than the first predetermined value.
The activation control apparatus of the occupant safety system is also characterized by provision of collision time detecting means for detecting a time of the collision of the vehicle and in that when a time from the time of the collision detected by the collision time detecting means is shorter than a third predetermined value, which is, for example, the right edge of threshold
64
of
FIG. 7
, and when the integral of the value detected by the first impact detecting means is greater than the first predetermined value, the output control means controls the output value of the inflator to a value larger than when the time from the time of the collision detected by the collision time detecting means is shorter than the third predetermined value and when the integral of the value detected by the first impact detecting means is smaller than the first predetermined value.
At the event of a high-speed collision, the activation control apparatus of the occupant safety system can recognize the collision as a high-speed collision, because great impact occurs or the integral of the value detected by the first impact detecting means becomes greater than the predetermined value in the initial stage of the collision, i.e., while the integral of the value detected by the second impact detecting means is smaller than the predetermined value or while the time from the time of the collision detected by the collision time detecting means is shorter than the predetermined time. Therefore, the output of the inflator can be made appropriate based on this recognition result.
The activation control apparatus of the occupant safety system is also characterized in that the first detecting means is comprised of left front detecting means mounted in the left front part of the vehicle and right front detecting means mounted in the right front part of the vehicle and in that the output control means controls the output value of the inflator, based on values detected by the left front detecting means and right front detecting means.
The activation control apparatus of the occupant safety system is also characterized in that when either one of a value computed based on the value detected by the left front detecting means and the value detected by the second impact detecting means and a value computed based on the value detected by the right front detecting means and the value detected by the second impact detecting means is over a predetermined threshold, which is, for example, the lower edge of threshold
68
of
FIGS. 8A and 8B
or threshold
76
of
FIG. 11
, smaller than the first predetermined value and when the other is not over the predetermined threshold, the output control means controls the output value of the inflator to a value larger than when the both of the value computed based on the value detected by the left front detecting means and the value detected by the second impact detecting means and the value computed based on the value detected by the right front detecting means and the value detected by the second impact detecting means, are over the predetermined threshold smaller than the first predetermined value.
This activation control apparatus of the occupant safety system can accurately discriminate a low-speed frontal collision and a high-speed irregular collision such as a high-speed offset collision or the like from each other and the output of the inflator can be controlled based on this discrimination result.
The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not to be considered as limiting the present invention.
Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description
Iyoda Motomi
Obata Yuujiro
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Hernandez Olga
Kenyon & Kenyon
Toyota Jidosha & Kabushiki Kaisha
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