Land vehicles – Wheeled – Attachment
Patent
1996-07-01
1998-07-21
English, Peter C.
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Attachment
340438, 701 45, B60R 2116
Patent
active
057824851
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an actuating judgment system for safety device for protecting occupant on the front passenger seat of a vehicle and, more particularly, to an actuating judgement system capable of detecting a rearward facing child seat and of judging in various situations as to whether an actuation of the safety device is required or not.
BACKGROUND ART
One known system of this kind for an actuating-judgment system for safety device for protecting occupant on the front passenger seat makes use of a occupant sensor, as described in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 130857/1989. As shown in FIG. 18, this occupant sensor has a pressure sensor 26a mounted in a portion 22b of the passenger seat 22 of a vehicle which includes a safety device 65 installed inside of the instrument panel 23. The pressure sensor 26a is connected with the safety device 65. The pressure sensor 26a senses whether a passenger 21 sits in the seat 22 or not. If the passenger 21 is absent, an air bag in the safety device 65 is not allowed to inflate. If the passenger 21 sits in it, the air bag in the safety device 65 is permitted to inflate.
The aforementioned actuating-judgement system employing the occupant sensor has a disadvantage that the pressure sensor 26a detects a rearward facing child seat 28 as the occupant when the rearward facing child seat 28 is placed on the passenger seat as shown in FIG. 19, and then the aforementioned actuating-judgement system permits the air bag in the safety device 65 to inflate. In another words, the rearward facing child seat 28 faces rearward as viewed in the traveling direction of the vehicle so as to protect the child against impact from the vehicle collision. Furthermore, the child seat is provided with a cushion. Therefore, it is not necessary to actuate the air bag system. If the air bag system was actuated as indicated by the broken line 27, strong impact would damage an infant 29.
In view of the foregoing problems with the prior art techniques, the present invention has been made. It is an object of the present invention to provide an actuating-judgment system for safety device for protecting occupant on front passenger seat, which is capable of detecting a rearward facing child seat and of judging in various cases as to whether an actuation of such a safety device as an air bag is required or not.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an actuating judgment system for safety device for protecting occupant on front passenger seat comprising one or more distance sensors so as to detect the distance between an air bag storing portion and an object placed on the front passenger seat in a vehicle. The actuating-judgement system of the present invention judges as to whether an actuation of such a safety device as an air bag is required or not according to the output signals from the distance sensors. The distance toward the object in a certain direction can be measured by employing distance sensors. Accordingly, in one aspect of the present invention, a plurality of distance sensors are used to identify the shapes of the objects located in different zones. This makes it possible to make a precise judgement as to whether the actuation of safety device should be required or not.
In another aspect of the invention, an air bag inflation-inhibited zone and an air bag inflation-permitted zone are established. If any objects are located in the inflation-inhibited zone, the air bag system is inhibited from being actuated in order to avoid a danger. If an object to be protected such as a human body exists in the inflation-permitted zone, the air bag system is permitted to be actuated. The presence or absence of an object in at least one of these two zones is detected. Thus, a more precise judgement is made as to whether the safety device should be actuated.
In a further aspect of the invention, the system is connected to a means for actuating a pre-tensioner for the seat belt of the passenger seat, as well as to the safety device fo
REFERENCES:
patent: 5071160 (1991-12-01), White et al.
patent: 5118134 (1992-06-01), Mattes et al.
patent: 5330226 (1994-07-01), Gentry et al.
patent: 5446661 (1995-08-01), Gioutsos et al.
patent: 5605348 (1997-02-01), Blackburn et al.
Imanishi Etsujiro
Ono Mitsuru
Takeda Masaru
Tsuji Yasushi
English Peter C.
Sensor Technology Co. Ltd.
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