Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Vehicle subsystem or accessory control
Patent
1998-09-11
2000-04-25
Zanelli, Michael J.
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Vehicle subsystem or accessory control
340440, B60R 2113, B60R 2132, G01P 900
Patent
active
06055472&
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The present invention relates to an arrangement for detecting rollover events in vehicles.
If a rollover of a vehicle occurs, all the occupant protection mechanisms installed in the vehicle must be activated in timely fashion. Such occupant protection mechanisms include, for example, rollover bars, belt tensioners front and side airbags, fold-down seat locks in a commercial vehicle, etc. In order for all these protection mechanisms to be activated in timely fashion, it is necessary to detect, as early as possible, whether rotations of the vehicle about its vertical axis (yaw axis), longitudinal axis (roll axis), and transverse axis (pitch axis) will lead to a rollover. To ensure also that the occupant protection mechanisms are in fact activated only in the event of a rollover, incorrect detections of rollovers should be excluded to the greatest extent possible.
German Patent No. 36 04 216 C2 describes a rollover sensor consisting of a fluid-filled space in which a body, suspended in the manner of a pendulum, is located as a seismic mass. By means of an electrical analysis circuit, changes in the position of the pendulum, which can deflect in any direction, yield a datum as to whether or not the vehicle is rolling over. This rollover sensor based on the pendulum principle has the disadvantage on the one hand that it reacts too slowly to vehicle movements, so that a rollover might possibly be signaled too late to activate the occupant protection mechanisms, and on the other hand that a rollover event can be imitated by resonant vibrations of the seismic mass.
European Patent No. 0 430 813 B1 describes a system for vehicle rollover detection which has one rotation rate sensor and three acceleration sensors. The rotation rate sensor measures the angular velocity about the roll axis of the vehicle, and the three acceleration sensors measure the acceleration of the vehicle in the direction of its longitudinal axis, transverse axis, and vertical axis. From the measured angular velocity and the measured accelerations, three variables are derived which are each subjected to a threshold decision. As soon as one of the three variables exceeds the threshold defined for it, a decision is made that a vehicle rollover is about to occur.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide an arrangement for detecting a vehicle rollover, with which a rollover can be detected in a timely fashion and with a high reliability.
In the arrangement according to the present invention, three rotation sensors are present for measuring the angular velocities of the vehicle about the yaw axis, the roll axis, and the pitch axis. Also present arc means which ascertain, from the measured angular velocities, the position of a vehicular fixed point (for example, the vehicle's center of gravity) projected into a horizontal plane, and which signal a vehicle rollover if the projected point goes beyond the boundaries of a vehicular fixed surface that is also projected into the horizontal plane.
According to the present invention, the rotational energy of the vehicle is calculated from the three measured angular velocities, and a rollover of the vehicle is signaled if the rotational energy exceeds a threshold. In this context, the threshold is that potential energy which is necessary to tilt the vehicle from its instantaneous position into a position in which a vehicular fixed point reaches its maximum distance with respect to the road surface plane. This makes it possible to forecast a vehicle rollover at a very early stage, so that a great deal of time remains to activate protection mechanisms.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 shows a schematic depiction of a vehicle in accordance with the present invention with a geometry of a first kind for calculating the tilted position of the vehicle.
FIG. 2 shows a schematic depiction of a vehicle according to the present invention with a geometry of a second kind for calculating its tilted position.
FIG. 3 shows a flow chart representing the s
REFERENCES:
patent: 5610575 (1997-03-01), Gioutsos
Patent Abstracts of Japan; vol. 018, No. 478 (P-1796); Sep. 6, 1994; JP-06-160525 A.
Bauer Joachim
Breunig Volker
Lang Hans-Peter
Robert & Bosch GmbH
Zanelli Michael J.
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