Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Vehicle subsystem or accessory control
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-21
2001-09-18
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Vehicle subsystem or accessory control
C701S046000, C701S047000, C180S282000, C180S232000, C180S273000, C180S272000, C340S436000, C340S667000, C280S734000, C280S735000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06292728
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
The present application is related to, and claims priority from, Japanese Patent Application Nos. Hei. 10-141653, 11-12350 and 11-82184, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a passenger protection system such as a vehicle air bag system, and more particularly to a collision-determining circuit of the passenger protection system for determining whether or not a collision has occurred, and for preventing erroneous system deployment.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Conventional collision determination devices are of the type shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,038,134. As shown in
FIG. 21
, such a collision determination device generates, prior to determining whether or not a collision has occurred, a pseudo signal
2
from an acceleration sensor based on a control signal
1
to determine whether an air bag system is malfunctioning based on the pseudo signal
2
.
However, as shown in
FIG. 21
, the polarity of the pseudo signal
2
is the same as that of an acceleration signal
3
generated from the acceleration sensor when the vehicle is involved in a collision.
Therefore, the airbag system may be activated erroneously as the pseudo signal
2
is generated when the pseudo signal
2
is erroneously output even though no acceleration signal is generated.
Further, when a plurality of acceleration sensors are implemented in the collision detection system, the above-discussed limitation still remains, as the control signal
1
is used in common in the respective acceleration sensors. Accordingly, the air bag system may be erroneously activated in the same manner as described above.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems by providing a collision-determining circuit in a vehicle passenger protection system in which the polar relationship between an acceleration signal indicative of acceleration of a vehicle and a pseudo signal used to determine a fault prevents a passenger protecting mechanism from erroneously operating even if the pseudo signal is generated.
It is another object of the invention to provide a collision-determining circuit in which the polar relationship between at least two acceleration signals prevents the passenger protecting mechanism from operating erroneously.
The above-mentioned objects may be achieved as follows. According to one aspect of the present invention, it is possible to determine whether an acceleration detector is out of order without erroneously operating a passenger protecting mechanism of a passenger protection system by generating a pseudo signal having a polarity that is opposite from the polarity of a deceleration signal.
Further, even if the control signal is generated erroneously during operation of the collisiondetermining device, the passenger protecting mechanism will not operate erroneously due to the pseudo signal. This is because the polarity of the pseudo signal generated based on the control signal has a polarity that is opposite from the polarity of the deceleration signal.
According to another aspect of the present invention, it is also possible to determine whether or not one or more acceleration detectors are out of order without erroneously operating the passenger protecting mechanism, because the polarity of the deceleration and pseudo signals generated by at least one of the acceleration detectors are opposite from one other.
Even if the control signal is generated erroneously during the determination process of the collision-determining circuit, the passenger protection mechanism will not be erroneously activated by the pseudo signal when no deceleration signal caused by a collision of the vehicle is generated, because the polarity of the pseudo signal generated based on the control signal is opposite in polarity from that of the corresponding deceleration signal. Accordingly, it is possible to provide a highly reliable collision-determining device.
The specific nature of the invention, as well as other objects, uses and advantages thereof, will clearly appear from the following description and from the accompanying drawings in which like numerals refer to like parts.
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Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Denso Corporation
Mancho Ronnie
Pillsbury & Winthrop LLP
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