Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Vehicle subsystem or accessory control
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-01
2001-06-12
Nguyen, Tan (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Vehicle subsystem or accessory control
C701S046000, C280S735000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06246937
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a control apparatus for controlling an occupant protection device of a vehicle, such as an airbag and seat-belt tensioner.
A conventional control apparatus for controlling an occupant protection device, as shown in The Japanese Patent Laid Open Publication No.8-85414, for example, has an acceleration sensor provided on a floor tunnel in a car room. The acceleration sensor detects an acceleration operating to a car body through the floor tunnel, and gives an analog signal representative of the acceleration to the control apparatus. The control apparatus integrates the acceleration signal from the acceleration sensor, detects an occurrence of a collision requiring a drive of an occupant protection device based on a comparison between an integrated value of the acceleration signal and a predetermined collision decision threshold value, and drives the occupant protection device such as an airbag.
By the way, when an impact of collision is absorbed by a crush of a collision part of the car body, it can be assumed that a collision acceleration transmitted to the floor tunnel is weakened. In such a case, since an acceleration detected by the acceleration sensor provided on the floor tunnel is small, though there is no fear of it causing difficulties in occupant protection at time of collision, a fear of causing a delay in driving the occupant protection device exists. In particular, a collision, such as an offset collision or an oblique collision, tends to cause a case in which the acceleration transmitted to the floor tunnel is weakened. Because of this, from the viewpoint of improving a control of the occupant protection device, regardless of whether the collision acceleration transmitted to the acceleration sensor provided in the car room is weakened, an exact control of the occupant protection device is desired.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved control apparatus of an occupant protection device.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a control apparatus that can exactly control the occupant protection device, regardless of whether a collision acceleration transmitted to an acceleration sensor provided in a car room is weakened.
The above and other objects are attained by a control apparatus of an occupant protection device having a room acceleration sensor, provided in a room of a vehicle, for detecting an acceleration of the vehicle and outputting an acceleration signal representative thereof, comprising: at least one front acceleration sensor, provided in a front part of the vehicle, for detecting the acceleration of the vehicle, and for outputting a detection signal when detecting a predetermined collision acceleration; and a control unit, connected to said room acceleration sensor and said front acceleration sensor, for inputting the acceleration signal of said room acceleration sensor and the detection signal of said front acceleration sensor, for setting a first threshold value when the detection signal is not input, for setting a second threshold value lower than the first threshold value when the detection signal is input, and for driving the occupant protection device when an integrated value of the acceleration signal of said room acceleration sensor exceeds the set threshold value.
According to a composition like this, the front acceleration sensor outputs the detection signal when the predetermined collision acceleration is detected. Hereby, the second threshold value lower than the first threshold value is set, and the occupant protection device is driven when the integrated value of the acceleration signal of the room acceleration sensor exceeds the second threshold value. Since the front acceleration sensor is provided in the front part of the vehicle, even when a collision acceleration transmitted to the room acceleration sensor is weakened, the front acceleration sensor detects the collision acceleration early and gives the detection signal to the control unit. By this, since the second threshold value lower than the first threshold value is set, the control unit can exactly drive the occupant protection device without causing a delay in collision decision.
The above and other objects are also attained by a control apparatus of an occupant protection device having a room acceleration sensor, provided in a room of a vehicle, for detecting an acceleration of the vehicle and outputting an acceleration signal representative thereof, comprising: at least one front acceleration sensor, provided in a front part of the vehicle, for detecting the acceleration of the vehicle, and for outputting a detection signal when detecting a predetermined collision acceleration; and a control unit, connected to said room acceleration sensor and said front acceleration sensor, for inputting the acceleration signal of said room acceleration sensor and the detection signal of said front acceleration sensor, for setting a basic threshold value as a threshold value when the detection signal is not input, for setting a low threshold value as the threshold value by subtracting a predetermined decrement value from the basic threshold value when the detection signal is input, and for driving the occupant protection device when an integrated value of the acceleration signal of said room acceleration sensor exceeds the threshold value.
According to a composition like this, if the detection signal is input from the front acceleration sensor, the low threshold value lower than the basic threshold value is set as the threshold value by subtracting the predetermined decrement value from the basic threshold value. Hence, the integrated value of the acceleration signal of the room acceleration sensor exceeds the threshold value without causing a delay, and the occupant protection device is exactly driven.
The above and other objects are also attained by a control apparatus of an occupant protection device having a room acceleration sensor, provided in a room of a vehicle, for detecting an acceleration of the vehicle and outputting an acceleration signal representative thereof, comprising: at least one front acceleration sensor, provided in a front part of the vehicle, for detecting the acceleration of the vehicle, for outputting a first detection signal when detecting a first predetermined collision acceleration, and for outputting a second detection signal when detecting a second predetermined collision acceleration larger than the first predetermined collision acceleration; and a control unit, connected to said room acceleration sensor and said front acceleration sensor, for inputting the acceleration signal of said room acceleration sensor and the first and second detection signals of said front acceleration sensor, for increasing an integrated value of the acceleration signal of said room acceleration sensor by adding a first addition value to said integrated value when the first detection signal is input, for further increasing said integrated value by adding a second addition value larger than the first addition value to said integrated value when the second detection signal is input, and for driving the occupant protection device when said integrated value exceeds a predetermined threshold value.
According to a composition like this, the front acceleration sensor provided in the front part of the vehicle outputs the first detection signal when the first predetermined collision acceleration is detected, and outputs the second detection signal when the second predetermined collision acceleration larger than the first predetermined collision acceleration is detected. The integrated value of the acceleration signal of the room acceleration sensor is increased if the first detection signal is input, and is further increased if the second detection signal is input. Hence, the integrated value of the acceleration signal of the room acceleration sensor exceeds the threshold value without causing a delay, and the occupant protection device is exactly driven.
Furthermore, t
Heckel Joerg
Kanameda Yasumasa
Miyaguchi Koichi
Okano Masami
Birch & Stewart Kolasch & Birch, LLP
Bosch Electronics Corporation
Nguyen Tan
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