Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Vehicle subsystem or accessory control
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-08
2001-07-03
Nguyen, Tan (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Vehicle subsystem or accessory control
C701S046000, C280S728100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06256564
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 outputting an acceleration signal representative thereof or an integrated value of the acceleration signal as a sensor output; 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 sensor output of said front acceleration sensor, said control unit driving the occupant protection device when an integrated value of the acceleration signal of said room acceleration sensor exceeds a predetermined threshold value, said control unit detecting whether the vehicle is in a collision requiring to drive the occupant protection device based on the sensor output of said front acceleration sensor, and increasing the integrated value of said room acceleration sensor when the collision is detected based on the sensor output of said front acceleration sensor.
According to a composition like this, in addition to the collision detection based on the room acceleration sensor, whether the vehicle is in the collision is detected based on the sensor output of the front acceleration sensor provided in the front part of the vehicle. When the collision is detected based on the front acceleration sensor, the integrated value of the acceleration signal of the room acceleration sensor is increased. Since the front acceleration sensor is provided in the front part of the vehicle, the front acceleration sensor detects a collision acceleration early and gives the sensor output to the control unit, even in case of a collision, such as an offset or oblique collision, in which a collision acceleration transmitted to the room acceleration sensor provided in the room of the vehicle may be weakened. By this, since the integrated value of the room acceleration sensor is increased immediately, the control unit can exactly drive the occupant protection device without causing a delay in collision detection.
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: first and second front acceleration sensors provided in a front part of the vehicle, each of said first and second front acceleration sensors detecting the acceleration of the vehicle and outputting an acceleration signal representative thereof or an integrated value of the acceleration signal as a sensor output; and a control unit, connected to said room acceleration sensor, said first front acceleration sensor and said second front acceleration sensor, for inputting the acceleration signal of said room acceleration sensor and the sensor outputs of said first and second front acceleration sensors, said control unit driving the occupant protection device when an integrated value of the acceleration signal of said room acceleration sensor exceeds a predetermined threshold value, said control unit detecting whether the vehicle is in the collision requiring to drive the occupant protection device based on each of the sensor outputs of said first and second acceleration sensors, respectively, said control unit recognizing a first collision time representative of a time point of the collision detected based on the sensor output of said first front acceleration sensor, and recognizing a second collision time representative of a time point of the collision detected based on the sensor output of said second front acceleration sensor, said control unit adding a predetermined addition value to the integrated value of the acceleration signal of said room acceleration sensor when the time difference between the first collision time and the second collision time is smaller than the predetermined value.
According to a composition like this, the first collision time representative of a time point of the collision detected based on the first front acceleration sensor is recognized, and the second collision time representative of a time point of the collision detected based on the second front acceleration sensor is recognized. And, when the time difference between the first and second collision times is smaller than the predetermined value, the integrated value of the room acceleration sensor is increased. Since the first and second front acceleration sensors are provided in the front part of the vehicle, the front acceleration sensors detect a collision acceleration early and give the sensor outputs to the control unit, even in case of a collision in which a collision acceleration transmitted to the room acceleration sensor provided in the room of the vehicle may be weakened. By this, since the integrated value of the room acceleration sensor is increased immediately, the control unit can exactly drive the occupant protection device.
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 outputting an acceleration signal representative thereof or an integrated value of the acceleration signal as a sensor out
Heckel Joerg
Kanameda Yasumasa
Miyaguchi Koichi
Okano Masami
Birch & Stewart Kolasch & Birch, LLP
Bosch Electronics Corporation
Nguyen Tan
LandOfFree
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