Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Vehicle subsystem or accessory control
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-30
2001-07-03
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Vehicle subsystem or accessory control
C701S040000, C340S669000, C340S436000, C340S429000, C180S282000, C307S010100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06256562
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a control configuration for an occupant protection system for side collision protection in a vehicle.
From U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,915, a control configuration for an occupant protection system for side collision protection in a vehicle is known which includes one transverse acceleration pickup disposed in the left half of the vehicle, one transverse acceleration pickup disposed in the right half of the vehicle, and one transverse acceleration pickup disposed centrally in the vehicle. The signals furnished by the transverse acceleration pickups are each compared with threshold values. If the threshold values are exceeded by the respective signals, the side air bags, for instance, are tripped.
A control configuration for an occupant protection system for front-end collision protection is disclosed in German Utility Model DE 90 01 803. The occupant protection system is tripped only when the signal, furnished by an electronic acceleration sensor and evaluated in an evaluation device, indicates a severe accident calling for tripping of the airbag and at the same time a mechanical acceleration switch, also known as a safeguard sensor because of its protective function, furnishes an enable signal.
A mechanical acceleration switch of this kind serves to protect the occupants from faulty tripping of the airbag. If it did not exist, a defective electronic acceleration sensor or a defective evaluation device could furnish a control signal and cause the airbag to be tripped. Faulty tripping leads to major repair costs. Furthermore, the health and safety of the occupant can suffer, for instance from the noise generated when the airbag is inflated. In addition, an unexpected inflation of the airbag can make the driver react in an uncontrolled way and can cause an accident, for instance.
The mechanical acceleration switch does not require an energy supply the way an electrical acceleration sensor does. As a rule, it has a magnetic seismic mass, which is deflected by the influence of an acceleration, and which after a defined traversed distance actuates a magnetically controllable switch. The acceleration-dependent response threshold of the mechanical acceleration switch is purposefully set relatively low, so that the acceleration switch in an accident will generate a relatively long-lasting enable signal at a relatively early time, thus specifying a time slot for the actual control signal furnished by the evaluation device.
Since this kind of mechanical acceleration switch cannot be tested, or can be tested only at major effort and expense, as a protection configuration for the control configuration of an occupant protection system, it is proposed in Published, Non-Prosecuted German Patent Application DE 40 16 644 A1 that the mechanical acceleration switch be replaced with a second electronic acceleration sensor and a protection circuit. The analog acceleration signal of the further electronic acceleration sensor is integrated with the analog protection circuit and compared with a threshold value. If the threshold value is exceeded by the integrated acceleration signal, an enable signal is furnished.
From Published, Non-Prosecuted German Patent Application DE 44 03 502 A1, a control configuration is known in which a mechanical acceleration switch, embodied as a safeguard sensor, is replaced with an electronic acceleration sensor and a protection circuit. With a protection configuration embodied in this way, the behavior of a mechanical acceleration switch, especially a “ball-in-tube sensor” known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,329,549, is supposed to be simulated. To that end, a constant acceleration value is subtracted from the acceleration signal furnished by the acceleration sensor, in order to simulate a prestressing of a fictitious seismic mass of a mechanical acceleration switch. Under the influence of the acceleration picked up by the electronic acceleration sensor, the fictitious seismic mass of the simulated acceleration switch is deflected and, if a threshold value is exceeded, furnishes an enable signal. Accordingly, to simulate the acceleration switch, the measured acceleration signal, minus the acceleration value that represents the prestressing, is integrated into the protection circuit and compared with a threshold value.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a control configuration for an occupant protection system for side collision protection in a vehicle which overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art devices of this general type, that has an effective protection configuration.
With the foregoing and other objects in view there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a control configuration for an occupant protection system for side collision protection in a vehicle, including: a sensor configuration for detecting a transverse acceleration acting on a vehicle, the sensor configuration having a first electronic acceleration pickup outputting a first transverse acceleration signal and a second electronic acceleration pickup outputting a second transverse acceleration signal; an evaluation device receiving and evaluating the first transverse acceleration signal and generating a first enable signal in dependence on the first transverse acceleration signal; a protection configuration receiving and evaluating the second transverse acceleration signal and generating a second enable signal in dependence on the second transverse acceleration signal; a timer receiving the second enable signal and generating a third enable signal with a fixed minimum duration in dependence on the second enable signal; and an enabling device receiving the first enable signal and the third enable signal and generating a control signal for an occupant protection system in dependence on the first enable signal and the third enable signal.
The enable signal generated by the protection configuration of the control configuration as a function of transverse acceleration is delivered to the timer. From the enable signal furnished, the timer generates an enable signal with a fixed minimum duration. The enabling device is connected both to the timer and to the evaluation device, so that a control signal is generated when both a first enable signal, generated by the evaluation device, and the enable signal with the fixed minimum duration derived from the enable signal of the protection configuration are present.
The timer takes the below listed special conditions into account in a side collision.
First, tripping of a side airbag is necessary within a few milliseconds after the onset of the collision, if the occupants are to be effectively protected against any structure penetrating the side of the vehicle. In contrast to the front-end collision, in a side collision the vehicle lacks any extended energy-reducing zone. The site of the collision is only a few centimeters away from the occupants. For this reason, a decision to trip the side air bag must be made as early as possible on the basis of the transverse acceleration that is picked up. Nevertheless, on the basis of the transverse acceleration picked up, a decision must be made whether inflation of the side air bag is needed at all, or not. In a control configuration for an occupant protection system for front-end collision protection, the evaluation device has about 30 ms to assess a longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle that has been picked up and thereupon to make a positive or negative tripping decision. Inflation of the front airbag at what then is an already advanced time after the onset of the collision still protects the occupants effectively against injuries because of the energy-absorbing crumple zone.
The time gained from the crumple zone can be used by the evaluation device for its own purposes.
The more time-critical requirements made of the control configuration for side collision protection involve not only its sensor configuration and the evaluation device but also and in particular its protection configura
Frimberger Manfred
Mader Gerhard
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Greenberg Laurence A.
Lerner Herbert L.
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
Stemer Werner H.
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