Land vehicles – Wheeled – Attachment
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-13
2003-03-11
Dickson, Paul N. (Department: 3616)
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Attachment
C701S045000, C340S436000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06530597
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device for protecting vehicle occupants in a motor vehicle.
A device for protecting vehicle occupants usually has one or more impact sensors for detecting an impact. An evaluation circuit evaluates the signals supplied by the impact sensors and activates, as a function of the impact, selected firing elements of vehicle occupant protection devices. The firing elements are electrically connected to the evaluation device. Such vehicle occupant protection devices are, in particular, the driver's and front seat passenger's airbags, the side airbag, the head airbag, the seat belt pretensioning device or the like. The evaluation device is usually accommodated in a control device which is provided at a central position in the vehicle. Such a control device is preferably provided on the vehicle tunnel or at some other central position in the vehicle, for example the dashboard, preferably in the interior of the motor vehicle. The control device contains an energy source from which the firing elements, which are each respectively connected by a two wire lead, are provided with energy when an impact is detected.
International Publication No. WO 89/09146 A discloses a device for protecting vehicle occupants in a motor vehicle, in which impact sensors are connected to a central evaluation device via a bus line.
European Patent EP 0 471 871 B1 discloses a device for protecting vehicle occupants in a motor vehicle in which a central evaluation device is electrically connected via a bus line to firing units which are provided in remote positions.
Both devices have in common that, as the number of sensors and firing elements connected to the respective device for protecting vehicle occupants rises, the demands made on the computing power of the central evaluation device increases considerably, in particular also due to the communication needs which have to be coped with.
2. Summary of the Invention
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a device for protecting vehicle occupants in a motor vehicle, which overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages of the heretofore-known devices of this general type and which can cooperate with or serve a multiplicity of impact sensors and/or firing elements in a motor vehicle.
With the foregoing and other objects in view there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a device for protecting vehicle occupants in a motor vehicle, including:
a data line configured as a bus line;
at least two impact sensor units to be disposed remote from a central region of a motor vehicle, each of the at least two impact sensor units having an impact sensor unit interface connected to the data line for outputting a code signal onto the data line; and
at least two firing units to be disposed at respectively assigned vehicle occupant protection devices, the at least two firing units being connected to the at least two impact sensor units via the data line, each of the at least two firing units having a firing unit interface for receiving the code signal and having an energy source for providing energy for triggering the respectively assigned vehicle occupant protection devices.
According to the invention, an impact sensor unit is connected directly to the assigned firing unit using a data line. Here, the impact sensor unit is provided at a location remote from a central position in the vehicle, with the result that an impact sensor of the impact sensor unit can detect an impact as close as possible to a potential impact location. Such impact sensors which are provided remote from a central position—that is to say for example in the front region, the crush zone of the vehicle, or on its sides—are also called “remote sensors” or “satellite sensors”. The firing unit is usually provided spatially near to the assigned vehicle occupant protection device. This prevents the line routes between the firing controller and the firing element which is assigned to the vehicle occupant protection device from being long and therefore at risk of short-circuiting and prone to interference signals, which would result, in particular, in unintended triggering of the vehicle occupant protection device. It is essential to the invention that an encoded data transmission takes place from the impact sensor unit to the firing unit, and for this purpose the impact sensor unit has an interface for outputting code signals onto the data line, and the firing unit has an interface for receiving these code signals.
In accordance with a preferred feature of the invention, a plurality of impact sensor units and/or a plurality of firing units are connected to the data line, and the data line is then embodied as a bus line and the data are preferably transmitted using a multiplex method.
The impact sensor unit is embodied in such a way that it has at least one impact sensor for detecting an impact, and an evaluator—referred to below as impact evaluator—for the detected impact profile or impact course.
The firing unit is preferably embodied in such a way that it has an evaluator for the code signals which are received via the data line—referred to below as firing evaluator—, an energy source for providing firing energy for the assigned vehicle occupant protection device, a firing element which is assigned to the vehicle occupant protection device, and a switching device, controllable by the firing evaluator, for electrically connecting the energy source to the firing element.
The characterizing feature of the invention is in particular that the functionality of a central evaluation device, which is known from the prior art, is distributed spatially, part of this functionality being assigned spatially to the impact sensor. This functionality is implemented through the use of the impact evaluator, which is preferably provided spatially together with the associated impact sensor in a common housing, namely in the impact unit. The impact sensor, the impact evaluator and at least the associated interface for a connection to the data line or bus line form together an impact sensor unit. According to the invention, the other part of the functionality of the known central evaluation unit is spatially assigned to the firing element of a vehicle occupant protection device and is implemented in the firing evaluator. The firing evaluator, the associated interface for a connection to the bus line, the associated firing element, the energy source and the controllable switch form together a firing unit, wherein all the components of this firing unit, with the exception of the firing element are also spatially accommodated in a common housing, namely in the firing device.
The functionality which is assigned to the impact sensor is preferably to perform an evaluation of an impact which is detected by the impact sensor. If, for example, the impact sensor is an acceleration sensor or a sensor for the deformation of the car body at the location of the sensor, such an impact sensor supplies a signal which corresponds to the impact profile or in other words the temporal course of the impact and is subsequently evaluated by the impact evaluator: for example the impact signal which is acquired or a signal which is derived from it is compared with different threshold values. If the impact signal exceeds one of the threshold values stored in a memory of the impact sensor unit, this information is put onto the bus line, as an encoded message, with the intention of informing one or more assigned firing units of the current impact state. As a result of a code signal relating to the impact state at a given time, one or more of the connected firing units may change their operating state. A change in the operating state may be due, in particular, to the fact that the firing unit is changed from a “not ready to trigger” operating state into an “increased readiness to trigger” operating state. The “not ready to trigger” operating state requires at least two defined code signals from defined evaluation units to trigger the associated firing
Heitzer Günter
Nesper Reiner
Watanabe Shusei
Dickson Paul N.
Greenberg Laurence A.
Locher Ralph E.
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
Sliteris Joselynn Y
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