Obstruction inference apparatus for vehicle

Details Obstruction inference apparatus for vehicle Obstruction inference apparatus for vehicle

2001-07-24

2003-01-28

Hurley, Kevin (Department: 3611)

Motor vehicles

With means for promoting safety of vehicle, its occupant or...

Responsive to engagement of portion of perimeter of vehicle...

C280S735000, C701S045000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06510914

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an obstruction inference apparatus for a vehicle for, when the moving vehicle has collided with an obstruction, inferring the type of the obstruction.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been vehicles equipped with an apparatus for, when the vehicle has hit an obstruction, inferring the type of the obstruction and deploying a secondary collision countermeasure in accordance with that type.
As an apparatus of this kind for deploying a secondary collision countermeasure, an apparatus which operates an air bag located in the vicinity of the hood of the vehicle in accordance with the type of an obstruction is disclosed for example in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI-8-216826. Another apparatus which operates an air bag located in the vicinity of the hood in accordance with the type of an obstruction is disclosed for example in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI-11-28994.
FIG.
64
and
FIG. 65
are illustrations based on FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI-8-216826. The names and reference numerals of the constituent elements in these figures have been changed for convenience.
FIG. 64
shows a vehicle
401
equipped with a hood air bag sensor system
400
.
This hood air bag sensor system
400
has a bumper sensor
403
on the front bumper
402
of the vehicle
401
and a hood sensor
405
below the hood
404
. The hood air bag sensor system
400
also has a control unit
406
. The bumper sensor
403
is a sensor for detecting a substantially horizontal load. The hood sensor
405
is a sensor for detecting a substantially vertical load. Only when the bumper sensor
403
and the hood sensor
405
have both detected a load, the control unit
406
infers that an obstruction S
11
with which the vehicle has collided is a specified obstruction and outputs a control signal to a hood air bag module
407
.
When the vehicle
401
has hit a specified obstruction S
11
such as a pedestrian, the hood air bag sensor system
400
detects loads resulting from the collision with the bumper sensor
403
and the hood sensor
405
; outputs a control signal from the control unit
406
, which receives detection signals from the sensors; and in accordance with this control signal inflates a hood air bag
408
located in the vicinity of the hood
404
.
FIG. 65
shows the vehicle
401
having run into an obstruction S
12
such as a building.
When only the bumper sensor
403
detects a load, the control unit
406
infers that the obstruction S
12
is not a specified obstruction. In this case, the control unit
406
does not output a control signal to the hood air bag module
407
, and the hood air bag
408
does not inflate.
Thus the hood air bag sensor system
400
is a system which employs a two-stage detection method wherein a load is detected with the hood sensor
405
after a load is detected with the bumper sensor
403
, and on the basis of these two detection signals infers that the obstruction S
11
is a specified obstruction and deploys a secondary collision countermeasure.
However, the elapsed time between a load being detected by the bumper sensor
403
and a load being detected by the hood sensor
405
is not fixed. And when this elapsed time is long, the time required for the control unit
406
to infer the type of the obstruction S
11
or S
12
inevitably becomes long. It is undesirable for it to take time for the type of the obstruction S
11
or S
12
to be inferred.
Also, even when the obstruction S
11
is not a specified obstruction, it can happen that after the bumper sensor
403
detects a load the hood sensor
405
detects a load. In this case the control unit
406
incorrectly infers that the obstruction S
11
is a specified obstruction. That is, there is a possibility of an error occurring in the determination of the type of the obstruction S
11
. The occurrence of this kind of error is undesirable.
FIG.
66
and
FIG. 67
are illustrations based on FIG. 4, FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI-11-28994. In these figures also, the names and reference numerals of constituent elements have for convenience been changed.
FIG. 66
shows a vehicle
501
equipped with a pedestrian protection sensor system
500
.
This pedestrian protection sensor system
500
has a load sensor
503
mounted on the front bumper
502
of the vehicle
501
and a vehicle speed sensor
504
, and outputs a control signal to a spring-up mechanism
506
from a controller
505
, which receives signals from the load sensor
503
and the vehicle speed sensor
504
. When the vehicle
501
hits an obstruction S
21
at above a certain speed, if the signal from the load sensor
503
is within a fixed range, the controller
505
infers that the obstruction S
21
is a specified obstruction and outputs the control signal. In accordance with this control signal, the spring-up mechanism
506
deploys a secondary collision countermeasure by causing the rear end of the hood
507
of the vehicle
501
to spring up. The detailed operation of the controller
505
will be explained on the basis of FIG.
67
.
FIG. 67
shows a load sensor output characteristic, with time on the horizontal axis and the sensor output of the load sensor on the vertical axis.
When the front bumper
502
shown in
FIG. 66
hits the obstruction S
21
, the sensor output starts to increase from zero, reaches a peak and then starts to decrease, and again becomes zero. The curve R
1
shows a sensor output characteristic of when the vehicle has hit another vehicle or a wall; the curve R
2
shows a sensor output characteristic of when the vehicle has hit a tree, a telegraph pole or a sign post; and the curves R
3
and R
4
show sensor output characteristics of when the vehicle has hit a pedestrian.
Here, Se
1
is a first threshold value for determining whether or not the front bumper
502
has hit an obstruction S
21
. The time at which the sensor output reaches the first threshold value Se
1
is Ti
1
, and time is counted from this time Ti
1
. When the sensor output increases further and rises above a second threshold value Se
2
, it is inferred that the obstruction S
21
is not a specified obstruction (pedestrian) . When on the other hand the sensor output peaks and starts to decrease without reaching the second threshold value Se
2
, the time at which it falls back to the first threshold value Se
1
is Ti
2
. When the continuation time Ti
0
(Ti
0
=Ti
2
−Ti
1
) from time Ti
1
to time Ti
2
is within a predetermined fixed time, it is inferred that the obstruction S
21
is a specified obstruction (pedestrian).
As is clear from
FIG. 67
, the curves R
3
and R
4
are characteristics in which the continuation time Ti
0
within the range Se
1
to Se
2
is relatively short. Besides pedestrians, obstructions having this kind of characteristic include signposts (commonly called pylons) and rubber lane dividers. Even when the obstruction S
21
is not a specified obstruction, the controller
105
of the related art described above infers incorrectly that the obstruction S
21
is a specified obstruction. That is, there is a possibility of an error occurring in the inference of the type of the obstruction S
21
. The occurrence of this kind of error is undesirable.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore a first object of the present invention to provide an obstruction inference apparatus for a vehicle which can infer more accurately the type of an obstruction which the vehicle has hit.
It is a second object of the present invention to provide an obstruction inference apparatus for a vehicle with which it is possible to shorten the time taken to infer the type of an obstruction which the vehicle has hit.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an obstruction inference apparatus for a vehicle for inferring the type of an obstruction which the vehicle has hit, the apparatus comprising: a deformable member which deforms in correspondence with an impact force wi

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