Land vehicles – Wheeled – Attachment
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-30
2001-05-08
Mai, Lanna (Department: 3619)
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Attachment
C701S045000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06227564
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a passenger protecting apparatus for a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a driver applies the pre-crush brake, which is defined as a rapid braking to avoid a car collision, then if the passenger on the passenger seat of the vehicle is not wearing a seat belt he will tumble forward in an unrestrained manner. If a passenger side air bag is unfolded immediately after the pre-crush braking operation, there is the possibility of injury, since the upper body of the passenger will be located in the vicinity of the deployment door for the air bag.
From this point of view, there is proposed a passenger protecting apparatus which is adapted so as to inflate the air bag at a more moderate speed (referred to “TAILORED” mode) than a normal speed (NORMAL mode) under a situation that the passenger exists in the vicinity of the deployment door at the time of vehicle's collision.
In the above apparatus, it is necessary to detect a position of the passenger at the vehicle's collision in order to select the inflating speed of the air bag in either NORMAL mode or TAILORED mode in accordance with the passenger's position just before inflating the air bag. Under a situation, there have been a variety of proposals as means for detecting the seating position of the passenger and the condition of the seat, hitherto.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a passenger protecting apparatus which does not require means for detecting the passenger's position just before inflating the air bag at the vehicle's collision to have high speed of response but the conventional response time for judging whether or not the air bag should be inflated and which is capable of appropriately selecting the inflating speed so as to cope with the instant tumbling forward of the passenger.
According to the present invention, the above-mentioned object of the present invention can be accomplished by a passenger protecting apparatus for a vehicle, comprising:
an air bag capable of inflating in either first inflating mode where the air bag is inflated under first pressure or second inflating mode where the air bag is inflated under second pressure, the second pressure being established to be smaller than the first pressure;
a collision impact detecting unit for detecting a degree of impact produced at the vehicle's collision;
an abrupt brake detecting unit for detecting an abrupt brake of the vehicle;
a sitting position detecting unit for detecting the sitting position of a passenger and holding the detected sitting position;
a passenger's position estimating unit for picking up the sitting position of the passenger being detected and held by the sitting position detecting unit when the abrupt brake detecting unit detects the abrupt brake, thereby to estimate the position of the passenger at the air bag's inflating on the basis of the sitting position and the degree of impact detected by the collision impact detecting unit; and
an air bag inflation control unit for controlling the inflation of the air bag on the basis of judgment of either the first inflating mode or the second inflating mode.
In the passenger protecting apparatus, when the degree of impact exceeds a predetermined value and the passenger's position estimated by the passenger's position estimating unit is out of a designated zone defined by a predetermined distance from a deployment door, the air bag inflation control unit determines to inflate the air bag in the first inflating mode. On the other hand, when the passenger's position estimated by the passenger's position estimating unit is within the designated zone, the air bag inflation control unit determines to inflate the air bag in the second inflating mode.
The above and other features and advantages of this invention will become apparent, and the invention itself will best be understood, from a study of the following description and appended claims, with reference to the attached drawings showing some preferred embodiments of the invention.
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Ilan Ruth
Mai Lanna
McDermott & Will & Emery
Nissan Motor Co,. Ltd.
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