Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Vehicle subsystem or accessory control
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-09
2001-08-07
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Vehicle subsystem or accessory control
C701S045000, C701S046000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06272412
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present Invention relates to controls for determining deployment of passive restraints in passenger vehicles and more particularly relates to distinguishing different types and severities of impact events to improve passive restraint deployment decisions.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
For vehicles that include passive restraint systems, it is important to be able to determine when an impact event is serious enough to warrant deployment of one or more of these passive restraints in order to protect the vehicle occupants. These may take the form of front airbags, side airbags, seat belt pretensioners, etc. Likewise it is also important to determine when an impact event does not warrant deployment to avoid unnecessary use of the passive restraints, in order to avoid replacement expenses or risks to the vehicle occupants. Additionally, the deployment decision must be accomplished a very short time after vehicle impact. This is preferably accomplished while minimizing the expense of the system.
One current system for determining vehicle impacts involves the use of a single point acceleration sensor connected to a central processor that evaluates the acceleration signal. It is more cost effective than other types of impact sensing in that it generally only requires one sensor, but it must infer the type and severity of impact being detected in order to accurately and quickly make a deployment decision for the passive restraints. The manipulation and calculations made with the acceleration signal then, are key to an accurate deployment decision early in an impact event.
In many applications of the single accelerometer type of system, then, an approach is employed where the integral or energy contribution in a velocity change based calculation is the basis for the actuation decision. Since the energy contribution is largely determined by the low frequency portion of an acceleration signal, the high frequencies are filtered out and ignored. This type of strategy, however, while being able to determine the severity of the impact, will make deployment decision without distinguishing very well between different types of impacts, which may have different deployment decisions for different levels of energy involved in the impact, given the short time frame in which the decision must be made.
It is thus desirable to be able to employ an accelerometer based impact detection and passive restraint deployment system with improved accuracy in the deployment decision.
Also, when one is adapting the particular sensing system for a new vehicle it is preferable to minimize development time and expense by being able to employ non-destructive testing to determine the deployment thresholds for various types of vehicle impacts.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In its embodiments, the present invention contemplates a method of determining passive restraint deployment for a vehicle having an accelerometer mounted therein comprising the steps of: generating an acceleration signal from the accelerometer; high pass filtering the acceleration signal into an impact mode signal in a high frequency range; low pass filtering the acceleration signal into an impact severity signal in a low frequency range; comparing the impact mode signal to a predetermined impact mode threshold; comparing the impact severity signal to a predetermined impact severity threshold; and sending a deployment signal if both the impact mode threshold and the impact severity threshold are exceeded.
The present invention further contemplates a system for determining the deployment of passive restraints on a vehicle having a single point impact sensor. The system includes an accelerometer mounted within the vehicle for producing an acceleration signal, a high pass filter for receiving and filtering the acceleration signal to produce an impact mode signal, and a low pass filter for receiving and filtering the acceleration signal to produce an impact severity signal. The system also includes first means for receiving the impact mode signal and determining the impact mode, second means for receiving the impact severity signal and determining the impact severity, and deployment means for making a deployment decision based on the impact mode and the impact severity.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to decompose an accelerometer signal into low and high frequencies, using the high frequency portion of the signal to identify the impact mode and location, and the low frequency portion of the signal to identify the impact severity, then taking both into account when making a deployment decision.
An advantage of the present invention is that a more accurate determination can be made as to passive restraint actuation by taking into account the impact mode and location when comparing the impact severity determination to a passive restraint actuation threshold.
A further advantage of the present invention is that an accurate deployment decision can be made while maintaining minimum expense and complexity in the sensing and deployment system.
Another advantage of the present invention is that the impact sensing system can be developed for a particular model of vehicle with non-destructive testing, thus reducing the time and expense needed to adapt the system to a new vehicle.
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Cheng James C.
Cuddihy Mark Anthony
Le Jialiang
Wu Chi-Chin
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Ford Global Technologies Inc.
Marc-Coleman Marthe Y.
Wilkinson Donald A.
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