Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Vehicle subsystem or accessory control
Reexamination Certificate
1997-05-29
2003-03-11
Louis-Jacques, Jacques H. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Vehicle subsystem or accessory control
C701S046000, C280S735000, C280S742000, C180S282000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06532408
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Pattern recognition techniques, such as artificial neural networks are finding increased application in solving a variety of problems such as optical character recognition, voice recognition, and military target identification. In the automotive industry in particular, pattern recognition techniques have now been applied to identify various objects within the passenger compartment of the vehicle, such as a rear facing child seat, as well as to identify threatening objects with respect to the vehicle, such as an approaching vehicle about to impact the side of the vehicle. In this regard, reference is made, for example, to copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/239,978 filed May 9, 1994, now abandoned, Ser. No. 08/247,760 filed May 23, 1994, now abandoned and Ser. No. 08/798,029 filed Feb. 6, 1997, now abandoned which are entirely incorporated herein by reference. Pattern recognition techniques have also been applied to sense automobile crashes for the purpose of determining whether or not to deploy an airbag or other passive restraint, or to tighten the seatbelts, cutoff the fuel system, or unlock the doors after the crash. In this regard, reference is made, for example, to copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/476,076 filed Jun. 7, 1995, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,684,701 which is entirely incorporated herein by reference. Heretofore, pattern recognition techniques have not been applied to forecast the severity of automobile crashes for the purpose of controlling the flow of gas into or out of an airbag to tailor the airbag inflation characteristics or to control seatbelt retractors, pretensioners or energy dissipators to the crash severity. Furthermore, such techniques have also not been used for the purpose of controlling the flow of gas into or out of an airbag to tailor the airbag inflation characteristics to the size, position or relative velocity of the occupant or other factors such as seatbelt usage, seat and seat back positions, headrest position, vehicle velocity, etc.
“Pattern recognition” as used herein means any system which processes a signal that is generated by an object, or is modified by interacting with an object, in order to determine which one of a set of classes the object belongs to. In this case, the object can be a vehicle with an accelerometer which generates a signal based on the deceleration of the vehicle. Such a system might determine only that the object is or is not a member of one specified class. (e.g., airbag required crashes), or it might attempt to assign the object to one of a larger set of specified classes, or find that it is not a member of any of the classes in the set. One such class might consist of vehicles undergoing a crash of a certain severity into a pole. The signals processed are generally electrical signals coming from transducers which are sensitive to either acceleration, or acoustic or electromagnetic radiation and, if electromagnetic, they can be either visible light, infrared, ultraviolet or radar.
To “identify” as used herein means to determine that the object belongs to a particular set or class. The class may be one containing all frontal impact airbag-desired crashes into a pole at 20 mph, one containing all events where the airbag is not required, or one containing all events requiring a triggering of both stages of a dual stage gas generator with a 15 millisecond delay between the triggering of the first and second stages.
All electronic crash sensors currently used in sensing frontal impacts include accelerometers which detect and measure the vehicle accelerations during the crash. The accelerometer produces an analog signal proportional to the acceleration experienced by the accelerometer and hence the vehicle on which it is mounted. An analog to digital converter (ADC) transforms this analog signal into a digital time series. Crash sensor designers study this digital acceleration data and derive therefrom computer algorithms which determine whether the acceleration data from a particular crash event warrants deployment of the airbag. This is usually a trial and error process wherein the engineer or crash sensor designer observes data from crashes where the airbag is desired and when it is not needed, and other events where the airbag is not needed. Finally, the engineer or crash sensor designer settles on the “rules” for controlling deployment of the airbag which are programmed into an algorithm which seem to satisfy the requirements of the crash library, i.e., the crash data accumulated from numerous crashes and other events. The resulting algorithm is not universal and most such engineers or crash sensor designers will answer in the negative when asked whether their algorithm will work for all vehicles. Such an algorithm also merely determines that the airbag should or should not be triggered. Heretofore, no attempt has been made to ascertain or forecast the eventual severity of the crash or, more specifically, the velocity change versus time of the passenger compartment during the crash from the acceleration data obtained from the accelerometer.
Several papers have been published pointing out some of the problems and limitations of electronic crash sensors which are mounted out of the.crush zone of the vehicle, usually in a protected location in the passenger compartment of the vehicle. The crush zone is defined, for the purposes herein, as that portion of the vehicle which has crushed at the time that the crash sensor must trigger deployment of the restraint system. These sensors are frequently called single point crash sensors. Technical papers which discuss the limitations of current single point sensors along with discussions of the theory of crash sensing, which are relevant to this invention and which are included entirely herein by reference, are:
1) Breed, D. S. and Castelli, V. “Problems in Design and Engineering of Air Bag Systems”, Society of Automotive Engineers Paper SAE 880724, 1988
2) Breed, D. S., Castelli, V. “Trends in Sensing Frontal Impact”, Society of Automotive Engineers Paper SAE 890750, 1989.
3) Breed, D. S., Sanders, W. T. and Castelli, V. “A Critique of Single Point Crash Sensing”, Society of Automotive Engineers Paper SAE 920124, 1992.
4) Breed, D. S., Sanders, W. T. and Castelli, V. “A Complete Frontal Crash Sensor System—I”, Society of Automotive Engineers Paper SAE 930650, 1993.
5) Breed, D. S. and Sanders, W. T. “Using Vehicle Deformation to Sense Crashes”, Presented at the International Body and Engineering Conference, Detroit Mich., 1993.
6) Breed, D. S., Sanders, W. T. and Castelli, V., “A Complete Frontal Crash Sensor System—II”, Proceedings Enhanced Safety of Vehicles Conference, Munich, 1994, Published by the US Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.
These papers demonstrate, among other things, that there is no known theory which allows an engineer to develop an algorithm for sensing crashes and selectively deploying the airbag except when the sensor is located in the crush zone of the vehicle. These papers show that, in general, there is insufficient information within the acceleration signal measured in the passenger compartment to sense all crashes. Another conclusion suggested by these technical papers is that if an algorithm can be found which works for one vehicle, it will also work for all vehicles since it is possible to create any crash pulse measured in one vehicle, in any vehicle. Note in particular SAE paper 920124 referenced above.
In spite of, the problems associated with finding the optimum crash sensor algorithm, many vehicles on the road today have electronic single point crash sensors. Some of the problems associated with single point sensors have the result that an out-of-position occupant who is sufficiently close to the airbag at the time of deployment will be injured or killed by the deployment itself. Fortunately, systems are now being developed which monitor the location of occupants within the vehicle and can suppress deployment of the airbag if the occupa
Automotive Technologies International Inc.
Louis-Jacques Jacques H.
Roffe Brian
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