Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication
Patent
1999-04-16
2000-10-31
Louis-Jacques, Jacques H.
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
701 36, 701 38, G06F 1700, G06F 700
Patent
active
061416045
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
If a vehicle rollover occurs, all the occupant protection mechanisms installed in the vehicle must be activated in timely fashion; these include, for example, rollover bars, belt tensioners, front and side airbags, fold-down seat locks in a commercial vehicle, etc. In order for all these safety devices to be activated in timely fashion, it is necessary to detect, as early as possible, whether vehicle accelerations in the direction of its vertical axis (yaw axis), longitudinal axis (roll axis), and transverse axis (pitch axis) will lead to a rollover. To ensure also that the occupant protection mechanisms are in fact activated only in the event of a rollover, incorrect detections of rollovers should be excluded to the greatest extent possible.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
German Patent No. 36 04 216 describes discloses a rollover sensor consisting of a fluid-filled space in which a body, suspended in the manner of a pendulum, is located as a seismic mass. By means of an electrical analysis circuit, changes in the position of the pendulum, which can deflect in any direction, yield information as to whether or not the vehicle is rolling over. This rollover sensor based on the pendulum principle has the disadvantage that it reacts too slowly to vehicle movements, so that a rollover might possibly be signaled too late to activate the occupant protection mechanisms.
European Patent No. 430 813 describes a safety system for a vehicle which extends a rollover bar in the event of a vehicle rollover. In order to be able to sense a rollover event, the system possesses acceleration sensors to measure the accelerations of the vehicle in the directions of its yaw axis, its roll axis, and its pitch axis, and it has at least one rotation rate sensor which measures the angular velocity of the vehicle (FZ) with respect to its roll axis.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a method and an arrangement for detecting a vehicle rollover, with which a rollover can be detected in timely fashion and with high reliability.
An arrangement for detecting a vehicle rollover comprises multiple acceleration sensors which measure the accelerations of the vehicle in the directions of its yaw axis, its roll axis, and its yaw axis; and at least one rotation rate sensor which measures the angular velocity of the vehicle with respect to its roll axis and optionally also with respect to its pitch axis.
Also provided are means which calculate an acceleration vector from the three measured acceleration values and, if the angular offset of the acceleration vector from the acceleration vector of gravity when the vehicle is in the rest position exceeds a definable limit value, signal a rollover, such that the means define a limit value which is lower, the greater the angular velocity measured by the rotation rate sensor.
The following process steps are performed in order to detect a vehicle rollover: The accelerations of the vehicle in the directions of its yaw axis, its roll axis, and its pitch axis are measured with the acceleration sensors. An acceleration vector is then calculated from the three measured acceleration values. If the angular offset of the acceleration vector from the acceleration vector when the vehicle is in the rest position exceeds a definable limit value, a rollover is signaled. The limit value defined for the angular offset of the acceleration sensor is lower, the greater the angular velocity, with respect to the roll axis and optionally also with respect to the pitch axis, measured by at least one rotation rate sensor.
If no readings from the acceleration sensors are available, the angular velocity measured by the rotation rate sensor can be used as the sole criterion for detecting a rollover.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 shows a schematic depiction of a vehicle, with its three axes and acceleration sensors and rotation rate sensors.
FIG. 2 shows a projection cone for the acceleration vector.
FIG. 3 shows a flow chart for a method according to t
REFERENCES:
patent: 4219940 (1980-09-01), Okubo
patent: 4908767 (1990-03-01), Scholl et al.
patent: 5890084 (1999-03-01), Halasz et al.
patent: 5922039 (1999-07-01), Welch et al.
Henne Michael
Mattes Bernhard
Seyfang Walter
Louis-Jacques Jacques H.
Robert & Bosch GmbH
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