Automatic detection and assessment of low-speed crashes

A method for determining damage occurring to a vehicle due to an impact event, the method comprising:

• determining whether an ignition of the vehicle is switched on, and when the ignition is switched off waking up the vehicle from a sleeping state to carry out impact detection;
• determining, based on a movement variable that is used for controlling activation of at least one active vehicle occupant protection system of the vehicle provided for accidents, that the impact is so low that the at least one vehicle occupant protection system of the vehicle is not activated by the impact event;
• filtering at least one of signals and data received from sensors of the vehicle;
• forming feature data based on at least one of filtered signals and filtered data;
• determining if the impact event is a low speed crash, and determining if the impact event is a misuse event, in which a crash has not occurred, based on the feature data;
• classifying the impact event in a classification database as the low speed crash when the impact event is determined to be the low speed crash and classifying the impact event as the misuse event when the impact event is determined to be the misuse event based on the feature data;
• determining accident data based on a classification of the classified impact event;
• and
• determining a scope of the damage to the vehicle based on the determined accident data.

A system for detecting a vehicle accident in which a vehicle and an object impact against one another, wherein a movement variable which is assigned to the impact is so low that at least one active vehicle occupant protection system of the vehicle, provided for accidents, is not activated by the impact event, the system comprising:

• a control unit configure to determine whether an ignition of the vehicle is switched on, and when the ignition is switched off to wake up the vehicle from a sleeping state to carry out impact detection;
• sensors, provided for the vehicle, that output at least one of signals and data relating to the impact event;
• and
• a data-processing device, including a classification database, configured to process the at least one of the signals and data in such a way that the at least one of the signals and data are filtered, feature data is formed based on the at least one of filtered signals and data, a first determination is made whether the impact event is a low speed crash based on the feature data, a second determination is made whether the impact event is a misuse event, in which a crash has not occurred, based on the feature data, and the impact event is classified in the classification database as the low speed crash when the impact event is determined to be the low speed crash and classified as the misuse event when the impact event is determined to be the misuse event, based on the feature data.

A damage-detection system for determining damage occurring to a vehicle due to an impact event, in which the vehicle and an object impact against one another, wherein a movement variable which is assigned to the impact is so low that at least one active vehicle occupant protection system of the vehicle, provided for accidents, is not activated by the impact event, the system comprising:

• a control unit configure to determine whether an ignition of the vehicle is switched on, and when the ignition is switched off to wake up the vehicle from a sleeping state to carry out impact detection;
• sensors, provided for the vehicle, that output at least one of signals and data relating to the impact event;
• and
• a data-processing device, including a classification database, configured to process the at least one of the signals and data in such a way that the at least one of the signals and data are filtered, feature data is formed based on the at least one of filtered signals and data, a first determination is made whether the impact event is a low speed crash based on the feature data, a second determination is made whether the impact event is a misuse event, in which a crash has not occurred, based on the feature data, the impact event is classified in the classification database as the low speed crash when the impact event is determined to be the low speed crash and classified as the misuse event when the impact event is determined to be the misuse event, based on the feature data, accident data is determined based on a classification of the impact event, and a scope of the damage to the vehicle is determined based on the determined accident data.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a program, which when executed on a computer, detects an impact event in which a vehicle and an object impact against one another, the program executing steps comprising:

• determining whether an ignition of the vehicle is switched on, and when the ignition is switched off waking up the vehicle from a sleeping state to carry out impact detection;
• determining, based on a movement variable that is used for controlling activation of at least one active vehicle occupant protection system of the vehicle provided for accidents, that the impact is so low that the at least one vehicle occupant protection system of the vehicle is not activated by the impact event;
• filtering at least one of signals and data received from sensors of the vehicle;
• forming feature data based on at least one of filtered signals and filtered data;
• determining if the impact event is a low speed crash, and determining if the impact event is a misuse event, in which a crash has not occurred, based on the feature data;
• and
• classifying the impact event in a classification database as the low speed crash when the impact event is determined to be the low speed crash and classifying the impact event as the misuse event when the impact event is determined to be the misuse event based on the feature data.