Seat occupancy detection with acceleration signal
AssigneeGrammer AG
InventorsRoland Übelacker, Hubert Wittmann, Tobias Stahl
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention relates to a system for seat occupancy detection, comprising a vehicle seat for a driver with an upper part and at least one suspension-damper system, an acceleration sensor being arranged on the upper part which is designed to determine a characteristic of an acceleration of the upper part as a function of time, an evaluation unit being provided which is designed to create an evaluation of the characteristic of the acceleration and optionally to send a signal to a higher-level control unit, the evaluation unit also being designed to assign the evaluation to a value of a mass of an object with which the vehicle seat is currently occupied.
Claims13
A system for seat occupancy detection, comprising:
- a vehicle seat for a driver with an upper part and at least one suspension-damper system;
- an acceleration sensor being arranged on the upper part that detects a characteristic of an acceleration of the upper part as a function of a time;
- and
- an evaluation unit that creates an evaluation of the characteristic of the acceleration and optionally sends a signal to a higher-level control unit,
- wherein the evaluation unit assigns the evaluation to one of a plurality of states of the vehicle seat, wherein the states are one of:
- occupied by the driver, unoccupied, or occupied by an inanimate mass,
- wherein the evaluation unit assigns the evaluation a value of a mass of an object occupying the vehicle seat,
- wherein the evaluation unit determines, when a vibration diagram presents a first pattern, that the state of the vehicle seat is occupied by the driver of a first mass, and
- wherein the evaluation unit determines, when the vibration diagram presents a second pattern different from the first pattern, that the vehicle seat is occupied by the inanimate mass of the first mass.
A method for seat occupancy detection within a system, the system comprising a vehicle seat for a driver with an upper part and at least one suspension-damper system, one acceleration sensor arranged on the upper part and an evaluation unit, the method comprising:
- detecting a characteristic of an acceleration of the upper part as a function of a time by the acceleration sensor;
- creating an evaluation of the characteristic of the acceleration via the evaluation unit;
- comparing the evaluation to the evaluation of a temporally preceding characteristic or to a predetermined evaluation;
- assigning of the evaluation to one of a plurality of states, the states being one of:
- occupied by the driver, unoccupied, and occupied by an inanimate mass;
- assigning the evaluation a value of a mass of an object occupying the vehicle seat;
- determining, when a vibration diagram presents a first pattern, that the state of the vehicle seat is occupied by the driver of a first mass;
- determining, when the vibration diagram presents a second pattern different from the first pattern, that the vehicle seat is occupied by an inanimate mass of the first mass;
- and
- repeating the detecting, creating, comparing, and assigning of the evaluation to one of a plurality of states steps until a predefinable termination criterion is reached.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.