Automotive passenger restraint and protection apparatus
AssigneeNSK Autoliv Co., Ltd.
InventorsYukinori Midorikawa, Osamu Kawai
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An automotive passenger restraint and protection apparatus for an automotive vehicle has a seatbelt and operates to restrain an occupant of the automotive vehicle by the seatbelt to protect the occupant. An electric retractor has a DC motor for retracting and protracting the seatbelt. An MPU applies voltage having a predetermined waveform to the DC motor, and then detects a waveform of current flowing to the DC motor. The MPU carries out fault diagnosis of the DC motor, based upon the detected waveform of current when the voltage having the predetermined waveform is applied to the DC motor. Thus, accurate fault diagnosis of the apparatus can be achieved.
Claims17
An automotive passenger restraint and protection apparatus for an automotive vehicle, having a seatbelt, for restraining an occupant of the automotive vehicle by the seatbelt to protect the occupant, comprising:
- danger degree determining means for determining a degree of danger of collision of the automotive vehicle;
- danger predicting means for predicting a possibility of collision of the automotive vehicle, from the degree of danger determined by said danger degree determining means;
- collision danger signal generating means for generating a collision danger signal when the possibility of collision is predicted by said danger predicting means;
- driving means responsive to said collision danger signal, for carrying out alternate retraction and protraction of the seatbelt;
- deceleration detecting means for detecting deceleration of the automotive vehicle;
- and
- seatbelt driving control means for controlling said driving means so as to continue the alternate retraction and protraction of the seatbelt without stopping same after said collision danger signal ceases to be generated and until the deceleration of the automotive vehicle detected by said deceleration detecting means exceeds a predetermined value.
An automotive passenger restraint and protection apparatus for an automotive vehicle, having a seatbelt, for restraining an occupant of the automotive vehicle by the seatbelt to protect the occupant, comprising:
- a motor for retracting and protracting the seatbelt;
- seatbelt attaching state detecting means for detecting whether the seatbelt is in a state attached to the occupant or in a state disconnected from the occupant;
- danger degree detecting means for detecting a significant degree of danger of collision of the automotive vehicle;
- and
- control means for controlling said motor so as to retract the seatbelt to a limit thereof and then protract the seatbelt to thereby give a predetermined amount of looseness to the seatbelt,
- wherein said control means controls said motor so as to give a first predetermined amount of looseness to the seatbelt when the significant degree of danger is not detected by said danger degree detecting means while the seatbelt is detected to be in said-state attached to the occupant, and controls said motor so as to give a second predetermined amount of looseness to the seatbelt which is smaller than said first predetermined amount of looseness when the significant degree of danger is detected by said danger degree detecting means while the seatbelt is detected to be in said state attached to the occupant.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.