US 2006/0185922 A1Published application

Obstacle discrimination device for vehicle

AssigneeDenso Corporation

InventorTakatoshi Tanabe

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Abstract

An obstacle discrimination device for a vehicle has an upper bumper absorber, a lower bumper absorber, a load detection unit and a control unit for sort-discriminating an obstacle based on a load detected by the load detection unit. The upper bumper absorber is connected with side members of the vehicle through the load detection unit, while the lower bumper absorber is connected with the side members without through the load detection unit. Thus, the difference between the detected load in the case of the collision with a human and that in the case of the collision with an object fixed on the ground becomes large. Accordingly, the human can be satisfactorily discriminated from the object fixed on the ground.

Claims13

Dependent claims

An obstacle discrimination device for a vehicle, the obstacle discrimination device comprising:

an upper bumper absorber which is arranged at an upper portion in a bumper of the vehicle to absorb collision energy;
a lower bumper absorber which is arranged at a lower portion in the bumper to absorb collision energy;
a load detection unit for detecting a load exerted to the vehicle due to a collision between an obstacle and the bumper;
and
a control unit for sort-discriminating the obstacle based on the load detected by the load detection unit, wherein:
the upper bumper absorber is connected with a first support unit of the vehicle through the load detection unit;
and
the lower bumper absorber is connected with one of the first support unit and a second support unit of the vehicle without through the load detection unit, the second support unit being different from the first support unit.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.