Acceleration pickup
AssigneeRobert Bosch GmbH
InventorsGunter Reinhardt, Kasimir Stromski
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An acceleration pickup has a housing of a diamagnetic or paramagnetic material enclosing a ferromagnetic ball acting as seismic mass. The ball is held in a starting position on the bottom of the housing by means of a magnetic field generated by a permanent magnet or an electromagnet. By means of four induction sensitive sensors such as for example Hall effect sensors arranged opposite each other on the circumference of the housing, the momentary value and direction of acceleration component acting on the pickup is determined. The acceleration pickup is simple in construction and cost effective in manufacture and is easily adjustable to different applications.
Claims9
A two-dimensional acceleration pickup for use in a control system in a motor vehicle, comprising a housing;
- a ferromagnetic body located in said housing and having a predetermined starting position;
- means for generating a magnetic field for holding said ferromagnetic body in the predetermined starting position thereof, said ferromagnetic body being freely displaceable in any direction in a horizontal plane in said housing from the predetermined starting position thereof upon a horizontal acceleration component acting on said pickup deforming the magnetic field that holds said ferromagnetic body in the predetermined starting position thereof;
- and at least three induction sensors for detecting a deformation of the magnetic field caused by displacement of said ferromagnetic body from the predetermined starting position thereof to thereby determine a momentary value and a direction of the horizontal acceleration component.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.