Control system for vehicle safety devices

A control system for controlling activation of a vehicle safety device in response to an acceleration signal from a detecting means for detecting vehicle acceleration, said system comprising:

• first evaluation means for calculating from the acceleration signal a first evaluation value related to vehicle speed change,
• second evaluation means for calculating from the acceleration signal a second evaluation value related to passenger position change,
• third evaluation means for squaring the value of the acceleration signal and calculating from the squared value a third evaluation value related to collision energy magnitude,
• operation control means for starting and stopping the calculations in the first to third evaluation means in response to the acceleration signal, and
• decision means for deciding whether or not to activate the vehicle safety device in response to the first to third evaluation values calculated under the control of the operation control means,
• wherein the second evaluation means comprises a second calculation means responsive to the operation control means for twice integrating the acceleration signal and outputting the integrated value as a second output, and a second correction means for correcting the second output to obtain the second evaluation value indicating amount of passenger position change,
• and wherein the second correction means comprises a second map calculation means responsive to the operation control means for calculating from a map a threshold value for the second output at each instant of time elapsed from the start of calculation in the second calculation means, and a second rate calculation means for calculating the ratio of the second output to the threshold value calculated by the second map calculation means and outputting the calculated ratio as the second evaluation value.

A control system for controlling activation of a vehicle safety device in response to an acceleration signal from a detecting means for detecting vehicle acceleration, said system comprising:

• first evaluation means for calculating from the acceleration signal a first evaluation value related to vehicle speed change,
• second evaluation means for calculating from the acceleration signal a second evaluation value related to passenger position change,
• third evaluation means for squaring the value of the acceleration signal and calculating from the squared value a third evaluation value related to collision energy magnitude,
• operation control means for starting and stopping the calculations in the first to third evaluation means in response to the acceleration signal, and
• decision means for deciding whether or not to activate the vehicle safety device in response to the first to third evaluation values calculated under the control of the operation control means,
• wherein the third evaluation means comprises a third calculation means responsive to the operation control means for integrating the square of the value of the acceleration signal and dividing the integrated value by a prescribed collision state duration value and outputting a result as a third output, and a third correction means for correcting the third output to obtain the third evaluation value indicating collision energy magnitude.

A control system for controlling activation of a vehicle safety device in response to an acceleration signal from a detecting means for detecting vehicle acceleration, said system comprising:

• first evaluation means for calculating from the acceleration signal a first evaluation value related to vehicle speed change,
• second evaluation means for calculating from the acceleration signal a second evaluation value related to passenger position change,
• third evaluation means for squaring the value of the acceleration signal and calculating from the squared value a third evaluation value related to collision energy magnitude,
• operation control means for starting and stopping the calculations in the first to third evaluation means in response to the acceleration signal, and
• decision means for deciding whether or not to activate the vehicle safety device in response to the first to third evaluation values calculated under the control of the operation control means,
• wherein the decision means is provided with a second collision decision means responsive to the first to third evaluation values for deciding whether or not an oblique collision or a center pole collision has occurred,
• and wherein the second collision decision means is provided with weighting means for weighting each of the first to third evaluation values and means for obtaining the sum of the weighted evaluation values and outputting a signal for activating the vehicle safety device when it decides that the sum of the weighted evaluation values exceeds a prescribed value.