US 6,650,981 B2 · Control system and method for controlling vehicle-occupant protecting apparatus

Abstract

Control systems and methods for controlling a vehicle-occupant protecting apparatus that includes two vehicle-occupant protecting devices which are disposed on respective right and left sides of an automotive vehicle, are operable to determine whether the vehicle has a rollover motion, on the basis of a physical quantity or quantities indicative of a running condition of the vehicle, and, upon determination that the vehicle has said rollover motion, to operate only the vehicle-occupant protecting device(s) located on a rolling side of the vehicle. When the detected rollover motion is expected to develop into a serious rollover motion, non-rolling-side vehicle-occupant protecting device(s) is located on a non-rolling side of the vehicle is operated. Thus, the control system and method permit adequate operations of the vehicle-occupant protecting devices depending upon the rollover state of the vehicle.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A control system for controlling a vehicle-occupant protecting apparatus that includes at least two vehicle-occupant protecting devices which are disposed on respective right and left sides of an automotive vehicle, the control system comprising a controller that:

determines whether the vehicle has a rollover motion, on the basis of at least one physical quantity indicative of a running condition of the vehicle;
and
upon determining that the vehicle has said rollover motion, operates only at least one of the vehicle-occupant protecting devices located on a rolling side of the vehicle, without initially operating any vehicle-occupant protecting device located on a non-rolling side of the vehicle, wherein the controller, after operating the at least one rolling-side vehicle-occupant protecting device, operates at least one of the non-rolling-side vehicle-occupant protecting devices.

A control system for controlling a vehicle-occupant protecting device provided on an automotive vehicle, such that the control system operates the vehicle-occupant protecting device when the control system determines that a rollover motion of the vehicle has taken place, the control system comprising:

a controller that determines that said rollover motion of the vehicle has occurred, by determining at least one of first and second running states of the vehicle, when the first running state of the vehicle represented by a roll angle and a roll rate of the vehicle has fallen within a first predetermined rollover region (A) defined by threshold lines representing a first relationship between the roll angle and rate, or when the second running state of the vehicle represented by a lateral acceleration value and the roll rate of the vehicle has fallen within a second predetermined rollover region (B) defined by threshold lines representing a second relationship between the lateral acceleration value and the roll rate, and further represented by comparing a vector magnitude with a predetermined vector threshold, the vector magnitude being calculated from the lateral acceleration and the roll rate.

A method of controlling a vehicle-occupant protecting apparatus that includes at least two vehicle-occupant protecting devices which are disposed on respective right and left sides of an automotive vehicle comprising:

detecting a lateral acceleration value of the vehicle;
detecting a roll rate of the vehicle;
calculating a roll angle of the vehicle;
determining whether a running state of the vehicle represented by the roll angle and the roll rate of the vehicle has fallen within a predetermined rollover region (A) defined by threshold lines representing a relationship between the roll angle and the roll rate of the vehicle;
determining whether a running state of the vehicle represented by the lateral acceleration value and the roll rate of the vehicle has fallen within a predetermined rollover region (B) defined by threshold lines representing a relationship between the lateral acceleration value and the roll rate of the vehicle;
determining that a rollover motion of the vehicle has taken place, when said running state represented by said roll angle and rate has fallen within said predetermined rollover region (A) or when said running state represented by said lateral acceleration value and the roll rate has fallen within said predetermined rollover region (B);
operating only at least one of said vehicle-occupant protecting devices located on a rolling side of the vehicle, without initially operating any vehicle-occupant protecting device on a non-rolling side of the vehicle;
determining, after said at least one rolling-side vehicle-occupant protecting device is operated, whether a running state represented by said roll angle and rate of the vehicle has fallen within a predetermined rollover region (C) defined by threshold lines representing a relationship between the roll angle and rate;
determining that a serious-rollover motion of the vehicle is expected to take place, when said running state represented by said roll angle and rate has fallen within said predetermined rollover region (C);
and
operating at least one of the non-rolling-side vehicle-occupant protecting devices.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Control system and method for controlling vehicle-occupant protecting apparatus

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Control system and method for controlling vehicle-occupant protecting apparatus

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims16