Apparatus for transmitting data acquired from bus-connected plural on-vehicle sensors to processing unit

An apparatus for transmitting data in an airbag activation system mounted on a vehicle, the apparatus comprising:

• a communication channel having a predetermined transmission band for digital data;
• a plurality of sensor units mutually communicably connected via the communication channel, each sensor unit
• sensing a state of the vehicle,
• producing data indicative of the sensed state of the vehicle into a set of digital data including actually sensed data of a predetermined bit length, the actually sensed data corresponding to the sensed state of the vehicle, and
• outputting the set of digital data to the communication channel at predetermined transmission intervals, either the bit length of the actually sensed data or a frequency of transmission of the digital data being changed depending on the sensed state of the vehicle and the set of digital data being outputted successively from the sensor units;
• and
• a processing unit successively receiving the digital data from each sensor unit via the communication channel,
• wherein each of the sensor units is configured to produce information representing an increase in the bit length of the actually sensed data or an increase in the transmission frequency in cases where the sensed impact load has a large amplitude involving changes in predetermined high bits of the actually sensed data and information representing a decrease in the bit length of the actually sensed data or a decrease in the transmission frequency in cases where the sensed impact load has a small amplitude involving no changes in predetermined high bits of the actually sensed data.

An apparatus for transmitting data in an airbag activation system mounted on a vehicle, the apparatus comprising:

• a communication channel having a predetermined transmission band for digital data;
• a plurality of sensor units mutually communicably connected via the communication channel, each sensor unit
• sensing a state of the vehicle,
• producing data indicative of the sensed state of the vehicle into a set of digital data including actually sensed data of a predetermined bit length, the actually sensed data corresponding to the sensed state of the vehicle, and
• outputting the set of digital data to the communication channel at predetermined transmission intervals, either the bit length of the actually sensed data or a frequency of transmission of the digital data being changed depending on the sensed state of the vehicle and the set of digital data being outputted successively from the sensor units;
• and
• a processing unit successively receiving the digital data from each sensor unit via the communication channel,
• wherein each sensor unit is configured to transmit a signal including information indicative of either the sensed state of the vehicle or the bit length to be changed of the digital data to be transmitted to the processing unit,
• the processing unit is configured to use the signal to determine either the sensed state of the vehicle or the bit length to be changed of the digital data, to decide a transmission state for the digital data to be received next, on the basis of a determined result, and to command that each sensor unit transmits the set of digital data based on the decided transmission state, and
• the transmission state includes a mode on which each set of digital data is transmitted, the mode defining a format of each set of digital data, the format including data bits indicating the actually sensed state of the vehicle, and the data bits having either the predetermined bit length or half the predetermined bit length.

An apparatus for transmitting data in an airbag activation system mounted on a vehicle, the apparatus comprising:

• a communication channel having a predetermined transmission band for digital data;
• a plurality of sensor units mutually communicably connected via the communication channel, each sensor unit
• sensing a state of the vehicle,
• producing data indicative of the sensed state of the vehicle into a set of digital data including actually sensed data of a predetermined bit length, the actually sensed data corresponding to the sensed state of the vehicle, and
• outputting the set of digital data to the communication channel at predetermined transmission intervals, either the bit length of the actually sensed data or a frequency of transmission of the digital data being changed depending on the sensed state of the vehicle and the set of digital data being outputted successively from the sensor units;
• and
• a processing unit that successively receives the digital data from each sensor unit via the communication channel,
• wherein each of the sensor units is provided with a sensor sensing, as the state of the vehicle, an impact load to be applied to the vehicle and
• each of the sensor units is configured to produce information representing a high value of the bit length of the actually sensed data or a high value of the transmission frequency in cases where the sensed impact load has a large amplitude involving changes in predetermined high bits of the actually sensed data and information representing a low value of the bit length of the actually sensed data or a low value of the transmission frequency in cases where the sensed impact load has a small amplitude involving no changes in predetermined high bits of the actually sensed data.