JPH106914A - Seated condition detector - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To judge whether an air bag can be initiated or not without man's operation by detecting the presence of a person and a child seat by a distance measuring means and comparing it with a reference detection value of the distance measuring means for a vacant seat in advance to detect a seated condition. SOLUTION: When a seat is vacant and data obtained by measuring by a distance measuring means 3 is approximate to a reference detection value selected from an assumption part 4, a judging part 5 judges it as empty. Moreover, when a child seat which faces the back is mounted on a seat and data obtained by measuring by the distance measuring means 3 is approximate to the reference detection value selected from the assumption part 4, the judging part 5 judges that the child seat exists. As a result, it is possible to operate a control part 6 for starting an air bag 7 automatically after judging and detecting a seating condition as normal seating, empty, or a mounting condition of the child seat.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a seating state detecting device for a vehicle equipped with a safety airbag.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When an infant or the like is seated in a passenger seat of a vehicle, a rear-facing child seat is attached. Road Traffic Safety Administration (NH
TSA) has issued a warning. For example, an infant sitting in a rear-facing child seat
There have been many reports of deaths caused by the airbag detonation hitting the backrest of the vehicle seat together with the child seat.

[0003] On the other hand, for example, when an airbag is detonated while no one is seated in the passenger seat, wasteful repair costs are incurred for regeneration, and a driver is required to detonate the airbag. There is also a danger of hearing impairment.

[0004] Due to such a problem, when a rear-facing child seat is attached to the passenger seat or when no passenger is seated in the passenger seat, for example, a passenger operates a switch so as not to detonate the airbag. A structure that can be operated to take measures to prohibit the detonation of the airbag has already been proposed.

[0005]

However, as described above, in the system in which the passenger operates the switch to prohibit the detonation of the airbag, if the passenger forgets to operate the switch, the detonation is performed. It is dangerous because the detonation is not prohibited when it should be prohibited, or conversely, the detonation is prohibited when it should be.

Regarding this point, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-196006
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 9-124566 proposes a system that measures whether or not an object is present in a detection space up to a seat using a distance sensor and determines whether the airbag is detonated by judging whether or not the vacant seat is present.

An object of the present invention is to operate a switch,
By determining whether or not the airbag can be detonated without any manual operation and performing automatic control, the detonation is not prohibited when the detonation should be prohibited due to the passenger's forgetting to operate the switch. An object of the present invention is to provide a seating state detecting device capable of avoiding a situation in which detonation is prohibited when it should be.

[0008]

Therefore, in the present invention,
It is characterized in that the presence or absence of a person or a child seat with respect to the vehicle seat is detected by a distance measuring means, and is compared in advance with a reference detection value of the distance measuring means for an empty seat to detect a seated state.

In this case, the front and rear positions and the reclining angle of the seat are detected by the position detecting means and the angle detecting means, respectively, and the reference detection value of the distance measuring means at that time is estimated. It is better to compare with the detected value. Further, as an embodiment, after detecting the seating state as described above, by operating the control unit for activating the airbag, when the occupant is an infant or the like, or when the occupant is vacant, A switch can be set to automatically prohibit airbag detonation.

[0010]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. First, in the seating state detection device of the present invention, the presence or absence of a person, a child seat, or the like with respect to the seat 8 of the vehicle is detected by, for example, a distance measuring unit 3 of an infrared reflection type.
Basically, the seating state is detected by comparing with a reference detection value of the distance measuring means for the vacant seat.

In this case, the seating state detecting device specifically detects, for example, the front and rear positions and the reclining angle of the seat 8 with the position detecting means 1 and the angle detecting means 2, respectively, and determines the distance at that time. The reference detection value of the measurement means 3 is estimated and compared with the detection value of the distance measurement means 3. The estimation of the reference detection value includes, for example,
The estimating unit 4 uses a table of reference detection values in which the front-rear position of the seat 8 and the reclining angle are used as parameters in advance.
And a method of selecting the reference detection value from a table based on the results measured by the position detection means 1 and the angle detection means 2 can be adopted.

FIG. 2 illustrates a determination state of the determination unit 5 when the seat 8 is vacant. That is, the measurement data a and b by the distance measuring means 3 are:
When the detected values are close to the reference detection values A and B selected from the estimation unit 4 (a （A, b ≒ B), the determination unit 5 determines that the seat is empty.

FIG. 3 illustrates a determination state of the determination unit 5 when the rearward facing child seat 9 is mounted on the seat 8. That is, when the measurement data a ′ and b ′ obtained by the distance measurement unit 3 approximate the reference detection values A and B selected from the estimation unit 4 (a <
A, b ′ ≒ B), the determination unit 5 determines that a child seat is present.

In this manner, for example, if the difference is within a certain value, the seat is vacant, and if the difference is more than that, it is determined that the seat is occupied or that a child seat is present depending on conditions. In this embodiment,
For example, by providing distance information C from another detection means (not shown) employing an infrared reflection type to the determination unit 5, a <a
By obtaining information of C <A, it is possible to make a more accurate determination.

As a result, the control unit 6 for activating the airbag 7 is automatically determined after detecting and detecting whether the seating state is a regular seating state, an empty seating state, a child seat mounting state, and the like. It can be operated (except for the normal seating, a detonation prohibition signal is given to the control unit 6).

[0016]

As described in detail above, the present invention detects the presence or absence of a person or a child seat with respect to a vehicle seat by a distance measuring means, and detects in advance the reference of the distance measuring means for an empty seat. Since the seating state is detected in comparison with the value, it is possible to determine and control whether or not the airbag is triggered without any manual operation such as a switch operation. This avoids the danger that arises when the passenger forgets to operate the switch, that is, the detonation is not prohibited when the detonation should be prohibited, or the danger that the detonation is prohibited when the detonation should be performed. can do.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention with respect to its configuration and operation.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation of the apparatus when there is nothing on a sheet.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation of the apparatus when a rearward facing child seat is on the seat.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Position detection means 2 Angle detection means 3 Distance detection means 4 Estimation part 5 Judgment part 6 Control part 7 Airbag 8 Seat 9 Child seat

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Kazuyoshi Otsuka 1-1-1, Shinurashima-cho, Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture Inside of NEC Robotics Engineering Co., Ltd.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A method according to claim 1, wherein the presence or absence of a person or a child seat in the vehicle seat is detected by a distance measuring means, and the seating state is detected in advance by comparing with a reference detection value of the distance measuring means for an empty seat. A seating state detection device characterized by the above-mentioned. 2. A front-rear position and a reclining angle of the seat are detected by a position detecting unit and an angle detecting unit, respectively, and the reference detection value of the distance measuring unit at that time is estimated. The seating state detecting device according to claim 1, wherein the value is compared with a value. 3. The seating state detecting device according to claim 1, wherein a control unit for activating the airbag is operated after detecting the seating state.