JP7202790B2 - Personnel protection system for vehicles - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to personal protection systems for vehicles.

Conventionally, when a collision with a pedestrian is detected, a pedestrian protection system deploys external airbags to mitigate the impact of secondary collisions with the front windshield and front pillars of pedestrians thrown up on the hood. It is publicly known (see Patent Document 1, for example).

JP 2007-112183 A

The above-mentioned pedestrian protection system assumes contact with the front part of the vehicle body, but when the vehicle is turning left or right, there is a possibility that the pedestrian will contact the side part of the vehicle body instead of the front part. There was also room for consideration of how to deal with such cases.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a personal protection system for a vehicle that takes into account not only contact with the front portion of the vehicle body but also the side portion of the vehicle body.

In order to solve the above problems, a vehicle personal protection system according to the present invention includes:
A plurality of airbags deployed to cover the outer surface of the vehicle body,
a control means for controlling selective activation of the plurality of airbags,
The plurality of airbags include a front airbag deployable to cover the lower part of the front windshield, and left and right side airbags deployable to cover the front pillar and the front door windshield behind it. including
The control means comprises imaging means for imaging an area in front of the vehicle, moving body detection means for detecting a moving body consisting of a pedestrian and a two-wheeled vehicle from the image of the imaging means, and based on the state quantity of the moving body and the course of the vehicle, Contact possibility determination means for predicting a contact area with the own vehicle,
When contact with the front part of the vehicle is predicted, the front airbag is deployed, and when contact with the side part of the vehicle is predicted in consideration of the turning behavior of the vehicle, the side part side is configured to deploy the side airbag of the

As described above, the personal protection system for a vehicle according to the present invention predicts the contact area when a pedestrian or a two-wheeled vehicle is expected to come into contact with the own vehicle, Due to the configuration in which the airbags are selectively deployed, if a pedestrian or a two-wheeled vehicle is expected to come in contact with the side of the vehicle body while the vehicle is turning in either the left or right direction, either the left or right side airbag will be deployed. In addition to being able to form a protective structure in the area from the front pillar on the side of the vehicle body to the front door windshield, the airbag on the opposite side and the front airbag do not deploy, and the driver's field of vision is accompanied by the deployment of the airbag. There is an advantage that blocking is suppressed.

It is a block diagram which shows the personal protection system of this invention embodiment. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS It is a top view of the vehicle provided with the personal protection system of this invention embodiment. 1 is a side view showing deployment of a front airbag of a vehicle equipped with the personal protection system of the embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a side view showing deployment of a side airbag of a vehicle equipped with the personal protection system of the embodiment of the present invention; FIG. It is a flowchart which shows operation|movement of the personal protection system of this invention embodiment.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
In FIG. 1, the vehicle personal protection system according to the first embodiment of the present invention mainly comprises a moving object detection unit 10, a contact possibility determination unit 20, a vehicle control unit 30, and an exterior airbag device 50. . In addition to pedestrians, the personal protection system of the present invention is intended for two-wheeled vehicles such as bicycles and motorized bicycles that do not have a structure to protect passengers. Collectively called.

The moving object detection unit 10 includes a stereo camera as an imaging means 11 for imaging the front of the vehicle, generates a distance image from the parallax of the left and right images, and detects three-dimensional objects (vehicles, two-wheeled vehicles, pedestrians, etc.) as a group of feature points at the same distance. , a side wall, etc.), and a pedestrian determination means 13 for recognizing a pedestrian or the like from the image characteristics of the three-dimensional object. These three-dimensional object detection means 12 and pedestrian determination means 13 are implemented as image processors operable to execute their respective functions, and are preferably implemented in a stereo camera that constitutes imaging means 11 .

The contact possibility determination unit 20 includes a state quantity calculation unit 21 that obtains the state quantity (position, relative velocity, acceleration, width) of the pedestrian using a time-series filter, the state quantity of the pedestrian and its error variance, and the TTC calculation means 22 for calculating the estimated contact time TTC from the vehicle traveling path, and contact probability calculation means 23 for calculating the presence probability distribution of pedestrians after the TTC has elapsed and predicting the contact area from the contact probability distribution with the own vehicle. It has

The contact in the present invention is assumed to be the intersection of the bumper 61 of the vehicle 1 and the movement trajectory of the pedestrian, and the intersection of the left and right fenders 62 and 63 of the vehicle 1 and the movement trajectory of the pedestrian. By correcting the state quantity of the pedestrian based on the behavior error, the contact judgment is performed considering turning.

For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the contact areas are set as follows: the front of the vehicle 1 in the traveling direction; the front of the vehicle width area of the vehicle 1; The left side area Lb, the right side area Rb, and the left side area La and the right side area Ra are divided into seven areas, each having a predetermined length (for example, 0.5 m) laterally of the vehicle. A left region Ls and a right region Rs.

The contact possibility determination unit 20 includes a ROM (flash memory) that stores a program operable to execute each function, a CPU that performs arithmetic processing, a work area of the CPU from which the program is read, and a calculation result. It is implemented as a control unit (ECU), which is a computer equipped with a RAM that serves as a temporary storage area for and an input/output interface.

The vehicle control unit 30 includes an airbag operating means 31 for selectively deploying a plurality of airbags of the external airbag system 50 in accordance with the contact area, the contact probability distribution, and the traveling path of the vehicle, and the ESP/ABS controller of the vehicle 1. A braking means 32 is provided for outputting a braking command to and carrying out automatic braking.

As shown in FIG. 2, the external airbag device 50 is provided on the left and right sides of the lower surface of the front airbag 51, which is arranged in the center of the lower surface adjacent to the rear edge of the front hood 5 of the vehicle 1. It is composed of side airbags 52 and 53 .

The front airbag 51 can be deployed (51') so as to cover the lower portion of the front windshield 41 of the vehicle 1. It extends rearward (diagonally upward). FIG. 3 shows a case where the rear edge side of the front hood 5 is lifted up and the front airbag 51 is deployed from the gap. It can also be configured to deploy directly from

The left and right side airbags 52, 53 are deployable (52', 53') so as to cover from the left and right front pillars 2, 3 to the rear front door windshields 42, 43, and the left side is shown in FIG. As shown, the rear edge side of the front hood 5 is lifted up and spread along the front pillar 2 from the gap, thereby preventing the hood from falling and reliably covering the front door windshield 42. - 特許庁

The front hood 5 can be of an alligator type that opens toward the front of the vehicle body or a reverse alligator type that opens toward the rear of the vehicle body. is required. In the case of the reverse alligator type, the opening and closing mechanism of the hood latch can also be used.

Next, the operation of the personal protection system according to the above embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
When the system is activated along with the running of the vehicle, acquisition of the front image by the imaging means 11 is started (step 101), and mobile object detection, that is, three-dimensional objects (vehicles, two-wheeled vehicles, pedestrians, side walls, etc.) in the field-of-view image is detected. , and identification of a pedestrian or the like is started from the image features of the three-dimensional object (step 102).

Next, in the state quantity calculation means 21, the state quantity (position, distance, relative velocity, acceleration, lateral width) of the detected moving object is calculated using a time-series filter (step 111), and the TTC calculation means 22 calculates A contact prediction time TTC is calculated from the state quantity of the moving body, its error variance, and the course of the vehicle (step 112). A contact area (C, Lc, Rc, Ls, Rs) is predicted from the contact probability distribution with the vehicle (step 113).

Then, if the estimated contact time TTC is less than the critical time Ta (steps 114, 115), the airbags corresponding to the contact areas (C, Lc, Rc, Ls, Rs) determined to have a high contact probability are deployed. be. That is, the contact area is
(i) If it is determined to be the front region (the vehicle width center region C, the vehicle width left region Lc, and the vehicle width right region Rc) (step 121), the front airbag 51 is deployed (step 131),
(ii) When it is determined that the area is the left side area Lb (step 122) and the side of the vehicle (left side area Ls) (step 124), the left side airbag 52 is deployed (step 132),
(iii) If it is determined that the right area Rb (step 123) and the side of the vehicle (right side area Rs) (step 125), the right side airbag 53 is deployed (step 133),
(iv) The automatic brake is activated simultaneously with the deployment of the airbag (step 141).

Here, the critical time Ta is the time when it is determined that there is a high possibility of contact with a pedestrian or the like even if the automatic brake operates. Do not open the bag.

In the personal protection system configured as described above, only the airbags 51, 52, 53 in the areas where contact is expected are deployed. In particular, since the left and right side airbags 52, 53 are deployed from the front pillars 2, 3 to the left and right front door windshields 42, 43, the driver's field of vision is sufficiently maintained when only these are deployed.

In addition, since the central front airbag 51 is deployed only in the lower portion of the front windshield 41 except for the portions along the left and right front pillars 2, 3, the visibility of the front door windshields 42, 43 is ensured. Together with this, visibility is maintained at a level that does not hinder driving.

Further, when it is predicted that the left and right side regions Ls and Rs will be the contact regions in consideration of the turning behavior of the own vehicle, the state quantity of the pedestrian is corrected by the error of the behavior of the own vehicle. Good contact detection is possible.

In the above embodiment, a stereo camera is used as the imaging means 11, and the distance distribution to the three-dimensional object is obtained from the parallax between the left and right images. It is also possible to obtain the distance to the three-dimensional object from the detection information.

Although several embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications and changes are possible based on the technical idea of the present invention. add.

1 Vehicles 2, 3 Front pillar 5 Front hood 10 Moving object detection unit 11 Imaging unit 12 Three-dimensional object detection unit 13 Pedestrian determination unit 20 Contact possibility determination unit 21 State quantity calculation unit 22 TTC calculation unit 23 Contact probability calculation unit 30 Vehicle Control unit 31 Airbag operating means 32 Braking means 41 Front windshields 42, 43 Front door windshield 50 Exterior airbag device 51 Front airbags 52, 53 Side airbags

Claims (5)

A plurality of airbags deployed to cover the outer surface of the vehicle body,
control means for controlling selective activation of the plurality of airbags;
A vehicle personal protection system comprising:
The plurality of airbags include a front airbag deployable to cover the lower part of the front windshield, and left and right side airbags deployable to cover the front pillar and the front door windshield behind it. including
The control means comprises imaging means for imaging an area in front of the vehicle, moving body detection means for detecting a moving body consisting of a pedestrian and a two-wheeled vehicle from the image of the imaging means, and based on the state quantity of the moving body and the course of the vehicle, Contact possibility determination means for predicting a contact area with the own vehicle,
When contact with the front part of the vehicle is predicted, the front airbag is deployed, and when contact with the side part of the vehicle is predicted in consideration of the turning behavior of the vehicle, the side part side A vehicle personal protection system configured to deploy the side airbag of . The contact possibility determination means obtains a predicted contact time of the moving object and an existence probability distribution of the moving object after the predicted contact time has elapsed, based on the state quantity of the moving object, its error dispersion, and the course of the vehicle; 2. The personal protection system for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein said contact area is predicted from a contact probability distribution with said own vehicle. 2. The imaging means according to claim 1, wherein said imaging means includes a stereo camera, and said moving object detection means includes image processing means for detecting a three-dimensional object from parallax images of said stereo camera and detecting a pedestrian and a two-wheeled vehicle from its image characteristics. anti-personnel protection system for vehicles. The imaging means includes a monocular camera, and the moving object detection means detects a three-dimensional object from the image of the monocular camera and the detection information of the millimeter wave radar, and detects a pedestrian and a two-wheeled vehicle from the image characteristics. 2. The vehicle personal protection system of claim 1, comprising: 2. The personal protection system for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein said contact possibility determination means includes state quantity calculation means for calculating the state quantity of said moving body using a time-series filter.

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