JPH07237521A - Side air bag controller for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a side air bag controller which precisely judges the degree of side danger being due to an obstacle, and automatically develops an air bag only in a state worthy of development. CONSTITUTION:Sensors A10 and B12 are provided in the side of a vehicle 100. An electromagnetic wave radar device having a wide detection area is used as the sensor A10, and an ultrasonic radar device which is narrow in the detection area but sharp in directivity is used as the sensor B12. Detection signals issued from the sensors A10, B12 are outputted to ECU 14, and a distance and relative speed to an obstacle are detected from the output of the sensor A10, and the size of the obstacle is detected from the output of the sensor B12. ECU 14 estimates the degree of danger being due to the obstacle from a distance to the obstacle and its relative speed and size, and automatically develops a side air bag 16 on the above degree of danger.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle side airbag control device, and more particularly to a device for deploying a side airbag in advance before a collision.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various devices have been mounted for the purpose of improving the safety of running a vehicle, and the environment surrounding the vehicle is monitored by a sensor provided at a predetermined position of the vehicle so that the vehicle can be connected to a preceding vehicle or a roadside structure. One of them is an alarm device that gives an alarm to the driver when the distance becomes less than the allowable distance. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-164345 discloses a configuration in which a laser light projecting unit and an ultrasonic wave transmitting unit are provided and an obstacle is detected by these.

On the other hand, in order to reduce the impact on the occupant in the event of a vehicle collision, an air bag is installed, and the door portion of the vehicle is prepared not only for a frontal collision but also for a side collision. Side airbag (side impact airbag)
May be attached. Then, in order to prevent the malfunction of the side bag, there has been proposed a configuration in which a side air bag and a periphery monitoring sensor are combined and the side air bag is deployed when a side collision is predicted by the monitoring sensor.
For example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-345556, a predictive sensor is provided on the side of the vehicle, and the microcomputer determines the possibility of a collision based on a detection signal from the predictive sensor, and determines that the collision cannot be avoided. There is disclosed a configuration for deploying a side airbag.

[0004]

However, in order to judge the possibility of a collision in advance based on the detection signal from the sensor, the distance to the obstacle, the relative speed, and the size of the obstacle are extremely short. It is indispensable to detect accurately in time, and there is a problem that it is difficult to accurately detect these physical quantities in a short time with only one type of predictive sensor as in the above-mentioned conventional technology. It was

That is, in order to accurately detect the size of an obstacle, it is necessary to use a sensor having a sharp directivity.
In general, the sharper the directivity is, the narrower the detectable range is, and the obstacle cannot be detected unless the obstacle is sufficiently close to the vehicle. Therefore, there is a problem that there is little time to accurately detect the distance to the obstacle and the relative speed. Conversely, if a sensor with a wide detectable range is used to detect the distance and relative speed to the obstacle sufficiently accurately, the directivity is not sharp enough this time, and therefore the size of the obstacle can be accurately detected. However, there is a disadvantage in that the side airbag is inflated in response to a small ball, for example, even if it collides with the vehicle.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems of the prior art, and an object thereof is to properly determine the degree of danger of an obstacle from the side and to deploy the side airbag only in a situation suitable for deployment. An object is to provide a vehicle side airbag control device that can be automatically deployed.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is a vehicle side airbag control device for controlling the deployment of a side airbag mounted on a vehicle, the vehicle side airbag comprising: First detection means for detecting at least the distance and the relative speed to an obstacle existing within a predetermined range, and a second detecting means which is closer to the vehicle side than within the first predetermined range
Second detecting means for detecting the size of the obstacle existing within a predetermined range, and evaluating means for evaluating the risk of the obstacle based on detection signals from the first and second detecting means,
And a control means for controlling the deployment of the side airbag based on the evaluation result by the risk evaluation means, and automatically operates the side airbag when the evaluation means determines that an obstacle on the side of the vehicle is dangerous. It is characterized by expanding.

[0008]

According to the present invention, the side airbag is deployed by predicting a collision in the same manner as in the conventional case, but at the time of predicting a collision, an obstacle is recognized by using two kinds of detecting means, a first detecting means and a second detecting means. . That is, the first detecting means is a detecting means having a wide detection range, and detects the distance to the obstacle and the relative speed. On the other hand, the second detecting means is a detecting means having a narrow detection range, and detects the size of the obstacle, that is, the size of the obstacle whose distance and relative speed are detected by the first detecting means. Then, the degree of danger of the obstacle is evaluated based on the distance, the relative speed, and the size, and the side airbag is automatically deployed when it is determined to be dangerous.

[0009] In this way, 2 depending on the physical quantity to be detected.
By providing the type of detection means, it is possible to accurately and quickly determine the degree of danger of the obstacle, and thus it is possible to prevent the side airbag from being erroneously deployed.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of this embodiment. The vehicle 100 is provided with a sensor A10 as first detecting means and a sensor B12 as second detecting means. The installation positions of these sensors will be described later. Detection signals from the sensor A10 and the sensor B12 are output to the electronic control unit ECU14 as an evaluation unit and a control unit. The ECU 14 detects the distance to the obstacle and the relative speed based on the detection signal from the sensor A10, and detects the size of the obstacle based on the detection signal from the sensor B12. Then, the degree of danger of the obstacle with respect to the vehicle 100 is evaluated based on the distance to the obstacle, the relative speed, and the size of the obstacle. If it is determined that the obstacle is dangerous, the side airbag 16 attached to the door of the vehicle is installed. It is a configuration to be deployed.

FIG. 2 shows the detection (monitoring) range of the sensor A10 and the sensor B12. The sensor A10 is a radar device that uses electromagnetic waves such as microwaves and millimeter waves,
The detection range is a fan-shaped area having a radius of about 2 m from the vehicle 100. On the other hand, the sensor B12 is a radar device using laser light, ultrasonic waves, infrared rays, etc., and its detection range is narrower than that of the sensor A10, and is within a range of about 1 m from the vehicle 100. Since the sensor A10 has a relatively wide detection range, it can detect the distance to the obstacle and the relative speed with a sufficient time margin, but in general, the directivity of microwaves and millimeter waves is relatively low and the obstacle is obstructed. It is difficult to detect the size accurately. On the other hand, since ultrasonic waves and laser light have excellent directivity, the size of the obstacle can be accurately detected by the sensor B12.

FIG. 3 schematically shows a method of installing the sensor B12 and a method of detecting the size of an obstacle. Figure 3
As shown in (A) and (B), a plurality of sensors B are horizontally provided on the side of the vehicle. In the figure, these are labeled with a to g for convenience. When another vehicle 200 or the like exists on the side portion of the vehicle 100, the vehicle 200 can be detected by a considerable portion of these sensor elements a to g. Therefore, the ECU 14 can detect the size of the obstacle depending on which of the sensor elements a to g can detect the obstacle. The obstacle is the ball 30, for example
In the case of a small object such as 0, one or two of the plurality of sensor elements a to g as shown in FIG.
Since it can be detected by only about one sensor element, the ECU 14 can determine that the obstacle is small.

On the other hand, some obstacles are not large in the horizontal direction but are considerably large in the vertical direction. For example, telephone poles will be the most important ones. In this case, if only the size in the horizontal direction is detected, the original size of the obstacle, that is, the amount of damage that will be given to the vehicle 100 cannot be accurately evaluated. Therefore, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, a plurality of sensor elements are installed in the vertical direction to form the sensor B12. Telephone pole 400
For obstacles that also have a size in the vertical direction such as, since any of the sensor elements arranged in the vertical direction is detected,
The ECU 14 can detect the size of the obstacle in the vertical direction.

As described above, in the present embodiment, one type of sensor is not used as in the prior art, but two types of sensors having different detection ranges and directivities are combined to detect an obstacle and the side airbag is deployed. It is decided whether or not to do it.

The operation of the ECU 14 will be described in more detail below with reference to the processing flowchart of FIG.

In the figure, the ECU 14 first detects the sensor A1.
Only 0 is operated, and the operation of the sensor B12 is stopped. This is to reduce the power consumption because it is not necessary to operate the sensor B until the obstacle is located within the detection range of the sensor A. When an obstacle is detected by the sensor A10, the sensor B12 may be operated within the detection range of the sensor B12 (S10).
1). Next, the ECU 14 calculates the distance to the obstacle and the relative speed based on the detection signal from the sensor A10 (S102). Relative velocity data is calculated by time differentiation of distance data. The obtained distance data and relative speed data are sequentially stored in the memory, and the ECU 14 determines that the obstacle is the vehicle (own vehicle) 10 based on the detected relative speed data.
It is determined whether there is a possibility of collision with 0 (S10).
3). This determination is made by various methods, but in this embodiment, the sign and the absolute value of the relative speed data are detected, whether or not an obstacle approaches the own vehicle, and the absolute value is a predetermined value. It is determined by whether or not it is above.
Of course, the time until the obstacle collides with the own vehicle 100 is calculated from the obtained distance data and relative speed data,
If this time is less than or equal to a predetermined value, it is possible to determine that there is a possibility of collision.

When the ECU 14 determines that the obstacle may collide, it is further determined whether or not the obstacle (target) is still detected (S10).
4) When the obstacle is separated from the detection range of the sensor A10, the operation of the sensor B is stopped and the process returns to S101. On the other hand, when the obstacle is continuously detected by the sensor A10, the obstacle eventually enters the detection range of the sensor B12, and the obstacle can be detected by the sensor B12 (S105). Detection signal from the sensor B12,
That is, the detection signal group from a plurality of sensor arrays is EC
Output to U14, and the ECU 14 detects the size of the obstacle based on these detection signals. If the size of the obstacle is less than or equal to a specified value in both the horizontal and vertical directions,
It is determined that the damage to the host vehicle is not large, and the side airbag 16 does not deploy and the process proceeds to S101 again. On the other hand, the obstacle has a size larger than a predetermined value in the horizontal direction or the vertical direction according to the detection signal from the sensor B12, and the relative speed calculated by the process of S102 by the sensor A10 has a size larger than the predetermined value. If the vehicle has it, it is determined that the damage to the host vehicle 100 is large, and it is determined to be dangerous, and the side airbag 16 is deployed in advance to protect the occupant (S107). The risk determination can also be performed as follows. That is, since the damage received by the host vehicle is proportional to the momentum of the obstacle, the relative speeds V and S106 detected in the processing of S102.
When the size of the obstacle Mh in the horizontal direction and the size of the obstacle detected in the vertical direction are Mv, the risk D is quantitatively evaluated by D = Mh.Mv.V, and the risk D and the predetermined value The deployment of the side airbag 16 may be controlled by comparing the size with D0.

In this embodiment, the sensors A and B are provided on only one side of the vehicle 100. However, the sensors A and B are provided on both sides of the vehicle 100 and mounted on both doors. It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which each side airbag is controlled.

In the present invention, what kind of sensor is used for the sensor A and the sensor B is important, the sensor A is required to have a wide detection range, and the sensor B is required to have a sharp directivity. That is clear. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the radar device using electromagnetic waves is shown as the sensor A, but other sensors can be used as long as they have a wide detection range, and the sensor B can also be used for directivity in addition to ultrasonic waves. It goes without saying that another sensor having a sufficiently excellent property can be used.

Although the present invention has been described above, it should be additionally noted that the embodiments of the present invention have embodiments of the technical matters described in the claims.

In the vehicle side airbag control device according to the present invention, the first detecting means has at least a distance and a relative distance to an obstacle having a wide detectable range and existing in a first predetermined range on the side of the vehicle. The second detection means includes a plurality of detection units having a narrow detectable range and is present in a second predetermined range nearer to the vehicle side than in the first predetermined range. The size of the obstacle is detected according to the number of the obstacles detected by the detection unit.

Further, the second detecting means is operated when the obstacle is detected by the first detecting means.

[0024]

As described above, according to the vehicle side air bag control device of the present invention, the side air bag is suitable only for situations where it is appropriate to accurately judge the degree of danger of an obstacle from the side and to deploy it. Can be automatically expanded.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a sensor detection range of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of sensor arrangement of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of sensor arrangement of the same embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a processing flowchart of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Sensor A 12 Sensor B 14 ECU (Electronic Control Unit) 16 Side Airbag 100 Vehicle (Own Vehicle) 200 Vehicle 300 Ball 400 Utility Pole

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI technical display location G01S 13/42 15/93 17/93

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A vehicle side airbag control device for controlling the deployment of a side airbag mounted on a vehicle, wherein at least a distance and a relative speed to an obstacle existing in a first predetermined range of a vehicle side portion. First detecting means for detecting the size of the obstacle, and second detecting means for detecting the size of the obstacle existing in a second predetermined range closer to the vehicle side than in the first predetermined range; An evaluation unit that evaluates the risk of the obstacle based on a detection signal from the second detection unit; and a control unit that controls the deployment of the side airbag based on the evaluation result of the risk evaluation unit. A side airbag control device for a vehicle, wherein the evaluation means automatically deploys the side airbag when the obstacle on the side of the vehicle is determined to be dangerous.