Patent ID: 11972644
Assignee: ZF ACTIVE SAFETY AND ELECTRONICS US LLC
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  B | IPC B  G

Claim 18:
19. A vehicle safety system comprising a state detection system for a vehicle seatbelt buckle, the state detection system comprising:
a sensor housing configured to be mounted to the seatbelt buckle;
a position sensing component mounted in the sensor housing and being configured to provide digital buckle state data in response to detecting the presence or position of seatbelt buckle structure relative to the position sensing component;
an external seat sensor external to the sensor housing and configured to be mounted to a vehicle seat, the external seat sensor being configured to sense a seat condition and provide an analog signal indicative of the sensed seat condition;
an analog input component mounted in the sensor housing and being wired to the external seat sensor, the analog input component being configured to receive an analog signal from the external seat sensor;
an analog to digital converter (ADC) component configured to digitize the analog signal from the external seat sensor, and to provide digitized seat sensor data;
a communication component mounted in the sensor housing and configured to communicate the buckle state data and the digitized seat sensor data via serial bus communications;
an electronic controller unit (ECU) remote from the seatbelt buckle and the external seat sensor; and
a serial bus operatively connected to the ECU and to the communication component, wherein the serial bus is configured to provide power to at least one of the position sensing component and the external seat sensor;
wherein the vehicle safety system further comprises a vehicle occupant protection device actuatable to help protect a vehicle occupant, wherein the vehicle safety system is configured to actuate the protection device in response to a vehicle crash event and to tailor deployment of the protection device in response to at least one of the buckle state data and the digitized seat state data communicated to the ECU.