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

Claim 15:
16. A vehicle safety system for a vehicle including multiple vehicle seats, comprising:
a seatbelt associated with each vehicle seat, each seatbelt including a seatbelt buckle;
an electronic controller unit (ECU); and
a state detection sensor 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 seatbelt buckle latch condition data in response to detecting the presence or position of structure of the seatbelt buckle relative to the sensor;
an analog input component mounted in the sensor housing and being configured to receive from an external analog sensor located outside the seatbelt buckle an analog signal related to a seat condition of the seat associated with the seatbelt;
an analog to digital converter (ADC) component mounted in the sensor housing and being configured to receive the analog signal from the analog input component, digitize the analog signal, and provide digitized analog seat condition data; and
a communication component mounted in the sensor housing and being configured to communicate the seatbelt buckle latch condition data and the seat condition data via a two-wire power/communication serial bus,
wherein the state detection sensor is configured to power at least one of the position sensing component and the external analog sensor with power from the serial bus, and wherein each state detection sensor comprises connectors for connecting the sensor to the bus in parallel so that the state detection sensors in each seatbelt buckle communicates both the seatbelt buckle latch condition data and the seat condition data to the ECU via the same two wires.