Patent ID: 6898498
Filing Date: 2005-05-24
Classification: B60R

Abstract:
1. In a vehicle supplemental restraint system including a plurality of remote crash sensors for providing localized crash severity measurements to a central controller, and a plurality of restraints selectively deployed by the central controller for protection of the vehicle occupants, the improvement wherein said central controller processes the localized crash severity measurements provided by said plurality of remote crash sensors and determines which of said plurality of restraints to deploy by: (a) storing a crash classification mask for each of a plurality of crash classifications, each such mask comprising a set of predetermined remote crash sensor values characteristic of the respective crash classification and a restraint deployment code identifying which of the restraints should be deployed for the respective crash classification; (b) collecting crash severity measurements from the remote crash sensors in the course of a crash event, and storing such measurements in a crash characterization table; (c) consecutively applying said crash classification masks to said crash characterization table, and in the event of a match between the predetermined values of a given crash classification mask and the sensor measurements stored in said crash characterization table, identifying a restraint deployment code from such given crash classification mask; and (d) analyzing the identified restraint deployment code to determine which of said plurality of restraints to deploy.