Prediction-based crash discriminator

Abstract: A system and method for triggering deployment of a vehicle air bag in response to a crash or sudden vehicle deceleration responsive to values for modified velocity (V L *,V H *), predicted acceleration (P₁), high-frequency velocity (V HF ), and high-variance velocity (P₂). The air bag is triggered when at least two of the values for modified velocity, predicted acceleration, high-frequency velocity, and high-variance velocity exceed their respective thresholds.

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The instant invention relates to systems and methods for triggering the deployment or actuation of vehicular safety devices and, more particularly, to a prediction-based system and method which anticipates conditions requiring such deployment or actuation of the safety devices to provide superior response thereto. A variety of systems for actuating vehicular safety devices are well known in the art (see for example EP-A-427 398 or DE-A-4 030 612). Such systems are used to sense a crash condition and, in response to such a condition, to actuate an air bag, or lock a seat belt, or actuate a pretensioner for a seat belt retractor. Typically, the safety device is actuated or deployed into its protective position when an impact exceeding a predetermined magnitude is detected by the actuating system. One prior art method for crash detection integrates the output of an electronic acceleration sensor over time and compares the result against a time-varying threshold velocity. A major drawback of this method is its need for determining when to start running the time-varying threshold, i.e., when the reference time for the time-varying threshold is to be reset to zero time. Another problem associated with the integration method of crash detection is that crash severity cannot be determined early enough for high-speed angular, partial barrier, or pole crashes. Moreover, the wide "grey area" between "fire" and "no-fire" conditions for low-speed crash conditions often results in an inadvertent deployment of the safety device when deployment is unnecessary, or nondeployment of the safety device when deployment is necessary. Still further, raw velocity is not a particularly good measure of the effect of a crash on the human body. One criterion often employed with the integration method is the "127 mm (5 inch)-30 msec" rule, which states that an air bag should fire 30 msec prior to the time in which the passenger to be protected thereby will have moved 127 mm (5 inches). Unfortunately, the passenger may well move forward 127 mm (5 inches) during a normal vehicle braking pattern-a condition in which air bag deployment would not only be undesirable but extremely hazardous. Other prior art methods for assessing crash severity attempt to deemphasize the use of simple velocity calculations and instead calculate values for vehicle "jerk," i.e., the slope of the acceleration data; or the energy dissipated during a crash. Unfortunately, experience has shown that jerk atone is incapable of properly discriminating between conditions requiring actuation of a vehicle safety device and conditions where such actuation is either unnecessary or undesirable. moreover, the "energy method" continues to utilize velocity information, resulting in the same types of deployment problem and slow response times as are encountered with the integration method. Additionally, the energy method is further limited in that it is accurate only over short time intervals. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the instant invention to provide a prediction-based system and method for crash detection which can reliably and instantaneously detect crash severity earlier than an integration, jerk, or energy algorithm, and over a wider variety of circumstances and a wider time interval than is currently possible. Another object of the instant invention is to provide a system and method for crash detection that is event-based rather than timer-based. Another object of the instant invention is to provide a system and method for crash detection employing "damping" for each significant physically-based measure utilized thereby. The above objects are attained by a method and a system as defined in claims 1 and 11 respectively. Preferred embodiments of the invention are defined in the dependent claims. The instant system for actuating a vehicle safety device in the event of a vehicle crash or sudden vehicle deceleration comprises means for generating sampled data representative of the instantaneous acceleration of the vehicle; a RAM for storing consecutive values of the acceleration data; means for calculating a low-variance jerk value from the stored data set; means for calculating a high-variance jerk value from the stored data set; means for calculating at least one damped velocity value from the stored data set; means for calculating a predicted acceleration value using the low-variance jerk value; means for calculating a high-frequency velocity value using the low-variance jerk value; means for calculating a high-variance velocity value using the high-variance jerk value; and means responsive to the values for modified velocity, predicted acceleration, high-frequency velocity, and high-variance velocity for actuating the vehicle safety device when at least two of the values exceed threshold values therefor. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic schematic of an exemplary crash discriminator constructed in accordance with the instant invention; FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating the primary steps of the instant method; FIGS. 3-5 are plots of (A) log high-rank velocity versus time, (B) log high-frequency velocity versus the first predicted acceleration value estimated from the weighted value of jerk, (C) log low-rank velocity versus time, and (D) velocity variance versus the first predicted acceleration value, for three different crash conditions. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION The goal of a prediction-based crash discriminator is to accurately predict when a severe crash is going to occur from present-received data. This contrasts with known methods of crash detection which instead rely on a certain change in some physical quantity while varying a corresponding threshold value therefor with time to converge to a solution. Accordingly, the instant invention seeks to predict where the acceleration is going and verify that the prediction is on target. One feature of the instant system and method is the use of damping for each physical measure upon which crash discrimination is based. As a result, each significant physically-based measure is removed from the crash detection algorithm in a gradual way, in contrast to the rather abrupt manner typical of prior art algorithms. Preferably, the damping is event-varying, whereby the amount of damping increases or decreases depending upon the frequency and/or significance of various events rather than on a clock-based measure or sliding window. The use of damped physical measures provides useful values for longer periods of time than the sliding window techniques typical of prior art methods, wherein a value can last only as long as the window length. For example, when a vehicle encounters a high amplitude acceleration pulse, there is normally a delay in velocity response. The sliding window technique or clock-based damping will typically operate to reduce or even eliminate the high vehicle acceleration experienced by the vehicle. In contrast, the instant fully-damped crash discriminator will maintain significant values for a period sufficient to incorporate same in a useful discrimination algorithm. The use of damping to maintain critical values for longer periods becomes particularly important during long crash pulse forms wave requiring deployment of the passenger safety restraint, or in concatenation of rough road with low speed (MPH) crashes which also require restraint deployment or actuation. While instantaneous vehicle velocity is appropriately classed as a physically-based measure, velocity values may also be viewed as a memory of past events, i.e., a measure of past history. Unfortunately, it does not contain all of the past history information but rather contains only the sum of all prior acceleration values. Thus, while instantaneous velocity is important to crash discrimination, other measures are preferably also used to give additional information on past history. Under the instant invention, the instantaneous slope or jerk of the acceleration data is used both as a prediction measure and as a means for breaking velocity values, i.e., past history sums, into frequency bands. Thus, a high frequency value is indicated when the absolute value of the jerk is great. Stated another way, a past history measure of high frequency activity may thus be obtained by summing velocity values only when the absolute value of the instantaneous slope is relatively great. Similarly, the past history may be broken into N frequency bands, where the absolute values of the instantaneous slope are used as "cutoff" frequencies for each band. The instantaneous acceleration may also be used as a measure indicative of high-acceleration past history. Specifically, nominal acceleration value thresholds may be assigned, the crossing of which may further indicate the need for safety restraint deployment. Also useful in crash discrimination is the output of two rank-order filters, one of which provides the lowest rank value and one of which provides the highest rank value among a given set of velocity values. The outputs from the rank-order filters are thereafter compared to obtain variance information useful in crash discrimination. For example, in a no-fire low speed (MPH) crash, the values for acceleration remains essentially constant over a relatively long period of time, whereas for pole and offset crashes, the values for vehicle acceleration continue to vary over time. Where the difference between the highest ranked value and the lowest ranked value is small, the low speed (MPH) crash is indicated; where a larger difference exists between the highest ranked and the lowest ranked value, an offset or pole crash is indicated. Each of the above measures is preferably weighted to obtain smoother results. For example, in US-A-5 363 302 (published 08-11-94) entitled "Power Rate System and Method for Actuating Vehicle Safety Device," an approximate value for the rate of change of power is obtained by multiplying instantaneous velocity times jerk. Thus, under the power rate method, jerk values are essentially weighted by velocity to obtain a smoother estimate of jerk for subsequent comparison to a given threshold. In accordance with another feature of the instant invention, wherein at least one threshold value for instantaneous slope is utilized to partition the acceleration sum into a high frequency band, and wherein the resulting value for high frequency acceleration is thereafter further weighted by multiplying it with, or otherwise adding it to, the slope. As a result, a higher jerk value will provide still higher acceleration values for use in crash discrimination. As in the above-described power rate method, the instant system and method preferably use damped or modified velocity in place of absolute time, thereby providing an event-based crash discriminator which operates without time-based start-up criteria, i.e., without having to detect the time-based beginning of any given event. Referring now to the drawings, a crash discriminator 10 constructed in accordance with the instant invention is shown in FIG. 1. Raw acceleration data 12 generated by an acceleration sensor 14 is passed through an anti-alias fitter 16 and thereafter converted to digital data 18 in digital-to-analog converter 20. Successive values of the digital data 18 are stored in a RAM 22 of length N . The resulting data set is divided in half, with the most recent half sent to a first and second rank-order filter 24 and 26. The first rank-order filter 24 thereafter outputs a relatively high-ranked acceleration value a H from the most recent or "current" half of the stored data set corresponding to rank R₁ thereof, i.e., the highest-ranked value of the data set. The second rank-order filter 26 outputs a relatively low-ranked acceleration value a L1 from the current half of the stored data set corresponding to rank R₂ thereof that data set, e.g., the lowest-ranked value of the data set. The second half of the data set is sent to a third rank-order filter 28 which outputs a second relatively low-ranked acceleration value a L2 from the older hatf of the stored data set corresponding to rank R₂ thereof. The rank-order filters remove any wild variance data, such as high-frequency noise, EMI, or spiky crash data, while retaining significant "edge data," i.e., data relating to a slant-up or a step function. The current lowest-ranked acceleration value a L1 is negatived in inverter 30 and thereafter added to the older lowest-ranked acceleration value a L2 in adder 32 to obtain the instantaneous slope or jerk J L of the stored acceleration data. The negatived current lowest-ranked acceleration value a L1 from Inverter 30 is also added to the current highest-ranked acceleration value a H in adder 34 to obtain a value for the high variance jerk J H of the stored acceleration data. The latter jerk value reveals the difference between the maximum and minimum values output by rank-order filters 24 and 26; generally speaking, crash waveforms characteristically have higher variance. Meanwhile, the lower-ranked acceleration value a L1 is "damped" by adding thereto an appropriate damping factor 36 in adder 38. The damping factor may be a constant, e.g., equal to the nominal acceleration that an average vehicle passenger could himself resist without the aid of a passenger safety restraint, as disclosed in EP-A-536 997 (published 14-04-93) entitled "Predictor/Check Crash Discriminator". The damping factor may alternatively be a sliding window or, most preferably, a function of the event itself, i.e., a function of jerk, acceleration, velocity, etc. Damping under the instant invention allows significant acceleration data to be stored for a longer period of time, thereby increasing discriminator response thereto. The resulting modified lower-ranked acceleration value is thereafter integrated (summed) in a first accumulator 40 to obtain a first modified velocity value v L *. Similarly, the higher-ranked acceleration value a H is damped by adding thereto an appropriate damping factor 42 in adder 44. The resulting modified higher-ranked acceleration value is likewise integrated (summed) in a second accumulator 46 to obtain a second modified velocity value v H *. The absolute value of the jerk J L is then compared to a first threshold J L THRESHOLD1 therefor at 48. If the absolute value of the jerk J L exceeds its first threshold J L THRESHOLD1, the jerk J L is weighted in adder 49 by adding thereto the current lowest-ranked acceleration value a L1 , whereby less arbitrary results are obtained. The resulting weighted jerk value is damped in adder 51 using an appropriate damping factor 50 and thereafter summed in accumulator 52 to obtain a value for the high-frequency velocity v HF representative of past history. If the absolute value of the jerk J L fails to exceed its first threshold J L THRESHOLD1 , the damp factor 50 is itself subtracted from the high-frequency past history value v HF accumulated in accumulator 52. The jerk J L itself is also compared to a second, small threshold value J L THRESHOLD2 at 54. If the jerk J L is greater than this second threshold J L THRESHOLD2 , the jerk J L is weighted in adder 55 by adding thereto the current highest-ranked acceleration value a H ; and the resulting weighted jerk value is damped in adder 57 using an appropriate damping factor 56 and thereafter summed in accumulator 58 to obtain a predicted value for future acceleration P₁ . If the value of the jerk J L otherwise fails to exceed its threshold, the damp factor 56 is itself subtracted from the predicted value for future acceleration P₁ accumulated in accumulator 58. Similarly, the high variance jerk J H is compared to a relatively small threshold value J H THRESHOLD at 60. As with the jerk J L above, if the high variance jerk J H exceeds its threshold J H THRESHOLD , it is passed through adder 61 and is summed with the accmulated value in accumulator 62 after being damped in adder 63 using a damping factor 64. If the high variance jerk J H does not exceed its threshold J H THRESHOLD, the accumulation is damped, i.e., only the typically negative damping factor 64 is added to the accumulated value in accumulator 62. The resulting accumulated value represents the high variant past history P₂ . As noted hereinabove, the first and second values for modified velocity value v L * and v H * calculated hereinabove are used in place of "time". Thus, once the first modified velocity value v L * exceeds a first "time" threshold TIME1 , then the first predicted acceleration value P₁ and the high variant past history value P₂ are each compared a first set of thresholds therefor, namely, P₁THRESHOLD1 and P₂THRESHOLD1, respectively. As soon as these respective thresholds are exceeded, flag T1 is set to 1. It is noted that, once it has been set to 1, flag T1 will get turned off, i. e., reset to 0, only if and when the modified velocity value v L * falls below the first "time" threshold TIME1. Similarly, the second modified velocity value v H * is compared to a second "time" threshold TIME2 . If the second modified velocity value v H * exceeds TIME2 , then the predicted acceleration value P₁ is compared to a second threshold P₁THRESHOLD2 and the high-frequency velocity v HF is compared to a threshold v HF THRESHOLD therefor. As soon as these respective thresholds are exceeded, flag T2 is set to 1. It is significant to note that flag T1 and flag T2 can thus be set to 1 at different absolute times. Of course, from an "event" perspective, each is set at TIME1 and TIME2 , respectively. In addition to the above described firing condition, the instant system will also initiate restraint deployment in crash situations which require deployment but are not necessarily detectable by the above described firing condition. Referring to Fig. 1B, the high velocity value v H *, the low velocity value v L * and the high variant past history value P₂ are compared to a second set of thresholds, namely, v H * THRESHOLD2 , v L * THRESHOLD2 and P₂THRESHOLD2, respectively. If each exceeds its respective threshold, flag T3 is set to 1, thereby causing actuation of the passenger restraint system. Fig. 2 generally depicts the overall operational flow of the present invention as shown in Figs. 1A and 1B. When the acceleration information is received, it is filtered 16 and converted to digital data 20. From there, the transitory jerk J L is calculated in calcutation step 110; the transitory high variance jerk J H is calculated in calculation step 112; and the low- and high-rank velocities v L * and v H * are calculated in calculation step 114. The transitory jerk J L is thereafter used to calculate an acceleration prediction value P₁ in calculation step 116 and a high frequency acceleration past history v HF in calculation step 118. The high variance jerk J H is used to calculate a high variance acceleration past history P₂ in calcutation step 120. Each of theme values P₁ , v HF , P₂ , v L * and v H * is then checked against a respective threshold therefor in decision boundaries comparison step 122 to determine if there is a fire or no-fire condition for the air bag or passenger restraint controlled by the instant system. As described in relation to Figs. 1A and 1B hereinabove, each of these calculated values is a physically-based measure, with the low- and high-rank velocities v L * and v H * also being used as time control measures. FIGS. 3A, 4A, and 5A depicts the first modified velocity value v L * as it crosses its threshold value TIME1. FIGS. 3B, 4B, and 5B show a two-dimensional plot of predicted acceleration value P₁ versus the high variant past history value P₂ , with the curve representing their respective values in absolute time and turning into a different shade when the "time" threshold TIME1 has been reached. Similarly, FIGS. 3C, 4C, and 5C, and FIGS. 3D, 4D, and 5D contain plots for TIME2 and the two dimensional plot of predicted acceleration value P₁ versus the high-frequency velocity v HF , respectively. While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been disclosed, it should be appreciated that the invention is susceptible of modification without departing from the scope of the subjoined claims.

Claims: A method for actuating a vehicle safety device in the event of a vehicle crash or sudden vehicle deceleration comprising the steps of: receiving information representative of instantaneous vehicle acceleration; generating at least one physically-based measure from said received acceleration information, each of said at least one physically-based measure being representative of predicted vehicle acceleration or past history vehicle acceleration; damping at least one of the group consisting of said at least one physically-based measure to obtain at least one damped physically-based measure; generating at least one timing control measure based on said received acceleration information; comparing said at least one damped physically-based measure and at least one timing control measure to a first set of respective predetermined threshold values; actuating said vehicle safety device if said at least one damped physically-based measure and said at least one timing control measure exceed the respective threshold values in said first set. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of at least one physically-based measure includes the step of generating a first and a second measure evaluative of said received acceleration information in relation to time. The method of claim 2, wherein the generating of at least one physically-based measure includes the steps of: generating a first past history value based on said first measure; generating a second past history value based on said second measure; and estimating a future acceleration value based on said first measure. The method of claim 2 or 3, wherein the generating of said first and said second measures includes: rank-order filtering said vehicle acceleration information into a current high rank-order, a past high rank-order, and a past low rank-order; combining said current high rank-order with an inverted past low rank-order to generate said first measure; and combining said past high rank-order with an inverted past low rank-order to generate said second measure. The method of claim 2, 3 or 4, wherein said first measure comprises an estimated instantaneous jerk value, and said second measure comprises an estimated high variance jerk value. The method of any preceding claim, wherein the generating of at least one timing control measure includes generating a first and a second modified velocity value based on said received acceleration information. The method of claim 6, wherein said comparing step includes the steps of: comparing said first modified velocity value to a first predetermined threshold value; comparing said second modified velocity value to a second predetermined threshold value, and then actuating said vehicle safety device if said at least one physically-based measure has exceeded a third predetermined threshold value and said first and said second modified velocity values have exceeded said first and said second predetermined threshold values, respectively. The method of any preceding claim, further including the steps of: comparing said at least one timing control measure to a second set of at least one respective predetermined threshold value; and actuating said vehicle safety device if said first or said second set of respective predetermined threshold values is exceeded. The method of any preceding claim, wherein said damping step includes the step of combining said at least one physically-based measure with a particular damping factor, wherein said damping factor is a function of at least one of the group consisting of said received acceleration information, said at least one physically-based measure and said at least one timing control measure. The method of any preceding claim, including the step of damping said received acceleration information, and wherein at least one of the group consisting of said at least one physically-based measure and said at least one timing control measure is generated from said damped acceleration information. A system for controlling actuation of a vehicle safety device in an event of a vehicle crash or sudden vehicle deceleration comprising: a means for receiving information representative of instantaneous vehicle acceleration; a means for generating at least one physically-based measure from said received acceleration information, each of said at least one physically-based measure being representative of predicted vehicle acceleration or past history vehicle acceleration; a means for generating at least one timing control measure correlated with the progress of said event based on said received acceleration information; a means for damping at least one of the group consisting of said at least one physically-based measure to obtain at least one damped physically-based measure; a first comparing means for comparing said at least one damped physically-based measure and at least one timing control measure to a first set of respective predetermined threshold values; and means for actuating said vehicle safety device if said at least one damped physically-based measure and said at least one timing control measure exceed the respective threshold values in said first set. The system of claim 11, wherein said means for generating said at least one physically-based measure includes a means for generating a first and a second measure evaluative of said received acceleration information in relation to time. The system of claim 12, wherein said means for generating said at least one physically-based measure further includes: a means for generating a first past history value based on said first measure; a means for generating a second past history value based on said second measure; and a means for estimating a future acceleration value based on said first measure. The system of claim 12 or 13, wherein said means for generating said first and said second measures comprises: a first rank-order filter for outputing a current high rank-order of said received acceleration information; a second rank-order filter for outputing a past high rank-order of said received acceleration information; a third rank-order filter for outputing a past low rank-order of said received acceleration information; a first combining means for combining said first rank-order filter output with an inverted output of said third rank-order filter to generate said first measure; and a second combining means for combining said second rank-order filter output with an inverted output of said third rank-order filter to generate said second measure. The system of claim 12, 13 or 14, wherein said first measure comprises an estimated instantaneous jerk value, and said second measure comprises an estimated high variance jerk value. The system of any one of claims 11 to 15, further comprising a second comparing means for comparing said at least one timing control measure to a second set of at least one respective predetermined threshold value, and wherein said actuating means actuates said vehicle safety device if said first or said second set of respective predetermined threshold values are exceeded. The system of any one of claims 11 to 16, wherein said means for generating said at least one timing control measure comprises a means for generating a first and a second modified velocity value based on said received acceleration information. The system of claim 17 wherein said first comparing means comprises: a third comparing means for comparing said first modified velocity value to a first predetermined threshold value; a fourth comparing means for comparing said second modified velocity value to a second predetermined threshold value, said actuating means actuating said vehicle safety device if said at least one damped physically-based measure has exceeded a third predetermined threshold value and said first and said second modified velocity values have exceeded said first and said second predetermined threshold values, respectively. The system of any one of claims 11 to 18, wherein said damping means comprises a means for combining said at least one physically-based measure with a particular damping factor, wherein said damping factor is a function of at least one of the group consisting of said received acceleration information, said at least one physically-based measure and said at least one timing control measure. The system of any one of claims 11 to 19, including means for damping said received acceleration information, and wherein at least one of the group consisting of said at least one physically-based measure and said at least one timing control measure is generated from said damped acceleration information.

Inventors: GIOUTSOS TONY, PISKIE MICHAEL A, GIOUTSOS, TONY, PISKIE, MICHAEL A.
Applicants: AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS LAB, AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS LABORATORY INC.
Application year: 1992
Main classification: B60R21
IPC codes: B60R21