Patent ID: 8838288

Claim:
An apparatus for detecting a rollover of a vehicle, the apparatus comprising: a first vertical acceleration sensor mounted on the vehicle and configured to output a first vertical acceleration signal indicative of vertical acceleration of the vehicle; a second vertical acceleration sensor mounted on the vehicle and configured to output a second vertical acceleration signal indicative of the vertical acceleration of the vehicle, the second vertical acceleration sensor spaced away from the first vertical acceleration sensor in a lateral direction of the vehicle; a rollover determining section configured to determine whether the rollover occurs based on a difference between the first and second vertical acceleration signals; an angular velocity calculating section configured to calculate a first velocity signal by integrating the first vertical acceleration signal and calculate a second velocity signal by integrating the second vertical acceleration signal, the angular velocity calculating section configured to calculate a rollover angular velocity of the vehicle based on a difference between the first and second velocity signals; a rollover angle calculating section configured to calculate a rollover angle of the vehicle by integrating the rollover angular velocity, wherein the rollover determining section determines whether the rollover occurs based on the rollover angular velocity and the rollover angle; and a rollover-type identifying section configured to identify a type of the rollover based on a ratio between one of the first and second velocity signals and the rollover angular velocity.