Patent Document ID: 8463486
Application ID: 12891373
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A system for identifying an object impacting a vehicle bumper during a collision, the system comprising: a plurality of sensors positionable on the vehicle bumper including a left-side sensor, a right-side sensor, and a middle sensor positioned; a processor; and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to receive acceleration values from each of the plurality of sensors, calculate a center strength value of an impact based on the acceleration values, the center strength value being indicative of an amount of force that is applied to a middle location of the vehicle bumper, determine an impact location on the vehicle bumper based at least in part on the acceleration values, calculate a normalized intrusion value based on the center strength value, the impact location, and a bumper stiffness factor, the bumper stiffness factor being indicative of the stiffness of the bumper at the impact location, and identify the object impacting the vehicle bumper based on the normalized intrusion value, wherein the memory includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to determine an impact location on the vehicle bumper by identifying a sensor of the plurality of sensors that detects a largest intrusion value, determining a freeze time as a time instant when a velocity of an intrusion detected by the sensor that detects the largest intrusion value is equal or less than zero after being greater than zero for a period of time, the time instant being indicative of a moment when the vehicle bumper begins to rebound towards its original shape after being compressed by the impact, and calculating a normalized offset value by dividing the absolute value of the difference between an intrusion detected by the left-side sensor at the freeze time and an intrusion detected by the right-side sensor at the freeze time by the sum of the intrusion detected by the right-side sensor, the intrusion detected by the left-side sensor, and an intrusion detected by the middle sensor at the freeze time.