Nissan Motor Company Limited

Hideo Tobata

Kouichi Oota

Daisuke Masuda

Takeshi Kimura

Tetsuo Maki

Kensuke Fukuyama

Yosuke Akatsu

Michihito Hirahara

Gousuke Wakana

To provide a passenger protective device and method that can achieve a stable protective performance even when deploying the airbag from the seat belt, thus allowing for appropriate restraint of the passenger's head. Passenger protective devicemakes the timing in which the internal pressure of thigh airbagpeaks slower than the timing in which the internal pressure of head airbagpeaks. In addition, it also makes the timing in which the capacity of thigh airbagreaches the maximum slower than the timing in which the capacity of head airbagreaches the maximum. In this manner, the passenger's head, which moves due to inertial force, is caught by head airbagand head airbagis supported by thigh airbag, which is softer than said airbag. Therefore, the passenger's head can be caught softly.

Passenger protective device and method

A vehicle occupant restraint system is provided with an air bag restraint device including a first deploying portion deploying between a vehicle occupant and a portion in a vehicle, and a second deploying portion deploying related to the first deploying portion. The second deploying portion providing a support for the first deploying portion to receive at least a part of a load acting on the first deploying portion from a head of the vehicle occupant.

Vehicle occupant restraint system and method

A passenger restraint device of a motor vehicle comprises a plurality of predicting devices each being able to predict or detect a collision of the vehicle with an obstacle in front of the vehicle. A sensitivity adjusting device is able to adjust a sensitivity of at least one of the predicting devices. Reversible passenger restraining devices are able to reversibly restrain a passenger in the vehicle. Non-reversible passenger restraining devices are able to non-reversibly restrain the passenger in the vehicle. A control unit, based on a signal from the one of the predicting devices that has been subjected to the sensitivity adjustment by the sensitivity adjusting device, controls operation of the reversible and non-reversible passenger restraining devices.

Passenger restraint device of motor vehicle

A vehicle seat belt apparatus includes a reel to wind a seat belt, a motor to control a belt tension of the seat belt by rotating the reel, and a lock section to allow rotation of the reel in a normal state, and to prevent rotation of the reel in a belt extracting direction in an actuated state. A control section is provided to restrict a lock operation of the lock section by rotating the motor in a belt retracting direction when the belt tension is controlled by the motor.

Vehicle seat belt apparatus

A vehicle occupant restraint system of the present invention has: a seat belt restraint device () including a shoulder belt () which restrains the body of a vehicle occupant (C) diagonally from one of the shoulders (Cs) to the chest (Cc), and a lap belt () which restrains the waist (Cw) of the vehicle occupant (C); an upper air bag () supported by an upper support point () provided on the shoulder belt (); a lower air bag () supported by a lower support point () provided on the lap belt () and coming into contact with the upper air bag () in a vertical direction when being inflated and extended; and an air bag movement inhibiting structure (H&#x2013;H). The air bag movement inhibiting structure (H&#x2013;H) applies, to at least one of the upper support point () and the lower support point (), a moment (M&#x2013;M) in a direction of canceling movements of contact surfaces of the upper and lower air bags () toward a side in the vehicle width direction, where a part of the shoulder belt () is located above the shoulder (Cs) of the vehicle occupant (C), when the upper air bag () and the lower air bag () receive inertial force of the vehicle occupant (C) toward a front of a vehicle.

Vehicle occupant restraint system and vehicle occupant restraint method

A seatbelt apparatus includes a deceleration detecting sensor for detecting a decelerating state of a vehicle and a controller for controlling the drive of a motor for the seatbelt apparatus corresponding to a detected value of the deceleration detecting sensor. The controller is provided with a correcting unit for correcting the detected value of the deceleration detecting sensor in anticipation of the future so as to advance the operational timing of the motor. By advancing the judgment timing for urgency so that the operational timing of the motor is hastened, it is possible to restrain a passenger's body in an emergency certainly without enhancing a restraining force of a webbing unnecessarily.

Seatbelt apparatus for vehicle

A seatbelt apparatus is provided to apply a proper restrictive feeling on passengers, corresponding to traveling condition of a vehicle. In the seatbelt apparatus, on receipt of detection signals from a fore-and-aft acceleration sensorand a left-and-right acceleration sensor, a controllercontrols respective tensions of seatbelts for driver seat and assistant driver's seat individually. Owing to the controller, it is established at a vehicle's braking to make a seatbelt tension of the assistant driver's seat larger than that of the driver seat. When the vehicle is turning, it is carried out to make a seatbelt tension of the driver seat larger than that of the assistant driver's seat.

A seatbelt apparatus includes a first pretensioner for winding a webbing to a retractor by a predetermined tension, a second pretensioner for applying a tension to the webbing in an emergency to restrain a passenger finally, a brake-pedal stroke sensor for detecting a manipulated amount of a brake pedal, a laser radar for detecting an obstacle in front of a vehicle and a first controller for controlling the tension by the first pretensioner in accordance with at least one of a tension control based on the detection data by the brake-pedal stroke sensor and another tension control based on the detection data by the laser radar. In operation, under the tension control based on detection data by the brake-pedal stroke sensor, the first controller allows the first pretensioner to always operate when it is judged that the vehicle is braking in an emergency. Under the tension control based on detection data by the laser radar, the first controller allows the first pretensioner to operate selectively.

A seatbelt apparatus includes a first pretensioner for winding a webbing to a retractor by a predetermined tension, a second pretensioner for applying a tension to the webbing in an emergency to restrain a passenger finally, a brake-pedal stroke sensor for detecting a manipulated amount of a brake pedal, a laser radar for detecting an obstacle in front of a vehicle and a first controller for controlling the tension by the first pretensioner in accordance with at least one of a tension control based on the detection data by the brake-pedal stroke sensor and another tension control based on the detection data by the laser radar. In operation, the first controller adopts the control based on the detection data by the brake-pedal stroke sensor while taking its precedence over the control based on the detection data by the laser radar. Due to this order of priority, it becomes possible to accomplish certain tension control for the webbing before a collision without affording the passenger a sense of incompatibility.

A wheel suspension arrangement for a wheel carrier including a suspension spring and a hydraulic actuator has a valve controlling the actuator. A stroke sensor detects the position of the wheel carrier relative to the vehicle body, and an acceleration sensor detects the vertical component of acceleration of the vehicle body adjacent the wheel and provide signals to a controller, which derives force components acting on the vehicle body by the suspension spring and actuator, respectively. The controller derives a modified combined force acting on the body out of the force components and determines a force counterbalancing the modified combined force, and controls the valve to cause the actuiator to vary the force acting between the associated wheel carrier and the vehicle body by the force counterbalancing the modified combined force.

Vehicle wheel suspension arrangements

An apparatus for estimating vibration input to be transferred from a road surface to a suspension device of a vehicle. The apparatus converts stroke displacement values (S.sub.FL, S.sub.FR) detected by stroke sensor (27FL, 27FR) arranged on locations near the front wheels into stroke speed values (S.sub.VFL, S.sub.VFR) by differentiating circuits (41a, 41b) including a high-pass filer whose cutoff frequency (f.sub.HC) is set at substantially twice the spring-bottom resonance frequency (20 Hz, for example). The apparatus further converts body work vertical acceleration values (Z.sub.GFL, Z.sub.GFR) detected by vertical acceleration sensors (28FL, 28FR) arranged on locations near the front wheels into spring-top speed values (Z.sub.VFL, Z.sub.VFR) by integrating circuits (41c, 41d) including a low-pass filter whose cutoff frequency (f.sub.LC) is set at nearly one sixth of the spring-top resonance frequency (0.2 Hz, for example). The apparatus adds these speed values to each other by adders (41e, 41f) to provide differential values (x.sub.OFL ', x.sub.OFR ' ) of the spring-bottom displacement values obtained by accurately estimating the vibration input from a road surface by cancelling the spring-top speeds with each other.

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Yokosuka, Japan

Hideo Tobata