Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

The Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd.

Nec Home Electronics, Inc.

Shigeo Tobaru

Osamu Takahata

Hiroyuki Maeda

Takahiro Kamei

Yoshimasa Eguchi

Takahiro Ohmoto

Yoshihisa Sugamata

Naotoshi Takemura

Hiroyuki Mae

Toshiyuki Hosokawa

Takashi Yanagihara

Hiroaki Kimura

Kazuya Yoshida

Nobuaki Hido

Junji Kanamoto

An occupant protection system has a component in question reduced in size and cost. The occupant protection system includes: a rollover airbag device provided in a vehicle interior; a battery configured to supply power to the rollover airbag device; a controller configured to determine a rollover of a vehicle and, if a rollover of the vehicle is determined, activate the rollover airbag device using power supplied from the battery; and a backup power source configured to charge power to be used if the battery fails. The controller determines a collision of the vehicle and examines the battery for any failure and, if a collision of the vehicle is determined and the battery is examined to have a failure, activates the rollover airbag device using the power charged in the backup power source.

Occupant protection system

An apparatus for protecting occupants when a vehicle having an openable and closeable roof overturns, which apparatus includes an occupant rollover protection member that supports a vehicle frame when the vehicle overturns, and first buffering members that buffer the occupants. A first buffering member control unit controls the deployment of the first buffering members on the basis of information from a vehicle state detection mechanism that detects the behavior of the vehicle.

Vehicle occupant protection apparatus and startup method of same

A sensor module mounted on a vehicle body includes a base plate, a sensor and a signal processing unit. The sensor includes a plurality of piezoelectric films for detecting an external force applied to the vehicle body. The signal processing unit is connected to the sensor for processing sensor signals output from the sensor. The sensor and the signal processing unit are attached to the base plate.

Sensor module for vehicle

A passenger protection system for a vehicle having a door opening to which a door is attached. The system has an airbag attached in a folded form along an upper edge of the door opening, wherein when being expanded, the airbag is deployed along an inner side surface of an interior of the vehicle in a drawn curtain form; a contact detecting device for detecting a contact action of a passenger in the vehicle with the contact detecting device; and a control device for determining whether a passenger is close to the inner side surface based on a result of detection of the contact detecting device, and prohibiting deployment of the airbag while determining that a passenger is close to the inner side surface. The contact detecting device may have an elongated form in a length direction of the vehicle and consist of divided portions separated in a vertical direction.

Passenger protection system which detects closeness of passenger to inner side surface of interior

A collision detection sensor for a vehicle of the present invention includes a single piezoelectric film which is flat, plural pairs of electrodes which sandwich the piezoelectric film and measure voltages between the electrodes, and spaces provided between the plural pairs of electrodes.

Collision detection sensor for vehicle and collision detection device for vehicle

A system for detecting an angle of inclination of a vehicle, comprises: a first detecting mechanism which continuously detects an angle of inclination of the vehicle with respect to a direction of the force of gravity; a second detecting mechanism which continuously detects an amount of change in angle of inclination of the vehicle by integrating a sensed angular speed of the vehicle; and a calculator which calculates an angle of inclination of the vehicle based on the sum of a first output from said first detecting mechanism and a second output from said second detecting mechanism.

System for detecting inclination angle of vehicle body

A process for determining lateral overturning of a vehicle involves establishing a threshold value line S separating a lateral overturning region farther from an origin and a lateral non-overturning region closer to the origin on a two-dimensional map made using a rolling angle &thgr; and a rolling angular speed &ohgr; of the vehicle. When a hysteresis line for actual rolling angles and actual rolling angular speeds of the vehicle traverses the threshold value line from the lateral non-overturning region to the lateral overturning region, it is determined that there is a possibility of lateral overturning of the vehicle, and correspondingly an occupant protecting system may be deployed. Also, to assure accuracy, a lateral acceleration sensor for detecting a lateral acceleration for establishing the threshold value line S is disposed on a center plane of a vehicle body.

Process for determining lateral overturning of vehicle and occupant protecting system in vehicle

A process for determining lateral overturning of a vehicle in which a threshold value line is established separating a lateral overturning region farther from an origin and a lateral non-overturning region closer to the origin on a two-dimensional map made using a rolling angle &thgr; and a rolling angular speed &ohgr; of the vehicle as parameters. When a hysteresis line for actual rolling angles and actual rolling angular speeds of the vehicle traverses the threshold value line from the lateral non-overturning region to the lateral overturning region, it is determined that there is a possibility of lateral overturning of the vehicle. When the rolling angular speed &ohgr; of the vehicle is increased sharply after the rolling angle &thgr; has reached a fully bumping rolling angle &thgr;FB while the rolling angular speed &ohgr; was decreased, it is determined that the vehicle is in a state in which the lateral overturning due to a rolling resonance phenomenon is liable to occur, whereby the threshold value line S is moved toward the origin.

Process for determining lateral overturning of vehicle

A process for determining the lateral overturning of a vehicle, comprises the steps of: establishing a threshold value line on a two-dimensional map made using a rolling angle and a rolling angular speed of the vehicle as parameters; plotting a hysteresis line for an actual rolling angle and an actual rolling angular speed on the two-dimensional map; and determining that there is a possibility that the vehicle is overturning laterally or sideways when the hysteresis line traverses the threshold value line from a side nearer to an origin of the map to a side farther from the origin. The threshold value line is changed depending on at least one of a lateral acceleration of the vehicle, a lateral speed of the vehicle, a direction of change in steering angle of the vehicle, and a rolling angular acceleration of the vehicle.

Process for determining lateral overturning of vehicle, and system for detecting inclination angle of vehicle body

The present invention allows accurate determination as to if deformation of a vehicle side part has occurred or not as a result of a side impact even though the used data consists of outputs of acceleration sensors for detecting accelerations given as combinations of deformation of a vehicle side part and a travel of the vehicle body. The device comprises a unit for detecting an acceleration produced in a first part of the vehicle body which moves in response to a deformation of the vehicle side part resulting from a side impact; a unit for detecting an acceleration produced in a second part of the vehicle body which substantially does not move in response to a deformation of the vehicle side part resulting from a side impact; a unit for analyzing frequency components included in a time change of the detected acceleration of the first vehicle body part over a prescribed preceding time period; a unit for analyzing frequency components included in a time change of the detected acceleration of the second vehicle body part over a prescribed preceding time period; and a unit for determining deformation of a vehicle side part resulting from a side impact according to the frequency components obtained by the two analyzing units.

Method and device for determining deformation of a vehicle side part

The present invention relates to a member for an automobile front side member, in which the member has a simple sectional shape, is lightweight, is provided with a flat portion for mounting other parts on the member, and is excellent in axially compressive properties in the lengthwise direction against an impact. The member for the front side member according to the present invention comprises an Al alloy extruded square pipe, wherein the inside wall of each corner portion of the square pipe is made thicker than the wall of each side portion of the square pipe. The square pipe of the present invention includes a pipe square or rectangular in sectional shape, or a pipe provided with a flange on the square or rectangular pipe and so on.

Growing community of inventors

Wako, Japan

Shigeo Tobaru