The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 10, 2002
Filed:
Aug. 05, 1999
Jon K. Wallace, Redford, MI (US);
Russell J. Lynch, West Bloomfield, MI (US);
TRW Inc., Lyndhurst, OH (US);
Abstract
A distributed vehicle safety system ( ) includes a plurality of devices ( ), each of which performs a function associated with safety at a vehicle ( ). A bus ( ) conveys communication regarding the devices ( ). An isolation device ( ) is associated with each device ( ) and electronically isolates one of the devices from the bus ( ) upon occurrence of a fault condition. Preferably, the system ( ) includes a plurality of control circuitries ( ), each for controlling a respective one of the devices ( ), and the control circuitry is isolated with the associated device (i.e., each control circuitry/device arrangement is isolated). In one embodiment, a plurality of bus connector/bus plug mated pairs ( and ) connects the plurality of control circuitry/device arrangements ( and ) to the bus ( ). Each connector/bus plug pair ( and ) includes a switch (e.g., ) for enabling communication between a respective control circuitry/device arrangement ( and ) and the bus ( ), and for disabling communication between the respective control/device arrangement and the bus in response to a fault condition.