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:
Apr. 15, 2003
Filed:
Jun. 07, 2000
Huahn Fern Yeh, Novi, MI (US);
Chek-Peng Foo, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
Paul Leo Sumner, Farmington Hills, MI (US);
Anne Marie Shields, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
Tien Hsiung Lee, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
TRW Inc., Lyndhurst, OH (US);
Abstract
An apparatus and method for controlling an actuatable occupant restraint device having a plurality of actuatable stages ( ), the apparatus including a crash sensor ( ) for sensing crash acceleration and providing a crash acceleration signal indicative thereof. A controller ( ) determines a velocity value ( ) and a displacement value ( ) from the crash acceleration signal. A safing function controls enabling and disabling of a deployment control circuit in response to the determined velocity ( ) and displacement ( ) values. A displacement based velocity threshold ( ) and a displacement threshold value ( ) define an immunity box. The velocity threshold value ( ) varies as a step function of displacement. If the velocity/displacement values are within the immunity box, the safing function is in a disabling condition. If either value is outside of the immunity box, the safing function is in an enabling condition. A side impact sensor ( ) and side impact crash event circuit ( ) determine if a side impact crash event is occurring. If a side impact crash event is occurring, the threshold values ( ) of the immunity box are adjusted.