Vehicular Emergency Alert Relay for Collision Signal Reliability
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Solution Overview
Problem
In vehicles equipped with both automatic door unlocking and emergency alert functions, the door unlock signal used as a trigger for emergency alerts can be disrupted by wire harness damage during collisions, particularly in side collisions, due to the distance and rigidity differences in component placements.
Innovation Solution
A vehicular emergency alert device with a collision detecting unit and emergency alert unit positioned near the center of the vehicle's underbody, along with modules at various locations, uses a relayed collision detection signal to ensure emergency alerts are sent, even if the wire harness is grounded, by shortening wire harness lengths and providing backup power to critical modules.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the BCM is disposed away from the SAS to control locking/unlocking of doors around the entire periphery of the vehicle, then the door control functionality is improved, but the wire harness length increases and reliability decreases due to potential grounding in side collisions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a relay device as an intermediary component between the SAS and BCM. The relay device receives the collision detection signal from the SAS and transmits it to the BCM, ensuring signal transmission even when the direct wire harness between SAS and BCM is damaged. This mediator approach resolves the contradiction by maintaining reliability without compromising the distributed architecture needed for door control functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the signal transmission path into multiple independent channels: a direct wire harness connection and a relay device-mediated path. By dividing the single transmission path into segmented routes, the system ensures that if one path (direct wire harness) is damaged due to the distributed component placement, the other path (through relay device) remains functional, thus maintaining reliability while preserving the ease of operation benefits.
2Ease of operation
If the wire harness is drawn along a side sill to connect SAS and BCM, then the door control functionality is achieved, but the wire harness is vulnerable to grounding in side collisions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements beforehand cushioning by providing a backup signal transmission path through the relay device before the direct wire harness can be damaged. The relay device is positioned and configured to ensure that even if the wire harness drawn along the side sill is grounded in a side collision, the collision detection signal can still reach the BCM through the relay device, thus cushioning against the harmful effect of wire harness grounding.
Solution Approach 2:
The relay device serves as an intermediary that protects the system from the harmful effect of wire harness grounding. By introducing this intermediate component, the system can bypass the damaged wire harness and maintain the door unlocking function, effectively isolating the critical signal transmission from the vulnerable wire harness path.
3Productivity
If multiple modules are disposed at various locations in the vehicle, then the control efficiency for local components is improved, but the wire harness complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The relay device acts as a central intermediary that simplifies the wire harness architecture. Instead of requiring direct wire harness connections from the SAS to multiple distributed modules, the relay device mediates the signal distribution. This reduces wire harness complexity by creating a hub-and-spoke topology while maintaining the control efficiency benefits of having modules disposed at various locations near their control targets.
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicular emergency alert device mounted on a vehicle (100) and configured to issue an emergency alert signal to notify an emergency service center outside the vehicle of a location of the vehicle in the event of a collision of the vehicle includes: a collision detecting unit (11) that detects the collision of the vehicle (100) to output a collision detection signal; an emergency alert unit (13) that issues an emergency alert signal in response to the collision detection signal and relays the collision detection signal to the vehicle; and one or more modules (12) each of which performs a predetermined operation in response to the collision detection signal relayed by the emergency alert unit (13).