Vehicle Safety System with Dynamic Thresholds for Road Departure
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle safety systems face challenges in accurately distinguishing between road departure scenarios, such as driving over rough terrain, entering a ditch, or becoming airborne, leading to inappropriate activation of safety systems.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle safety system that utilizes a control unit connected to various sensors, including inertial, wheel rotation, suspension, and camera systems, to analyze signals and determine the vehicle's state, activating safety systems only when thresholds are exceeded, with adjustable activation levels based on the likelihood of road departure.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If safety systems are activated based on sensor signals alone without road context, then safety activation is simplified, but false activation occurs on rough terrain
Solution Approach 1:
The road detection arrangement acts as an intermediary between the sensors and the safety system activation. It processes sensor signals to determine whether the vehicle is on-road or off-road, and this determination is used to dynamically adjust the activation threshold. This mediator resolves the contradiction by filtering out false positives from rough terrain when on-road, while still enabling sensitive activation when off-road.
2Device complexity
If a fixed threshold is used for safety system activation, then the system is simple to implement, but it cannot distinguish between rough road and ditch entry
Solution Approach 1:
The activation threshold is made dynamic rather than fixed. The control unit adjusts the threshold based on the road detection arrangement's determination of whether the vehicle is on-road or off-road. When off-road is detected, the threshold is lowered to enable easier activation. This dynamic adjustment allows the same simple threshold mechanism to adapt to different scenarios, resolving the contradiction between simplicity and precision.
3Reliability
If safety systems activate frequently to ensure protection, then occupant protection is maximized, but unnecessary deployments increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies different activation criteria (local quality) based on the detected location context. When the vehicle is determined to be on-road, a higher threshold is applied, making activation less likely and avoiding unnecessary deployments. When off-road is detected, a lower threshold is applied, making activation more likely to ensure protection. This spatially-dependent quality adjustment resolves the contradiction between over-protection and unnecessary deployment.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enhances the accuracy of safety system activation, reducing unnecessary deployments and ensuring appropriate protection for occupants by distinguishing between different road departure scenarios and adjusting responses accordingly.
Implementation Method 1
The sensors are inertial sensors
Data Source
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AI summary
A safety arrangement for a vehicle, the arrangement comprising: a control unit; one or more vehicle sensors, the sensors being connected to the control unit so the control unit receives output signals from the sensors; a road detection arrangement to detect a surface or an edge of a road in the vicinity of the vehicle and determine whether the vehicle has left the road and is being driven over a surrounding non-road surface, or is likely to do so; and one or more vehicle safety systems which may be activated by the control unit, wherein: the control unit is configured to process the signals received from the sensors and to determine whether the vehicle is travelling over rough terrain, or is entering a ditch-like feature, or the vehicle is airborne; the control unit is configured to activate the one or more vehicle safety systems if it is determined from the signals received from the sensors that the vehicle is travelling over rough terrain, or is entering a ditch-like feature, or the vehicle is airborne; and signals from the sensors, or one or more quantities derived or calculated from signals from the sensors, are compared against at least one threshold to determine whether to activate the one or more vehicle safety systems, wherein the threshold is set at a first level if it is determined by the road detection arrangement that the vehicle has not left the road, and is not likely to do so, and at a second level if it is determined that the vehicle has left the road, or is likely to do so.