Abstract: A disclosed rollover determination apparatus mounted on a vehicle for determining whether or not the present vehicle has a possibility of rolling over is configured to change its rollover determination criterion when a vehicle behavior control for controlling rotations of wheels is activated, so that it is not determined that the rollover occurs unless variation of the vehicle behavior larger than that under the circumstance where the vehicle behavior control is not activated occurs.

Abstract: An activation control apparatus of an occupant safety system has a floor sensor 32 disposed at a predetermined position in a vehicle and arranged to detect impact on the vehicle and an activation control 40 of the occupant safety system for activating the occupant safety system when an operation value obtained based on a detection value detected by the floor sensor 32 exceeds a predetermined threshold, and the activation control apparatus further has satellite sensors 30A, 30B disposed more to the front than the floor sensor 32 in the vehicle and arranged to detect a level of the impact on the vehicle to detect values of at least two different magnitudes according to the level of the detected impact, and a threshold changer 42 for changing the predetermined threshold in accordance with a detection value of the satellite sensors 30A, 30B.

Abstract: A structure and method for enabling a passive vehicle occupant restraint to be activated at the earliest possible timing, irrespective of a type of a collision. A floor sensor measures a deceleration G applied to the length of a vehicle and outputs the deceleration as the measurement G. An arithmetic unit carries out a predetermined arithmetic operation on the measurement G output from the floor sensor, so as to determine a function f(G). A conditional activation unit has a variation pattern of a threshold value T that varies with a variation in velocity v of a non-stationary object. The conditional activation unit reads a threshold value T corresponding to an input velocity v from the variation pattern and compares the threshold value T with the value of the function f(G). In case that the value of the function f(G) exceeds the threshold value T, an activation signal A is input to a driving circuit.

Abstract: An activating apparatus of passive safety device having squibs, each for activating a passive safety device for protecting a passenger, current controllers for controlling an electric current supplied from an on-vehicle power supply to the squibs in the event of a crash and for controlling an electric current supplied from an off-vehicle power supply that is connected at the time of disposal of the passive safety devices, to the squibs, and a driver for outputting a driving signal to the current controllers to supply the electric current from the on-vehicle power supply or the off-vehicle power supply to the squibs, thereby activating the passive safety devices. The driver disables outputting of the driving signal based on the crash to the current controllers at the time of disposal of the passive safety devices.

Abstract: An ignition control method in a passive safety device for a vehicle is provided which can achieve a sufficiently long back-up time achieved by a back-up condenser for power supply. The ignition control method includes a mode-shifting step of shifting the operation mode of an ignition control device from a normal mode to a low-power-consumption mode.

Abstract: A floor sensor 32 measures a deceleration G applied to the length of a vehicle and outputs the deceleration as the measurement G. An arithmetic unit 58 carries out a predetermined arithmetic operation on the measurement G output from the floor sensor 32, so as to determine a function f(G). A conditional activation unit 60 has a variation pattern of a threshold value T that varies with a variation in velocity v of a non-stationary object. The conditional activation unit 60 reads a threshold value T corresponding to an input velocity v from the variation pattern and compares the threshold value T with the value of the function f(G). In case that the value of the function f(G) exceeds the threshold value T, an activation signal A is input to a driving circuit 34. A satellite sensor 30 outputs an ON signal when a deceleration of not less than a predetermined reference value is applied to the vehicle.

Abstract: An air bag apparatus for a passenger seat includes: a first sensor for detecting an occupant seated in a passenger seat; a second sensor for detecting a state in which the occupant is approaching an instrument panel excluding a state in which the occupant put out his or her hand(s) on the instrument panel; and a deployment controller for changing the control of deployment of an air bag when the occupant is detected by the first sensor and the state in which the occupant is approaching the instrument panel is detected by the second sensor.

Abstract: A passive safety device starting apparatus includes: a sampling unit for sampling a plurality of acceleration values from an automotive vehicle according to periodic interrupt signals; an integration unit for calculating the sum of a plurality of acceleration values sampled within each of a plurality of first time intervals, for storing a number of the sums, each of which is calculated within a second time interval greater than one of the first time intervals, in a corresponding number of data areas of a memory, and for generating a value of an integral based on the number of the sums within each first time interval; and a starting unit for updating the integral value according to the periodic interrupt signals by adding a new acceleration value to the integral value generated by the integration unit after the new acceleration value is sampled by the sampling unit, and for starting a passive safety device when the updated integral value is detected to be greater than a threshold value.

Abstract: An air bag system able to inflate an air bag at an appropriate time, corresponding to different collision modes, with a simplified construction. The system is provided with a longitudinal acceleration sensor and an acceleration level computing means which computes the degree of acceleration. A computing device computes the rate of change of the acceleration and detects a characteristic of the rate of change, and sends the resultant data to a first judging device. The first judging device detects the presence of a collision based on the degree of the acceleration and the characteristic of the rate of change of the acceleration. A second judging device is provided in order to detect the presence of a collision based on the acceleration. An air bag driving signal is output based on the judgments made by the first and the second judging device.