The present invention relates to a method for detecting if a vehicle is lying on its side and to the associated device.
The present invention relates to a method for detecting if a vehicle is lying on its side or transversely or horizontally in which
An advantageous refinement of the present invention is characterized by the fact that the vehicle is recognized as lying on its side if the acceleration value detected from the output signal of the acceleration sensor or the acceleration value corresponding to the output signal of the acceleration sensor falls below a specified threshold value. In this context, the term “acceleration value” comprises not only the acceleration of the vehicle (see e.g. the transversal acceleration component aq in
An advantageous refinement of the present invention is characterized by the fact that the threshold value is selected to be substantially lower than the value of the gravitational acceleration. This avoids false detections that the vehicle is lying on its side.
The present invention further comprises a device for detecting if a vehicle is lying on its side, including
One advantageous refinement of the present invention is characterized by the fact that the vehicle is a single-track vehicle.
One advantageous refinement of the present invention is characterized by the fact that the vehicle is a motorcycle.
One advantageous refinement of the present invention is characterized by the fact that the acceleration sensor is an inertial sensor.
One advantageous refinement of the present invention is characterized by the fact that the acceleration sensor is sensor based on the spring-mass principle.
The advantageous refinements of the method according to the present invention manifest themselves also as advantageous refinements of the device according to the present invention, and vice versa.
The present invention makes it possible to detect reliably when a vehicle is lying on its side, particularly a motorcycle or two-wheeler. Detecting when a vehicle is lying on its side is important, for example, for turning off the engine automatically in this case so as to avert consequential faults in the engine due to a loss of a sufficient lubrication.
According to the present invention, an acceleration sensor is mounted to the motorcycle in such a way that the acceleration acting in the vertical axis direction of the motorcycle (or the acceleration value corresponding to the inertial force acting in the vertical axis direction) is measured.
To this end,
The acceleration values measured in the three positions of the motorcycle indicated in
Motorcycle Position as Shown in
a) shows a motorcycle standing upright. Since the measuring direction of sensor 13 points in the vertical direction, sensor 13 measures here the gravitational acceleration g (g≈9.81 m/s2).
Motorcycle Position as Shown in
b) shows a motorcycle inclined while cornering. In this case, the acceleration sensor measures the signal indicated by vector arrow 15, which is composed of the vectorial sum
c) shows a motorcycle lying on the ground. Here the indicated gravitational acceleration g points in a direction perpendicular or approximately perpendicular with respect to the measuring direction of the acceleration sensor, i.e. acceleration sensor 13 measures the value zero or a value of approximately zero (since in practice the motorcycle often does not lie absolutely level with respect to the ground).
The described installation position of the acceleration sensor with the measuring axis pointing in the vertical direction of the motorcycle allows for a very reliable detection of the transverse position of the motorcycle. The transverse position is detected by the fact that the acceleration measured by sensor 13 lies substantially below gravitational acceleration g. A false detection of a transverse position during cornering is not possible for the reason that the sensor during cornering measures an even greater acceleration than the gravitational acceleration g (see
The sequence of the method according to the present invention is shown in
Acceleration sensor 300, which is mounted in such a way that its measuring direction points parallel with respect to the vertical axis of the vehicle, supplies its output signals to evaluation means 301 for detecting on the basis of the measuring signal whether the vehicle is lying on its side. In the event that the vehicle is found to lie on its side, the evaluation means trigger, for example, engine control 302, causing the engine to switch off.
The present invention for detecting when a vehicle is lying on its side is not only suitable for motorcycles, but can be used for all types of vehicles.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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102005002239.1 | Jan 2005 | DE | national |