阅读说明：本技术 车辆用乘客保护装置 (Occupant protection device for vehicle ) 是由 关塚诚 于 2020-01-17 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明使前面碰撞时的乘客的保护性能提高。车辆用乘客保护装置(10)具备：安全带装置(26),其具有能够变更在车辆(12)的前面碰撞时乘客(P)从安全带(28)受到的力限制器载荷的可变力限制器机构(36)；气囊装置(46),其在车辆(12)的前面碰撞时使气囊(48)向乘客(P)的前方展开；就座位置检测部,其检测乘客(P)就座的就座位置；以及控制部,其在利用就座位置检测部检测出的乘客(P)的就座位置是比作为标准的就座区域的标准就座区域靠车辆后方的位置且在乘客(P)由展开的气囊(48)保护的气囊保护区域内的情况下,与乘客(P)位于标准就座区域内的情况相比,使力限制器载荷下降。(The invention improves the protection performance of passengers in front collision. A vehicle occupant protection device (10) is provided with: a seatbelt device (26) having a variable force limiter mechanism (36) capable of changing a force limiter load that a passenger (P) receives from a seatbelt (28) at the time of a front collision of a vehicle (12); an airbag device (46) that deploys an airbag (48) forward of a passenger (P) during a frontal collision of the vehicle (12); a seating position detection unit that detects a seating position at which a passenger (P) is seated; and a control portion that, when the seating position of the occupant (P) detected by the seating position detection portion is a position further to the vehicle rear side than a standard seating region that is a standard seating region and is within an airbag protection region in which the occupant (P) is protected by a deployed airbag (48), reduces the force limiter load as compared to when the occupant (P) is within the standard seating region.)

1. An occupant protection device for a vehicle, comprising:

a seatbelt device that has a variable force limiter mechanism that is capable of changing a force limiter load that a passenger seated in a vehicle seat receives from a seatbelt at the time of a front collision of the vehicle;

an airbag device that deploys an airbag forward of the occupant at the time of a frontal collision of the vehicle;

a seating position detection portion that detects a seating position at which the passenger sits; and

a control portion that, when the seating position of the occupant detected by the seating position detection portion is a position further to the vehicle rear side than a standard seating region that is a standard seating region and is within an airbag protection region in which the occupant is protected by the deployed airbag, lowers the force limiter load as compared to when the occupant is located within the standard seating region.

2. The occupant protection apparatus for a vehicle according to claim 1,

the vehicle is an autonomous vehicle capable of switching to autonomous driving and manual driving,

the passenger is a driver of the autonomous vehicle,

the control portion detects the standard seating area based on a seating position of the passenger at the time of manual driving.

3. The vehicular occupant protection apparatus according to claim 2,

the seating position detecting unit detects at least one of a front-rear sliding position and an inclination angle of the vehicle seat,

the control portion detects the position of the head of the occupant based on the detection result of the seating position detection portion.

4. The vehicular occupant protection apparatus according to claim 3,

the control unit lowers the force limiter load in accordance with an increase in a vehicle longitudinal direction distance between an interior member located in front of the occupant and the head.

5. The vehicular occupant protection apparatus according to claim 4,

the seating position detecting unit detects both the front-rear sliding position and the inclination angle,

the control unit sets the force limiter load to be higher when the increase in the distance is caused by an increase in the inclination angle than when the increase is caused by a retreat of the forward-backward sliding position.

6. The vehicular occupant protection apparatus according to claim 4 or claim 5,

the seating position detecting section detects at least the forward-backward slide position,

the control unit estimates the physique of the passenger based on the forward/backward sliding position during manual driving, and corrects the detection result of the position of the head based on the estimated physique.

7. The vehicular occupant protection apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6,

the distance in the vehicle front-rear direction between the head of the occupant located in the standard seating area and the interior component located forward of the occupant is set to S0,

a distance in the vehicle longitudinal direction between the head of the occupant and the interior member located further to the vehicle rear side than the standard seating region is set to S,

setting the force limiter load in the state where the occupant is located in the standard seating area to F0,

if the force limiter load in a state where the occupant is located further to the vehicle rear side than the standard seating area is F,

the control unit changes the force limiter load so as to satisfy a relationship of F0 × S0/S.

8. The vehicular occupant protection apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 7,

the vehicle seat includes:

a seat cushion coupled to a floor portion of the vehicle via a slide mechanism; and

a seat back having a lower end portion connected to a rear end portion of the seat cushion via a reclining mechanism,

the seat belt device includes:

a retractor that is disposed in a seat back of the vehicle seat; and

and a 3-point type seat belt, one end of which is locked to the seat cushion or the sliding mechanism, and the other end of which is locked to a take-up shaft of the retractor.

9. The vehicular occupant protection apparatus according to claim 1 or claim 2,

the seating position detection unit is an in-vehicle camera that photographs the passenger.

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to an occupant protection device for a vehicle.

Background

In the vehicle occupant protection device described in japanese patent application laid-open No. 2013-103603, a passenger seat as a movable seat is provided movably between an airbag protection region and a non-airbag protection region. The retractor of the seatbelt sets the force limiter load to a low load when the front passenger seat is located in the airbag protection region, and sets the force limiter load to a high load when the front passenger seat is located in the non-airbag protection region. In this way, the occupant is protected with the most appropriate restraining force by switching the force limiter load of the seat belt in accordance with the region in which the passenger seat is located.

In the above-described conventional technology, as the non-airbag protection region in which the force limiter load is switched to the high load, a region in which the airbag does not restrict the passenger at all, that is, a state in which the passenger seat slides to the position of the rear seat is set. However, even in the airbag protection region where the airbag restricts the passenger in the front passenger seat, the distance between the passenger and the airbag changes depending on the front-rear sliding position or the inclination angle of the front passenger seat. This point is not considered in the above prior art. In the above-described conventional technique, the forward movement amount of the passenger in the front seat is reduced by switching the force limiter load to the high load, but the load applied to the chest of the passenger from the seat belt is increased by switching to the high load. Therefore, there is room for improvement from the viewpoint of improving the passenger protection performance.

Disclosure of Invention

The present disclosure takes the above circumstances into consideration, and an object thereof is to obtain a vehicle occupant protection device capable of improving occupant protection performance at the time of a front collision.

A vehicle occupant protection device according to a first aspect of the present disclosure (first aspect) includes: a seatbelt device that has a variable force limiter mechanism that is capable of changing a force limiter load that a passenger seated in a vehicle seat receives from a seatbelt at the time of a front collision of the vehicle; an airbag device that deploys an airbag forward of the occupant at the time of a frontal collision of the vehicle; a seating position detection portion that detects a seating position at which the passenger sits; and a control portion that, when the seating position of the occupant detected by the seating position detection portion is a position further to the vehicle rear side than a standard seating region that is a standard seating region and is within an airbag protection region in which the occupant is protected by the deployed airbag, lowers the force limiter load as compared to when the occupant is located within the standard seating region.

According to the first aspect, the variable force limiter mechanism included in the seatbelt apparatus can change the force limiter load that the occupant seated in the vehicle seat receives from the seatbelt at the time of a frontal collision of the vehicle. Further, the airbag device deploys the airbag forward of the occupant at the time of a frontal collision of the vehicle, and the seating position detection unit detects the seating position at which the occupant sits. Then, the control portion lowers the force limiter load in comparison with a case where the occupant is located in the standard seating region, when the seating position of the occupant detected by the seating position detecting portion is a position further to the vehicle rear side than the standard seating region which is the standard seating region and within the airbag protection region where the occupant is protected by the deployed airbag. That is, when the seating position of the occupant is a position further to the vehicle rear side than the standard seating area, the control unit can secure a larger amount of forward movement of the occupant relative to the vehicle (i.e., the impact absorbing stroke) than in the standard seating area, and therefore the control unit lowers the force limiter load. As a result, the load on the chest of the occupant from the seat belt becomes lower, so that the occupant protection performance can be improved.

A vehicle occupant protection device according to a second aspect of the present disclosure is the vehicle occupant protection device according to the first aspect, wherein the vehicle is an automatically driven vehicle switchable between automatic driving and manual driving, the occupant is a driver of the automatically driven vehicle, and the control unit detects the standard seating area based on a seating position of the occupant during manual driving.

In the second aspect, the control unit detects the standard seating area of the passenger based on the seating position of the passenger when the driver of the autonomous vehicle is manually driving. When the autonomous vehicle is autonomously driven, the passenger can take a relaxed comfortable posture at a position behind the vehicle from the standard seating area. At this time, the force limiter load is reduced compared to the case where the occupant is located in the standard seating area. This reduces the load on the chest of the passenger from the seat belt even in the case of a frontal collision during autonomous driving.

A third aspect of the present disclosure is the vehicle occupant protection device according to the second aspect, wherein the seating position detection unit detects at least one of a front-rear sliding position and an inclination angle of the vehicle seat, and the control unit detects a position of the head of the occupant based on a detection result of the seating position detection unit.

In the third aspect, the seating position detection unit detects at least one of the front-rear sliding position and the reclining angle of the vehicle seat, and the control unit detects the position of the head of the occupant based on the detection result. This enables the position of the head of the passenger to be detected with a simple configuration.

A vehicle occupant protection device according to a fourth aspect of the present disclosure is the third aspect wherein the control unit lowers the force limiter load in accordance with an increase in a vehicle longitudinal direction distance between an interior member located forward of the occupant and the head.

In the fourth aspect, when the distance in the vehicle longitudinal direction between the interior trim component located forward of the occupant and the head of the occupant increases, the force limiter load decreases in accordance with the increase. That is, since the force limiter load is decreased according to the increase of the shock absorbing stroke, the shock absorbing amount can be kept constant.

A fifth aspect of the vehicle occupant protection device of the present disclosure is that, in the fourth aspect, the seating position detection unit detects both the front-rear sliding position and the inclination angle, and the control unit sets the force limiter load to be higher when the increase in the distance is caused by an increase in the inclination angle than when the increase in the distance is caused by a retreat of the front-rear sliding position.

In the fifth aspect, when the increase in the vehicle longitudinal direction distance between the interior component located forward of the occupant and the head of the occupant is caused by an increase in the inclination angle of the vehicle seat, the force limiter load is set to be higher than that caused by the backward movement (sliding toward the vehicle rear) of the longitudinal sliding position of the vehicle seat. That is, since the load on the chest of the occupant from the seat belt at the time of a frontal collision is reduced in a state where the inclination angle of the vehicle seat is increased, by setting the force limiter load to be high as described above, the occupant restraining force of the seat belt can be improved while ensuring the occupant protecting performance.

A sixth aspect of the present disclosure provides the vehicle occupant protection device, wherein in the fourth or fifth aspect, the seating position detection unit detects at least the forward-backward slide position, and the control unit estimates a physique of the occupant based on the forward-backward slide position during manual driving and corrects a detection result of the position of the head based on the estimated physique.

In the sixth aspect, the control unit estimates the physique of the passenger based on the forward-backward sliding position of the vehicle seat during manual driving, and corrects the detection result of the position of the head of the passenger based on the estimated physique. This makes it possible to more finely change the force limiter load according to the physique of the occupant.

As described above, in the vehicle occupant protection apparatus of the present disclosure, the occupant protection performance at the time of a frontal collision can be improved.

Drawings

Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated based on the following figures, wherein:

fig. 1 is a side view showing a structure of a driver's seat periphery in an autonomous vehicle to which a vehicle occupant protection device of an embodiment of the present disclosure is applied;

fig. 2 is a block diagram showing the structure of a vehicular occupant protection apparatus of the embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 3 is a side view corresponding to a part of fig. 1, and is a diagram for explaining a relationship between a distance in the vehicle front-rear direction between a head of an occupant and a steering device and a load of a force limiter;

fig. 4 is a graph showing an example of steplessly varying the force limiter load according to the distance in the vehicle front-rear direction between the head of the passenger and the steering device;

fig. 5 is a graph showing an example of changing the force limiter load in two stages according to the distance in the vehicle front-rear direction between the head of the passenger and the steering device;

fig. 6 is a graph showing an example of a detection result of correcting the position of the head based on the estimated physique of the occupant when the force limiter load is steplessly changed according to the distance in the vehicle front-rear direction between the head of the occupant and the steering device.

Detailed Description

Hereinafter, a vehicle occupant protection device 10 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to fig. 1 to 6. Arrow FR and arrow UP appropriately described in the drawings indicate the front (traveling direction) and the upper side of the vehicle, respectively. Hereinafter, when only the front-rear direction and the up-down direction are used for description, the front-rear direction of the vehicle and the up-down direction of the vehicle are indicated unless otherwise stated.

(Structure)

As shown in fig. 1 and 2, the vehicle occupant protection device 10 according to the embodiment of the present disclosure includes a seatbelt device 26, an airbag device 46, a seating position detection Unit 52, and an ECU (Electronic Control Unit) 58 as a Control Unit. The vehicle 12 to which the vehicle occupant protection device 10 is applied can be switched between a manually driven vehicle 12 and an automatically driven vehicle 12 (hereinafter, may be simply referred to as "vehicle 12"). An automatic driving device (not shown) is mounted on the vehicle 12.

The automatic driving device includes an automatic driving control ECU that controls automatic driving of the vehicle 12 and controls switching between automatic driving and manual driving. The automatic driving control ECU is connected to a high-precision map information ECU, external sensors, internal sensors, actuators, auxiliary devices, an HMI (Human Machine Interface), and the like (all of which are not shown).

The high-accuracy map information ECU obtains the positional information of the vehicle 12 using the map information and the GPS information. The external sensor detects information on the periphery of the vehicle 12, and detects Imaging information from a camera outside the vehicle, obstacle information from a radar, obstacle information from a Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging, and the like as information on the periphery of the vehicle 12. The internal sensors detect the running state of the vehicle 12, and include at least one of a vehicle speed sensor, an acceleration sensor, and a yaw rate sensor. The actuators drive the accelerator, brake, steering wheel, etc. of the vehicle 12. The auxiliary devices include headlamps, brake lamps, direction indicator lamps, and wipers of the vehicle 12. The HMI is an interface for inputting and outputting information between the passenger of the vehicle 12 and the automatic driving device, and includes a display, a speaker, a touch panel, a voice input device, and the like.

The automatic drive control ECU performs an automatic drive control process of controlling operations of the actuator and the auxiliary device based on outputs from the high-accuracy map information ECU, the external sensor, the internal sensor, and the HMI. In the automatic driving control process, a travel plan along a preset target route is generated based on the peripheral information and the map information of the vehicle 12, and the driving of the vehicle 12 is controlled so that the vehicle 12 autonomously travels according to the generated travel plan.

The vehicle occupant protection device 10 applied to the vehicle 12 has the following configuration: at the time of a frontal collision of the vehicle 12, a passenger (driver) P seated on a vehicle seat 14, which is an operator's seat of the vehicle 12, is protected (restricted) by the seatbelt apparatus 26 and the airbag apparatus 46.

Here, the vehicle seat 14 is disposed on the right side of the front portion of the vehicle compartment. The vehicle seat 14 includes: a seat cushion 16 on which a passenger P sits, a seat back 18 supported tiltably by a rear end portion of the seat cushion 16, and a headrest 20 supported height-adjustably by an upper end portion of the seat back 18. The front, rear, left, right, and up-down directions of the vehicle seat 14 coincide with the front, rear, left, right, and up-down directions of the vehicle 12. In addition, when the vehicle seat 14 is disposed on the left side of the front portion of the vehicle compartment, the configuration is bilaterally symmetrical to the present embodiment.

The seat cushion 16 is coupled to a floor portion 12A of the vehicle 12 via a slide mechanism 22, and the slide mechanism 22 is used to adjust a front-rear slide position of the vehicle seat 14. A lower end portion of the seat back 18 is coupled to a rear end portion of the seat cushion 16 via a reclining mechanism 24, and the reclining mechanism 24 is used to adjust a reclining angle of the seat back 18. The slide mechanism 22 is configured to slide the vehicle seat 14 forward and backward with respect to the floor portion 12A by the driving force of the motor, and the reclining mechanism 24 is configured to tilt the seat back 18 forward and backward around the lower end portion by the driving force of the motor. The slide mechanism 22 and the tilt mechanism 24 may be manually operated.

The seatbelt device 26 applied to the vehicle seat 14 includes a 3-point type seatbelt (webbing) 28, a retractor (webbing take-up device) 30, a tongue 38, and a buckle 40. The retractor 30 is disposed on the upper portion of the seat back 18, and the striker 40 is disposed on the side (left in this case) of the vehicle seat 14.

One end portion, not shown, of the seatbelt 28 is locked to an anchor plate, not shown, fixed to the seat cushion 16, the slide mechanism 22, and the like, at the right side of the vehicle seat 14, and the other end portion of the seatbelt 28 is locked to a take-up shaft 32 of the retractor 30. The retractor 30 is fixed to a frame (not shown) of the seat back 18.

A webbing guide 42 is attached to an upper end portion of the seat back 18, the webbing guide 42 is formed with a long hole (webbing insertion hole) not shown, and the other end side of the webbing 28 is inserted into the long hole of the webbing guide 42. The intermediate portion of the webbing 28 is inserted into an elongated hole (reference numeral omitted) formed in the latch tongue 38. Thereby, the tongue 38 is slidably attached to the intermediate portion of the webbing 28. The lock 40 is disposed on the side (left side in this case) of the seat cushion 16, and is connected to the slide mechanism 22 via a bracket 41.

When the tongue 38 is coupled to the buckle 40, the occupant P is wearing the seat belt 28. In this seat belt wearing state, a portion of the seat belt 28 between the belt guide 42 and the tongue 38 serves as a shoulder belt 28A that restricts the shoulder to the abdomen of the passenger P, and a portion of the seat belt 28 between the tongue 38 and the anchor plate serves as a lap belt 28B that restricts the waist of the passenger P.

The retractor 30 described above has a pretensioner mechanism 34 and a variable force limiter mechanism 36. The pretensioner mechanism 34 has the following structure: in a frontal collision of the vehicle 12, the take-up shaft 32 is forcibly rotated in one direction (the take-up direction in which the webbing 28 is taken up) about the shaft axis. The pretensioner mechanism 34 is, for example, of an explosive type, and has the following structure: the webbing 28 is forcibly wound around the winding shaft 32 by a predetermined amount (drawn into the retractor 30) by rotating the winding shaft 32 by ignition of the powder. The operation of the pretensioner mechanism 34 is controlled by an ECU58 described later.

The variable force limiter mechanism 36 has the following structure: at the time of a front collision of the vehicle 12, the take-up shaft 32 is allowed to rotate a certain amount in the other direction (the pull-out direction in which the webbing 28 is pulled out) about the shaft, that is, the webbing 28 is allowed to pull out a certain amount from the retractor 30, and a restraining load (force limiter load) is given to the pull-out. The variable force limiter mechanism 36 is capable of changing the force limiter load that the occupant P receives from the seatbelt 28 during a frontal collision of the vehicle 12. The force limiter load may be changed in any of a stepless, two-stage, or three or more-stage manner. As the variable force limiter mechanism 36, conventionally known force limiter mechanisms disclosed in, for example, japanese patent laid-open nos. 2013-103603, 2016-165994, 2018-075877, 2018-131168, and 2006-062632 can be applied. The operation of the variable force limiter mechanism 36 is controlled by an ECU58 described later. Note that, since the specific configuration of the variable force limiter mechanism 36 is not a main part of the present embodiment, the description thereof is omitted.

The airbag device 46 is a driver seat airbag device mounted on the steering device 13 of the vehicle 12, and includes an airbag 48 sewn in a bag shape, and an inflator 50 (see fig. 2; not shown in fig. 1) that supplies gas for inflation into the airbag 48. The airbag 48 is modularized with the inflator 50 in a folded state in a normal state, and is covered by a steering wheel cover 13B, not shown, provided at the center portion of the steering wheel 13A. The airbag 48 is inflated by the pressure of the gas generated from the inflator 50, and is deployed toward the rear side of the steering wheel 13A, i.e., toward the front of the occupant P (see the two-dot chain line in fig. 1). When the airbag 48 is deployed, the steering wheel cover 13B is broken at the tear line (thin portion). The operation of the inflator 50 described above is controlled by the ECU 58.

The ECU58 is constituted by a microcomputer including a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 58A, RAM (random access Memory) 58B and a ROM (Read Only Memory) 58C, and the program 58C1 stored in the ROM58C is developed in the RAM58B and executed by the CPU 58A. As shown in fig. 2, the pretensioner mechanism 34, the variable force limiter mechanism 36, and the inflator 50 are electrically connected to the ECU 58. The collision sensor 60, the slide position detection sensor 54, and the tilt angle detection sensor 56 are electrically connected to the ECU 58.

The collision sensor 60 includes, for example, a front-rear acceleration sensor that detects acceleration in the front-rear direction of the vehicle 12, and a left-right acceleration sensor that detects acceleration in the left-right direction of the vehicle 12. The ECU58 has the following structure: when a frontal collision of the vehicle 12 is detected based on the output from the collision sensor 60, the inflator 50 and the pretensioner mechanism 34 are operated. Further, the following structure may be adopted: the ECU58 predicts (predicts) a frontal collision of the vehicle 12 based on an output from a collision prevention sensor configured to include at least one of an off-vehicle camera, a millimeter wave radar, and an infrared laser, for example.

The slide position detection sensor 54 is provided in the slide mechanism 22, for example, and has the following structure: the front-rear slide position of the vehicle seat 14 is detected (calculated) based on the rotation speed of the motor of the slide mechanism 22. The tilt angle detection sensor 56 is provided in the tilt mechanism 24, for example, and has the following configuration: the reclining angle of the seat back 18 is detected (calculated) based on the rotation speed of the motor of the reclining mechanism 24. The slide position detection sensor 54 and the inclination angle detection sensor 56 constitute a seating position detection unit 52 that detects a seating position at which the passenger P sits. The slide position detection sensor 54 and the tilt angle detection sensor 56 may be distance meters of a resistance type, an optical type, a laser type, or the like.

The ECU58 has the following structure: when the seating position of the occupant P detected by the seating position detecting portion 52 is a position further to the vehicle rear side than the standard seating region that is the standard seating region and within the airbag protection region where the occupant P is protected by the airbag 48 that is deployed at the time of a frontal collision of the vehicle 12, the force limiter load of the variable force limiter mechanism 36 is decreased as compared to when the occupant P is located within the standard seating region.

The standard seating area is an area determined when the body of the vehicle 12 is designed, and is determined assuming that a standard-size passenger P (see fig. 1 and 3) is seated in the vehicle seat 14. The standard seating region is used to specify the position of the vehicle seat 14 in the front-rear direction and the up-down direction with respect to the vehicle body. The passenger P of the standard body type has an average adult male body size, for example, a body size (height 175cm, weight 78kg) equivalent to that of a dummy figure of "Hybrid-III AM 50".

When the vehicle 12 is manually driven in the standard seating posture (see the passenger P shown in fig. 1 and the passenger P1 shown by a solid line in fig. 3), the passenger P of the standard body type is located in the standard seating area. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the ECU58 has the following structure: the above-described standard seating area (standard seating position) is detected based on the seating position of the occupant P at the time of manual driving of the vehicle 12. In this case, the ECU58 has the following structure: the position of the head H of the occupant P is detected based on the detection result of the seating position detecting portion 52, and the force limiter load is lowered in accordance with an increase in the vehicle longitudinal direction distance between the head H and an interior member (here, the steering device 13) located forward of the occupant P.

The "increase in distance" occurs, for example, when the passenger P takes a posture at the vehicle rear side of the standard seating area during automatic driving (see passengers P2 and P3 indicated by two-dot chain lines in fig. 3). The occupant P2 in fig. 3 is seated on the vehicle seat 14 (not shown in fig. 3) in a state where the occupant slides from the standard seating area to the vehicle rear side and the seat back 18 is set at the same inclination angle as in manual driving. The passenger P3 in fig. 3 is seated on the vehicle seat 14 (not shown in fig. 3) which is disposed in the same front-rear sliding position as in manual operation and in which the seat back 18 is tilted rearward of the vehicle with respect to the manual operation. These passengers P2, P3 are located in the above-described airbag protection area. Therefore, when the vehicle 12 is involved in a frontal collision during autonomous driving in which the passenger P takes the above-described posture (hereinafter, referred to as "rearward posture"), the ECU58 is configured as follows: the force limiter load of the variable force limiter mechanism 36 is decreased.

That is, in the case where the vehicle 12 is in a forward collision with the occupant P in the rearward posture and in the airbag protection area, the impact absorbing stroke in which the occupant P can move forward of the vehicle without colliding with the steering device 13 (interior component) is larger than that in the case of manual driving. Therefore, the ECU58 has the following structure: the force limiter load is lowered in accordance with the increase in the shock absorbing stroke.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 3, the ECU58 has the following structure: when the distance in the vehicle longitudinal direction between the head H of the passenger P and the steering device 13 during manual driving is S0, the distance in the vehicle longitudinal direction between the head H of the passenger P and the steering device 13 during automatic driving is S, and the force limiter load during manual driving is F0, the force limiter load F during automatic driving is determined such that the energy absorption amount (F0 × S0) of the passenger P in the case of a frontal collision during manual driving is equal to the energy absorption amount (F × S) of the passenger P in the rearward posture in the case of a frontal collision during automatic driving (F0 × S0/S).

The distance S is, for example, a distance obtained by adding a sliding movement amount S of the head H (the vehicle seat 14) toward the vehicle rear to the distance S0 and a movement amount r of the head H toward the vehicle rear due to an increase in the inclination angle of the seatback 18 (S0 + S + r). When the distance from the hip point HP of the passenger P to the head H (here, the nose tip) is d, the inclination angle when the passenger P is manually driving is θ 0, and the inclination angle when the passenger P tilts the seat back 18 rearward of the vehicle than when the passenger P is manually driving is θ, the movement amount r is calculated as r — d × sin (θ - θ 0). In the present embodiment, the angles θ 0 and θ are angles formed by virtual straight lines L1 and L2 passing through the hip point HP of the occupant P and the head H (here, the tip of the nose) of the occupant P in a side view of the vehicle 12 with respect to a virtual straight line L0 extending in the vertical direction of the vehicle. In the present embodiment, the distances S0, S are distances in the vehicle longitudinal direction from the center of the steering wheel 13A to the head H (here, the tip of the nose) of the passenger P.

Here, for example, in the present embodiment, when the variable force limiter mechanism 36 is able to steplessly change the force limiter load F, the ECU58 changes the force limiter load F so as to satisfy the relationship of F0 × S0/S, as shown in fig. 4.

In the present embodiment, for example, when the variable force limiter mechanism 36 can change (switch) the force limiter load to the high load F0 and the low load F1 in two stages, the ECU58 sets the force limiter load to the high load F0 in a state where S ≦ S0 × F0/F1 is S1, and sets the force limiter load to the low load F1 in a state where S > S0 × F0/F1 is S1, as shown in fig. 5. That is, for example, when the high load F0 is 4kN, the low load F1 is 3kN, and S0 is 380mm, the force limiter load is reduced to 3kN in a state where S >507 mm. In this case, the region where S > S0 × F0/F1 is S1 is a region further toward the vehicle rear side than the standard seating region.

Note that, although not shown, when the variable force limiter mechanism 36 is capable of changing (switching) the force limiter load in a plurality of stages, including three or more stages, the ECU58 is also configured as follows: the force limiter load is switched in multiple stages so as to satisfy the relationship of F0 × S0/S.

(action and Effect)

Next, the operation and effect of the present embodiment will be described.

In the vehicle occupant protection apparatus 10 configured as described above, the variable force limiter mechanism 36 included in the seatbelt apparatus 26 can change the force limiter load that the occupant P receives from the seatbelt at the time of a front collision of the vehicle 12. Further, the airbag device 46 deploys the airbag forward of the occupant P at the time of a frontal collision of the vehicle 12, and the seating position detection portion 52 detects the seating position at which the occupant P is seated. Then, when the seating position of the occupant P detected by the seating position detecting portion 52 is a position further to the vehicle rear side than the standard seating region that is the standard seating region and within the airbag protection region where the occupant P is protected by the deployed airbag 48, the ECU58 lowers the force limiter load as compared to the case where the occupant P is located in the standard seating region.

That is, when the seating position of the occupant P is located further to the vehicle rear side than the standard seating area, the amount of forward movement of the occupant P with respect to the vehicle 12 (i.e., the impact absorbing stroke) can be ensured to be larger than in the standard seating area, so the ECU58 reduces the force limiter load. As a result, the load on the chest of the occupant P from the seat belt 28 (more specifically, the shoulder belt 28A) is reduced, and therefore the occupant protection performance can be improved.

In the present embodiment, the vehicle 12 can be switched between an automatically driven vehicle 12 that is automatically driven and a manually driven vehicle, and the passenger P is a driver of the automatically driven vehicle 12. Furthermore, the ECU58 has the following structure: the standard seating area is detected based on the seating position of the passenger P during manual driving. When the autonomous vehicle 12 is autonomously driven, the passenger P can take the backward posture at the vehicle rear side of the standard seating area (see passengers P2 and P3 in fig. 3). At this time, the force limiter load is reduced compared to the case where the occupant P is located in the standard seating area. Thus, even in the case of a frontal collision during autonomous driving, the load on the chest of the rearward-posture passenger P from the seat belt 28 is reduced.

In the present embodiment, the seating position detecting portion 52 includes a slide position detecting sensor 54 that detects the front-rear slide position of the vehicle seat 14, and a reclining angle detecting sensor 56 that detects the reclining angle of the seat back 18. The ECU58 detects the position of the head H of the passenger P based on the forward-backward sliding position and the inclination angle. This allows the position of the head H of the passenger P to be detected with a simple configuration.

In the present embodiment, the ECU58 lowers the force limiter load in accordance with an increase in the vehicle longitudinal direction distance S between the interior member (steering device 13) positioned forward of the occupant P and the head H of the occupant P (F0 × S0/S). That is, since the force limiter load is decreased according to the increase of the shock absorbing stroke, the shock absorbing amount can be kept constant (F0 × S0 — F × S).

In the above embodiment, the ECU58 is configured to detect the seating position (the position of the head H) of the occupant P based on both the front-rear slide position of the vehicle seat 14 detected by the slide position detection sensor 54 and the inclination angle of the seat back 18 detected by the inclination angle detection sensor 56, but the present invention is not limited thereto. That is, for example, the following configuration may be adopted: in the case where the vehicle front-rear direction sliding range of the vehicle seat is narrow, the ECU58 detects the seating position of the occupant P based only on the inclination angle. Further, for example, the following configuration may be adopted: in the case where the tilt range of the vehicle seat is narrow, the ECU58 detects the seating position of the occupant P based only on the forward-backward slide position. By configuring in this manner, the mass and cost corresponding to the sensor can be reduced.

In the above embodiment, the ECU58 is configured to detect the position of the head H of the passenger P based on the front-rear sliding position and the reclining angle (i.e., the position of the vehicle seat 14), but the present invention is not limited to this. That is, for example, the following configuration may be adopted: the position of the head H is detected by an in-vehicle camera 62 (see fig. 1) that photographs the passenger P. In this case, the in-vehicle camera 62 functions as a seating position detecting unit. In this configuration, for example, even when the seat back 18 is largely inclined, the position of the head H can be accurately detected even when the passenger P is seated while standing up his or her body. As a result, the force limiter load can be more accurately controlled.

In the above embodiment, the following configuration is adopted: the force limiter load is changed similarly in the case where the increase in the distance between the head H and the steering device 13 is caused by the increase in the forward-backward sliding position and the case where the increase in the inclination angle is caused, but is not limited to this. For example, when the increase in the distance is caused by an increase in the inclination angle, the force limiter load may be set to be higher than that caused by the retreat of the forward-backward sliding position. That is, since the load received by the chest of the occupant P from the shoulder belt 28A during a frontal collision is low in a state where the inclination angle of the seatback 18 of the vehicle seat 14 is increased, by setting the force limiter load high as described above, it is possible to improve the occupant restraining force of the seat belt 28 while ensuring the occupant protection performance.

In the above embodiment, the following configuration is adopted: the ECU58 detects the standard seating area based on the seating position when the passenger P of the standard body size manually drives the vehicle 12, but is not limited thereto. For example, the following configuration may be adopted: the ECU58 estimates the physique of the passenger P based on the forward and backward slide position during manual driving, and corrects the detection result of the position of the head H based on the estimated physique (values of S0 and d in fig. 3). In this case, as shown in fig. 6, the curve of F0 × S0/S is changed according to the physique of the passenger. This makes it possible to more finely change the force limiter load according to the physique of the occupant.

In the above embodiment, the case where the passenger P is the driver has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. That is, for example, the following configuration may be adopted: when an in-vehicle camera capable of imaging a passenger at a passenger seat is used as the seating position detection unit, the control unit stores in advance a standard seating region of the passenger at the passenger seat determined by the physique of the passenger at the passenger seat, and lowers the force limiter load of the seatbelt apparatus for the passenger seat when the passenger at the passenger seat is seated at a position further to the vehicle rear than the standard seating region and within a protection region where the passenger at the passenger seat is protected by the airbag for the passenger seat. In this case, for example, an instrument panel on which the airbag device for a front passenger seat is mounted is referred to as an "interior member" in the present disclosure.

In the above embodiment, the case where the vehicle 12 is an autonomous vehicle has been described, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and the vehicle occupant protection device of the present disclosure can be applied to a vehicle that cannot be autonomously driven.

The present disclosure can be variously modified and implemented within a range not departing from the concept thereof. Needless to say, the scope of the claims of the present disclosure is not limited to the above embodiments.