RADAR DETECTOR FOR PRE-IMPACT AIRBAG TRIGGERING

摘要

A pulsed radar detector to be used for airbag triggering prior to a collision between a vehicle on a roadway and an impacting target object, has sets of transmitters (10) and receivers (20) separately disposed on the side of a vehicle so as to create a bistatic antenna pattern. The transmitting antennae are mounted relative to receiving antennae so as to control the amount of direct radiation from each transmitter antenna (11) and said receiver antenna (21) so as to create a modulation of a received target signal. A signal processor (30) determines the period of the modulation in order to obtain a measure of target velocity. The amplitude of the modulation is determined so as to have a measure of relative target size. Using this data, a computer (31) continuously calculates the predicted time and point of impact in order to initiate the release of an airbag at a predetermined time before impact between said object and the side of the vehicle.