A safety bumper assembly for a vehicle shutting off a vehicle engine when the vehicle hits an obstacle, particularly an autonomous vehicle used for agricultural purposes. The assembly includes bumper shafts holding a bumper bar at a distance from a support structure of the vehicle and shuts off the vehicle engine in such fashion that the vehicle comes to a full stop before the bumper has reached its most inward position closer to the vehicle body. A vehicle equipped with the safety bumper assembly has vehicle frame integrating a support structure of the safety bumper assembly.

Embodiments related to a capacitive proximity sensor with a variable spacing electrode structure, which is suited to a non-destructive testing operation, such as the detection of dielectric properties of the polymer materials with a thickness decreases gradually structure. The designed sensor includes a driving electrode, a sensing electrode, a substrate, a guarding electrode and a lead connector. The driving and sensing electrodes include several interdigitated fingers, which are arranged alternately in sequence, based on the characteristic of the thickness decreases gradually structure of the MUT, the width of the electrodes and spacing between two adjacent electrodes in each unit are optimized individually. Namely, under the condition of ensuring penetration depth, the electrode width is made as large as possible to achieve maximum signal strength and detection sensitivity. Compared with the traditional ES-IDE structure capacitive proximity sensor, the newly designed VS-IDE capacitive sensor increases the effective electrode area, which increases the signal strength and measurement sensitivity directly. Besides, the electric field lines of the designed sensor are confined within the thickness gradually changed materials under test mostly as expected simultaneously.

A magnetic repulsion system including a front electromagnet at a front, and a rear electromagnet at a rear, of a primary vehicle. A communication module is configured to determine whether a secondary vehicle directly adjacent to the primary vehicle is equipped with a secondary magnetic repulsion system. A sensor module of the primary vehicle is configured to identify when a collision between the primary vehicle and the secondary vehicle directly adjacent to the primary vehicle is imminent. A control module of the primary vehicle is configured to activate the front or rear electromagnet of the primary vehicle that is opposite to the secondary vehicle when both the sensor module identifies that a collision between the primary vehicle and the secondary vehicle directly adjacent to the primary vehicle is imminent, and the communication module receives notification that the secondary vehicle is equipped with the secondary magnetic repulsion system.

A mobile platform including a vehicle body, an elastic anti-collision strip and two trigger mechanisms is provided. The vehicle body has two side surfaces and a front side surface connected between the two side surfaces. A safety network is provided in the vehicle body. The elastic anti-collision strip includes an impact receiving section and two fixing sections respectively connected to the impact receiving section. The impact receiving section is arc-shaped and located on the front side surface. The two fixing sections are respectively fixed to the two side surfaces. The two trigger mechanisms are respectively fixed to the two side surfaces and connected to the two fixing sections. The trigger mechanisms are used to trigger the safety network according to a deformation condition of the impact receiving section. The two fixing sections are used to control the deformation condition. A driving method of the mobile platform is also provided.

A method and vehicle control system for controlling stiffness of at least one support structure of a vehicle includes at least one of an acceleration sensor, a braking sensor and a corner sensor for providing a driving condition of the vehicle. A controller obtains information from the sensors to determine the driving condition and control the stiffness of a support structure of the vehicle. A magnetic field generator provides a magnetic field to control the stiffness of the support structure having a magnetorheological fluid or elastomer. An electrical source provides electrical current to a support structure including an electrorheological fluid or a support structure including a meta-material. When a vehicle collision is predicted no energy is provided to the support structure to minimize the stiffness and maximize energy absorbance by the support structure in a collision.

A sensing device for actuating an airbag system in a motor vehicle comprises an airbag having a stowed condition and an inflated condition, an inflator operationally coupled with the airbag responsive to electrical actuation for inflating the airbag with a gas, an impact detection sensor for generating a signal upon an offset impact event, and a controller for processing the signal generated by the sensor and electrically actuating the inflator upon computing a predetermined impact severity to a forward corner of the motor vehicle. The motor vehicle further comprises a front bumper beam attached proximate a distal end of a front rail and the sensor comprises a flexible electro-resistive sensor mounted to a rear side of an outboard portion of the front bumper beam.

A protection device of self-propelled vehicle including a main body, a frame body, and at least two pivoting members is provided. The main body has a rail or a moving block, and the frame body has a moving block or a rail. The frame body moves on a plane relative to the main body via the moving block being removably coupled to the rail. The two pivoting members being removably pivoted to the main body and the frame body along two normal lines of the plane respectively. The frame body is forced to be rotated on the plane with one of the two pivoting members relative to the main body.

Methods and systems are provided for controlling a vehicle action based on a condition of a road on which a vehicle is travelling, including: obtaining first sensor data as to a surface of the road from one or more first sensors onboard the vehicle; obtaining second sensor data from one or more second sensors onboard the vehicle as to a measured parameter pertaining to operation of the vehicle or conditions pertaining thereto; generating a plurality of road surface channel images from the first sensor data, wherein each road surface channel image captures one of a plurality of facets of properties of the first sensor data; classifying, via a processor using a neural network model, the condition of the road on which the vehicle is travelling, based on the measured parameter and the plurality of road surface channel images; and controlling a vehicle action based on the classification of the condition of the road.

A vehicle front portion structure comprising: a bumper reinforcement disposed at a vehicle front end portion side such that a longitudinal direction of the bumper reinforcement is aligned with a vehicle transverse direction; a pedestrian collision detection sensor comprising a pressure tube and outputting signals based on pressure changes in the pressure tube, the pressure tube comprising: a main tube disposed at a vehicle front side of the bumper reinforcement and extending along the bumper reinforcement from one end portion in the longitudinal direction of the bumper reinforcement to another end portion in the longitudinal direction thereof; and a pair of outer side tubes provided continuously with the main tube and, as viewed from a vehicle front-rear direction, extending respectively towards a vehicle lower side from positions of the one end portion and the other end portion of the main tube; and an absorber.

A bumper structure of the present disclosure includes: a bumper face; a bumper beam; and an impact-absorbing member interposed to be compressively deformed between the exterior member and the movable-body-side rigid member. The movable-body-side rigid member, in an up-and-down direction of the movable-body-side rigid member, includes: a plurality of recesses recessed toward the movable body; and a protrusion protruding forward the movable body to be formed between the plurality of recesses. The plurality of recesses each have a vertical width gradually tapering toward the movable body, and the impact-absorbing member is fitted into at least two of the plurality of recesses.