An opening and closing control method for a hidden outward-opening handle and an automobile

Abstract

The present invention provides a method for controlling the opening and closing of a hidden external opening handle and an automobile. The feature is that a position switch is correspondingly arranged for each external opening handle to determine the position. The position switch is arranged at the position of 10% - 30% of the maximum expansion stroke of the external opening handle. Independent control is carried out for the hidden external opening handles of each door of the automobile, which can reduce costs and the control logic is simple. At the same time, the PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) driving voltage is used, which can reduce the impact force, improve the service life of the handle, and reduce the impact sound.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a hidden external door handle for an automobile, and more particularly to a control technology for an electric opening and closing hidden external door handle of an automobile. Background Art

[0002] A hidden external door handle means that the external door handle of the vehicle is flush with the outer door panel, and the handle is hidden inside the door cavity and needs to be unfolded before operation can be performed. With the rapid development of automotive intelligence and electrification, the application of an electric opening and closing hidden external door handle can give users an electrified and intelligent experience, so the electric opening and closing hidden external door handle has been favored by new energy vehicle models. Now, almost all newly released vehicle models have applied the hidden external door handle. The unfolding and retracting actions of the electric opening and closing hidden external door handle are driven by an actuator to achieve the unfolding and retracting actions; the control of the unfolding and retracting of the electric opening and closing hidden external door handle is particularly important.

[0003] Patent document CN111425084B discloses a control method for an electric hidden external door handle controller, which uses two position switches to determine the position of the electric opening and closing hidden external door handle during unfolding and retracting.

[0004] Patent document CN111255314B discloses an intelligent control system for a hidden door handle, which defines the usage function scenarios of the hidden door handle, but does not define the control of the unfolding and retracting of the handle, and uses two position switches, with the driver's seat controlling alone and the other three doors being controlled jointly.

[0005] On the one hand, since the cost of the electric opening and closing hidden external door handle is very high, reducing its cost can reduce the overall vehicle cost and further enable its application in low-end vehicle models. As a component for formulating the control logic of the electric hidden external door handle, the cost of the position switch accounts for about 15% of the total cost of the electric hidden external door handle. Optimizing the control logic and reducing the cost of the position switch can thus greatly reduce the cost of the electric opening and closing hidden external door handle. On the other hand, after the electric opening and closing hidden external door handle is in place during unfolding and retracting, it will stall for a period of time to absorb the manufacturing error of the handle and ensure that all hidden external door handles can be fully unfolded and retracted. Since there is a relatively large impact force on the handle at the moment when the electric opening and closing hidden external door handle stalls during unfolding and retracting, the service life of the electric opening and closing hidden external door handle is reduced; at the same time, an impact sound and abnormal noise occur at the moment when the handle stalls during unfolding and retracting. Summary of the Invention

[0006] In view of the above problems existing in the prior art, the present invention provides a method for controlling the opening and closing of a hidden outward-opening handle and an automobile. A position switch is used for position determination, which reduces costs. At the same time, PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) is used to drive the voltage, reducing the impact force, increasing the service life of the handle, and reducing the impact sound.

[0007] The technical solution of the present invention is as follows:

[0008] In the first aspect, the present invention provides a method for controlling the opening and closing of a hidden outward-opening handle. The feature is that a position switch is correspondingly arranged for each outward-opening handle for position determination. The position switch is arranged at the position of 10% - 30% of the maximum unfolding stroke of the outward-opening handle. The method independently controls the hidden outward-opening handle of each door of the automobile, including:

[0009] When controlling the normal unfolding of the outward-opening handle, it is driven with a duty cycle of A%. After triggering the position switch within the TK time, it continues to be driven with a duty cycle of A% for the T1 time, and then within the T2 time, it is uniformly reduced from the duty cycle of A% to 0 and then the driving stops.

[0010] When controlling the retraction of the outward-opening handle, it is driven with a duty cycle of A%. After triggering the position switch within the TG time, it continues to be driven with a duty cycle of A% for the T3 time, and then within the T4 time, it is uniformly reduced from the duty cycle of A% to 0 and then the driving stops.

[0011] Further, when the electric opening and closing of the hidden outward-opening handle encounters an obstacle during unfolding, such as the door handle being frozen and unable to unfold normally, the handle will enter the ice-breaking mode. And if the position switch is triggered in the ice-breaking mode, that is, the ice-breaking is successful, then the handle continues to perform the unfolding action. Its control logic is: it is driven with a duty cycle of A%. If the position switch is not triggered within the TK time, it enters the ice-breaking mode and continues to be driven with a duty cycle of 100%. If the position switch is triggered within the TP time, then it is driven with a duty cycle of A% for the T1 time, and then within the T2 time, it is uniformly reduced from the duty cycle of A% to 0 and then the driving stops, indicating that the electric opening and closing of the hidden outward-opening handle is successfully ice-broken.

[0012] When the electric opening and closing of the hidden outward-opening handle encounters an obstacle during unfolding, such as the door handle being frozen and unable to unfold normally, the handle will enter the ice-breaking mode. And if the position switch is not triggered in the ice-breaking mode, that is, the ice-breaking fails, then the handle exits the ice-breaking mode and performs the retraction action. Its control logic is: it is driven with a duty cycle of A%. If the position switch is not triggered within the TK time, it enters the ice-breaking mode and continues to be driven with a duty cycle of 100%. If the position switch is still not triggered within the TP time, it indicates that the electric opening and closing of the hidden outward-opening handle is not successfully ice-broken. Then within the T2 time, it is uniformly reduced from the duty cycle of 100% to 0 and then the driving stops, exiting the ice-breaking mode; immediately, a reverse retraction drive is performed, it is driven with a duty cycle of A% for the T3 time, and then within the T4 time, it is uniformly reduced from the duty cycle of A% to 0 and then the driving stops.

[0013] When the four-door electric opening and closing hidden exterior handle enters the ice-breaking mode, any door can be successfully opened. If there are doors triggered by position switches among the other three doors, the electric opening and closing hidden exterior handle of the door with the triggered position switch will perform a normal deployment action. After driving for T1 time with a duty cycle of A%, it will uniformly decrease from the duty cycle of A% to 0 within T2 time and then stop driving. If there are doors for which the position switch has not been triggered, the ice-breaking mode will be exited and a retraction action will be performed. It will uniformly decrease from a 100% duty cycle to 0 within T2 time and then stop driving; immediately, reverse retraction driving will be carried out. After driving for T3 time with a duty cycle of A%, it will uniformly decrease from the duty cycle of A% to 0 within T4 time and then stop driving.

[0014] Specifically, for the A% duty cycle, driving times T1, T2, T3, T4, and the triggering position switch times TK, TG, TP in the present invention are all determined by the arrangement position of the position switch of the electric opening and closing hidden exterior handle and the full stroke of the handle deployment, and can be adjusted according to the results of vehicle calibration, having the advantage of being editable. This enables the electric opening and closing hidden exterior handle to be controlled more intelligently and can reduce the hardware change cost during the development of the electric opening and closing hidden exterior handle.

[0015] The present invention also provides a vehicle in another aspect. The vehicle is provided with a controller configured to execute the steps of the opening and closing control method of the above-mentioned hidden exterior handle.

[0016] The advantages of the present invention are as follows:

[0017] 1. In the present invention, a single-door electric opening and closing hidden exterior handle uses one position switch, and the position switch is arranged at the 10% - 30% position of the entire maximum deployment stroke to judge the position state during the deployment and retraction processes of the electric opening and closing hidden exterior handle. In this way, only four are used for the four doors, greatly reducing the cost.

[0018] 2. In the present invention, the four doors are controlled separately, and a single-door electric opening and closing hidden exterior handle uses one position switch, effectively simplifying the control logic.

[0019] 3. The present invention uses PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) to adjust the driving voltage, reducing the impact force and impact sound when the deployment and retraction reach the limit, effectively improving the service life of the electric opening and closing hidden exterior handle, reducing the maintenance cost, and avoiding abnormal noise problems.

[0020] 5. The present invention uses PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) to adjust the driving voltage, and further adjusts the deployment and retraction speeds of the handle. The deployment and retraction speeds are editable.

[0021] 6. The present invention controls the four-door electric opening and closing hidden exterior door handles separately without mutual interference, enabling quick identification of problems with the corresponding door handles and more accurate and efficient troubleshooting. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0022] Figure 1 Schematic diagram of the control of the four-door electric opening and closing hidden exterior door handles of the present invention.

[0023] Figure 2 Timing diagram of the normal deployment control of the electric opening and closing hidden exterior door handle of the present invention.

[0024] Figure 3 Timing diagram of the retraction control of the electric opening and closing hidden exterior door handle of the present invention.

[0025] Figure 4 Timing diagram of the successful ice-breaking control of the electric opening and closing hidden exterior door handle of the present invention.

[0026] Figure 5 Timing diagram of the failed ice-breaking control of the electric opening and closing hidden exterior door handle of the present invention.

[0027] Figure 6 Logic diagram of the control for opening any door in the ice-breaking mode of the electric opening and closing hidden exterior door handle of the present invention.

[0028] In each of the attached drawings, the structures represented by each reference numeral are listed as follows:

[0029] 1 - Left front door actuator, 2 - Right front door actuator, 3 - Left rear door actuator, 4 - Right rear door actuator, 5 - Left front door position switch, 6 - Right front door position switch, 7 - Left rear door position switch, 8 - Right rear door position switch, 9 - Controller, 10 - PWM pulse width modulation duty cycle, 11 - Actuator drive time T1, 12 - Actuator drive time T2, 13 - Trigger determination time TK for the position switch during the deployment process, 14 - Actuator drive time T3, 15 - Actuator drive time T4, 16 - Trigger determination time TG for the position switch during the retraction process, 17 - Ice-breaking mode trigger position switch time TP. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0030] The following describes the principles and features of the present invention. The examples given are only for explaining the present invention and not for limiting the present invention.

[0031] The present invention will be further described below with reference to the attached drawings.

[0032] As Figure 1As shown, this embodiment is a control schematic for the electric opening and closing hidden exterior door handle of an automobile. A position switch is installed on each of the four doors, namely the left front door position switch 5, the right front door position switch 6, the left rear door position switch 7, and the right rear door position switch 8. The position switch of the electric opening and closing hidden exterior door handle for a single door is arranged at the position of 10% - 30% of the maximum unfolding stroke of the entire handle, which is used to judge the position state during the unfolding and retracting processes of the electric opening and closing hidden exterior door handle. For example, it can be specifically arranged at 20% of the maximum unfolding stroke of the entire handle, and the arrangement positions of the four-door position switches are the same.

[0033] The left front door actuator 1, the right front door actuator 2, the left rear door actuator 3, the right rear door actuator 4, the left front door position switch 5, the right front door position switch 6, the left rear door position switch 7, and the right rear door position switch 8 are all separately connected to the controller 9 to achieve separate drive control for each electric opening and closing hidden exterior door handle. Among them, the left front door position switch 5 is used for the position judgment of the left front door actuator 1, the right front door position switch 6 is used for the position judgment of the right front door actuator 2, the left rear door position switch 7 is used for the position judgment of the left rear door actuator 3, and the right rear door position switch 8 is used for the position judgment of the right rear door actuator 4. The forward and reverse rotations of the left front door actuator 1, the right front door actuator 2, the left rear door actuator 3, and the right rear door actuator 4, that is, the unfolding and retracting of the four-door electric opening and closing hidden exterior door handle, are all adjusted by using PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) to drive and regulate the voltage, further adjusting the rotational speed of the actuator, and further adjusting the unfolding and retracting speeds of the electric opening and closing hidden exterior door handle. Thus, the speeds of unfolding and retracting are adjusted to reduce the impact force and lower the impact sound when unfolding and retracting to the end and jamming.

[0034] For a single car door, when the handle is normally unfolded. As Figure 2 shown in the normal unfolding control timing diagram of the electric opening and closing hidden exterior door handle, when the electric opening and closing hidden exterior door handle is normally unfolded, it is driven with a PWM duty cycle of A%. When the position switch is triggered within the trigger determination time TK during the door unfolding process, it continues to be driven with a duty cycle of A% for T1 time. Further, within T2 time, it uniformly decreases from the duty cycle of A% to 0, that is, stops driving. The normal unfolding controls of the four-door electric opening and closing hidden exterior door handles are the same. In this embodiment, A% is 80%, TK is 400 ms, T1 is 750 ms, and T2 is 100 ms.

[0035] For a single car door, when the handle is retracted. As Figure 3As shown in the timing diagram of the electric opening and closing hidden external handle retraction control, when the electric opening and closing hidden external handle retracts, it is first driven with a PWM pulse width modulation duty cycle of A%. If the position switch is triggered within the position switch trigger determination time TG during the retraction process, it continues to be driven with a duty cycle of A% for a time T3. Further, within the time T4, it uniformly decreases from the duty cycle A% to 0 and then stops driving. The retraction control of the four-door electric opening and closing hidden external handle is the same. In this embodiment, A% is 80%, TG is 800 ms, T3 is 200 ms, and T4 is 100 ms.

[0036] For a single door, when an obstacle is encountered during the handle deployment process, such as the handle freezing and being unable to deploy normally, after entering the ice-breaking mode, it can be successfully deployed. For example Figure 4 As shown in the timing diagram of the successful ice-breaking control of the electric opening and closing hidden external handle, it is first driven with a PWM pulse width modulation duty cycle of A%. If the position switch is not triggered within the position switch trigger determination time TK during the deployment process, then the handle is further controlled to enter the ice-breaking mode and is driven with a duty cycle of 100%. If the position switch is triggered within the ice-breaking mode trigger position switch time TP, it indicates that the electric opening and closing hidden external handle has successfully broken the ice. Then it is further driven with a duty cycle of A% for a time T1. Then within the time T2, it uniformly decreases from the duty cycle A% to 0 and then stops driving. The successful ice-breaking control of the four-door electric opening and closing hidden external handle is the same. In this embodiment, A% is 80%, TK is 400 ms, TP is 1000 ms, T1 is 750 ms, and T2 is 100 ms.

[0037] For a single door, when an obstacle is encountered during the handle deployment process, such as the handle freezing and being unable to deploy normally, after entering the ice-breaking mode, it still cannot be successfully deployed. For example Figure 5 As shown in the timing diagram of the failed ice-breaking control of the electric opening and closing hidden external handle described in the present invention, it is first driven with a PWM pulse width modulation duty cycle of A%. Further, the position switch is not triggered within the position switch trigger determination time TK during the deployment process. Further, the handle enters the ice-breaking mode and is driven with a duty cycle of 100%. Further, the position switch is still not triggered within the ice-breaking mode trigger position switch time TP, indicating that the electric opening and closing hidden external handle has failed to break the ice. Further, within the actuator driving time T2, it uniformly decreases from the duty cycle 100% to 0 and then stops driving, exiting the ice-breaking mode. Further, the electric opening and closing hidden external handle performs a reverse retraction action and is driven with a duty cycle of A% for a time T3. Further, within the time T4, it uniformly decreases from the duty cycle A% to 0 and then stops driving. In this embodiment, A% is 80%, TK is 400 ms, TP is 1000 ms, T2 is 100 ms, T3 is 200 ms, and T4 is 100 ms.

[0038] When the electric opening and closing hidden external handle enters the ice-breaking mode and a door is opened. For exampleFigure 6 As shown in the control logic diagram for opening any door in the ice-breaking mode of the electric opening / closing hidden exterior door handle of the present invention, when the four-door electric opening / closing hidden exterior door handle enters the ice-breaking mode and any door is successfully opened: on the one hand, among the remaining three doors, the handle that triggers the position switch continues to complete the unfolding, and the electric opening / closing hidden exterior door handle of the door where the position switch is triggered is driven for a time T1 with a duty ratio of A%; then it is uniformly reduced from the duty ratio of A% to 0 within the time T2 and stops driving. On the other hand, the handle of the remaining three doors that has not triggered the position switch is uniformly reduced from the duty ratio of 100% to 0 within the time T2 and stops driving, exiting the ice-breaking mode; then it performs a reverse retraction action and is driven for a time T3 with a duty ratio of A%; finally, it is uniformly reduced from the duty ratio of A% to 0 within the time T4 and stops driving. In this embodiment, A% is 80%, TK is 400 ms, TP is 1000 ms, T1 is 750 ms, and T2 is 100 ms.

[0039] The above PWM pulse width modulation duty ratio, actuator driving time T1, actuator driving time T2, unfolding process position switch triggering determination time TK, actuator driving time T3, actuator driving time T4, retraction process position switch triggering determination time TG, and ice-breaking mode triggering position switch time TP are all determined by the arrangement position of the electric opening / closing hidden exterior door handle position switch and the full stroke of the handle unfolding, and can be adjusted according to the results of vehicle calibration and subjective evaluation, having editability.

Claims

1. A method for controlling the opening and closing of a concealed outward-opening handle, characterized in that, A position switch is correspondingly arranged for each outward-opening handle to determine the position. The position switch is arranged at the position of 10% - 30% of the maximum unfolding stroke of the outward-opening handle. The method independently controls the hidden outward-opening handles of each door of the vehicle, including: When controlling the normal unfolding of the outward-opening handle, it is driven with a duty ratio of A%. After triggering the position switch within the time TK, it continues to be driven with a duty ratio of A% for a time T1, and then within the time T2, it is uniformly reduced from the duty ratio of A% to 0 to stop driving; When controlling the retraction of the outward-opening handle, it is driven with a duty ratio of A%. After triggering the position switch within the time TG, it continues to be driven with a duty ratio of A% for a time T3, and then within the time T4, it is uniformly reduced from the duty ratio of A% to 0 to stop driving; When controlling the normal unfolding of the outward-opening handle, it is driven with a duty ratio of A%. If the position switch is not triggered within the time TK, it enters the ice-breaking mode and continues to be driven with a duty ratio of 100%. If the position switch is triggered within the time TP, it is driven with a duty ratio of A% for a time T1, and then within the time T2, it is uniformly reduced from the duty ratio of A% to 0 to stop driving; If the position switch is still not triggered within the time TP, it is uniformly reduced from the duty ratio of 100% to 0 within the time T2 to stop driving and exits the ice-breaking mode. Then, a reverse retraction drive is performed. It is driven with a duty ratio of A% for a time T3, and then within the time T4, it is uniformly reduced from the duty ratio of A% to O to stop driving; After entering the ice-breaking mode, when any door is successfully opened, among the remaining three doors, the handle that triggers the position switch continues to complete the unfolding, and the handle that does not trigger the position switch exits the ice-breaking mode and performs a reverse retraction action.

2. The opening and closing control method of the hidden outward-opening handle according to claim 1, characterized in that, The duty ratio of A%, the driving times T1, T2, T3, T4, and the times TK, TG, TP for triggering the position switch are all obtained through on-vehicle calibration according to the arrangement position of the position switch and the full stroke of the handle unfolding.

3. A vehicle, characterized in that, The vehicle is provided with a controller, and the controller is configured to execute the opening and closing control method of the hidden outward-opening handle according to any one of claims 1 - 2.

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