Vehicle Door Actuator Control for Collision Avoidance

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Solution Overview

Problem

Vehicle doors, especially powered ones, often lack sufficient clearance when closing, potentially causing damage due to undesirably small gaps between adjacent edges, and existing systems do not effectively manage this issue for safety.

Innovation Solution

A system and method that utilize a controller to determine angles and velocity profiles for each carriage door, allowing them to close at different rates to maintain a predetermined threshold distance between adjacent edges, preventing them from becoming too close.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If manual door operation is used, then ease of operation is improved, but safety deteriorates due to pinching hazards and operator injury risks

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveease of operationVSAvoidsafety

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces manual mechanical door operation with an automated actuator system controlled by a controller. The actuator opens and closes powered doors without requiring direct manual manipulation, eliminating pinching hazards while maintaining operational functionality through automated control based on detected door angles and velocity profiles.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

2Object-affected harmful factors

If powered door operation is used, then safety is improved by eliminating manual handling, but clearance deteriorates due to undesirably small gaps between adjacent doors during closing

Engineering Contradiction:

ImprovesafetyVSAvoidclearance

Core Design Contradiction:

Object-affected harmful factorsVSLength of moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The system continuously monitors the angles of adjacent powered doors using sensors and feeds this information back to the controller. Based on the real-time angular positions, the controller dynamically adjusts the velocity profiles of the actuators to maintain adequate clearance between closing doors, preventing damage while preserving automated operation benefits.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements dynamic velocity profiling for actuator operation. Instead of uniform door closing speeds, the system varies the velocity of each actuator based on the real-time angular positions of adjacent doors, allowing optimized clearance management throughout the door closing process while maintaining automated control.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

Data Source

PatentUS9869119B2Systems and methods for operating vehicle doors

Publication Date: 2018.01.16 FARADAY&FUTURE INC

AI summary

A system for closing carriage doors of a vehicle may include first and second carriage doors configured to open and close via respective first and second actuators. The system may also include a controller configured to receive signals indicative of angles of the first and second doors relative to closed positions. The controller may also be configured to determine respective first and second velocity profiles for the first and second carriage doors based on the angles of the first and second doors. In addition, the controller may be configured to control operation of at least one of the first and second actuators based on the first and second angles, such that the first carriage door and the second carriage door stay farther apart from one another than a predetermined threshold distance while closing.