Retractable Door Handle Antenna for Reliable Remote Parking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing parking assist devices with retractable door handles have limited communication range due to the door panel interrupting radio signals, making remote operation of the vehicle difficult and potentially unsafe.
Innovation Solution
A retractable door handle with a built-in antenna that transitions from a retracted to a projected state for effective communication with a user's terminal, ensuring uninterrupted signal transmission and reception.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the door handle with antenna is retracted in the door panel, then the door panel provides structural protection and aesthetic appearance, but the metal door panel reflects and attenuates radio waves, reducing communication range below the required threshold
Solution Approach 1:
The door handle is designed to be dynamically adjustable between retracted and extended positions. During remote parking operations, the door handle automatically extends to position the antenna outside the metal door panel, ensuring adequate radio wave transmission. This dynamic positioning resolves the contradiction by adapting the antenna position to communication requirements while maintaining the door panel's protective function when the handle is retracted.
Solution Approach 2:
The door handle serves as an intermediary mechanism that mediates between the metal door panel (which blocks radio waves) and the antenna (which needs to transmit signals). By extending the door handle, the antenna is positioned in an intermediate location outside the door panel, allowing radio waves to transmit effectively while the door panel remains intact for structural purposes.
2Ease of operation
If the door handle is extended outside the door panel, then the antenna can transmit radio waves effectively for remote operation, but the door handle becomes vulnerable to unauthorized access and damage
Solution Approach 1:
The door handle dynamically changes position based on operational context. It extends during remote parking operations to enable communication, then retracts when operations are complete or when the vehicle is in use, providing security by making the door handle less accessible. This temporal separation of functions resolves the security vulnerability while maintaining remote operation capability.
3Ease of manufacture
If a fixed door handle position is used, then the structure is simple and manufacturing is easier, but the communication range cannot be adjusted to meet different operational requirements
Solution Approach 1:
Rather than creating multiple fixed positions or complex adjustable mechanisms, the invention uses a simple dynamic extension mechanism that moves the door handle between two primary positions (retracted and extended). This provides adaptability for different communication ranges while maintaining relatively simple manufacturing compared to more complex adjustable antenna systems.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables a sufficient and necessary communicable distance for remote vehicle operation, enhancing safety and usability by allowing precise distance measurement and preventing unauthorized access.
Implementation Method 1
The processor emits a predetermined first signal S1 (a radio wave in a low-frequency (LF) band) from a transmission antenna TA built in a door handle of the host vehicle. A smart key carried by the user receives the first signal. The intensity of the first signal received by the smart key is correlated with the distance Δd between the user and the host vehicle.
Implementation Method 2
only a part of the radio wave that has passed through the door handle which is made of a synthetic resin is radiated to the outside from the opening portion, and the other most part of the radio wave is reflected and attenuated by the inside surface of the door panel which is made of metal
Data Source
AI summary
A parking assist device including a retractable door handle device that includes a door handle with a built-in antenna used for a communication with a terminal carried by a user positioned outside a host vehicle and an actuator that causes the door handle to transition from a first state to a second state, the parking assist device comprising a processor that is configured to communicate with the terminal using the antenna, and that is configured to execute entry control for allowing the host vehicle to enter a parking spot or exit control for allowing the host vehicle to exit from the parking spot when a predetermined condition related to a communication result is met, wherein the processor causes the door handle to transition to the second state when executing the entry control or the exit control.