Automotive Headlamp Dynamic Aiming for Glare Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current motor vehicle headlamps often fail to provide adequate illumination and suffer from excessive glare, leading to poor ratings in safety evaluations, as they do not effectively adjust their light distribution to meet varying driving conditions and regulatory standards.
Innovation Solution
An automotive lighting apparatus with dynamically adjustable lighting components, including flat and kink components, that can alter their aiming based on vehicle motion and conditions to optimize light field distribution, combining light fields to meet specific cutoff criteria and enhance visibility while reducing glare.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If headlamps use fixed light distribution patterns, then manufacturing and alignment are simplified, but illumination adequacy and glare control deteriorate under varying driving conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic aiming by mechanically coupling actuators to lighting components, enabling them to rotate and adjust their orientation based on vehicle motion and driving conditions. This transforms the static lighting system into a dynamic one that can adapt light distribution patterns in real-time, resolving the contradiction between adaptability and complexity by introducing controlled movement rather than multiple fixed systems
Solution Approach 2:
The control component serves multiple functions: it receives vehicle motion data, determines appropriate aiming adjustments, controls actuators to reposition lighting components, and ensures compliance with regulatory standards. This multi-functional approach consolidates what would otherwise require separate systems, achieving adaptability without proportionally increasing overall system complexity
2Illumination intensity
If headlamps are aimed for maximum illumination, then visibility improves, but excessive glare is generated to oncoming traffic
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the aiming direction of lighting components based on real-time driving conditions, including the presence and position of oncoming vehicles. When an oncoming vehicle is detected, the actuator rotates the lighting component to redirect light away from the oncoming traffic while maintaining adequate illumination of the roadway, thus dynamically balancing illumination intensity and glare control
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the orientation parameter of the lighting component through actuator-driven rotation. By adjusting the aiming angle parameter in response to detected driving conditions, the system optimizes the trade-off between illumination intensity for visibility and glare reduction for oncoming traffic safety
3Ease of manufacture
If headlamps are statically aligned during manufacturing, then assembly is simplified, but compliance with varying regulatory cutoff criteria deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
Rather than requiring precise static alignment during manufacturing for each regulatory standard, the system uses a default alignment and employs actuators to dynamically adjust the lighting component orientation to meet the specific cutoff criteria required for different driving conditions and regulatory requirements. This maintains manufacturing simplicity while ensuring compliance through active adjustment
Data Source
AI summary
In an automotive lighting apparatus lighting components generate respective light fields. The lighting components are aligned one with the others such that the light fields combine in a lighting profile having cutoff regions meeting a predetermined cutoff criterion. An actuator is mechanically coupled to a corresponding one of the lighting components to aim that lighting component in a direction other than that in which the lighting component was aligned. A control component operate the actuator to aim the lighting component in the direction other than that in which the lighting component was aligned so that the light fields of the lighting components combine in another lighting profile having cutoff regions meeting another cutoff criterion.