Vehicular Lamp Control Device Pitch Angle Calculation

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing techniques for controlling light irradiation direction in vehicular lamps based on vehicle attitude changes suffer from low accuracy due to the neglect of gravitational acceleration components, leading to inadequate adjustment of the optical axis.

Innovation Solution

A vehicular lamp system with a control device that uses an acceleration sensor to detect orthogonal axis accelerations, calculates and eliminates gravitational components from the sensor output, and adjusts the optical axis based on the vehicle's pitch angle using the vehicle traveling direction acceleration, thereby improving the accuracy of attitude determination.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Device complexity

If gravitational acceleration components are not fully taken into consideration in acceleration sensor output, then the calculation process is simpler, but the accuracy of the calculated angle of inclination deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecalculation processVSAvoidaccuracy of angle of inclination

Core Design Contradiction:

Device complexityVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The acceleration sensor output is segmented into gravitational acceleration components and vehicle motion components. By separating these components, the system can eliminate the gravitational portion to obtain accurate vehicle attitude information without overly complicating the overall calculation process

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The gravitational acceleration components are extracted and eliminated from the acceleration sensor output. This extraction process isolates the relevant vehicle motion data from the confounding gravitational effects, improving measurement precision while maintaining manageable calculation complexity

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

2Device complexity

If acceleration values from acceleration sensor are used directly without eliminating gravitational components, then the control system is simpler, but the optical axis adjustment accuracy deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontrol systemVSAvoidoptical axis adjustment accuracy

Core Design Contradiction:

Device complexityVSManufacturing precision

Solution Approach 1:

Gravitational acceleration components are eliminated in advance from the acceleration sensor output before the optical axis adjustment calculation is performed. This preliminary action ensures that the subsequent control calculations are based on accurate vehicle attitude data, improving optical axis adjustment accuracy without significantly increasing control system complexity

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

3Measurement precision

If gravitational acceleration components are eliminated from acceleration sensor output, then the accuracy of vehicle attitude calculation is improved, but the calculation process becomes more complex

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveaccuracy of vehicle attitude calculationVSAvoidcalculation process

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The gravitational elimination is applied locally to the specific acceleration components that affect vehicle attitude calculation (pitch and roll directions), rather than attempting to process all acceleration data. This targeted approach improves accuracy where needed while minimizing the increase in overall calculation complexity

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

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

This approach enhances the accuracy of vehicle attitude calculation in the pitch direction, reducing errors caused by gravitational components and allowing for precise optical axis adjustment, even under varying vehicle conditions.

Implementation Method 1

acceleration values in a horizontal direction of a vehicle obtained by an acceleration sensor installed in a vehicle

Methodology Applied

Scientific EffectAcceleration detection: Accelerometer

Implementation Method 2

the gravitational acceleration components have not been fully taken into consideration, the adverse effect of the gravitational accelerations is likely to result in a low accuracy of the calculated angle of inclination

Methodology Applied

Scientific EffectGravitational acceleration elimination: Gravitation

Data Source

PatentEP3428013B1Control device for vehicular lamp and vehicle lighting system

Publication Date: 2022.11.30 STANLEY ELECTRIC CO LTD

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AI summary

To provide a technique capable of accurately obtaining the attitude of a vehicle in the pitch direction. A device (11) controls the optical axis of a vehicular lamp (13) in accordance with an attitude change in pitch direction of the vehicle having (a) an angle calculation part (20) which obtains acceleration associated with the vertical and the horizontal direction at a predetermined time interval, obtains a first and a second acceleration related to the vertical and the horizontal direction by eliminating the gravitational acceleration component from each acceleration, calculates a vehicle traveling direction acceleration based on the two accelerations, and obtains a vehicle attitude angle based on a correlation between the acceleration and the vehicle traveling direction acceleration, and (b) an optical axis setting part (21) which generates a control signal for controlling the optical axis of the lamp (13) based on the vehicle attitude angle, and provides the control signal to the lamp (13).