Vehicular Lamp Control Device Pitch Angle Calculation

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing techniques for automatic leveling control of vehicular lamps fail to accurately account for gravitational acceleration components, leading to low accuracy in calculating the vehicle's attitude in the pitch direction.

Innovation Solution

A vehicular lamp system that includes an acceleration sensor capable of detecting orthogonal axes, a control part with an angle calculation and optical axis setting component, which eliminates gravitational acceleration components from sensor outputs to accurately calculate the vehicle's pitch angle and adjust the optical axis accordingly.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If gravitational acceleration components are not eliminated from acceleration sensor outputs, then the calculation process is simpler, but the accuracy of vehicle attitude calculation deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveaccuracy of vehicle attitude calculationVSAvoidcomplexity of acceleration data processing
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts and eliminates the gravitational acceleration components from the total acceleration sensor outputs. By separating the gravitational component (which is constant or slowly varying) from the dynamic acceleration component, the system achieves accurate vehicle attitude calculation while maintaining manageable processing complexity through systematic elimination of the disturbing gravitational factor.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent employs feedback mechanisms where the calculated vehicle attitude information is used to determine and eliminate gravitational acceleration components, which are then subtracted from the original sensor outputs. This iterative feedback process refines the accuracy of attitude calculation by continuously improving the separation of gravitational and dynamic acceleration components.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

2Manufacturing precision

If gravitational acceleration components are not taken into consideration, then the control system is simpler, but the accuracy of optical axis adjustment deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveaccuracy of optical axis adjustmentVSAvoidcomplexity of control system
Core Design Contradiction:
Manufacturing precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The control system extracts and eliminates gravitational acceleration components from sensor outputs before using the data for optical axis adjustment. This extraction process removes the disturbing gravitational factor, enabling precise optical axis alignment while keeping the control system structure manageable through systematic data processing.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces an intermediary processing step where gravitational acceleration components are calculated and eliminated as a intermediate stage between raw sensor data and optical axis control commands. This intermediary process acts as a mediator that transforms imperfect raw data into refined control signals, improving adjustment accuracy without requiring direct complex control mechanisms.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

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

The system achieves more accurate control of light irradiation direction by isolating gravitational components from acceleration data, improving the calculation of the vehicle's attitude and reducing errors in optical axis adjustment.

Implementation Method 1

The accelerations obtained by the acceleration sensor installed in the vehicle also includes gravitational acceleration components

Methodology Applied
Scientific EffectGravitation: Gravitation

Data Source

PatentEP3480058B1Control device for vehicular lamp and vehicle lighting system
Publication Date: 2022.12.28 STANLEY ELECTRIC CO LTD
  • EP3480058B1 patent drawingFigure 1~2
  • EP3480058B1 patent drawingFigure 3A~4
  • EP3480058B1 patent drawingFigure 5

AI summary

To provide a technique capable of accurately obtaining the attitude of a vehicle in the pitch direction. A control device (11) for a vehicular lamp (13) which controls the optical axis of a vehicular lamp in accordance with an attitude change in pitch direction of the vehicle is disclosed. The device includes an angle calculation part (20) which obtains a first and a second acceleration by eliminating the gravitational acceleration component from each acceleration in the vertical and the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, calculates a vehicle traveling direction acceleration based on the accelerations, and obtains a vehicle attitude angle based on the correlation between the vehicle traveling direction acceleration and the first and the second accelerations. The angle calculation part (20) obtains the attitude angle of the vehicle when it determines that the vehicle is accelerating or decelerating based on the determination on the basis of each acceleration difference at the predetermined time.