Servo Control Using Psychophysical Feedback for User Comfort
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing servo controlled systems in vehicles, such as climate control, often fail to accurately meet user needs due to users' inability to express their comfort requirements in numeric terms, leading to suboptimal adjustments that may not align with their actual psychophysical state, especially in complex systems where average user settings can differ significantly from individual user preferences.
Innovation Solution
A feedback control method and unit that incorporates both physical environmental feedback (like temperature and humidity) and psychophysical feedback parameters (such as perspiration, body temperature, and heart rate) to adjust the climate control system, allowing for real-time measurement and adjustment to maximize user comfort, using a control unit that combines these feedback loops to ensure optimal environmental conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If closed loop feedback control logic is used to automatically adjust environmental parameters, then the system can maintain desired optimal values of physical feedback quantities, but the user's actual psychophysical needs are not accurately met because users cannot correctly translate their comfort needs into numeric values
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies feedback by introducing psychophysical feedback parameters (perspiration, body temperature, heart rate) that automatically report the user's actual state to the control system, eliminating the need for users to manually express their needs while maintaining accurate measurement of their true comfort requirements
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service by having the user's body automatically provide feedback through physiological measurements. The control unit reads psychophysical parameters directly from sensors monitoring the user's perspiration, body temperature, and heart rate, allowing the system to self-adjust based on the user's actual state without requiring user input
2Adaptability or versatility
If complex servo controlled systems adjust multiple parameters for an average user, then various actions can be reciprocally coordinated, but the settings do not align with individual user preferences and actual needs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by transitioning from average user settings to individualized control based on each user's specific psychophysical state. Sensors are positioned to monitor individual users, and the control unit adjusts parameters specifically for each user's measured needs rather than applying general settings
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies dynamics by making the control parameters adaptive and variable based on real-time psychophysical measurements. The desired optimal values are no longer fixed but dynamically adjusted according to the user's changing physiological state, allowing the system to respond to individual variations and temporal changes
Data Source
AI summary
An embodiment of a feedback control method and unit of a servo controlled system which acts on the environment surrounding a user for adjusting at least one feature of the environment which affects the psychophysical state of the user; the control unit has: a memory device in which there is stored a desired optimal value or a range of desired optimal values of a psychophysical feedback parameter of the user correlated with the perception that the user has of the feature of the environment adjusted by the servo controlled system; an estimation device for cyclically estimating a real value of the psychophysical feedback parameter of the user by means of at least one measurement performed directly on the user; and a driving device for cyclically driving the servo controlled system for seeking the optimal desired value of the psychophysical feedback parameter.