Headlight optical axis control assembly

• US 20050192726A1
• Filed: 01/14/2005
• Published: 09/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nexgen Control Systems LLC
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Inventors: Ohsawa, Takashi, Okura, Susumu
• Granted Patent: US 7,572,040 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/36
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/115 by electric means details of the electric drive components, e.g. motors, shafts, ball joints B60Q1/076
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/132 Pitch

Abstract

An optical axis control assembly is provided with a plurality of control means which are supplied with information necessary for deciding the tile angle of the car body 1, and determine the body tilt angle by sharing the input information with the other control means; and optical axis control means for controlling the optical axis of each headlight based on the determined body tilt angle. By the combined use of a plurality of low-cost, small control devices of the same specifications each of which is incapable of determining the body tilt angle by itself because of a lack of information, the optical axis control device assembly exerts the function of determining the body tilt angle, and effects the optical axis control of the headlights based on the determined body tilt angle.

Claims

1. An optical axis control device assembly for headlamps, comprising:

a plurality of control means, which are supplied with information necessary for deciding the tilt angle of the car body and decide the tilt angle of the car body by sharing the input information; and

optical axis control means for controlling the optical axis of each of said headlamps based on said decided tilt angle.

2. The optical axis control device assembly of claim 1, wherein said plurality of control means are supplied with pre-allocated pieces of information for deciding the tilt angle of the car body.

3. The optical axis control device assembly of claim 1, wherein one of said plurality of control means is supplied with a fixed value as a vehicle'"'"'s height value of the front of the car body and the other control means is supplied with a value detected by a vehicle'"'"'s height sensor disposed in the rear of the car body.

4. The optical axis control device assembly of claim 1, wherein different constant values are set in the vehicle'"'"'s height sensors disposed in the front and rear of the car body, respectively.

5. The optical axis control device assembly of claim 1, wherein preset values in each of said plurality of control means include the distance between said vehicle'"'"'s height sensors disposed in the front and rear of the car body and output characteristics of said vehicle'"'"'s height sensors.

6. The optical axis control device assembly of claim 1, which further comprises a connector in the middle of a signal line interconnecting said plurality of control means, and wherein said plurality of control means are initialized through said connector.

7. The optical axis control device assembly of claim 1, wherein said plurality of control means each monitor the operation of the other control means and enters a fail-safe mode upon occurrence of an abnormality in the operation of the other control means.

8. The optical axis control device assembly of claim 1, further comprising headlight lighting means built in each of said plurality of control means.