Method for adapting body support of a passenger seated in a vehicle seat in terms of vehicle movements dynamics and corresponding vehicle seat

• US 20030023363A1
• Filed: 08/05/2002
• Published: 01/30/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Daimler AG (Mercedes-Benz Group AG)
• Original Assignee: Daimler Chrysler Company LLC (Stellantis NV)
• Inventors: Schrader, Juergen, Kuhn, Klaus-Peter, Schroeder, Wolfram, Katz, Egon
• Granted Patent: US 6,873,892 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/49
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/0244 with logic circuits
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/026 varying hardness or support of upholstery, e.g. for tuning seat comfort when driving curved roads
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/914 Hydro-pneumatic adjustments of the shape

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for dynamic adaptation of the support of the body, in particular the lateral support, of a person seated on a vehicle seat, in which a measure of a current adaptation taking into account the current vehicle velocity is predicted and is set by an adaptation system which is integrated in the vehicle seat. In order to compensate for the inertia of the adaptation system which is inherent in the system, prediction of the adaptation is performed from stored data over the current road course, onto which data the current vehicle data are projected, and in that the adaptation system is actuated taking into account the adaptation time inherent in the system, in such a way that, when the event requiring the adaptation occurs, preferably when a bend is travelled through, at least one adaptation presetting adapted thereto is achieved.

Claims

1. Method for dynamic adaptation of the support of the body, in particular the lateral support, of a person seated on a vehicle seat (10), in which a measure of a current adaptation taking into account the current vehicle velocity is predicted and is set by an adaptation system which is integrated in the vehicle seat, characterized in that the prediction is performed from stored data over the current road course, onto which data the current vehicle data are projected, and in that the adaptation system (18) is actuated taking into account the adaptation time inherent in the system, in such a way that, when the event requiring the adaptation occurs, preferably when a bend is travelled through, at least one adaptation presetting adapted thereto is achieved.

2. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that a correction of the adaptation presetting is carried out with currently measured vehicle data during the event requiring the adaptation.

3. Method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the current road course is obtained from a digital road map which contains route data relating to a traffic network and attribute data assigned to the route data, in that data of seat adaptations which have been carried out is stored in an assignment to route data as adaptation attributes in the road map, and in that, when the route section is travelled along again, the adaptation system (18) is actuated using the adaptation attributes.

4. Method according to claim 3, characterized in that a velocity-corrected adaptation measure is stored as adaptation attribute.

5. Method according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that, in order to determine the adaptation measure required when a bend is travelled through, the expected lateral acceleration which acts on the vehicle seat is predicted and the degree of lateral support is thus calculated.

6. Method according to claim 2 and 5, characterized in that when the bend is being travelled through the lateral acceleration which really occurs is measured and the degree of lateral support is thus corrected.

7. Method according to claim 3 and 5 or 6, characterized in that the predicted and/or measured lateral acceleration is stored as adaptation attribute.

8. Method according to one of claims 5 to 7, characterized in that when the maximum value of the lateral acceleration which is derived from a predicted limiting velocity for travelling through a bend is exceeded by the predicted lateral acceleration a warning signal for the driver is issued.

9. Method according to claim 8, characterized in that the warning signal is fed to the driver in a haptic way by suddenly increasing the lateral support on the side of the seat which is on the outside in the direction of curvature of the bend.

10. Vehicle seat having a seat part (11) and a backrest (12), having an adaptation system (18) for adapting the body support, in particular the lateral support, of a person seated on the vehicle seat (10), which have the air cushions (14-17) which are integrated at least in side bulges of the seat part (11) and/or backrest (12), and a compressed air regulating device (22) for adjusting the air pressure in the air cushions (14-17), with a control unit (19) which has a control computer (25) and is connected to the compressed air regulating device (22) and generates, from a lateral acceleration value fed to it, a control signal for setting a filling pressure by the pressure regulating device (22), and to a sensor (30) for measuring the vehicle velocity, characterized by a prediction device (32) for predicting the lateral acceleration expected in a current curve, and a prediction filter (36) which applies the predicted lateral acceleration to the control unit (19) taking into account the filling pressure-dependent filling times of the adaptation system (18).

11. Vehicle seat according to claim 10, characterized in that the prediction device (32) has a digital road map which contains route data relating to a traffic network and attribute data assigned to the route data, in that time points of a change in filling pressure by the compressed air regulating device (22) can be stored in a relationship with the vehicle velocity and the route data as adaptation attributes in the road map, and in that, when the route section is travelled along again, the prediction filter (33) adapts the adaptation attributes to the current driving velocity and uses it to specify the time when the predicted lateral acceleration is applied to the control unit (19).

12. Vehicle seat according to claim 10, characterized in that the prediction device (32) has a digital road map which contains route data relating to a traffic network and attribute data assigned to the route data, in that filling pressures which are implemented by the compressed air regulating device (22) can be stored, in a velocity-corrected fashion, in a relationship with the route data as adaptation attributes in the road map, and in that, when the route section is travelled along again, the prediction filter (33) directly applies the adaptation attributes to the control computer (25) as set point pressure values.

13. Vehicle seat according to one of claims 10 to 12, characterized in that the prediction device (32) predicts a maximum value of the lateral acceleration from a predicted limiting velocity with which a current bend can be travelled through, and in that when the maximum value is exceeded by the predicted lateral acceleration, said prediction device (32) applies a maximum pressure value as a set point pressure value for setting the filling pressure in the filling cushions (14-17) which are arranged on the side of the vehicle seat (10) located on the outside in the direction of curvature of the bend.