CN210153720U

CN210153720U - Vehicle lamp and vehicle system

Info

Publication number: CN210153720U
Application number: CN201921054361.9U
Authority: CN
Inventors: 小泽一嘉
Original assignee: Koito Manufacturing Co Ltd
Current assignee: Koito Manufacturing Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-07-11
Filing date: 2019-07-08
Publication date: 2020-03-17
Anticipated expiration: 2029-07-08
Also published as: CN110715261A; JP2020009683A; CN110715261B

Abstract

The utility model provides a form visible light illuminating part that will be used for to stipulate the region and be used for the infrared illuminating part that detects the object that exists in the region different with this region into an organic whole, small-size and low-cost vehicle lamp and contain this vehicle lamp's vehicle system. The vehicle lamp includes: a visible light emitting unit (21) that emits visible light; and an optical system (23) for illuminating a predetermined region with visible light emitted from the visible light emitting section (21), wherein the vehicle lamp further comprises an infrared light emitting section (22) for emitting infrared light, and the optical system (23) comprises a reflecting member (24) (sub-reflecting member (242)) for reflecting the visible light emitted from the visible light emitting section (21) toward the predetermined region and transmitting the infrared light emitted from the infrared light emitting section (22) toward a region including a region different from the predetermined region.

Description

Vehicle lamp and vehicle system

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a vehicle lamp that can irradiate infrared light for detecting objects such as other vehicles and pedestrians, and a vehicle system including the vehicle lamp.

Background

In order to improve the traveling safety of vehicles such as automobiles, there has been proposed a technique of detecting objects such as a preceding vehicle, an oncoming vehicle, and a pedestrian existing in a front area of an automobile by using infrared light. For example, in a headlamp that performs ADB (adaptive driving Beam) light distribution control of a vehicle, the following light distribution control is performed: an object existing in a region other than the illumination region of the low beam light distribution, particularly in a region above the cutoff line of the low beam light distribution, is detected, and the region in which the detected object is present is selectively not illuminated.

Patent document 1 describes the following technique: the apparatus includes an infrared light emitting unit that irradiates infrared light onto a region to be controlled for ADB light distribution (hereinafter referred to as an ADB control region), and detects an object based on the infrared light reflected from the object existing in the ADB control region. The infrared light emitting unit for irradiating infrared light is configured as follows: the ADB control area is divided into a plurality of areas, and a plurality of infrared light emitting elements for irradiating infrared light to each divided area are provided.

Documents of the prior art

Patent document

Patent document 1: japanese patent laid-open publication No. 2017-52426

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

Problem to be solved by the utility model

Since the infrared light emitting part and the ADB light emitting part are integrally configured in the technique of reference 1, the technique of reference 1 is not preferable in terms of using the infrared light emitting part for applications other than ADB light emission control. For example, in recent years, an automatic driving technique has been proposed which requires an object detection means using infrared light, but when the technique of reference 1 is used as the detection means, an ADB light emitting section is not required, and therefore, the lamp becomes large in size and the cost becomes high.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a small and low-cost vehicle lamp and a vehicle system including the same, by integrating a visible light emitting unit that illuminates a predetermined area and an infrared light emitting unit that can detect an object existing in an area different from the area.

Means for solving the problems

The utility model discloses a lamp for vehicle possesses: a visible light emitting unit that emits visible light; and an optical system for illuminating a predetermined region with visible light emitted from the visible light emitting portion, wherein the vehicle lamp further includes an infrared light emitting portion for emitting infrared light, and the optical system includes a reflecting member for reflecting the visible light emitted from the visible light emitting portion toward the predetermined region and transmitting the infrared light emitted from the infrared light emitting portion toward a region including a region different from the predetermined region. Further, a visible light source of the visible light emitting portion is disposed at a position on the front side of the reflector, an infrared light source of the infrared light emitting portion is disposed at a position on the rear side of the reflector, the visible light is reflected on the front surface of the reflector, and the infrared light is transmitted through the reflector from the rear side toward the front side.

As a preferable aspect of the present invention, the reflector includes: a main reflector that reflects visible light; and a sub-reflector that reflects visible light and transmits infrared light. In this case, for example, the main reflector and the sub reflector are integrally formed, the front surface of the main reflector is configured as a light reflecting surface, and the sub reflector is configured by a member that transmits at least infrared light, and an infrared transmitting filter that reflects visible light and transmits infrared light is provided on the surface of the sub reflector. Further, the infrared transmission filter is composed of a dielectric multilayer film.

In the present invention, for example, the predetermined region is a low beam light distribution region having a cutoff line at an upper edge, and the region different from the predetermined region is a region located above the cutoff line. In the present invention, the optical system includes a light blocking member for blocking a part of visible light to form low beam light distribution, and the light blocking member is configured to transmit infrared light transmitted through the reflecting member. In the present invention, the reflector is formed in a dome shape including a part of a rotational ellipse. In the present invention, the light blocking member is a plate-shaped light transmitting member having an inverted trapezoidal cross section.

The vehicle system of the present invention further includes an object detection device for detecting a first object illuminated by the visible light and a second object illuminated by the infrared light.

Effect of the utility model

According to the present invention, since the visible light is reflected by the reflector included in the optical system to illuminate the predetermined region and the infrared light is transmitted to illuminate the region including the region different from the predetermined region, the object existing in the illuminated predetermined region and the object existing in the region different from the illuminated predetermined region can be detected separately. Thus, the vehicle lamp and the vehicle system including the vehicle lamp can be downsized and reduced in cost.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic horizontal cross-sectional view of a headlamp of a motor vehicle to which the present invention is applied.

Fig. 2 is a light distribution characteristic diagram of low beam light distribution and high beam light distribution.

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of the low beam lamp unit.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view of main components of the low beam lamp unit.

Fig. 5 is a schematic perspective view of main components of the low beam lamp unit.

Fig. 6 is a light distribution characteristic diagram of an irradiation region of infrared light.

Fig. 7 is a light distribution characteristic diagram for explaining ADB light distribution control.

Fig. 8 is a schematic perspective view of a modification of the scanning mirror in the ADB light distribution control.

Description of the reference numerals

1: a lamp housing;

2: a low beam light unit;

3: a high beam unit;

21: a white light emitting portion (visible light emitting portion);

22: an infrared light emitting section;

24: a reflector;

25: a selective light shield;

26: a projection lens;

31: a white LED;

32: a scanning mirror;

33: a projection lens;

211: white LEDs (visible light sources: white light sources);

221: infrared LEDs (infrared light sources);

241: a primary reflector;

242: a secondary reflector;

244: an infrared transmitting and filtering light part;

252: an infrared transmitting and filtering light part;

PL: a low beam light distribution region (predetermined region);

pH: an ADB control area;

PI: the infrared light illuminates an area.

Detailed Description

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Fig. 1 is a schematic horizontal cross-sectional view of a headlamp HL of a motor vehicle to which the present invention is applied. The headlamp HL includes a lamp body 11 and a lamp housing 1 including a translucent front cover 12, and includes: a low beam unit 2 and a high beam unit 3 built-in the lamp housing 1. In the following description, the front-rear direction is a direction based on the front-rear direction of the vehicle and the lamp.

Further, an object detection device 4 is incorporated in the lamp housing 1. The object detection device 4 includes: an image pickup device 41 having sensitivity in a wavelength range from visible light to infrared light, and an image analysis unit 42 for analyzing an image picked up by the image pickup device 41 to detect a target. The object detection device 4 and at least the low beam unit 2 preferably further include the high beam unit 3 to construct a vehicle system.

Further, a lighting control device 5 is incorporated in the lamp housing 1, and the lighting control device 5 is configured to control the lighting states of the low beam unit 2 and the high beam unit 3 based on a switch operation by an occupant and a detection signal from the object detection device 4. The vehicle system may be configured to further include the lighting control device 5.

The low beam lamp unit 2 is a projector type lamp unit to which the present invention is applied, and the low beam lamp unit 2 is configured to include the following components as described below in detail: a visible light emitting unit 21 that performs low beam light distribution illumination using visible light; and an infrared light emitting unit 22 that emits infrared light for detecting an object present in a region other than the illuminated region. The light emitted from each of the visible-light emitting unit 21 and the infrared-light emitting unit 22 is irradiated toward the front area of the vehicle by the optical system 23.

The visible light emitting portion 21 is configured as a white light emitting portion that emits white light, and as shown in the light distribution characteristic diagram of fig. 2 (a), the white light emitted during light emission has a cutoff line COL that extends substantially along the horizontal line H in the vehicle front region, and low-beam light distribution illumination that illuminates a region below the cutoff line COL (a left high right low-type broken line region) is performed. The cutoff line COL has a different height between the right side (opposite lane side) and the left side (host lane side) of the vertical line V.

The high beam unit 3 is configured as a lamp unit for ADB light distribution control of a light scanning system. The high beam unit 3 includes: a light source emitting visible light, in this case, a white LED31 emitting white light as visible light; a scanning mirror 32 for reflecting the white light emitted from the white LED and deflecting the reflection direction in the horizontal direction; the high beam unit 3 is attached to a radiator (heat sink)34, and includes a projection lens 33 for projecting the reflected white light toward the front area of the vehicle. The scan mirror 32 is driven to rotate by a motor 35, and is configured as a rotary reflector in which the angle of the horizontal direction of the reflecting surface with respect to the white LED continuously changes with rotation.

When the scanning mirror 32 is used to reciprocally scan the white light in the horizontal direction, the high beam unit 3 projects the light onto the ADB control region PH in the region (upper right broken line region) above the cutoff line COL of the low beam light distribution region PL, as shown in fig. 2 (b). As described later, when the scanning timing of the emission of the white light is controlled by the ADB light distribution control, the ADB light distribution control is executed by stopping the illumination of a partial region of the ADB control region PH.

The details of the low beam lamp unit 2 described above will be explained. Fig. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view along the optical axis of the low beam lamp unit. Fig. 4 and 5 are an enlarged longitudinal sectional view and a schematic perspective view of main components thereof. In these figures, the visible light emitting portion 21 is disposed on the upper surface of the heat sink 6 that is supported by the lamp housing 1, and the white light emitting portion 21 and the infrared light emitting portion 22 are disposed therein. The white light emitting unit 21 includes a white LED (light emitting diode) 211 as a light source. The infrared light emitting unit 22 includes an infrared light source module 220 as a light source.

The white LED211 has a light emitting surface that faces vertically upward and is disposed on the front side of the lamp with respect to the infrared light source module 220 on the upper surface of the heat sink 6. The infrared light source module 220 is mounted on the front surface of the standing wall 61 provided at a part of the rear portion of the heat sink 6 so that the light emitting direction is directed forward. The infrared light source module 220 is integrally provided with an infrared LED221 that emits infrared light, and a condenser lens 222 that is disposed at a position forward of a light emitting surface of the infrared LED221, and the diffused light emitted from the infrared LED221 is condensed by the condenser lens 222 to be emitted forward as a light beam (light beam) having a predetermined radial dimension.

The optical system 23 includes: a reflector 24, an optional light shield 25, and a projection lens 26. The reflector 23 is formed in a dome shape substantially composed of a part of a rotational ellipse, covers the white LED211, and is attached to the upper surface of the heat sink 6. In this mounted state, the rear portion of the reflector 24 is disposed on the front side of the infrared light source module 220.

The projection lens 26 is disposed in front of the reflector 24, and is fixed and supported by the heat sink 6 through a lens holder 261. The optical axis of the projection lens 26 is positioned on a vertical plane including the emission optical axes of the white LED211 and the infrared light source module 220, and faces the front and rear directions of the low beam unit 2.

The reflector 24 is composed of a main reflector 241 and a sub-reflector 242. The sub-reflector 242 is disposed across a region on which infrared light emitted from the infrared LED221 of the infrared light source module 220 is projected on the rear surface of the reflector 24. In this embodiment, the sub-reflector 242 is a portion of the main reflector 241 having a desired height dimension along the upper surface of the heat sink 6, and is a portion extending from the rear surface portion of the reflector 24 to both sides by just a desired dimension. The main reflection element 241 is an area other than the area occupied by the sub reflection element 242.

The inner surface of the main reflector 241 is a light reflecting surface, and the first focal point thereof is substantially disposed on the light emitting surface of the white LED 211. The second focal point is set at a position closer to the front side than the first focal point, and is set at a position near the rear focal point of the projection lens 26. Illustration of the first focus and the second focus is omitted.

As shown in fig. 4, the sub-reflector 242 is formed of a light-transmitting member 243, and an infrared transmitting filter 244 that selectively transmits infrared light is formed on the front surface and the rear surface thereof. The infrared transmission filter 244 is made of a dielectric multilayer film. The sub-reflector 242 transmits infrared light emitted from the infrared LED221 forward through the infrared transmission filter 244, and white light emitted from the white LED211 is reflected toward the second focal point through the infrared transmission filter 244.

The selective light-shielding material 25 is composed of a plate-shaped light-transmitting member 251 having an inverted trapezoidal cross section, and an infrared transmitting filter 252 is formed on each of the front and rear surfaces thereof in the same manner as the sub-reflector 242. The selective light shielding member 25 is supported by the upper surface of the heat sink 6 at a position in front of the white LED 211. The shape of the upper edge of the selective light-shielding member 25 is the same as that of a light-shielding member for forming a cutoff line of low beam light distribution provided in the related art. That is, the infrared light transmitted through the sub-reflector 242 has horizontal and vertical dimensions through which the infrared light can pass, and the upper edge portion thereof is formed in a stepped shape having different height dimensions in the lateral direction so as to form a desired cutoff line.

In the headlamp HL configured as described above, when the occupant (driver) operates the lighting switch (not shown) to the "low beam", the low beam lamp unit 2 is turned on under the control of the lighting control device 5 that receives this information. Fig. 3 schematically shows an optical path during lighting, and when the white LED211 emits light, the white light is emitted in a diffused state upward from the light emitting surface. The emitted light is reflected by the infrared transmission filter (dielectric multilayer film) 244 on the reflection surface of the main reflector 241 and the front and rear surfaces of the sub-reflector 242 of the reflector 24, and is condensed to the second focal point. The light condensed at the second focal point is irradiated forward by the projection lens 26, and the forward region is illuminated. Since these reflected lights are reflected by the infrared transmission filter 244, the reflectance of the white light is high, and the use efficiency of the white light is improved.

At this time, since a part of the light reflected by the reflector 24 is blocked by the infrared transmission filters (dielectric multilayer films) 252 on the rear surface and the front surface of the selective light-shielding member 25, the part of the light does not reach the second focal point. Thus, as shown in fig. 2 (a), illumination of the low beam light distribution region PL is performed that illuminates a lower region of a cutoff line COL that substantially follows a horizontal line H in a front region of the vehicle.

When the occupant operates the lighting switch to "high beam", the lighting control device 5 lights the high beam unit 3 in addition to the lighting of the low beam unit 2. In this control, the scanning mirror 32 is driven while the white LED31 is continuously caused to emit light for a long time. Accordingly, the white light beam emitted from the white LED31 is reflected by the scanning mirror 32, scanned in the horizontal direction, and irradiated to the front area of the vehicle through the projection lens 33. Therefore, as shown in fig. 2 (b), the ADB control region PH above the cutoff line COL of the low-beam light distribution region PL is illuminated, and illumination of a high-beam light distribution is performed by combining the light distribution of the ADB control region PH and the light distribution of the low-beam light distribution region PL.

On the other hand, when the occupant operates the lighting switch to the "ADB control", the lighting control device 5 causes the white LEDs 211 of the low beam light unit 2 to emit light and causes the infrared light source module 220, that is, the infrared LEDs 221 to emit light. As described above, the white light emitted from the white LED211 that emits light illuminates the low beam light distribution region PL. At this time, the high beam unit is on standby.

Further, light emitted from the infrared LED221 that emits light is converted into a desired light flux by the condenser lens 222, is projected onto the rear surface of the sub-reflector 242, passes through the infrared transmitting filter 244, and is transmitted through the sub-reflector 242. The transmitted infrared light is further projected toward the rear surface of the selective light-shielding member 25, and similarly, passes through the infrared transmitting filter 252 and is transmitted through the selective light-shielding member 25. The infrared light transmitted through the selective light shielding member 25 is slightly refracted upward, and further passes through the projection lens 26 to be irradiated forward.

As a result, as shown in fig. 6, the infrared light is irradiated toward the upper region of the low beam distribution region composed of the white light, that is, toward the ADB control region PH. Here, the irradiation is performed on an area (dot-line area) PI slightly narrower than the ADB control area PH. Since the selective light-shielding member 25 has an inverted trapezoidal shape, spherical aberration in the projection lens 26 can be corrected.

On the other hand, the object detection device 4 images the area in front of the vehicle by the imaging element 41, and detects the object from the image captured by the image analysis unit 42. In this case, as shown in fig. 6, the illuminated region in the low beam light distribution region can be imaged with visible light, and the subject can be detected based on the imaging. Further, since the region PI cannot be photographed by visible light, photographing by infrared light is performed, and the object is detected based on the photographing. In the example of fig. 6, the pedestrian M1 is detected by white light, and the oncoming vehicle CAR and the pedestrian M2 are detected by infrared light.

When the object is detected, particularly by infrared light, the lighting control device 5 receives the detection result and controls the lighting of the high beam unit 3. That is, as shown in fig. 1, the ADB control region PH is illuminated by scanning white light by driving the scanning mirror 32 while emitting light from the white LED 31. At the same time, the lighting control device 5 controls the light emission timing of the white LED 31. Here, the light emission of the white LED31 and its luminosity (including extinction) are controlled.

The white LED31 continuously emits light for a long time and the light emitted therefrom is reciprocally scanned in the horizontal direction by the scanning mirror 32, and since the scanning speed is fast, the region scanned in the horizontal direction forms an irradiation region if observed with the human eye. In synchronization with this scanning, the timing is controlled so that the light intensity of the white LED31 is extinguished, including zero light intensity, and the light intensity distribution in the horizontal direction of the scanning can be changed.

Thus, when the ADB control is performed, as shown in fig. 7, the illumination with white light is restricted in the area where the target exists in the ADB control area PH, and illumination with a desired illuminance is performed with white light in the other areas. In this example, the illuminance is controlled to be substantially zero in a region where the oncoming vehicle CAR is present, and the illuminance is controlled to be reduced in regions where pedestrians M1, M2 are present. Thus, ADB light distribution control is realized which improves visibility in the front area of the automobile without dazzling the subject oncoming vehicle or pedestrian.

In this way, in this embodiment, the white light emitting portion 21 and the infrared light emitting portion 22 are integrally incorporated into the low beam unit 2, and the sub-reflector 242 that transmits infrared light from the infrared light emitting portion 22 is provided in the reflector 24 that reflects white light from the white light emitting portion 21, whereby illumination of white light in the low beam light distribution region PL and illumination of infrared light in the ADB control region PH that is a different region from the low beam light distribution region PL can be realized. That is, since illumination by low beam light distribution is necessary in an automobile, the low beam light unit does not become unnecessary even when an infrared light emitting section integrally provided to the low beam light unit is applied to a lamp that is controlled differently from ADB light distribution control.

According to the present invention, by providing the configuration in which the predetermined region is illuminated with visible light and the infrared light is irradiated to the region different from the predetermined region or the region partially overlapping the predetermined region, the object which cannot be visually recognized with visible light or the object existing in the region which cannot be detected with visible light can be detected with infrared light. This makes it possible to reduce the size of the lamp required for a vehicle and to reduce the cost.

Although the foregoing embodiment has described the example in which ADB control is performed by the infrared light emitting unit, the present invention can detect an object by using infrared light emitted from the infrared light emitting unit, and thus can be applied to safe driving control or automatic driving control of a motor vehicle.

For example, when the visible light emitting portion of the low beam unit is turned on to illuminate with the low beam light distribution, infrared light is irradiated to a region where the low beam light distribution is not illuminated by turning on the infrared light emitting portion, and an object present in the non-illuminated region is detected by the object detection device, so that all objects present in a region in front of the vehicle, that is, the low beam light distribution region and other regions can be detected.

Therefore, for example, by displaying the object detected by the object detection device on a monitor of an automobile or the like, the driver can check the object existing in a region other than the near-light distribution region with low visibility, and therefore, the present invention is effective for safe driving. In addition, the automatic driving control can be realized by controlling the steering and the vehicle speed of the vehicle based on the detected object.

Alternatively, during daytime running, only the infrared light emitting unit of the low beam lamp unit may be turned on to irradiate a predetermined area with infrared light, and the object detection device may detect an object present in the irradiated area. In particular, it is possible to detect an object existing in a distant area or shadow in front of a motor vehicle that is difficult for a driver to visually recognize, and it is effective for safe driving. In addition, the present invention can also be applied to automatic driving control.

The utility model provides an object is not restricted to vehicle, pedestrian, also can be the road shape, the lane lines etc. that can utilize infrared light to detect. In particular, in the case of automatic driving control, it is effective to detect such an object.

The light emitting unit in the present invention is not limited to the case where the LED is used as the light source as in the embodiment, and may be a semiconductor light emitting element such as an LD or an organic LED, or may be a light source such as a bulb or a discharge lamp.

The scanning unit in the high beam unit to which the present invention is applied in the case of ADB control is not limited to the rotating reflector described in the embodiment. For example, as shown in fig. 8, a simple structure may be adopted in which light-reflecting mirror 321 is swung in the horizontal direction around one shaft 322 by electromagnetic force, and the inclination of the reflecting surface of mirror 321 is changed in the horizontal direction by a single-shaft mirror 32A. Alternatively, the mirror may be a biaxial mirror in which the inclination of the reflecting surface of the mirror is changed in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction.

The high beam unit is not limited to a configuration in which light is scanned by a scanning mirror, and may be a lamp unit in which a plurality of light emitting elements are arranged and selectively turned on and off.

In the embodiment, the object detection device 4 is integrally configured with the headlamp HL, but the object detection device may be configured independently of the lamp. That is, the object may be detected by an object detection device provided separately from the lamp by using infrared light emitted by an infrared light emitting unit provided in the lamp.

In the present embodiment, the reflecting member is configured by the main reflecting member and the sub reflecting member, but may be configured as a reflecting member forming a region through which infrared light is transmitted on a part of the reflecting surface without particularly configuring the reflecting member to be different from the sub reflecting member.

Claims

1. A vehicle lamp includes: a visible light emitting unit that emits visible light; and an optical system for illuminating a predetermined area with the visible light emitted from the visible light emitting portion,

the vehicle lamp further includes an infrared light emitting portion that emits infrared light, and the optical system includes a reflecting member that reflects visible light emitted from the visible light emitting portion toward the predetermined region and transmits infrared light emitted from the infrared light emitting portion toward a region including a region different from the predetermined region.

2. The vehicle lamp according to claim 1, wherein a visible light source of the visible light emitting portion is disposed at a front position of the reflector, an infrared light source of the infrared light emitting portion is disposed at a rear position of the reflector, the visible light is reflected on a front surface of the reflector, and the infrared light is transmitted through the reflector from a rear side toward a front side.

3. The vehicular lamp according to claim 2, wherein the reflector is configured to include: a primary reflector that reflects the visible light; and a sub-reflector that reflects the visible light and transmits the infrared light.

4. A vehicle lamp according to claim 3, wherein the main reflector and the sub reflector are integrally formed, a front surface of the main reflector is configured as a light reflecting surface, and the sub reflector is configured by a member that transmits at least infrared light, and an infrared transmitting filter that reflects visible light and transmits infrared light is provided on a surface of the sub reflector.

5. The vehicular lamp according to claim 4, wherein the infrared transmission filter is constituted by a dielectric multilayer film.

6. The vehicle lamp according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the predetermined region is a low beam light distribution region having a cutoff line at an upper edge, and the region different from the predetermined region is a region above the cutoff line.

7. The vehicle lamp according to claim 6, wherein the optical system includes a light blocking member for blocking a part of the visible light to form the low beam light distribution, and the light blocking member transmits infrared light transmitted through the reflector.

8. The vehicular lamp according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the reflector is formed in a dome shape made up of a part of a rotational ellipse.

9. The vehicle lamp according to claim 7, wherein the shade is formed of a plate-shaped light-transmitting member having an inverted trapezoidal cross section.

10. A vehicle system characterized by being provided with the vehicle lamp according to any one of claims 1 to 9, and an object detection device that detects a first object illuminated with the visible light and a second object illuminated with the infrared light.