EP3299561B1 - Actuating device - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to an adjusting device according to the preamble of claim 1.

Such adjusting devices are generally known. They are used, for example, for automatically opening and closing doors and/or tailgates of motor vehicles, in particular passenger cars. For this purpose, in a manner known per se, the drive arrangement can be provided with a connecting unit for connecting the drive arrangement to a higher-level assembly of the vehicle, i.e. one that does not belong to the actuating device, while the actuating element can be provided with a further connecting unit for connecting the actuating device to a further higher-level one, i.e. not belonging to the actuating device, assembly of the vehicle can be provided. In this case, for example, one superordinate assembly can be the body of the vehicle, while the other superordinate assembly can be the vehicle part that can be moved relative to the body. All of this also applies to the adjusting device according to the invention.

Even if the adjusting devices according to the invention, as just mentioned, for power-assisted opening and closing, but also for automatic Opening and closing of both vehicle doors and vehicle flaps can be used, the actuating device according to the invention will be explained below for reasons of simplicity primarily with reference to the opening and closing of doors of motor vehicles.

In the case of the known actuating devices of the generic type, the door is opened or closed automatically by means of the drive unit after a switch provided for this purpose has been actuated, for example by pulling on the door handle. The movement state sensor is used here to monitor the operation of the actuating device. If the door is opened or closed by hand or if the door is also moved by hand during the automatic opening or closing, this can have adverse effects on the drive unit in the case of the known actuating devices. In particular, this can permanently impair the efficiency of the drive unit, and in extreme cases even damage it.

In the DE 10 2007 062 472 A1 discloses an actuating device for a vehicle part that is movable relative to a body of a vehicle according to the preamble of claim 1.

The WO 2015/186275 A1 has set itself the goal of providing an actuating device for a vehicle part that can be moved relative to a body of a vehicle, in which the time span between the beginning of a movement of the trunk lid and the intervention of an assistant is reduced.

The DE 101 17 933 A1 discloses an actuating device for a vehicle door, which does not include any motion sensor, but rather a load sensor, so that when an open vehicle door is detected acting force, an automated closing process of the vehicle door can be initiated.

Furthermore, be on the U.S. 2015/283886 A1 as well as the WO 2013/013313 A1 referred.

It is the object of the present invention to remedy this.

According to the invention, this object is achieved by an adjusting device according to claim 1 .

An actuation of the drive unit in adaptation to its actual state of motion can in principle consist in actuating the drive unit only to the extent that it is no longer forcibly actuated from the outside.

This forced operation is namely usually the cause of the impairment of the drive unit.

Advantageously, the control unit can be designed to actuate the drive unit to support the movement causing the actual movement state when the movement state signals forwarded by the movement state sensor to the control unit indicate an actual movement state of the drive unit that deviates from a target movement state.

The target state of motion can be, for example, the idle state, i.e. the deactivated state, of the drive unit. However, if the movement state signals in this state indicate that the drive unit is nevertheless being actuated, the control unit assumes that the vehicle door is being actuated manually and controls the drive unit in such a way that it supports the manual actuation of the door in the manner of a power steering system. The goal can advantageously be to be able to actuate the door with a small force of the order of 5 to 10 N even when the vehicle is on an incline or in a lateral position.

However, the desired state of motion can also be a predetermined state of motion, for example a state of motion corresponding to an automatic opening or closing process of the door. However, if the movement state signals indicate an actual movement state that deviates from this desired movement state, the control unit assumes that automatic opening or closing is no longer desired and the vehicle door should be operated manually. In this case, too, the drive unit controls in such a way that it supports the manual actuation of the door in the manner of a power steering system.

As indicated above, the adjusting device according to the invention can also be designed to automatically open and close the door.

The actuating device can be designed, for example, to interpret a long pull on the door handle as a desire for automated opening and closing, while a brief pull on the door handle is interpreted as a desire for power-assisted opening and closing.

In connection with the present invention, it must be taken into account that manual actuation of doors differs in their movement pattern, in particular at the beginning of the movement, from other types of actuation, for example gravity-induced actuation of the door. For example, the manual opening of a door initially involves a strong actuation, as it were "tearing", while a door under the influence of gravity initially moves only slowly, quasi "creeping". According to the invention, the acceleration with which the door starts to move is used as a distinguishing criterion. According to the invention, it is therefore provided that the control unit is designed to actuate the drive unit in adaptation to the actual state of movement only when a movement pattern of the actual state of movement satisfies at least one predetermined condition.

In order to be able to prevent movements of the door other than manual movements, for example movements of the door caused by gravity, being detected as the actual state of movement, it is additionally provided according to the invention that the drive unit is assigned a braking device.

According to the invention, the braking device is a permanently acting braking device, the braking force being set, for example, in such a way that it is greater than the force of gravity usually acting on the door, as long as the vehicle is standing on a surface whose inclination does not exceed a predetermined value, for example 15° . In this way, the braking force will outweigh the force exerted by gravity on the door and can bring a movement of the door caused by gravity to a standstill or not allow it at all.

The braking device can be a friction brake, for example. In particular, the braking device can include a braking element that rotates with an output shaft of the drive unit and a braking element that is non-rotatably arranged on the drive arrangement and that frictionally engages with one another. In this case, for example, the brake element arranged non-rotatably on the drive arrangement can be pressed under the preload of a spring against the brake element rotating with the output shaft of the drive unit in order to generate the frictional engagement.

In this context, it is also advantageous if the effect of the braking device, ie its braking force, is adjustable. For this purpose, for example, the spring pretensioning force, which acts on the brake element arranged in a rotationally fixed manner on the drive arrangement, can be adjustable.

In principle, it is also conceivable, but not according to the invention, for the braking device to include a braking force interruption unit. In the case of a friction brake, this braking force interruption unit can be designed, for example, to interrupt the frictional engagement of the two brake elements. Advantageously, the braking force interruption unit can be actuated by means of the control unit. In particular, the control unit can be designed to actuate the braking force interruption unit when the drive unit is activated in the sense of interrupting the braking force.

Another problem that occurs when moving vehicle parts that are movable relative to a vehicle body by themselves is that the vehicle part is always moved over a predetermined amount of movement, ie a predetermined distance, a predetermined swivel angle or the like. If there is an obstacle in the path of movement, this can lead to damage to the vehicle part. To prevent this In order to be able to do this, it is proposed according to a further exemplary embodiment of the invention that the control unit has a signal input to which at least one obstacle detection sensor, which does not form part of the actuating device, can be connected for forwarding obstacle detection signals to the control unit, and that the control unit is designed to use the drive unit when the obstacle detection signals indicate the presence of an obstacle in the path of movement of the vehicle part. The obstacle sensor can be a radar sensor, an optical sensor, a laser scanner sensor, an ultrasonic sensor or a camera, for example.

In a development of the invention, it is proposed that the actuating element includes a spindle.

Furthermore, it can be provided that the output shaft of the drive unit runs orthogonally to the adjustment direction of the actuating unit.

A compact arrangement that takes up little installation space can be achieved, for example, in that the output shaft of the drive unit carries a worm wheel, the worm wheel preferably meshing with a gear wheel which has or carries a spindle nut radially on the inside, which has a thread the spindle is in thread engagement. In this case, it is only necessary to ensure that the gear wheel is supported axially in relation to the direction of adjustment of the setting unit the. However, this can be provided in a simple manner by the housing of the drive arrangement.

Finally, the invention also relates to a motor vehicle with a body and a vehicle part that can be moved relative to the body and is equipped with an actuating device according to the invention. It is of particular advantage that in this motor vehicle the vehicle part that can be moved relative to the body of the vehicle can be free of a tether designed with preferred positions. This has advantages not only with regard to the space required, but also with regard to the production costs.

Figur 1

eine Seitenansicht einer Ausführungsform einer erfindungsgemäßen Stellvorrichtung;

Figur 2

eine weitere Seitenansicht der Stellvorrichtung gemäß Figur 1 aus der durch den Pfeil II in Figur 1 angezeigten Richtung;

Figur 3

eine teilweise geöffnete Seitenansicht der Stellvorrichtung der Figuren 1 und 2;

Figur 4

einen Schnitt der in Figur 1 gezeigten Ansicht.

The invention will be explained in more detail below using an exemplary embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings. It shows:

figure 1

a side view of an embodiment of an adjusting device according to the invention;

figure 2

a further side view of the adjusting device according to FIG figure 1 from which indicated by the arrow II in figure 1 indicated direction;

figure 3

a partially opened side view of the adjusting device figures 1 and 2 ;

figure 4

a cut of the in figure 1 shown view.

In figure 1 an embodiment of an adjusting device according to the invention is denoted generally by 10 . It is used to move a vehicle part 52, for example a vehicle door or a vehicle flap (in figure 1 dash-dot-dotted), of a motor vehicle 50, for example a passenger car, relative to the body 54 (in figure 1 dash-dotted line) of motor vehicle 50. Actuating device 10 includes a drive arrangement 12 with a drive unit 14, for example an electric motor, and a motion state sensor 16, for example a Hall sensor, for detecting the motion state of drive unit 14. Drive unit 14 and the motion state sensor 16 are in a joint Housing 18 added. In addition, in the housing 18 is a braking device 20 (see figure 3 ) arranged, which is able to brake a movement, in particular rotation, of the drive unit 14 .

The adjusting device 10 also includes an adjusting element 22, which is designed as a spindle in the exemplary embodiment shown.

The actuating element 22 is articulated on the movable vehicle part 52 by means of a bracket 26, while the drive arrangement 12 is connected to the body 54 of the vehicle 50 via a cardanic suspension 27. The degrees of freedom of movement provided by the cardanic suspension 27, namely its ability to pivot about the axes C and D (see figure 2 ), the pivotability of the holder 26 about the axis B and the rotatability of the spindle 22 relative to the drive arrangement 12 about the axis A reliably prevent the adjusting device 10 from tilting.

As in particular in the Figures 3 and 4 can be seen, an output shaft 28 of the drive unit 14 carries a worm wheel 30 which meshes with a gear wheel 32 which surrounds the spindle 22 . The gear wheel 32 is connected radially on the inside to a spindle nut 34 which is in threaded engagement with a thread of the spindle 22 . In this way, a rotary movement of the drive unit 14 is converted into a linear movement of the spindle 22 in its longitudinal direction A

According to figure 3 the braking device 20 is also assigned to the output shaft 28 of the drive unit 14 . In the illustrated embodiment, it is designed as a permanently acting friction brake. For this purpose, it comprises a brake element 42 that is permanently connected to the output shaft 28, i.e. that rotates with the output shaft 28, and a brake element 44 that is permanently connected to the housing 18, that is, that is arranged in a rotationally fixed manner this frictional engagement by means of a (not shown) spring is maintained permanently. The braking force generated by this permanent frictional engagement is preferably selected in such a way that the movable vehicle part 52 cannot set itself in motion as long as the vehicle 50 is standing on a surface whose inclination angle relative to the horizontal, depending on the design of the braking device 20, is, for example, at most 15 ° is. In this way, the movable vehicle part 52 can be held in any desired intermediate position on its adjustment path.

To control the operation of the drive unit 14, the drive assembly 12 is also provided with a (in figure 3 only shown schematically) control unit 24 assigned. Output signals of the motion state sensor 16 can be supplied to the control unit 24 via a signal input 36 . Furthermore, the output signals of an obstacle detection sensor 40 can be fed to the control unit 24 via a signal input 38 .

If the control unit 24 uses the signals from the movement state sensor 16 to determine that the movable vehicle part 52 is being moved by hand, it controls the drive unit 14 to support the desired movement, i.e. in the manner of a power steering system. The proportion of the force required to move the movable vehicle part 52, which is taken over by the drive unit 14, can be adjusted as desired, but is advantageously selected in such a way that the vehicle part 52 can also be moved when the vehicle 50 is on an incline or is in a lateral position, can be actuated with a small force of the order of 5 to 10 N.

If control unit 24 does not determine a desire for manual actuation of movable vehicle part 52, but has received a command to automatically move movable vehicle part 52, control unit 24 takes into account the obstacle detection signals supplied to it by obstacle detection sensor 40 when executing this command. Provides the Control unit 24 determines that there is an obstacle in the path of movement of the movable vehicle part 52, so it deactivates the drive unit 14 so that the movable vehicle part 52 comes to a standstill in front of the obstacle without colliding with it and being damaged as a result.

It should also be added that, for better signal resolution, it is conceivable to provide a second movement state sensor (not shown) on the output side, for example on the worm wheel 30 or on the spindle 22 .

Claims (11)

1. Adjusting device (10) for a vehicle part (52) which is movable relative to a body (54) of a vehicle (50), in particular a vehicle door or a vehicle tailgate, comprising:

   • a drive arrangement (12)

   • having a drive unit (14) and

   • at least one movement state sensor (16) for detecting a movement state of the drive unit (14) and for outputting corresponding movement state signals,

   • an adjusting element (22), which is displaceable relative to the drive arrangement (12) by means of the drive unit (14), and

   • a control unit (24), associated with the drive arrangement (12), for activating and deactivating the drive unit (14),

   wherein the control unit (24) has a signal input (36) to which the at least one movement state sensor (16) is connected for transmitting the movement state signals to the control unit (24), and wherein the control unit (24) is designed to actuate the drive unit (14) according to the actual movement state if the movement state signals transmitted to the control unit (24) by the movement state sensor (16) indicate an actual movement state of the drive unit (14) which deviates from a target movement state, wherein the target movement state is a rest state of the drive unit (14) or a predetermined movement state of the drive unit (14),

   wherein the control unit (24) is further designed to distinguish a movement pattern of a manual actuation of the vehicle part (52) which is movable relative to the body (54) of the vehicle (50), detected by the movement state sensor (16), from a movement pattern of a gravity-induced actuation of the vehicle part (52) which is movable relative to the body (54) of the vehicle (50), detected by the movement state sensor (16), characterized in that as distinguishing criterion an acceleration detected by the movement state sensor (16) is used with which acceleration the vehicle part (52) which is movable relative to the body (54) of the vehicle (50) is set in motion,

   in that the control unit (24) is further designed to actuate the drive unit (14) according to the actual movement state only if a movement pattern of the actual movement state at the start of a movement of the vehicle part (52) which is movable relative to the body (54) of the vehicle (50) fulfils at least one predetermined condition as to the acceleration, namely that it corresponds to the movement pattern of the manual actuation and not to the movement pattern of the gravity-induced actuation of the vehicle part (52) which is movable relative to the body (54) of the vehicle (50), and

   in that a brake device (20) is associated with the drive unit (14), wherein the brake device (20) is a permanently acting brake device.
2. Adjusting device according to claim 1,
   characterized in that the control unit (24) is designed to actuate the drive unit (14) to assist the movement producing the actual movement state if the movement state signals transmitted to the control unit (24) by the movement state sensor (16) indicate an actual movement state of the drive unit (14) which deviates from a target movement state.
3. Adjusting device according to claim 1 or 2,
   characterized in that a brake force of the brake device (20) is greater than a gravitational force acting on the vehicle part (52) which is movable relative to the body (54) of the vehicle (50), whilst the vehicle is on a surface of which the inclination does not exceed a predetermined value, such as 15°.
4. Adjusting device according to any of claims 1 to 3,
   characterized in that the brake device (20) comprises a brake element (42) which rotates with a driven shaft (28) of the drive unit (14) and a brake element (44) which is arranged in a rotationally fixed manner on the drive arrangement (12), which brake elements are in mutual frictional engagement.
5. Adjusting device according to any of the preceding claims,
   characterized in that the control unit (24) has a signal input (38) to which at least one obstacle detection sensor (40), which does not form part of the adjusting device (10), may be connected for transmitting obstacle detection signals to the control unit (24), and in that the control unit (24) is designed to deactivate the drive unit (14) if the obstacle detection signals indicate the presence of an obstacle in the movement path of the vehicle part (52).
6. Adjusting device according to any of the preceding claims,
   characterized in that the adjusting element (22) comprises a spindle.
7. Adjusting device according to any of the preceding claims,
   characterized in that the driven shaft (28) of the drive unit (14) extends orthogonally to the adjustment direction (A) of the adjusting unit (22).
8. Adjusting device according to any of the preceding claims,
   characterized in that the driven shaft (28) of the drive unit (14) supports a worm gear (30), the worm gear (30) preferably meshing with a gear wheel (32) which radially inwardly has a spindle nut (34) which is in threaded engagement with a thread of the adjusting element (22).
9. Adjusting device according to one of the preceding claims,
   characterized in that the drive arrangement (12) is provided with a connecting unit (27) for connecting the drive arrangement (12) to a superordinate assembly (54) of the vehicle (50), i.e. an assembly which does not form part of the adjusting device (10), whilst the adjusting element (22) is provided with a further connecting unit (26) for connecting the adjusting element (22) to a further superordinate assembly (52) of the vehicle (50), i.e. an assembly which does not form part of the adjusting device (10).
10. Motor vehicle (50) having a body (54) and a vehicle part (52) movable relative to the body (54), which is equipped with an adjusting device (10) according to any of the preceding claims.
11. Motor vehicle according to claim 10,
    characterized in that the vehicle part (52) which is movable relative to the body (54) of the vehicle (50) is free of any check strap designed with preferred positions.

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