JP2012153307A - Headlamp control device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a headlamp control device which can prevent another road user from being dazzled.SOLUTION: The headlamp control device includes a headlamp 14 arranged in a vehicle, a vehicle information acquiring means 11 capable of acquiring information on a shift lever position, and a lighting control means 13 controlling lighting on and off of the headlamp 14. When the control means 13 lightens the headlamp 14, if the shift lever position is at a parking position or a neutral position, the control means 13 allows the headlamp 14 to be lighted in such a manner that illuminance gradually reaches a prescribed value. When the shift lever position is at a position other than the parking position or the neutral position, the control means 13 allows the headlamp 14 to be lighted in such a manner that the illuminance instantly reaches the prescribed value.

Description

  The present invention relates to a headlight control device mounted on a vehicle.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a device for turning on or off a headlamp (headlamp) mounted on a vehicle switches on / off of the headlamp according to a driver's switch operation. Further, as disclosed in, for example, Patent Document 1, in order to reduce a driver's operation load caused by turning on and off the headlamp, a shift lever position is detected, and the headlamp is based on the shift lever position. There is a device that automatically controls the turning on and off of. Such a control device turns on the headlamp when the shift lever position changes from the parking position to the neutral position, the shift lever position changes from the drive position or the reverse position to the neutral position, and the vehicle speed is zero. The headlamp is turned off.

JP 2009-244851 A

  In practice, however, the headlamps may be turned on even when the vehicle is stopped. However, when there are road users (pedestrians, other vehicles, etc.) in the surrounding area, for example, when the surroundings are dark such as at night When the headlamps are turned on, there is a problem that the difference with the surrounding brightness is large, which may cause dazzling to other road users.

  This invention is made | formed in view of said subject, and it aims at providing the headlamp control apparatus which can suppress giving a dazzling to another road user.

In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention provides a headlamp disposed in a vehicle, vehicle information acquisition means capable of acquiring a shift lever position, and lighting control means for controlling lighting and extinguishing of the headlamp. A headlamp control device comprising:
When the headlight is turned on, the control means turns on the headlight so that illuminance gradually reaches a predetermined value when the shift lever position is a parking position or a neutral position. When the shift lever position is other than the parking position and the neutral position, the headlamp is turned on so that the illuminance instantaneously reaches the predetermined value.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, in the headlamp control apparatus of a vehicle, it becomes possible to suppress giving a dazzling to another road user.

The block diagram which shows the structure of the headlamp control apparatus which is embodiment of this invention. The flowchart figure which shows the illumination intensity control process of the headlamp in the same as the above.

  Below, headlamp control device 10 which is an embodiment of the present invention is explained based on an accompanying drawing.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the headlamp control device 10 includes vehicle information acquisition means 11, operation switches 12, and lighting control means 13.

  The vehicle information acquisition means 11 acquires vehicle information from various sensors (not shown) provided in the vehicle, vehicle-mounted devices such as an ECU (Electronic Control Unit) and a navigation device. In the present embodiment, the vehicle information acquisition unit 11 acquires at least the shift lever position from the transmission ECU and the illuminance around the vehicle from the illuminance sensor as vehicle information.

  The operation switch 12 is mainly provided in the vicinity of the steering wheel in front of the driver's seat of the vehicle, and selects whether the headlamp 14 is turned on or off. In the present embodiment, it is also possible to select an auto function that automatically turns on the headlamp 14 according to the illuminance.

  The lighting control unit 13 is mainly composed of a microcomputer, and controls lighting / extinction of the headlamp 14 based on vehicle information from the vehicle information acquisition unit 11 and an operation signal from the operation switch 12. When the operation state of the operation switch 12 is switched from off (off) to on (on), the lighting operation means 13 performs an illuminance control process to be described later to control the headlamp 14 to light, and the operation switch When the twelve operation states are switched from on to off, the headlamp 14 is turned off. Further, when the auto function is on, the lighting control unit 13 switches the operation state of the operation switch 12 on when the illuminance around the vehicle acquired from the vehicle information acquisition unit 11 is below a certain value. The headlamp 14 is turned on in the same manner as in the case where the headlamp 14 is turned on. .

  The headlamps 14 include a halogen lamp, an HID (High Intensity Discharge) lamp, and the like, and are provided in a pair of left and right on the front of the vehicle to illuminate the front of the vehicle.

Next, the illuminance control method of the headlamp 14 in the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
The lighting control means 13 always monitors the operation state of the operation switch 12 when the power is turned on, and executes the following processing when the operation state is switched from off to on. When the operation state of the operation switch 12 is switched from on to off, the headlamp 14 is simply turned off (not shown in the flowchart).

First, the lighting control means 13 acquires the shift lever position from the vehicle information acquisition means 11 (step S1).
The lighting control means 13 determines the shift lever position (step S2). If the shift lever position is the parking position or the neutral position (step S2; Yes), the value of the illuminance E of the headlamp 14 is incremented (E = E + 1), and the headlamp 14 is turned on based on this value. Let The illuminance E is initialized at the start of processing (E = 1). Further, the lighting control means 13 determines whether or not the headlamp 14 has been lit at the maximum illuminance E _max (E = E _max ) (step S4), and if not lit at the maximum illuminance E _max (step S4) ; No), it returns to step S2, and the subsequent processing is repeated. As a result, while the shift lever position is maintained at the parking position or the neutral position, the illuminance E of the headlamp 14 gradually increases and reaches the maximum illuminance _Emax . Incidentally, it is set as appropriate depending on the desired time until the or increase the actual illuminance E at what values for each increment reaches the value or the maximum illuminance E _max of the maximum illuminance E _max. Moreover, the lighting control means 13 complete | finishes a process, when the illumination intensity E reaches the maximum illumination intensity _{Emax in} step S4 (step S4; Yes).
When the shift lever position is neither the parking position nor the neutral position in step S2 (step S2; No), the lighting control means 13 sets the value of the illuminance E of the headlamp 14 as the maximum illuminance _Emax (E = E _max , step S5), the process ends. Therefore, when the shift lever position is the drive position or the reverse position and it can be determined that the vehicle starts, the headlamp 14 is instantaneously turned on at the maximum illuminance _Emax .

  According to the present embodiment, when the headlamp 14 is turned on while the vehicle is stopped, the illuminance gradually increases to a predetermined value, so that the difference between the vehicle, the surroundings, and the brightness is instantaneously large. It becomes possible to suppress dazzling other road users around the vehicle. In addition, when starting the vehicle, the headlamp 14 is turned on instantaneously at a predetermined value, so that attention to the moving vehicle can be alerted to other road users. For this reason, optimal control of the headlamp 14 is possible according to the driving situation of the vehicle.

  When the auto function is on, the lighting control means 13 always monitors the illuminance around the vehicle acquired by the vehicle information acquisition means 11 instead of the operation state of the operation switch 12, and the illuminance around the vehicle is The above processing is executed when the value is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold value.

  The present invention is suitable for a headlamp control device that controls a headlamp of a vehicle.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Headlamp control apparatus 11 Vehicle information acquisition means 12 Operation switch 13 Lighting control means 14 Headlamp

Claims (3)

A headlamp control device comprising: a headlamp disposed in a vehicle; vehicle information acquisition means capable of acquiring a shift lever position; and lighting control means for controlling lighting and extinction of the headlamp;
When the headlight is turned on, the control means turns on the headlight so that illuminance gradually reaches a predetermined value when the shift lever position is a parking position or a neutral position. When the shift lever position is other than the parking position and the neutral position, the headlamp control device is lit so that the illuminance instantaneously reaches the predetermined value. 2. The front according to claim 1, further comprising an operation switch for operating turning on and off of the headlamp, wherein the control unit turns on or off the headlamp according to an operation state of the operation switch. Lighting control device. The vehicle information acquisition unit can acquire the illuminance around the vehicle, and the control unit turns on or turns off the headlamp according to the illuminance around the vehicle. Headlamp control device.

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