JP2948447B2 - Semi-automatic transmission - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention is applied to automobiles. INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention is used to select a transmission gear of an automobile and to automate clutch operation. The present invention relates to an improvement in a semi-automatic transmission in which a clutch pedal is operated at the time of starting, but a selection of a transmission gear during traveling is automatically performed by operating a shift lever without operating a clutch pedal.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a semi-automatic transmission, it is necessary to operate a clutch pedal at the time of starting and stopping, but it is possible to perform selection control of a transmission gear without driving the clutch pedal during traveling. It is composed. That is, when trying to start a car,
The driver can depress the clutch pedal, operate the shift lever to instruct forward (or reverse), and start the vehicle by releasing the clutch pedal while depressing the accelerator pedal.

[0003] During traveling, when a shift up or down is instructed by a shift lever without operating a clutch pedal, a series of operations of clutch control and selection of a shift gear are automatically executed, and a shift operation is performed. Up or downshift is performed. When stopping the car, the brake pedal is depressed with the right foot and the clutch pedal is depressed with the left foot.

[0004] The shift lever of this device generally instructs an upshift or a downshift, and moves only in the front-back direction. After starting in low gear, if the shift lever is turned one turn in the forward direction to instruct an upshift,
The second gear is selected and automatically controlled and set. When the shift lever is turned twice forward in the low gear to instruct an upshift, the third gear is selected and the control is automatically set. The same applies to downshifting,
When the shift lever is moved backward once, the gear is shifted down one step from the current state, and when moved twice, the gear is shifted down two steps from the current state.

[0005]

In such a conventional apparatus, when the automobile is stopped and the vehicle is about to start, the shift lever is moved once forward by operating the clutch pedal. And low gear are selected. Similarly, when the front gear is moved twice, the second gear is selected as the starting gear.

[0006] On the other hand, in a large vehicle or a towing vehicle (tractor) for towing a trailer, there are 12 or 16 forward gears and 2 reverse gears.
In such a vehicle, the starting gear has a wide range of freedom depending on the load and the weight of the trailer. In such vehicles, the forward start gear is often selected from a low gear to a third gear.

For example, if the starting gear is selected as the third gear in such a vehicle when the load is small, the clutch pedal is depressed every time the driving operation of stopping at an intersection or the like while driving on the road and starting is repeated. It is necessary to operate the shift lever three times in the forward direction. This is a troublesome operation for the driver. This is the same when performing reverse start, and if the reverse start is the reverse second gear,
Each time the driver makes a reverse start, it is necessary for the driver to operate the shift lever twice in the backward direction.

[0008] The present invention is to improve this, and an object of the present invention is to reduce troublesome driving operation. An object of the present invention is to provide a semi-automatic transmission with less driver fatigue.

[0009]

The present invention takes control information of a clutch pedal, operation information of an accelerator pedal, operation information of a shift lever, rotation information of an engine and / or an axle, and outputs control information by calculation. A control circuit for controlling the rotation speed of the engine controlled by the control information, a clutch control device controlled by the control information, and a transmission gear selection device controlled by the control information, The control circuit is configured to transmit control information to the clutch control device and the transmission gear selection device in accordance with operation information of the shift lever accompanied by operation of a clutch pedal when the vehicle starts, and the control circuit includes: Sends control information to the clutch control device and the shift gear selection device according to the operation information of the shift lever The control circuit stores the transmission gear selected by the operation information of the transmission lever accompanying the operation of the clutch pedal at the time of starting as a starting gear; and Means for transmitting the starting gear stored in the storing means as control information to the transmission gear selecting device when the operation of the shift lever accompanied by the operation is performed once.

The storing means includes means for storing the starting gear for each of forward and backward movements, and the control circuit is configured to perform the operation once the shift lever accompanied by the operation of the clutch pedal is operated once at the time of starting. It is desirable to provide a means for identifying whether the operation is forward or backward, reading the corresponding starting gear from the storing means, and using the read starting gear as control information.

[0011]

In the device of the present invention, once the starting operation is performed, the starting gear selected and set at that time is stored.
The system automatically stores information such as when a low gear is used, when a second gear is used, and when a third gear is used. Then, when the start operation is performed next, by operating the speed change lever once in the forward direction, the stored start gear is read out and set. If the third gear was previously selected and set as the starting gear, the third gear is selected and set by operating the shift lever once in the forward direction.

The same applies to the reverse starting gear. When the last selected reverse start gear was the reverse second gear, this was automatically stored in the device,
The reverse second gear is selected and set only by operating the shift lever once backward in the start operation.

To change this, an operation of upshifting or downshifting may be performed before starting. That is, when the shift lever is operated once forward with the operation of the clutch pedal, the starting gear selected last time, for example, the third gear is automatically selected. It is assumed that the driver wants to change this to the second gear, for example, because the vehicle has become larger. In this case, after the third gear is automatically selected and set, the driver operates the shift lever once in the backward direction to perform a downshift operation before starting the vehicle, and the starting gear is switched to the second gear. . When the vehicle is started by releasing the clutch pedal in this state, the stored starting gear becomes the second gear, and the forward starting gear automatically selected from the next becomes the second gear.

[0014]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the operation information of the clutch pedal 1, the operation information of the accelerator pedal 2, the shift lever 3
A control circuit 6 that takes in the operation information of the engine 4 and the rotation information of the engine 4 and / or the axle from the rotation sensor 5 and outputs control information by calculation, and a rotation speed control device 7 of the engine 4 controlled by the control information; The control circuit 6 includes a clutch control device 8 controlled by the control information and a transmission gear selection device 9 controlled by the control information.
Means for transmitting control information to the clutch control device 8 and the transmission gear selecting device 9 in accordance with the operation information of the shift lever 3 accompanying the operation of the clutch pedal 1 at the time of starting, and changing the speed without operating the clutch pedal 1 during traveling. A means for transmitting control information to the clutch control device 8 and the transmission gear selecting device 9 in accordance with the operation information of the lever 3 and a means for generating display information of the selected gear are provided, and display is performed according to the display information. The display 10 is provided in the driver's seat.

Further, as a feature of the present invention, the control circuit 6
In addition, means for storing the transmission gear selected by the operation information of the shift lever 3 accompanying the operation of the clutch pedal 1 at the time of starting as a start gear, and once operating the shift lever 3 involving the operation of the clutch pedal at the time of starting. And means for sending the starting gear stored in the storing means to the transmission gear selecting device 9 as control information. The storing means comprises:
The control circuit 6 is provided with means for storing a starting gear for each of forward and backward movements. The control circuit 6 determines whether the operation is forward or backward when the shift lever 3 accompanied by operation of the clutch pedal 1 is operated once at the time of starting. And a means for reading out the corresponding starting gear from the means for storing and using the same as control information.

Next, the operation of the embodiment of the present invention configured as described above will be described. First, the normal operation will be described.

When the clutch pedal 1 is operated at the time of starting and the shift lever 3 is operated accordingly, for example, when the first forward speed is set, the control circuit 6 informs the control circuit 6 of the operation information of the clutch pedal 1 from the clutch sensor 11 and the speed change. Lever operation information is transmitted. The control circuit 6 sends control information to the clutch control device 8 and the transmission gear selecting device 9 based on the operation information. The clutch control device 8 performs clutch control at the time of shifting according to this control information, and the transmission gear selecting device 9 according to this control information changes the transmission gear (first forward speed).
To set the instructed shift state (first forward speed).

When the shift lever 3 is operated without operating the clutch pedal 1 during traveling, for example, when an upshift is instructed, the operation information is sent to the control circuit 6, and
The control circuit 6 sends control information to the clutch control device 8 and the transmission gear selection device 9 based on the operation information. The clutch control device 8 disengages the clutch according to the control information, and the transmission gear selection device 9 shifts up one stage according to the control information to set the instructed shift state. The downshift operation during traveling is performed similarly without operating the clutch pedal 1.

Here, the operation of storing the starting gear, which is a feature of the present invention, and starting from the gear position will be described.

When the power switch (not shown) is turned on at the time of starting, the clutch lever 1 is depressed and the shift lever 3 is operated, and when the starting gear is set, the control circuit 6 starts operating, and the shift lever 3 is started. Is stored as the starting gear. In such a state, when the clutch pedal 1 is depressed and the shift lever 3 is operated once at the time of restart, the control circuit 6 stores the start gear position stored at the time of initial start in the shift gear selecting device 9 as control information. Is sent out. According to this control information, if the stored starting gear position is the second position, the transmission gear selecting device 9 sets the transmission gear to the second position by one shift-up operation of the transmission lever 3.

The control circuit 6 stores the position of the starting gear in the initial start not only for the forward movement but also for the reverse movement, and the operation of the shift lever 3 accompanying the operation of the clutch pedal 1 at the time of the restart starts in the upshift or downshift direction. 1 in
When the operation is performed, whether the operation is forward (shift up) or reverse (shift down) is identified, the gear position corresponding to the stored gear position is read, and the control information is transmitted to the transmission gear selection device 9. Send out.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the flow of the storing operation of the starting gear position of the control circuit in the embodiment of the present invention.

The control circuit 6 takes in the output from the shift lever 3 and determines whether the current shift gear position is in a neutral position or a position other than the neutral position. To determine whether the clutch pedal 1 is operated from the disengaged state to the contacted state and is in the starting state, or is in any other disengaged or contacted state. When the vehicle is in the start state, the gear position at that time is stored, and it is determined whether or not the start gear needs to be selected. When it is necessary to select the starting gear, a control signal is sent to the transmission gear selection device 9 so as to set the gear position to the stored gear position and the transmission gear is selected and set. If it is not necessary to select the starting gear, the process returns to the gear position determination process and the same operation is repeated.

When the gear position is in the neutral position, it is determined whether or not the starting gear needs to be selected. When the starting gear needs to be selected, the transmission gear selecting device 9 is set to the previously stored gear position. A control signal is sent to select and set. If it is not necessary to select the starting gear, the process returns to the gear position determination process and the same operation is repeated. When the clutch is in a state other than the starting state, that is, when the clutch pedal 1 is deeply depressed or not depressed at all, the vehicle is stopped or running, so the process returns to the gear position determination process and the same operation is repeated.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention, the start gear position set when the start operation was performed last time by one shift lever operation is automatically selected, and the gear is selected from that gear. You can launch. Accordingly, there is an effect that the trouble of the driving operation can be eliminated and the fatigue of the driver can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a control operation flow of a control circuit by a shift operation in the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 clutch pedal 2 accelerator pedal 3 shift lever 4 engine 5 rotation sensor 6 control circuit 7 rotation speed control device 8 clutch control device 9 transmission gear selection device 10 display 11 clutch sensor 12 accelerator sensor

Continuation of the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) B60K 41/28 F16H 61/00

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A control circuit for taking control information of a clutch pedal, operation information of an accelerator pedal, operation information of a shift lever, and rotation information of an engine and / or an axle, and outputting control information by calculation, the control circuit comprising: An engine rotation speed control device controlled by information, a clutch control device controlled by the control information, and a transmission gear selection device controlled by the control information, wherein the control circuit includes a clutch pedal when starting. Means for transmitting control information to the clutch control device and the transmission gear selection device in accordance with the operation information of the shift lever accompanied by the operation of; and A semi-automatic apparatus comprising: a clutch control device; and means for transmitting control information to the transmission gear selection device. In the speed change device, the control circuit is configured to store, as a start gear, a shift gear selected by operation information of the shift lever accompanied by an operation of a clutch pedal at the time of start, and Means for transmitting the starting gear stored in the storing means as control information to the transmission gear selecting device when the operation is performed once. 2. The storing means includes means for storing the starting gear for each of forward and backward movements.
When the shift lever is operated once with the operation of the clutch pedal at the time of starting, the control circuit identifies whether the operation is forward or reverse, and reads the corresponding starting gear from the storing means. 2. The semi-automatic transmission according to claim 1, further comprising means for using the control information as control information.