JP3041390B2 - Vehicle wiper control device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wiper control device for a vehicle which automatically controls the operation of the wiper in accordance with the driver's manual operation feeling.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when driving in rainy weather, a driver generally manually operates a wiper switch based on his / her own judgment, and controls the operation of the wiper, such as selecting the operation speed of the wiper and setting the operation interval during intermittent operation. However, when the rainfall is large, the operating speed of the wiper is increased, when the rainfall is reduced, the operating speed is reduced, and when the rainfall is further reduced, the operation speed is changed to intermittent operation, and the operation time is set. Manual operation according to rainfall or the like is troublesome for the driver. Therefore, an automatic wiper control device that detects the amount of rainfall and automatically operates the wiper according to the amount of rainfall (see, for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 1-157064) is known to reduce the burden on the driver. Have been.

[0003]

However, the timing and operating speed of the wiper in accordance with the amount of rainfall vary depending on the individual driver's feeling, and when the vehicle speed is high, even if the amount of rainfall is small, comparison is made. In the above-mentioned conventional automatic wiper control device, the detected rainfall at which the wiper is activated is fixed, and the timing differs from the driver's personal preference, since the wiper is operated differently depending on the vehicle speed. In addition, since the wiper operates at the operating speed, the automatic operation mode is canceled and the manual operation is performed, and there is a problem that the automatic wiper control device at the corner may be wasted.

An object of the present invention is to provide a wiper control apparatus for a vehicle which can automatically control the driving of the wiper in accordance with the sense of each driver and can promptly respond to a different vehicle or a different driver. It is to provide.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a vehicle wiper control device according to the present invention comprises a manual operation mechanism operated by a manual switch and a rainfall detecting means which is at least one of driving environment data of a vehicle to be detected. A vehicle wiper control device having an automatic operation function according to a detection result of the vehicle, comprising: a detachable information holding unit that stores driver-specific information such as an IC card; Data input means for storing the operation data of the vehicle and the vehicle traveling environment data in association with each other, and data reading means for reading data from the information holding means, wherein the data of the information holding means is read during automatic operation and based on the data. It controls the operation of the wiper by learning different senses for each driver, and operates the wiper in accordance with the senses. Even if the driver changes in the same vehicle, or when one driver changes to a different vehicle, the automatic wiper control is performed without giving a feeling of strangeness by merely moving the information holding means. be able to. By adopting the vehicle speed in addition to the rainfall amount as the vehicle traveling environment data, and storing the rainfall amount data and the vehicle speed data in the information holding means in association with the operation speed of the wiper and the operation interval at the time of the intermittent operation, Fine-grained automatic wiper control can be performed. The rainfall data, the vehicle speed data, and the illuminance data are input as vehicle traveling data, and can be accumulated as learning data corresponding to the operation speed and the intermittent operation interval of the wiper.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1, an engine start / stop button 2 and an IC card as removable information holding means are provided on an instrument panel 1 provided with various meters 5 and the like. Data input means for providing an IC card insertion slot 3 to be inserted, and causing the IC card (information holding means) inserted into the IC card insertion slot 3 to store operation data at the time of manual operation and vehicle traveling environment data in a corresponding manner; Data reading means for reading data stored in the IC card is provided. Reference numeral 4 denotes a steering wheel.

In FIG. 2, a light switch 6 and a wiper switch 7 project from both sides of a column shaft 5 supporting a steering wheel 4 as a combination switch (hereinafter, referred to as a combination switch). By turning the knob at the tip, the headlamp lighting position by manual operation,
The automatic operation position (AUTO) for automatically turning on and off the light and the light-off position (OFF) can be selected. In the automatic operation mode set to the automatic operation position (AUTO), when the manual operation is performed, the automatic operation mode is changed. Although released, it is possible to return to the automatic operation mode (the position shown) by pressing the return button 61. In addition, the wiper switch 7 is operated by turning the knob of the tip to manually operate the wiper at a low-speed operation, a high-speed operation, or an intermittent operation, and to automatically operate / stop the wiper according to rainfall. Operating position (AU
TO) and stop position (OFF) can be selected, and in the automatic operation mode set to the automatic operation position (AUTO), the manual operation cancels the automatic operation mode. Then, by returning to the automatic operation position (AUTO), it is possible to return to the automatic operation mode. Further, when the light switch 6 is pressed upward, the beam is switched to the high beam, and when the light switch 6 is pressed downward, the passing light is turned on. When the wiper switch 7 is pressed upward, the one-touch wiper (the wiper is pressed for the time pressed upward) Driven)
However, when pressed down, a washer that operates in conjunction with the wiper operates.

[0008] In FIG. 3, various sensor nodes 8, vehicle-mounted auxiliary device comprehensive control node 9, combination switch node 10, instrument panel node 11, cowl side node 12 and front node 13 are connected by a multiplex transmission line 14.
Data signals are transmitted and received by frequency or time division.

Various sensor nodes 8 include a rain sensor 81 for detecting the amount of rain, which includes a speaker sensor provided on the hood and a capacitor sensor provided on the windshield, and the brightness of the vehicle running environment such as the amount of solar radiation. An illuminance sensor 82 for detecting the vehicle speed and a vehicle speed sensor 83 for detecting the vehicle speed are connected. Although not shown, an in-vehicle auxiliary device such as an air conditioner is connected to the in-vehicle auxiliary device comprehensive control node 9, and the light switch 6 and the wiper switch 7 are connected to the combination switch node 10. The vehicle-mounted auxiliary device integrated control node 9 fetches the data of the IC card, rainfall, vehicle speed, and the like via a multiplex transmission line, calculates a control signal for controlling a wiper operation, and divides the control signal into a multiplex transmission line. To the cowl side node 12 via The instrument panel node 11 is connected to a clock 111, an IC card data input / output device 112 having means for inputting data to and reading data from the IC card, and various switches 113 and a calendar 114 provided on the instrument panel. ing. A wiper 121 is connected to the cowl side node 12,
Head lamps (including small lamps) 131 are connected to the front node 13.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When the IC card is inserted into the IC card insertion slot 3, the IC card data input / output device 11
2, the personal identification information stored in the IC card is read to identify the driver, and the engine can be started / stopped by the engine start / stop button 2.
Read the learning program stored in the RAM of the card. Here, the learning program stores a standard program in which the wiper is operated under a predetermined vehicle driving environment when the IC card is first owned, but the owner of the IC card operates the wiper switch. 7 is manually operated to correct the operation timing and the intermittent operation interval of the wiper.

When the mode is switched to the automatic operation mode, the wiper operation control is automatically performed according to the control program based on the read learning program. When the manual operation is performed in the automatic operation mode, the automatic operation mode is released and the manual operation mode is released. And the wiper operation control is performed according to the manual operation. In addition, it is not possible to switch to the automatic operation mode, and in the case of the manual operation mode, the wiper operation control is performed according to the manual operation, and the wiper operation timing performed according to the manual operation,
Alternatively, the intermittent operation interval (including the operation interval when the one-touch wiper is used) is learned in association with the rainfall data from the rain sensor 81, the illuminance data from the illuminance sensor 82, and the vehicle speed data from the vehicle speed sensor 83, respectively. Is corrected and input to an IC card and stored.

An example of the operation for correcting the learning program of the IC card will be described with reference to FIG. The wiper operation timing or the intermittent operation interval (including the operation interval when the one-touch wiper is used) performed according to the manual operation is calculated based on the rainfall data from the rainfall sensor 81,
After a predetermined amount of learning data obtained respectively corresponding to the illuminance data from the illuminance sensor 82 and the vehicle speed data from the vehicle speed sensor 83 is accumulated, an average value of the accumulated learning data is calculated, and the calculated average is calculated. Value of RAM of IC card
Is stored as a learning program.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of intermittent operation intervals with respect to rainfall. Generally, the intermittent operation interval becomes shorter as the rainfall increases, but by using the illuminance data,
For example, an intermittent operation interval I for rainfall in a very bright place such as daytime and an intermittent operation interval IV for rainfall in a very dark place such as night are stored as standard data, and rainfall data, illuminance data and The learning is performed by associating the vehicle speed data with the manual operation data suitable for each individual sense (for example, intermittent operation intervals II and III), and the learning data is corrected and stored.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of the wiper operating speed with respect to the rainfall considering the vehicle speed. Curve A shows a state in which the wiper operation speed generally decreases when the rainfall increases, and the vehicle runs at a predetermined standard speed. When the vehicle speed increases, the apparent rainfall increases. It is necessary to speed up the start of the operation and to operate the wiper at a high speed. Conversely, as the vehicle speed decreases, the apparent rainfall decreases, and as shown by the curve C, the operation start of the wiper is delayed until the rainfall increases considerably, and the operating speed can be lower than the rainfall.

According to the above configuration, different senses can be learned by each driver, and the automatic wiper operation can be performed in accordance with the senses. When the driver changes in the same vehicle, or when one driver changes, Even when changing to a different vehicle, the automatic wiper operation can be performed without giving a sense of incongruity only by moving the IC card (information holding means). Further, by adopting the vehicle speed and the illuminance, which is the brightness of the traveling environment of the vehicle, in addition to the rainfall amount as the vehicle traveling environment data, more precise automatic wiper operation control can be performed.

[0016]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it has the following effects. Since the lighting timing according to each driver's different senses is learned and stored in the information holding means, the automatic wiper operation can be performed according to each driver's sense, and the driver is replaced by the same vehicle. In this case, or even when one driver changes to a different vehicle, the automatic wiper operation corresponding to the driver's feeling can be performed without giving a sense of incongruity only by moving the information holding means. Further, by adopting the illuminance and the vehicle speed, which are the brightness of the traveling environment of the vehicle, in addition to the rainfall amount as the vehicle traveling environment data, more precise automatic wiper operation control can be performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a layout view of an instrument panel of a vehicle according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the combination switch according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a main part of a control circuit according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a control operation according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a control state according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of an intermittent operation interval with respect to a rainfall amount.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a wiper operating speed with respect to a rainfall amount.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Instrument panel, 2 Engine start / stop button 3 IC card slot, 4 Steering wheel, 5
Instrument 6 Light switch, 7 Wiper switch, 61 Return button 14 Multiple transmission line

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B60S 1/08

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A wiper control device for a vehicle having a manual operation mechanism by a manual switch operation and an automatic operation function according to rainfall detection by rainfall detection means,
Driver-specific information holding means, data input means for storing the operation data at the time of manual operation and vehicle traveling environment data in the information holding means in association with each other, and data reading means for reading data from the information holding means are provided. A wiper control device for a vehicle, which reads data from an information holding means during automatic operation and controls the operation of the wiper based on the data. 2. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein a rainfall amount and a vehicle speed are input as vehicle traveling environment data, and the information is stored in an information holding unit in correspondence with an operation speed and an intermittent operation interval of the wiper. Wiper control device. 3. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the rainfall data, the vehicle speed data, and the illuminance data are input as vehicle traveling data, and are stored as learning data corresponding to the operation speed and the intermittent operation interval of the wiper. Wiper control device.