JPH0262414B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to an automatically retractable door mirror, and more particularly to an improved door mirror that is automatically folded and retracted when a fixed obstacle is detected on the side of the vehicle body.

[Conventional technology]

Door mirrors protrude more toward the sides of the vehicle than fender mirrors, and in order to prevent the large protruding door mirrors from hitting and injuring pedestrians on the side of the car, the impact is applied to them. It is normal for them to fall back and forth when they fall.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In addition, in vehicles equipped with door mirrors, the amount of protrusion of the door mirrors in the vehicle width direction is large, so the space occupied in the vehicle width direction is effectively increased.
For example, the number of vehicles that can be lined up in a certain space during transportation is smaller than before, which increases transportation costs.
Alternatively, there are problems such as the need for a larger garage. As a way to solve these problems, for example, Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 57-65136 proposes a door mirror that maintains its folded state. In the case of door mirrors with this type of structure, if the door mirrors are folded and stored, the space occupied in the vehicle width direction is reduced, so it is possible to line up a large number of cars by bringing them closer in the vehicle width direction during transportation, or Advantages such as being able to store a car in a garage with the outer skin of the car body close to the inner wall of the garage are created. However, simply making the door mirrors foldable and maintaining the folded state requires manual folding or standing up of the door mirrors, which is cumbersome to handle. Recently, some automobiles have come equipped with door mirrors that use motors to rotate the door mirrors when they are folded and raised, and whose turning on and off can be remotely controlled from inside the vehicle. However, even with such a remote-controlled foldable door mirror, the operator's will is required to decide whether to fold or raise the door mirror. Therefore, if you forget to fold the door mirror and pull the car close to a fixed obstacle, there is a risk that the door mirror will collide with the fixed obstacle, and if you forget to fold the door mirror and start the vehicle. This can also happen if you panic when you realize that it is difficult to check the rear. The present invention was devised under the above circumstances, and takes the above-mentioned remote control type door mirror one step further, so that even when the vehicle body is in a forward motion,
In any case, even in a backward state,
To provide an automatically folding/returning type door mirror which is automatically folded and stored and returned to standing up depending on the situation, and solving the problem of forgetting to store the door mirror or forgetting to return it to standing up.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to solve the above problem, the present invention takes the following technical measures. That is, the automatic retractable door mirror of the present invention is,
A movable mirror body that can be rotated to fold and stand up with respect to a mounting base, a motor built into the mounting base for rotating the movable mirror body, and a movable mirror body that can be rotated to the front and rear of the vehicle body, respectively. An installed ultrasonic sensor, a forward switch that detects that the vehicle is moving forward, a reverse switch that detects that the vehicle is moving backward, each of the above-mentioned front and rear ultrasonic sensors, the forward switch,
storage condition determining means for determining a storage condition of the movable mirror body by receiving at least a signal from the retraction switch; and a rotation control of the drive motor in the folding direction of the movable mirror body in response to the storage signal from the storage condition determining means. a storage control means for determining a standing condition for the movable mirror body by receiving at least signals from each of the front and rear ultrasonic sensors, a forward switch, and a backward switch; and a standing signal from the standing condition determining means. and an upright control means for controlling the rotation of the drive motor in a direction in which the movable mirror body is upright in response to the movement of the movable mirror body, and the storage condition determining means is configured such that the forward movement switch is on and the front ultrasonic sensor is in a state of failure. When an object approach signal is being emitted, or when the reverse switch is turned on and the rear ultrasonic sensor is emitting an obstacle approach signal, the retraction signal is sent, and the standing condition determining means is configured to: When the forward switch is on and the rear ultrasonic sensor is not emitting an obstacle approach signal, or when the reverse switch is on and the front ultrasonic sensor is not emitting an obstacle approach signal. It is characterized in that it is configured to send out a stand-up signal when the stand-up signal is not being emitted.

[Effect]

Ultrasonic sensors measure the distance from the side of the car body to a hard obstacle based on the time it takes for the sound waves emitted from the sound wave emitter to reflect off a hard object and return to the receiver. It is determined whether the vehicle is approaching the obstacle or moving away from the obstacle. This distance information is sent to the storage condition determining means and the standing condition determining means together with the signals from the forward switch and the reverse switch. The storage condition determining means sends storage information to the storage control means in the above-mentioned predetermined case, whereby the movable mirror body is stored. In this case, whether the vehicle is moving forward and approaching an obstacle or the vehicle is retreating and approaching an obstacle, the mirror body is automatically retracted and the mirror A situation where the body collides with an obstacle and is damaged is definitely avoided. At this time, when moving forward, the obstacle approach signal from the ultrasonic sensor at the front of the vehicle is used, and when reversing, the obstacle approach signal from the ultrasonic sensor at the rear of the vehicle is used to issue the above retraction signal. As a result, the mirror body is stored with a sufficient time margin from when the storage signal is sent until the obstacle comes closest to the mirror body. The stand-up condition determining means sends stand-up information to the stand-up control means in the above-mentioned predetermined case, whereby the movable mirror body is returned to the stand-up position. In this case, the mirror body is reliably returned to its upright position both when the vehicle body moves forward and away from the obstacle, and when the vehicle body moves backward and away from the obstacle. At this time, when moving forward, the signal from the ultrasonic sensor at the rear of the vehicle is used to detect that the rear of the vehicle is moving away from an obstacle, and when reversing, the signal from the ultrasonic sensor at the front of the vehicle is used. This system detects when the front of the vehicle is moving away from an obstacle, so when the stored mirror body has moved far enough away from the obstacle, it will be raised, and if you accidentally do so while standing up, It is possible to avoid a situation in which a certain mirror body collides with an obstacle.

【effect】

Therefore, the automatic retractable door mirror of the present invention has the following features:
Whether the vehicle is moving forward or backwards, the mirror body is retracted securely with plenty of time, and the mirror body is not allowed to return to its upright position until it is far enough away from an obstacle. This allows it to cover almost all conceivable possibilities in the driving situation, without requiring the driver's will or operation, and without causing any malfunctions.
The mirror body can be automatically folded and stored, and automatically returned to its standing position.

[Explanation of Examples]

Embodiments of the automatic retractable door mirror of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, a structural example of the door mirror 1 itself will be explained based on FIGS. 2 to 4. Door mirror 1 is
The present invention includes a mounting base 2 attached to a triangular portion of a front door frame, and a movable mirror body 3 supported rotatably in the front and rear directions with respect to the mounting base 2. In this example, as shown in FIG. 2, a cylindrical bulge 4 formed on the mounting base 2
A U-shaped receiving portion 5 is provided by cutting a predetermined length above and below the intermediate portion slightly above the
The base protrusion 6 of the movable mirror body 3 is received in the receiving part 5, and the upper and lower parts of the base protrusion 6 are pivotally supported on the upper wall 5a and the lower wall 5b of the U-shaped receiving part 5, respectively. The upper end 7a of the shaft 7 for pivotally supporting the base protrusion 6 of the movable mirror body 3 with respect to the lower wall 5b of the U-shaped receiving portion 5 is provided on the side of the base protrusion 6 of the movable mirror body 3. It is embedded and fixed in the boss hole 8, and its lower portion 7b extends into the lower bulging portion 5a of the mounting base 2 through the shaft support hole 9 provided in the lower wall 5b. Inside the lower bulging portion 5a, the lower portion 7b of the shaft 7 is provided with a plurality of slits 10 at equal intervals in the circumferential direction, as clearly shown in FIG.
A disc 11 provided with a gear and a gear 12 are fixed at a predetermined distance apart from each other in the axial direction. The lowermost end of the shaft 7 is rotatably supported within a support hole 14 formed in a rib-shaped support wall 13. moreover,
A DC electric motor 15 is installed in the inner space of the lower bulging portion 5a, and a pinion 17 attached to its output shaft 16 meshes with the gear 12. Further, a pulse generator 18 is arranged in which a light emitting element and a light receiving element are arranged so as to sandwich the disk 11 above and below. Therefore, the motor 15
When the movable mirror body 3 rotates, the shaft 7 starts to rotate, the movable mirror body 3 rotates around the shaft 7, and while the movable mirror body 3 rotates, the disc 11 provided with the slits 10 emits light. By intermittently blocking the light emitted from the element, the pulse generator 18 generates a pulse signal. Note that the DC electric motor 15 can be reversed by changing its polarity, and therefore the movable mirror body 3 can be rotated both forward and backward. The DC electric motor 15 is swingably supported at its lower portion and is biased by a spring 19 in a direction in which the pinion 17 is pressed against the outer periphery of the gear 12 . As a result, even if an external force is applied to the movable mirror body 3 to rotate it in the front-rear direction, the pinion 17 escapes to the outside, and the movable mirror body 3 is moved by the electric motor 15, pinion 17 or gear 12. can be rotated without damaging it. In FIG. 4, the reference numeral 30 indicates when the movable mirror body 3 is folded and stored as shown in FIG.
This is a switch for detecting the retracted state of the mirror body 3, which is installed so that the detection arm touches the protrusion 31 on the disk 11. In the present invention, the storage condition determining means 21 establishes a condition for storing the movable mirror body 3 based on information such as distance information from the ultrasonic sensor 20 installed toward the side of the vehicle body. When it is determined that the movable mirror body 3 has been folded, the movable mirror body 3 is rotated in the folding direction via the storage control means 22;
When the standing condition determining means 23 determines that the conditions for raising the movable mirror body 3 are satisfied based on information such as distance information from the ultrasonic sensor 20, the raising direction of the movable mirror body 3 is determined via the raising control means 24. be rotated to These storage condition determination means 21, storage control means 22, and standing condition determination means 23
The stand-up control means 24 is realized by a microcomputer 25. In the illustrated example, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the ultrasonic sensors 20 are provided at two locations on the left and right sides of the front part 20a and rear part 20b of the vehicle body, and as shown in FIG. In addition to the distance information from the ultrasonic sensor 20, the means 21 and the standing condition determining means 23 include the vehicle speed sensor 2.
A vehicle speed signal from 6, a signal from a forward switch 27 which detects that the vehicle is moving forward, and a signal from a reverse switch 28 which indicates that the vehicle is moving backward are input. The forward switch 27 is realized by a switch that closes when the shift lever of the transmission is placed in the forward range, and the reverse switch 28 is realized by a switch that closes when the shift lever is placed in the reverse range. . In this example, the following conditions are set as the storage condition and the raising condition on the premise that the vehicle speed is below a predetermined set speed. Storage conditions Either of the following conditions must be met. The forward switch 27 is turned on, and the front ultrasonic sensor 20a detects that the front side of the vehicle body approaches an obstacle. The reverse switch 28 is turned on and the rear ultrasonic sensor 20b detects that the rear side of the vehicle body approaches an obstacle. If the above conditions are satisfied, the vehicle is in the situation shown in FIG. 5a, ie, is approaching a fixed obstacle while moving forward. In addition, if the above conditions are met, the vehicle is
This indicates that the vehicle is approaching a fixed obstacle while retreating. In this way, in this example, when the vehicle is moving forward, the ultrasonic sensor 20a located in front of the movable mirror body 3 detects the approach of an obstacle, so there is time to spare before the movable mirror body 3 is folded. Also, when moving backward, the ultrasonic sensor 20b located behind the movable mirror body 3
detects the approach of an obstacle, so the movable mirror body 3
This will give you more time before folding. Standing Conditions Either of the following or conditions must be met. The forward switch 27 is turned on, and the rear ultrasonic sensor 20b does not detect any obstacle near the rear side of the vehicle body. The reverse switch 28 is on and the front ultrasonic sensor 20a does not detect any obstacle near the front side of the vehicle body. If the above conditions are satisfied, the vehicle is in the situation shown in FIG. 6a, that is, moving forward and moving away from a fixed obstacle. Additionally, if the above conditions are met, the vehicle will
The situation shown in FIG. 6b is that the vehicle is moving backwards away from a fixed obstacle.
In this way, in this example, when the ultrasonic sensor 20b located behind the movable mirror body 3 no longer detects an obstacle while moving forward, the movable mirror body 3 is raised and rotated. 3 is allowed to stand up and rotate once it is sufficiently far away from the obstacle. Also,
When the ultrasonic sensor 20a located in front of the movable mirror body 3 no longer detects an obstacle while moving backward, the movable mirror body 3 is rotated upright, so that the movable mirror body 3 is sufficiently far away from the obstacle. After that, I was made to stand up and turn around. FIG. 7 schematically shows the relationship between the microcomputer 25 constituting each means of the present invention schematically shown in FIG. 1, and each input device and each output device. The microcomputer 25 includes a central processing unit 32, a nonvolatile RAM 33, and a program ROM.
34 and an input/output port 35, and the input/output port 35 includes front and rear ultrasonic sensors 20 on the left and right sides of the vehicle body.
Distance information from a and 20b, signals from forward switch 27 and reverse switch 28, vehicle speed sensor 2
6, a pulse signal from a pulse generator 18 attached to the electric motor 15, and a signal from the storage state detection switch 30 of the movable mirror body 3 are input, and a drive for driving the electric motor 15 is input. A control signal is output to circuit 36. Next, an example of the flow of control in the present invention achieved by the microcomputer 25 will be described based on the flowchart shown in FIG. On the premise that the vehicle speed is less than or equal to the set vehicle speed (step 101), it is determined whether the storage condition for the mirror body is satisfied (step 102). If it is determined that the storage condition is satisfied, the mirror body is stored. It is verified whether the status detection switch 30 is turned on (step 103), and then the pulse counter value in the non-volatile RAM 33 is cleared to 0 (step 103).
104) Standby starts counting pulse signals sent from the pulse generator 18 (step 105);
The electric motor 15 is rotated until the storage state detection switch 30 is turned on (steps 106, 107,
108). The rotation direction of the electric motor 15 at this time is
This is the direction in which the movable mirror body 3 is folded. When the electric motor 15 stops rotating (step 108), pulse counting is stopped (step 109), and this pulse count value is stored in the non-volatile RAM (step 110). In step 103, even if the vehicle body is in a situation where the mirror body 3 should be folded, if the movable mirror body 3 is already folded and stored, the movable mirror body 3 cannot be further folded. , step 104 above
Or it's there to skip step 110. If it is determined in step 102 that the storage condition is not satisfied, and if the storage state detection switch 30 is turned on in step 103,
The process jumps to step 111, which will be described later. Next, in step 111, it is determined whether or not the conditions for raising the movable mirror body 3 are satisfied, and if it is determined that the conditions for raising the movable mirror body 3 are satisfied, it is verified whether the storage state detection switch 30 is turned on. (Step 112), if it is on, the pulse signal count starts and stands by (Step 113), and the electric motor 15 is reversed until the pulse count value reaches the pulse count value stored in the nonvolatile RAM 33. Rotated (steps 114, 115, 116). If the standing condition is not satisfied in step 111, and if the storage state detection switch 30 is not turned on in step 112, the process returns to step 101. Further, when step 116 ends, the process returns to step 101. As you can see from the control flow above, in this example,
When the movable mirror body 3 in the upright state is folded and stored and then raised again, the folding angle is measured by counting the number of pulses sent from the pulse generator 18 in order to return it to the state before storage. , the angle corresponding to the pulse count value is raised. In this way, it is possible to correspond to the case where the movable mirror body 3 is remotely controlled by a system different from that of the present invention. In other words, even if the rising angle of the movable mirror body 3 is variously changed according to the occupant's preference, the mirror body 3 after automatically retracting and automatically rising
The standing angle of is returned to the state before storage. Also,
Automatic retracting and raising control is performed on the premise that the vehicle speed is below a predetermined vehicle speed.This is because the mirror body is automatically moved when another vehicle approaches the side while the vehicle is traveling at a predetermined speed or higher. This is because if the vehicle is damaged, it may even cause problems in terms of driving safety. As explained above, in the automatically retractable door mirror of the present invention, the movable mirror body is automatically folded and stored in a situation where folding and storage is required without requiring any operation or intention from the occupant.
and will be automatically restored. Of course, the scope of the invention is not limited to the embodiments described above. The number of ultrasonic sensors to be provided on the left and right sides of the vehicle body does not have to be two, front and rear as in the embodiment, but may be one or more. Further, as mentioned in the above description, each electric motor can be remotely controlled by a system separate from the present invention.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a partially sectional front view showing a structural example of a door mirror according to the present invention, and FIGS. 3 and 4 are -
5a and 5b are explanatory diagrams of an example of storage conditions, FIGS. 6a and 6b are explanatory diagrams of an example of standing conditions, and FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a circuit configuration of the present invention. The schematic diagram, FIG. 8, is a flowchart showing an example of the flow of control performed by a microcomputer. 1...Door mirror, 2...Mounting base, 3...
...Movable mirror body, 14... (electric) motor, 20
... Ultrasonic sensor, 21 ... Storage condition determination means,
22... Storage control means, 23... Standing condition determining means, 24... Standing control means.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A movable mirror body that can be folded and rotated up and down with respect to a mounting base, a motor built into the mounting base for rotating the movable mirror body, and Ultrasonic sensors installed toward the sides of the vehicle, a forward switch that detects that the vehicle is moving forward, a reverse switch that detects that the vehicle is moving backwards, and each of the above-mentioned front and rear ultrasonic sensors. a storage condition determining means for receiving at least signals from a forward switch and a backward switch to determine storage conditions for the movable mirror body; and receiving a storage signal from the storage condition determining means to operate the drive motor to fold the movable mirror body. storage control means for controlling the rotation in the direction; standing condition determining means for determining the standing condition of the movable mirror body by receiving at least signals from the front and rear ultrasonic sensors, the forward switch, and the backward switch; and the standing condition determining means for determining the standing condition for the movable mirror body. and a stand-up control means for rotating the drive motor in the direction in which the movable mirror body stands up in response to a stand-up signal from the means; When the ultrasonic sensor is emitting an obstacle approach signal, or when the reverse switch is on and the rear ultrasonic sensor is emitting an obstacle approach signal, a retraction signal is sent, and the above-mentioned stand-up is performed. The condition determining means is configured such that when the forward switch is on and the rear ultrasonic sensor is not emitting an obstacle approach signal, or when the reverse switch is on and the front ultrasonic sensor is An automatically retractable door mirror configured to send a stand-up signal when an obstacle approach signal is not being sent.