JPS59179434A - Automatic level-control type bumper - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To keep a bumper at an optimum position away from a road surface as well as to aim at prevention against any damage by a diving rear-end collision accident and road surface taction of the bumper, by actuating a bumper vertical shifting mechanism on the basis of the output value of a ground clearance measuring sensor. CONSTITUTION:A radio wave irradiated toward a road surface from a transmitting antenna 11 is reflected by the road surface and received by a receiving antenna 13, then inputted into a comparator 22 via a receiver 12. A signal out of the comparator 22 is inputted into a flip-flop circuit 23 and set by a transmitted-wave pulse from a receiver control circuit 21, and reset by a road surface reflecting wave pulse. The time required for a range from setting and resetting by the comparator 22 is counted by a counter circuit 25 and compared with the setting value stored in a memory inside a microcomputer 26. And, a shifting signal is emitted to a bumper actuator 16 so as to be approximated to the setting value and thereby a bumper vertical shifting mechanism is driven. Therefore, a bumper 2 can be kept up at an optimum position all the time.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to an automatically height-adjustable bumper, and more particularly, to an automatically height-adjustable bumper used in large trucks and the like.

[Prior art]

For example, the bumper of a large truck or the like is fixed at a location lowered from the vehicle body. However, the bumper fixedly installed in this way
As shown in the figure, since it is located at a considerable height from the road surface, a passenger car 3 traveling from behind gets stuck under the bumper 2, causing this type of rear-end collision to occur frequently. The damage inflicted on the aircraft and crew members was extremely severe.

Therefore, it is conceivable to position the bumper 2 closer to the road surface and lower relative to the vehicle body 1, which is located at a relatively high position from the road surface, as is the case with large trucks. As shown in Figure 2, it is easy to imagine that when the road surface has a steep slope, bumpers are more likely to be damaged by contact with the road surface. Such cases are particularly noticeable in large vehicles that have a long overhang from the wheels to the rear end of the loading platform.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of these circumstances.
The object of the present invention is to provide an automatically height-adjustable bumper that can prevent rear-end collisions caused by the bumper crawling into the bumper and protect the bumper from damage caused by contact with the road surface.

[Summary of the invention]

In order to achieve such an object, the present invention includes a bumper vertical movement mechanism interposed between a vehicle body and a bumper;
a radio-wave applied ground height measurement sensor provided in the bumper, and operates the bumper vertical movement mechanism based on the output value of the radio-wave applied ground height measurement sensor, so that the bumper is always optimally positioned from the road surface. It was designed to be placed in a convenient location.

[Embodiments of the invention]

In the afternoon, the present invention will be explained in detail using examples.

First, FIG. 3 is an external view showing an embodiment of an automatic height-adjustable bumper according to the present invention. A bumper 2 is attached to a chassis 5 of a vehicle body 1 via a bumper support portion 4. The bumper support part 4 is attached to the chassis 5 via a bumper vertical movement mechanism 6, and by the operation of the bumper vertical movement mechanism 6, the bumper 2 can be moved up and down and set to an arbitrary height. ing. Further, a radio wave applied ground height measurement sensor 7 is attached to the bumper support part 4, and this radio wave applied ground height measurement sensor 7 radiates radio waves 8 toward the road surface, and the radio waves reflected from the dew surface 8 can be received.

Next, FIG. 4 shows the relationship between the bumper vertical movement mechanism 6 and the radio wave applied ground height measurement sensor 7 and related parts in signal transmission. In the same figure, the bumper? The radio wave application ground height measurement sensor 7 attached to the vehicle is comprised of a transmitter 10 and a receiver 12, each of which is equipped with a transmitting antenna 11 and a receiving antenna 1-2.

Incidentally, a flushing wiper 14 is provided in the vicinity of the radio wave application ground height measurement sensor 7 to prevent performance degradation of the transmitting/receiving antennas 11 and 12 due to adhesion of mud and sand. The output from the receiver 12 is sent to the control circuit 1
5, and the output of this control circuit 15 is input to a bumper vertical movement mechanism 6, thereby operating a bumper actuator 16. Furthermore, control circuit 1
The flushing wiper 14 can be operated by the output of the switch 5, and the control circuit 15 includes an output of an operation button 19 serving as a start switch and a setting knob 20 for arbitrarily setting the height of the bumper. The output is now output.

Further, the control circuit 15 outputs an output to a display lamp 17 and an alarm 18.

Next, details of the control circuit 10 will be explained using the circuit block diagram shown in FIG. For example, the transmitter 10 using a 40 KHz ultrasonic oscillator is configured to generate pulses by a transmitter control circuit 21. Radio waves emitted toward the road surface from the transmitting antenna 11 are reflected by the road surface, and then received by the receiving antenna 13 and inputted to the comparator 22 via the receiver 12. This comparator 22 separates the reflected signal having distance information from the radio waves directly leaked from the transmitter 10 to the receiver 12 and other noise radio waves by setting a threshold level, so that the waveform of the reflected wave is shaped. It has become.

The signal from the comparator 22 is input to a flip-flop circuit 23. The Noritsubu flop circuit 23 is set by a transmission wave pulse from the transmitter control circuit 21 and reset by a road surface reflected wave pulse output from the comparator 22.

The time from setting to resetting the comparator 22 is counted by a counter circuit 25. The counter circuit 25 includes a clock oscillator 24.
This clock signal can be measured by inputting a clock signal from the computer. A distance information signal output from the counter circuit 25 is input to a microcomputer 26. The microcomputer 26 has a set value inputted into its memory, and the output information from the counter circuit 25 is compared with the set value, and the bumper actuator 16 is controlled so that the output information approaches which set value. A movement signal is issued. The microcomputer 26 has a height setting circuit 27 for arbitrarily setting the height of the bumper, and this height setting circuit 27 can be set to a standard value by operating the setting knob. .

Furthermore, the microcomputer 26 includes an indicator lamp 17.
, an output circuit of the alarm 18 and the transmitter/receiver 10° 12 to the flush wiper 14 is connected to the flush wiper 1.
4 is designed to start when the input level of the receiver falls below the threshold value in the comparator 22, so that dirt on the transmitting and receiving antennas due to dirt etc. can be automatically detected. It has become.

In addition, when two or more sets of transmitters/receivers are used, the distance information processing is such that if the distance information of any one transmitter/receiver exceeds the moving range of the bumper and becomes abnormally close, the indicator lamp 17 and alarm will be activated. 18 and if the distance information of all transmitters/receivers is within the 74-bar movement range, the distance information from multiple transmitters/receivers is averaged and the value is
(It is designed to operate the actuator 16.

FIG. 6 is a 70-chart showing a process in which the ground height sensor used in the device of the present invention measures distance and adjusts the bumper height to a standard value or set value. In the figure, first, it is determined whether the value is a standard value or a set value.

When set values are input, the set values Ho and Ht are replaced with standard values Ho'*H1'. Setting value Ho
, Hl is not input, the standard value Ho', H
1' is used as the set value Ha + Hl. When a height measurement signal is input and the corresponding height is H, a comparison is made between H and HO. If H is much larger than Ho, a command is sent to lower the burn (-), and if it is smaller, it is compared with Hl.If H is much smaller than Hl, a command is sent to raise the burn. It is set to be sent.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram showing one embodiment of the bumper vertical movement mechanism 6. In the same figure, there is a piston 28 and a cylinder 29 that are connected to the bumper support part 4 that supports it and reciprocate using hydraulic pressure.
Oil is sent into the interior from a pump 31 through an oil feed pipe 30. The bumper actuator 16 controls how much oil the pump 31 sends upward or downward.

Further, FIG. 8 is a configuration diagram showing another embodiment of the panty shoe up/down movement mechanism 6. As shown in FIG. The figure shows a vertical movement mechanism composed of a rack 32 connected to a bumper support portion 4 that supports the rack 4-2, a pinyon gear 33, and an electric motor 34 directly connected to the pinyon gear 33. The electric motor 34 is operated by a signal from the actuator 16.

The radio wave application ground height measurement sensor of this embodiment includes a transmitter,
Although a 40 KHz magnetostrictive piezoelectric element is used for the receiver, the purpose of the present invention can also be achieved by using other transmitting/receiving elements with a low frequency reduction number or ultra-high frequency (e.g. microwave, millimeter wave, etc.) circuit elements. It is clear that this can be achieved.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As is clear from the above description, the automatic height-adjustable bumper according to the present invention can prevent rear-end collisions caused by vehicles crawling into the vehicle, and can protect the bumper from damage caused by contact with the road surface. It becomes like this.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figures 1 and 2 are explanatory diagrams showing the drawbacks of conventional bumpers, Figure 3 is an external view of an embodiment of the automatic height-adjustable bumper according to the present invention, and Figure 4 is Figure 3. 5 is a detailed block diagram of the control circuit shown in FIG. 4, and FIG. 6 shows the operation 70 of the microcomputer incorporated in the control circuit. -, FIG. 7, and FIG. 8 are configuration diagrams showing embodiments of the bumper vertical movement mechanism, respectively. 2... Bumper, 7... Radio wave applied ground height measurement sensor, 8... Radio wave, 10... Transmitter, 12... Receiver, 15... Control circuit, 23... Flip-flop circuit , 24... Clock oscillator, 25... Counter circuit, 26... Microcomputer. Agent Patent Attorney Akio Takahashi Figure 1 Figure 3 Figure 84 Figure 5 and Figure 6

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A bumper vertical movement mechanism interposed between the vehicle body and the bumper, and a radio wave-applied ground height measurement sensor provided in the bumper, and based on the output value of the radio-wave application ground height measurement sensor. An automatic height-adjustable bumper characterized by operating a bumper vertical movement mechanism.