KR100440383B1 - Apparatus and method for adjusting sensitivity of optical sensor - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a sensitivity adjusting device and a method for optimizing the sensitivity of the optical sensor to be varied according to the length between the axles to be measured, and a memory for storing the axle information of the vehicle; A display unit for displaying axles of the vehicle to be measured; A user interface unit for selecting an axle of the vehicle; A plurality of pulse generators for generating a constant pulse; A transistor array configured to input a pulse output from the selected pulse generator to generate a current for radiating an infrared beam corresponding to the length between the selected axles, and output the current to a light emitting device driver; A fine current compensation transistor array configured to input a pulse output from a selected pulse generator to generate a current for finely adjusting the intensity of the light emitting device, and output the current to the light emitting device driver; A light receiving signal processor for converting a current output from the light receiving element of the optical sensor into a light receiving signal in the form of a voltage and compensating for the magnitude of the voltage signal; And a control unit for selecting and controlling the pulse generators such that the voltage level input from the light receiving signal processing unit becomes a prescribed value corresponding to the length between the selected axles.

Description

Optical sensor sensitivity adjustment device and method for measuring wheel alignment {APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR ADJUSTING SENSITIVITY OF OPTICAL SENSOR}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a system for measuring wheel alignment of a vehicle, and more particularly, to a sensitivity adjusting device and a method for optimizing the sensitivity of an optical sensor to be varied according to the length between axles to be measured.

In general, wheel alignment is used to facilitate steering control and improve straightness of a vehicle. Four wheel alignment methods include camber, caster, toe-in, and king pin inclination. Contains an element.

Camber refers to a state where the tire is installed at an angle inclined with respect to the vertical line when the vehicle is viewed from the front, which reduces the deflection of the front axle, makes the steering wheel lighter, and makes the front tires at right angles on the convex road surface. To do this.

On the other hand, the caster refers to a state in which a kingpin that installs a steering knuckle on an axle is inclined at a predetermined angle when the vehicle is viewed from the side. When the front of the tire is mounted narrower than the rear. King pin inclination angle refers to the inclination angle formed by the vertical axis of the king pin that installs the steering knuckle on the axle when the vehicle is viewed from the front. The king pin inclination angle makes the steering wheel lighter and gives a restoring force, making it easier to return the steering wheel. do.

Wheel alignment is to improve steering operation and improve straightness while driving the vehicle as described above, and should be regularly checked for abnormalities since it is directly connected to the safe driving and performance of the vehicle. Conventionally, a mechanical measuring device such as a gauge was used for such a check, but a mechanical measuring device has a problem that an error occurs a lot of precision and is inconvenient to use. I'm using it.

A general optical sensor used to measure a wheel alignment of a vehicle employs an infrared light emitting device and a position sensing detector (PSD) as already known. Briefly describing the operation of the optical sensor, the infrared beam emitted from the light emitting element mounted on the front wheel of the vehicle is incident to the position sensing light receiving element mounted on the rear wheel of the vehicle, Accordingly, the light receiving device outputs voltages of different levels. The wheel alignment of the vehicle is measured using the output voltage. Since the conventional optical sensor controls the emission beam intensity of the light emitting device constantly without considering the length between the axles having the difference between vehicles, accurate wheel alignment can be measured. Can't. In addition, the "apparatus and method for adjusting the sensitivity of the optical sensor" filed by the applicant of the present application describes a technology for adjusting the emission beam intensity of the light emitting device based on the optimal sensitivity data stored in advance according to the length between the front wheel and the rear wheel of the vehicle. have. However, these techniques also control the intensity of the light emitting beam based on previously stored sensitivity data, so that a small measurement error may occur. The reason is that the wheel alignment measurement is based on the signal output from the position sensing light receiving element, so that the intensity of the light emitting beam is based on the light receiving signal rather than simply controlling the intensity of the light emitting beam with data set according to the length between the axles. It can be said that controlling is the method of minimizing the measurement error.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to first adjust the intensity of the beam radiated from the optical sensor according to the length between the axles to be measured, and to receive the intensity of the radiation beam and to adjust the intensity of the radiation beam by the second fine adjustment to measure the wheel alignment. To provide a device and method for adjusting the sensitivity of the optical sensor for wheel alignment measurement to minimize the.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for adjusting the sensitivity of an optical sensor capable of measuring wheel alignment of all vehicles by storing and using vehicle specifications for each manufacturer.

1 is a block diagram of a sensitivity control device of the optical sensor according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a flowchart illustrating sensitivity adjustment of an optical sensor according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a view illustrating a vehicle selection window example according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4 is an example axle selection window screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a screen view showing a customer data input window according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Sensitivity adjustment device of the optical sensor according to an embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above object,

A memory for storing axle information of a plurality of vehicles;

A display unit for displaying axles of the vehicle to be measured;

A user interface unit for selecting an axle of the vehicle;

A plurality of pulse generators for generating a constant pulse;

A transistor array configured to input a pulse output from the selected pulse generator to generate a current for radiating an infrared beam corresponding to the length between the selected axles, and output the current to a light emitting device driver;

A fine current compensation transistor array configured to input a pulse output from a selected pulse generator to generate a current for finely adjusting the intensity of the light emitting device, and output the current to the light emitting device driver;

A light receiving signal processor for converting a current output from the light receiving element of the optical sensor into a light receiving signal in the form of a voltage and compensating for the magnitude of the voltage signal;

And a control unit for selecting and controlling the pulse generators such that the voltage level input from the light receiving signal processing unit becomes a prescribed value corresponding to the length between the selected axles.

In addition, the sensitivity adjustment method of the optical sensor according to an embodiment of the present invention,

Displaying a vehicle selection window;

Displaying an axle selection window according to the selected vehicle specification;

Controlling the intensity of the light emitting device of the optical sensor in response to the selected axle length;

Receiving an intensity of a light receiving signal output from the light receiving element of the optical sensor;

And finely adjusting the intensity of the light emitting device of the optical sensor so that the intensity of the received light signal corresponds to a prescribed value corresponding to the length between the selected axles.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description of the present invention, when it is determined that a detailed description of a related known function or configuration may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention, a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

First, Figure 1 shows a block diagram of a sensitivity adjustment device of the optical sensor according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, first, the memory 212 stores axle information of a plurality of vehicles and vehicle information of each manufacturer. The axle information means a length between selected axles in the selected vehicle. That is, when a vehicle is preferentially selected by the user, and the axle is selected by the user among the axles provided in the vehicle, the length between the selected axles becomes the axle information. The memory 212 may be a component of the sensitivity adjusting device of the optical sensor as shown in FIG. 1, or may be a memory included in a computer system connected to and used with the sensitivity adjusting device of the optical sensor. The display unit 214 may also be a monitor, which is a component of a computer system, or a display unit dedicated to an optical sensor sensitivity adjuster. The display unit 214 is for displaying various display windows as shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, and specifically displays vehicle information, axle information, and measurement data. The user interface unit 216 is used to select a vehicle axle or vehicle, and may be a keyboard or a mouse that is a component of a computer system, and may be implemented as a key panel when the optical sensor sensitivity adjusting device is operated independently. .

Meanwhile, the optical sensor sensitivity adjusting device according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a plurality of pulse generators 120 for generating a predetermined pulse. These pulse generators 120 are composed of the same number of measurable axle combinations and pulse generators for the wheel alignment measurable vehicle in the sensitivity adjusting device and the pulse generator for fine current compensation. That is, as shown in Fig. 4, when there are five axles, there are seven pulse generators that add up the combinational number (6) between the front and rear wheels and the combinational number (1) between the front wheels and the microcurrent. One separate pulse generator is provided for adjustment. In the embodiment of the present invention, it is assumed that there are eight pulse generators. These pulse generators 120 are selectively driven by the microcontroller 100.

The transistor array (TA) 130 inputs a pulse output from the selected pulse generator to generate a current for emitting an infrared beam suitable for the length between the selected axles, and outputs the current to the light emitting device driver 150. That is, the pulse generators 120 are assigned to the input ports of the transistor array 130, respectively, and generate and output a driving current for radiating an infrared beam corresponding to a predetermined length between axles during pulse input.

The fine current compensation TA 140 also inputs a pulse output from the corresponding pulse generator to generate a current for finely adjusting the intensity of the light emitting device, and outputs the current to the light emitting device driver 150. The light emitting device driver 150 drives the light emitting device configuring the optical sensor according to the current input from the transistor array 130 or the microcurrent compensation transistor array 140.

The light receiving signal processing unit 200 converts a current output from the light receiving element of the optical sensor into a light receiving signal in the form of a voltage, and then compensates the magnitude of the voltage signal and outputs it to the microcontroller 100. As shown in FIG. 1, the light receiving signal processing unit 200 includes a preamplifier 160 for amplifying and outputting a light receiving signal, and a current-voltage converter 170 for converting the amplified light receiving signal into a light receiving signal in the form of voltage. And an noise removal filter 180 for removing noise from the received signal in the converted voltage form, and an output voltage compensator 190 for compensating for the voltage level of the noise-received received signal.

On the other hand, the micro-controller 100 selects and controls the pulse generators corresponding to the length between the axles selected by the user, so that the voltage input from the light receiving signal processor 200 becomes a prescribed value corresponding to the selected length between the axles. Sensitivity is controlled by the selective drive control of the pulse generator (pulse generator 8) for current compensation. The microcontroller 100 has an internal memory in which prescribed values corresponding to the selected length between the axles are stored. In this internal memory, program data for wheel alignment measurement may be stored as well as program data for performing a control process as shown in FIG. 2. For reference, when the sensitivity sensor of the optical sensor is connected to the computer system and operated, the data is transmitted and received through the interface unit. In this case, information on the selected axle will be received from the computer system, and steps 300 to 350 to be described later will be performed by the main control unit of the computer system.

Lastly, a pulse generator selector 110 is positioned between the microcontroller 100 and the pulse generators 120. The pulse generator selector 110 may include a plurality of pulse generators under the control of the microcontroller 100. It serves to select one or more of the (120).

Hereinafter, a sensitivity adjustment process of the optical sensor according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 5.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a sensitivity adjustment of an optical sensor according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3 is an exemplary screen for selecting a vehicle window according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is an axle according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. 5 shows a selection window example screen, and FIG. 5 shows a customer data input window example screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, when the wheel alignment measurement start command is received from the user (step 300), the microcontroller 100 proceeds to step 310 and displays a vehicle selection window on the display unit 214 as shown in FIG. 3. give. As shown in FIG. 3, the vehicle selection window display unit lists and displays vehicle model information for each manufacturer so as to select a vehicle for each vehicle manufacturer. This allows the user to select a vehicle to measure. If the user selects a vehicle of a specific manufacturer, the microcontroller 100 proceeds to step 320 and displays the axle selection window according to the specification of the selected vehicle. This axle selection window is shown in FIG. 4. As shown in FIG. 4, the axle selection window is displayed on the axle selection window and the selectable axle selection field is also displayed.

If it is assumed that the user selects the front wheel 1 axis and the rear wheel 1 axis in the displayed axle selection window, the microcontroller 100 recognizes this in step 330 and proceeds to step 340 to display a customer data input window as shown in FIG. give. Through this input window, the user can input tire diameter and customer information of the selected vehicle. Customer information is required for vehicle follow-up, and tire diameter is to set the tolerance of the wheel alignment being measured. When the input of the tire diameter and the customer information is completed through the input window shown in FIG. 5, the microcontroller 100 receives and stores the input information. In addition, a signal for driving (activating) a pulse generator (PG) corresponding to the selected axle is output to the pulse generator selector 110. Accordingly, the pulse generator selector 110 activates the pulse generators 120 corresponding to the selected axle under the control of the microcontroller 100. In the embodiment of the present invention, since it is assumed that one front wheel and one rear wheel are selected, it may be assumed that the pulse generator 1 is driven. If two front wheels and three rear wheels are selected, it may be assumed that the pulse generator 6 is selected, and if the front and one or two axes are selected, the pulse generator 7 may be selected.

As described above, when the pulse generator is driven in response to the selected axle, the pulse generated therefrom is input to the transistor array 130, so that the current for radiating an infrared beam having an intensity corresponding to the length between the selected axles is generated in the transistor array 130. Is generated and output to the light emitting device driver 150. Therefore, the emitted infrared beam is incident to the position sensing light receiving element and is changed into a current form, and is then input to the microcontroller 100 as a light receiving signal having a voltage form through the light receiving signal processing unit 200.

Accordingly, the micro-controller 100 compares whether the magnitude of the received voltage input from the received signal processor 200 is equal to a prescribed value corresponding to the length between the selected axles (step 380). As a result of the comparison, if the received voltage for adjusting the sensitivity is equal to the prescribed value corresponding to the length between the selected axles, the process proceeds to step 390 to perform general wheel alignment measurement. If the comparison result shows that the received voltage is different from the prescribed value, the microcontroller 100 selectively drives the pulse generator 8. By driving the pulse generator 8, a current for finely adjusting the intensity of the infrared beam is generated in the TA 140 for fine current compensation and input to the light emitting device driver 150 to finely adjust the intensity of the light emitting device (step 400). Can be If the received voltage is the same as the prescribed value during the process of finely adjusting the intensity of the light emitting device, the microcontroller 100 terminates the sensitivity adjustment process according to the embodiment of the present invention and performs the wheel alignment measurement.

That is, the present invention primarily selects and controls the pulse generator so that an infrared beam corresponding to the length between the selected axles is radiated, and finely adjusts the infrared beam such that the received light voltage is equal to a prescribed value corresponding to the length between the selected axles. By doing so, it is possible to accurately adjust the sensitivity of the optical sensor.

As described above, the present invention primarily adjusts the intensity of the beam radiated from the optical sensor according to the length between the axles to be measured, and receives the intensity of the radiation beam to fine tune the intensity of the radiation beam. There is an advantage to minimize the measurement error of the wheel alignment.

In addition, the present invention has the advantage of accurately measuring the wheel alignment of all vehicles by storing and using the vehicle specifications for each manufacturer.

On the other hand, the present invention has been described with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings, which are merely exemplary, and those skilled in the art will understand that various modifications and equivalent other embodiments are possible therefrom. Therefore, the true technical protection scope of the present invention should be defined only by the appended claims.

Claims (7)

A memory for storing axle information of the vehicle; A display unit for displaying axles of the vehicle to be measured; A user interface unit for selecting an axle of the vehicle; A plurality of pulse generators for generating a constant pulse; A transistor array configured to input a pulse output from the selected pulse generator to generate a current for radiating an infrared beam corresponding to the length between the selected axles, and output the current to a light emitting device driver; A fine current compensation transistor array configured to input a pulse output from a selected pulse generator to generate a current for finely adjusting the intensity of the light emitting device, and output the current to the light emitting device driver; A light receiving signal processor for converting a current output from the light receiving element of the optical sensor into a light receiving signal in the form of a voltage and compensating for the magnitude of the voltage signal; And a control unit for selecting and controlling the pulse generators such that the voltage level input from the light receiving signal processing unit is a prescribed value corresponding to the length between the selected axles. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein vehicle information for each manufacturer is additionally stored in the memory. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a pulse generator selector configured to select one of a plurality of pulse generators under control of the controller. The optical sensor as set forth in claim 1 or 3, wherein the plurality of pulse generators comprises pulse generators equal to the number of measurable axle combinations and pulse generators for fine current compensation for a wheel alignment measurable vehicle. Sensitivity adjuster. The method of claim 1, wherein the control unit performs a primary selective driving of one of the pulse generators so that an infrared beam corresponding to the length between the selected axles is radiated, and controls the secondary selective driving of one of the pulse generators to finely adjust the intensity of the infrared beam. Sensitivity adjustment device of the optical sensor, characterized in that. In the sensitivity adjustment method of the optical sensor for measuring wheel alignment, Displaying a vehicle selection window; Displaying an axle selection window according to the selected vehicle specification; Controlling the intensity of the light emitting device of the optical sensor in response to the selected axle length; Receiving an intensity of a light receiving signal output from the light receiving element of the optical sensor; And finely adjusting the intensity of the light emitting element of the optical sensor such that the intensity of the received light signal corresponds to a predetermined value corresponding to the length between the selected axles. The method of claim 6, further comprising the steps of: measuring wheel alignment with the intensity of the sensitivity-adjusted light emitting device; And storing the measured value together with the customer information.