KR101983095B1 - Actuator - Google Patents

Abstract

An actuator for controlling movement of a vehicle headlamp according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a motor that rotates based on a signal received from an electronic control unit (ECU), a motor that is connected to the motor, A nut which is formed to mount the vehicle head lamp and is coupled to the rotation shaft and moves in the axial direction of the rotation shaft together with the rotation of the rotation shaft; And a stopper for preventing the movement of the nut.

Description

Actuator {ACTUATOR}

The present invention relates to an actuator, and more particularly, to an actuator for controlling a headlamp for a vehicle.

The vehicle is provided with a headlamp, so that it can be operated while confirming the course ahead even during daytime or nighttime when the field of view is not secured. Recently, Adaptive Front-Lighting System (AFS) technology has been commercialized that automatically adjusts the angle of irradiation of headlamps according to the angle and direction of the vehicle's steering wheel.

According to the AFS technique, a driving device is driven in accordance with a signal output from an electronic control unit (ECU) for controlling a headlamp for a vehicle, and the irradiation angle of a headlamp for a vehicle is controlled to be vertically or horizontally .

A drive device for adjusting the irradiation angle of the vehicle headlamp to the left and right is, for example, a swivel type actuator. A swivel-type actuator can use a hall IC (integrated chip) and a bipolar (N pole-S pole) magnet to recognize the zero point for movement of the headlamp. The Hall IC can recognize the switching region between the N-pole and the S-pole as the origin. Since the bipolar magnet reciprocates around the Hall IC until the Hall IC recognizes the origin, it may take time to recognize the origin. At this time, when the non-magnetic field region between the N pole and the S pole is wide, the probability of occurrence of the error of the origin recognition is large.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an actuator for controlling a headlamp for a vehicle and a control method thereof.

An actuator for controlling movement of a headlamp for a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a motor that rotates based on a signal received from an electronic control unit (ECU), a motor that is connected to the motor, A nut which is formed to mount the vehicle head lamp and is coupled to the rotation shaft and moves in the axial direction of the rotation shaft together with the rotation of the rotation shaft; And a stopper for preventing the movement of the nut.

The stopper may be made of an elastic material.

The stopper may be formed at one end of the motor.

And a support portion for fixing one end of the rotation shaft, which is not connected to the motor, between the left and right ends of the rotation shaft, and the stopper may be formed on the support portion.

A control method of an actuator according to an embodiment of the present invention for controlling movement of a headlamp for a vehicle includes the steps of receiving a signal instructing to move a nut mounted with a headlamp for a vehicle from an electronic control unit to an origin, A step of moving the nut to a position where the stopper blocks the nut, a signal instructing to move the nut from the electronic control unit to a target position, and rotating the motor, And moving the nut to the target position.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, since there is no need to provide a Hall IC and a magnet for recognizing the origin, it is possible to reduce the manufacturing cost of the actuator. Further, it is possible to reduce the time required to recognize the origin, Error can be reduced. Further, the control procedure of the electronic control unit can be simplified.

1 is a block diagram of a vehicular headlamp control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a schematic view of a swivel actuator according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a flowchart showing a method of controlling a headlamp controller for a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention is capable of various modifications and various embodiments, and specific embodiments are illustrated and described in the drawings. It should be understood, however, that the invention is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments, but includes all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention.

The terms including ordinal, such as second, first, etc., may be used to describe various elements, but the elements are not limited to these terms. The terms are used only for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another. For example, without departing from the scope of the present invention, the second component may be referred to as a first component, and similarly, the first component may also be referred to as a second component. And / or < / RTI > includes any combination of a plurality of related listed items or any of a plurality of related listed items.

It is to be understood that when an element is referred to as being "connected" or "connected" to another element, it may be directly connected or connected to the other element, . On the other hand, when an element is referred to as being "directly connected" or "directly connected" to another element, it should be understood that there are no other elements in between.

The terminology used in this application is used only to describe a specific embodiment and is not intended to limit the invention. The singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. In the present application, the terms "comprises" or "having" and the like are used to specify that there is a feature, a number, a step, an operation, an element, a component or a combination thereof described in the specification, But do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, or combinations thereof.

Unless defined otherwise, all terms used herein, including technical or scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. Terms such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries are to be interpreted as having a meaning consistent with the contextual meaning of the related art and are to be interpreted as either ideal or overly formal in the sense of the present application Do not.

Hereinafter, embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein like or corresponding elements are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description thereof will be omitted.

1 is a block diagram of a vehicular headlamp control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

1, a vehicle headlamp controller 100 includes a head lamp unit 110, a head lamp control unit 120, an electronic control unit 130, a speed sensing unit 140, (150).

The head lamp unit 110 includes a head lamp that shines light on the road ahead of the vehicle. The headlamp may be used in combination with a headlight, a headlight, and the like.

The headlamp control unit 120 is connected to the headlamp unit 110 and controls the headlamp unit 110 to move left and right. For example, the headlamp control unit 120 may be implemented as a swivel-type actuator. By driving the swivel actuator, the head lamp unit 110 can be moved left and right. In this specification, the headlamp control unit may be used in combination with a swivel-type actuator, a swivel actuator, an actuator, and the like.

The electronic control unit 130 is electrically connected to the headlamp control unit 120 and outputs a signal for controlling the headlamp control unit 120. The electronic control unit 130 may be mixed with an electronic control unit (ECU). The electronic control unit 130 is connected to the speed sensing unit 140 and the steering angle sensing unit 150. The electronic control unit 130 receives speed information or acceleration information of the vehicle received from the speed sensing unit 140, And generates a signal for controlling the headlamp control unit 120 based on the received steering angle information of the vehicle. The signal for controlling the headlamp control unit 120 includes, for example, a signal for instructing the headlamp unit 110 to move to the origin and a signal for instructing the headlamp unit 110 to move from the origin to the target position . ≪ / RTI > Here, the origin refers to a position that is a reference for moving the head lamp unit 110, and can be used in combination with the reference point. The target position means the position of the headlamp which has the irradiation angle suitable for the current velocity / acceleration and the steering angle.

2 is a schematic view of a swivel actuator according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2, the swivel actuator 300 includes a motor 310, a nut 315, a rotating shaft 320, a support portion 325, a guide rail 330, a printed circuit board 335, a control unit 340, A connection terminal 345, and a stopper 350.

The control unit 340 is disposed on the printed circuit board 335 and outputs a signal for rotating the motor 310 based on the signal received from the electronic control unit 130 (see FIG. 1).

The motor 310 is connected to the printed circuit board 335 via the connection terminal 345 and rotates based on the signal output from the control unit 340. [

One end of the left and right ends of the rotating shaft 320 may be connected to the motor 310 and the other end may be fixed to the supporting portion 325. The rotation shaft 320 can rotate according to the rotation of the motor 310. The rotating shaft 320 can be rotated, for example, in a spiral shape. The rotation axis 320 may be formed on the same line as the rotation axis (not shown) of the motor 310, for example. A nut 315 is coupled to the rotating shaft 320 and the nut 315 can move in the axial direction (left and right direction) together with the rotation of the rotating shaft 320. The head lamp is mounted on the nut 315, and the head lamp can move according to the movement of the nut 315.

The nut 315 is inserted into a guide formed on the guide rail 330. One end of the guide rail 330 is fixed to the motor 310 and the other end of the guide rail 330 is fixed to the support portion 325 have. The guide rail 330 is disposed parallel to the rotation axis 320 and can guide the movement of the nut 315.
The nut 315 may include an engaging portion 315-1 and an extension 315-2.
The engaging portion 315-1 is engaged with the rotating shaft 310 and moves in the axial direction. The extension portion 315-2 extends upward from the coupling portion 315-1. At this time, the extension portion 315-2 may have a smaller axial width of the rotation shaft 310 than the engagement portion 315-1.

When the electronic control unit (see 130 in FIG. 1) instructs the head lamp unit 110 to move to the origin, the motor 310 rotates to move the nut 315 to the zero point (ZP). Here, the origin is set in advance, and it is assumed that the electronic control unit already knows the position of the origin. In order to move the nut 315 to the origin, a stopper 350 may be formed at the origin. The stopper 350 is spaced at a distance h lower than the height H of the nut 315 from the rotary shaft 310 so as to prevent the movement of the nut 315. [ Thus, the nut 315 can move only to the origin.

The origin may be set to one end of the left and right ends of the rotation axis 320. When the origin is set in the direction of the motor 310, the stopper 350 may be formed in the motor 310. The stopper 350 may be formed on the cover 311 of the motor 310, for example. When the origin is set in the direction of the support portion 325, the stopper 350 may be formed in the support portion 325. The stopper 350 may be formed on the surface 325-1 where the support portion 325 meets the nut 315, for example.

The stopper 350 may be formed of an elastic material (e.g., rubber). Therefore, when the nut 315 moves to the origin, the nut 315 can be prevented from being worn out due to the contact between the nut 315 and the motor 310 or the support portion 325.

Thereafter, when the electronic control unit 130 instructs the head lamp unit 110 to move from the origin to the target position, the motor 310 rotates to move the nut 315 to the target position.

Therefore, in the swivel actuator according to the embodiment of the present invention, the Hall IC does not need to recognize the non-magnetic field region of the magnet. Therefore, the Hall IC and the magnet can be omitted in the structure of the swivel actuator. Also, it is possible to reduce the time required for the nut and magnet to reciprocate around the origin until the Hall IC recognizes the origin.

3 is a flowchart showing a method of controlling a headlamp controller for a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3, the electronic control unit 130 receives speed information or acceleration information of the vehicle from the speed sensing unit 140 (S400), and receives steering angle information of the vehicle from the steering angle sensing unit 150 (S410) .

When the horizontal movement of the head lamp unit 110 is required, the electronic controller 130 instructs the head lamp controller 120 to move the head lamp unit 110 to the origin (S420).

The head lamp control unit 120 (i.e., the swivel actuator in FIG. 2) rotates the motor to move the head lamp unit 110 to the origin (S430). When the origin is set to the motor side as shown in FIG. 2, the motor included in the head lamp control unit 120 can move the head lamp unit 110 to the origin by moving the nut to the left.

Then, the electronic control unit 130 instructs the headlamp control unit 120 to move the headlamp unit 110 to the target position (S440).

The head lamp control unit 120 rotates the motor to move the head lamp unit 110 to a target position (S450). When the origin is set to the motor side as shown in FIG. 2, the motor included in the head lamp control unit 120 can move the head lamp unit 110 to the target position by moving the nut to the right.

According to this, the electronic control unit 130 does not need to receive the origin recognition result from the Hall IC. The electronic control unit 130 can regard the head lamp unit 110 as having reached the origin when a predetermined time (which may be set differently according to the specification of the swivel actuator) has elapsed after commanding the origin movement. Then, the rotational direction of the motor can be simplified.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention as defined by the following claims It can be understood that

300: Swivel actuator
310: motor
315: Nuts
320:
325:
330: Guide rail
335: printed circuit board
340: control unit
345: Connection terminal
350: Stopper

Claims (5)

motor,
A rotation shaft having one end connected to the motor and the other end fixed to the support,
A nut coupled to the rotating shaft and movable in the axial direction of the rotating shaft,
And a stopper made of an elastic material to prevent the movement of the nut,
Wherein the motor includes a cover including a surface facing the nut,
The stopper is disposed on a surface of the cover facing the nut,
Wherein the nut includes an engaging portion engaging with the rotation shaft and an extending portion extending upward from the engaging portion and having a smaller axial width of the rotating shaft than the engaging portion,
Wherein the stopper is spaced apart from the rotation axis by a distance less than the height of the nut and is spaced apart from the extension by a distance higher than the height of the extension.
delete delete delete motor,
A rotation shaft having one end connected to the motor and the other end fixed to the support,
A nut coupled to the rotating shaft and movable in the axial direction of the rotating shaft,
And a stopper made of an elastic material to prevent the movement of the nut,
Wherein the stopper is disposed on a surface of the support portion opposite to the nut,
Wherein the stopper is spaced apart from the rotation axis by a distance lower than a height of the nut.

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