Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
  • B60R—VEHICLES, VEHICLE FITTINGS, OR VEHICLE PARTS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • B60R16/00—Electric or fluid circuits specially adapted for vehicles and not otherwise provided for; Arrangement of elements of electric or fluid circuits specially adapted for vehicles and not otherwise provided for
  • B60R16/02—Electric or fluid circuits specially adapted for vehicles and not otherwise provided for; Arrangement of elements of electric or fluid circuits specially adapted for vehicles and not otherwise provided for electric constitutive elements
  • B60R16/023—Electric or fluid circuits specially adapted for vehicles and not otherwise provided for; Arrangement of elements of electric or fluid circuits specially adapted for vehicles and not otherwise provided for electric constitutive elements for transmission of signals between vehicle parts or subsystems
  • B60R16/0231—Circuits relating to the driving or the functioning of the vehicle
  • B60R16/0236—Circuits relating to the driving or the functioning of the vehicle for economical driving
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
  • B60Q—ARRANGEMENT OF SIGNALLING OR LIGHTING DEVICES, THE MOUNTING OR SUPPORTING THEREOF OR CIRCUITS THEREFOR, FOR VEHICLES IN GENERAL
  • B60Q9/00—Arrangement or adaptation of signal devices not provided for in one of main groups B60Q1/00 - B60Q7/00, e.g. haptic signalling
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
  • B60K—ARRANGEMENT OR MOUNTING OF PROPULSION UNITS OR OF TRANSMISSIONS IN VEHICLES; ARRANGEMENT OR MOUNTING OF PLURAL DIVERSE PRIME-MOVERS IN VEHICLES; AUXILIARY DRIVES FOR VEHICLES; INSTRUMENTATION OR DASHBOARDS FOR VEHICLES; ARRANGEMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH COOLING, AIR INTAKE, GAS EXHAUST OR FUEL SUPPLY OF PROPULSION UNITS IN VEHICLES
  • B60K35/00—Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
  • B60K35/20—Output arrangements, i.e. from vehicle to user, associated with vehicle functions or specially adapted therefor
  • B60K35/28—Output arrangements, i.e. from vehicle to user, associated with vehicle functions or specially adapted therefor characterised by the type of the output information, e.g. video entertainment or vehicle dynamics information; characterised by the purpose of the output information, e.g. for attracting the attention of the driver
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
  • B60K—ARRANGEMENT OR MOUNTING OF PROPULSION UNITS OR OF TRANSMISSIONS IN VEHICLES; ARRANGEMENT OR MOUNTING OF PLURAL DIVERSE PRIME-MOVERS IN VEHICLES; AUXILIARY DRIVES FOR VEHICLES; INSTRUMENTATION OR DASHBOARDS FOR VEHICLES; ARRANGEMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH COOLING, AIR INTAKE, GAS EXHAUST OR FUEL SUPPLY OF PROPULSION UNITS IN VEHICLES
  • B60K2360/00—Indexing scheme associated with groups B60K35/00 or B60K37/00 relating to details of instruments or dashboards
  • B60K2360/16—Type of output information
  • B60K2360/174—Economic driving
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02T—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO TRANSPORTATION
  • Y02T10/00—Road transport of goods or passengers
  • Y02T10/80—Technologies aiming to reduce greenhouse gasses emissions common to all road transportation technologies
  • Y02T10/84—Data processing systems or methods, management, administration

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a fuel saving technology in a vehicle for guiding an economical driving by reminding a driver of fuel consumption amount and driving efficiency, and more particularly, to a fuel saving guidance system of a vehicle and a control method thereof, which guides: an economical driving by teaching a driver to drive at a maximum efficiency in case of acceleration and by reminding the driver of fuel consumption amount in case of constant speed driving; a constant load driving for minimizing fuel consumption by reminding the driver of fuel consumption fluctuation; acceleration and deceleration within a control range of a vehicle by dynamically showing load fluctuation when accelerating and decelerating; and economical driving and fuel consumption reduction by generating an alarm sound and sequentially turning on light-emitting diodes in case of instantaneous start/acceleration/deceleration, particularly, by suppressing a driving in an unnecessary low load range, i.e., a partial-load range, using a fuel-cut display function, thereby reducing fuel consumption, suppressing exhaust gas, maintaining the performance of a vehicle and preventing accidents caused by
• a fuel consumption rate of a vehicle is the lowest in an adequate load range and high in low and high load ranges. Accordingly, driving in an adequate load range leads to an economical driving.
• a related art vehicle is not provided with a device for indicating a fuel consumption amount or a load. Even though a similar function is provided, it has not been possible to efficiently provide an audio-visual indication to a driver. Thus, in a related art vehicle, driving in an adequate load range was not possible.
• a related art vehicle which is not provided with an appropriate compensation means has problems of increase of fuel consumption, increase of engine exhaust emission and shortening of vehicle's lifetime .
• an object of the present invention is to provide a fuel saving guidance system of a vehicle and a control method thereof, which detects a fuel amount data of a fuel injector, converts it into a load data and informs a driver of the load data, thereby guiding an economical driving.
• Another object of the present invention is to provide a saving guidance system of a vehicle and a control method thereof, which performs a decision of an overload state in case of instantaneous start/acceleration and warns a driver of the state by generating an alarm sound and sequentially turning on light-emitting diodes (LEDs) , thereby avoiding instantaneous start/acceleration caused by bad habits of the driver so as to reduce fuel consumption due to overload.
• Another object of the present invention is to provide a saving guidance system of a vehicle and a control method thereof, which guides an adequate load driving to avoid unnecessary consumption of fuel by turning on a yellow LED and using fuel-cut function, in case of an inadequately low load range.
• Another object of the present invention is to provide a saving guidance system of a vehicle and a control method thereof, which is provided with a control algorithm for warning a driver of load data, instantaneous start/acceleration and fuel over-consumption by detecting an exact fuel amount from the fuel injection time in a vehicle, converting the detected fuel amount into a load data, measuring the number of rotations of an engine, performing a decision of partial-load range and overload range, and selecting a proper display part and setting an alarm according to the decision.
• Fig. 1 is a block diagram for explaining a saving guidance system of a vehicle in accordance with the present invention
• Fig. 2 is a flow chart showing the process of a saving guidance system of a vehicle in accordance with the present invention.
• Fig. 3 shows a structure of a display part in a saving guidance system of a vehicle in accordance with the present invention.
• A5 instantaneous start/acceleration determiner
• A6 display controller
• A7 alarm controller
• A8 display part
• A9 alarm part
• a saving guidance system of a vehicle in accordance with the present invention comprises: an input converter for converting a signal of a fuel injector in a vehicle to be received by a control system; a load detector for detecting a load from the signal of the fuel injector; an engine-rotation-number measuring part for measuring the number of rotations of an engine from the signal of the fuel injector; an instantaneous start/acceleration determiner for determining instantaneous start/acceleration and over-consumption of fuel according to the detected load and the measured number of rotations of the engine; an alarm controller for controlling an alarm according to the determination of the instantaneous start/acceleration determiner; an alarm part for aurally warning a driver of a load state by generating an alarm sound according to an output signal from the alarm controller; a display part for visually warning a driver of a load state by sequentially turning on LEDs according to the load detected by the load detector; a switch input part for initializing the control system, setting internal parameters and
• a method of controlling a fuel saving guidance system comprises the steps of: initializing a control system according to a switch input after an operation of a start switch, and automatically setting an alarm and internal reference data; measuring a load from a signal of a fuel injector; comparing the load data measured at the above measuring step with the reference data converted from an overload occurring in an instantaneous start/acceleration state; maintaining inspection of a load state if a result in the comparing step is determined to be normal and warning a driver of an overload state by sequentially turning on LEDs and generating an alarm sound if a result in the comparing step is determined to be abnormal.
• Fig. 1 is a block diagram for explaining a saving guidance system of a vehicle in accordance with the present invention
• Fig. 2 is a flow chart showing the process of a saving guidance system of a vehicle in accordance with the present invention
• Fig. 3 shows a structure of a display part in a saving guidance system of a vehicle in accordance with the present invention.
• A2 denotes an input converter for measuring the fuel injection amount, converting the fuel injection amount into an electrical digital signal and inputting the signal to a load detector A3 and to an engine-rotation-number measuring part A4.
• the load detector A3 detects a load from the electrical signal measured in the input convertor A2.
• the engine-rotation-number measuring part A4 measures the number of rotations of the engine from the electrical signal measured in the input convertor A2.
• the input converter A2 can be input from a diagnostic connector and other wires installed in a vehicle.
• A5 denotes an instantaneous start/acceleration determiner for determining an instantaneous start/acceleration according to a signal of the load detector A3 and the engine-rotation-number measuring part A4.
• A6 denotes a display controller for visually indicating a load using detected load.
• A7 denotes an alarm controller for controlling an alarm according to the determination in the instantaneous start/acceleration determiner A5.
• A8 denotes a display part for visually indicating an output from the display controller A ⁇ using LEDs.
• A9 denotes an alarm part for aurally warning a driver of a load state by generating an alarm sound according to an output from the alarm controller.
• A10 denotes a switch input part for initializing the control system and setting alarm and reference according to a switch input.
• the display part A8 consists of a plurality of LEDs and performs sequential lighting according to the output signal from the display controller A6 to display green, yellow or red color depending on a load, by which a driver visually checks an instantaneous start/acceleration.
• reference numeral ⁇ denotes a load display part, denotes an efficiency/state display part, ® denotes an adequate load range, ⁇ denotes an adequate load range in case of acceleration and ⁇ denotes an overload display part.
• the display part A8 is composed of a plurality of LEDs for indicating a fuel consumption amount and a load, and one LED emitting three colors for indicating a fuel consumption rate and an instantaneous start/acceleration.
• the fuel amount is represented by the number of the turned on diodes
• an adequate load range is represented by green, yellow and red color, respectively.
• the state of high fuel consumption rate and low load is represented by yellow color
• an overload is represented by red color
• an adequate partial-load is represented by green color
• the state of instantaneous start/acceleration and fuel over-consumption is represented by red color.
• the load display part displays green color in the light of its operation.
• switch input is performed to carry out initialization of the control system, alarm setting and reference setting (Bl and B2) .
• the reference setting an overload occurring in the instantaneous start/acceleration according to the type of vehicle is preset to be a certain value.
• a user may adjust the reference value, but it is preferable that manufacture of the vehicle is completed in a state in which the reference value is preset.
• An engine start is operated and it is determined whether the engine start is stabilized (engine stability test) for a certain period of time (B3 and B4).
• step B4 If it is determined that the engine start is stabilized in step B4, the load detector A3 detects the load and the engine-rotation-number measuring part A4 measures the number of rotations of the engine from the electrical signal of the input converter A2 (B5) .
• the instantaneous start/acceleration determiner A5 performs a decision of overload by comparing the data measured in step B5 with the reference data converted from the overload occurring in the instantaneous start/acceleration according to the type of vehicle (B6) .
• step B ⁇ if the data measured in step B5 is determined to be abnormal, the LEDs in the display part ⁇ shown in Fig. 3 are sequentially turned on by the display controller A6 and the alarm sound is generated by the alarm controller A7 , thereby warning the driver of the overload state (steps B7, B8 and B9) .
• the overload state is represented by red color in the overload display part ⁇ .
• a method of determining the overload state using a data converted from the load obtained for a predetermined period of time may be adopted. Accordingly, the driver can avoid instantaneous start/acceleration involving much fuel consumption, since the LEDs in the display part warn the driver of the instantaneous start/acceleration state.
• the driver may select the best driving mode, i.e., engine start, idling, acceleration, constant-speed driving and deceleration, using the display function of the display part.
• the vehicle is started with half the load of an initial engine start during a period of optimum idling.
• the speed is accelerated to the acceleration range of the load display part.
• a constant-speed driving a driving without changing the load indicated in the load display part, a driving maintaining an economic speed according to the fuel consumption amount, an acceleration within a permitted limit of load and road condition, a flexible driving adopting fuel-cut (the energy efficiency can be improved by increasing the average load applied to the vehicle) may be performed.
• the data from the fuel injector is detected and converted into a load to guide an economical driving in an adequate load range.
• the instantaneous start/acceleration state is determined to be an overload to warn a driver of the overload state by turning on the LEDs and generating an alarm sound, thereby avoiding instantaneous start/acceleration and reducing the fuel consumption caused by speeding.
• an adequate load driving can be guided by turning on a yellow LED and unnecessary consumption of fuel can be avoided by using fuel-cut function.
• car accidents caused by instantaneous start/acceleration as well as contaminants exhausting from the vehicle can be suppressed.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Human Computer Interaction (AREA)
• Automation & Control Theory (AREA)
• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Combustion & Propulsion (AREA)
• Transportation (AREA)
• Combined Controls Of Internal Combustion Engines (AREA)
• Control Of Vehicle Engines Or Engines For Specific Uses (AREA)
• Electrical Control Of Air Or Fuel Supplied To Internal-Combustion Engine (AREA)

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Citations (4)

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• 1999
  • 1999-03-24 KR KR1019990009962A patent/KR19990068307A/ko active Search and Examination
• 2000
  • 2000-03-23 KR KR10-2001-7012052A patent/KR100418689B1/ko not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2000-03-23 AU AU34615/00A patent/AU3461500A/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2000-03-23 WO PCT/KR2000/000253 patent/WO2000056575A1/en active IP Right Grant

Patent Citations (4)

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