Electricity: motive power systems – Periodic – repetitious or successive operations control of...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-25
2003-06-17
Nappi, Robert E. (Department: 2837)
Electricity: motive power systems
Periodic, repetitious or successive operations control of...
C318S280000, C318S281000, C318S282000, C318S283000, C318S284000, C318S285000, C318S286000, C318S434000, C318S445000, C318S456000, C318S446000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06580241
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of detecting the pinching of an object in a power window device, and more particularly, to a method of detecting the pinching of an object in a power window device and for reducing a detection error which arises when a motor torque value is increased at a time it is detected whether an object, which is pinched in a window, is present or absent in each of a plurality of travel regions, which are obtained by dividing the entire moving range of the window, and by comparing a motor torque value with a corrected base value.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in power window devices used to open and close a window of a vehicle, an object may be pinched in the window particularly when the window is being moved in a closing direction. When the object is pinched in the window, a large force is applied to the object by a drive force in a window closing direction, by which an excessive load is applied to a window open/close motor which provides the window with the drive force.
To avoid the occurrence of such an undesirable situation, there has been proposed a power window device provided with a means, which detects an object pinched in a window when the window is opened and closed and instantly stops or reverses the drive of a window open/close motor when it is detected that the object is pinched to thereby prevent an excessive load from being applied to the motor. That is, there has been proposed a power window device for detecting an object pinched in a window.
In this case, while there have been proposed various types of power window devices for detecting an object pinched therein, there is a power window device for detecting an object pinched therein as disclosed the applicant of in U.S. Pat. No. 6,034,495.
FIG. 6
is a block diagram showing the arrangement of the main portion of the power window device for detecting a pinched object according to the above referenced patent.
As shown in
FIG. 6
, the power window device includes a window open/close manual switch
71
, a micro control unit (MCU)
72
, a motor drive unit
73
, a window open/close motor
74
, and a pulse generator
75
. In this case, the window open/close manual switch
71
includes a plurality of switches, for example, a window raising switch (UP)
71
1
, a window lowering switch (DOWN)
71
2
, and an auto switch (AUTO)
71
3
. The micro control unit (MCU)
72
includes a control/arithmetic operation unit
72
1
, a RAM
72
2
and a pulse edge counter
72
3
.
The window raising switch
71
1
, the window lowering switch
71
2
, and the auto switch
71
3
are connected to the input of the control/arithmetic operation unit
72
1
, the output of the control/arithmetic operation unit
72
1
is connected to the input of the motor drive unit
73
, and the output of the motor drive unit
73
is connected to the motor
74
. The pulse generator
75
is directly coupled with the motor
74
. The output of the pulse generator
75
is connected to the input of the pulse edge counter
72
3
, and the output of the pulse edge counter
72
3
is connected to the control/arithmetic operation unit
72
1
. The RAM
72
2
and the control/arithmetic operation unit
72
1
are connected to each other.
Further,
FIG. 7
is a characteristic view showing an example of the base median values and the base values of the motor torque set to the respective travel regions of a window when the entire travel region thereof is divided into 36 travel regions in the power window device shown in
FIG. 6
, and
FIG. 8
is a characteristic view showing an example of the corrected base values set to a part of the travel region in the power window device shown in FIG.
6
.
In
FIG. 7
, an abscissa represents the number of arrival pieces of pulse edge interval data which are obtained by counting a piece of pulse edge interval data each time it arrives, and an ordinate represents motor torque. In the figure, M represents a motor torque value, A represents a base median value, K represents a base value, H represents a motor torque value when an object is pinched a moment after a window starts movement.
As shown in
FIG. 7
, the proposed power window device mentioned above is arranged such that 36 travel regions are formed by equally dividing the entire travel extent of the window, that is, the window movable region from a window full-open position to a window full-close position, and various types of values for determining the presence and absence of an object pinched in the window, that is, a base median value, a corrected base median value, a base value and a corrected base value are set to each of the travel regions as described below. In this case, the 36 regions are formed by generating 2-phase pulses from the pulse generator
75
when the motor
74
is in rotation, detecting the respective pulse edge intervals of the 2-phase pulses by the pulse edge counter
72
3
which counts clock signals and using the thus detected count values.
The outline of the operation of the power window device for detecting an object pinched therein shown in
FIG. 6
will be described here using
FIGS. 7 and 8
in combination.
When any switch of the window open/close manual switch
71
is manually operated, the micro control unit
72
outputs a drive signal corresponding to the manually operated switch to the motor drive unit
73
in response to the manual operation of the switch. The motor drive unit
73
supplies a motor drive signal to the motor
74
in response to the drive signal supplied thereto, rotates the motor
74
in one direction or the other direction in correspondence to the manually operated switch and causes the window coupled with the motor
74
to move in a window opening or closing direction by the rotation of the motor
74
. The rotation of the motor causes the pulse generator
75
directly coupled with the motor
74
to be operated, by which 2-phase pulses each having a cycle corresponding to the rotation of the motor
74
are output from the pulse generator
75
and supplied to the edge counter
72
3
. In this case, each of the 2-phase pulses is a square wave pulse having a 90° phase difference and one cycle of which corresponds to one rotation of the motor
74
. The pulse edge counter
72
3
detects timing at which each pulse edge of the supplied 2-phase pulses arrives and calculates an interval from a time at which one pulse arrives to a time at which a next pulse arrives by counting clock signals, and the control/arithmetic operation unit
72
1
detects a motor torque value based on the calculated count value.
In this case, the RAM
72
2
is provided with a base median value storing area, a base tolerance value storing area, a motor torque data addition value storing area, a start cancel storing area, the number of motor torque data in travel region storing area, the total number of motor torque data storing area, and the like. Then, the control/arithmetic operation unit
72
1
calculates the base median value A (for example, A
0
to A
4
) of motor torque, the corrected base median value B (for example, B
0
to B
4
) representing the average of motor torque values, the base value K (for example, K
1
to K
4
) which is obtained by adding a given allowable base value to the base median value A (for example, A
0
to A
4
), a correction coefficient (for example, &agr;
0
to &agr;
3
) for correcting the base value K (for example, K
1
to K
4
), and the corrected base value C (for example, C
1
to C
4
), based on various kinds of data stored in these storing areas as shown in FIG.
8
.
The example shown in
FIG. 8
is a case in which the motor
74
is started when the window is located in a travel region N
0
and the window is sequentially moved thereby from the travel region N
0
in the directions of a travel region N
1
, a travel region N
2
, a travel region N
3
, and a travel region N
4
. A rate of change &agr;
1
represents the ratio (B
0
/A
0
) of the corrected base median value B
0
obtained in the first travel region N
0
to the base median value A
Alps Electric Co. ,Ltd.
Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione
Nappi Robert E.
Smith Tyrone
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