Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Transmission control
Patent
1997-10-02
2000-01-11
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A.
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Transmission control
701 51, 701 64, 701 66, 477 78, F16H 6108
Patent
active
060146036
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to gearboxes for motor vehicles.
It is known that some of the vehicles on the market today are equipped with "manual" gearboxes, and others are equipped with "automatic" gearboxes.
In a manual gearbox, the gear ratio engaged is chosen unambiguously by the driver, by means of a suitable lever, and the gears are selected or changed mechanically and directly by the lever.
Conversely, in an automatic gearbox, the driver has access, via a lever, only to a choice of a forward drive mode (low gear or high gear), a reverse drive mode, or a disengaged or neutral position (also referred to as "park"). On this basis, a module automatically moves the gearbox through both directions in which the gear ratios change, i.e. going both up through the gear ratios and down through them, without the driver being able to impose a precise choice of gear.
Automatic gearboxes are quite well accepted by certain drivers. However, they are not universally liked. In particular, they are not very well accepted in Latin countries.
In recent years, some companies have proposed vehicles equipped with "semi-automatic" gearboxes.
Accompanying FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the overall structure of such a conventional semi-automatic gearbox system.
Such a system includes a conventional gearbox 10 provided with actuators 20, which are generally fluid-driven servo-controlled actuators, suitable for acting on the gearbox 10 to change gears on the basis of instructions issued by a control assembly 30. The control assembly 30 comprises a manually-actuated control lever 32 and control transducers 34 that respond to the control lever 32 being displaced by defining gear change instructions. The control assembly 30 is associated with an electronic module 40 which receives the above-mentioned change instructions generated by the control transducers 34. The electronic module 40 controls the actuators 20 associated with the gearbox 10. In addition, the electronic module 40 is generally connected to sensors, e.g. a vehicle speed sensor 50, so that the electronic module 40 controls execution by the actuators 20 of the change instructions issued by the control assembly 30 as a function of the speed of the vehicle. For this purpose, the electronic module 40 applies instructions output by the control assembly 30 to the actuators 20 only if said instructions are compatible with the operating conditions of the vehicle.
The driver thus remains in control of choosing which gear ratio is engaged, because the driver acts on the lever 32 to request a change of gear (going up through the gears or going down through them, or else a change to reverse gear). However, the electronic module 40 oversees the system as a whole, and it authorizes a gear change only if the operating conditions of the vehicle are compatible with the change.
Such semi-automatic gearbox systems offer numerous advantages over other prior systems: gearbox; accelerator, when provision is made to integrate the gearbox system into the engine control system; manual gearbox and the cost of an automatic gearbox; as compared with manual gearboxes;
Document EP-A-0 584 984 describes a control device for an automatic or semi-automatic motor vehicle gearbox in which a predetermined gear ratio for starting is engaged automatically if the speed of the vehicle is lower than a given value.
However, in spite of all those advantages, semi-automatic gearbox systems have not been as commercially successful as expected.
An object of the present invention is to improve semi-automatic gearbox systems.
In a first aspect, the object is achieved by the present invention by means of a semi-automatic gearbox system, characterized by the fact that it includes means suitable for causing first gear to be engaged automatically when the system detects that the vehicle has stopped, with the engine running, and with a gear ratio other than neutral or than reverse.
In a second aspect, the object is achieved by the present invention by means of a semi-automatic gearbox system, characterized by the fact tha
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International Search Report.
Preliminary Search Report.
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Donnelly Arthur D.
Magneti Marelli France
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