Other

Lear Siegler, Inc.

Ronald J Fredricks

William Bennett Ribbens

Thomas E Perfitt

Gordon P Eckley

Harry L Gubbins

Jerry L Page

Wilbur A Carrington

Improved anti-lock brake systems (ABS) employed on aircraft and land vehicles and methods of operating same employing a sliding mode observer (SMO) incorporated into an ABS algorithm requiring only measurement of wheel speed to regulate the application of braking torque are disclosed. Braking is optimized simply by maintaining an SMO estimate of differential wheel torque (road/tire torque minus applied brake torque) derived from wheel speed at an extremum via applying or releasing the brakes as the extremum is passed through.

Antilock braking systems and methods

Improved methods and systems for controlling hydraulically or electrically actuated anti-lock brake systems (ABS) on air and land vehicles requiring only measurement of wheel angular speed although brake torque measurements can also be employed if available. A sliding mode observer (SMO) based estimate of net or different wheel torque (road/tire torque minus applied brake torque) derived from the measured wheel speed is compared to a threshold differential wheel torque derived as a function of a 'skid signal' also based on wheel speed only to generate a braking control signal. The braking control signal can be employed to rapidly and fully applying and releasing the brakes in a binary on-off manner and, as an additional option, possibly modulating the maximum available brake hydraulic pressure or electrical current when the brakes are in the 'on' state in a continuous manner. In the case of the basic on-off component of braking, the brakes are released when the estimate of differential wheel torque is less than the threshold differential wheel torque (i.e. for relatively high values of brake torque), and the brakes are applied fully when the estimate of differential wheel torque is greater than or equal to the threshold differential wheel torque. For aircraft landing gear applications, a fore-aft accelerometer mounted on the landing gear can be used to suppress nonlinear gear displacement oscillations commonly called gear walk in the direction of wheel roll.

Antilock brake systems employing a sliding mode observer based estimation of differential wheel torque

A method and apparatus for use in locating the eyes of a vehicle driver or passenger in a vehicle for controlling vehicle systems including the positioning of vehicle sideview mirrors in relation to the driver's eyes to maximize the view of traffic on either side of the vehicle or the characteristics of vehicle airbag deployment. The location of a driver's or passenger's eyes is derived from the adjustment by the driver (or passenger, if capable of doing so) of adjustable light beam(s) emanating from light source(s) or illuminated indicia, until it (or they) intersect the driver's or passenger's eyes. From the angles of adjustment of the light beam(s) and other known coordinates of the vehicle, the location of the driver's or passenger's eyes or the target may be computationally derived as a set of Cartesian coordinates. The determined eye location of the driver may be used together with the known mounting locations of the driver's and passenger's sideview mirror assemblies to derive exterior sideview mirror pitch and azimuth adjustment signal sets correlated to the vehicle blind spots. The adjustment signals are applied to servo motors operating in a feedback control loop to correct the actual driver's side and passenger's side sideview mirror pitch and azimuth settings to properly reflect images of the driver's side and passenger'side vehicle blind spots to the driver's eyes. The determined eye locations of the driver and passenger may be also or alternatively employed in the control of the airbag deployment system and in other vehicle safety and comfort systems. The relative fore-aft distance away from the airbag and the height of the person or target can be computed, and airbag deployment force and/or duration adjusted to compensate for deviation from the standard height and fore-aft distance.

Method and apparatus for determining the location of an occupant of a vehicle

A method and apparatus for use in locating a vehicle driver, passenger or object in the vehicle for controlling vehicle systems including the positioning of vehicle sideview mirrors in relation to the driver's eyes to maximize the view of traffic on either side of the vehicle or the characteristics of vehicle airbag deployment. The location of a driver's or passenger's eyes or the location of an infant's seat is derived from the adjustment by the driver (or passenger, if capable of doing so) of adjustable light beam(s) emanating from light source(s) or illuminated indicia, until it (or they) intersect the driver's or passenger's eyes or illuminate a target, e.g. a child or an infant's seat, in the front passenger's seat. From the angles of adjustment of the light beam(s) and other known coordinates of the vehicle, the location of the driver's or passenger's eyes or the target may be computationally derived as a set of Cartesian coordinates. The determined eye location of the driver may be used together with the known mounting locations of the driver's and passenger's sideview mirror assemblies to derive exterior sideview mirror pitch and azimuth adjustment signal sets correlated to the vehicle blind spots. The adjustment signals are applied to servo motors operating in a feedback control loop to correct the actual driver's side and passenger's side sideview mirror pitch and azimuth settings to properly reflect images of the driver's side and passenger's side vehicle blind spots to the driver's eyes. The determined eye locations of the driver and passenger or the target location of the infant's seat may be also or alternatively employed in the control of the airbag deployment system and in other vehicle safety and comfort systems. The relative fore-aft distance away from the airbag and the height of the person or target can be computed, and airbag deployment force and/or duration adjusted to compensate for deviation from the standard height and fore-aft distance.

Method and apparatus for adjusting vehicle mirrors

Method and apparatus for determining the location of an occupant of a

An opto-electronic alignment method and apparatus capable of being incorporated into left and right side vehicle exterior sideview mirrors to assist the driver in adjusting the mirror to minimize the presence of any traffic blind spot on a side of the vehicle. In a first embodiment, an LED is fixed in the mirror housing and aimed at the particular vehicle blind spot but reflected at an angle through a selectively light transmissive mirror region toward the vehicle interior. The sideview mirror alignment is accomplished by the driver using a conventional mirror adjustment control. When the driver sees the beam of light, the main sideview mirror is oriented correctly to reflect objects in the blind spot to the driver's eyes. In a second embodiment, the LED is mounted for pitch and azimuth adjustment using the adjustment control. When the driver sees the beam of light, the positional coordinates of the light emitting source are employed by a microcomputer to derive positional coordinates for the correct sideview mirror orientation to enable reflection of objects in the blind zone into the driver's eyes. The sideview mirror is then moved to the positional coordinates by servo motors. In either embodiment, the driver's preferred mirror alignments and other driver adjustable vehicle operating conditions may be memorized with the mirror position coordinates and a driver ID code so that the mirror positions may be readjusted, if necessary, when the driver ID code is entered.

Opto-electronic aid for alignment of exterior vehicle mirrors to

An optical rate sensor (200) is disclosed for use in inertial reference systems to measure rates of angular rotation with substantially high resolution and sensitivity. The sensor (200) comprises a passive ring Sagnac interferometer (201) with a multiturn fiber optic ring (232) through which counter-propagating optical waves are transmitted. A nonreciprocal time variant phase modulation is applied to the waves along with periodic effective transposition of ring ports. The waves are combined to produce a 'zero order' fringe pattern having an intensity varying in accordance with the relative phase between the counter-propagating waves. An intensity signal is derived from the fringe pattern having a phase offset corresponding to the Sagnac induced phase shift which in turn is linearly proportional to the angular rotation rate of the passive ring. Sampling, averaging and estimation circuits detemine the offset by detecting zero-crossing locations of the signal.

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Grand Rapids, MI, United States of America

Ronald J Fredricks