Distributed lighting system with fiber optic controls

Abstract

A vehicle lighting system includes one or more central light sources, a plurality of optical loads including headlight lenses, an optical fiber network that extends from the light sources to illuminate the headlight lenses and other optical loads, and optical switches and oscillators that include respective input fibers illuminated from the light source and output fibers to respective optical loads, and operate by enabling and disabling optical connections between their input and output fibers. The headlight assemblies switch between high and low beams by moving their fibers vertically, and control beam diffusion by moving the fibers parallel to the lens axes, including an automatic diffusion adjustment for a headlight reflection from a vehicle in front. The switches include various mechanisms for moving the input and output fibers into and out of alignment with each other, including a shaped resilient sleeve, a hinge pivotally joining the fibers, an opaque shutter with a transmissive section movable between the fibers, and also a liquid-based switch that relies upon total internal reflection. A feedback mechanism for some of the switches dims the source lamp when the switch is OFF to conserve energy. The oscillators operate by normally urging an input fiber towards an OFF position, at which it actuates a mechanism that shifts it to an ON position at which the mechanism is deactivated. A failsafe system employs multiple light sources, with each source sharing its light output with the load for another source that has failed.