The present invention relates to an open roof operating method and an open roof operation control system applicable to a convertible vehicle.
A convertible car such as an open car which is capable of storing or housing a roof panel (a roof portion) and a rear window (a rear window portion) in the inside of a luggage space (a trunk room) has been well known. As shown in FIG. 2, this type of vehicle ensures each movement of a roof panel 1, a rear window 2, a package tray 3 and a luggage panel.
FIG. 2(a) shows a state in which the roof panel 1 and the rear window 2 are held at a closed position. To bring this closed position into an open state shown in FIG. 2(e) indicating an opened position, first of all, the rear window 2 is erected and is turned down in the rearward direction so as to move the roof panel 1 connected to the rear window 2 in the rearward direction while maintaining its horizontal posture. Here, the luggage panel 4 is made to open a front portion thereof about a pivot point 5 (see FIG. 2(b)).
The further turning down of the rear window 2 in the rearward direction brings about the interference between the package tray 3 and the roof panel 1 which moves in the rearward direction. Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 2(c), the package tray 3 is erected in the frontward direction so as to prevent the interference between the roof panel 1 and the package tray 3 by enlarging a space between the package tray 3 and the luggage panel 4.
Under the condition shown in FIG. 2(c), after confirming that the roof panel 1 and the rear window 2 are completely stored or housed in a luggage space 6, a slide board 7 of the package tray 3 is pulled out in the rearward direction and the package tray 3 is turned down in the rearward direction (a fully closed position of the package tray 3) (see FIG. 2(d)).
After confirming the full closure position of the package tray 3 (the roof panel 1 opened), the luggage panel 4 is fully closed (see FIG. 2(e)).
To bring the open state, that is, the fully opened state shown in FIG. 2(e) into the fully closed state shown in FIG. 2(a), the above-mentioned operation is performed in an opposite manner.
In the roof fully closed state shown in FIG. 2(a), to put a luggage into the inside of the luggage space 6, a lock between the luggage panel 4 and a vehicle body is released. Then a rear portion of the luggage panel 4 is lifted so as to open the luggage panel 4 in the rearward direction.
An example of the movement of the above-mentioned roof panel and the luggage panel is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 230484/1996 and an example of the movement of the above-mentioned package tray is disclosed in German Patent Specification No. 4446483. In these known examples, an approximately U-shaped auxiliary frame is disposed in the inside of a luggage space at a rear portion of a vehicle and support plates are fixedly secured to end portions of opposing legs of this auxiliary frame. A luggage panel is held on the support plates by way of a swingable parallelogram link mechanism, thereby the luggage panel can be opened in the frontward direction.
The frontward opening of the luggage panel is performed by rotating the luggage panel about a support pipe of the auxiliary frame extending in the vehicle widthwise direction together with the support plates and the parallelogram link mechanism while being assisted by a hydraulic cylinder. Here, a rear portion of the luggage panel is locked to the support pipe of the auxiliary frame by means of a locking device.
When the roof panel is fully opened or fully closed, the package tray 3 closes an opening portion formed between a front periphery of the luggage panel and a vehicle body so as to perform the function of preventing the exposure of the luggage space.
Examples of the package tray are shown in French Patent Specification No. 2747077 (corresponding to Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 58984/1998) and said German Patent Specification No. 4446483. The former is constituted such that it includes a slide board slidable relative to a main board and side boards disposed at both sides of the slide board, wherein the side boards are tilted and erected upwardly when the roof panel is fully closed. The latter is constituted such that it includes a slide panel slidable relative to a main board and side boards disposed at both sides of the slide board, wherein the side boards are stored or housed on the main board when the roof panel is fully closed.
As has been explained above, the operation of the conventional open roof is performed sequentially such that a storage lid such as the luggage panel or the package tray is opened, the roof panel is stored, and then the storage lid is closed. However, in such a manner of operation, the operation time becomes equal to or more than the sum of operation times of respective components. In this manner, the operation is a time consuming operation and hence is undesirable. To shorten this operation time, although it may be possible to operate respective components simultaneously, means which obviates the collision, that is, the interference among respective components becomes necessary.
Japanese patent Laid-open Publication No. 171372/1994 discloses the simultaneous operations of a roof panel and an open/close lid which constitutes a luggage panel. However, since the position of the roof panel is detected by a shaft of a final drive stage of a link mechanism for opening and closing the roof panel, the position accuracy necessary for the simultaneous operations cannot be achieved. Accordingly, to avoid the interference among respective components, it becomes necessary to increase the distance flexibility among respective components.
On the other hand, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 199906/1996 proposes the detection of positions of respective components by making use of pulse signals synchronized with the rotation of motors for respective components. However, in this proposal, even when a power supply is in the OFF-state, it is necessary to monitor pulses. This is contradictory to an idea to suppress the power consumption when the power supply is in the OFF-state and, in fact, it is impossible to monitor pulses during the exchange of a battery. Accordingly, the application of this proposal to actual vehicles is considered unsuitable. In addition, when respective components are operated manually, it becomes necessary to provide means for making a user understand the rotational directions and the rotational amounts of respective motors. This pushes up the cost.
The present invention has been made in view of the above and it is an object of the present invention to provide an operation method of an open roof and an open roof operation control system which can overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional art.
To solve the above-mentioned drawbacks, the present invention substantially adopts motors which drive respective components comprising a roof panel and at least one of storage lids such as a luggage panel and a package tray, pulse signal means which generates pulses in synchronous with the rotation of at least the motor for driving the roof panel, and means which performs the simultaneous operations of respective components using control means for controlling respective motors and stops the simultaneous operations when the position information obtained from pulse signals is not reliable and changes over the simultaneous operations to non-interference operations which are sequential operations.
The state that the position information obtained from the pulse signals is not reliable includes, for example, a state in which a pulse with an uncertain motor rotating direction is inputted by moving the component with a hand when a power supply is in the OFF-state, a state in which a plurality of pulse signals are abnormally inputted and the like.
To be more specific, the condition to become the non-interference operation (non-simultaneous operation prohibiting the simultaneous operation) is that the pulse information is unreliable. Following cases are considered to be the conditions to become the non-interference operation.
1. The roof panel is not fully opened or closed when the ignition is in the ON-state.
(When the ignition is in the OFF-state, a controller (control means) is not monitoring the pulses and hence, the relevance between the positions of respective components and pulse information is cut so that the pulse information is not reliable.)
2. When there is no output from the controller to the motors, pulses exceeding a set amount are inputted to the controller.
(This refers to a case in which the position of the component is changed due to an external force such as a manual operation or the like. In this case, since the moving direction and the moving amount are not determined, the pulse information is not reliable.)
3. The correlation between a plurality of pulse information which are set as a redundancy system is abnormal.
(Example 1: a plurality of pulse information set for detecting abnormalities such as the destruction of memory or the like in the inside of the controller.
Example 2: pulse information on respective left and right motors for driving the roof panel with these motors.)
4. The pulse information is not within a range that pulse information can be obtained by usual operations of the components.
(Example 1: The pulse information indicates the operations outside the movable range of the components (the roof, the storage lid (the luggage panel, the package tray) and the like).
Example 2: The relationship between the pulse information and other position information source (the position detection switches indicating stop positions of components, the motor lock current indicating the stop of motors or the like) is not normal.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds