Field of application

The present invention refers to car industry and may be used to open, close and otherwise move car door by a person, including handicapped persons.

The invention may be also used to move other vehicles - carts, furniture crates, etc.

State of the art

A Mercedes car door mover is known that permits to close car door with a light hand push, but in order to open the door one must grip the car door handle.

Another known car door mover (see WO 0037755A1) opens car door at a preselected angle.

The closest known solution of the present invention is Magic Touch car mover f www . I af ra ncea uto wo rks . com . WO2007011938A2). This gadget utilizes a sensor to initiate partial opening of a car door. Still, the known device requires a grip of car door or car door handle by a person in order to open the door wide. This device is not used to close car doors. In all the above devices a person does not control car door movement process, but only initiates this.

The technical problem to be solved by the invention lies in creation of a car mover able to fully and exactly control movement of a car door or its part without gripping, but maintaining tactile contact with the object and feeling through intensity of this contact the actual resistance to door movement offered by the environment.

Essence of invention The main object of invention is improvement of ergonomic and aesthetic characteristics and ability of usage by handicapped people, so that they could avoid hand gripping of item to be moved or its part, maintaining at the same time permanent tactile contact of the item with a part of human body during any movement of the item. Another object of the present invention is enlargement of the set of technical devices and opportunities proposed by car door movers.

Other objects of the present invention will be discussed further while studying the following description and drawings.

The solution of object of the invention is like this: a known Magic Touch car mover (www.lafranceautoworks.com. WO2007011938A2) comprises, a tactile sensing surface, a governing microcontroller means and a lock actuator. In accordance with the present invention, the sensing surface is movable relative to car door and is moved by a first drive equipped with a force and position sensor so that to maintain the force of tactile contact with a part of human body as close to its preset value as possible depending on the actual force of the car door movement exerted by a second drive which is also equipped with a force and position sensor and serves to move car door so that the position of the tactile sensing surface remained within the interval of its possible movements relative to the car door.

In a particular embodiment of the present invention, the tactile sensing surface is equipped with a force sensor that serves as the first drive force sensor, the first drive not being equipped with a force sensor in this case.

In another particular embodiment of the present invention, a tactile screen or a tactile mat serves as tactile sensing surface.

Drawings

In description of the embodiments of the present invention special terminology is used. Nevertheless, the present invention is not limited with the applied terms, and it should be borne . on mind that each such term embraces all equivalent elements operating in a similar manner and used to solve similar problems.

Flg.l is a schematic presentation of the car door mover.

Fig.2 is a schematic diagram of connection of drives, sensors, lock actuator and sensing surface to the governing microcontroller.

Embodiments of the invention

In Fig. l such items are presented: lock actuator 1, resilient lever 2, governing microcontroller 3, second drive 4, car carcass 5, car door 6, tactile sensing surface 7, first drive 8, axis 9. In Fig.2 such items are presented: motor 4.1 of second drive 4, position sensor 4.2, force sensor 4.3, motor 8.2 of first drive 8, position sensor 8.2. force sensor 8.3.

Item 7.1 shows an option 7.1 of force sensor location on the tactile sensing surface. Item 8.3 presents a force sensor which may be omitted in case of force sensor 7.1 present on the tactile sensing surface.

The object of the present invention is solved in such fashion : in known Magic Touch car mover fwww.lafranceautoworks.com. WO2007/011938A2) comprising a tactile sensing surface (7), governing microcontroller (3) with its support equipment, and a lock actuator (1), in accordance with the present invention (Fig. l) tactile sensing surface (7) is movable relative to car door (6) on a resilient lever (2) or on a lever with a resilient insert, the lever is moved with the first drive (8) equipped with a force and position sensor, whereas car door (6) is moved around axis (9) relative to car carcass (5) with the second drive (4) equipped with a force and position sensor. The tactile sensing surface (7) may be a tactile screen or a tactile mat, the tactile contact characteristics being capable of using to control the car equipment and monitor access to it. The signals from all sensors and actuating signals of the first and second drives and the lock are connected (Fig.2) to the governing microcontroller (3). On a par with car door (6) opening, closing and movement control, governing microcontroller (3) may perform other known functions of car equipment control and access monitoring. The system operates in the following fashion. With car door (6) closed and the car parked, after touch of a part of human body to the tactile sensing surface (7) with a force at least equal to the preset comfort value for tactile contact, governing microcontroller (3) reacts to this touch and compares the preset and applied forces. If the applied force is larger than the preset force and then diminishes, governing microcontroller (3) sends car lock (6) opening signal to lock actuator (1). Then, if the applied force is smaller than the preset one, governing microcontroller (3) through the first drive (8) moves resilient lever (2) with the tactile sensing surface (7) in the direction of the human. If the applied force exceeds the preset value, the resilient lever (2) is moved by the first drive (2) in the direction of the car carcass; in case the door (6) due to this movement came to a position where the lock can close it, then the governing microcontroller (3) sends a signal to lock car door (6) to lock actuator (1), but when the applied force becomes less than preset value, the governing microcontroller (3) permits opening of car door (6). Provided the permit has been given, in order to open car door (6) again one must apply the force in excess of preset value and then diminish it. At the same time the governing microcontroller (3) moves car door (6) with the help of the second drive (4) so that resilient lever (2) is located within the interval of its possible movement relative to car door (6). The force of car door (6) movement is measured with force sensor of the second drive (4), and accordingly the governing microcontroller (3) presets the force exerted by human who performs the movement of car door (6).

The signal of second drive (4) position sensor is used by the governing microcontroller (3) to determine the boundaries of car door (6) movement. Thus, car door (6) or another item follows the movement of a part of human body and maintains the force of permanent tactile contact with a part of human body as close to preset value as possible, the latter reflecting actual force necessary for movement of car door (6) or another item. Tactile contact may be disconnected and movement finished by way of an abrupt rush in the direction of human or by drawing of the contacting part of human body away outside the borders of tactile sensing surface (7).

To maintain the tactile contact force as close to the preset value as possible a simple double-loop feedback algorithm is used which controls the movement of resilient lever (2) via the first drive (8) and the movement of car door (6) via the second drive (4), but one may apply more complicated and exact feedback algorithms than this one, such as proportional-integral-differential algorithm (see http://en.wikiDedia.org/wiki/PID controller).

The above-described principle of system operation does not preclude the opportunity of car door (6) closing with a push in car carcass direction and car door (6) opening by way of its gripping. The push and gripping of the door are determined by a comfort tactile contact boundary _/ the second drive (4) being suspended, by excess of the force measured by the sensor of second drive (4), i.e. when the contact becomes forced one.

If the force is directed to car carcass, then the governing microcontroller (3) determines a push, moves, car door (6) to closure position and sends closure signal to lock actuator (1). The force being directed to human, a grip is determined, then car door (6) is moved by the second drive (4) in the direction of human up to opening limit, provided the force as measured by force sensor of the second drive (4) exceeds comfort limit for tactile contact.

Technical result

The technical result of the present invention is development of a car door mover permitting a human to control the process of car door moving, to maintain a force feedback between the human and car door and to maintain a permanent tactile contact between sensing surface and a part of human body.