Patent Application
20200216109
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to operating a vehicle. More particularly, embodiments of the disclosure relate to detecting a hand on a steering wheel of a vehicle.
Powered components have been added to steering wheels of vehicles to control items, such as radio controls, telephone controls, and cruise control buttons. Given that a steering wheel of a vehicle rotates, it adds to the complexity of the vehicle to include a system for providing power to components that rotate with the steering wheel, such as telephone and entertainment system controls. Such systems typically include brushes and contacts, which potentially are subject to wear and failure. Assembling such systems adds to vehicle production costs.
Certain autonomous driving systems require the participation of the driver at certain intervals or in certain situations. If a detection system for that participation involves a powered sensor on the steering wheel rim, that would likely trigger the resulting complexity of the prior art systems that feed power to a rotating steering wheel to power components.
In one aspect, a steering wheel assembly for a vehicle includes a steering wheel, a first conductive coil coupled to the steering wheel, a second conductive coil that magnetically interacts with the first conductive coil, and a detection circuit coupled to the second conductive coil. The detection circuit includes a first circuit to generate a first signal based on a change in inductance and a second circuit to generate a second signal based on the first signal, the second signal to allow detection of a hand on the steering wheel.
In another aspect, a vehicle includes a dashboard and a steering wheel assembly coupled to the dashboard. The steering wheel assembly includes a steering wheel, a first conductive coil coupled to the steering wheel, a second conductive coil that magnetically interacts with the first conductive coil, and a detection circuit coupled to the second conductive coil. The detection circuit includes a first circuit to generate a first signal based on a change in inductance and a second circuit to generate a second signal based on the first signal, the second signal to allow detection of a hand on the steering wheel.
In yet another aspect, a method for detecting a hand on a steering wheel of a vehicle includes inducing a change in inductance in a second conductive coil magnetically coupled to a first conductive coil on the steering wheel, generating a first signal based on the induced change in inductance, and generating a second signal based on the first signal, the second signal to allow detection of a hand on the steering wheel.
Embodiments of the disclosure are illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like references indicate similar elements.
A steering wheel assembly of a vehicle includes a steering wheel having an embedded inductive coil. The embedded inductive coil magnetically interacts with a second coil of a resonant oscillator circuit via a magnetic field. When hands are placed on the steering wheel the resulting change in inductance is coupled to the resonant oscillator circuit and the frequency shift or the amplitude shift is detected yielding a circuit output corresponding to touch. Detection of the hands of the driver on the steering wheel of the vehicle using a powerless/passive scheme is disclosed which enables a system to monitor the driver's awareness in ADAS applications.
Advantageously, no active circuitry in the steering wheel is required. This allows the steering wheel to rotate without any electrical wire connections of any type. All the powered circuits which connect to the car system are placed in a fixed location (for example, the hub) close to the steering wheel. This approach will enable vehicles to detect the driver's hands on the steering wheel whenever the ADAS function is activated.
With reference to
With reference to
The advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) level 3 has a requirement for human intervention. System 324, by detecting one or more hands on steering wheel 208, can meet the requirement of ADAS level 3, when activated, of showing human intervention.
Continuing with
In accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure, the first and second circuits of
Continuing with
For one aspect, steering wheel 208 is completely passive with no power and there is no active circuitry in the steering wheel. This allows the steering wheel to rotate without any electrical wire connections of any type. All the powered circuits (for example, the detection circuit) which connect to the vehicle's computer system are placed in a fixed location (for example, the hub) proximate to the steering wheel. An advantage of the present disclosure is that it is not easy to hack into, as opposed to other possible systems of monitoring driver control of the steering wheel. Another advantage is reducing the complexity of the connection to steering wheel 208.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure, the first and second circuits of
With reference to
A computer-readable storage medium may also be used to store the some software functionalities described above persistently. While a computer-readable storage medium in an exemplary embodiment is a single medium, the term “computer-readable storage medium” should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that store the one or more sets of instructions. The terms “computer-readable storage medium” shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing or encoding a set of instructions for execution by the machine and that cause the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies of the present disclosure. The term “computer-readable storage medium” shall accordingly be taken to include, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, and optical and magnetic media, or any other non-transitory machine-readable medium.
Embodiments of the disclosure also relate to an apparatus for performing the operations herein. Such a computer program is stored in a non-transitory computer readable medium. A machine-readable medium includes any mechanism for storing information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, a machine-readable (e.g., computer-readable) medium includes a machine (e.g., a computer) readable storage medium (e.g., read only memory (“ROM”), random access memory (“RAM”), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash memory devices).
The processes or methods depicted in the preceding figures may be performed by processing logic that comprises hardware (e.g. circuitry, dedicated logic, etc.), software (e.g., embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium), or a combination of both. Although the processes or methods are described above in terms of some sequential operations, it should be appreciated that some of the operations described may be performed in a different order. Moreover, some operations may be performed in parallel rather than sequentially.
Embodiments of the present disclosure are not described with reference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachings of embodiments of the disclosure as described herein.
The above description of illustrated implementations of the invention, including what is described in the Abstract, is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. While specific implementations of, and examples for, the invention are described herein for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the invention, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize.
Various embodiments and aspects of the disclosures are described with reference to details discussed herein, and the accompanying drawings illustrate the various embodiments. The description and drawings are illustrative of the disclosure and are not to be construed as limiting the disclosure. Numerous specific details are described to provide a thorough understanding of various embodiments of the present disclosure. However, in certain instances, well-known or conventional details are not described in order to provide a concise discussion of embodiments of the present disclosures.
Reference in the specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in conjunction with the embodiment can be included in at least one embodiment of the disclosure. The appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “for one embodiment” in various places in the specification do not necessarily all refer to the same embodiment.
