Seat control apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11034269-B2
Application number	US-201916418471-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 21, 2019
Priority date	May 31, 2018
Publication date	Jun 15, 2021
Grant date	Jun 15, 2021

Abstract

A seat control apparatus controls a seat of a vehicle in which an occupant of the vehicle sits. The seat control apparatus includes an occupant weight recognition unit; an occupant sitting state recognition unit configured to recognize an occupant sitting state including at least either of a grip force of the occupant and a load applied to the occupant; a lateral acceleration estimation unit configured to estimate a subsequent lateral acceleration of the vehicle; and a seat controller configured to control the seat. The seat has an occupant support adjustment portion including at least one of a first adjustment portion, a second adjustment portion, and a third adjustment portion. The seat controller calculates an adjustment amount of the occupant support adjustment portion and controls the occupant support adjustment portion in response to the calculated adjustment amount.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A seat control apparatus that controls a seat of a vehicle in which an occupant of the vehicle sits, the apparatus comprising:
an occupant weight recognition unit configured to recognize a weight of the occupant sitting in the seat;
an occupant sitting state recognition unit configured to recognize an occupant sitting state including at least either of a grip force of the occupant detected by a grip sensor provided in a grip portion which the occupant sitting in the seat is capable of gripping, and a load applied to the occupant and detected by an armrest sensor provided in an armrest of the seat;
a lateral acceleration estimation unit configured to estimate a subsequent lateral acceleration of the vehicle based on a curvature of a road on which the vehicle travels and a vehicle speed of the vehicle; and
a seat controller configured to control the seat based on the occupant sitting state and the subsequent lateral acceleration,
wherein the seat has an occupant support adjustment portion including at least one of a first adjustment portion configured to adjust a protrusion amount of a shoulder supporting portion supporting a shoulder of the occupant sitting in the seat, a second adjustment portion configured to adjust a position of the armrest; and a third adjustment portion configured to adjust a tilt angle of the seat in a roll angle direction of the vehicle, and
wherein the seat controller calculates an adjustment amount of the occupant support adjustment portion based on the occupant sitting state and the subsequent lateral acceleration, and controls the occupant support adjustment portion in response to the calculated adjustment amount.

2. The seat control apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the vehicle is a vehicle capable of executing an autonomous driving control,
wherein the grip portion includes a steering wheel of the vehicle,
wherein the occupant sitting state recognition unit recognizes the occupant sitting state of whether the occupant grips the steering wheel based on a grip force applied to the steering wheel, and
wherein when the vehicle is not under autonomous driving control, or the occupant grips the steering wheel while the vehicle is under autonomous driving control, the seat controller does not control the occupant support adjustment portion.

3. The seat control apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the shoulder supporting portion and the armrest are respectively provided in the seat on both right and left sides of the occupant, and
wherein when the vehicle travels around a curve, the seat controller controls the first adjustment portion and the second adjustment portion which correspond to an outside of the curve.

4. The seat control apparatus according to claim 2 ,
wherein the shoulder supporting portion and the armrest are respectively provided in the seat on both right and left sides of the occupant, and
wherein when the vehicle travels around a curve, the seat controller controls the first adjustment portion and the second adjustment portion which correspond to an outside of the curve.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Saigo Shintaro
• Inoue Satoshi
• Endo Terumasa

Classifications

• B60N2210/48

  Piezoelectric · CPC title

• B60N2/0035

  characterised by the sensor data transmission, e.g. wired connections or wireless transmitters therefor; characterised by the sensor data processing, e.g. seat sensor signal amplification or electric circuits for providing seat sensor information · CPC title

• B60N2220/20

  using a deterministic algorithm · CPC title

• B60N2/0028

  of a body part, e.g. of an arm or a leg · CPC title

• B60N2/0025

  by using weight measurement · CPC title