Automotive seat based microclimate system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12515495-B2
Application number	US-202218277507-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 11, 2022
Priority date	Mar 16, 2021
Publication date	Jan 6, 2026
Grant date	Jan 6, 2026

Abstract

A microclimate system for a vehicle occupant includes multiple microclimate thermal effectors. Each of the microclimate communication with the microclimate thermal effectors and includes a plurality of first transfer functions. Each of the first transfer functions models a corresponding microclimate thermal effector in the plurality of microclimate thermal effectors. A system transfer function models the microclimate system. Each of the first transfer functions is nested within the system transfer function.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A microclimate system for a vehicle occupant comprising:
multiple microclimate thermal effectors, each of the microclimate thermal effectors having a corresponding thermal effector controller and being configured to at least partially control an occupant thermal comfort, each of the microclimate thermal effectors including at least one sensor configured to determine a microclimate parameter corresponding to at least one microclimate thermal effector of the multiple microclimate thermal effectors; and a microclimate system controller in communication with the microclimate thermal effectors, the microclimate system controller including a plurality of first transfer functions, each of the first transfer functions modeling a corresponding microclimate thermal effector in the plurality of microclimate thermal effectors, and a system transfer function modeling the microclimate system, wherein each of the first transfer functions is nested within the system transfer function such that the system transfer function models the microclimate system including at least a portion of the impact each thermal effector has on each other thermal effector, wherein the microclimate system controller is configured to control the microclimate thermal effectors using the system transfer function and the first transfer functions.

2 . The microclimate system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the microclimate thermal effectors corresponds to at least two of the first transfer functions.

3 . The microclimate system of claim 2 , wherein a first of the at least two transfer functions models a heating operation of the at least one of the microclimate thermal effector.

4 . The microclimate system of claim 3 , wherein a second of the at least two transfer functions models a cooling operation of the at least one of the microclimate thermal effector.

5 . The microclimate system of claim 1 , wherein the nesting of the first transfer functions within the system transfer functions includes utilizing outputs of the nested first transfer functions as inputs of the system transfer function.

6 . The microclimate system of claim 1 , wherein the microclimate system controller is configured to subtract an output of the system transfer function from an occupant setpoint thereby generating a thermal comfort error for each microclimate thermal effector and providing each thermal comfort error to the controller of the corresponding microclimate thermal effector.

7 . The microclimate system of claim 6 , wherein each of the first transfer functions provides an output to the corresponding thermal effector controller.

8 . The microclimate system of claim 7 , wherein at least one thermal effector controller is a dedicated thermal effector controller.

9 . The microclimate system of claim 8 , wherein at least one thermal effector controller is a dedicated subcomponent of the microclimate system controller.

10 . The microclimate system of claim 1 , wherein the microclimate thermal effectors are selected from the group comprising climate controlled seats, head rest/neck conditioner, climate controlled headliner, steering wheel, heated gear shifter, heater mat, and mini-compressor system.

11 . The microclimate system of claim 1 , wherein the multiple microclimate thermal effectors includes at least one convective thermal effector and at least one conductive thermal effector.

12 . The microclimate system of claim 1 , wherein the system transfer function includes a heating operations model and a cooling operations model.

13 . A method for controlling a microclimate system having multiple thermal effectors, the method comprising:
determining an occupant comfort level setpoint for the microclimate system; determining device setpoints for each of the thermal effectors based on the occupant comfort level setpoint; and controlling the thermal effectors to the corresponding device setpoints using a feedback control loop, the feedback control loop including a system transfer function and a plurality of device transfer functions where each of the plurality of device transfer functions is nested in the system transfer function, the device transfer functions each modeling individual thermal effectors and the system transfer function modeling an affect each individual thermal effector has on the effectiveness of each other thermal effector.

14 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising measuring a plurality of parameters using a plurality of sensors and providing the measured parameter to an input of at least one device transfer function of the plurality of device transfer functions.

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the feedback control loop includes comparing an output of the system transfer function to the determined device setpoints to determine at least one error value corresponding to each thermal effector and providing the error value to a corresponding thermal effector controller.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the feedback control loop further includes providing the at least one output of each device transfer function to the corresponding thermal effector controller, the at least one output providing a calculated current thermal state including at least one of an occupant temperature and a heat flux.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the calculated current thermal state defines at least an occupant temperature and a heat flux.

18 . The method of claim 14 , wherein each transfer function of the plurality of transfer functions receives at least one parameter of the plurality of measured parameters and provides at least one output to an input of the system transfer function.

19 . The method of claim 15 , wherein at least two of the plurality of device transfer functions correspond to a single thermal effector, with a first of the at least two device transfer functions modeling heating operations of the thermal effector and a second of the at least two transfer functions modeling cooling operations of the thermal effector.

20 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the multiple thermal effectors includes at least one convective thermal effector and at least one conductive thermal effector.

Assignees

• Gentherm Inc

Inventors

• Chewter Alan
• Mandali Satya
• Ahmad Mobashar
• Tiwari Ankit
• Myers Tyler
• Westerman Chad

Classifications

• B60H1/0073 Primary

  Control systems or circuits characterised by particular algorithms or computational models, e.g. fuzzy logic or dynamic models · CPC title

• B60H2001/2265

  related to the quantity of heat produced by the heater · CPC title

• B60H1/2218

  controlling the operation of electric heaters · CPC title

• B60H1/00878 Primary

  the components being temperature regulating devices · CPC title