Vehicle seat control apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9950644-B2
Application number	US-201615371081-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 6, 2016
Priority date	Feb 2, 2016
Publication date	Apr 24, 2018
Grant date	Apr 24, 2018

Abstract

A vehicle seat control apparatus is configured to be provided in a vehicle switchable between a manual driving state in which a driver performs a driving operation of the vehicle and an automatic driving state in which the driving operation is performed automatically. The apparatus includes a seat adjuster, a controller, and a storage. The seat adjuster adjusts a position of a seat of the vehicle. The controller drives the seat adjuster and makes a transition between the driving two states. The storage stores seat position information indicating the seat position in the the manual driving state. The controller drives the seat adjuster on a basis of the seat position information read out from the storage, and moves, by the seat adjuster, the seat rearward on a basis of the seat position in the manual driving state as a reference position, upon making a transition from the manual driving state to the automatic driving state.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A vehicle seat control apparatus that is configured to be provided in a vehicle, the vehicle being switchable between a manual driving state in which a driver performs a driving operation of the vehicle and an automatic driving state in which the driving operation is performed automatically, the vehicle seat control apparatus comprising:
a seat adjuster that adjusts a position of a seat provided in the vehicle;
a controller that drives the seat adjuster and makes a transition in driving state of the vehicle between the manual driving state and the automatic driving state; and
a storage that stores seat position information, the seat position information indicating the position of the seat which is at a time of the manual driving state,
wherein the controller drives the seat adjuster on a basis of the seat position information read out from the storage, and moves, by the seat adjuster, the seat rearward on a basis of the position of the seat at the time of the manual driving state as a reference position, upon making a transition in a driving state of the vehicle from the manual driving state to the automatic driving state,
wherein, during the transition in the driving state of the vehicle from the manual driving state to the automatic driving state, the seat adjuster moves the seat to increase a distance from a seat cushion of the seat to a floor of the vehicle, and
wherein the controller is configured to determine, on a basis of a detection of an obstacle at rearward of the seat, whether the seat is movable rearward or the seat is unmovable rearward, and to cause to move the seat rearward when it is determined that the seat is movable rearward.

2. The vehicle seat control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the seat adjuster further adjusts an attitude of the seat,
wherein the storage stores seat attitude information, the seat information indicating the attitude of the seat which is at the time of the manual driving state, and
wherein the controller drives the seat adjuster on a basis of the seat attitude information read out from the storage, and adjust, by the seat adjuster, the attitude of the seat on a basis of the attitude of the seat at the time of the manual driving state as a reference attitude, upon making a transition in driving state of the vehicle from the manual driving state to the automatic driving state.

3. The vehicle seat control apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the seat includes a seat back and the seat cushion,
wherein the controller causes the seat adjuster to incline the seat cushion from the reference attitude such that an inclination angle of the seat cushion to a horizontal direction increases and incline the seat back such that an inclination angle of the seat back to the horizontal direction decreases, upon making the transition from the manual driving state to the automatic driving state, and
wherein the controller causes the seat adjuster to incline the seat cushion to return to the reference attitude and incline the seat back to return to the reference attitude, upon making a transition from the automatic driving state to the manual driving state.

4. The vehicle seat control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the controller drives the seat adjuster and returns the position of the seat to the reference position upon making a transition in the driving state of the vehicle from the automatic driving state to the manual driving state.

5. The vehicle seat control apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the controller drives the seat adjuster and returns the position of the seat to the reference position upon making a transition in the driving state of the vehicle from the automatic driving state to the manual driving state.

6. The vehicle seat control apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the controller drives the seat adjuster and returns the position of the seat to the reference position upon making a transition in the driving state of the vehicle from the automatic driving state to the manual driving state.

7. The vehicle seat control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the storage stores, as the seat position information in the manual driving status, information that indicates the position of the seat and an attitude of the seat, upon the seat position information, the seat adjuster moves the seat rearward on the basis of the position of the seat at the time of the manual driving state as the reference position in the transition in the driving state of the vehicle from the manual driving state to the automatic driving state.

8. The vehicle seat control apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein the position of the seat and the attitude of the seat include a position in a front-rear direction of the seat, an angle of a seat back, a position in an up-down direction of the seat cushion, an inclination angle of the seat cushion, a position in an up-down direction of a headrest, and an angle of the headrest.

9. The vehicle seat control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein, during the transition in the driving state of the vehicle from the manual driving state to the automatic driving state, the seat adjuster moves the seat rearward to increase a distance from a center of the seat cushion of the seat to a steering wheel of the vehicle.

10. The vehicle seat control apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein, during the transition in the driving state of the vehicle from the manual driving state to the automatic driving state, the seat adjuster moves the seat to increase a distance from the seat cushion to a floor of the vehicle.

11. The vehicle seat control apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein, the controller is further configured to, on a priority basis, perform one of an operation of causing to move the seat forward and an operation of causing to raise the seat backward, when the controller returns the position of the seat to the reference position.

12. The vehicle seat control apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a link mechanism provided at a lower part of the seat cushion of the seat to lift the seat cushion in the automatic driving state.

13. The vehicle seat control apparatus according to claim 12 , wherein, upon the transition in the driving state of the vehicle from the manual driving state to the automatic driving state, the link mechanism lifts a rear part of the seat cushion with respect to a forward part of the seat cushion as a point of support.

Assignees

• Fuji Heavy Ind Ltd
• Subaru Corp

Inventors

• Tominaga Atsuhiro
• Maeda Gosuke

Classifications

• B60N2/0224 Primary

  Non-manual adjustments, e.g. with electrical operation · CPC title

• B60N2/0228 Primary

  Hand-activated mechanical switches (B60N2/0229 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B60N2002/0272

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B60N2/0233

  Touchscreens · CPC title

• B60N2/0252

  with relations between different adjustments, e.g. height of headrest following longitudinal position of seat · CPC title