JP7741360B2 - seat system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a seat system equipped with a control unit that changes the state of the seat.

Conventionally, there is known a seat system that performs a reclining process to tilt the seat back backward, either automatically or upon request from the occupant, after switching from non-autonomous driving to autonomous driving (see Patent Document 1).

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2020-138721

However, with conventional technology, if an obstacle is present on the rotation path of the seatback that is the target of the operation when the reclining process is performed, the rotation of the seatback may be restricted by the obstacle, which could place an unnecessary load on the motor that rotates the seatback.

The present invention aims to prevent the movement of the seat caused by the reclining process from being restricted by an obstacle.

In order to solve the above problem, the seat system of the present invention is a seat to be installed in a vehicle that can switch between autonomous driving and non-autonomous driving, and is equipped with a seat cushion and a seat back that can rotate relative to the seat cushion, and is switchable between a normal state in which an occupant can be seated and a relaxed state in which the seat back is tilted further back than the normal state, an obstacle detection sensor that detects obstacles within the trajectory of the seat from the normal state to the relaxed state, and a control unit that is capable of performing a reclining process to change the state of the seat from the normal state to the relaxed state and that determines whether or not to perform the reclining process.
When the control unit decides to execute the reclining process by switching from non-automated driving to automatic driving or at the request of the occupant, it determines whether or not there is an obstacle within the trajectory based on information from the obstacle detection sensor before starting the reclining process, and if it determines that there is no obstacle, it starts the reclining process, and if it determines that there is an obstacle, it does not start the reclining process.

With this configuration, before starting the reclining process, a determination is made as to whether or not there is an obstacle in the trajectory based on information from the obstacle detection sensor. If it is determined that there is an obstacle, the reclining process is not started. This prevents the movement of the seat that is activated by the execution of the reclining process from being restricted by the obstacle.

The seat system may further include a rear seat disposed behind the seat, and the obstacle detection sensor may detect the presence or absence of an object on the seat surface of the rear seat.

With this configuration, the obstacle detection sensor can also be used as a seat belt reminder sensor, which detects whether or not an occupant is sitting in the rear seat, thereby reducing costs.

Furthermore, in the relaxed state, the seat may be positioned further back than in the normal state.

This configuration allows for a larger space in front of the seat than in the normal state, allowing the occupant to feel more relaxed.

Furthermore, if the control unit determines that an obstacle is present and decides not to start the reclining process, it may notify the occupant of non-execution information indicating that the reclining process will not be executed.

This configuration lets the occupant know that the reclining process will not be performed.

The control unit may also notify the non-execution information via a portable device that can be carried by the occupant.

With this configuration, non-execution information is notified via a mobile device carried by the occupant, so there is no need to take control measures such as pausing the music being played through the vehicle's internal speakers, as opposed to when non-execution information is notified via the vehicle's internal speakers, for example.

Furthermore, when the control unit determines that there is no obstacle and decides to start the reclining process, it may notify the occupant of execution information indicating that the reclining process will be executed.

This configuration allows the occupant to know that the reclining process is being performed.

The control unit may also notify the occupant of the execution information via a portable device that can be carried by the occupant.

With this configuration, the execution information is notified via a mobile device carried by the occupant, so there is no need to take control measures such as pausing the music being played through the vehicle's internal speakers, as opposed to when the execution information is notified via the vehicle's internal speakers, for example.

This invention makes it possible to prevent the movement of the seat caused by the reclining process from being restricted by an obstacle.

Furthermore, by using the obstacle detection sensor as a sensor that detects the presence or absence of objects on the seat surface of the rear seat located behind the seat, it can be used in combination with a seat belt reminder sensor that detects whether an occupant is sitting in the rear seat, for example, thereby reducing costs.

In addition, by positioning the seat further back in the relaxed state than in the normal state, the space in front of the seat can be made larger than in the normal state, allowing the occupant to feel even more relaxed.

In addition, by configuring the system to notify the occupant of non-execution information indicating that the reclining process will not be performed, the occupant can be made aware that the reclining process will not be performed.

Furthermore, by configuring the non-execution information to be notified via a portable device that can be carried by the occupant, there is no need to take control measures such as temporarily stopping the music being played through the vehicle's internal speakers, as opposed to when the non-execution information is notified via the vehicle's internal speakers, for example.

In addition, by configuring the system to notify the occupant of execution information indicating that the reclining process will be performed, the occupant can be made aware that the reclining process will be performed.

Furthermore, by configuring the execution information to be notified via a portable device that can be carried by the occupant, there is no need to take control measures such as pausing the music being played through the vehicle's internal speakers, as opposed to when the execution information is notified via the vehicle's internal speakers, for example.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a seat system according to an embodiment. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a state in which the seat is switched from a normal state to a relaxed state. 10 is a flowchart showing the operation of a control unit. 10A and 10B are diagrams showing a specific example of the operation of the control unit.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
As shown in FIG. 1, the seat system 1 includes a seat 10, a rear seat RS, an obstacle detection sensor 20, and a control unit 30.

Seat 10 and rear seat RS are installed in vehicle 50, which can switch between autonomous driving and non-autonomous driving. Vehicle 50 has a two-row seat configuration, with seat 10 being a seat in the first row, such as the driver's seat or passenger seat. Rear seat RS is a seat in the second row, and is located behind seat 10.

The seat 10 and rear seat RS each include a seat cushion 11, a seat back 12, and a headrest 13. The seat cushion 11, seat back 12, and headrest 13 each include a frame that forms the framework, a pad that covers the frame, and a cover that covers the pad.

The seat back 12 is rotatably supported by the seat cushion 11. The seat 10 is movable in the fore-and-aft direction by slide rails (not shown). The seat 10 is equipped with a first drive source, such as a motor (not shown), that rotates the seat back 12. The seat 10 or the vehicle 50 is equipped with a second drive source, such as a motor (not shown), that moves the seat 10 in the fore-and-aft direction. The first drive source and second drive source are controlled by the control unit 30.

The seat 10 can be switched between a normal state shown in Figure 1 and a relaxed state shown in Figure 2. The normal state is a state in which an occupant can be seated, i.e., a state in which the seat back 12 is upright relative to the seat cushion 11, and the seat 10 is positioned in a position other than the rearmost position. The relaxed state is a state in which the seat back 12 is tilted further back than in the normal state, and the seat 10 is positioned further back than in the normal state, specifically in the rearmost position. In the relaxed state, the seat back 12 of the seat 10 is positioned on top of the seat cushion 11 of the rear seat RS.

The obstacle detection sensor 20 is a sensor that detects obstacles in the trajectory of the seat 10 when it switches from the normal state to the relaxed state. In this embodiment, the obstacle detection sensor 20 is located between the surface and pad of the seat cushion 11 of the rear seat RS, and detects the presence or absence of an object on the seat surface of the seat cushion 11.

The obstacle detection sensor 20 is, for example, a pressure sensor. In this embodiment, the obstacle detection sensor 20 is also used as a seat belt reminder sensor to detect whether an occupant is seated in the seat.

The control unit 30 has a CPU, ROM, RAM, rewritable non-volatile memory, etc. (not shown), and executes processing based on pre-stored programs. The control unit 30 is capable of communicating with a smartphone SP, an example of a portable terminal that can be carried by an occupant.

The control unit 30 may be provided in the vehicle 50 or in the seat 10. It is assumed that the settings enabling communication between the control unit 30 and the smartphone SP have been configured in advance by the occupant for the control unit 30 and the smartphone SP.

The control unit 30 is capable of executing a reclining process that changes the state of the seat 10 from a normal state to a relaxed state. Specifically, the control unit 30 has the function of determining whether or not to execute the reclining process. In more detail, the control unit 30 determines to execute the reclining process by switching from non-autonomous driving to autonomous driving, or by a request from the occupant.

In this embodiment, the control unit 30 decides to execute the reclining process when a first condition is met: that is, information indicating a switch from non-autonomous driving to autonomous driving has been received from an ECU (Electronic Control Unit) (not shown) of the vehicle 50; and a second condition is met: that a request has been made by an occupant. The occupant's request may be output to the control unit 30 by the occupant operating an operation unit provided in the vehicle, or may be output to the control unit 30 by the occupant operating a smartphone SP. The smartphone SP may be operated by the occupant's voice.

When the control unit 30 determines to perform the reclining process, it has the function of determining whether or not there is an obstacle in the trajectory of the seat 10 based on information from the obstacle detection sensor 20 before starting the reclining process. If the control unit 30 determines that there is no obstacle, it starts the reclining process, and if it determines that there is an obstacle, it does not start the reclining process.

When the control unit 30 determines that an obstacle is present and decides not to start the reclining process, it has the function of notifying the occupant via the smartphone SP of non-execution information indicating that the reclining process will not be executed. The non-execution information may be, for example, audio information such as "The seat could not be changed to relaxation mode" emitted from the speaker of the smartphone SP, audio information such as a warning sound, or visual information such as a message displayed on the screen of the smartphone SP or a warning display such as turning the screen red.

When the control unit 30 determines that there is no obstacle and decides to start the reclining process, it has the function of notifying the occupant via the smartphone SP of execution information indicating that the reclining process will be executed. The execution information may be, for example, audio information such as "The seat has been changed to relaxation mode" emitted from the speaker of the smartphone SP, sound information such as a warning sound, or image information such as a message displayed on the screen of the smartphone SP or a success indication such as turning the screen blue.

To return from the relaxed state to the normal state, the control unit 30 may operate the seat 10 in response to a request from the occupant. The request from the occupant may be output to the control unit 30 by the occupant operating an operation unit provided in the vehicle, or may be output to the control unit 30 by the occupant operating a smartphone SP. The occupant may also manually return from the relaxed state to the normal state by operating a lever that operates the reclining mechanism or a lever that unlocks the sliding movement.

Next, the operation of the control unit 30 will be described in detail.
3, the control unit 30 determines whether the vehicle is in automatic driving mode based on information from an ECU (not shown) (S1). If it is determined in step S1 that the vehicle is not in automatic driving mode (No), the control unit 30 ends this process.

If it is determined in step S1 that the vehicle is in autonomous driving mode (Yes), the control unit 30 determines whether there is a request (information) from the occupant to switch the state of the seat 10 to a relaxed state (S2). If it is determined in step S2 that there is no request (No), the control unit 30 ends this process. If it is determined in step S2 that there is a request (Yes), the control unit 30 determines whether the state of the seat 10 is a relaxed state (S3).

If it is determined in step S3 that the seat is in a relaxed state (Yes), the control unit 30 decides not to perform the reclining process and ends this process. If it is determined in step S3 that the seat is not in a relaxed state (No), the control unit 30 decides to perform the reclining process (S4).

After step S4, the control unit 30 determines whether or not there is an obstacle in the movement trajectory of the seat 10 based on information from the obstacle detection sensor 20 (S5). If it is determined in step S5 that there is no obstacle (Yes), the control unit 30 sends execution information to the smartphone SP (S6). After step S6, the control unit 30 executes the reclining process (S7) and ends this process. If it is determined in step S5 that there is an obstacle (No), the control unit 30 sends non-execution information to the smartphone SP (S8) and ends this process without executing the reclining process.

Next, a specific example of the operation of the control unit 30 will be described.
As shown in FIG. 1, when the control unit 30 determines to execute the reclining process, it determines whether or not there is an obstacle on the rotation trajectory of the seat back 12 based on information from the obstacle detection sensor 20 before starting the reclining process.

When there is no obstacle on the movement trajectory of the seat 10 as shown in FIG. 1, the control unit 30 executes the reclining process to switch the seat 10 to a relaxed state as shown in FIG. 4(a). Specifically, the control unit 30 tilts the seat back 12 backward and then moves the seat 10 rearward. At this time, the control unit 30 also transmits execution information to the occupant's smartphone SP, and the smartphone SP notifies the occupant of the execution information by voice, image, vibration, etc.

Here, the execution information sent from the control unit 30 to the smartphone SP may be, for example, information such as a flag indicating that the reclining process will be executed. In this case, when the smartphone SP receives the information sent from the control unit 30, it notifies the occupant of the execution information, such as audio information such as "The seat has been changed to relaxation mode."

As shown in Figure 4(b), if there is an obstacle such as a person on the movement trajectory of the seat 10, more specifically, on the seat surface of the seat cushion 11 of the rear seat RS, the control unit 30 will not execute the reclining process even though it has decided to do so. In this case, the control unit 30 will also send non-execution information to the occupant's smartphone SP, and the smartphone SP will notify the occupant of the non-execution information by sound, image, vibration, etc.

Here, the non-execution information sent from the control unit 30 to the smartphone SP may be, for example, information such as a flag indicating that the reclining process will not be executed. In this case, when the smartphone SP receives the information sent from the control unit 30, it notifies the occupant of the non-execution information, such as audio information such as "The seat could not be changed to relaxation mode."

As described above, the following effects can be obtained in this embodiment.
Before starting the reclining process, it is determined whether or not there is an obstacle in the movement trajectory of the seat 10 based on information from the obstacle detection sensor 20, and if it is determined that there is an obstacle, the reclining process is not started, so that the movement of the seat 10 that is operated by executing the reclining process is prevented from being restricted by the obstacle, and therefore, it is possible to prevent a load from being placed on a drive source such as a motor for operating the seat 10.

The obstacle detection sensor 20 also serves as the seat belt reminder sensor, reducing costs.

By positioning the seat 10 further back in the relaxed state than in the normal state, the space in front of the seat 10 can be made larger than in the normal state, allowing the occupant to feel more relaxed.

If there is an obstacle on the movement path of the seat 10, non-execution information is notified to the occupant, so the occupant knows that the reclining process will not be executed.

If there are no obstacles on the movement path of the seat 10, the execution information is notified to the occupant, so the occupant can know that the reclining process will be performed.

Since non-execution information or execution information is notified via the smartphone SP carried by the occupant, there is no need to perform control such as pausing the music being played through the internal speaker of the vehicle 50, as opposed to when non-execution information or execution information is notified via the internal speaker of the vehicle 50, for example.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be used in various forms as exemplified below.
In the above embodiment, the relaxed state is defined as a state in which the seat back is tilted backward and the seat is positioned at the rearmost position, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the relaxed state may be a state in which the seat back is tilted further backward than in the normal state and is positioned in the same front-to-rear direction as in the normal state.

Furthermore, the seats that are the subject of this invention are not limited to front seats, but may also be rear seats. If the vehicle has three rows of seats, the seats that are the subject of this invention may also be third-row seats. If seats in front of the luggage compartment at the rear of the vehicle, such as third-row seats, are to be subject to the reclining process, an obstacle detection sensor may be used to detect objects in the luggage compartment.

The obstacle detection sensor may be a camera, radio wave sensor, capacitance sensor, etc. When a camera or radio wave sensor is used, it is possible to detect obstacles within the range of the seat's sliding movement. The obstacle detection sensor may also be configured by combining multiple sensors such as cameras. This allows for more accurate obstacle detection.

Notification of non-execution information and execution information may be made via the vehicle's internal speaker or room lamp.

If the seat gets caught on an obstacle while moving due to the reclining process, the control unit may stop the seat movement and return it to its original state.

The mobile terminal may be a terminal other than a smartphone SP, such as a tablet terminal.

If an abnormality occurs in the drive source that operates the seat, the control unit, or the obstacle detection sensor, the control unit may prohibit the reclining process from being performed.

In the above embodiment, the controller determines to execute the reclining process when the first and second conditions are met, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, when the controller receives information from the vehicle's ECU indicating that the vehicle has switched from non-autonomous driving to autonomous driving, the controller can determine to execute the reclining process even without a request from the occupant. Furthermore, the controller can determine to execute the reclining process when requested by the occupant, regardless of whether the vehicle is in autonomous or non-autonomous driving, including when the vehicle is stopped.

The vehicle's ECU may be configured to determine whether or not there is a median strip on the road during autonomous driving, and if it determines that there is a median strip, output a request to the control unit to switch the seat state to a relaxed state. The control unit may be the vehicle's ECU. In this case, the control unit may decide to perform the reclining process when the conditions of switching from non-autonomous driving to autonomous driving and the presence of a median strip are met.

The seat may be switchable between a first state and a second state. The obstacle detection sensor may detect an obstacle in the trajectory of the seat when it switches from the first state to the second state. The control unit may be capable of executing a position change process to change the state of the seat from the first state to the second state. When the control unit determines to execute the position change process, it may be configured to determine whether or not there is an obstacle in the trajectory of the seat based on information from the obstacle detection sensor before starting the position change process, and to start the position change process if it determines that there is no obstacle, and not to start the position change process if it determines that there is an obstacle.

The elements described in the above embodiments and variations may be implemented in any combination.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 seat system 10 seat 11 seat cushion 12 seat back 20 obstacle detection sensor 30 control unit 50 vehicle

Claims (6)

A seat mounted on a vehicle capable of switching between autonomous driving and non-autonomous driving, the seat comprising a seat cushion and a seat back that is rotatable relative to the seat cushion, and that is switchable between a normal state in which an occupant can be seated and a relaxed state in which the seat back is tilted further back than the normal state;
a rear seat mounted in front of a luggage compartment at the rear of the vehicle and disposed behind the seat, the rear seat including a seat cushion and a seat back that is rotatable relative to the seat cushion, and that is switchable between a normal state in which an occupant can be seated and a relaxed state in which the seat back is tilted further rearward than the normal state;
a first obstacle detection sensor that detects a person seated in the rear seat within a path of the seat from the normal state to the relaxed state;
a second obstacle detection sensor that detects an obstacle in the luggage compartment that is within a path of the rear seat from the normal state to the relaxed state;
A seat system comprising: a control unit that is capable of executing a reclining process to change the state of the seat and the rear seat from the normal state to the relaxed state, and that determines whether or not to execute the reclining process;
The control unit
When it is determined to execute the reclining process of the seat by switching from the non-automated driving to the automatic driving or at the request of an occupant, before starting the reclining process, it is determined whether or not a person is sitting in the rear seat based on information from the first obstacle detection sensor;
When it is determined that no one is sitting in the rear seat, the reclining process is started;
If it is determined that a person is sitting in the rear seat, the reclining process is not started,
when it is determined to execute the reclining process of the rear seat by switching from the non-automated driving to the automatic driving or at the request of an occupant, before starting the reclining process, it is determined whether or not there is an obstacle in the luggage compartment based on information from the second obstacle detection sensor;
When it is determined that there is no obstacle in the luggage compartment, the reclining process is started,
A seat system, characterized in that, when it is determined that an obstacle is present in the luggage compartment, the reclining process is not started. The seat system according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit stops the movement of the seat and returns the seat to its original state if the seat gets caught on an obstacle while moving due to the execution of the reclining process. 3. The seat system according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit prohibits execution of a reclining process when an abnormality occurs in an obstacle detection sensor. 4. The seat system according to claim 1, wherein when the control unit determines not to start the reclining process based on information from an obstacle detection sensor, the control unit notifies the occupant of non-execution information indicating that the reclining process will not be executed by an internal speaker or a room lamp of the vehicle. 5. The seat system according to claim 1, wherein the first obstacle detection sensor is a sensor that detects the presence or absence of an object on the seat surface of the rear seat and also serves as a sensor for a seat belt reminder. The seat and the rear seat each have a frame that forms a framework, a pad that covers the frame, and a skin that covers the pad,
6. The seat system according to claim 1, wherein the seat is movable in the front-rear direction by a slide rail.