JPH05155281A - Seat vibration device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent effectively a driver from dosing at the wheel by providing a flow switch-over means for switching over the amount of flow passing through upper and lower clearances in a cylinder of a shock absorber, operating an instruction means to switch over the amount of flow for changing the lowering speed of a rod, giving vibration forcibly to a vehicle body fixed to the rod. CONSTITUTION:A rotary valve 8 for switching over the amount of flow passing through upper and lower clearances divided by a piston 4 in a cylinder chamber 9 of a shack absorber 1 is provided to give instruction for switch-over operation to the rotary valve 8 with a mode selector switch. When upper and lower connecting holes 8a are aligned with upper and lower orifices 7, respectively, by the turning of the rotary 8, an orifice 7 is connected to an oil path 6 and, when a side wall is aligned with the orifice 7, the connection with the oil path 6 is shut off. Thus a damping force of the shock absorber 1 is varied to give vibration intentionally to a vehicle body, preventing a driver from dozing at the wheel.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a seat vibrating device for use in a driver's seat of an automobile for the purpose of preventing sleepy driving.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various devices have been proposed in order to prevent a driver of an automobile or the like from driving around. Usually, these devices are provided with a sensing means for sensing that the driver is about to make a sleep, and a wake-up means for waking up the driver by receiving a snooze sensing signal from the sensing means. For example, as the sensing means, when the driver is engaged in sleep, he or she leans forward and tilts his head forward. Therefore, the number of times the head is tilted per unit time, the time when the head is tilted, etc. There is one that senses and sends this as a sleepiness detection signal to the wake-up means, and the wake-up means operates when the above sleepiness detection signal is sent,
There is something that wakes up by making a loud noise near the driver's ears. Therefore, according to this device, when the driver makes a sleep, it senses that the driver is making a sleep due to the inclination of the head, and thereby activates the wake-up means to wake up the driver. be able to.

[0003]

However, since the above-mentioned device wakes up after the driver makes a sleep, when the driver makes a sleep to the extent that the sensing means cannot detect it, Accidents may occur due to loss of concentration due to drowsiness.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a seat vibrating device which can effectively prevent sleepy driving.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a seat vibrating device of the present invention comprises a rod which is attached to a vehicle body of an automobile and extends in the vertical direction, and a lower end portion of the rod is movable in the vertical direction. A cylinder chamber that is arranged, a piston that is fixed to the lower end of the rod and that slides up and down while slidingly contacting the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder chamber when this rod moves, and a piston that is partitioned by the piston of the cylinder chamber. A configuration is provided in which a shock absorber having a communication path that communicates the space is provided, and a flow rate switching unit that switches the amount of fluid flowing between the upper and lower spaces and an instruction unit that instructs the flow rate switching unit to perform a switching operation are provided. To take.

[0006]

That is, the present inventor has conducted a series of studies on a device that effectively prevents the driver from driving to sleep, and as a result, the driver started to sleep and sensed this by the sensing means. Recalling that waking the driver's eyes cannot completely eliminate the accidents caused by sleepless driving, further research was conducted, and by vibrating the car body appropriately, the driver could not go to sleep at all. Therefore, the present invention has been achieved by finding that the sleepless driving can be completely eliminated and the accident caused by the sleepless driving can be completely eliminated.

Next, the present invention will be described in detail based on embodiments.

[0008]

1 to 4 are sectional views showing the essential parts of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an automobile. In these figures, 1 is a shock absorber (buffer)
And a casing 2 attached to the casing 22 of the axle of the automobile 20, and a rod 3 attached to the vehicle body 21. A cylinder chamber (oil chamber) 9 is formed in the casing 2, and the lower end portion 3a of the rod 3 is disposed in the cylinder chamber 9 so as to be vertically movable. A piston 4 is fixed to the lower end portion 3a, and as the lower end portion 3a moves in the cylinder chamber 9, the piston 4 slides its outer peripheral surface against the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder chamber 9 to form a cylinder. The chamber 9 is slid up and down, whereby the cylinder chamber 9 is divided into two spaces, an upper space and a lower space. The piston 4 has through holes 4a and 4b of different diameters formed in the vertical direction, and valve means 10 and 11 provided above and below the through holes 4a and 4b, respectively.
As a result, the oil mainly flows through the small-diameter through hole 4a when the rod 3 rises, and flows through the large-diameter through hole 4b when the rod 3 descends.

At the lower end portion 3a of the rod 3, an oil passage 6 extending upward from the lower end surface is formed in the center of the inside thereof, and an elongated hole 3d is formed upward from the upper end surface of the oil passage 6. The slot 3d is formed in the upper end surface of the rod 3. A large diameter portion 3b is formed on the upper end of the lower end portion 3a, and a small diameter portion 3c is formed on the lower side thereof. The large diameter portion 3b passes through the center of the rod 3 and extends horizontally in the horizontal direction. Are formed parallel to each other in two steps. Both orifices 7 communicate with the oil passage 6 at the center of the rod 3. Further, the first valve means 10 and the piston 4 are externally fitted to the small diameter portion 3c, and these are mounted on a screw formed on the outer peripheral surface of the tip of the small diameter portion 3c.
It is fixed by engaging a screw formed on the inner peripheral surface of the cylindrical piston retainer 5. The first valve means 1
The zero valve body 10a is biased downward by the conical spring 10b. The piston retainer 5 is provided with the second valve means 11 on the side wall thereof and the third valve means 12 on the opening of the bottom wall thereof. The valve body 11a of the second valve means 11 is biased upward by the spring 11b, and the valve body 12a of the third valve means 12 is biased downward by the conical spring 12b.

A rotary valve 8 is provided above the oil passage 6.
(Flow rate switching means) is rotatably arranged. In this rotary valve 8, a pair of left and right communication holes 8a are formed in upper and lower two stages. By rotating the rotary valve 8 by a predetermined angle, the upper and lower communication holes 8a and the orifice 7 opened in the rod 3 are formed. It has come to match. Then, when the rotary valve 8 is rotated and the upper and lower communication holes 8a match the upper and lower orifices 7,
When the orifice 7 communicates with the oil passage 6 (see FIG. 1) and the rotary valve 8 is further rotated from this state so that the side wall (non-hole portion) of the orifice matches the orifice 7, the orifice 7 and the oil passage 6 are connected to each other. Communication is blocked (see FIG. 3).

A control rod 13 extends upward from the upper end surface of the rotary valve 8 as shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3, the oil is projected above the rod 3 through an elongated hole 3d extending upward from the oil passage 6 in the rod 3.
A sector gear 14 is fixed to the upper end of the control rod 13, and the sector gear 14 meshes with a pinion 17 fixed to an output shaft 16 of a motor 15. Reference numeral 18 denotes a mounting plate provided on the motor 15 and bolted to the vehicle body 21.

On the vehicle body 21, as shown in FIG. 5, a mode select switch (instruction) for turning on / off the current supply to the motor 15 on the control panel 27 and for switching the rotary valve 8 between the normal mode and the sport mode. Means) 24 and a mode indicator lamp 25.

In the above structure, the control panel 2
When the mode select switch 24 of No. 7 is operated to set to the normal mode, the motor 15 operates and the rotary valve 8 rotates through a predetermined angle via its output shaft 16, pinion 17, sector gear 14 and control rod 13. As shown in FIG. 1, the communication hole 8 a formed in the rotary valve 8 matches the orifice 7. As a result, the oil can pass through the orifice 7 and the oil passage 6, and thus the large diameter through hole 4 of the piston 4 is provided.
b, the oil under the piston 4 in the cylinder chamber 9 flows into the upper side of the piston 4 through the orifice 7, and the oil passage 6,
Rod 3 descends quickly. When descending a predetermined distance, the vehicle body 2
1 is received by the suspension spring 23, and after descending a little as it is, it is pushed up by the spring force of the suspension spring 23. In this case, as shown in FIG. 2, the oil mainly passes through the small-diameter through-hole 4a of the piston 4, the orifice 7, and the oil passage 6, and the oil in the lower space of the piston 4 in the cylinder chamber 9 moves above the piston 4. It flows into space. As described above, when the mode select switch 24 is set to the normal mode, the circulation of the oil is improved, so that the contribution of the suspension spring 23 is increased and the damping is reduced.

Next, when the mode select switch 24 is operated to set the sport mode, the side wall of the rotary valve 8 comes to coincide with the orifice 7, as shown in FIG. As a result, the side wall of the rotary valve 8 blocks the space between the orifice 7 and the oil passage 6, so that the oil does not pass through the orifice 7 and the oil passage 6, and the cylinder mainly passes only through the large-diameter through hole 4b of the piston 4. Oil in the space below the piston 4 in the chamber 9 flows into the space above the piston 4, and the rod 3 slowly descends. Further, when the rod 3 is pushed up by the spring force of the suspension spring 23 and rises, the oil mainly passes only through the small-diameter through hole 4a of the piston 4, as shown in FIG. As described above, when the mode select switch 24 is set to the sports mode, the circulation of oil is reduced, and as a result, the contribution of the suspension spring 23 is reduced and the damping is increased. In this way, by changing the damping force of the shock absorber 1, it is possible to intentionally give vibration to the vehicle body 21. Therefore, if the driver feels a little drowsiness, he / she operates the mode select switch 24 to operate the vehicle body 2
1 can be vibrated, whereby the seat 26 can be vibrated, the driver does not make a sleep, and an accident due to a sleep drive can be completely eliminated.

In the above embodiment, the maximum seat load is 100 kg.
The vertical vibration with a frequency of 20 Hz and an amplitude of 15 mm can be applied to the seat 1.

In the above embodiment, the amount of oil flowing through the orifice 7 and the oil passage 6 formed at the lower end portion 3a of the rod 3 is switched by the rotary valve 8 to generate the vibration. Then, a U-shaped communication pipe with a flow rate switching valve is provided outside the casing 2, the upper opening of this communication pipe communicates with the upper space of the piston 4 in the cylinder chamber 9, and the lower opening has a lower opening below the piston 4. Vibration may be generated by communicating with the space and switching the amount of oil flowing through the communication pipe with the flow rate switching valve.
In this case, the switching operation of the flow rate switching valve can be performed by operating an instruction switch provided on a control panel or the like.

[0017]

As described above, according to the seat vibration device of the present invention, it is possible to intentionally give vibration to the vehicle body of the automobile by changing the damping force of the shock absorber. That is, a shock absorber attached to the body of an automobile is provided with a flow rate switching means for switching the amount of fluid flowing between the upper and lower spaces of the cylinder chamber and an instruction means for instructing the switching operation to the flow rate switching means. By operating the means to switch the fluid amount, it is possible to change the descending speed of the rod that moves up and down in the cylinder chamber and forcibly give vibration to the vehicle body fixed to this rod. Therefore, if the driver feels a little drowsiness, he or she will not vibrate by operating the instructing means to vibrate the vehicle body, and it is possible to completely eliminate an accident caused by a vicious driving.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a main part of a shock absorber used in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the shock absorber set in a normal mode.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the shock absorber set in a sport mode.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the shock absorber set in a sport mode.

FIG. 5 is a schematic explanatory view of an automobile.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram showing a connecting means between a motor and a shock absorber.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Shock absorber 3 Rod 3a Lower end 4 Pistons 4a, 4b Through hole 8 Rotary valve 9 Cylinder chamber

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A rod attached to a vehicle body of an automobile and extending in the vertical direction, a cylinder chamber in which a lower end portion of the rod is arranged to be movable in the vertical direction, and a rod fixed to the lower end portion of the rod. A shock absorber having a piston that slides vertically while slidingly contacting the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder chamber and a communication passage that communicates the upper and lower spaces partitioned by the piston of the cylinder chamber is provided. A seat vibrating device comprising: a flow rate switching means for switching a circulating fluid amount; and an instruction means for instructing the flow rate switching means to perform a switching operation.