SAFETY AND DRIVING DYNAMICS WITH LEVEL SENSORS
Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) accelerometers and gyroscopes are used for adaptive headlights and other automotive applications, such as tilt measurement and headlight leveling. It has been found that high-density discharge (HID) headlights improve the safety of night driving by projecting light further down the road and increasing the time available for reaction to problems. HID systems project up to 3,500 lumens, while older halogen systems produce a maximum of 2,100 lumens. The MEMS-based systems are used for measuring tilt and pitch of HID lamps and improve their performance and safety. One of the design consideration of these MEMS-based systems requires that the readout device needs to offer extremely low noise performance and minimum offset drift.
Am a complete novice here, so any advice greatfully recieved. What I want to do is fit headlight auto leveling to a vehicle, sounds simple, well it's a 4x4 so random bits of potentiometers and mechanical links dangling below don't appeal. Thinking outside my comfort zone and doing some research I came across the Arduino and VW headlight level sensor. So the question is would it be practicle and / or possible to use an Arduino to read the output of a pair of these ultrasonic sensors to determin the vehicle pitch angle relative to the road surface and automatically adjust the headlight level acordingly? Obviously the Arduino would have to be satndalone once programmed. The reason for this project is that HID headlights legally require to be automatically self leveled. It does not require to adjust with any great speed, and as a minimum it must adjust at the start of a trip to take acount of the vehicle load, although dynamic leveling would be nice.
A system for automatic headlight leveling control in which are offset in the longitudinal direction for measuring the vehicle body pitch angle in the form of a level difference. An electronic control unit determines a desired value for the headlight adjustment as a function of the first derivative of the directly measured or further processed level difference. In one embodiment of the invention, electronic control unit determines a static level difference and a dynamic level difference, and the desired value is determined as a function of the first derivative or the second derivative of the dynamic level difference.
Wiggensbach, Nov. 25, 2021. Future level 5 autonomous vehicles will need a significantly greater number of sensors. Many of the sensors which will be required are still in development. On the other hand, many level 2 and 3 functions are already in vehicles today, such as in comfort and driver assistance features. As a result, level sensors have been installed on car chassis for many years to ensure safety and for driving dynamics. They supply the necessary information for headlight beam and chassis control systems. These level sensors are installed in vehicles with all types of propulsion systems, from passenger cars with classic combustion engines to hybrid and electric cars. With an annual production volume of several million units, Swoboda is one of the world’s leading suppliers of this type of sensor.
This article will first discuss how level sensors work, which information is measured and evaluated and what special characteristics the have.
Level sensor evaluation for comfort and safety functions
Modern vehicles have a number of new features which assist the driver in making driving safer and more pleasant. Some increase comfort and others improve safety. Two functions which fall into the category of adaptive driver assistance systems are chassis control and headlight beam adjustment. Both functions are controlled based on information from the chassis.
Dynamic chassis control improves both safety and vehicle comfort. The driver selects their preferred “driving feel”, such as sporty for a more energetic drive or comfort for longer journeys. The control unit dynamically adjusts the chassis. Level sensors installed on the chassis in the control arm provide the control unit with the information it needs for its control algorithms to make the adjustment.
