Vehicle door positioning system
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsStuart C. Salter, Paul Kenneth Dellock, Kristopher Karl Brown, Fedor Balayev, Cornel Lewis Gardner
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vehicle includes a body and a door coupled to the body. The door is operable between opened and closed positions. A cinch assembly is operably coupled to the door. A door seal is positioned along at least a portion of a door opening, wherein the door seal includes a first conductor and a second conductor positioned therein. The first and second conductors are dielectrically isolated and cooperate to generate a capacitive signal. A controller is configured to monitor the capacitive signal and control the cinch assembly in response to the capacitive signal.
Claims19
A vehicle, comprising:
- a body;
- a side door coupled to the body and operable between cinched positions, wherein the cinched positions include a flush position and subflush positions relative to the body, respectively;
- a cinch assembly operably coupled to the side door and configured to move the door between the flush position and the subflush positions;
- an image sensor coupled to the body, the image sensor having an imaging field of view including a ground area proximate to the body;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- control the cinch assembly in response to image data from the image sensor;
- analyze the image data from the image sensor to predict a roughness of the ground area;
- and
- activate the cinch assembly to adjust the side door from the flush position to one of the subflush positions when the controller determines the image data includes a rough condition of the ground area.
A vehicle side door positioning system, comprising:
- a body;
- a side door coupled to the body, wherein the side door is operable between an opened position and a closed position, and wherein the side door is further operable between a flush position and subflush positions relative to the body when the side door is in the closed position;
- an image sensor coupled to the body, wherein the image sensor defines a field of view extending forward from the body to capture image data of a ground area proximate the body;
- a cinch assembly configured to adjust the side door between the flush position and the subflush positions;
- and
- a controller operably coupled to the image sensor and the cinch assembly, wherein the controller is configured to:
- analyze the image data to determine a condition of the ground area;
- activate the cinch assembly based on the condition of the ground area;
- and
- determine which of the subflush positions to adjust the side door based on a level of roughness of the ground area.
A vehicle door positioning system, comprising:
- a body;
- a side door coupled to the body, wherein when the side door is in a closed position the side door is operable between a flush position with the side door aligned with the body and a subflush position with the side door recessed relative to the body;
- an image sensor coupled to the body, wherein the image sensor defines a field of view to capture image data of a ground area proximate the body;
- a cinch assembly operably coupled to the side door, wherein the cinch assembly is configured to adjust the side door between the flush position and the subflush position;
- and
- a controller configured to analyze the image data to determine a condition of the ground area proximate the body, and wherein the controller is configured to control the cinch assembly to move the door between the flush position and the subflush position based on the condition of the ground area.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.