Development of a dynamic headlamp levelling system with support from a complex, three dimensional vehicle model

摘要

Road traffic has become more and more dangerous over the last few years, due to a growing traffic density. In spite of the increasing number of road users, the number of severe accidents is stagnating, or even decreasing. As per the official statistics, in the most cases human error is the main reason for an accident. Danger occurs in complicated situations as a result of irritation, or insufficient information. The driver of a passenger car receives more than 90% of the information, that he needs for safe driving, from the information carrier light. To guarantee safe driving during darkness as well, the headlamp must maximize the illuminated area in front of the car under every given condition. Along with the introduction of Xenon headlamps, the development of the dynamic Headlamp Levelling System (HLS) has become more and more important. The dynamic HLS should regulate the angle of the headlamps, so that with angular dynamic motion of the vehicle with regard to the roadway, the range of the headlamps is maintained and oncoming traffic is not dazzled. This paper shows different possibilities for calculating the pitch angle of the vehicle, that is necessary for a dynamic HLS, and compares the results of these different possibilities on the basis of simulated manoeuvres.