CAMERA ARM DEVICE FOR A MIRROR REPLACEMENT SYSTEM FOR A MOTOR VEHICLE AND MOTOR VEHICLE

Abstract

A camera arm device for a mirror replacement system for a motor vehicle having a boom element, which has at least one camera (30) of the mirror replacement system is provided. A. housing, which cooperates with an end portion of the boom element in order to hold the boom element. There is arranged in the housing a guide groove through which the boom element extends and along which the boom element is movably mounted.

Claims

1-9. (cancelled)

10. A camera arm device for a mirror replacement system of a motor vehicle comprising: a boom element, which has at least one camera of the mirror replacement system; a housing, which cooperates with an end portion of the boom element to hold the boom element; and a guide groove in the housing, through which the boom element extends and along which the boom element is movably mounted.

11. The camera arm device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the housing is hemispherical and hollow.

12. The camera arm device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the guide groove is a slot which extends over a housing surface perpendicularly to a direction of extension of the boom element.

13. The camera arm device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the guide groove has a concave curvature.

14. The camera arm device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a positioning device for holding the boom element in an operating position.

15. The camera arm device as claimed in claim 14, further comprising: a spring for positioning the boom element along its direction of extension; and a locking device for positioning the boom element perpendicularly to its direction of extension.

16. The camera arm device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a fall-out prevention device arranged at the end portion of the boom element having a circumference which is greater than a groove width of the guide groove.

17. The camera arm device as claimed in claim 16, wherein the fall-out prevention device is hemispherical with a sphere radius which corresponds substantially to a sphere radius of the housing.

18. A motor vehicle having a camera monitor system which has at least one camera secured to the motor vehicle with a camera arm device comprising: a boom element, which has at least one camera of the mirror replacement system; a housing, which cooperates with an end portion of the boom element to hold the boom element; and a guide groove in the housing, through which the boom element extends and along which the boom element is movably mounted.

19. The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 18, wherein the housing is hemispherical and hollow.

20. The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 18, wherein the guide groove is a slot which extends over a housing surface perpendicularly to a direction of extension of the boom element.

21. The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 18, wherein the guide groove has a concave curvature.

22. The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 18, further comprising a positioning device for holding the boom element in an operating position.

23. The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 22 further comprising: a spring for positioning the boom element along its direction of extension; and a locking device for positioning the boom element perpendicularly to its direction of extension.

24. The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 18, further comprising a fall-out prevention device arranged at the end portion of the boom element having a circumference which is greater than a groove width of the guide groove.

25. The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 24, wherein the fall-out prevention device is hemispherical with a sphere radius which corresponds substantially to a sphere radius of the housing.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0023] The present disclosure will become more fully understood from the detailed description and the accompanying drawings, wherein:

[0024] FIG. 1 shows a perspective illustration of a motor vehicle having a camera monitor system which has a camera arm device with a camera secured thereto;

[0025] FIG. 2 is a plan view of the camera arm device from FIG. 1 in an enlarged illustration and in an operating position;

[0026] FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the camera arm device from FIG. 2;

[0027] FIG. 4 is a plan view of the camera arm device from FIG. 1 in an enlarged illustration and in a protected position;

[0028] FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the camera arm device from FIG. 4; and

[0029] FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view, oriented perpendicularly to the views in FIG. 3 and FIG. 5, of the camera arm device from FIG. 1 in different positions.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0030] FIG. 1 shows a perspective illustration of a motor vehicle 10, namely a commercial vehicle 12 in the form of a truck, which has a tractor unit 14 and a trailer 16. In the tractor unit 14 there is arranged a driver's cab 18 in which the driver is normally situated during operation of the motor vehicle 10, wherein the driver is to be able to see as much of the surrounding area 20 as possible during operation of the motor vehicle 10. In particular, he must be able to see fields of vision which are required by law.

[0031] In order to make this possible, on the one hand external mirrors 22 are arranged on the tractor unit 14, by means of which external mirrors the driver is able to see the surrounding area 20 to the rear, that is to say in the direction towards the trailer 16. In addition, the motor vehicle 10 has a camera monitor system 24, which is designed as a mirror replacement system 26 and thus can replace legally required mirrors on the tractor unit 14.

[0032] For this purpose, the mirror replacement system 26 has a camera arm device 28 which is mounted on the tractor unit 14 outside the driver's cab 18 and which has a camera 30 which records images of the surrounding area 20 of the motor vehicle 10 and forwards them to a monitor 32 which is arranged in the interior of the driver's cab 18 in such a manner that a driver who is in the driver's cab 18 is able to see the images of the camera 30 directly.

[0033] The camera 30 is accordingly secured to the driver's cab 18 via the camera arm device 28, wherein the camera arm device 28 on the one hand is to perform the function of holding and positioning the camera 30 and additional sensors, and on the other hand includes a function of protecting those elements against external environmental influences such as, for example, collisions.

[0034] One of these protective functions concerns protection against mechanical influences such as forces from a horizontal direction from the front and from the rear and further mechanical impact and shock stresses from all horizontal directions, that is to say from the front, from the rear and from the side.

[0035] FIG. 2 is a plan view of the camera arm device from FIG. 1 in an enlarged illustration and in an operating position B. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the camera arm device 28 from FIG. 2 in the same operating position B.

[0036] The camera arm device 28 has, as can be seen in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, a housing 34 which is designed to be hemispherical and hollow, similarly to a shell, and is secured to an outside surface 36 of the motor vehicle 10. There is introduced into the housing 34 a guide groove 38 which is designed as a slot 40 and extends with a concave curvature 42 over a housing surface 44 of the housing 34. In the present embodiment, the curvature 42 of the guide groove 38 is designed to be concave, but it is also possible to provide other geometries for the guide groove 38.

[0037] In addition to the housing 34, the camera arm device 28 further has a boom element 46 which in the operating position B extends away from the outside surface 36 of the motor vehicle 10. The camera 30, which in the operating position B is able to capture the surrounding area 20 of the motor vehicle 10 in order to display it on the monitor 32, is arranged on the boom element 46.

[0038] In the operating position B, the boom element 46 is arranged substantially perpendicularly to a direction of travel R of the motor vehicle 10. It extends away from the outside surface 36 of the motor vehicle 10 in a direction of extension E.

[0039] The boom element 46 is held by the housing 34, which cooperates with an end portion 48 of the boom element 46. The end portion 48 of the boom element 46 is thereby located inside the housing 34, while the remainder of the boom element 46 extends through the guide groove 38 out of the housing 34.

[0040] In order to hold the boom element 46 in its operating position B, a positioning device 50 is provided. The positioning device has a spring 52 which is fixed on one side to the outside surface 36 of the motor vehicle 10 and is secured on the opposite side to the end portion 48. The boom element 46 is thus pushed away from the outside surface 36 of the motor vehicle 10 by the spring force of the spring 52. Inside the housing 34 there is arranged on the boom element 46 a fall-out prevention device 54, the circumference U of which is greater than a groove width W of the guide groove 38. The spring 52 thus pushes the fall-out prevention device 54 against the housing 34 from the inside and holds the boom element 46 in the operating position B in the direction of extension E of the boom element 46.

[0041] If an obstacle appears in the direction of travel R of the motor vehicle 10 and collides with the boom element 46, the boom element 46 is able to evade the obstacle since it is movably mounted in the guide groove 38. That is to say, the boom element 46 is not fixed stationarily in the guide groove 38, or to the housing 34. If a collision occurs, the boom element 46 moves out of the operating position B and thus prevents excessive forces, which could damage the camera 30, from acting on the camera 30. The geometry of the guide groove thereby defines the evasion geometry. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, the boom element 46 is able to evade upwards and to the rear until it reaches a protected position S shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5. In this protected position S, the boom element 46 is positioned against the motor vehicle 10 and is protected from mechanical effects.

[0042] In order to hold the boom element 46 securely in the operating position B also in the case of lesser forces in the direction of travel R that act during normal operation of the motor vehicle 10, a locking device 56 is provided, into which locking device the boom element 46 engages perpendicularly to its direction of extension E.

[0043] The boom element 46 moves along the guide groove 38, that is to say substantially perpendicularly to a direction of extension E, into the protected position S only when, as a result of a collision, the forces on the boom element 46 overcome the holding force of the locking device 56.

[0044] In order that this movement into the protected position S is not impeded, the fall-out prevention device 54 is advantageously likewise designed to be hemispherical and has a sphere radius r which corresponds substantially to a sphere radius r of the hemispherical housing 34. The fall-out prevention device 54 is thus able to conform well to the housing 34 from the inside and also slide along the inner surface of the housing 34 when the boom element 46 moves.

[0045] As already mentioned above, FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 are different views of the boom element 46 in the operating position B, while FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 are different views of the boom element 46 in the protected position S.

[0046] In FIG. 6 there is additionally shown a sectional view which is rotated through 90° relative to the views in FIG. 5 and FIG. 3, wherein the boom element 46 is shown in different positions, namely the operating position B, the protected position S and an intermediate position Z.

[0047] The foregoing preferred embodiments have been shown and described for the purposes of illustrating the structural and functional principles of the present invention, as well as illustrating the methods of employing the preferred embodiments and are subject to change without departing from such principles. Therefore, this invention includes all modifications encompassed within the scope of the following claims.