Roof for a Motor Vehicle Comprising a Sensor Module

Abstract

A roof for a motor vehicle, in particular for a passenger car, the roof having a support structure, a roof skin at least partially covering the support structure, roof side beams which are part of a vehicle body, and at least one sensor module having an environment sensor for detecting a vehicle environment. The sensor module may be disposed on the support structure and is for a large part located below a reference roof indentation plane which is in tangential contact with one of the roof side beams and inclined relative to a horizontal plane by a first angle (α) in the transverse direction of the roof and by a second angle (β) in the longitudinal direction of the roof.

Claims

1. A roof for a motor vehicle, the roof comprising: a support structure, a roof skin at least partially covering the support structure, roof side beams which are part of a vehicle body, and at least one sensor module comprising an environment sensor for detecting a vehicle environment, p1 wherein the sensor module is disposed on the support structure and is for a large part located below a reference roof indentation plane which is in tangential contact with one of the roof side beams and inclined relative to horizontal plane by a first angle (α) in the transverse direction of the roof and by a second angle (β) in the longitudinal direction of the roof.

2. The roof according to claim 1, wherein the first angle (α) is between 20° and 30° and is in particular about 25°.

3. The roof according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the second angle (β) is between 2° and 10° and is in particular about 5°.

4. The roof according to claim 1, wherein the sensor module is covered by the roof skin.

5. The roof according to claim 1, wherein the upper boundary surface of the sensor module is raised by no more than about 12.5 cm perpendicular to the reference roof indentation plane.

6. The roof according to claim 1, wherein the support structure is lowered in the area of the sensor module.

7. The roof according to claim 1, wherein the roof skin forms a window for the environment sensor.

8. A motor vehicle comprising a roof according to claim 1.

9. The roof according to claim 2, wherein the first angle (α) is about 25°.

10. The roof according to claim 3, wherein characterized in that the second angle (β) is about 5°.

Description

[0025] FIG. 1 is a front view of a vehicle comprising a roof according to the invention;

[0026] FIG. 2 is a side view of the vehicle;

[0027] FIG. 3 is a section through the roof of the vehicle in the area of a roof side beam;

[0028] FIG. 4 is a section through the roof in the area of a front header;

[0029] FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a front left roof portion of an alternative embodiment of a vehicle roof according to the invention;

[0030] FIG. 6 is a section through the vehicle roof of FIG. 5 in the area of a sensor module;

[0031] FIG. 7 is a perspective section view of another embodiment of a vehicle roof according to the invention in the area of a sensor module; and

[0032] FIG. 8 is a section through the vehicle roof in the area of the sensor module.

[0033] FIGS. 1 to 4 show a motor vehicle 10 which is configured as a passenger car and has a vehicle body 12, which is a body shell structure, a vehicle roof 14 being disposed on vehicle body 12. Vehicle roof 14 comprises a roof module 16 which is configured as what is referred to as a roof sensor module (RSM) and is therefore provided with a sensor system enabling motor vehicle 10 to drive autonomously.

[0034] Roof module 16, which can be seen in FIGS. 3 and 4 in particular, comprises a support structure 18, which forms a support frame, and a roof skin 20, which forms a solid roof element and which may be partially transparent, roof skin 20 forming an outer roof skin.

[0035] Furthermore, roof module 16 is provided with four sensor modules 22 each comprising an environment sensor 24 by means of which the vehicle surroundings can be detected in order to implement autonomous driving of motor vehicle 10. A current traffic situation can be determined by evaluating the measuring signals of environment sensors 24 by means of a controller of motor vehicle 10 with the result that motor vehicle 10 can autonomously adapt to the traffic situation and behave accordingly. Sensor modules 22 are each disposed in a corner area of roof module 16 and are an integral part thereof. Moreover, sensor modules 22 are each covered by roof skin 20. Environment sensors 24 of sensor modules 22 can each be configured in various ways and can comprise a Lidar sensor, a radar sensor, a camera (mono/multi/multi-focal and/or stereo camera) and/or any other suitable sensor, for example.

[0036] Sensor modules 22 are disposed on support structure 18, i.e., on the roof frame, and can each monitor a defined area of the vehicle surroundings through a window cut-out 25 of roof skin 20, said window cut-outs 25 being transparent for the wavelengths used by the environment sensors.

[0037] In the area of each of sensor modules 22, roof skin 20 forms a prominence due to the structural height of each sensor module 22.

[0038] The structural height of each of sensor modules 22 is selected in such a manner that an upper boundary surface 26 is at least largely located below a reference roof indentation plane 28. Reference roof indentation plane 28 is a virtual plane which is in tangential contact with a roof side beam 32 associated with respective sensor module 22 and which is inclined relative to a horizontal plane by an angle α of 25° in the transverse direction of the roof and by an angle β of about 5° in the longitudinal direction of the roof.

[0039] Moreover, the structural height of sensor modules 22 is selected in such a manner that their upper boundary surfaces 26 are raised by no more than about 12.5 cm relative to the reference roof indentation plane. Consequently, upper boundary surfaces 26 of sensor modules 22 are also located only lightly above a roof baseline A. Roof baseline A is a line which corresponds to a roof line of a vehicle roof without sensor modules, which would consequently not have any prominences of the roof skin due to sensor modules.

[0040] The low architecture of sensor modules 22, which are for a large part located below roof indentation planes 28 and 30, allows vehicle roof 14 to be designed essentially without any additional reinforcements since the risk that sensor modules 22 will be pushed in the direction of a vehicle interior in an accident situation in which motor vehicle 10 overturns is low.

[0041] FIGS. 5 and 6 show a vehicle roof 14′ which is disposed on a vehicle body and comprises a roof module 16 which is configured as what is referred to as a roof sensor module (RSM) and therefore has a sensor system enabling vehicle 10 to drive autonomously.

[0042] Similarly to the embodiment according to FIGS. 1 to 4, vehicle roof 14′ comprises four sensor modules 22 disposed in corner areas of roof module 16 and each comprising an environment sensor 24 by means of which the vehicle surroundings can be detected in order to implement autonomous driving of the motor vehicle. Sensor modules 22, which are an integral part of roof module 16, are each disposed behind a step 40 of roof skin 20 and covered by roof skin 20. Step 40, which constitutes a prominence, is due to the structural height of sensor modules 22.

[0043] In the embodiment according to FIGS. 5 and 6, environment sensors 24 of sensor modules 22 can also be configured in various ways and comprise a Lidar sensor, a radar sensor, a camera and/or any other suitable sensor, for example Sensor modules 22 are each disposed on a support structure (not shown) formed by a roof frame which is part of roof module 16.

[0044] The structural height of sensor modules 22 and resulting step 40 of roof skin 20 are selected in such a manner that an upper boundary surface 26 of respective sensor module 22 and also roof skin 20 are located below a reference roof indentation plane 28, which is a virtual plane which is in tangential contact with a roof side beam 32 associated with respective sensor module 22 and which is inclined relative to a horizontal plane by an angle of 25° in the transverse direction of the roof and by an angle of 5° in the longitudinal direction of the roof. As can be seen in FIG. 6, roof skin 20 has a point of first contact 44 which is formed on the step in the area of sensor module 22 and which has a distance d of 16 mm perpendicular to reference roof indentation plane 28. Point of first contact 44 defines a roof skin plane of first contact which is oriented parallel to reference roof indentation plane 28 and located below reference roof indentation plane 28. The actual plane of first contact, in which a test plunger approaching parallel to reference roof indentation plane 28 makes contact with the vehicle in question in a crash test, coincides with reference roof indentation plane 28.

[0045] FIGS. 7 and 8 show a vehicle roof 14″, which also comprises a roof module 16 configured as a roof sensor module (RSM).

[0046] Vehicle roof 14″ also comprises a sensor module 22 in each of its corner areas, each sensor module 22 comprising at least one environment sensor 24 for detecting the vehicle environment. In the area of sensor module 22, a roof skin 20 forms a bump 42 which covers sensor module 22. Bump 42 of roof skin 20 forms an upper housing portion of sensor module 22 and is therefore part of sensor module 22, which is disposed on a support structure 18 which is part of roof module 16.

[0047] In a crash test, bump 42 of roof skin 20 forms a point of first contact 44 which defines a plane of first contact E which is formed parallel to a reference roof indentation plane 28 which is in tangential contact with a roof side beam 32 and inclined relative to a horizontal plane by an angle of 25° in the transverse direction of the roof and by an angle of 5° in the longitudinal direction of the roof. Plane of first contact E has a distance of 38 mm to reference roof indentation plane 28.

REFERENCE SIGNS

[0048] 10 motor vehicle [0049] 12 vehicle body [0050] 14 vehicle roof [0051] 16 roof module [0052] 18 support structure [0053] 20 roof skin [0054] 22 sensor module [0055] 24 environment sensor [0056] 25 window cut-out [0057] 26 boundary surface [0058] 28 roof indentation plane [0059] 32 roof side beam [0060] 34 transverse roof beam [0061] 38 reinforcement [0062] 40 step [0063] 42 bump [0064] 44 point of first contact