Patent Publication Number: US-2023150449-A1

Title: Driverless Vehicle Plug-in Emergency Braking Apparatus

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE 
     Priority is claimed from the U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/525,893, filed on Nov. 13, 2021, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference. 
     DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART 
     The present application relates to an emergency brake apparatus, and more particularly to a plug-in emergency brake apparatus for driverless vehicles. 
     Note that the points discussed below may reflect the hindsight gained from the disclosed inventions, and are not necessarily admitted being prior art. 
     There have been growing awareness and interest in autonomous vehicles (AVs) among the public. Many Americans recognize that their communities haven&#39;t done enough to increase transportation equity and feel AVs will help improve mobility. Changes in streetscape infrastructure from COVID has also helped people recognize the potential benefits of having fewer cars on the roads. Fully autonomous vehicles hold the promise of drastically reducing crashes. But during the transition, crashes which will someday be avoidable will continue to happen. Safety is an ongoing critical, fundamental priority. Enabling seat belts, airbags, side-curtain bags, windshield inner-layers, pedestrian collision protection safety features and padded dashes, plastics will continue to enhance safety in self-driving cars. 
     An autonomous car will use sensors that “peer” through plastics like Light Imaging Detection and Radar (LIDAR) to successfully navigate paved roadways and off-road trails. LIDAR uses lasers to create a 3D map of the world in real time, on the fly, detecting obstacles and identifying the shapes and boundaries within and along a roadway. Thermoplastics, like polycarbonate, permit light and imaging transparency. Integrating thermoplastics and plastic films into front grills and bumpers can allow engineers to mount LIDAR detection sensors “invisibly” into the design of a vehicle&#39;s grill, side panels or bumpers. 
     Despite claims to the contrary, self-driving cars currently have a higher rate of accidents than human-driven cars, but the injuries are less severe. It seems to be true that the vast majority of all accidents involving self-driving cars have been the result of the human driver being distracted, as often happens in a car with no automation. Drivers are supposed to be alert and ready to take over control at a moment&#39;s notice, but this is not likely when the car is purchased as driverless. Also, driverless cars use lithium-ion (LI) batteries which are well-known to be highly combustible. As lithium burns, it creates a metal fire with temperatures that reach 3,632 degrees Fahrenheit or 2,000 degrees Celsius. Attempting to douse the fire with water could lead to a hydrogen gas explosion. This can cause an explosion of toxic gases, the release of projectiles, and fire, presenting an additional danger to emergency responders. 
     Additional mechanical emergency brake system is needed to increase the safety of the driverless cars. 
     SUMMARY 
     The present application discloses a novel mechanical external plug-in mechanical emergency brake device that enables a driverless car to activate its brake system without any control devices from inside the car. 
     In one embodiment, the emergency brake device is configured to be externally mounted externally underneath the body frame of a car. 
     In another embodiment, the emergency brake device is configured to be controlled by mechanical force external from the internal electronic system. 
     In another embodiment, the emergency brake device comprises structures of air fairing, air bagged frame installed in the front of a car to reduce the impact on a pedestrian in collision with a car, and a sliding unlock lever and bracket release system coupled with a contact power switch to reduce fatal accidents. A pedestrian struck by a car will be first pushed backwards by the release of the airbags, and at the same time, the sliding unlock lever will be released to push the contact power switch to automatically turn on the brake system to prevent the car from further moving forward. The bracket and release combination accessories also moving to the rear end of the car, mitigating the striking colliding force of the car, thus will greatly reduce the chances of fatally injuring a person struck by the car. 
     The disclosed innovation, in various embodiments, provide one or more of at least the following advantages, that is, the car can be automatically stopped by external mechanical force outside the car, bypassing the internal electronic system, and this increases the safety of a driverless car. 
     However, not all of these advantages result from every one of the innovations disclosed, and this list of advantages does not limit the various claimed inventions. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The disclosed application will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which show important sample embodiments of the invention, and which are incorporated in the specification hereof by reference, wherein: 
         FIG.  1    schematically shows the structure of an example emergency brake apparatus in accordance with this application. 
         FIG.  2    shows an example airbag frame of an example emergency brake apparatus in accordance with this application. 
         FIG.  3    shows an example air fairing of an example emergency brake apparatus in accordance with this application. 
         FIG.  4    shows an example contact power switch of an example emergency brake apparatus in accordance with this application. 
         FIG.  5    shows an example bracket of an example emergency brake apparatus in accordance with this application. 
         FIG.  6    shows an alternative design of the brackets of an example emergency brake apparatus in accordance with this application. 
         FIG.  7    shows an example slide unlock lever of an example emergency brake apparatus in accordance with this application. 
         FIG.  8    shows an example of an assembled emergency brake apparatus in accordance with this application. 
         FIG.  9    shows an explosive view of an example emergency brake apparatus in accordance with this application. 
         FIG.  10 A  shows an example bracket release accessories of an example emergency brake apparatus in accordance with this application. 
         FIG.  10 B  shows an alternative bracket release accessories of an example emergency brake apparatus in accordance with this application 
         FIG.  11    shows an assembled emergency brake apparatus with alternative bracket in accordance with this application. 
         FIG.  12    shows an example metal spring structure of an example emergency brake apparatus in accordance with this application. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SAMPLE EMBODIMENTS 
     The numerous innovative teachings of the present application will be described with particular reference to presently preferred embodiments (by way of example, and not of limitation). The present application describes several embodiments, and none of the statements below should be taken as limiting the claims generally. 
     For simplicity and clarity of illustration, the drawing figures illustrate the general manner of construction, and description and details of well-known features and techniques may be omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the invention. Additionally, elements in the drawing figures are not necessarily drawn to scale, some areas or elements may be expanded to help improve understanding of embodiments of the invention. 
     The terms “first,” “second,” “third,” “fourth,” and the like in the description and the claims, if any, may be used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It is to be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable. Furthermore, the terms “comprise,” “include,” “have,” and any variations thereof, are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions, such that a process, method, article, apparatus, or composition that comprises a list of elements is not necessarily limited to those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, apparatus, or composition. 
     It is contemplated and intended that the emergency brake apparatus can be made of any suitable material, for clarity reason, the examples are given based on steel frames with parts made of metal or plastic materials, but an ordinary person in the art would know the variations to modify the design to make it suitable for different types of cars, trucks and different motor vehicles. 
     In reference to  FIG.  1   , emergency brake apparatus  100  comprises a front airbag frame assembly  101 , sliding unlock lever  122  with a slot to buckle up a metal spring structure  121 , a bracket assembly that comprises two sliding grooves  103  and two fixing grooves  105  of which the grooves  103  match with grooves  105 , latches  111  with wire ropes that are fastened to the two sliding grooves  103  and two fixing grooves  105 , wire rope tensioner  109  and wire ropes that are mounted to a gear assembly  107 , linking gear assembly  107  to latches  111 , a contact power switch device  113  that is coupled to the car&#39;s power brake system  115  and handbrake  117  to turn on or off the car&#39;s brake system. Contact power switch device  113  is coupled with slide unlock lever  122  which is mounted to the bracket assembly ( 103 ,  105 ) that are mounted on the car&#39;s bottom chassis frame  119 . airbag frame assembly  101  preferably comprises a rectangular frame that holds multiple airbags in different directions. The sliding unlock lever  122  preferably comprises a rectangular frame that is nested with the rectangular frame of the airbag frame assembly, and the sliding unlock lever  122  is normally fixedly fastened at the first position by the two latches  111  and gear assembly  107  (bracket release accessories) on the two sliding grooves  103  and further immobilized by the metal spring  121 . 
     In reference to  FIG.  2   , front airbag frame assembly  101  includes an airbag frame  200  that is mounted with a spring steel sheet  203  is attached to the airbag frame  200 . Airbag frame  200  comprises preferably a rectangular frame  201  that holds multiple airbags  205 ,  207  and  209  at different directions. Airbag frame  201  may be made of plastic material or rubber. Spring steel sheet  203  is coupled to the slot structure  705  in  FIG.  7    on the sliding unlock lever  122  to buckle up and immobilize the sliding unlock lever in its first position. 
     In reference to  FIG.  3   , air fairing  300  is configured with attaching mechanisms  305 ,  307 ,  311  and  309  with a groove structure  313  that can be sleeved or cased onto the rectangular head  701  of sliding unlock lever ( FIG.  7   ) and mounted in front the conventional front bumper of the car. Air fairing is preferably made of flexible and elastic rubber material. 
     In reference to  FIG.  4   , contact power switch  400  comprises a switch box  405  and a metal spring piece  401  with a contact point  403 , switch box  405  has three terminals  411 ,  409  and  407  that are linked to the electrically assisted brake&#39;s electrical power source. 
     In reference to  FIG.  5   , bracket assembly  500  comprises two sliding grooves  503  and two fixing grooves  501 , sliding grooves  503  are configured to slide inside fixing grooves  501 . Upon the bracket assembly, both grooves  503  and  501  are configured with matching latch holes  507  which allow a latch to be inserted to fix the sliding groove  503  at its first position on fixing groove  501 . Between the two fixing grooves is a supporting frame  509  that holds the fixing grooves at one place so that they do not shift with each other. Each sliding groove  503  has a tip structure  505  for mounting to airbag frame assembly. 
     If the car strikes a person  120 , as shown in  FIG.  1   , on the air fairing, the air faring will change shape and the sensors on the airbag frame assembly  101  will trigger and release air bags  205 - 209  to push the parson away from the car, preventing the person from being further struck by the car; at the same time, the airbag release force will also release the spring steel sheet  203  from the slot of sliding unlock lever  122 , the strike will also push the sliding unlock lever  122  to move towards the rear end of the car. When the sliding unlock lever  122  moves towards to the rear end of the car, its move will press onto the adjacent contact power switch  113  that will turn on the power brake  115  or hand brake  117  to stop the car from moving forward. The release of sliding unlock lever  122  from the metal spring  203  will also release latch  111  from bracket assembly ( 103 ,  105 ) and allow the airbag frame that is mounted together with the sliding grooves  103  to slide backwards, thus reducing the impact of the collision on the car. The release of airbags at the front of the car coupled with the airbag frame moving backwards will thus doubly reduce the impact of the collision, combined with rubber material air fairing will thus dramatically increase the safety of the car and decrease fatal injuries in car collisions. Alternatively the collision sensors are installed on the sliding unlock lever  122 , the move of the sliding unlock lever  122  will trigger ignition of the airbags and inflate the airbags from the airbag frame. 
     In reference to  FIG.  6   , alternative bracket assembly  600  comprises 2 sliding grooves  611  and fixing grooves  603 . Sliding groove  611  each is fixed at its first position by shaft  607  that allows sliding groove  511  to rotate around a spring  615  mounted at the joint  601  between sliding groove  611  and fixing groove  603 . Each sliding groove  611  has a tip structure  613  for mounting to and interacting with airbag frame. 
     In reference to  FIG.  7   , sliding unlock lever  700  comprises a sliding shaft  709  and a rectangular holding frame  701  forming a slot  703  for nesting with the airbag frame assembly. An Air fairing can be sleeved onto the rectangular frame  701 . On the sliding shaft  709 , a slot  705  and an elongated slot  707  are constructed to interact with a gear assembly and a metal spring sheet from the airbag frame assembly. 
       FIG.  8    shows a 3D construct of emergency brake apparatus  800  in relation to the rear wheels  815 . The air fairing  802  is sleeved on the rectangular head frame  822  of sliding unlock lever  821  while the rectangular head frame  822  is nested with the airbag frame  805  to prevent them moving during driving. The sliding unlock lever  821  is further immobilized by buckling up with the metal spring of  203  of the airbag assembly (also shown in  FIG.  12   ) to further prevent the sliding unlock lever  821  from moving during driving. If the car is exposed to collision force  801 , disformed air fairing will release the sliding unlock lever  821  from the metal spring of the airbag frame and sliding unlock lever  821  will be pushed towards the rear end of the car by the strike; and at the same time a plurality of airbags  803  will be inflated by the strike. This move will enable sliding unlock lever  821  to press over the metal lever ( 401  in  FIG.  4   ) of adjacent contact power switch  809  to turn on the power brake or hand brake to stop the car from moving forward. At the same time, the airbag frame  805  and its mounted sliding grooves  827  will become movable, the bracket accessories (latches  811 , wire ropes and gear set  825 ) will pulled out from fixing grooves because of the release of sliding unlock lever  821  from its first position, the airbag frame and the sliding groove  827  will break from the latches  811  and slide into the fixing grooves towards the rear end of the car, this move may break latches  811  from the bracket to further release the sliding grooves to move towards to the rear end of the car. 
     The entire emergency brake apparatus  800  is preferably installed upon the bottom chassis of the car external to the interior space of the car. The front ends  818  of the fixing grooves  817  are preferably positioned near the conventional front bumper and the sliding frame  827  is about 50 cm, therefore between the airbag frame  805  and the front bumper of the car there is a 50 cm space. When a car is colliding with an object horizontally, the strike force is F=m*(V2-V1)/t where V2 and V1 are speed before and after collision, and m is the colliding object&#39;s mass. With the installation of emergency brake apparatus  800 , at collision, the air fairing is the colliding contact potion that changes shape which released the sliding unlock lever  821  from its fixed first position on the car, therefore the sliding unlock lever  821  is not part of the mass of the car. Because the air fairing is the colliding contact portion, the strike force is thus reduced to be only related to the mass of the sliding unlock lever  821 . The first strike force is thus greatly reduced. At the same time, when the latches are released from the fixing grooves of the bracket assembly, the airbag frame and the sliding grooves are relaxed, and they become not part of the mass of the car, therefore the second-strike force is related to a mass that is much less than the car&#39;s mass, therefore the second-strike force is much less than the strike force produced by a conventional front bumper. 
     When the air fairing first strikes a pedestrian, the second-strike force will be from the inflation of the airbags, the person will be pushed away from the car, the airbag frame will not contact the victim, the victim will not be fatally injured. Because the airbag frame has a 50 cm distance (can vary among different types of cars and trucks) from the front bumper of the car, when the front bumper reaches to the first colliding position, the victim will have already be pushed backward and fall on the ground, thus the chances of the victim be struck by the car&#39;s front bumper are greatly reduced. Because the height of emergency brake apparatus  800  is configured within 30 cm and is installed upon the bottom chassis frame of the car, it is unlikely to strike the head of the victim. 
       FIG.  9    is an explosive view of emergency brake apparatus  900 . The individual parts comprise an air fairing  919 , airbags  917 , airbag frame  905 , sliding unlock lever  911 , spring steel sheet  913 , a bracket assembly that comprises two sliding grooves  903  and two fixing grooves  901  of which the grooves  903  match with grooves  901 , latches  923  with wire ropes that are latched to the two sliding grooves  903 , wire rope tensioner  925  and wire ropes that are mounted to a gear assembly  929 , a contact power switch device  909  mounted on the cross frame  905  and  907  that is coupled to the car&#39;s power brake system and handbrake to turn on or off the car&#39;s brake system. Air fairing functions to divert the air flow and to reduce strumming and reduce the normal drag coefficient to the sliding unlock lever. 
     In reference to  FIGS.  10 A and  10 B , bracket release accessories  1000  comprises latches  1001 ,  1013 , wires  1003 , wire rope tensioners  1005 ,  1011 , and gear set  1007 . Latch and gear assembly  1000  fixes the sliding unlock lever at its first position to the sliding grooves of the bracket assembly before any collision. When a collision force strikes the sliding unlock lever, the sliding unlock lever will be pushed backwards, and the latches will be released from the sliding grooves, allowing the sliding unlock lever to move to its second position that will push the power contact switch in  FIG.  4    to switch its position into contact, and turn on the brake control. 
       FIG.  11    shows an assembled emergency brake apparatus  1100  with the alternative bracket design of  FIG.  5   . 
       FIG.  12    shows a metal spring  1200  that interacts between the airbag assembly and the sliding unlock lever. This metal spring buckles up the airbag assembly with the sliding unlock lever, so that when the car starts up or has an emergency stop, it prevents the sliding unlock lever from moving back and forth during driving. 
     As will be recognized by those skilled in the art, the innovative concepts described in the present application can be modified and varied over a tremendous range of applications, and accordingly the scope of patented subject matter is not limited by any of the specific exemplary teachings given. It is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and broad scope of the appended claims. 
     None of the description in the present application should be read as implying that any particular element, step, or function is an essential element which must be included in the claim scope: THE SCOPE OF PATENTED SUBJECT MATTER IS DEFINED ONLY BY THE ALLOWED CLAIMS. Moreover, none of these claims are intended to invoke paragraph six of 35 USC section 112 unless the exact words “means for” are followed by a participle. 
     The claims as filed are intended to be as comprehensive as possible, and NO subject matter is intentionally relinquished, dedicated, or abandoned.