Patent ID: 7350944

Claim:
An automatic leveling apparatus of a headlamp for a vehicle for detecting a change in an attitude of a vehicle and adjusting an optical axis of the headlamp to cancel the change in the attitude of the vehicle, said headlamp including an inclinable reflector and a light source, said automatic leveling apparatus comprising: an actuator for inclining the optical axis of the headlamp in an up and down direction relative to a vehicle body; a vehicle height detector for detecting a change in a height direction of an axle portion of at least one of a front wheel and a rear wheel of the vehicle; a control constant recording section for recording a control constant inherent to the vehicle after integrating the headlamp to the vehicle; a control constant determining section for determining whether or not the control constant inherent to the vehicle is correctly recorded to the control constant recording section, wherein the control constant inherent to the vehicle differs from an initial value previously recorded in the control constant recording section, and wherein the control constant inherent to the vehicle includes a length (h) of an arm up to an inclination center of the inclinable reflector, and the control constant determining section determines whether or not a length (h) that is different from the initial value is recorded; and a controller for calculating an amount of a change from a reference attitude of the vehicle based on the control constant inherent to the vehicle and a detecting output of the vehicle height detector, and controlling to drive the actuator to cancel the calculated change amount, wherein the controller controls the actuator by calculating the change amount on a condition that the control constant determining section determines the control constant inherent to the vehicle is recorded to the control constant recording section, and stops to control the actuator on a condition that the control constant determining section determines the control constant inherent to the vehicle is not recorded to the control constant recording section.