1. A pedestrian protection apparatus for a vehicle comprising:
a synthetic resin plate mounted in a lower part of a front side of a vehicle and extending in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle, the plate including a front section having at least a protruding portion protruding from the front side of the vehicle, a rear section fixed to the vehicle, and a center section provided between the front and rear sections,
wherein the protruding portion of the front section of the plate comes into contact with and sweeps away a lower part of a leg of a pedestrian to protect the leg when the front side of the vehicle collides with the leg, and
wherein the front section of the plate is more rigid than the rear section, and the center section is less rigid than the front section and more rigid than the rear section.
2. The pedestrian protection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the center section of the plate includes a plurality of areas having mutually different rigidities, and the areas extend over a full dimension of the vehicle in a transverse direction, adjoin in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, and are arranged in decreasing order of the rigidities from a front side of the center section.
3. The pedestrian protection apparatus according to claim 1,
wherein a plurality of reinforcing ribs extending in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle are provided integrally with each of the front and center sections of the plate so as to be spaced in the transverse direction of the vehicle, and the front and center sections are more rigid than the rear section in which the reinforcing ribs are not provided, and
wherein the number of the reinforcing ribs provided in the front section is larger than the number of the reinforcing ribs provided in the center section, and the interval between the reinforcing ribs of the front section in the transverse direction of the vehicle is shorter than the interval between the reinforcing ribs of the center section so that the front section is more rigid than the center section.
4. The pedestrian protection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the center section of the plate is thicker than the rear section so that the center section is more rigid than the rear section, and the front section is thicker than the center section so that the front section is more rigid than the center section.
5. The pedestrian protection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a first plate-shaped reinforcing member having a predetermined rigidity is fixed on at least one surface of the center section so that the center section is more rigid than the rear section, and a second plate-shaped reinforcing member which is more rigid than the first plate-shaped reinforcing member is fixed on at least one surface of the front section so that the front section is more rigid than the center section on which the first plate-shaped reinforcing member is fixed.
6. A method of tuning a load characteristic of a pedestrian protection apparatus for a vehicle,
wherein the pedestrian protection apparatus comprises:
a synthetic resin plate mounted in a lower part of a front side of a vehicle and extending in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle, the plate including a front section having at least a protruding portion protruding from the front side of the vehicle, a rear section having a fixed portion fixed to the vehicle, and a center section provided between the front and rear sections,
wherein the protruding portion of the front section of the plate comes into contact with and sweeps away a lower part of a leg of a pedestrian to protect the leg when the front of the vehicle collides with the leg,
wherein the front section of the plate is more rigid than the rear section, and the center section is less rigid than the front section and more rigid than the rear section so that the plate is bent at a boundary portion between the center section and the rear section and at a front adjacent portion of the rear section on the front side of and adjacent to the fixed portion by an impact load which is inputted when the protruding portion of the front section comes into contact with the leg of the pedestrian, and
wherein a maximum value of the impact load is adjusted and the load characteristic is tuned by arbitrarily changing the dimension of the center section in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle so as to change the distance between the boundary portion and the front adjacent portion.
7. A method of tuning a load characteristic of a pedestrian protection apparatus for a vehicle,
wherein the pedestrian protection apparatus comprises:
a synthetic resin plate mounted in a lower part of a front side of a vehicle and extending in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle, the plate including a front section having at least a protruding portion protruded from the front side of the vehicle, a rear section having a fixed portion fixed to the vehicle, and a center section provided between the front and rear sections,
wherein the protruding portion of the front section of the plate comes into contact with and sweeps away a lower part of a leg of a pedestrian to protect the leg when the front side of the vehicle collides with the leg,
wherein the front section of the plate is more rigid than the rear section, and the center section is less rigid than the front section and more rigid than the rear section so that the plate is bent at a boundary portion between the center section and the rear section and at a front adjacent portion of the rear section on the front side of and adjacent to the fixed portion by an impact load which is inputted when the protruding portion of the front section comes into contact with the leg of the pedestrian, and
wherein a maximum value of the impact load is adjusted and the load characteristic is tuned by fixing a first plate-shaped reinforcing member to the boundary portion and fixing a second plate-shaped reinforcing member to the front adjacent portion, the first reinforcing member increasing a rigidity of the boundary portion within a range below that of the front section, and the second reinforcing member increasing a rigidity of the front adjacent portion within a range below that of the center section.
8. The method according to claim 6, wherein the center section of the plate includes a plurality of areas having mutually different rigidities, and the areas extend over a full dimension of the vehicle in a transverse direction, adjoin in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, and are arranged in decreasing order of the rigidities from a front side of the center section.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. An apparatus for controlling a speed of a printing medium supplied to an image printing apparatus by a printing medium supply device, the apparatus comprising:
a compensation waveform storage unit for storing at least one compensation waveform used to compensate for at least a periodic ripple error of the speed, the periodic ripple error being obtained by analyzing positional information of the printing medium;
a compensation delay amount determiner for determining at least an amount of delay used in applying the compensation waveform to the printing medium supply device; and
a ripple compensator for applying at least the compensation waveform to the printing medium supply device with at least the determined amount of delay in order to compensate for the ripple error.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the compensation delay amount determiner determines an optimal compensation delay amount by using a self-learning algorithm that comprises a recursive method.
3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the compensation delay amount determiner comprises:
an error amount calculator for calculating an amount of cumulative error during one period of the ripple error;
a rate of change calculator for calculating a rate of change of an output of the error amount calculator; and
a delay amount learning portion for determining a result of an application of a learning constant to the output of the rate of change calculator as an updated compensation delay amount and delivering the updated compensation delay amount to the compensation waveform storage unit.
4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the compensation delay amount determiner further comprises a learning termination preventer for applying a given value to the rate of change calculated by the rate of change determiner when the rate of change remains unchanged, such that the compensation delay amount determiner continues the learning algorithm.
5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the compensation waveform storage unit stores the compensation waveform corresponding to one period of the ripple error, and further includes a modulo operator for periodically applying the compensation waveform to the printing medium supply device.
6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the compensation waveform storage unit determines the compensation waveform by analyzing frequency components of the ripple error and applying different weights to the analyzed frequency components.
7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the compensation waveform storage unit determines the compensation waveform by analyzing amplitude components of the ripple error and applying different weights to the analyzed amplitude components.
8. A method for controlling a speed of a printing medium supplied to an image printing apparatus by a printing medium supply device, the method comprising:
measuring a periodic ripple error in the printing medium speed by analyzing positional information of the printing medium;
determining a compensation waveform suitable for compensating for the ripple error;
determining an amount of compensation delay used when applying the compensation waveform to the printing medium supply device; and
compensating for the ripple error by applying the compensation waveform to the printing medium supply device with the determined amount of compensation delay.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein the determining of the compensation delay amount comprises determining an optimal compensation delay amount by using a self-learning algorithm that uses a recursive method.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein the determining of the optimal compensation delay amount comprises:
calculating a cumulative error amount during one period of the ripple error;
calculating a rate of change of the cumulative error amount; and
updating the compensation delay amount by multiplying the calculated rate of change by a learning constant.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein the determining of an optimal compensation delay amount further comprises applying a given value to the rate of change when the rate of change remains unchanged, such that the determining of the optimal compensation delay amount continues.
12. The method of claim 8, wherein the determining of the compensation waveform comprises:
storing the compensation waveform corresponding to one period of the ripple error; and
supplying the compensation waveform to the printing medium supply device periodically.
13. The method of claim 12, wherein the determining of the compensation waveform comprises analyzing frequency components of the ripple error and multiplying the analyzed frequency components by different weights.
14. The method of claim 12, wherein the determining of the compensation waveform comprises analyzing amplitude components of the ripple error and applying different weights to the analyzed amplitude components.