Towards a generic control system for actuated car doors with arbitrary degrees of freedom

Actuated car doors with more than one degree of freedom are a desirable means to boost the convenience of the access to cars. This paper outlines the problems connected with providing an intuitive, comfortable and safe operation of such doors. An advanced control system is proposed that overcomes these problems. First, a vision system for the monitoring of the workspace of the door is described. The data gathered is utilized by a collision avoidance method, which enables a safe operation of the car door. Second, a method for the support of the manual handling of the door is provided, which is based on predefined convenient paths for the specific kinematics of the door. Finally, the proposed control system is applied to a virtual car door, with successful results.