Regulatory-compliant energy-saving potential for the passing beam of matrix LED headlamps

The carbon footprint of modern vehicles and their mechatronic systems is more important than ever. Research by the publicly funded Nalyses project and the HELLA company shows that the headlamps use phase makes a significant contribution to the life cycle footprint taking into account the current electricity mix [1]. Today, functionalities such as adaptive curve light or glare-free high beam ensure comfort and safety by assessing the state of the vehicle and evaluating the driving scenario ahead. In future, this evaluation will be expanded and used to adapt the headlamp to the driving scenario in such a way that as little light as possible is emitted, but as much light as necessary. In order to achieve this goal, an overall evaluation of the regulatory compliant energy saving potential is crucial in a first step and leads to constraints for a dynamic adaption while driving. In this paper, the potential is illustrated by evaluating UNECE Regulation No. 149 and optimizing luminous intensity distributions. Depending on the different resolutions of matrix LED headlamps, this approach can result in a significantly lower luminous flux. On the other hand, the results are point-like distributions that raise the question of whether the regulation still provides for sensible minimum requirements for modern matrix LED headlamps. The results are further presented in a simulated virtual environment with regard to the resulting luminance in different driving scenarios. We then present an approach to integrate regulatory requirements into a control algorithm by setting optimization constraints and saturating the control. Finally, we classify the found luminous intensity distributions qualitatively according to common lighting criteria. In summary, although the investigated minimum distributions are by no means desirable for drivers themselves, they form the basis on which energy-saving distributions for illuminated areas and twilight scenarios could be adaptively controlled in the future.