1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a headlight moving apparatus, and more specifically to an apparatus for adjustably swinging the headlights for an automotive vehicle according to vehicle turning direction so that the headlight can brighten the forward road surface, in particular, when the vehicle runs along a curved road.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, headlights are fixedly mounted on the front end of an automotive vehicle body. As far as the vehicle is running along a straight road, no problem arises, as shown in FIG. 1A. However, when the vehicle is running along a curved road, the headlights cannot appropriately brighten the forward road surface also as shown in FIG. 1A.
To overcome this problem, there has been proposed an apparatus which can swing the headlights right and left on the basis of angular positions of the steering wheel. In this apparatus, since the headlight is turned to the left or the right in accordance with the turning direction of the steering wheel, this apparatus is convenient to a certain extent.
In the prior art headlight moving apparatus as described above; however, since the vehicle turning direction is indirectly detected on the basis of the angular position of the steering wheel, when the driver rotates the steering wheel in the reverse direction to correct an excessive vehicle turning motion after the vehicle has almost turned a curved road, the vehicle running direction does not necessarily match the steering wheel angular position, thus resulting in a problem in that the headlights cannot appropriately brighten the forward road surface toward which the vehicle runs, as shown by solid lines in FIG. 1B. In other words, the prior art headlight moving apparatus involves a problem in that the headlight position is subjected to various factors such as the degree of driver's driving skill, vehicle speed, road surface conditions, vehicle characteristics, etc. This is because the vehicle running conditions are not direclty detected but detected indirectly on the basis of the angular position of the steering wheel.