Abstract: An improved motor vehicle automatic climate control methodology individually develops climate control commands in response to ambient environmental conditions and a transient state estimator, and individually and adaptively adjusts the commands to improve driver comfort in response to driver override of respective automatic control settings. The adaptive adjustment of the climate control commands is carried by CMAC neural networks that take into account the environmental conditions and the dynamic state of the system when the respective overrides occur so as to minimize or eliminate the environmental state ambiguity and steady-state/transient coupling that occur in currently known control methodologies.

Abstract: An improved motor vehicle automatic climate control methodology individually develops climate control commands in response to ambient environmental conditions and a transient state estimator, and individually and adaptively adjusts the commands to improve driver comfort in response to driver override of respective automatic control settings. The adaptive adjustment of the climate control commands is carried by CMAC neural networks that take into account the environmental conditions and the dynamic state of the system when the respective overrides occur so as to minimize or eliminate the environmental state ambiguity and steady-state/transient coupling that occur in currently known control methodologies.

Abstract: An air distribution module for a vehicle heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system receives a layered air-flow of an upper and lower layer for delivery to a vehicle interior. The air distribution module includes a housing defining a central plenum and an air inlet at an upstream side thereof for receiving the layered air-flow of first and second layers. At least a first arcuate duct is coupled to the housing and defines an inner passage wherein the arcuate duct further includes an inlet coupled to a downstream side of the housing and in fluidic communication with the plenum. The duct further includes an inversion loop for inverting the air-flow layers and an outlet for discharging the air into the vehicle interior.

Abstract: A reduced noise automotive ventilation system uses two blowers, a front mounted blower that pulls outside air in, and a rear mounted fan that exhausts interior air from the cabin space. By pulling and pushing in series, the speed of each blower is reduced, and the attendant blower noise is considerably reduced. In addition, a closed floor duct routes recirculated air from the rear to the front blower, eliminating the conventional open blower noise path to the vehicle interior in recirculation mode.

Abstract: A vehicle heating, air conditioning and ventilation system comprises a housing (10) within which an evaporator (12) and heater (14) are arranged generally in a diverging V shape enclosing a mixing space (M) between. All forced air passes through the evaporator (12) first, after which it is can go straight through to the mixing space (M), or be diverted down under the heater (14) to flow through the heater (14) and into the mixing space (M), or some combination of the two. The combination of cold and hot flows into the mixing space (M) is determined by a solid dividing wall (30), which partially blocks the evaporator (12) and heater (14) from one another, and a pair of separate rolling film belts (32, 34), one between the evaporator (12) and the dividing wall upstream side (36) and the other located between the dividing wall downstream side (38) and the heater (14).

Abstract: An improved performance and cost-effective control for an automatic motor vehicle HVAC system in which the system variables are controlled without regard to a measured in-car temperature during steady-state conditions, and in which the steady-state control is modified during transient conditions by a time-dependent open-loop compensation term, INCAR. The initial value of INCAR, a target value and a time rate of change are initialized as a function of environmental and system conditions at the onset of the transient condition. At ignition key-on, INCAR is initialized in accordance with an estimate of the in-car temperature, and exponentially adjusted toward a predetermined reference temperature (target), such as 75°, at a rate determined by the initial temperature, preferably with adjustments being made for door opening and closing.

Abstract: A photographic element contains at least one photosensitive silver halide emulsion layer having associated therewith a 5-pyrazolone photographic coupler represented by the formula: ##STR1## wherein substituents X.sub.1, X.sub.2, Y, G.sub.1, G.sub.2, G.sub.3, Z, and R.sub.1 may be as specified in the specification; a, b, and c are individually integers form 0 to 3 provided that "a" cannot be an integer which, combined with the selection of X.sub.1 and X.sub.2, allows the number of chloride substituents on the ring containing G.sub.1 to exceed 3; and the sum of the Hammett's sigma values for X.sub.1, X.sub.2, Y, G.sub.1, G.sub.2, and G.sub.3 is at least 1.3.