US 12,420,876 B2
Deployable diffuser
Andrew McAllister, Newport Coast, CA (US); Zackery Patrick Borton, Howell, MI (US); Jeremy Green, Wiltshire (GB); and Veselin Angelov, West Midlands (GB)
Assigned to Rivian IP Holdings, LLC
Filed by Rivian IP Holdings, LLC, Irvine, CA (US)
Filed on May 17, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/746,084.
Prior Publication US 2023/0373573 A1, Nov. 23, 2023
Int. Cl. B62D 35/00 (2006.01); B62D 35/02 (2006.01)
CPC B62D 35/007 (2013.01) [B62D 35/02 (2013.01)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system, comprising:
a diffuser disposed at a rear portion of a vehicle, a side of the diffuser positioned to face a surface on earth located under the vehicle;
an actuator, coupled with the diffuser, configured to deploy the diffuser from a first position to a second position to adjust drag on the vehicle;
a sensor configured to detect a surrounding area of the diffuser; and
one or more processors, in communication with the sensor and the actuator, configured to:
identify a mode of operation of the vehicle;
transmit a command to the actuator to move the diffuser to a plurality of positions for the mode of operation of the vehicle;
monitor performance of the vehicle at each of the plurality of positions;
generate a ranking of the plurality of positions based on the performance;
update a lookup table with one or more of the plurality of positions based on the ranking;
determine, based on input from the sensor, the lookup table, and the mode of operation, a position to which to move the diffuser; and
transmit a command to the actuator to cause the actuator to move the diffuser to the position determined based on the input from the sensor and the mode of operation of the vehicle.