Psychoacoustic modelling of vehicle side mirror power-fold actuator noise characteristics

A study of vehicle side mirror power-fold actuator noise characteristic was undertaken, which seeks to correlate subjective evaluation with objective measurements as a basis for development of a product sound quality control algorithm. Psychoacoustic metrics were extracted from the product sound measurements and analysed for manufacturing quality assessment. Two approaches were explored in this study; one is a multiple metric sequential pass-through gate approach and the other is the least square fit regression approach, where measured relevant psychoacoustic metrics are modelled against subjective rating data provided by product sound quality evaluation experts. The ‘gate’ approach using sound pressure level, roughness, and tonality was successfully implemented to segregate bad power-fold actuators from good ones in terms of sound quality. A non-linear, two metric regression algorithm assessing what is a ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ actuator, was then developed and validated through comparison with a linear eight metric regression algorithm. Based on correlation of objective measurement and subjective evaluation results for given product samples, the diagnostic methodology developed in this research is applicable to other products for noise diagnostics and quality control.