Systems and methods for pre-hill cruise speed adjustment
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- operating a vehicle having a powertrain and a vehicle speed controller structured to regulate a speed of the vehicle, the vehicle speed controller being engaged during the operating at a cruise reference speed to regulate the speed of the vehicle;
calculating a predicted speed change of the vehicle as a result of an upcoming terrain grade of a throughway upon which the vehicle is travelling; and
at an initiation distance in advance of the upcoming terrain grade, automatically initiating a change in speed of the vehicle based on the predicted speed change while the speed controller is engaged.
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Abstract
A system, method, and apparatus includes management of cruise speed in anticipation of upcoming terrain changes. A cruise speed controller can be structured to predict a change in speed of vehicle in light of an upcoming terrain feature, and lead a change in reference speed to which the cruise speed controller is regulating vehicle speed to accommodate the upcoming terrain feature. In one embodiment a physics based model of the vehicle is used to predict a speed change. If predicted speed change exceeds a threshold, the cruise speed controller will initiate a change in speed to either speed up for an upcoming uphill terrain feature, or slow down for an upcoming downhill feature. In one form the distance in advance of the terrain feature as well as the velocity change profile (acceleration or deceleration) are determined by computation of a regression formula.
16 Citations
21 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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operating a vehicle having a powertrain and a vehicle speed controller structured to regulate a speed of the vehicle, the vehicle speed controller being engaged during the operating at a cruise reference speed to regulate the speed of the vehicle; calculating a predicted speed change of the vehicle as a result of an upcoming terrain grade of a throughway upon which the vehicle is travelling; and at an initiation distance in advance of the upcoming terrain grade, automatically initiating a change in speed of the vehicle based on the predicted speed change while the speed controller is engaged. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. An apparatus comprising:
a speed based controller for a vehicle having propulsive engine, the speed based controller structured to; retain a commanded speed in the form of an operator set speed of the speed based controller to which speed of the vehicle will be regulated; calculate a change in speed of the vehicle in light of upcoming terrain; and trigger a change in commanded speed of the vehicle in advance of the upcoming terrain when the calculated change in speed of the vehicle satisfies a threshold inequality condition. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. An apparatus comprising:
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a vehicle having a propulsive engine; and a vehicle cruise control system configured to regulate operation of the engine by increasing or decreasing power to the driveline, the control system having a physics based estimator structured to predict a speed change of the vehicle in light of upcoming terrain data, the control system structured to change speed of the vehicle over a predetermined distance in advance of the terrain data that gives rise to the speed change of the vehicle based on the predicted speed change. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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Specification