Assembly and method for monitoring the driving condition of a vehicle

• US 20030144776A1
• Filed: 11/25/2002
• Published: 07/31/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH, Texaco Ovonic Fuel Cell, LLC
• Original Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Inventors: Braun, Thomas, Landesfeind, Klaus
• Granted Patent: US 6,842,675 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/29
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2270/413 Plausibility monitoring, cross check, redundancy
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 8/1755 Brake regulation specially adapted to control the stability of the vehicle, e.g. taking into account yaw rate or transverse acceleration in a curve road vehicle drive control systems for control of driving stability otherwise than by controlling a particular sub-unit B60W30/02
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 8/885 using electrical circuitry

Abstract

The present invention relates to an arrangement for monitoring the driving condition of a vehicle, having means for generating a steering angle signal (L_w) and means for generating a transverse acceleration signal (a_y), means being provided for comparing a signal derived from the steering angle signal L_w to a maximum steering angle signal, means being provided for comparing a signal derived from the transverse acceleration signal (a_y) to a maximum transverse acceleration signal, and a variable (F) that describes the driving condition of the vehicle being derivable from the comparison. The present invention also relates to a method of monitoring the driving condition of a vehicle.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring the driving condition of a vehicle, comprising

means for generating a steering angle signal (L_w) and

means for generating a transverse acceleration signal (a_y),

wherein

means are provided for comparing a signal derived from the steering angle signal (L_w) to a maximum steering angle signal,

means are provided for comparing a signal derived from the transverse acceleration signal (a_y) to a maximum transverse acceleration signal, and

a variable (F) that describes the driving condition of the vehicle may be derived from the comparisons.

2. The system as recited in claim 1,

wherein

the steering signal and the transverse acceleration signal are each routable to a low-pass filter, a filtered steering angle signal and a filtered transverse acceleration signal being output by the low-pass filters,

means are provided for generating the absolute value of the difference between the steering angle signal and the filtered steering angle signal,

means are provided for generating the absolute value of the difference between the transverse acceleration signal and the filtered transverse acceleration signal, and

a variable that describes the driving condition of the vehicle may be derived from the absolute values.

3. The system as recited in claim 1 or 2,

wherein

the absolute value of the difference between the steering angle signal and the filtered steering angle signal is normalized to the maximum steering angle signal,

the absolute value of the difference between the transverse acceleration signal and the filtered transverse acceleration signal is normalized to the maximum transverse acceleration signal, and

a variable that describes the driving condition of the vehicle may be derived from the normalized absolute values.

4. The system as recited in one of the preceding claims, wherein a variable that describes the driving condition of the vehicle may be derived from the maximum of the normalized absolute values.

5. The system as recited in one of the preceding claims,

wherein

the absolute value of the difference between the steering angle signal and the filtered steering angle signal is compared to the maximum steering angle signal, and

the normalized absolute value of the difference between the steering angle signal and the filtered steering angle signal is assigned a value of 100%, if the absolute value of the difference between the steering angle signal and the filtered steering angle signal is greater than or equal to the maximum steering angle signal.

6. The system as recited in one of the preceding claims,

wherein

the absolute value of the difference between the transverse acceleration signal and the filtered transverse acceleration signal is compared to the maximum transverse acceleration signal, and

the normalized absolute value of the difference between the transverse acceleration signal and the filtered transverse acceleration signal is assigned a value of 100%, if the absolute value of the difference between the transverse acceleration signal and the filtered transverse acceleration signal is greater than or equal to the maximum transverse acceleration signal.

7. The system as recited in one of the preceding claims, wherein a change in the driving condition to the non-steady-state driving condition is taken over directly into the variable that describes the driving condition.

8. The system as recited in one of the preceding claims, wherein a change in the driving condition to the steady-state driving condition is taken over into the variable that describes the driving condition in such a manner as to limit the gradient over a time window.

9. A method of monitoring the driving condition of a vehicle, having the steps:

generation of a steering angle signal (L_w) (S1),

generation of a transverse acceleration signal (a_y) (T1),

wherein

a signal derived from the steering angle signal (L_w) is compared to a maximum steering angle signal (ST6),

a signal derived from the transverse acceleration signal (a_y) is compared to a maximum transverse acceleration signal (ST6), and

a variable that describes the driving condition of the vehicle is derived from the comparison (ST8).

10. The method as recited in claim 9,

wherein

the steering angle signal and the transverse acceleration signal are each routed to a low-pass filter, a filtered steering angle signal and a filtered transverse acceleration signal being output by the low-pass filters (S2, T2),

the absolute value of the difference between the steering angle signal and the filtered steering angle signal is generated (S3),

the absolute value of the difference between the transverse acceleration signal and the filtered transverse acceleration signal is generated (T3), and

a variable that describes the driving condition of the vehicle is derived from the absolute values (ST8).

11. The method as recited in claim 9 or 10,

wherein

the absolute value of the difference between the steering angle signal and the filtered steering angle signal is normalized to the maximum steering angle signal (ST7),

the absolute value of the difference between the transverse acceleration signal and the filtered transverse acceleration signal is normalized to the maximum transverse acceleration signal (ST7), and

a variable that describes the driving condition of the vehicle is derived from the normalized absolute values (ST8).

12. The method as recited in one of claims 9 through 11, wherein a variable that describes the driving condition of the vehicle is derived from the maximum of the normalized absolute values (ST7).

13. The method as recited in one of claims 9 through 12,

wherein

the absolute value of the difference between the steering angle signal and the filtered steering angle signal is compared to the maximum steering angle signal (ST6),

the normalized absolute value of the difference between the steering angle signal and the filtered steering angle signal is assigned a value of 100%, if the absolute value of the difference between the steering angle signal and the filtered steering angle signal is greater than or equal to the maximum steering angle signal.

14. The method as recited in one of claims 9 through 13,

wherein

the absolute value of the difference between the transverse acceleration signal and the filtered transverse acceleration signal is compared to the maximum transverse acceleration signal (ST6),

the normalized absolute value of the difference between the transverse acceleration signal and the filtered transverse acceleration signal is assigned a value of 100%, if the absolute value of the difference between the transverse acceleration signal and the filtered transverse acceleration signal is greater than or equal to the maximum transverse acceleration signal.

15. The method as recited in one of claims 9 through 14, wherein a change in the driving condition to a non-steady-state driving condition is taken over directly into the variable that describes the driving condition.

16. The method as recited in one of claims 9 through 15, wherein a change in the driving condition to a steady-state driving condition is taken over into the variable that describes the driving condition in such a manner as to limit the gradient over a time window.