Road surface state estimating apparatus, road surface friction state estimating apparatus, road surface state physical quantity calculating apparatus, and road surface state announcing apparatus
First Claim
1. A road surface state estimating apparatus comprising a tire-generated sound detector for detecting a tire-generated sound that is generated from a tire while a vehicle is running;
- a calculator for calculating at least one feature quantity corresponding to a road surface state and tire-generated sound sources from the tire-generated sound detected by the tire-generated sound detector;
a storage device for storing feature quantities, each quantity corresponding to a road surface state and tire-generated sound source, in such a manner that the feature quantities are correlated with a plurality of road surface states, respectively; and
an estimating device for estimating a state of a road surface on which the vehicle is running on the basis of the feature quantity calculated by the calculator and the feature quantities stored in the storage device.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A tire-generated sound detection sensor detects a tire-generated sound that is generated from a tire while the vehicle is running. A wheel rotation sensor detects a wheel rotation speed. A preprocessor calculates feature quantities corresponding to a road surface state and tire-generated sound sources. A feature vector generator generates a feature vector having, as components, the feature quantities calculated by the preprocessor and the detected wheel rotation speed. A judgment processor estimates a state of a road surface on which the vehicle is running on the basis of the feature vector generated by the feature vector generator and feature vectors that are stored in a judgment map memory so as to be correlated with a plurality of road surface states, respectively, and each of which corresponds to a road surface state and tire-generated sound sources.
47 Citations
27 Claims
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1. A road surface state estimating apparatus comprising
a tire-generated sound detector for detecting a tire-generated sound that is generated from a tire while a vehicle is running; -
a calculator for calculating at least one feature quantity corresponding to a road surface state and tire-generated sound sources from the tire-generated sound detected by the tire-generated sound detector;
a storage device for storing feature quantities, each quantity corresponding to a road surface state and tire-generated sound source, in such a manner that the feature quantities are correlated with a plurality of road surface states, respectively; and
an estimating device for estimating a state of a road surface on which the vehicle is running on the basis of the feature quantity calculated by the calculator and the feature quantities stored in the storage device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 20)
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9. A road surface friction state estimating apparatus comprising:
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a detector for detecting a feature quantity indicating a road surface state;
a storage device for storing road surface friction states that are friction states between road surfaces and a tire in such a manner that the road surface friction states are correlated with a plurality of feature quantities indicating different road surface states, respectively;
an estimating device for estimating a road surface friction state of the road surface, the road surface corresponding to the feature quantity which is detected by the detector, on the basis of the feature quantities detected by the detector and the road surface friction states stored in the storage device; and
a corrector for correcting a road surface friction state stored in the storage device on the basis of a pre-detected road surface friction state of the road surface, the road surface corresponding to the feature quantity which is detected by the detector, and the road surface friction state estimated by the estimating device. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11)
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13. A road surface friction state estimating apparatus comprising:
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a first detector for detecting feature quantity indicating a road surface state of a road surface on which a vehicle is running;
a second detector for detecting a feature quantity indicating a road surface state of a forward road surface;
a synchronizer for synchronizing a feature quantity detected by the second detector with the feature quantities detected by the first detector of a road surface, the road surface corresponding to the feature quantity which was detected by the second detector;
a storage device for storing road surface friction states that are friction states between road surfaces and a tire in such a manner that the road surface friction states are correlated with a plurality of feature quantities indicating different road surface states, respectively; and
an estimating device for estimating a road surface friction state of the road surface, the road surface corresponding to the feature quantity which is detected by the first detector, on the basis of the feature quantity detected by the first detector, the feature quantity detected by the second detector and synchronized by the synchronizer, and the road surface friction states stored in the storage device. - View Dependent Claims (14)
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15. A road surface state physical quantity calculating apparatus comprising:
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a detector for detecting at least one of saturation information, luminance information, hue information, and intensity information of a forward road surface on which a vehicle will run; and
a calculator for calculating a road surface state physical quantity on the basis of at least one of saturation information, luminance information, hue information, and intensity information of the forward road surface detected by the detector and a parameter to be used for calculating a road surface state physical quantity indicating a road surface state, wherein the calculator corrects the parameter on the basis of at least one of saturation information, luminance information, hue information, and intensity information of the forward road surface detected by the detector, and calculates a road surface state physical quantity indicating a road surface state on the basis of the corrected parameter and at least one of saturation information, luminance information, hue information, and intensity information of the forward road surface detected by the detector. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17)
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18. A road surface state estimating apparatus comprising:
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a storage device for storing road surface state physical quantities determined on the basis of at least one of saturation information, luminance information, hue information, and intensity information and indicating road surface states of a plurality of road surfaces, respectively, in such a manner that the road surface state physical quantities are correlated with the respective road surface states;
a detector for detecting at least one of saturation information, luminance information, hue information, and intensity information of a forward road surface; and
an estimating device for estimating a road surface state of the forward road surface on the basis of at least one of saturation information, luminance information, hue information, and intensity information of the forward road surface detected by the detector and the road surface state physical quantities stored in the storage device. - View Dependent Claims (19)
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21. A road surface state announcing apparatus comprising:
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a current road surface state detector for detecting a road surface state of a current road surface on which a vehicle mounted is running;
a forward road surface state detector for detecting a road surface state of a forward road surface; and
an announcing device for comparing the road surface state of the current road surface detected by the current road surface ill state detector and the road surface state of the forward road surface detected by the forward road surface state detector, and for making an announcement about a post-variation road surface state if one of the road surface state of the current road surface and the road surface state of the forward road surface has varied. - View Dependent Claims (22)
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23. A road surface state announcing apparatus comprising:
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a current road surface state detector for detecting a road surface state of a current road surface on which a vehicle is running;
a forward road surface state detector for detecting a road surface state of a forward road surface;
a synchronizer for synchronizing a road surface state of a forward road surface detected by the forward road surface state detector with the road surface state of the current road surface detected by the current road surface state detector; and
an announcing device for making an announcement about a road surface state of the current road surface on the basis of the road surface state of the current road surface detected by the current road surface state detector and the road surface state of the forward road surface detected by the forward road surface state detector and synchronized by the synchronizer with the road surface state of the current road surface detected by the current road surface state detector.
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24. A road surface friction state estimating apparatus comprising:
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a road surface state detector for detecting a road surface state of a road surface on which a vehicle in running;
a road surface friction state estimating device for estimating a road surface friction state as a friction state between the road surface and a tire of the vehicle; and
a final road surface friction state estimating device for estimating a final road surface friction state on the basis of the road surface state detected by the road surface state detector and the road surface friction state estimated by the road surface friction state estimating device. - View Dependent Claims (25)
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26. A road surface state estimating apparatus comprising:
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a tire-generated sound detector for detecting a tire-generated sound that is generated from a tire while a vehicle is running;
a wheel rotation speed detector for detecting a wheel rotation speed;
a storage device for storing a relationships between feature quantities corresponding to tire-generated sound sources and a wheel rotation speed in such a manner that the sets of coefficients are correlated with a plurality of road surface states, respectively; and
an estimating device for estimating a road surface state on the basis of the tire-generated sound detected by the tire-generated sound detector, the wheel rotation speed detected by the wheel rotation speed detector, and the coefficients stored in the storage device. - View Dependent Claims (27)
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Specification