Vehicle stability enhancement control adaptation to driving skill

• US 20070145819A1
• Filed: 04/06/2006
• Published: 06/28/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations Incorporated (General Motors Company)
• Inventors: Chin, Yuen-Kwok, Lin, William, Lu, Manxue
• Granted Patent: US 7,537,293 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 303/146
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2220/02 Driver type; Driving style; Driver adaptive features
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2230/02 Side slip angle, attitude angle, floating angle, drift angle
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 8/172 Determining control parameters used in the regulation, e.g. by calculations involving measured or detected parameters B60T8/17551 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 8/17552 responsive to the tire sideslip angle or the vehicle body slip angle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/18 including control of braking systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/20 including control of steering systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/22 including control of suspension systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0028 Mathematical models, e.g. for simulation
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/02 Control of vehicle driving stability
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/09 Driving style or behaviour

Abstract

A vehicle stability enhancement (VSE) system that is adapted for driver skill level. The system includes a driver skill recognition processor that determines the driver skill level based on a driver model that uses certain parameters, such as a steering gain factor and a time delay factor. The driver skill level is used to adjust the damping ratio and natural frequency in dynamic filters in a dynamic command generator to adjust a desired yaw rate signal and a desired side-slip signal. The driver skill level is also used to generate a yaw rate multiplication factor and a side-slip multiplication factor that modify a yaw rate stability signal and a side-slip stability signal in a dynamic control computation processor that generates a stability control signal.

Claims

1. A vehicle stability enhancement system for providing vehicle stability control for a vehicle, said system comprising:

a driver skill recognition processor for providing a driver skill level signal indicative of the driving skill of a driver driving the vehicle;

a dynamic command generator responsive to vehicle operation signals and the driver skill level signal, said dynamic command generator generating a desired yaw rate signal and a desired side-slip signal; and

a dynamic control computation processor responsive to the driver skill level signal, the desired yaw rate signal, the desired side-slip signal, a measured yaw rate signal and a measured side-slip signal, said dynamic control computation processor generating a stability control signal for controlling the vehicle.

2. The system according to claim 1 wherein the driver skill recognition processor uses a driver model and vehicle parameters to determine the driver skill level signal.

3. The system according to claim 2 wherein the parameters include a steering gain factor and a time delay factor.

4. The system according to claim 2 wherein the driver model provides a model output that is an estimation of vehicle and driver responses based on vehicle and driver input data and an estimation error based on a vehicle response and a measured response.

5. The system according to claim 4 wherein the parameters are updated if the estimation error is greater than a predetermined threshold.

6. The system according to claim 2 wherein the driver model includes a driver dynamics model and a vehicle dynamics model.

7. The system according to claim 2 wherein the driver model includes a cross-over model.

8. The system according to claim 1 wherein the dynamic command generator includes a yaw rate command generator and a side-slip command generator, said yaw rate command generator including a first filter responsive to a steady-state yaw rate signal and using a damping ratio and a natural frequency to filter the steady-state yaw rate signal, said side-slip command generator including a second filter responsive to a steady-state side-slip signal and using the damping ratio and the natural frequency to filter the steady-state side-slip signal, said dynamic command generator further including a control command adaptation processor responsive to the driver skill level signal, where the control command adaptation processor changes the damping ratio and the natural frequency in the first and second filters depending on the driver skill level signal.

9. The system according to claim 1 wherein the dynamic control computation processor generates a first error signal as the difference between the desired yaw rate signal and the measured yaw rate signal and a second error signal as the difference between the desired side-slip signal and the measured side-slip signal, said dynamic control computation processor including a first look-up table that provides a yaw rate gain signal in response to the yaw rate error signal and a second look-up table that provides a side-slip gain signal in response to the side-slip error signal, said dynamic control processor further including a first multiplier that multiplies the yaw rate error signal times the yaw rate gain signal to generate a yaw rate stability signal and a second multiplier that multiplies the side-slip error signal times the side-slip gain signal to generate a side-slip stability signal, said dynamic control computation processor further including a control gain adaptation processor responsive to the driver skill level signal and generating a yaw rate multiplier factor and a side-slip multiplier factor, said dynamic control computation processor further including a third multiplier that multiplies the yaw rate stability signal times the yaw rate multiplier factor to generate a modified yaw rate stability signal and a fourth multiplier that multiplies the side-slip stability signal times the side-slip multiplier factor to generate a modified side-slip stability signal, said dynamic control computation processor further including an adder that adds the modified yaw rate stability signal and the modified side-slip stability signal to generate the stability control signal.

10. The system according to claim 9 wherein the control gain adaptation processor determines whether the vehicle is in an understeer condition before it determines the yaw rate multiplier factor, and sets the yaw rate multiplier factor to 1 if the vehicle is in an understeer condition.

11. The system according to claim 1 wherein the vehicle operation signals include a vehicle speed signal and a hand-wheel angle signal.

12. A vehicle stability enhancement system for providing vehicle stability control for a vehicle, said system comprising:

a driver skill recognition processor for providing a driver skill level signal indicative of the driving skill of a driver driving the vehicle, said driver skill recognition processor using a driver model and vehicle parameters to generate the driver skill level signal;

a dynamic command generator responsive to a vehicle speed signal, a hand-wheel angle signal and the driver skill level signal, said dynamic command generator generating a desired yaw rate signal and a desired side-slip signal, said dynamic command generator including a yaw rate command generator and a side-slip command generator, said yaw rate command generator including a first filter responsive to a steady-state yaw rate signal and using a damping ratio and a natural frequency to filter the steady-state yaw rate signal, said side-slip command generator including a second filter responsive to a steady-state side-slip signal and using the damping ratio and the natural frequency to filter the steady-state side-slip signal, said dynamic command generator further including a control command adaptation processor responsive to the driver skill level signal, where the control command adaptation processor changes the damping ratio and the natural frequency in the first and second filters depending on the driver skill level signal; and

a dynamic control computation processor responsive to the driver skill signal, the desired yaw rate signal, the desired side-slip signal, a measured yaw rate signal and a measured side-slip signal, said dynamic control computation processor generating a first error signal as the difference between the desired yaw rate signal and the measured yaw rate signal and a second error signal as the difference between the desired side-slip signal and the measured side-slip signal, said dynamic control computation processor including a first look-up table that provides a yaw rate gain signal in response to the yaw rate error signal and a second look-up table that provides a side-slip gain signal in response to the side-slip error signal, said dynamic control processor further including a first multiplier that multiplies the yaw rate error signal times the yaw rate gain signal to generate a yaw rate stability signal and a second multiplier that multiplies the side-slip error signal times the side-slip gain signal to generating a side-slip stability signal, said dynamic control computation processor further including a control gain adaptation processor responsive to the driver skill level signal and generates a yaw rate multiplier factor and a side-slip multiplier factor, said dynamic control computation processor further including a third multiplier that multiplies the yaw rate stability signal times the yaw rate multiplier factor to generate a modified yaw rate stability signal and a fourth multiplier that multiplies the side-slip stability signal times the side-slip multiplier factor to generate a modified side-slip stability signal, said dynamic control computation processor further including an adder that adds the modified yaw rate stability signal and the modified side-slip stability signal to generate a stability control signal.

13. The system according to claim 12 wherein the parameters include a steering gain factor and a time delay factor.

14. The system according to claim 12 wherein the driver model provides a model output that is an estimation of vehicle and driver responses based on vehicle and driver input data and an estimation error based on a vehicle response and a measured response.

15. The system according to claim 12 wherein the control gain adaptation processor determines whether the vehicle is in an understeer condition before it determines the yaw rate multiplier factor, and sets the yaw rate multiplier factor to 1 if the vehicle is an understeer condition.

16. A vehicle stability enhancement system for providing vehicle stability control for a vehicle, said system comprising:

a driver skill recognition processor for providing a driver skill level signal indicative of the driving skill of a driver driving the vehicle;

a dynamic command generator responsive to vehicle operation signals and the driver skill level signal, said driver skill level signal changing a damping ratio and a natural frequency in a filter in the dynamic command generator, said dynamic command generator generating at least one desired vehicle response signal; and

a dynamic control computation processor responsive to the driver skill level signal, the at least one desired vehicle response signal and at least one measured vehicle response signal, said dynamic control computation processor adjusting a multiplication factor for the at least one vehicle response signal, said dynamic control computation processor generating a stability control signal for controlling the vehicle.

17. The system according to claim 16 wherein the at least one desired vehicle response signal is a desired yaw rate signal and a desired side-slip signal and the at least one measured vehicle response signal is a measured yaw rate signal and a measured side-slip signal.

18. The system according to claim 16 wherein the driver skill recognition processor uses a driver model and vehicle parameters to determine the driver skill level signal.

19. The system according to claim 18 wherein the parameters include a steering gain factor and a time delay factor.

20. The system according to claim 18 wherein the driver model provides a model output that is an estimation of vehicle and driver responses based on vehicle and driver input data and an estimation error based on a vehicle response and a measured response.