Method and Control System for Stabilizing a Vehicle

• US 20080275603A1
• Filed: 03/15/2006
• Published: 11/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Horn, Michael, Reith, Gunther, Abel, Mirja, Krober, Jurgen
• Granted Patent: US 8,271,159 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/29
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 17/0162 mainly during a motion involving steering operation, e.g. cornering, overtaking B60G17/0164 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2400/61 Load distribution
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2800/012 Rolling condition
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2800/9122 ARS - Anti-Roll System Control
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2800/9124 Roll-over protection systems, e.g. for warning or control
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2230/03 Overturn, rollover
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2250/02 Vehicle mass
• 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 8/1755 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: B60W 2520/14 Yaw
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/04 related to roll-over prevention
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/13 Load or weight
• CPC Class Codes: G01G 19/086 wherein the vehicle mass is dynamically estimated

Abstract

In order to adapt a method of stabilizing a vehicle, in particular for stabilizing the vehicle with respect to tilting movements, to the load condition of the vehicle, it is disclosed to perform a control method for the vehicle stabilization depending on a load condition of the vehicle, and the load condition of the vehicle is determined by way of a vehicle mass that is established due to a balance of forces that act on the vehicle, and/or by way of a characteristic speed of the vehicle.

Claims

1-22. -22. (canceled)

23. Method for stabilizing a vehicle, wherein a control method is used to determine correcting variables for the activation of at least one actuator, by means of which the driving performance of the vehicle can be influenced, the method comprising the steps of

Determining that a first predetermined driving situation prevails,

determining a balance of forces acting on the vehicle,

determining the vehicle mass based on the balance of forces,

determining a load condition of the vehicle based on the vehicle mass,

determining, based on the load condition, an activation threshold of a dynamic control variable pertaining to the vehicle behavior,

determining that the control variable has exceeded activation threshold, and

activating actuators influencing the control variable in a direction toward reducing the control variable to a value lower than the activation threshold.

24. The method as claimed in claim 23,

wherein one criterion of the first predetermined driving situation is a vehicle acceleration exceeding an acceleration threshold value.

25. The method as claimed in claim 23,

wherein one criterion of the first predetermined driving situation is an absolute value of a yaw rate of the vehicle being lower than a yaw rate threshold value.

26. The method as claimed in claim 23,

wherein one criterion of the first predetermined driving situation is an absolute value of a gradient of an engine torque being lower than an engine torque gradient threshold value.

27. The method as claimed in claim 23,

wherein the step of determining the vehicle mass is established by way of a learning algorithm including the substeps of

establishing individual instantaneous assessed values for the vehicle mass at different points in time in learning cycles, and

determining the vehicle mass from calculating an average of a current instantaneous assessed value with a previously determined vehicle mass.

28. The method as claimed in claim 27,

wherein the step of averaging involves weighting the current instantaneous assessed value of the vehicle mass with a smaller factor than a weighting factor applied to the previously determined vehicle mass for calculating the average.

29. The method as claimed in claim 28,

further including the step of counting a number of learning cycles of determining the prevalence of the first predetermined driving situation.

30. The method as claimed in claim 29,

including the further step of changing a criterion of the first predetermined driving situation depending on the number of learning cycles.

31. The method as claimed in claim 29,

wherein the criterion is more narrowly restricted with a rising number of learning cycles.

32. The method as claimed in claim 29,

wherein the ratio between the weighting factors depends on the number of the learning cycles.

33. The method as claimed in claim 23,

further comprising the steps of

determining that a second driving situation prevails, and

establishing a characteristic speed by means of the equation

$v_{\mathrm{ch}}^2=\frac{\frac{}{}}{}$

ψ



t ·

l ·

v 2 v ·

δ

- 

ψ



t ·

l

with

v_ch;

characteristic speed

dψ

/dt;

yaw rate of the vehicle

l;

wheel base of the vehicle

δ

;

steering angle

34. The method as claimed in claim 33,

wherein the second driving situation is a cornering maneuver.

35. The method as claimed in claim 33,

wherein the activation threshold value decreases with a reducing characteristic speed.

36. The method as claimed in claim 23,

wherein the activation threshold value is reduced with a rising vehicle mass.

37. The method as claimed in any one of claim 23,

wherein the dynamic control variable is a lateral acceleration of the vehicle.