Acceleration Sensation Evaluating Device and Vehicle Controller

• US 20090043428A1
• Filed: 07/04/2006
• Published: 02/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/05/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Kokubun, Mitsuteru, Matsunaga, Akio, Yasuda, Eiichi, Nozaki, Yusuke, Shimada, Masanori, Takei, Kazukata, Terazawa, Noriyoshi, Ono, Eiichi, Mizuno, Masahiko
• Granted Patent: US 8,073,576 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2040/0881 Seat occupation; Driver or passenger presence
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/09 Driving style or behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/107 Longitudinal acceleration

Abstract

The present invention provides an acceleration sensation evaluating device that evaluates a sensory acceleration of a driver with respect to an expectation value of acceleration, and a vehicle controller that controls a vehicle according to the evaluation results. The evaluation device detects an amount of operation of the vehicle by the driver of when the vehicle is accelerated, detects an amount of vehicle behavior, computes a physical quantity of an expectation value indicating the expectation value of an acceleration performance which the driver expects based on the detected values, computes a sensory physical quantity indicating a sensation of the acceleration which the driver senses, and computes an evaluation value of the acceleration sensation based on difference or ratio between the physical quantity of the expectation value and the sensory physical quantity.

Claims

1. An acceleration sensation evaluating device comprising:

an operation amount detecting section that detects an amount of operation of a vehicle by a driver when the vehicle is accelerated;

a vehicle/person behavior detecting section that detects an amount of vehicle behavior, or the amount of vehicle behavior and an amount of driver behavior;

an expectation value physical quantity computing section that computes as a physical quantity that the driver sense as a somatic sensation, a physical quantity of an expectation value indicating the expectation value of an acceleration performance that the driver expects, based on the detected value of the operation amount detecting section and the detected value of the vehicle/person behavior detecting section;

a sensory physical quantity computing section that computes, as a physical quantity that the driver sense as a somatic sensation, a sensory physical quantity indicating a sensation of the acceleration which the driver senses, based on the detected value of the vehicle/person behavior detecting section;

a comparing/computing section that compares the physical quantity of the expectation value with the sensory physical quantity and outputs a comparison result; and

an evaluation value computing section that computes an evaluation value of the acceleration sensation based on the output of the comparing/computing section.

2. The acceleration sensation evaluating device according to claim 1, further comprising a driver psychological characteristic compensating section that corrects the physical quantity of the expectation value in order to compensate for the psychological characteristic of the driver according to a running environment.

3. The acceleration sensation evaluating device according to claim 1, wherein the expectation value physical quantity computing section comprises:

a vehicle front/rear acceleration computing section that computes the vehicle front/rear acceleration based on a throttle opening, a speed change gear of a transmission, a vehicle weight, vehicle speed, and running road information;

a response characteristic filter element that corrects and outputs the vehicle front/rear acceleration according to a response characteristic based on the running road information; and

a differentiating element that differentiates the output value from the response characteristic filter element.

4. The acceleration sensation evaluating device according to claim 1, wherein the sensory physical quantity computing section comprises:

a cutaneous sensation acceleration computing section that computes and outputs, based on an amount of change of a pushing load acting on a back of the driver before and after the acceleration, when the back of the driver is pushed against a seatback due to the front/rear oscillation of the driver at acceleration, a front/rear acceleration equivalent to the amount of change as a cutaneous sensation acceleration; and

a differentiating element that differentiates the output value from the cutaneous sensation acceleration computing section and outputs the differentiation result as a cutaneous sensation front/rear jerk.

5. The acceleration sensation evaluating device according to claim 4,

wherein the vehicle/person behavior detecting section detects a front/rear acceleration of the head of the driver, a front/rear acceleration of a shoulder of the driver, and a pitch angle of the shoulder of the driver, and

the sensory physical quantity computing section comprises a deep sensation acceleration computing section that computes a front/rear jerk of a neck of the driver and as deep sensation acceleration, based on the front/rear acceleration of the head of the driver, the front/rear acceleration of the shoulder of the driver, and the pitch angle of the shoulder of the driver.

6. A vehicle controller comprising:

an operation amount detecting section that detects an amount of operation of a vehicle by a driver when the vehicle is accelerated;

a vehicle/person behavior detecting section that detects an amount of vehicle behavior, or the amount of vehicle behavior and an amount of driver behavior;

an expectation value physical quantity computing section that computes, as a physical quantity that the driver sense as a somatic sensation, a physical quantity of an expectation value indicating the expectation value of an acceleration performance which the driver expects, based on the detected value of the operation amount detecting section and the detected value of the vehicle/person behavior detecting section;

a sensory physical quantity computing section that computes, as a sensory physical quantity that the driver sense as a somatic sensation, a sensory physical quantity indicating a sensation of the acceleration which the driver senses, based on the detected value of the vehicle/person behavior detecting section;

a comparing/computing section that compares the physical quantity of the expectation value with the sensory physical quantity and outputs a comparison result;

a dead band section to which the output of the comparing/computing section is input and in which a human threshold characteristic is set to be a dead band;

a vehicle/human body response compensating section to which the output of the dead band section is input, and that compensates and outputs a response characteristic of the vehicle and the human body; and

a controlling section that controls the vehicle so as to obtain the acceleration performance which the driver expects based on the output of the vehicle/human body response compensating section.

7. The vehicle controller according to claim 6, wherein the controlling section controls at least one of an engine torque and a gear ratio of a transmission.

8. The vehicle controller according to claim 6,

wherein the expectation value physical quantity computing section comprises:

a vehicle front/rear acceleration computing section that computes a vehicle front/rear acceleration based on a throttle opening, a speed change gear of a transmission, a vehicle weight, vehicle speed, and running road information;

a response characteristic filter element that corrects and outputs the vehicle front/rear acceleration according to a response characteristic based on the running road information; and

a differentiating element that differentiates the output value from the response characteristic filter element.

9. The vehicle controller according to claim 6,

wherein the sensory physical quantity computing section comprises:

a load ratio difference computing section that computes and outputs, as a load ratio difference, an amount of change of a pushing load acting on a back of the driver before and after the acceleration, when the back of the driver is pushed against a seatback due to the front/rear oscillation of the driver at acceleration; and

a differentiating element that differentiates the output value from the load ratio difference computing section and outputs a differentiation result as a speed of the load ratio difference.

10. The vehicle controller according to claim 6, wherein the width of the dead band of the dead band section is changed according to the magnitude of the physical quantity of the expectation value.