VEHICLE TRAVEL CONTROL SYSTEM

• US 20110046835A1
• Filed: 04/14/2009
• Published: 02/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Taguchi, Koji
• Granted Patent: US 9,067,583 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/22
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/06 including control of combustion engines
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/08 including control of electric propulsion units, e.g. motors or generators
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 20/00 Control systems specially adapted for hybrid vehicles hybrid vehicle design, B60K6/00; electric vehicles B60L
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 20/12 using control strategies taking into account route information estimation or calculation of non-directly measurable driving parameters B60W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/20 Road profile, i.e. the change in elevation or curvature of a plurality of continuous road segments
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096827 where the route is computed onboard
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/62 Hybrid vehicles

Abstract

An ECU that integrally controls a vehicle travel control system includes an initial travel plan producing section which produces an initial travel plan including a decelerating interval in which an engine of a vehicle is stopped to decelerate the vehicle, a travel plan reconfiguring section which reconfigures the initial travel plan produced by the initial travel plan reconfiguring section, and a travel control section which controls travel of the vehicle based on a travel plan. When a non-stop state of the engine occurs while the vehicle is traveling, the travel plan reconfiguring section reconfigures the initial travel plan so that target deceleration in the decelerating interval in the initial travel plan is reset to new target deceleration that is larger deceleration.

Claims

1. A vehicle travel control system for controlling travel of a vehicle based on a travel plan, comprising a controller that includes:

an initial travel plan producing section which produces an initial travel plan including a decelerating interval in which an internal combustion engine of the vehicle is stopped to decelerate the vehicle; and

a first replanning section which replans the initial travel plan so that target deceleration in the decelerating interval is set larger than that in the initial travel plan when a non-stop state of the internal combustion engine occurs while the vehicle is traveling.

2. The vehicle travel control system according to claim 1, wherein the first replanning section replans the initial travel plan so that target acceleration in an accelerating interval that follows the decelerating interval is set larger than that in the initial travel plan when the non-stop state of the internal combustion engine occurs while the vehicle is traveling.

3. The vehicle travel control system according to claim 1,

wherein a driving system of the vehicle is a hybrid system in which the vehicle is driven by the internal combustion engine and a motor having a battery as a power source, and

the first replanning section replans the initial travel plan with new target deceleration in the decelerating interval which is a value that a product of maximum regenerative braking deceleration at which deceleration produces maximum regeneration and ideal heat efficiency of the internal combustion engine is divided by heat efficiency of the internal combustion engine and charge-discharge efficiency of the battery at the present time.

4. The vehicle travel control system according to claim 3, wherein the first replanning section replans the initial travel plan with new target acceleration which is a value that acceleration corresponding to an output limit of the battery is added to the target acceleration in an accelerating interval.

5. The vehicle travel control system according to claim 1, wherein the initial travel plan producing section estimates an estimated non-stop interval in which the internal combustion engine is brought into the non-stop state and produces the initial travel plan with use of a heat efficiency preferential evaluation equation for a case that the internal combustion engine is in the non-stop state.

6. The vehicle travel control system according to claim 1, wherein the controller further includes:

a provisional traveling time computing section which computes a provisional traveling time that a specified time is added to a traveling time for each interval in the initial travel plan;

a provisional travel plan producing section which produces a provisional travel plan by optimization process with a constraint condition being the provisional traveling time;

a provisional fuel consumption computing section which computes fuel consumption for each of the intervals in the provisional travel plan;

an expected fuel efficiency improvement computing section which computes an expected fuel efficiency improvement of the provisional travel plan with respect to the initial travel plan based on the fuel consumption for each of the intervals in the provisional travel plan and fuel consumption for each of the intervals in the initial travel plan;

a surplus traveling time computing section which subtracts a traveling time for each of the intervals in a travel plan replanned by the first replanning section from the traveling time for each of the intervals in the initial travel plan to calculate a surplus traveling time for each of the intervals; and

a second replanning section which replans the travel plan with a constraint condition being a traveling time that the surplus traveling time is added to the traveling time for the interval that the expected fuel efficiency improvement is the largest.

7. The vehicle travel control system according to claim 1, wherein the second replanning section replans the initial travel plan in response to a cause of the non-stop state of the internal combustion engine.

8. A vehicle travel control system for controlling travel of a vehicle based on a travel plan, comprising a controller that includes:

an initial travel plan producing section which estimates fuel consumption of the vehicle and produces an initial travel plan in consideration of a fuel consumption characteristic;

an actual fuel consumption computing section which computes an actual fuel consumption of the vehicle which travels based on the initial travel plan; and

a travel plan reconfiguring section which reconfigures a travel plan so that an expected fuel consumption becomes less than the initial travel plan if the actual fuel consumption exceeds the expected fuel consumption of the initial travel plan.

9. A vehicle travel control method for controlling travel of a vehicle based on a travel plan, comprising:

producing an initial travel plan including a decelerating interval in which an internal combustion engine of the vehicle is stopped to decelerate the vehicle; and

replanning the initial travel plan so that target deceleration in the decelerating interval is set larger than that in the initial travel plan when a non-stop state of the internal combustion engine occurs while the vehicle is traveling.

10. The vehicle travel control method according to claim 9, further comprising

replanning the initial travel plan so that target acceleration in an accelerating interval that follows the decelerating interval is set larger than the initial travel plan when the non-stop state of the internal combustion engine occurs while the vehicle is traveling.

11. The vehicle travel control system according to claim 9, further comprising:

calculating a provisional traveling time that a predetermined time is added to a traveling time for each interval of the initial travel plan;

producing a provisional travel plan by optimization process with a constraint condition being the provisional traveling time;

computing fuel consumption for each of the intervals in the provisional travel plan;

computing an expected fuel efficiency improvement of the provisional travel plan with respect to the initial travel plan based on the fuel consumption for each of the intervals in the provisional travel plan and fuel consumption for each of the intervals in the initial travel plan;

subtracting a traveling time for each of the intervals in a replanned travel plan from the traveling time for each of the intervals in the initial travel plan to compute a surplus traveling time for each of the intervals; and

further replanning the travel plan with a constraint condition being a traveling time that the surplus traveling time is added to the traveling time for the interval that the expected fuel efficiency improvement is the largest.