SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ESTIMATING THE MASS OF A VEHICLE
First Claim
1. A method for estimating a vehicle mass, comprising the steps of:
- (a) determining an expected acceleration of the vehicle;
(b) determining an actual acceleration of the vehicle;
(c) comparing the expected acceleration to the actual acceleration; and
(d) using the comparison of the expected acceleration to the actual acceleration to determine a vehicle mass estimate.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A vehicle system and method that estimates or approximates the mass of a vehicle so that a more accurate vehicle mass estimate can be made available to other vehicle systems, such as an adaptive cruise control (ACC) system or an automated lane change (LCX) system. In an exemplary embodiment, the method compares an actual acceleration of the vehicle to an expected acceleration while the vehicle is under the control of an automated acceleration event. The difference between these two acceleration values, along with other potential input, may then be used to approximate the actual mass of the vehicle in a way that takes into account items such as passengers, cargo, fuel, etc. Once an accurate vehicle mass estimate is generated, the method may make this estimate available to other vehicle components, devices, modules, systems, etc. so that their performance can be improved.
55 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method for estimating a vehicle mass, comprising the steps of:
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(a) determining an expected acceleration of the vehicle; (b) determining an actual acceleration of the vehicle; (c) comparing the expected acceleration to the actual acceleration; and (d) using the comparison of the expected acceleration to the actual acceleration to determine a vehicle mass estimate. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method for estimating a vehicle mass, comprising the steps of:
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(a) determining if the vehicle is under the control of an autonomous acceleration event; (b) evaluating the velocity and/or acceleration of the vehicle while the vehicle is under the control of the autonomous acceleration event, wherein the velocity and/or acceleration of the vehicle is evaluated in a closed-loop manner; (c) using the results of the closed-loop evaluation to generate a vehicle mass estimate; and (d) providing the vehicle mass estimate to a vehicle module so that the vehicle module can generate one or more command signals.
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Specification