SELF-DRIVING VEHICLE WITH INTEGRATED ACTIVE SUSPENSION
First Claim
1. An active suspension system, comprising:
- a plurality of active suspension actuators capable of operation in at least three operational quadrants;
at least one forward-looking sensor capable of detecting a future road condition;
a location sensor for the vehicle;
a least one relative sensor indicating at least one of relative position and relative movement between the vehicle and the ground;
a sensor fusion system that determines an absolute position of the vehicle by using the information from the location sensor and the at least one relative sensor;
a memory system comprising a topographical map comprising of three-dimensional terrain information; and
an active suspension controller that receives information from the sensor fusion system and memory system and controls the active suspension system as a function of the topographical map.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A self-driving vehicle with an integrated fully-active suspension system. The fully-active suspension utilizes data from one or more sensors used for autonomous driving (e.g. vision, LIDAR, GPS) in order to anticipate road conditions in advance. The system builds a topographical map of the road surface. Suspension and road data is delivered back to the vehicle in order to change autonomous driving behavior including route planning. Energy storage is regulated based on a planned route. Forward and lateral acceleration feel is mitigated through active pitch and tilt compensation. The fully-active suspension pushes and pulls the suspension in three or more operational quadrants in order to deliver superior ride comfort, handling, and/safety of the vehicle.
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Citations
52 Claims
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1. An active suspension system, comprising:
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a plurality of active suspension actuators capable of operation in at least three operational quadrants; at least one forward-looking sensor capable of detecting a future road condition; a location sensor for the vehicle; a least one relative sensor indicating at least one of relative position and relative movement between the vehicle and the ground; a sensor fusion system that determines an absolute position of the vehicle by using the information from the location sensor and the at least one relative sensor; a memory system comprising a topographical map comprising of three-dimensional terrain information; and an active suspension controller that receives information from the sensor fusion system and memory system and controls the active suspension system as a function of the topographical map. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method of controlling a self-driving vehicle, comprising:
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receiving a driving plan that comprises an anticipated route for the vehicle; gathering road condition data for a variety of points along the route; determining a road roughness impact on the vehicle for at least a portion of the gathered points of road condition data; and adjusting the driving plan to reduce the road roughness impact on the vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. An intelligent energy storage system for a self-driving vehicle, comprising:
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an electrical bus capable of delivering power to a plurality of connected loads; an energy storage apparatus coupled to the electrical bus, wherein the energy storage is characterized by a state of charge, and wherein the energy storage can deliver energy to the plurality of connected loads; a power converter configured to provide power to the energy storage apparatus to set a state of charge; an electronic controller for a self-driving vehicle that calculates a driving plan comprising an anticipated route for the vehicle; and an algorithm that calculates energy usage for a variety of points along the route; wherein the state of charge of the energy storage apparatus is dynamically and predictively set during execution of the driving plan as a function of calculated energy usage for points along the route. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
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47. An active suspension system for a self-driving vehicle, comprising:
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a plurality of active suspension actuators, wherein an actuator is disposed at each wheel of the vehicle, and an actuator command creates a force between the vehicle chassis and the wheel; a self-driving controller that commands steering, acceleration, and deceleration of the vehicle; an active suspension controller in communication with the self-driving controller such that the active suspension controller receives feed-forward steering, acceleration, and deceleration signals from the self-driving controller; and an algorithm to mitigate acceleration-related passenger disturbance, wherein a compensation attitude is set using the active suspension actuators in response to the feed-forward steering, acceleration, and deceleration signals; the algorithm comprising commanding a pitch-up attitude during deceleration, a pitch-down attitude during acceleration, and a roll-in attitude during steering such that the side of the vehicle on the inside radius of the turn is lower than the outer side. - View Dependent Claims (48, 49, 50, 51, 52)
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Specification