VEHICLE WEIGHT CALCULATION DEVICE, WAVY ROAD, AND VEHICLE WEIGHT CALCULATION METHOD

• US 20150153216A1
• Filed: 07/05/2013
• Published: 06/04/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Abe, Tomoaki, Otsuki, Makoto
• Application Number:
  US14/418,657
• Publication Number:
  US 20150153216A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01G 19/08 for incorporation in vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01G 19/086 wherein the vehicle mass is dynamically estimated

Abstract

The purpose of the present invention is to make it possible to reduce the computation load for calculating vehicle weight and to allow vehicle weight to be computed with little error. Provided is a vehicle weight calculation device (10) that calculates the weight of a vehicle (1) and is provided with a storage unit (105) for associating and storing position information and angular frequencies of a wavy road, and a control unit (101) for computing the weight of the vehicle (1). The control unit (101) computes the weight of the vehicle (1) on the basis of the vertical acceleration of the vehicle (1) and the angular frequency of the wavy road corresponding to the current position of the vehicle (1) as stored by the storage unit (105).

Claims

1. A vehicle weight calculation apparatus that calculates a weight of a vehicle, the apparatus comprising:

a storage section that stores position information and an angular frequency of a bumpy road in association with each other; and

a control section that calculates the weight of the vehicle, wherein

the control section calculates the weight of the vehicle based on acceleration of the vehicle in a vertical direction and the angular frequency of the bumpy road corresponding to a current position of the vehicle stored in the storage section.

2. The vehicle weight calculation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control section calculates the weight of the vehicle based on a plurality of different angular frequencies of the bumpy road stored in the storage section and a plurality of accelerations of the vehicle in the vertical direction.

3. The vehicle weight calculation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the angular frequency of the bumpy road corresponding to the current position of the vehicle stored in the storage section is an angular frequency corresponding to displacement of the bumpy road in the vertical direction of the vehicle.

4. The vehicle weight calculation apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the storage section stores spring modulus k when a vibration model of the vehicle is modelled by a spring having spring modulus k, and

the control section calculates natural angular frequency ω

k of the spring from the plurality of different angular frequencies of the bumpy road stored in the storage section and the plurality of accelerations of the vehicle in the vertical direction, and calculates the weight of the vehicle as a product of spring modulus k stored in the storage section and a square of the natural angular frequency ω

k.

5. The vehicle weight calculation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an announcement section that is controlled by the control section and that announces that the vehicle is overloaded using sound information or optical information, wherein:

the storage section further stores a maximum weight of the vehicle; and

when the calculated weight of the vehicle is equal to or greater than the maximum weight of the vehicle stored in the storage section, the control section controls the announcement section so as to announce the overload.

6. The vehicle weight calculation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an acceleration sensor that detects acceleration of the vehicle in the vertical direction and that outputs the acceleration to the control section; and

a current position acquiring section that detects a current position of the vehicle and outputs the current position to the control section.

7. A bumpy road formed to calculate a weight of a vehicle, wherein the bumpy road is formed so as to be displaced at a predetermined angular frequency in a vertical direction of the vehicle.

8. The bumpy road according to claim 7, wherein the bumpy road is divided into a plurality of sections and formed so as to be displaced at a plurality of angular frequencies differing from one section to another.

9. The bumpy road according to claim 8, wherein the bumpy road comprises a flat road formed between a section being displaced at a predetermined angular frequency and a section being displaced at a different predetermined angular frequency.

10. A vehicle weight calculation method for calculating a weight of a vehicle, the method comprising calculating the weight of the vehicle based on acceleration of the vehicle in a vertical direction and an angular frequency of a bumpy road corresponding to a current position of the vehicle.

11. The vehicle weight calculation method according to claim 10, wherein the weight of the vehicle is calculated based on a plurality of accelerations of the vehicle in the vertical direction and a plurality of different angular frequencies of the bumpy road.

12. The vehicle weight calculation method according to claim 10, wherein the angular frequency of the bumpy road corresponding to the current position of the vehicle is an angular frequency corresponding to displacement of the bumpy road in the vertical direction of the vehicle.

13. The vehicle weight calculation method according to claim 11, wherein a vibration model of the vehicle is modelled by a spring having spring modulus k, natural angular frequency ω

k of the spring is calculated from the plurality of different angular frequencies of the bumpy road and a plurality of accelerations of the vehicle in the vertical direction, and a product of spring modulus k and a square of the natural angular frequency ω

k is calculated as the weight of the vehicle.