SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING EFFECTIVE ROAD GRADE CHARACTERISTIC

• US 20150166073A1
• Filed: 04/14/2014
• Published: 06/18/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: D'Amato, Anthony Mario, Michelini, John Ottavio, Szwabowski, Steven Joseph, Filev, Dimitar Petrov, Mullen, Jonathan Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 9,616,898 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/10 Longitudinal speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/105 Longitudinal acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/10 Accelerator pedal position
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/15 Road slope, i.e. the inclination of a road segment in the longitudinal direction
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/076 Slope angle of the road

Abstract

A vehicle system includes a computer in a vehicle, and the computer includes a processor and a memory. The computer is configured to determine an operational state of a vehicle, calculate a road grade value from data from a first sensor, calculate an effective road grade value from a torque demand value, update modeling variables to map the road grade value substantially to the effective grade value when the operation state is determined to be a steady-state condition, and calculate a road grade characteristic with the road grade value and the modeling variables.

Claims

1. A system comprising a computer in a vehicle, the computer comprising a processor and a memory, wherein the computer is configured to:

determine an operational state of a vehicle;

calculate a road grade value from data from a first sensor;

calculate an effective grade value from a torque demand value;

update modeling variables to map the road grade value substantially to the effective grade value when the operation state is determined to be a steady-state condition; and

calculate a road grade characteristic with the road grade value and the modeling variables.

2. The vehicle system of claim 1, wherein the computer is further configured to estimate the torque demand value from collected data.

3. The vehicle system of claim 2, wherein the collected data includes at least one of vehicle speed data, requested torque data, and vehicle acceleration data.

4. The vehicle system of claim 1, wherein the first sensor is an accelerometer sensor.

5. The vehicle system of claim 4, wherein the road grade value is calculated from data from the first sensor and a vehicle speed sensor.

6. The vehicle system of claim 1, wherein the modeling variables are updated with a least-squares calculation.

7. A method comprising:

determining an operational state of a vehicle;

calculating a road grade value from data from a first sensor;

calculating an effective grade value from a torque demand value;

updating modeling variables to map the road grade value substantially to the effective grade value when the operation state is determined to be a steady-state condition; and

calculating a road grade characteristic with the road grade value and the modeling variables.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising estimating the torque demand value from collected data.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the collected data includes at least one of vehicle speed data, requested torque data, and vehicle acceleration data.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the first sensor is an accelerometer sensor.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the road grade value is calculated from data from the first sensor and a vehicle speed sensor.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the modeling variables are updated with a least-squares calculation.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium tangibly embodying computer-executable instructions that cause a processor to execute operations comprising:

determining an operational state of a vehicle;

calculating a road grade value from data from a first sensor;

calculating an effective grade value from a torque demand value;

updating modeling variables to map the road grade value substantially to the effective grade value when the operation state is determined to be a steady-state condition; and

calculating a road grade characteristic with the road grade value and the modeling variables.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, the operations further comprising estimating the torque demand value from collected data.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the collected data includes at least one of vehicle speed data, requested torque data, and vehicle acceleration data.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the first sensor is an accelerometer sensor.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the road grade value is calculated from data from the first sensor and a vehicle speed sensor.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the modeling variables are updated with a least-squares calculation.