SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PRE-HILL CRUISE SPEED ADJUSTMENT

• US 20170129492A1
• Filed: 11/09/2015
• Published: 05/11/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cummins Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Cummins Incorporated
• Inventors: Follen, Kenneth, Sujan, Vivek A.
• Granted Patent: US 10,023,188 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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: B60W 30/143 Speed control B60W30/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/0097 Predicting future conditions

Abstract

A system, method, and apparatus includes management of cruise speed in anticipation of upcoming terrain changes. A cruise speed controller can be structured to predict a change in speed of vehicle in light of an upcoming terrain feature, and lead a change in reference speed to which the cruise speed controller is regulating vehicle speed to accommodate the upcoming terrain feature. In one embodiment a physics based model of the vehicle is used to predict a speed change. If predicted speed change exceeds a threshold, the cruise speed controller will initiate a change in speed to either speed up for an upcoming uphill terrain feature, or slow down for an upcoming downhill feature. In one form the distance in advance of the terrain feature as well as the velocity change profile (acceleration or deceleration) are determined by computation of a regression formula.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

operating a vehicle having a powertrain and a vehicle speed controller structured to regulate a speed of the vehicle, the vehicle speed controller being engaged during the operating at a cruise reference speed to regulate the speed of the vehicle;

computationally predicting a speed change of the vehicle as a result of an upcoming terrain grade of a throughway upon which the vehicle is travelling; and

at an initiation distance in advance of the upcoming terrain grade, automatically initiating a change in speed of the vehicle while the speed controller is engaged.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle speed controller includes a cruise control structured to regulate aide speed about a reference speed, wherein the initiation distance is a constant and wherein the change in speed is a constant rate of change of velocity with respect to distance

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the predicted speed change is based upon a performance model of the vehicle structured to predict change in velocity in light of a look ahead window of the upcoming terrain grade upon which the vehicle is predicted to traverse.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the reference speed is computed by adding a delta command to an operator set speed and regulating vehicle speed to the summation of set speed and the delta command, wherein the delta command is time varying.

5. The method of claim 1, which further includes modifying a controller mode signal to reflect the automatically initiating a speed change in the vehicle.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the automatically initiating a change in speed of the vehicle occurring only upon satisfying an inequality that compares the computationally predicted speed change of the vehicle with a threshold speed change.

7. The method of claim 6, which further includes computing the initiation distance and the change in speed while the speed controller is engaged, where the initiation distance is calculated according to vehicle regression as a function of speed change.

8. An apparatus comprising:

a speed based controller for a vehicle having propulsive engine, the speed based controller structured to;

retain a commanded speed in the form of an operator set speed of the speed based controller to which speed of the vehicle will be regulated;

estimate a change in speed of the vehicle in light of upcoming terrain; and

trigger a change in commanded speed of the vehicle when the estimated change in speed of the vehicle satisfies a threshold inequality condition.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the change in commanded speed is accomplished by substituting the operator set speed with a reference speed representative of the change in commanded speed of the vehicle, and wherein an operator'"'"'s set speed is stored in memory of the speed based controller and is established by a query to electronic memory.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the substitution is accomplished by adding a delta speed to the reference speed, the delta speed representative of a desired change of speed from the reference speed.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the delta speed is calculated according to the formula V(i+1)=V(i)+a*dx where ‘

i’

represents an index to velocity at a distance position ‘

i’

, ‘

a’

is a rate of change of velocity with respect to distance, and dx is the distance traveled by the vehicle between distance points ‘

i’ and

‘

i+1’

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the rate of change in speed ‘

a’

is determined according to a regression as a function of the speed change.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the change in speed estimated by the controller is based upon a performance model of the vehicle structured to predict change in velocity in light of a change in grade of terrain upon which the vehicle is predicted to traverse.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the change in commanded speed of the vehicle is triggered when the change in speed estimated by the controller satisfies an inequality conditional relative to a threshold change in speed.

15. An apparatus comprising:

a vehicle having a propulsive engine; and

a vehicle cruise control system configured to regulate operation of the engine by increasing or decreasing power to the driveline, the control system having a physics based estimator structured to predict a speed change of the vehicle in light of upcoming terrain data, the control system structured to change speed of the vehicle over a predetermined distance in advance of the terrain data that gives rise to the speed change of the vehicle.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the predetermined distance is calculated based upon the predicted speed change of the vehicle.

17. The apparatus claim 15, wherein the change in speed and the fixed distance are constants stored in electronic memory.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the terrain data is a discretized set of data points representative of terrain.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the data points representative of terrain are values that represent terrain grade at an upcoming position relative to the vehicle position.

20. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the data points are distributed at defined intervals, wherein the change in speed over a distance interval is accomplished by adjusting set speed of the cruise control system.

21. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein a mode of the control system is altered the control system triggers a change in speed of the vehicle, the mode to which the control system is altered including one of a pre-uphill speed up mode, and a pre-downhill slow down mode.