VEHICLE CONTROL UNIT AND METHOD TO IMPROVE VEHICLE FUEL EFFICIENCY BASED ON AN ACCELERATION PARAMETER

• US 20180029611A1
• Filed: 07/31/2016
• Published: 02/01/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Incorporated (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Gage, Sergei I., Sato, Arata
• Granted Patent: US 9,873,438 B1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0026 Lookup tables or parameter maps
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/10 Longitudinal speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/105 Longitudinal acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/107 Longitudinal acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/14 Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/16 Tactile feedback to the driver, e.g. vibration or force feedback to the driver on the steering wheel or the accelerator pedal
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/84 Data processing systems or methods, management, administration

Abstract

Provided is a method and device for providing feedback for constant acceleration in a vehicle, which includes sampling velocity data at sample rate during an increase in a velocity rate over time to produce a plurality of sampled velocity data. An acceleration parameter is generated based on a difference of the sampled velocity data over a respective time interval. A determination is made as to whether the acceleration parameter indicates a constant acceleration. When the acceleration parameter does indicate a constant acceleration, a near real-time feedback signal is produced and announced to advise of the constant acceleration.

Claims

1. A method in a vehicle control unit, the method comprising:

sampling velocity data at sample rate during an increase in a velocity rate over time to produce a plurality of sampled velocity data;

generating an acceleration parameter based on a difference of the sampled velocity data over a respective time interval;

determining whether the acceleration parameter indicates a constant acceleration based on a linear increase trajectory of the velocity rate over time; and

when the acceleration parameter indicates the constant acceleration;

producing a near real-time feedback signal to advise of the constant acceleration; and

announcing, via an instrument cluster assembly, the near real-time feedback signal for affecting a vehicle operator'"'"'s acceleration behavior to maintain a desirable constant acceleration rate.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether the acceleration parameter indicates the constant acceleration by:

comparing the acceleration parameter with a projected linear rate-of-change velocity trend being based on at least in part on some of the plurality of the sampled velocity data over the respective time interval.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein further comprising:

scaling respective ones of a plurality of respective time intervals to an adjusted respective time interval based on an initial acceleration parameter exceeding a threshold for an initial time interval.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the acceleration parameter is a positive acceleration parameter.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sensing the increase in the velocity rate over time by an accelerometer sensor device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the accelerometer sensor device comprising at least one of:

a capacitative accelerometer;

a piezoelectric accelerometer;

a semiconductor accelerometer; and

a hall-effect accelerometer.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the announcing the near real-time feedback signal comprising at least one of:

displaying a visual indicator;

providing a haptic indication; and

providing an audible indication.

8. A method in a vehicle control unit, the method comprising:

sensing an increase in a velocity rate over time;

sampling velocity data at a sample rate during the increase in the velocity rate over time to produce a plurality of sampled velocity data;

generating an acceleration parameter for a first time interval, wherein the acceleration parameter reflects a difference of the sampled velocity data over the first time interval;

generating a subsequent acceleration parameter based on the difference of the sampled velocity data over a second time interval;

determining whether the subsequent acceleration parameter indicates constant acceleration based on a linear increase trajectory in the velocity rate over time with respect to the initial acceleration parameter; and

when the subsequent acceleration parameter indicates the constant acceleration;

producing a near real-time feedback signal to advise of the constant acceleration; and

announcing, via an instrument cluster assembly, the near real-time feedback signal for affecting a vehicle operator'"'"'s acceleration behavior.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the determining whether the subsequent acceleration parameter indicates the constant acceleration by:

comparing the subsequent acceleration parameter with a projected linear rate-of-change velocity trend being based on at least in part on the initial acceleration parameter.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

normalizing the plurality of the sampled velocity data to minimize aberrations in the plurality of sampled velocity data produced under different operational conditions.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

sensing the increase in the velocity rate over time with an accelerometer sensor device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the accelerometer sensor device comprising at least one of:

a capacitative accelerometer;

a piezoelectric accelerometer;

a semiconductor accelerometer; and

a hall-effect accelerometer.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the announcing the near real-time feedback signal comprising at least one of:

a visual indication signal;

a haptic indication signal to either of a vehicle control surface and a handheld user device; and

a resistance indication signal to either of a vehicle control surface and a handheld user device.

14. A vehicle control unit comprising:

a wireless communication interface to service communication with a handheld user device of a vehicle user and with a vehicle network;

a processor coupled to the wireless communication interface and in communication with a vehicle speed sensor device, the processor for controlling operations of the vehicle control unit; and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory for storing data and program instructions used by the processor, the processor configured to execute instructions stored in the memory to;

sample velocity data, produced by the vehicle speed sensor device, at sample rate during an increase in a velocity rate over time to produce a plurality of sampled velocity data;

generate an acceleration parameter for a time interval, wherein the acceleration parameter reflects a difference of the sampled velocity data with respect to the time interval;

determine whether the acceleration parameter indicates constant acceleration based on a linear increase trajectory in the velocity rate over time; and

when the acceleration parameter indicates the constant acceleration;

produce a near real-time feedback signal to advise of the constant acceleration; and

announce the near real-time feedback signal via the wireless communication interface for receipt by the handheld user device of a vehicle user to affect a vehicle operator'"'"'s acceleration behavior to maintain a desirable constant acceleration rate.

15. The vehicle control unit of claim 14, wherein the processor further configured to execute further instructions stored in the memory to determine whether the acceleration parameter indicates the constant acceleration by:

comparing the acceleration parameter with a slope of a projected linear rate-of-change velocity trend based on at least some of the plurality of the sampled velocity data.

16. The vehicle control unit of claim 14, wherein the processor further configured to execute further instructions stored in the memory to scale a subsequent time interval to an adjusted time interval based on an acceleration parameter exceeding a threshold for the time interval.

17. The vehicle control unit of claim 14, wherein the acceleration parameter comprising a positive acceleration parameter.

18. The vehicle control unit of claim 14, wherein the processor is in communication with an acceleration sensor device to sense the increase in the velocity rate over time.

19. The vehicle control unit of claim 18, wherein the acceleration sensor device comprises at least one of:

a capacitative accelerometer;

a piezoelectric accelerometer;

a semiconductor accelerometer; and

a hall-effect accelerometer.

20. The vehicle control unit of claim 14, wherein the processor being further configured to execute further instructions stored in the memory to announce the near real-time feedback signal by at least one of:

displaying a visual indicator;

providing a haptic indication to either of a vehicle control surface and the handheld user device; and

providing a resistance indication to either of the vehicle control surface and the handheld user device.