DRIVELINE DISENGAGEMENT AND COASTING MANAGEMENT

• US 20180265090A1
• Filed: 04/26/2018
• Published: 09/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cummins Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Cummins Incorporated
• Inventors: Sharma, Oruganti Prashanth, Follen, Kenneth M., Kinjawadekar, Tejas Shrikant, Sujan, Vivek Anand, Dempsey, Daniel Reed, Chunodkar, Apurva, Long, Nathanael G., Sandoval Leon, Jairo Andres
• Granted Patent: US 10,717,440 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/02 including control of driveline clutches
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/06 including control of combustion engines
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2030/1809 Without torque flow between driveshaft and engine, e.g. with clutch disengaged or transmission in neutral
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/10 Longitudinal speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/15 Road slope, i.e. the inclination of a road segment in the longitudinal direction
• 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 2710/021 Clutch engagement state
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/06 Combustion engines, Gas turbines
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2720/103 Speed profile
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/18072 Coasting
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/0097 Predicting future conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/06 Improving the dynamic response of the control system, e.g. improving the speed of regulation or avoiding hunting or overshoot
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/60 Other road transportation technologies with climate change mitigation effect

Abstract

A system, method, and apparatus include a controller structured to predict a change in speed of a vehicle in advance of upcoming terrain and inhibit a coasting event if the speed exceeds a limit. In one form a velocity of the vehicle is predicted using a physics based model of the vehicle within a look ahead window in front of a vehicle. Such a look ahead window can be distance or time based. In another, speed of a vehicle is monitored during a coasting event and is compared against a threshold to determine whether to remain coasting or re-engage an engine to a driveline. The threshold is a function of road grade, and permits a larger deviation from set speed at low grade than at high grade. The function can be based on road grade and vehicle weight.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

operating a vehicle having an engine and a coasting management controller structured to disengage the engine from a driveline to allow a coasting event;

computationally predicting a speed change of the vehicle as a result of an upcoming road condition upon which the vehicle is travelling; and

requesting disengagement of the engine from the driveline if predicted speed change remains within a limit regardless of a predicted change in speed of the vehicle with the engine is engaged to the driveline over the same upcoming road conditions.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the limit is a calibratible threshold over a calibratible distance.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the predicting a speed change occurs at a number of points in a window which includes upcoming terrain.

4. The method of claim 3, which further includes checking each point in the window against a limit.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the number of points are regularly spaced in the window, and wherein the requesting disengagement of the engine includes inhibiting a signal that requests disengagement when the predicted speed change falls outside of the limit.

6. The method of claim 4, which further includes a persistence counter such that the requesting disengagement occurs after a time period has elapsed as a result of a persistence counter determining that predicted speed change remains within the limit.

7. An apparatus comprising:

a coasting management controller for a vehicle having an engine structured to provide motive power to the vehicle, the coasting management controller structured to;

predict a future speed of the vehicle based upon a look-ahead road condition; and

request disengagement of the engine from the driveline if predicted speed change remains within a speed limit regardless of a predicted change in speed of the vehicle with the engine is engaged to the driveline over the same upcoming road conditions.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the coasting management controller is structured to query the speed limit from a calibration table.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein future speed is determined at a number of discrete points within a window, the window including information of upcoming road grade.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the coasting management controller is structured to evaluate each point in the window against the limit.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the limit is a fixed value over the entire window.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the controller further includes a persistence counter and a persistence threshold, the persistence counter counts the number of frames that the future speed remains within the limit, and wherein the controller is structured to delay the request for disengagement until the number of frames counted by the persistence counter meets the persistence threshold.

13. An apparatus comprising:

a vehicle having an internal combustion engine structured to provide motive power to a driveline; and

a coasting management controller configured to regulate engagement of the engine with the driveline to allow for a coasting event, the coasting control system having a speed estimator structured to predict a future speed of the vehicle in light of upcoming road conditions, the coasting control system structured to request disengagement of the engine from the driveline if future speed remains within a speed limit regardless of a predicted change in speed of the vehicle with the engine is engaged to the driveline over the same upcoming road conditions.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, which further includes a table that includes a plurality of values of limits from which the speed limit is determined, and wherein the coasting management controller is structured to query the speed limit from a calibration table.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein future speed is determined at a number of discrete points along a distance in front of the vehicle, the discrete points including information of upcoming road grade.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the coasting management controller is structured to evaluate each point in the window against the limit.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the speed limit is a fixed value over the entire window.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the controller further includes a persistence counter and a persistence threshold, the persistence counter counts the number of frames that the future speed remains within the limit, and wherein the controller is structured to delay the request for disengagement until the number of frames counted by the persistence counter meets the persistence threshold.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the discrete points are evenly spaced.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the discrete points are unevenly spaced.

21-40. -40. (canceled)