Apparatus for measuring the yaw rate of a vehicle

• US 5,274,576 A
• Filed: 12/09/1991
• Issued: 12/28/1993
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/1989
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Group Lotus PLC (Shu Fu Li)
• Original Assignee: Group Lotus PLC (Shu Fu Li)
• Inventors: Williams, David A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chin, Gary
• Application Number:
  US07/773,857
• Time in Patent Office: 750 Days
• Field of Search: 364/424.05, 364/565, 364/575, 364/571.01, 364/571.02, 73/1 D, 73/516 LM, 280/707, 280/772
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 17/018 characterised by the use of a specific signal treatment or control method
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 17/019 characterised by the type of sensor or the arrangement thereof B60G17/01941 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2400/0523 Yaw rate
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2400/104 lateral or transversal with regard to vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2400/204 Vehicle speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2400/208 of wheel rotation
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2400/41 Steering angle
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2600/12 Sampling or average detecting; Addition or substraction
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2600/604 low pass
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2600/68 Filtering means, e.g. fluid filters
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2800/012 Rolling condition
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2800/016 Yawing condition
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2800/702 Improving accuracy of a sensor signal
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2250/03 Vehicle yaw rate
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2250/062 loosing zero-point calibration of yaw rate sensors when travelling on banked roads or in case of temperature variations
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2270/413 Plausibility monitoring, cross check, redundancy
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 25/00 Manufacturing, calibrating, cleaning, or repairing instruments or devices referred to in the other groups of this subclass testing, calibrating or compensating compasses G01C17/38
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

An apparatus for measuring the yaw rate of a vehicle, comprising a device for measuring the velocity of the vehicle, a device for measuring the lateral acceleration of the vehicle, and a device for measuring the steering angle of the vehicle, a correction device, and a yaw gyrometer. The correction device acts to remove bias errors from the output of the yaw gyrometer. The correction device also estimates the bias errors when the velocity of the vehicle is within a tolerance of zero or when both the steering angle of the vehicle is within a tolerance of zero and the lateral acceleration of the vehicle is within a tolerance of zero.

Claims

1. Apparatus for measuring a yaw rate of a vehicle comprising a gyrometer which can provide an output signal corresponding to the yaw rate of the vehicle, measuring means for measuring a velocity, a steering angel and a lateral acceleration of the vehicle;

and correction means for removing bias errors from the output signal of the gyrometer, wherein said correction means measures the bias errors when the velocity of the vehicle is substantially zero and both the steering angle of the vehicle and the lateral acceleration of the vehicle are within a tolerance of zero.

2. Apparatus for measuring the yaw rate of a vehicle as claimed in claim 1 wherein the correction means estimates the bias errors by measuring the output signal of the gyrometer when both the steering angle of the vehicle is within a tolerance of zero, and the lateral acceleration of the vehicle is within a tolerance of zero.

3. Apparatus for measuring the yaw rate of a vehicle as claimed in claim 2 wherein said measuring means periodically measures the velocity, the steering angle and the lateral acceleration of the vehicle.

4. Apparatus for measuring the yaw rate of a vehicle as claimed in claim 3 wherein the correction means filters the output signal of the gyrometer to remove high frequencies therefrom.

5. Apparatus for measuring the yaw rate of a vehicle as claimed in claim 4 wherein the output signal is filtered by integrating the signal over a sampling period of the measuring means and multiplying the integrated signal by a factor proportional to the sampling period.

6. Apparatus for measuring a yaw rate of a vehicle comprising a gyrometer which can provide an output signal corresponding to the yaw rate of the vehicle;

measuring means for measuring a velocity, a steering angle and a lateral acceleration of the vehicle and correction means for removing bias errors from the output signal of the gyrometer;

wherein said correction means measures the bias errors when each of the following conditions and (b) is present (a) the velocity of the vehicle is substantially zero, (b) both the steering angle and the lateral acceleration of the vehicle are substantially zero.

7. Apparatus for measuring the yaw rate of a vehicle as claimed in claim 6 wherein the correction means estimates the bias errors by measuring the output signal of the gyrometer when each of the conditions (a) and (b) is met.