Auxiliary steering angle control system for vehicle

• US 5,576,956 A
• Filed: 11/15/1994
• Issued: 11/19/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Ashizawa, Hiroyuki, Adachi, Kazutaka
• Primary Examiner(s): Chin, Gary
• Application Number:
  US08/340,403
• Time in Patent Office: 735 Days
• Field of Search: 364/424.01, 364/424.05, 180/79.1, 180/140-143, 280/91, 280/707, 73/105, 73/146
• US Class Current: 701/42
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 6/00 Arrangements for automatically controlling steering depending on driving conditions sensed and responded to, e.g. control circuits means for initiating a change in direction B62D1/00; steering valves B62D5/06; combined with means for inclining the vehicle body or wheels on bends B62D9/00
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 7/159 characterised by computing methods or stabilisation processes or systems, e.g. responding to yaw rate, lateral wind, load, road condition

Abstract

An auxiliary steering angle control system for a vehicle comprises a vehicle condition detecting section for detecting a vehicle condition, a desired motion variable calculating section for calculating a desired value of the motion variable actually generated to the vehicle from the detected vehicle condition, an actual motion variable detecting section for detecting an actual motion variable actually generated in the vehicle, an auxiliary steering angle feedback control-input determining section for determining an auxiliary steering feedback control-input according to the difference between the desired motion variable and the detected actual-vehicle motion variable, a road condition detecting section for detecting a road variable indicative of a condition of a road on which the vehicle is traveling, and an auxiliary steering feedback control-input correcting section for reducing the auxiliary steering angle feedback control-input when the road condition detecting section outputs a signal indicative that the vehicle is traveling on a bad-conditioned road.

Claims

1. An auxiliary steering angle control system for a vehicle, comprising:

vehicle condition detecting means for detecting a vehicle condition;

desired vehicle motion variable calculating means for calculating a desired value of the vehicle motion variable actually generated to the vehicle from the detected vehicle condition;

actual vehicle motion variable detecting means for detecting an actual vehicle motion variable actually generated in the vehicle;

auxiliary steering angle feedback control-input determining means for determining an auxiliary steering feedback control-input according to the difference between the desired motion variable and the detected actual vehicle motion variable;

road condition detecting means for detecting a road variable indicative of a condition of a road on which the vehicle is traveling; and

auxiliary steering feedback control-input correcting means for reducing the auxiliary steering angle feedback control-input when said road condition detecting means outputs a signal indicative that the vehicle is traveling on a bad-conditioned road.

2. An auxiliary steering angle control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said road condition detecting means detects a degree of a bumpiness of the road as said road condition.

3. An auxiliary steering angle control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said road condition detecting means includes means for extracting high-frequency component in the signal from said actual vehicle motion variable detecting means and for detecting the road condition from the extracted high-frequency component.

4. An auxiliary steering angle control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said vehicle condition detecting means includes a steering angle sensor and a vehicle speed sensor, and said actual vehicle motion variable detecting means includes a yaw rate sensor.

5. An auxiliary steering angle control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said road condition detecting means includes a yaw rate sensor.

6. An auxiliary steering angle control system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the means for detecting the road condition from the extracted high-frequency component judges the road condition according to a degree of the high-frequency component included in the signal indicative of the yaw rate.

7. An auxiliary steering angle control system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising auxiliary steering angle feed-forward control-input calculating means for calculating an auxiliary steering feed-forward control-input according to the desired vehicle motion variable.

8. A road-condition evaluating apparatus for a vehicle control system, comprising:

a yaw rate sensor detecting a yaw rate generated in a vehicle during a traveling and outputting a signal indicative of the yaw rate;

a filter extracting as high-frequency component from the signal from the yaw rate sensor; and

a processor calculating a road variable indicative of a road condition by using a predetermined equation and a value indicative of the high-frequency component obtained in said filter.

9. An auxiliary steering angle control system for steering a pair of rear wheels for a four wheel steered vehicle, said auxiliary steering angle control system comprising:

vehicle condition detecting means for detecting a vehicle condition and generating a vehicle motion variable;

desired vehicle motion variable calculating means for calculating a desired value of the vehicle motion variable actually generated to the vehicle from the detected vehicle condition;

actual vehicle motion variable detecting means for detecting an actual vehicle motion variable actually generated in the vehicle;

auxiliary steering angle feedback control-input determining means for determining an auxiliary steering angle feedback control-input according to a difference between the desired value of the vehicle motion variable and the detected actual vehicle motion variable;

road condition detecting means for detecting a road variable indicative of a condition of a road on which the vehicle is traveling; and

auxiliary steering feedback control-input correcting means for reducing the auxiliary steering angle feed back control-input when said road condition detecting means outputs a signal indicative that the vehicle is traveling on a bad-conditioned road.

10. An auxiliary steering angle control system for steering a pair of rear wheels for a four wheel steered vehicle, said auxiliary steering angle control system comprising:

vehicle condition detecting means for detecting a vehicle condition and generating a vehicle motion variable;

desired vehicle motion variable calculating means for calculating a desired value of the vehicle motion variable actually generated to the vehicle from the detected vehicle condition;

actual vehicle motion variable detecting means for detecting an actual vehicle motion variable actually generated in the vehicle;

auxiliary steering angle feedback control-input determining means for determining an auxiliary steering angle feedback control-input according to a difference between the desired value of the vehicle motion variable and the detected actual vehicle motion variable;

road condition detecting means for detecting a road variable indicative of a condition of a road on which the vehicle is traveling, said road condition detecting means including;

a yaw rate sensor for detecting a yaw rate generated in the vehicle during traveling and outputting a signal indicative of the yaw rate,

a filter for extracting a high-frequency component from the signal outputted from the yaw rate sensor, and

a processor which calculates a road variable indicative of a road condition by using a predetermined equation and a value indicative of the high-frequency component extracted by said filter; and

auxiliary steering feedback control-input correcting means for reducing the auxiliary steering angle feed back control-input when said road condition detecting means outputs a signal indicative that the vehicle is traveling on a bad-conditioned road.