Behavior control system of vehicle distinctive of oversteered and understeered conditions

• US 5,702,165 A
• Filed: 04/23/1996
• Issued: 12/30/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Koibuchi, Ken
• Primary Examiner(s): Oberleitner, Robert J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): RODRIGUEZ, PAMELA
• Application Number:
  US08/636,695
• Time in Patent Office: 616 Days
• Field of Search: 303/146, 303/147, 303/148, 303/188, 180/197, 364/426.015, 364/426.016
• US Class Current: 303/146
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 8/1755 Brake regulation specially adapted to control the stability of the vehicle, e.g. taking into account yaw rate or transverse acceleration in a curve road vehicle drive control systems for control of driving stability otherwise than by controlling a particular sub-unit B60W30/02

Abstract

In a behavior control system of a vehicle by selective braking of individual wheels according to a target yaw moment and a target longitudinal force, it is judged if the vehicle is in an oversteered condition or an understeered condition, and an essential target of the behavior is changed over between the target yaw moment and the target longitudinal force according to whether the vehicle is in the oversteered condition or the understeered condition.

Claims

1. A behavior control system of a vehicle having wheels and a brake system for selectively braking each of said wheels, comprising:

means for detecting a behavior of the vehicle, said behavior including a yaw moment and a longitudinal force of the vehicle;

means for determining a target behavior of the vehicle, said target behavior including a target yaw moment and a target longitudinal force;

means for controlling said brake system so as to approach the behavior of the vehicle to said target behavior including approaching the yaw moment of the vehicle to said target yaw moment and approaching the longitudinal force of the vehicle to the target longitudinal force;

wherein said behavior control system further comprises;

means for judging whether the behavior of the vehicle is in an oversteered condition or an understeered condition, and

means for changing between the target yaw moment and the target longitudinal force as a controlling target behavior according to whether the behavior of the vehicle judged by said vehicle behavior judgment means is in the oversteered condition or the understeered condition.

2. A behavior control system according to claim 1, wherein said vehicle behavior detecting means detects vehicle speed, lateral acceleration and yaw rate of the vehicle, and said controlling target behavior change means controls said target behavior determining means so as to determine the target yaw moment substantially based upon a slip angle of the vehicle deduced by calculating a change rate of the lateral acceleration as a difference between the lateral acceleration detected by said vehicle behavior detecting means and a product of the vehicle speed and the yaw rate both detected by said vehicle behavior detecting means, calculating a lateral slip velocity by integrating on time basis the lateral acceleration change rate, and calculating the slip angle as a ratio of the lateral slip velocity to the vehicle speed, when the behavior of the vehicle is judged as being in the oversteered condition.

3. A behavior control system according to claim 2, wherein said target behavior determining means determines the target longitudinal force to be a constant value.

4. A behavior control system according to claim 2, wherein said target yaw moment determining means determines the target yaw moment further based upon a change rate of the slip angle in addition to the slip angle.

5. A behavior control system according to claim 1, wherein said vehicle behavior detecting means detects vehicle speed, steering angle and yaw rate of the vehicle, and said target behavior determining means determines the target longitudinal force substantially based upon a deviation of a yaw rate calculated by a time based integration of a parameter proportional to a product of the vehicle speed and the steering angle both detected by said behavior detecting means from the yaw rate detected by said behavior detecting means, when the behavior of the vehicle is judged as being in the understeered condition.

6. A behavior control system according to claim 5, wherein said target behavior determining means determines the target yaw moment to be a constant value.

7. A behavior control system according to claim 5, wherein said parameter proportional to the product of the vehicle speed and the steering angle is modified by square of the vehicle speed such that said parameter is increased with an additive increment substantially proportional to the square of the vehicle speed.

8. A behavior control system according to claim 1, wherein said target behavior determining means comprises a means for developing a coordinate of the yaw moment and the longitudinal force, a means for determining a grip area in said coordinate, and a means for modifying a target point of the target yaw moment and the target longitudinal force on said coordinate so as to be in said grip area, when not in said grip area, said target point modifying means modifying the target point primarily based upon the target yaw moment rather than on the target longitudinal force when the vehicle behavior is in the oversteered condition.

9. A behavior control system according to claim 1, wherein said target behavior determining means comprises a means for developing a coordinate of the yaw moment and the longitudinal force, a means for determining a grip area in said coordinate, and a means for modifying a target point of the target yaw moment and the target longitudinal force on said coordinate so as to be in said grip area, when not in said grip area, said target point modifying means modifying the target point primarily based upon the target longitudinal force rather than on the target yaw moment when the vehicle behavior is in the understeered condition.

10. A behavior control system according to claim 1, wherein said target behavior determining means comprises a means for developing a coordinate of the yaw moment and of the longitudinal force, a means for determining an area in said coordinate contracted to be substantially one third of a grip area with respect to the yaw moment and the longitudinal force, respectively, and a means for modifying a target point of the target yaw moment and the target longitudinal force on said coordinate so as to be in said contracted area, when not in said contracted area, said target point modifying means modifying the target point primarily based upon the target longitudinal force rather than on the target yaw moment when the vehicle behavior is in the understeered condition.

11. A behavior control system according to claim 1, wherein said vehicle behavior detecting means comprises a means for detecting a friction radius of each of the wheels, and a means for sharing a braking force applied to front and rear left wheels of the vehicle to a braking force applied to the front left wheel and a braking force applied to the rear left wheel at a sharing ratio of the friction radius of the front left wheel versus the friction radius of the rear left wheel, and a means for sharing a braking force applied to front and rear right wheels of the vehicle to a braking force applied to the front right wheel and a bring force applied to the rear right wheel at a sharing ratio of the friction radius of the front right wheel versus the friction radius of the rear right wheel, when the vehicle behavior is in the understeered condition.

12. A behavior control system according to claim 1, wherein said vehicle behavior detecting means comprises a means for detecting a friction radius of each of the wheels, and a means for sharing a braking force applied to front and rear wheels of the vehicle at the inside of a turn thereof to a braking force applied to the front wheel at the inside of the turn and a braking force applied to the rear wheel at the inside of the turn at a sharing ratio of the friction radius of the front wheel at the inside of the turn versus the friction radius of the rear wheel at the inside of the turn, and a means for sharing a braking force applied to front and rear wheels of the vehicle at the outside of the turn thereof to a braking force applied to the front wheel at the outside of the turn and a braking force applied to the rear wheel at the outside of the turn at a sharing ratio of the friction radius of the front wheel at the outside of the turn versus a product of the fiction radius of the rear wheel at the outside of the turn and (t/2)/(b² +t² /4)^1/2, wherein t is a wheel base of the rear wheels and b is a distance between a mass center of the vehicle and a rear wheel axis, when the vehicle behavior is in the oversteered condition.