Rough road drive simulation and evaluation for vehicle control system

• US 7,278,316 B2
• Filed: 05/26/2005
• Issued: 10/09/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Murakami, Hiroshi, Saitou, Haruki, Satou, Osamu, Nakagawa, Syuuichi
• Primary Examiner(s): MCCALL, ERIC SCOTT
• Application Number:
  US11/137,789
• Publication Number:
  US 20050268708A1
• Time in Patent Office: 866 Days
• Field of Search: 736/69, 736/70, 73/110.4, 731/21, 701/29, 701/36, 701/37
• US Class Current: 73/669
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2210/14 Rough roads, bad roads, gravel roads
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 8/172 Determining control parameters used in the regulation, e.g. by calculations involving measured or detected parameters B60T8/17551 takes precedence

Abstract

A rough road drive simulation apparatus for testing a vehicle motion control system includes a real-time simulator. The real time simulator simulates a rough road driving state by entering, into a vehicle model representing a vehicle equipped with the vehicle motion control system, a wheel disturbance input based on a correlation between a road surface disturbance and a wheel rotation variation.

Claims

1. A rough road drive simulation apparatus for testing a vehicle motion control system, the simulation apparatus comprising:

a real-time simulator configured to simulate a rough road driving state by entering, into a vehicle model representing a vehicle equipped with the vehicle motion control system, a wheel disturbance input based on a correlation between a road surface disturbance and a wheel rotation variation,

wherein the wheel disturbance input is in a form of a noise superimposed on a wheel speed signal inputted into the vehicle model,

wherein the wheel disturbance input is inputted into the vehicle model in a plurality of disturbance input patterns different in continuity of a waveform of the noise, the disturbance input patterns including a single input pattern and a continuous input pattern.

2. The rough road drive simulation apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the rough road drive simulation apparatus further comprises an estimator to estimate a system actuation sensitivity of the vehicle motion control system by comparing real-time simulation data obtained by simulation of the real-time simulator, with reference simulation data.

3. A rough road drive simulation apparatus for testing a vehicle motion control system, the simulation apparatus comprising:

a real-time simulator configured to simulate a rough road driving state by entering, into a vehicle model representing a vehicle equipped with the vehicle motion control system, a wheel disturbance input based on a correlation between a road surface disturbance and a wheel rotation variation,

wherein the wheel disturbance input is in a form of a noise superimposed on a wheel speed signal inputted into the vehicle model,

wherein the noise is determined by using, as a parameter, a wheel speed variation width and a wheel speed variation rate.

4. The rough road drive simulation apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein the wheel disturbance input is inputted into the vehicle model in a plurality of different forms representing different road surface irregular conditions by using an input data map set with the wheel speed variation width along one of vertical and horizontal axes, and the wheel speed variation rate along the other of the vertical and horizontal axes.

5. The rough road drive simulation apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein the rough road drive simulation apparatus further comprises an estimator to estimate a system actuation sensitivity of the vehicle motion control system by comparing real-time simulation data obtained by simulation of the real-time simulator, with reference simulation data.

6. A rough road drive simulation apparatus for testing a vehicle motion control system, the simulation apparatus comprising:

a real-time simulator configured to simulate a rough road driving state by entering, into a vehicle model representing a vehicle equipped with the vehicle motion control system, a wheel disturbance input based on a correlation between a road surface disturbance and a wheel rotation variation, and

an estimator to estimate a system actuation sensitivity of the vehicle motion control system by comparing real-time simulation data obtained by simulation of the real-time simulator, with reference simulation data,

wherein the real-time simulator is configured to perform simulation in each of disturbance patterns representing different rough road patterns; and

the estimator is configured to accumulate the real-time simulation data in a form of a real-time simulator data map by entering data on actuation or non-actuation of the vehicle motion control system in the real-time simulation data map; and

to estimate the system actuation sensitivity by comparing the real-time simulation data map with the reference simulation data in a form of a reference data map.

7. The rough road drive simulation apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein the real-time simulator is configured to perform simulation in each of the disturbance patterns at each of various vehicle speed levels.

8. The rough road drive simulation apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein the estimator is configured to check consistency between a system actuation range of the real-time simulation data map and a system actuation range of the reference data map, and to adjust the actuation sensitivity of the vehicle motion control system so as to increase the consistency.

9. A rough road drive simulation apparatus for testing a vehicle motion control system, the simulation apparatus comprising:

a virtual test driving section adapted to be connected with the vehicle motion control system and configured to test a response of the vehicle motion control system in a simulated driving environment of a virtual vehicle model, by inputting a wheel speed signal into the vehicle motion control system in the virtual vehicle model,

the virtual test driving section being further configured;

to simulate a driving state of the virtual vehicle model on a rough road by inputting, into the vehicle motion control system, a noise-superimposed wheel speed signal obtained by superimposing a road disturbance noise onto the wheel speed signal;

to examine a response of the vehicle motion control system to the noise-superimposed wheel speed signal; and

to adjust a sensitivity parameter of the vehicle motion control system so as to adjust a sensitivity of the vehicle motion control system toward a desired reference.

10. The rough road drive simulation apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein the virtual test driving section is configured to produce a road disturbance noise signal in a plurality of different waveforms determined by a first road noise parameter representing an amplitude of a road surface disturbance and a second road noise parameter representing a frequency of the road surface disturbance;

and to simulate the driving state of the virtual vehicle model by using each of the waveforms of the road disturbance noise signal.

11. The rough road drive simulation apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein the virtual test driving section is configured to simulate the driving state of the virtual vehicle model on a rough road, by inputting, into the vehicle motion control system, a first noise-superimposed wheel speed signal obtained by superimposing a first road disturbance noise onto a first wheel speed signal representing a wheel speed of a first wheel of the virtual vehicle, and a second noise-superimposed wheel speed signal obtained by superimposing a second road disturbance noise onto a second wheel speed signal representing a wheel speed of a second wheel of the virtual vehicle.

12. A rough road drive simulation process for testing a vehicle motion control system, the simulation process comprising:

setting the vehicle motion control system in a simulated virtual environment including a virtual vehicle model;

inputting a noise-superimposed wheel speed signal produced by superimposing a road disturbance noise signal onto a wheel speed signal, into the vehicle motion control system in the simulated virtual environment;

examining a response of the vehicle motion control system to the noise-superimposed wheel speed signal; and

adjusting a control parameter of the vehicle motion control system so as to adjust the response of the vehicle motion control system to a desired reference.

13. The rough road drive simulation process as claimed in claim 12, wherein the simulation process further comprises:

producing the road disturbance noise signal; and

superimposing the road disturbance noise signal onto the wheel speed signal, and thereby producing the noise-superimposed wheel speed signal.

14. A rough road drive simulation apparatus for testing a vehicle motion control system, the simulation apparatus comprising:

means for setting the vehicle motion control system in a simulated virtual

environment including a virtual vehicle model;

means for inputting a noise-superimposed wheel speed signal produced by superimposing a road disturbance noise signal onto a wheel speed signal, into the vehicle motion control system in the simulated virtual environment;

means for examining a response of the vehicle motion control system to the noise-superimposed wheel speed signal; and

means for adjusting a sensitivity of the vehicle motion control system so as to adjust the sensitivity of the vehicle motion control system to a desired reference value.