Movement stabilizing apparatus for combination vehicle

• US 8,180,543 B2
• Filed: 06/27/2008
• Issued: 05/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Autoliv Nissin Brake Systems Japan Co., Ltd., Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Nissin Kogyo Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.), Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Kojima, Takeshi, Futamura, Tomoyuki, Miyata, Kazuaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): Broadhead, Brian J
• Application Number:
  US12/163,182
• Publication Number:
  US 20090005946A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,418 Days
• Field of Search: 701/69, 701/70, 701/71, 701/82, 701/83, 701/84, 303/123, 303/146, 303/7, 280/400, 180/14.1, 180/14.6
• US Class Current: 701/70
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2230/06 Tractor-trailer swaying
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2250/06 Sensor zero-point adjustment; Offset compensation
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 8/1708 for lorries or tractor-trailer combinations
• 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

A movement stabilizing control ECU 25 includes a differential unit 25a, a cycle calculation unit 25b, a time constant/gain setting portion 25c, a first-order lag processing unit 25d, a pendulum movement detection unit 25e, a control amount calculation portion 25f and a control amount output unit 25g. The time constant/gain setting portion 25c sets a time constant τ and a gain K used at the time of subjecting a yaw acceleration ω′ which is a time-differential value of a yaw rate ω to the first-order lag processing at the first-order lag processing unit 25d, with reference to a function or data of a look-up table, for example, depending on the cycle or the frequency of the yaw acceleration ω′ due to the pendulum movement. The control amount calculation portion 25f multiplies the amplitude of a yaw acceleration ω_d′ outputted from the first-order lag processing unit 25d by a predetermined constant to calculate a yaw control amount with a phase in opposite to that of the yaw acceleration ω_d′ and outputs the yaw control amount to the control amount output unit 25g.

Claims

1. A movement stabilizing apparatus for a combination vehicle which comprises a tractor and a trailer coupled to the tractor via a hitch so as to be swingable laterally, comprising:

a yaw rate sensor which detects a yaw rate of the tractor;

a differential unit which performs temporal differentiation on the detected yaw rate to calculate a yaw acceleration;

a cycle calculation unit which calculates a cycle or a frequency of the yaw acceleration at a time where the yaw acceleration changes to a negative or a positive value;

a first-order lag processing unit which performs first-order lag processing on the yaw acceleration based on the calculated cycle or the frequency;

a pendulum movement detection unit which detects a pendulum movement of the trailer based on the yaw acceleration or a cycle or a frequency of an output of the first-order lag processing unit and an amplitude of the yaw acceleration; and

a control amount output unit which outputs a control amount based on the output of the first-order lag processing unit and an output of the pendulum movement detection unit, wherein

the control amount is outputted to a deceleration control device or a yaw movement control device of the tractor to stabilize a traveling of the combination vehicle.

2. The movement stabilizing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a time constant setting unit which sets a phase of the output of the first-order lag processing unit so as to advance the phase of the yaw rate, based on an output of the cycle calculation unit.

3. The movement stabilizing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

a time constant and a gain which are used at a time of performing the first-order lag processing are determined based on a cycle or a period which is determined based on the pendulum movement of the trailer, and

the time constant and the gain increase as a length of the cycle which is determined based on the pendulum movement of the trailer increases.