Driving dynamics control system for vehicles

• US 8,204,634 B2
• Filed: 05/07/2004
• Issued: 06/19/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Schwarz, Ralf, Fritz, Stefan, Bauer, Urs, Weinreuter, Markus, Schrbler, Sighard, Trster, Steffen
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Dalena
• Application Number:
  US10/556,575
• Publication Number:
  US 20070150116A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,965 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701/35, 701/48, 701/114, 123/406.12, 123/478, 123/491, 180/197, 700/2, 307/9.1, 307/10.1
• US Class Current: 701/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2260/02 Active Steering, Steer-by-Wire
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2260/06 Active Suspension System
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2260/08 Coordination of integrated systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2260/09 Complex systems; Conjoint control of two or more vehicle active control systems
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/04 including control of propulsion units
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/18 including control of braking systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/20 including control of steering systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/22 including control of suspension systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0005 Processor details or data handling, e.g. memory registers or chip architecture
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0044 In digital systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0297 Control Giving priority to different actuators or systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/20 Steering systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/09 Driving style or behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 6/003 in order to control vehicle yaw movement, i.e. around a vertical axis B62D6/007 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F16H 61/66 specially adapted for continuously variable gearings control of exclusively fluid gearing F16H61/38

Abstract

The present device relates to a driving dynamics control system for vehicles, including at least one signal distribution to which vehicle data, environment data and data regarding the driver'"'"'s request are sent in the form of input data, and including several controllable or regulatable subsystems which modify the dynamics of the vehicle such as a driver-independently adjustable steering system, a driver-independently adjustable chassis, a driver-independently adjustable brake, and a driver-independently adjustable driving track. The system is characterized in that the data of the signal distribution is sent to a central determining unit (driving condition detection, driver request detection), in that the central determining unit determines from the data of the signal distribution a central control target, and these items of data regarding the central control target are sent to a central regulating variable distribution or a central driving condition controller, respectively, which, in an interactive communication with the subsystems, actuates these subsystems in such a way that the control target is realized by the subsystems on the vehicle.

Claims

1. A driving dynamics control system for a vehicle comprising:

at least one signal distribution which receives vehicle data, environment data and data regarding driver'"'"'s request as input data;

two or more controllable subsystems which modify dynamics of the vehicle including one or more of a driver-independently adjustable steering system, a driver-independently adjustable chassis, a driver-independently adjustable brake, and a driver-independently adjustable driving track, wherein each of the subsystems communicate values indicative of subsystem operation to the signal distribution including values indicative of a current condition and a range of possible adjusting potential; and

a central determining unit capable of receiving data from the signal distribution, the central determining unit determines from the received data and the communicated values indicative of subsystem operation a central control target with items of data regarding the central control target sent to a central regulating variable distribution or a central driving condition controller, that are in interactive communication with the subsystems, and actuates the two or more controllable subsystems in such a way that the control target is realized by the subsystems on the vehicle, wherein the controller determines a tunable weighting factor for each of the at least two subsystems based on current operating conditions to determine an intensity and order of operations of the subsystems responsive to a detected data communicated to the signal distribution.

2. The control system according to claim 1, wherein the central control target is divided among the subsystems and executed depending on the respective subsystems current adjusting potential and possible contribution to a current central control target.

3. The control system according to claim 1, wherein the division of the central control target among the subsystems is executed depending on a current condition of the substystem.

4. The control system according to claim 1, wherein the division of the central control target among the subsystems is executed depending on a current driving condition of the vehicle.

5. The control system according to claim 1, wherein the central control target is determined in the central driving condition detection (15) and is divided among the subsystems by the central driving condition controller (psip controller, beta controller).

6. The control system according to claim 5, wherein the division of the central control target among the subsystems is executed according to a controller concept or controller algorithm, respectively, predetermined to the central driving condition controller or the regulating variable distribution, respectively, according to a quality criterion or optimization criterion predetermined to the driving condition controller or the regulating variable distribution (16).

7. The control system according to claim 6, wherein weighting is executed corresponding to an intensity and activation order of the subsystems.

8. The control system according to claim 1, wherein actual values of subsystems communicated to the central determining unit include one of actual measured values of the subsystem, values indicative of adjustments made based on commands from the central determining unit and an actual condition of the subsystem.