Systems and methods for controlling a vehicle along a road with a road bank

• US 8,509,993 B2
• Filed: 04/19/2010
• Issued: 08/13/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations Incorporated (Motors Liquidation Co. GUC Trust)
• Inventors: Ryu, Jihan, Nardi, Flavio, O'Dea, Kevin A., Tan, Hualin
• Primary Examiner(s): Chen, Shelley
• Application Number:
  US12/762,468
• Publication Number:
  US 20110257827A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,212 Days
• Field of Search: 701/29
• US Class Current: 701/41
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2210/22 Banked curves
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2230/02 Side slip angle, attitude angle, floating angle, drift angle
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 8/17551 determining control parameters related to vehicle stability used in the regulation, e.g. by calculations involving measured or detected parameters
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/125 Lateral acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/14 Yaw
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/18 Steering angle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/15 Road slope, i.e. the inclination of a road segment in the longitudinal direction
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/202 Steering torque
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/10 Path keeping cruise control for automatically following a preceding vehicle B60W30/165
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/076 Slope angle of the road
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/112 Roll movement
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 6/04 responsive only to forces disturbing the intended course of the vehicle, e.g. forces acting transversely to the direction of vehicle travel

Abstract

Systems and methods for detecting road bank and determining road bank angle include determining a road bank angle as a function of difference in slip angle where the difference in slip angle is a function of difference in course angle and difference in yaw angle.

Claims

1. A system for controlling a vehicle, comprising:

a mapping sensor configured to measure course angle along a road;

a yaw rate sensor configured to measure yaw rate of the vehicle;

a processor; and

a memory comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

calculate a difference in slip angle, including;

calculating a difference in course angle based on course angles measured by the mapping sensor;

calculating a difference in yaw angle based on yaw rate measured by the yaw rate sensor; and

calculating the difference in slip angle as a difference between;

the difference in course angle; and

the difference in yaw angle; and

calculate a road bank angle based on the difference in slip angle.

2. The system of claim 1, each of the course angle difference and the yaw angle difference being a function of a sampling rate.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising an accelerometer configured to measure lateral acceleration of the vehicle, wherein calculating the road bank angle is based further on a lateral acceleration measured by the accelerometer.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a speedometer configured to measure longitudinal speed of the vehicle, wherein calculating the road bank angle is based further on a longitudinal speed measured by the speedometer.

5. The system of claim 1, the computer-executable instructions further causing the processor to detect a road bank based on the road bank angle.

6. The system of claim 5, the computer-executable instructions further causing the processor to compare the road bank angle to a threshold to detect the road bank.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein calculating the road bank angle is based further on

8. The system of claim 7, wherein calculating the slip angle difference is based further on Δ

β

=Δ

γ

−

Δ

ψ

where Δ

β

is slip angle difference, Δ

γ

is course angle difference, and Δ

ψ

is yaw angle difference.

19. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an accelerometer configured to measure lateral acceleration of the vehicle, wherein calculating the road bank angle is based further on a lateral acceleration measured by the accelerometer; and

a speedometer configured to measure longitudinal speed of the vehicle, wherein calculating the road bank angle is based further on a longitudinal speed measured by the speedometer.

9. A system for controlling a vehicle, comprising:

a mapping sensor configured to measure course angle along a road;

a yaw rate sensor configured to measure yaw rate of the vehicle;

an accelerometer configured to measure lateral acceleration of the vehicle;

a speedometer configured to measure longitudinal speed of the vehicle;

a processor; and

a memory comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

calculate a first difference in slip angle, including;

calculating a difference in course angle based on course angles measured by the mapping sensor;

calculating a difference in yaw angle based on yaw rate measured by the yaw rate sensor;

calculating the first difference in slip angle as the difference between;

the difference in course and

the difference in yaw angle;

calculate a second difference in slip angle based on;

lateral acceleration measured by the accelerometer;

yaw rate measured by the yaw rate sensor; and

longitudinal speed measured by the speedometer; and

detect a road bank based on the first slip angle difference and the second slip angle difference.

10. The system of claim 9, the computer-executable instructions further causing the processor to compare the difference between the first slip angle difference and the second slip angle difference to a threshold to detect road bank.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions for controlling a vehicle, the computer-executable instructions, when executed by a processor, causing the processor to:

calculate a difference in slip angle, including;

calculating a difference in course angle based on course angles measured by a mapping sensor;

calculating a difference in yaw angle based on a yaw rate measured by a yaw rate sensor;

calculating the difference in slip angle as a difference between;

the difference in course angle; and

the difference in yaw angle;

calculate a road bank angle based on the difference in slip angle.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, each of the course angle difference and the in yaw angle difference being a function of sampling rate.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein calculating the road bank angle is based further on a lateral acceleration measured by an accelerometer.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein calculating the road bank angle is based further on a longitudinal speed measured by a speedometer.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, the computer-executable instructions further causing the processor to detect a road bank as based on the road bank angle.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, the computer-executable instructions further causing the processor to compare the road bank angle to a threshold to detect the road bank.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein calculating the road bank angle is based further on

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein calculating the slip angle difference is based further on Δ

β

=Δ

γ

−

Δ

ψ

where Δ

β

is slip angle difference, Δ

γ

is course angle difference, and Δ

ψ

is yaw angle difference.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein calculating the road bank angle is based further on:

a lateral acceleration measured by an accelerometer; and

a longitudinal speed measured by a speedometer.