Driving route situation prediction for vehicle performance optimization

• US 8,725,408 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2006
• Issued: 05/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Motor Company
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Hochkirchen, Thomas, Rienks, Maurice, Ress, Christian, Etemad, Aria, Boerger, Marcus, Eifert, Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): Keith, Jack W
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Chuong P
• Application Number:
  US11/427,594
• Publication Number:
  US 20070010933A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,875 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701117-119, 701200-202, 701209-210, 701/400, 701410-411, 701/414, 340/995.13, 34099519-99527
• US Class Current: 701/410
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/26 for electrical energy, e.g. batteries or capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 20/00 Control systems specially adapted for hybrid vehicles hybrid vehicle design, B60K6/00; electric vehicles B60L
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 20/12 using control strategies taking into account route information estimation or calculation of non-directly measurable driving parameters B60W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0075 Automatic parameter input, automatic initialising or calibrating means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/00 Input parameters relating to infrastructure
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/15 Road slope, i.e. the inclination of a road segment in the longitudinal direction
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/20 Road profile, i.e. the change in elevation or curvature of a plurality of continuous road segments
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2555/60 Traffic rules, e.g. speed limits or right of way
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/10 Historical data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/45 External transmission of data to or from the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/06 Road conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/0097 Predicting future conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60Y 2300/476 Regeneration of particle filters

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for prediction and identification of journey situations. A method for prediction of journey situations has the following steps: defining a plurality of standard journey situations, with each standard journey situation being characterized by a group of driving state parameters; defining a plurality of route state parameters in order to describe the state of a journey route; determining an association rule which associates in each case one group of values of the route state parameters with a standard journey situation; recording of an intended journey route; determining values of the route state parameters for the intended journey route; and associating the intended journey route with one of the standard journey situations on the basis of the association rule.

Claims

1. A method for prediction of journey situations, comprising the following steps:

defining a plurality of standard journey situations, each standard journey situation based on a plurality of driving state parameters, wherein the plurality of driving state parameters are chosen from a group of variables comprising a mean overall speed, a mean cruise speed, a maximum speed, a stop frequency, an amount of idling operation, an amount of relative deceleration operation, an amount of relative travel operation, an amount of relative acceleration operation, and a mean positive acceleration, said step of defining the plurality of standard journey situations includes obtaining values of the driving state parameters and combining the values to form individual clusters by means of a grouping procedure whereby each cluster identifies a standard journey situation, with each standard journey situation having a unique identifier assigned thereto, the standard journey situations constituting a discrete number of categories;

defining a plurality of route state parameters describing the state of a journey route;

determining at least one association rule which associates a set of route state parameter values with one of the standard journey situations;

recording an intended journey route;

determining values of the route state parameters for the intended journey route; and

associating the intended journey route with one of the standard journey situations on the basis of the association rule, such that the unique identifier of the standard journey situation is associated with the intended journey route whereby monitoring the unique identifier provides information regarding the driving state parameters along the intended journey route.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the following step:

monitoring the unique identifier associated with the intended journey route and controlling the operating mode of at least one vehicle component on the basis of the unique identifier.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the recording of the intended journey route is navigation-based.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein each standard journey situation has an associated probability distribution of the cruise speed values and of the associated acceleration values and/or of the rotation-speed values and the associated torque values of the motor vehicle.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of standard journey situations is defined by statistical evaluation of a large number of individual journeys which have previously been carried out on different journey routes.

6. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the plurality of route state parameters includes at least some of the following variables, route length, speed restriction, number of lanes and number of traffic lights.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6 wherein the at least one vehicle component, one or more of the vehicle component is selected from a group including a vehicle battery, a particle filter and a diesel soot filter.