System and method for estimating the mass of a vehicle
First Claim
1. A method for estimating a vehicle mass, comprising the steps of:
- (a) when a vehicle is under the control of an autonomous acceleration event during which vehicle acceleration is expected to be controlled and consistent, determining an expected acceleration of the vehicle for the autonomous acceleration event wherein the expected acceleration corresponds to vehicle propulsion in a longitudinal direction;
(b) determining an actual acceleration of the vehicle during the autonomous acceleration event wherein the actual acceleration corresponds to vehicle propulsion in the longitudinal direction;
(c) comparing the expected acceleration of the vehicle in the longitudinal direction for the autonomous acceleration event to the actual acceleration of the vehicle in the longitudinal direction during the autonomous acceleration event with a control module, and(d) using the comparison of the expected acceleration of the vehicle in the longitudinal direction for the autonomous acceleration event to the actual acceleration of the vehicle in the longitudinal direction during the autonomous acceleration event to determine a vehicle mass estimate with the control module.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A vehicle system and method that estimates or approximates the mass of a vehicle so that a more accurate vehicle mass estimate can be made available to other vehicle systems, such as an adaptive cruise control (ACC) system or an automated lane change (LCX) system. In an exemplary embodiment, the method compares an actual acceleration of the vehicle to an expected acceleration while the vehicle is under the control of an automated acceleration event. The difference between these two acceleration values, along with other potential input, may then be used to approximate the actual mass of the vehicle in a way that takes into account items such as passengers, cargo, fuel, etc. Once an accurate vehicle mass estimate is generated, the method may make this estimate available to other vehicle components, devices, modules, systems, etc. so that their performance can be improved.
43 Citations
18 Claims
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1. A method for estimating a vehicle mass, comprising the steps of:
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(a) when a vehicle is under the control of an autonomous acceleration event during which vehicle acceleration is expected to be controlled and consistent, determining an expected acceleration of the vehicle for the autonomous acceleration event wherein the expected acceleration corresponds to vehicle propulsion in a longitudinal direction; (b) determining an actual acceleration of the vehicle during the autonomous acceleration event wherein the actual acceleration corresponds to vehicle propulsion in the longitudinal direction; (c) comparing the expected acceleration of the vehicle in the longitudinal direction for the autonomous acceleration event to the actual acceleration of the vehicle in the longitudinal direction during the autonomous acceleration event with a control module, and (d) using the comparison of the expected acceleration of the vehicle in the longitudinal direction for the autonomous acceleration event to the actual acceleration of the vehicle in the longitudinal direction during the autonomous acceleration event to determine a vehicle mass estimate with the control module. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method for estimating a vehicle mass, comprising the steps of:
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(a) determining that the vehicle is under the control of an autonomous acceleration event during which vehicle acceleration is expected to be controlled and consistent, (b) evaluating the acceleration of the vehicle corresponding to vehicle propulsion in a longitudinal direction with a control module while the vehicle is under the control of the autonomous acceleration event, wherein the acceleration of the vehicle in the longitudinal direction is evaluated in a closed-loop manner using an expected acceleration of the vehicle in the longitudinal direction corresponding to the autonomous acceleration event, (c) using the results of the closed-loop evaluation to generate a vehicle mass estimate with the control module, and (d) providing the vehicle mass estimate to a vehicle module so that the vehicle module can generate one or more command signals.
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Specification