Adaptive electronic stability control

• US 9,387,851 B2
• Filed: 08/28/2014
• Issued: 07/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH, Robert Bosch LLC (Robert Bosch GmbH)
• Original Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Inventors: Klier, Willy, Bhadange, Ravi
• Primary Examiner(s): Tarcza, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pipala, Edward J
• Application Number:
  US14/471,491
• Publication Number:
  US 20160059851A1
• Time in Patent Office: 684 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2400/82 Ground surface
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2400/822 Road friction coefficient determination affecting wheel traction
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2031/0091 Speed limiters or speed cutters
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 31/00 Vehicle fittings, acting on a single sub-unit only, for automatically controlling vehicle speed, i.e. preventing speed from exceeding an arbitrarily established velocity or maintaining speed at a particular velocity, as selected by the vehicle operator fittings acting on two or more sub-units B60W30/14; speedometers G01P; systems or devices for controlling speed in general G05D13/00 ; in traffic anti-collision system for road vehicles G08G1/16
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2210/12 Friction
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2210/124 Roads with different friction levels
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0075 Automatic parameter input, automatic initialising or calibrating means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0088 Adaptive recalibration
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/146 Display means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2420/403 Image sensing, e.g. optical camera
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/28 Wheel speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/35 Road bumpiness, e.g. potholes
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/40 Coefficient of friction
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2555/20 Ambient conditions, e.g. wind or rain
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/02 Control of vehicle driving stability
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/146 Speed limiting
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/02 related to ambient conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/068 Road friction coefficient
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/12 related to parameters of the vehicle itself , e.g. tyre models
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/00 : Details of control systems for road vehicle drive control not related to the control of a particular sub-unit , e.g. process diagnostic or vehicle driver interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/14 : Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/16 : Tactile feedback to the driver, e.g. vibration or force feedback to the driver on the steering wheel or the accelerator pedal
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/13 : Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/56 : exterior to a vehicle by using sensors mounted on the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/661 : Transmitting camera control signals through networks, e.g. control via the Internet

Abstract

An adaptive control adjusts thresholds in a vehicle stability control in response to video camera data, GPS data and weather data indicating that vehicle road conditions are not ideal. Video data determines mue (coefficient of friction) and type of road. Weather data includes temperature, visibility, precipitation and wind velocity. A human machine interface manually overrides the adaptive control in response to a user input.

Claims

1. A method for providing vehicle stability control in weather conditions, the method comprising:

receiving location/position data via a global positioning signal;

receiving weather information;

receiving video data from a video camera mounted to a vehicle;

determining whether to provide a restricted driving condition in response to the location/position data, the weather information and the video data; and

restricting operation of the vehicle in response to the determination of a restricted driving condition.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of restricting operation of the vehicle comprises modifying standard thresholds of a vehicle stability control by providing restricted thresholds.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the step of restricting operation of the vehicle further comprises operating an engine control to limit maximum vehicle speed.

4. The method according to claim 1, including the step of receiving an input from a human machine interface to enable or disable the restricting of operation of the vehicle, and wherein receiving weather information includes receiving the weather information from an RF antenna.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of receiving weather information comprises receiving at least two selected from the group of temperature, visibility, precipitation and wind velocity, and the step of determining whether to provide a restricted driving condition includes looking up road conditions or other information specific to a present vehicle location and a future vehicle path from a data table.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of determining a driving condition includes processing the video data to determine a type of road from the group of a tar road, a dirt road, a sand road, a cement road and a gravel road.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the step of determining a driving condition includes processing the video data to determine a coefficient of friction for the road and tires.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of determining a driving condition includes processing the video data to determine a coefficient of friction for the road and tires.

9. A method for providing vehicle stability control in weather conditions for a vehicle, the method comprising:

obtaining video data with a video camera mounted to the vehicle;

receiving location/position data at an electronic control unit via a global positioning signal;

receiving weather data at the electronic control unit;

receiving at the electronic control unit the video data from the video camera mounted to the vehicle;

determining driving conditions from the receiving location/position data, the weather data and the video data;

determining whether to provide a restricted driving condition in response to the driving conditions; and

restricting operation of the vehicle in response to the determination of a restricted driving condition by modifying standard thresholds of a vehicle stability control by providing restricted thresholds.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the step of restricting operation of the vehicle further comprises operating an engine control to limit maximum vehicle speed.

11. The method according to claim 9, including the step of receiving an input from a human machine interface to enable or disable the restricting of operation of the vehicle.

12. The method according to claim 9, wherein the step of receiving weather data comprises receiving at least two selected from the group of temperature, visibility, precipitation and wind velocity and the step of determining driving conditions includes processing the video data to determine a type of road from the group of a tar road, a dirt road, a sand road, a cement road and a gravel road.

13. The method according to claim 9, wherein the step of determining driving conditions includes processing the video data to determine a coefficient of friction for the road and tires.

14. The method according to claim 9, wherein the step of determining driving conditions includes processing the video data to determine a road condition including one of standing or running water, an icy road surface, a smooth road surface and a rough road surface and wherein receiving the weather information includes receiving the weather information from an RF antenna.

15. A method for providing vehicle stability control in weather conditions, the method comprising:

receiving location/position data;

receiving weather data including at least two selected from the group of temperature, visibility, precipitation and wind velocity;

receiving video data from a video camera mounted to a vehicle;

determining driving conditions from the receiving location/position data, the weather data and processing the video data to determine a type of road from a group consisting of a tar road, a dirt road, a sand road, a cement road and a gravel road;

determining whether to provide a restricted driving condition in response to the driving conditions; and

restricting operation of the vehicle in response to the determination of a restricted driving condition by modifying standard thresholds of a vehicle stability control by providing restricted thresholds.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the step of restricting operation of the vehicle further comprises operating an engine control to limit maximum vehicle speed.

17. The method according to claim 15, including the step of receiving an input from a human machine interface to enable or disable the restricting of operation of the vehicle.

18. The method according to claim 15, wherein the step of determining driving conditions includes processing the video data to determine a coefficient of friction for the road and tires, the step of restricting operation of the vehicle further comprises limiting maximum vehicle speed of an engine control.

19. The method according to claim 18, including the step of receiving an input from a human machine interface to enable or disable the restricting of operation of the vehicle.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein receiving the weather information includes receiving the weather information from an RF antenna.