Autonomous mode vehicle control system and vehicle comprising such a control system

• US 9,399,472 B2
• Filed: 04/04/2013
• Issued: 07/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Renault Sas (Renault)
• Original Assignee: Renault Sas (Renault)
• Inventors: Minoiu-Enache, Nicoleta
• Primary Examiner(s): Alharbi, Adam
• Application Number:
  US14/390,141
• Publication Number:
  US 20150134178A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,209 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0006 Digital architecture hierarchy
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/00 Purposes of road vehicle drive control systems not related to the control of a particular sub-unit, e.g. of systems using conjoint control of vehicle sub-units
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/02 Ensuring safety in case of control system failures, e.g. by diagnosing, circumventing or fixing failures
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/035 Bringing the control units into a predefined state, e.g. giving priority to particular actuators
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0061 for transition from automatic pilot to manual pilot and vice versa

Abstract

A vehicle control system including human-control members generating signals for manual piloting of actuators of the vehicle, an automatic control module generating signals for automatic piloting of the actuators of the vehicle, and a switching module to select the manual-piloting signals in a manual mode of operation and the autonomous-piloting signals in an autonomous mode of operation. The automatic control module includes a block for automatic formulation of at least one calculated autonomous piloting signal and a security block to transmit to the switching module a calculated autonomous piloting signal in a case of normal autonomous operation and an emergency autonomous piloting signal in a case of abnormal autonomous operation.

Claims

1. A vehicle control system comprising:

manual-control members that generate manual-driving signals to manually drive actuators of the vehicle;

automatic-control circuitry that generates autonomous-driving signals to autonomously drive the actuators of the vehicle; and

switching circuitry configured to select the manual-driving signals in a manual mode of operation and to select the autonomous-driving signals in an autonomous mode of operation,

wherein the automatic-control circuitry includes;

an automatic-formulation circuitry portion that automatically formulates at least one calculated autonomous-driving signal,

a safety circuitry portion configured to transmit to the switching circuitry the at least one calculated autonomous-driving signal in a case of normal autonomous operation and an emergency autonomous-driving signal in a case of abnormal autonomous operation,

a supervision module having an overall finite state machine with a first overall state associated with the manual mode of operation and a second overall state associated with the autonomous mode of operation to send the switching circuitry at least one signal to select the manual-driving signals and the autonomous-driving signals,

wherein the overall finite state machine comprises a third overall state associated with the case of abnormal autonomous operation to send the safety circuitry portion at least one emergency braking signal.

2. The control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the automatic-control circuitry includes a diagnostics circuitry portion configured to detect any event associated with a case of abnormal autonomous operation and to send the supervision module at least one signal indicative of the cases of normal and abnormal autonomous operation.

3. The control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the automatic-formulation circuitry portion has a command/control subunit with a local finite state machine comprising a first local state associated with an autonomous start and a second local state associated with an autonomous immobilization.

4. The control system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising navigation and/or location circuitry configured to send the automatic-formulation circuitry portion, in real time, course coordinates that are expressed in a frame of reference local to the vehicle.

8. A motor vehicle, comprising the vehicle control system as claimed in claim 1.

5. A method for controlling a vehicle comprising:

executing one or more manual-modes in which manual-control members generate manual-driving signals for manually driving actuators of the vehicle; and

executing, using automatic-control circuitry, one or more autonomous-modes in which autonomous-driving signals are generated and switched toward the actuators of the vehicle in place of the manual-driving signals;

wherein said executing the one or more autonomous-modes using the automatic-control circuitry includes;

executing a normal autonomous-mode performed in a case of normal autonomous operation and in which the autonomous-driving signals comprise at least one calculated autonomous-driving signal, and

executing an emergency autonomous-mode performed in a case of abnormal autonomous operation and in which the autonomous-driving signals comprise at least one emergency autonomous-driving signal,

wherein the automatic-control circuitry includes a supervision module having an overall finite state machine with a first overall state associated with the manual mode of operation and a second overall state associated with the autonomous mode of operation to send at least one signal to select the manual-driving signals and the autonomous-driving signals, and

wherein the overall finite state machine comprises a third overall state associated with the case of abnormal autonomous operation to send at least one emergency braking signal.

6. The control method as claimed in claim 5, further comprising:

at least one first performing an autonomous start; and

at least one second performing an autonomous immobilization.

7. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising a computer program product comprising instructions for implementing the method as claimed in claim 5 when performed by a computer.