SYSTEM FOR VEHICLE CONTROL TO MITIGATE INTERSECTION COLLISIONS AND METHOD OF USING THE SAME

• US 20110082623A1
• Filed: 10/05/2009
• Published: 04/07/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Prasad, Priya, Filev, Dimitar P., Velenis, Efstathios, Tsiotras, Panagiotis, Lu, Jianbo
• Granted Patent: US 8,577,550 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/41
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/06 including control of combustion engines
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/184 with wheel brakes
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/20 including control of steering systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/09 Taking automatic action to avoid collision, e.g. braking and steering
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/0956 the prediction being responsive to traffic or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes

Abstract

A control system and method to mitigate intersection crashes is disclosed. In one embodiment, the system includes an electronic control module equipped with memory and in communication with at least one radar sensor system, at lest one environmental sensor system, at least one vehicle stability system, an operator advisory system, a brake control system, a controllable steering system, and a powertrain control system. In one embodiment, the method may include determining whether a vehicle is entering an intersection, determining whether the operator is responding correctly to the sensed conditions in the intersection, activating the controlled brakes, determining any intersection threat, determining whether any sensed threat is imminent, activating the accident mitigation adviser, reducing engine torque while in the intersection, and actuating steering and brake control systems while in the intersection.

Claims

1. A control system to mitigate intersection crashes, comprising:

an electronic control module equipped with memory and in communication with at least one radar sensor sensing system;

at least one environmental sensing system;

at least one vehicle stability control system;

at least one operator advisory system and at least one of a brake control system, a controllable steering system, an electronic power assisted steering system, and a powertrain control system.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the environmental sensing system includes sensor elements for adaptive cruise control, collision mitigation system, lane change assist system, blind spot detection system, side impact crash sensors, frontal impact crash sensors, at least one pre-crash sensor, global positioning system, and global positioning system for navigation with digital maps.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle stability control system is at least one of a yaw stability control system, roll stability control system, and lateral stability control system.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the brake central system and the power assisted steering system are engaged when a pre-crash hazard is detected.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the advisory system is haptic, auditory or visual.

2-4. -4. (canceled)

7. (canceled)

10-11. -11. (canceled)

12. A method to mitigate vehicle intersection crashes, comprising:

determining whether a vehicle is entering into an intersection;

determining whether a vehicle operator is responding correctly to sensed conditions in the intersection;

activating a brake control system to pre-charge vehicle brakes while said vehicle is in the intersection;

determining the intersection threat classification;

determining whether an intersection hazard is imminent;

activating an accident mitigation advisor system;

reducing intersection engine torque;

determining whether to steer clear of the hazard;

activate intersection steering by steering system;

activate intersection steering by braking system;

determining whether the driver is initiating driver braking

activating intersection braking assist system; and

activating intersection automatic braking system.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein if an operator does not respond correctly to sensed condition at the intersection, the system classifies the intersection threat, and determines whether the hazard is imminent.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein if it is determined no hazard is imminent, the method enters into a loop and determines any intersection threat classification.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the intersection entrance advisor employs data from a global positioning system to determine entrance of the intersection and to determine at least one of intersection traffic, intersection speed limit, intersection road condition and whether the intersection is a black spot where many accident happened previously and, activating a warning if a time to intersection entrance is below a predetermined threshold.

20. The method of claim 12, wherein when there is no throttle dropping, no operator initiated braking, or the vehicle speed is higher than a predetermined threshold the intersection brake pre-charge is activated and a predetermined amount of brake pressure pre-charges the brake control system.

25. The method of claim 12, further including a warning of at least one of an auditory warning, a display warning, pre-tensioning of a seat restraint system, or a haptic.

30. The method of claim 12, wherein when a collision is unavoidable and the driver of the host vehicle attempts to steer the host vehicle, the intersection assist braking system is activated.

31. The method of claim 12, wherein the intersection assist braking system slows the vehicle and provides differential braking to make the vehicle over steer to achieve crash avoidance steering assist in case that the host driver'"'"'s steering is insufficient to avoid a collision.

32. The method of claim 12, wherein the intersection steer assist is activated when the system determines that a collision is unavoidable without steering and the driver of the host vehicle tries to steer the vehicle, said intersection steer assist preventing the driver from initiating a wrong steering action.

33. The method of claim 12, wherein said intersection brake assist initiates a command to said host vehicle master cylinder pressure as a function of the distance to the intersection, the current vehicle speed, the offset threshold, tunable control gains, and the current road condition of the intersection.

34. The method of claim 12, wherein the intersection automatic braking system automatically applies the brakes when a confirmed vehicle is in the host vehicle'"'"'s path, the relative position between the host vehicle and the target vehicle is below a predetermined threshold and the driver of the host vehicle does not initiate steering or braking to avoid collision.

15-17. -17. (canceled)

19. (canceled)

21-24. -24. (canceled)

26-29. -29. (canceled)