VEHICLE AND METHOD FOR ADVISING DRIVER OF SAME

• US 20110187520A1
• Filed: 10/30/2009
• Published: 08/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Prakah-Asante, Kwaku O., Lu, Jianbo, Filev, Dimitar Petrov, Tseng, Fling
• Granted Patent: US 9,586,599 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/438
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/143 Alarm means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/146 Display means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/30 Driving style
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/801 Lateral distance
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/16 Control of distance between vehicles, e.g. keeping a distance to preceding vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/09 Driving style or behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/107 Longitudinal acceleration
• 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

Abstract

A method for advising a driver of a vehicle may include measuring a plurality of parameters representing the vehicle'"'"'s current handling condition and the vehicle'"'"'s limit handling condition, determining a margin between the vehicle'"'"'s current handling condition and limit handling condition, and initiating an alert for the driver before the vehicle achieves the limit handling condition if the margin exceeds a predetermined threshold.

Claims

1. A vehicle comprising:

at least one of an electronic stability control system, anti-lock braking system and traction control system;

a plurality of sensors configured to measure parameters representing the vehicle'"'"'s current handling condition and the vehicle'"'"'s limit handling condition, wherein each of the parameters has upper and lower deadband thresholds defining a deadband interval within which the measured parameter may fall without the at least one electronic stability control system, anti-lock braking system and traction control system being activated; and

at least one computing device operatively arranged with the sensors and configured (i) to determine, for each of the parameters, a normalized difference between the parameter and at least one of the parameter'"'"'s upper and lower deadband thresholds, (ii) to identify a minimum of the normalized differences, and (iii) to initiate an alert for a driver of the vehicle if the minimum of the normalized differences exceeds a predetermined threshold within the deadband interval.

2. The vehicle of claim 1 further comprising a haptic pedal, wherein initiating an alert for a driver of the vehicle includes activating the haptic pedal.

3. The vehicle of claim 1 further comprising at least one of an audio, visual and haptic driver interface operatively arranged with the at least one computing device, wherein initiating an alert for the driver includes activating the at least one of audio, visual and haptic driver interface.

4. The vehicle of claim 1 wherein the sensors include at least one of a yaw rate sensor, steering angle sensor, lateral acceleration sensor, longitudinal acceleration sensor, wheel speed sensor, and brake pressure sensor.

5. The vehicle of claim 1 wherein the computing device is further configured to low-pass filter the minimum of the normalized differences.

6. A method for advising a driver of a vehicle comprising:

measuring a plurality of parameters representing the vehicle'"'"'s current handling condition and the vehicle'"'"'s limit handling condition;

determining a margin between the vehicle'"'"'s current handling condition and limit handling condition; and

initiating an alert for the driver before the vehicle achieves the limit handling condition if the margin exceeds a predetermined threshold.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein each of the parameters has upper and lower deadband thresholds defining a deadband interval within which the measured parameter may fall without initiating electronic stability control, anti-lock braking or traction control.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein determining a margin between the vehicle'"'"'s current handling condition and limit handling condition includes, for each of the measured parameters, determining a normalized difference between the measured parameter and at least one of the measured parameter'"'"'s upper and lower deadband thresholds.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein determining a margin between the vehicle'"'"'s current handling condition and limit handling condition includes identifying a minimum of the normalized differences.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein determining a margin between the vehicle'"'"'s current handling condition and limit handling condition includes low-pass filtering the minimum of the normalized differences.

11. The method of claim 6 wherein initiating an alert for the driver includes activating a haptic pedal.

12. The method of claim 6 wherein the alert is at least one of an audio, visual and tactile alert.

13. The method of claim 6 wherein the alert is a voice alert.

14. The method of claim 6 wherein the parameters include at least one of yaw rate, steering angle, lateral acceleration, longitudinal acceleration, wheel speed, and brake pressure.

15. The method of claim 6 further comprising characterizing a driver'"'"'s dynamic control of the vehicle based on the margin.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising altering the predetermined threshold based on the characterization.

17. An automotive vehicle comprising:

at least one of an electronic stability control system, anti-lock braking system and traction control system; and

at least one computing device configured to initiate an alert for a driver before the at least one of the electronic stability control system, anti-lock braking system and traction control system activates based on a margin between the vehicle'"'"'s current handling condition and limit handling condition.

18. The vehicle of claim 17 wherein the at least one computing device is further configured to receive a plurality of parameter values representing the vehicle'"'"'s current handling condition and limit handling condition.

19. The vehicle of claim 17 further comprising a driver interface operatively arranged with the at least one computing device, wherein initiating an alert for a driver includes activating the driver interface.