CONTROL APPARATUS

• US 20170028980A1
• Filed: 07/26/2016
• Published: 02/02/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: OGAWA, Yuki, KATO, Mitsuharu
• Granted Patent: US 10,246,076 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 6/445 Differential gearing distribution type
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/06 including control of combustion engines
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/08 including control of electric propulsion units, e.g. motors or generators
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/26 for electrical energy, e.g. batteries or capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 20/12 using control strategies taking into account route information estimation or calculation of non-directly measurable driving parameters B60W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 20/14 in conjunction with braking regeneration
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2530/00 Input parameters relating to vehicle conditions or values, not covered by groups B60W2510/00 or B60W2520/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/15 Road slope, i.e. the inclination of a road segment in the longitudinal direction
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/20 Road profile, i.e. the change in elevation or curvature of a plurality of continuous road segments
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/25 Road altitude
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/06 Combustion engines, Gas turbines
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/08 Electric propulsion units
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/244 Charge state
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/18127 Regenerative braking
• CPC Class Codes: B60Y 2200/92 Hybrid vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60Y 2300/181 Hill climbing or descending
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/62 Hybrid vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/72 Electric energy management in electromobility

Abstract

A control apparatus and method for a hybrid vehicle that searches for and determines a scheduled travel route and a downhill section included in the scheduled travel route on the basis of positional information of the vehicle and road information. The control apparatus determines a section from a downhill control start point to an end point of a target downhill section as a controlled target section. The downhill control start point is located a predetermined first distance before a start point of the target downhill section. When the vehicle travels on the controlled target section, the control apparatus executes downhill control. Even in a situation in which a target downhill section is newly determined during execution of the downhill control, the control apparatus continues the downhill control until the vehicle reaches an end point of the controlled target section for which the downhill control is started.

Claims

1. A control apparatus that is applied to a hybrid vehicle, the hybrid vehicle including an internal combustion engine, an electric motor, and a storage battery that supplies electric power to the electric motor, the hybrid vehicle being configured to perform regenerative braking with the use of the electric motor and be able to charge the storage battery with electric power generated through the regenerative braking, the hybrid vehicle being also configured to be able to charge the storage battery with electric power generated by using output power of the internal combustion engine, the control apparatus comprising:

a controller configured to;

control the internal combustion engine and the electric motor such that a required driving force that is required from the vehicle is satisfied and a remaining amount of charge of the storage battery approaches a target remaining amount of charge set to a first remaining amount of charge,

acquire positional information, indicating a position of the vehicle, and road information,

determine a scheduled travel route of the vehicle on the basis of the positional information and the road information,

search for a target downhill section that satisfies a predetermined condition within the scheduled travel route on the basis of the road information pertaining to each road section that constitutes the scheduled travel route,

determine a first controlled target section when the target downhill section is included in the scheduled travel route, the first controlled target section being a section from a downhill control start point to an end point of the target downhill section, the downhill control start point being located a predetermined first distance before a start point of the target downhill section,

execute a downhill control when the vehicle travels on the first controlled target section, the downhill control being control for changing the target remaining amount of charge to a second remaining amount of charge lower than the first remaining amount of charge, and

continue to execute the downhill control until the vehicle reaches an end point of the first controlled target section for which the downhill control is started even when the controlled target section is newly determined during execution of the downhill control.

2. The control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to newly determine the controlled target section at a point in time at which the vehicle has passed through the first controlled target section for which the downhill control is started.

3. The control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to end the downhill control when the scheduled travel route has been changed during execution of the downhill control.

4. The control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the controller is an electronic control unit.

5. A control method that is applied to a hybrid vehicle, the hybrid vehicle including an internal combustion engine, an electric motor, and a storage battery that supplies electric power to the electric motor, the hybrid vehicle being configured to perform regenerative braking with the use of the electric motor and be able to charge the storage battery with electric power generated through the regenerative braking, the hybrid vehicle being also configured to be able to charge the storage battery with electric power generated by using output power of the internal combustion engine, the control method comprising:

controlling the internal combustion engine and the electric motor such that a required driving force that is required from the vehicle is satisfied and a remaining amount of charge of the storage battery approaches a target remaining amount of charge set to a first remaining amount of charge,

acquiring positional information, indicating a position of the vehicle, and road information,

determining a scheduled travel route of the vehicle on the basis of the positional information and the road information,

searching for a target downhill section that satisfies a predetermined condition within the scheduled travel route on the basis of the road information pertaining to each road section that constitutes the scheduled travel route,

determining a first controlled target section when the target downhill section is included in the scheduled travel route, the first controlled target section being a section from a downhill control start point to an end point of the target downhill section, the downhill control start point being located a predetermined first distance before a start point of the target downhill section,

executing a downhill control when the vehicle travels on the first controlled target section, the downhill control being control for changing the target remaining amount of charge to a second remaining amount of charge lower than the first remaining amount of charge, and

continuing to execute the downhill control until the vehicle reaches an end point of the first controlled target section for which the downhill control is started even when the controlled target section is newly determined during execution of the downhill control.