Motor vehicles – With means for promoting safety of vehicle – its occupant or... – Responsive to sensing of acceleration – deceleration – or tilt...
Patent
1998-12-16
2000-11-28
Johnson, Brian L.
Motor vehicles
With means for promoting safety of vehicle, its occupant or...
Responsive to sensing of acceleration, deceleration, or tilt...
280124106, 188112A, 303123, B60K 2812
Patent
active
06152252&
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a device for a vehicle for adjusting tilt of the vehicle and also possibly the course or direction of the vehicle by controlling the vehicle speed at the vehicle wheels.
STATE OF THE ART
Particularly in long and tall vehicles such as short-distance and long-distance trucks and buses there is risk of tilting, i.e. of the vehicle overturning. This risk may arise if its speed is too high when cornering. Such tilting is of course a major traffic hazard not only for persons travelling in the vehicle but also for other vehicles in the vicinity of a tilting vehicle. The problem is still greater if the vehicle concerned is carrying dangerous goods, e.g. those liable to fire hazard.
For a variety of reasons there is sometimes also risk of a vehicle deviating from its course, i.e. of its actual direction of movement deviating from the intended direction, such as that direction determined by the deflection of the steering wheel. U.S. Pat. No. 4,898,431 refers to a brake control system for preventing a vehicle from deviating from its course in this way. This known system includes a first sensor which detects an intended yaw rate of the vehicle and a second sensor which detects its actual yaw rate. The system also includes a control unit arranged to identify a state of deviation from course by comparing the detected actual yaw rate with the intended yaw rate. To prevent the vehicle from deviating from a notional course, the control unit is also arranged to activate the various wheel brakes in response to that comparison, i.e. to adjust the braking force applied to each individual wheel brake according to the situation at the time. This known technique thus only corrects for deviation between an intended and an actual course and gives no indication of how the abovementioned tilt risk may be reduced.
It should also be noted that there is a connection between the risk of tilting and the risk of deviation from course, e.g. in that an attempt to prevent tilting may put the vehicle into a state of deviating from its course.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to provide a device with which vehicle tilt can be counteracted. A further aim is that the device should enhance the possibility of making the vehicle maintain the intended course.
This object is achieved with the device mentioned in the introduction, which detects the tilt of the vehicle and controls the tilt by acting on speed reduction devices at the wheels of the vehicle and which may also detect and then control the actual course of the vehicle with respect to its desired course by controlling the speed reduction at wheels at least at one an axle. In particular, with respect to the tilt of the vehicle, a parameter is measured that is transverse to the longitudinal direction of the vehicle and in the vertical direction, which determines vehicle tilt. With such a device it is possible to detect whether the vehicle is tending to tilt and thereupon automatically to reduce the vehicle's speed, e.g. by activating its wheel brakes, an exhaust brake arranged in the vehicle, a so-called retarder, the vehicle's engine brake etc.
According to one embodiment of the invention, the vehicle incorporates at least two wheel axles, each of them with two wheels, and the control unit is arranged to activate the abovementioned device in such a way that a first substantially equal speed-reducing force is applied to each wheel on a wheel axle in response to the value of the parameter monitored. A braking force applied because of the risk of tilting will thus not in itself affect the vehicle's course. Means may also be arranged to determine whether the vehicle is deviating from its course and the control unit may be arranged to activate the aforesaid means of speed reduction in response to a detected deviation. This feature also makes it possible to have the control unit emit to the vehicle's means of speed reduction signals which take into account both the risk of tilting and the risk of deviation from course, in which case the co
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Fischmann Bryan
Johnson Brian L.
Scania CV Aktiebolag
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