Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Indication or control of braking – acceleration – or deceleration
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-25
2001-08-21
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Indication or control of braking, acceleration, or deceleration
C701S070000, C701S071000, C701S072000, C701S073000, C701S074000, C701S080000, C701S081000, C701S083000, C303S115600, C303S115600, C303S115600, C303S167000, C303S140000, C303S146000, C303S155000, C303S152000, C303S157000, C303S133000, C303S147000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06278930
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a moving behavior control device of a vehicle such as an automobile, and more particularly, to a moving behavior control device of a vehicle for controlling a turn behavior thereof against a spin or a driftout and a roll behavior thereof against an excessive rolling or a roll-over.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is currently well known in the art of automobiles industries to improve the turn behavior of vehicles such as automobiles against a spin or a driftout or to suppress the vehicle against an excessive rolling or roll-over by applying a computer controlled braking to a selected one or more of the wheels. Further, although the spin, the driftout and the rolling of vehicles are substantially different from one another as the phenomena of the moving behavior of a vehicle, a spin control and a driftout control are often combined as a turn behavior control of the vehicles, while it will also be contemplated as a matter of principle that a roll suppress control is combined with such a turn behavior control, as all the controls depend on a computer controlled actuation of a common brake system.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
However, when a roll suppress control is further combined with a spin and a driftout suppress control, since the brake system is equally faithful to all of those controls, it is anticipated that an undesirable interference occurs between the different controls according to the running conditions of the vehicle. There will be a wide variety of improvements toward such and other problems encountered in various combinations of those different controls. In this regard, a point to be noted will be that, since an interference generally demands a compromise on one or both sides for it being solved, the problem will be what is how far sacrificed.
In view of the above, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a moving behavior control for a vehicle such as an automobile by which the vehicle is controlled against all of the spin, driftout and excessive roll with a least sacrifice of one of these controls for a stable whole moving behavior control of the vehicle.
According to the present invention, such a primary object is accomplished by a moving behavior control device for a vehicle having a vehicle body, front left, front right, rear left and rear right wheels suspended by the vehicle body, and a brake system for applying a controlled braking force to each of the wheels, the moving behavior control device comprising:
first means for calculating target braking forces to be applied to the respective wheels for stabilizing the vehicle against a turn instability thereof;
second means for calculating target braking forces to be applied to the respective wheels for stabilizing the vehicle against a roll instability thereof;
third means for calculating target overall braking forces to be applied to the respective wheels by integrating the target braking forces calculated by the first means and the target braking forces calculated by the second means with respect to the corresponding wheels;
fourth means for operating the brake system so as to apply such braking forces to the respective wheels which conform to the target overall braking forces; and
fifth means for detecting the vehicle running at a probability of rolling beyond a predetermined threshold roll;
wherein the fourth means decrease the braking forces according to a first rate schedule by which the applied braking forces are decreased generally at a first rate according to an excess of the applied braking forces relative to the target overall braking forces when the fifth means do not detect the vehicle running at said probability and according to a second rate schedule by which the braking forces are lowered generally at a second rate generally smaller than the first rate according to an excess of the applied braking forces relative to the target overall braking forces when the fifth means detect the vehicle running at said probability.
As already known in the art, in order to suppress a vehicle from spinning, a front wheel serving at the outside of a turn is braked so as thereby to generate an anti-spin moment around the braked front outside wheel, while in order to suppress a vehicle from drifting out, rear wheels are braked so as to decelerate the vehicle thereby decreasing a centrifugal force acting at the vehicle, with an additional effect that the braked rear wheels will slide laterally outside of the turn. In order to suppress a vehicle from excessively rolling, a braking may also be applied to a front wheel serving at the outside of a turn and also to the rear wheels.
Therefore, when a vehicle is synthetically controlled against a spin, a driftout and an excessive roll, such that at one time a front wheel serving at the outside of a turn is braked for suppressing a spin or an excessive roll or both, while at another time the rear wheels are braked for suppressing a driftout or an excessive roll or both, there would be no serious problem in the process of increasing the braking force even if the braking is executed for a spin suppress control with no need for a roll suppress control, or vice versa, or even if the braking is executed for a driftout suppress control with no need for a roll suppress control, or vice versa. (It is very rare that a spin suppress control and a driftout suppress control are needed at the same time.)
However, the inventors anticipate some serious problems in the latter half control process of releasing the applied braking. If the braking applied for a spin or a driftout suppress control is swiftly released according to a swift subsidence of the spin or the driftout with the condition of the vehicle being not yet excessively rolled but liable to an excessive roll, the vehicle would be put into an excessive roll by the swift release of the braking before a roll suppress control is newly actuated.
The moving behavior control device of the above-mentioned construction meets with such a problem with a least sacrifice that the release of the braking for a spin suppress control or a driftout suppress control is somewhat slowed down when there is a probability of inducing an excessive roll by the release, only after the regular braking for the spin suppress control or the driftout suppress control has been effected.
In the above-mentioned moving behavior control device, the fifth means may detect the vehicle running at said probability when a lateral acceleration lager than a predetermined threshold value is acting at the vehicle.
Or, the fifth means may detect the vehicle running at said probability when the vehicle is yawing at a yaw rate lager than a predetermined threshold value.
Or, the fifth means may detect the vehicle running at said probability when a weighted sum of a lateral acceleration acting at the vehicle and a roll angular velocity of the vehicle body is lager than a predetermined threshold value.
The moving behavior control device according to the present invention may further be so constructed that the fourth means increase the braking forces according to a third rate schedule by which the applied braking forces are increased generally at a third rate according to a shortage of the applied braking forces relative to the target overall braking forces when the fifth means do not detect the vehicle running at said probability and according to a fourth rate schedule by which the applied braking forces are increased generaly at a fourth rate generally smaller than the third rate according to a shortage of the applied braking forces relative to the target overall braking forces when the fifth means detect the vehicle running at said probability.
The above-mentioned first rate schedule may show such a performance that the braking force decreasing rate is substantially constant at a first rate value against decrease of the excess of the applied braking forces relative to the target overall braking forces until the excess decreases down to a first excess value and then decrease
Nagae Akira
Yamada Noritaka
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Mancho Ronnie
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
Toyota Jidosha & Kabushiki Kaisha
LandOfFree
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