Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Relative location – Collision avoidance
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-25
2001-09-11
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Relative location
Collision avoidance
C303S140000, C303S189000, C340S903000, C340S435000, C701S072000, C701S091000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06289281
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an integrated control system of a vehicle, more particularly to an integrated vehicle control system which integrates two kinds of controls, comprised of that to avoid an obstacle present on the course of travel ahead of the vehicle and that to control the vehicle to veer so as to ensure steerability of the vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various obstacle avoidance techniques have hitherto been proposed. For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Application Hei 6(1994)-298022 teaches detecting the distance to an obstacle (e.g., another vehicle running ahead on the road) and automatically operating a brake, if needed, so as to avoid the contact with the obstacle.
Moreover, there has been proposed a technique to control the braking forces independently or separately for the four wheels to generate a yaw moment (moment about the gravitational direction at the center of the gravity of the vehicle) so as to control the behavior or motion of the vehicle. More specifically, the technique detects the slip angle and angular velocity of the vehicle body to determine whether the vehicle tends to oversteer, while detecting the actual yaw rate (yaw angular velocity) to determine the error from a desired yaw rate to determine whether the vehicle tends to understeer.
In this technique, the front wheels or rear wheels are braked in response to the determined results to control the vehicle yaw moment, thereby ensuring stability when the vehicle corners or turns.
In the obstacle avoidance control mentioned above, the automatic brake operation may cause the vehicle driver to experience annoyance if he has the intention to avoid the obstacle by himself. For that reason, the obstacle avoidance control is configured such that the automatic braking is only effected after the possibility of contact has grown to a great extent. However, once the automatic braking is effected, it instantaneously generates large braking forces. This may sometimes make the vehicle response to the vehicle driver's steering insufficient.
Such an obstacle avoidance control and vehicle behavior control as mentioned above could be integrated together so as to, for example, to enhance the veerability of the vehicle when the vehicle tends to understeer. Since, however, the vehicle behavior control is configured to respond to the vehicle driver's manipulation, if the automatic braking yields large braking forces instantaneously, the integrated control could fail to ensure vehicle stability sufficient for avoiding an obstacle on the road.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is therefore to overcome the foregoing problems by providing an integrated control system of a vehicle which integrates the aforesaid obstacle avoidance control and the vehicle behavior control properly, whereby effecting the vehicle behavior sufficient for avoiding an obstacle, while ensuring vehicle steerability or veerability.
To achieve this object, the invention provides a system for controlling the behavior of a vehicle having a brake which is controllable in a braking force applied at a left wheel and a right wheel of the vehicle independently, comprising obstacle detecting means for detecting an obstacle present ahead on a course of travel of the vehicle; contact possibility determining means for determining whether a possibility that the vehicle will come into contact with the obstacle is present based on an output of the obstacle detecting means; first brake control means for controlling operation of the brake in response to a result of the determination of the contact possibility determining means; vehicle behavior detecting means for detecting at least a parameter of the vehicle indicative of behavior of the vehicle; vehicle behavior control means for calculating at least an error, for controlling a vehicle behavior, between the detected parameter and a reference value and for calculating a manipulated variable such that a vehicle veerability is enhanced; and second brake control means for controlling operation of the brake in response to the calculated manipulated variable; wherein the vehicle behavior control means conducts at least one from among procedures to advance the timing of the calculation of the manipulated variable and to increase the manipulated variable, when the contact possibility determining means determines that the possibility of contact is present.
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Kodaka Kenji
Matsuda Shohei
Shinmura Tomoyuki
Sugimoto Yoichi
Arent Fox Kintner & Plotkin & Kahn, PLLC
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Pipala Edward
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