Measuring and testing – Navigation – Take-off and landing monitors
Patent
1991-05-20
1993-09-28
Woodiel, Donald O.
Measuring and testing
Navigation
Take-off and landing monitors
73146, G01C 2100
Patent
active
052478319
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In recent years, with the increasing introduction of electronics to the automotive field, solutions which provide for the automatic control of one or more functions of the motor vehicle, such as, for example, the ignition, the fuel injection, the braking (in an antiskid function), the automatic engagement and disengagement of four-wheel drive, etc., have become widespread.
However, the problem of the interaction between the vehicle and the ground over which it is moving has not hitherto been dealt with in a completely satisfactory manner, particularly as regards the development of the forces and moments which act on the individual regions bearing on the ground, that is, on the tires.
It appears to be essential to be able to tackle and resolve this problem in order to be able to produce vehicles in which the modulated management of its bearing on the ground is possible during driving.
OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to satisfy the requirements stated above, a first aspect of the present invention relates to the fact that a motor vehicle may be considered as a system which interacts with the ground by means of the footprints of the tires, on which continually varying families of forces and moments are established.
More specifically, the present invention relates to a method for controlling the movement of a motor vehicle provided with tires which cooperate with the ground to define respective footprints including the steps of monitoring the behavior of the footprints and generating at least one respective footprint signal indicated of the behavior of the footprints, using the at least one footprint signal to control the movement of the motor vehicle, which is known--per se--e.g. from the Patent Abstracts of Japan, vol. 8, No. 143 (M-306) (1580) 04.07.1984 and JP-A-59 40 906 or DE-A-3 607 369. The object of the present invention is to provide means which enable the distribution of the forces between the various bearing regions to be controlled automatically so as to optimize the behavior of the motor vehicle according to the wishes of the driver and to prearranged reference programs, for example, for normal, sports, or off-road driving or for dry, wet or snowy road conditions, etc.
According to the present invention, that object is fulfilled by means of a method which further includes detecting at least one driving control signal generated by the driver of the motor vehicle and then processing that at least one driving control signal in dependence on the at least one footprint signal which a view to controlling the movement of the motor vehicle. The present invention also relates to a corresponding system wherein the step of monitoring the footprint of a motor vehicle tire on the ground includes the step of incorporating in the flexible structure of the tire, extensometric transducer means which can deform as a result of the tire bearing on the ground, and thus generate signals indicative of the behavior of the footprint.
The invention has been developed with particular attention to its possible use in motor vehicles having four wheels, all of which are driven and steerable (obviously with a braking capability) and are connected to the body of the motor vehicle by means of electronically-controlled suspension units.
A relevant characteristic of the invention is the fact that the behavior of the footprint of each tire on the ground can be monitored.
For this purpose, a further aspect of the present invention provides for the insertion of sensors associated to the wheels of the vehicle (which solution is known--per se--e.g. fro EP-A-0 233 357), such as piezoresistive elastomer elements constituted, for example, by toroidal bands inserted in the structure of the tire, in the tread region of each tire. The state of the forces and moments acting on the footprint of the tire can be monitored by means of these sensors.
On the basis of the footprint-behavior monitoring signals generated by these sensors and of other signals indicative, for example, of:
the dynamics of the
REFERENCES:
patent: 3847012 (1974-11-01), Sperberg
patent: 5092166 (1992-03-01), Wada et al.
Fioravanti S.r.l.
Woodiel Donald O.
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