Interrelated power delivery controls – including engine control – Transmission control – Transmission controlled by engine
Reexamination Certificate
2002-11-26
2004-08-03
Lewis, Tisha D (Department: 3681)
Interrelated power delivery controls, including engine control
Transmission control
Transmission controlled by engine
C477S174000, C701S066000, C701S067000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06770010
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method of controlling a vehicle, a vehicle control apparatus, a transmission, and an apparatus for controlling a transmission, and particularly to a method of controlling a vehicle, a vehicle control apparatus, a transmission, and a transmission control apparatus, which are suitable to control the automatic transmission in the vehicle.
A vehicle of a manual transmission type is excellent in fuel economy compared to a vehicle mounting a transmission using a torque converter. However, coordination of the clutch and the accelerator at starting is difficult to be operated. If the coordination of the clutch and the accelerator at starting is not operated well, a large shock is generated at engaging the clutch, or rotation speed of the engine may be rapidly increased when the clutch pressure is insufficient, that is, what is called as a blowing-up phenomenon occurs. Further, when the clutch is suddenly engaged while rotation speed of the engine is insufficient, or when the vehicle is started to run on an uphill, the engine may be stopped, that is, what is called as uphill, the engine may be stopped, that is, what is called as engine stopping occurs.
In order to solve these problems, a system automatizing clutching and shifting using the mechanism of a manual transmission, that is, an automatized MT (an automatized manual transmission) has been developed. However, a driver sometimes feels incongruity because suspension of driving torque occurs by disengaging and engaging of the clutch in the control at shifting gear in the conventional automatized MT (the automatized manual transmission).
A system disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,703,169 is known. In order to avoid the interruption of torque during shifting in the system, an assist clutch or a friction clutch of one form of a friction transfer means is added to the conventional automatized MT (the automatized manual transmission) to perform rotation speed synchronization and torque transmission for shifting gear by controlling the assist clutch when shifting is performed.
It is necessary to control the above assist clutch to synchronize the rotation speed of an input shaft of the transmission with the rotation speed which corresponds to the next gear position by the above assist clutch in such a vehicle. However, it was revealed that the time required to synchronize these rotation speeds gets longer in consequence of the change in characteristics due to the machine difference between assist clutches or the deterioration with age, the change in characteristics due to the replacement of the assist clutch or the changing of operating fluid, or the machine difference between engines or the deterioration with age, and shift quality is deteriorated by the sluggish feeling of shifting. Moreover, the striking-feeling occurs if the time required to synchronize the rotation speeds is occasionally shortened, and shift quality decreases.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A first object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle control method, a vehicle control apparatus, a transmission, and a transmission control apparatus, which can improve the shift quality by preventing the time required to synchronize the rotation speeds from becoming long or short even if the machine difference between assist clutches or the deterioration with age occurs, and improve the shift quality by suppressing the time required to synchronize the rotation speeds from becoming long or short even if the change in characteristics due to the replacement of a clutch or the changing of operating fluid.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle control method, a vehicle control apparatus, a transmission, and a transmission control apparatus, which can prevent the decrease of the shift quality without making the time required to synchronize the rotation speeds long even if the machine difference between engines or the deterioration with age occurs.
(1) The present invention adopts the following configuration in order to obtain the above first object.
A method of controlling a vehicle including a driving force source for generating the driving force, a cogwheel type transmission provided with a plurality of cogwheel rows, and a plurality of torque transfer means provided between an input shaft and an output shaft of said transmission, at least one above torque transfer means being the friction transfer means, comprising the Steps of controlling said friction transfer means when shifting from one cogwheel row to the other cogwheel row, setting a target synchronous rotation speed based on the output rotation speed of said transmission and at least one of parameters indicative of the state of said driving force source or said transmission, and setting an command value to said friction transfer means so that the input rotation speed of said transmission may be synchronized with said target synchronous rotation speed, further comprising the Steps of:
setting the target required shift time based on at least one of parameters indicative of the state of said driving force source or said transmission, and
correcting the command value to said friction transfer means so that the required shift time from the shifting start to the shifting end may approach at said target required shift time.
Thereby, it is possible to prevent the time required to synchronize the rotation speeds from becoming long or short even if the machine difference between assist clutches or the deterioration with age occurs, and improve the shift quality by suppressing the time required to synchronize the rotation speeds from becoming long or short even if the change in characteristics due to the replacement of a clutch or the changing of operating fluid.
(2) Preferably, in the above (1), the command value to said friction transfer means is corrected so that the transfer torque of said friction transfer means may be increased when said input rotation speed is larger than said target synchronous rotation speed.
(3) Preferably, in the above (1), the command value to said friction transfer means is corrected so that the transfer torque of said friction transfer means may be decreased when said input rotation speed is smaller than said target synchronous rotation speed.
(4) Preferably, in the above (1), the command value to said friction transfer means is corrected so that said required shift time may approach at said target required shift time whenever shifting is repeated.
(5) The present invention adopts the following configuration in order to obtain the above second object.
A method of controlling a vehicle including a driving force source for generating the driving force, a cogwheel type transmission provided with a plurality of cogwheel rows, and a plurality of torque transfer means provided between an input shaft and an output shaft of said transmission, at least one above torque transfer means being the friction transfer means, comprising the Steps of controlling said friction transfer means when shifting from one cogwheel row to the other cogwheel row, setting a target synchronous rotation speed based on the output rotation speed of said transmission and at least one of parameters indicative of the state of said driving force source or said transmission, and setting an command value to said friction transfer means so that the input rotation speed of said transmission may be synchronized with said target synchronous rotation speed, further comprising the Steps of:
correcting the command value to said friction transfer means by calculating the correction of the command value to said friction transfer means based on the difference between said target synchronous rotation speed and said input rotation speed.
Thereby, it is possible to prevent the decrease of the shift quality without making the time required to synchronize the rotation speeds long even if the machine difference between engines or the deterioration with age occurs.
(6) The present invention adopts the following configuration in order to obtain the above seco
Fujimoto Kinya
Kuroiwa Hiroshi
Matsumura Tetsuo
Okada Takashi
Ozaki Naoyuki
Hitachi , Ltd.
Lewis Tisha D
LandOfFree
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