Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Automatic route guidance vehicle
Patent
1997-06-04
2000-01-04
Dombroske, George
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Automatic route guidance vehicle
731173, 731181, 701 35, 701 65, 701 70, G01M 1500, G07C 124, G04F 808
Patent
active
060120029
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a vehicle travel meter for use with vehicles when driven repeatedly along the same route to provide information on the performance of the vehicle with respect to different locations on the route and a method thereof. The vehicle travel meter is of particular use in racing and vehicle testing.
In recent years data-logging systems have been developed specifically for use in car racing and production car design which monitor a selection of variables of a car's performance for example speed, engine temperature and oil pressure etc. The data is stored in a memory for future analysis and may also be supplied to the driver of the vehicle on a display, usually mounted on the dashboard of the car.
It has been realised that often the most significant information for the driver of a car is not such measurements of variables of the car's performance, but whether the driver has managed to drive the car any faster. Conventionally, the driver is supplied with such information on a lap by lap basis since the end of a lap and hence the start of the next is an easily identifiable location on the route. Thus, traditionally the driver has had no instantaneous sub-lap information on how the car is performing, for example at specific places on the circuit, i.e. at particular bends.
The present invention seeks to provide a vehicle travel meter which supplies information on how the vehicle is performing at a plurality of locations along a route and whether the vehicle is performing better or worse than on past journeys over the same route.
In a first aspect the present invention provides a vehicle travel meter comprising a first sensor for monitoring a first variable of travel of a vehicle over a route, a second sensor for monitoring a second variable of travel of the vehicle over the route; memory means arranged to store a plurality of sets of travel data corresponding to a plurality of locations on the route, each set consisting of a value of the first variable and a value of the second variable of travel; selecting means for selecting a set of travel data stored in the memory means in which the value of the first variable is substantially identical to a value of the first variable measured by the first sensor; performance determining means for determining a difference between the value of the second variable of the selected set of travel data and a value of the second variable measured by the second sensor, and display means for displaying in real time the difference determined by the performance determining means.
In a further aspect the present invention provides a vehicle travel meter comprising at least one performance measuring device for generating data representative of the performance of a vehicle with respect to a plurality of locations on a route travelled by the vehicle, one or more suspension sensors for generating suspension data representative of the plurality of locations on the route and memory means for storing said suspension data and associated performance data for each location on the route.
With the present invention sub-lap information on the performance of a vehicle over selected regions of the route can be supplied to a driver.
It will of course be understood that reference to a route and to a journey taken over a route relates to any substantially repeatable path taken by a vehicle as it is driven. The route may be in the form of a track or circuit but is not limited to such and in addition covers routes over public highways for example, or off-road.
In a preferred embodiment the vehicle travel meter includes a display which can provide real-time sub-lap performance data for each of the locations on the route. Also, difference means for determining the difference between performance data associated with a location on the route from a previous journey of the vehicle over the route and performance data associated with the same location on the route from a subsequent journey of the vehicle over the route. The determined difference data may be stored in the memory means and
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Electronic Design, vol. 23, No. 12, Jun. 7, 1975, Hesbrouck, pp. 34, 36.
Rock Alan George
Tapping Trevor Edwin
Dombroske George
Stack Limited
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