Method and system for vehicle ESC system using map data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10899360-B2
Application number	US-201916708557-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 10, 2019
Priority date	Apr 9, 2010
Publication date	Jan 26, 2021
Grant date	Jan 26, 2021

Abstract

An Electronic Stability Control (ESC) system for a vehicle is disclosed. An electronic control unit (ECU) is programmed to reduce vehicle lateral skidding by reducing differences between an intended vehicle direction and/or yaw rate and an actual vehicle direction and/or yaw rate by applying modifications to operation of the vehicle brakes and/or throttle. The ESC system receives inputs from wheel speed sensors, a steering wheel position sensor, a yaw rate sensor and a lateral acceleration sensor. The ESC system also receives input that indicates at least a property of the road upon which the vehicle is located, wherein the road upon which the vehicle is located is determined from a positioning system that uses a map database and the property is determined from the map database. The ESC system incorporates the road property information in determining when and/or how to modify operation of the vehicle to reduce vehicle skidding.

First claim

We claim:

1. A system comprising:
a processor coupled to at least one sensor configured to sense at least one aspect of an operation of a vehicle including wheel speed, throttle position, steering wheel position, yaw rate and/or lateral acceleration, and generate a sensor signal indicative thereof, and further wherein the processor is operably coupled to a positioning system which is configured to generate positioning information indicating the position and/or direction of the vehicle on a road and a property of a portion of the road ahead of the vehicle position;
a computer program stored in the memory and executed by the processor to cause the processor to receive the sensor signal and the positioning information, the processor configured to determine actual operation of the vehicle based on the sensor signal and to further determine that the actual operation of the vehicle is intended by determining that the actual operation of the vehicle is consistent with the property of the portion of the road ahead of the vehicle position; and
the computer program being further executed by the processor to cause the processor to determine an actual vehicle direction based on the actual vehicle operation, determine a derived vehicle direction based on the property of the portion of the road that is ahead of the vehicle position, and determine a recovery action to reduce a difference between the derived vehicle direction and the actual vehicle direction based upon the extent to which the property of the portion of the road that is ahead of the vehicle position will cause a reduction of the difference therebetween.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the computer program is further executed by the processor to cause the processor to cause the vehicle to implement the recovery action when the processor determines that the actual operation of the vehicle is unintended.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the property of the portion of the road ahead of the vehicle position road position, road shape, number of lanes, road width, road height, road slope, road friction, road surface, presence of a road shoulder, superelevation, presence of a black spot, presence of guard rails, presence of a road median, speed limit information, curvature, or combinations thereof.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the determination of actual operation of the vehicle further comprises determining, based on the at least one aspect sensed by the at least one sensor, that the brakes are being applied, that the accelerator is being applied, that the steering wheel is being turned, that a transmission gear is being selected, or combinations thereof.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the positioning system is further coupled with a map database that includes data that indicates properties of roads in a road network upon which the vehicle travels.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the map database is part of a navigation system.

7. The system of claim 5 wherein at least a portion of the map database is located remotely from the vehicle and coupled via a wireless communications network.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the portion of the road ahead of the vehicle position is determined based on identification of a most-likely path from among a multiplicity of roads that the vehicle could travel onto.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein an extent of the portion of the road ahead of the vehicle position is based on distance, time to travel, posted speed limits, actual vehicle speed, or combinations thereof.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the determination that the actual operation of the vehicle is intended further comprises determining, based on the at least one aspect sensed by the at least one sensor, that the brakes are applied when the property of the portion of the road upon which the vehicle is located that is ahead of the position of the vehicle indicates a downhill, that the accelerator is applied when the property of the portion of the road upon which the vehicle is located that is ahead of the position of the vehicle indicates an uphill, that the accelerator is not applied when the property of the portion of the road upon which the vehicle is located that is ahead of the position of the vehicle indicates a downhill, that the steering wheel is being turned in a particular direction when the property of the portion of the road upon which the vehicle is located that is ahead of the position of the vehicle indicates a curved path in the particular direction, that the steering wheel is not being turned when the property of the portion of the road upon which the vehicle is located that is ahead of the position of the vehicle indicates a straight path, or a vehicle speed consistent with a speed limit specified by the property of the portion of the road upon which the vehicle is located that is ahead of the position of the vehicle.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the determination that the actual operation of the vehicle is consistent with the property of the portion of the road ahead of the vehicle position further comprises determining that the operation of the vehicle is unintended when the actual operation of the vehicle is not consistent with the property of the portion of the road upon which the vehicle is located that is ahead of the position of the vehicle.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the determination that the actual operation of the vehicle is unintended further comprises determining that an operator of the vehicle is drowsy.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein the determination that the operation of the vehicle is unintended further comprises determining, based on the at least one aspect sensed by the at least one sensor, that the brakes are applied when the property of the portion of the road upon which the vehicle is located that is ahead of the position of the vehicle indicates an uphill, that the brakes are not applied when the property of the portion of the road upon which the vehicle is located that is ahead of the position of the vehicle indicates a downhill, that the accelerator is applied when the property of the portion of the road upon which the vehicle is located that is ahead of the position of the vehicle indicates a downhill, that the steering wheel is being turned when the property of the portion of the road upon which the vehicle is located that is ahead of the position of the vehicle indicates a straight path, that the steering wheel is not being turned when the property of the portion of the road upon which the vehicle is located that is ahead of the position of the vehicle indicates a curved path, that the steering wheel is being turned in a particular direction when the property of the portion of the road upon which the vehicle is located that is ahead of the position of the vehicle indicates a curved path in a direction opposite the particular direction, a high vehicle speed when the property of the portion of the road upon which the vehicle is located that is ahead of the position of the vehicle indicates a speed limit different than the vehicle speed, or a rapid change in speed or direction of the vehicle when the property of the portion of the road upon which the vehicle is located that is ahead of the position of the vehicle indicates a low friction surface.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor is coupled with an actuator configured to control at least one aspect of operation of the vehicle, and wherein the determined recovery action modifies the operation of the vehicle via the actuator.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the information from the positioning system is used to adjust the modification to the operation of

Assignees

• Here Global Bv

Inventors

• Moran Kevin
• Denaro Robert

Classifications

• B60T8/1755 Primary

  Brake regulation specially adapted to control the stability of the vehicle, e.g. taking into account yaw rate or transverse acceleration in a curve (road vehicle drive control systems for control of driving stability otherwise than by controlling a particular sub-unit B60W30/02) · CPC title

• B60W2552/30

  Road curve radius · CPC title

• B60W2552/40

  Coefficient of friction · CPC title

• B60W2552/15

  Road slope, i.e. the inclination of a road segment in the longitudinal direction · CPC title

• B60W2552/10

  Number of lanes · CPC title