Vehicle control device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11505174-B2
Application number	US-201716326080-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 26, 2017
Priority date	Aug 24, 2016
Publication date	Nov 22, 2022
Grant date	Nov 22, 2022

Abstract

The present invention realizes a vehicle control device that, even when power characteristics of a power generation device and a power transmission device changes, senses degradation of vehicle components, corrects a drive instruction to the power transmission device, and is thereby capable of stabilizing vehicle behavior over a long term. The present invention, in a predetermined vehicle environment state, measures fluctuation in drive power and acceleration in a transient region by using vehicle behavior sensors 4, performs comparison with a reference fluctuation, and thereby senses degradation of vehicle components. The drive instruction to the transmission 16-side is corrected in accordance with the degradation of vehicle components that is sensed. Thus, it is possible to stabilize vehicle behavior (performance) over a long term even when, during automated driving, the power characteristics of the drive power source and the transmission 16 change due to factors such as time degradation of vehicle components.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A vehicle control device, comprising:
a target drive torque determination unit that determines a target drive torque for a drive torque generation mechanism driving a vehicle based on control details generated in advance, and controls operation of the drive torque generation mechanism;
a performance change information acquisition unit that acquires information relating to a change in performance of vehicle components, the vehicle components including at least one of the drive torque generation mechanism and a transmission that determines a target gear ratio based on the target drive torque; and
a target gear ratio correction unit that corrects the target gear ratio determined based on the target drive torque, in accordance with the information relating to the change in performance, wherein
the target drive torque determination unit performs feedback control of the drive torque generation mechanism based on the determined target drive torque, and the target gear ratio correction unit performs feedforward control of the transmission based on the target drive torque.

2. The vehicle control device of claim 1 , further comprising:
a vehicle behavior sensor that senses behavior of the vehicle,
wherein the performance change information acquisition unit acquires vehicle behavior information sensed by the vehicle behavior sensor and acquires, from the acquired vehicle behavior information, the information relating to the change in performance of the vehicle components.

3. The vehicle control device of claim 2 , wherein the performance change information acquisition unit determines whether the acquired information relating to the change in performance of the vehicle components indicates a predetermined performance change, and when determining that the acquired information relating to the change in performance of the vehicle components indicates the predetermined performance change, specifies a vehicle component of which a temporal change in performance has occurred, and notifies a driver of the vehicle component of which a temporal change in performance has occurred and has a non-volatile memory store, as vehicle component abnormality information, information of the vehicle component of which a temporal change in performance has occurred.

4. The vehicle control device of claim 3 , wherein when the vehicle component of which a temporal change in performance has occurred has been repaired or replaced, the vehicle is caused to travel based on the control details generated in advance once again, vehicle behavior information output from the vehicle behavior sensor is acquired, and the vehicle component abnormality information stored in the non-volatile memory is deleted when the performance change information acquisition unit determines that there is no abnormality.

5. The vehicle control device of claim 1 , wherein the target drive torque determination unit determines the target drive torque from a current vehicle speed, a road surface gradient, a surrounding environment, and a target vehicle speed determined based on a target course generated in advance.

6. The vehicle control device of claim 1 , wherein the target gear ratio correction unit acquires a temporal change in performance from the performance change information acquisition unit, determines a correction amount applied to the target gear ratio, and corrects the target gear ratio.

7. The vehicle control device of claim 6 , wherein the target gear ratio correction unit stores the correction amount applied to the target gear ratio in a non-volatile memory when an ignition switch of the vehicle is turned off.

8. The vehicle control device of claim 7 , wherein the correction amount stored in the non-volatile memory is read out when the ignition switch of the vehicle is turned on, and correction is performed with respect to the target gear ratio determined by using the target drive torque determined based on the content details generated in advance also during an initial travel after the ignition switch is turned on.

9. The vehicle control device of claim 1 , wherein the performance change information acquisition unit acquires a road gradient and a road curvature radius from map information and acquires the information relating to the change in performance of the vehicle components only when the road gradient and the road curvature radius that are acquired satisfy a predetermined condition.

10. The vehicle control device of claim 1 , further comprising:
a vehicle behavior sensor that senses behavior of the vehicle,
wherein the performance change information acquisition unit has the vehicle travel based on the content details generated in advance, acquires, as performance information, vehicle behavior information output from the vehicle behavior sensor in addition to a road surface status, a vehicle speed, and a throttle opening or target drive torque information, and successively stores the performance information in a non-volatile memory.

Assignees

• Hitachi Automotive Systems Ltd
• Hitachi Astemo Ltd

Inventors

• Okubo Satoru
• Akasaka Nobuhiro
• Matsuda Satoshi
• Kogure Yusuke

Classifications

• B60W10/04

  including control of propulsion units · CPC title

• Y02T10/62

  Hybrid vehicles · CPC title

• F16H2059/6823

  Sensing neutral state of the transmission · CPC title

• F16H59/66

  Road conditions, e.g. slope, slippery · CPC title

• B60W10/107 Primary

  with endless flexible members · CPC title