Wheel slip based vehicle motion management for heavy duty vehicles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12304447-B2
Application number	US-202117450518-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 11, 2021
Priority date	Jan 15, 2020
Publication date	May 20, 2025
Grant date	May 20, 2025

Abstract

A control unit ( 130, 140, 300 ) for controlling a heavy duty vehicle ( 100 ),
wherein the control unit is arranged to obtain an acceleration profile (a req ) and a curvature profile (c req ) indicative of a desired maneuver by the vehicle ( 100 ), the control unit ( 130, 140, 300 ) comprising a force generation module ( 310 ) configured to determine a set of global vehicle forces and moments required to execute the desired maneuver, the control unit ( 130, 140, 300 ) further comprising a motion support device, MSD, coordination module ( 320 ) arranged to coordinate one or more MSDs to collectively provide the global vehicle forces and moments by generating one or more respective wheel forces, and an inverse tyre model ( 330 ) configured to map the one or more wheel forces into equivalent wheel slips (λ), wherein the control unit ( 130, 140, 300 ) is arranged to request the wheel slips (λ) from the MSDs.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A control unit for controlling a heavy duty vehicle, wherein the control unit is arranged to obtain an acceleration profile and a curvature profile indicative of a desired maneuver by the heavy duty vehicle from one or more control devices of the heavy duty vehicle, the control unit comprising:
a force generation module configured to continuously determine at predetermined time intervals a set of global heavy duty vehicle forces and moments required to execute the desired maneuver based on the acceleration profile and the curvature profile;
a motion support device, (MSD), coordination module arranged to coordinate a plurality of MSDs to collectively provide the set of global heavy duty vehicle forces and moments by generating one or more respective wheel forces of each of a plurality of wheels of the heavy duty vehicle; and
an inverse tire model block configured to continuously map, at the predetermined time intervals, the one or more respective wheel forces of each of the plurality of wheels into equivalent wheel slips of each of the plurality of wheels, the equivalent wheel slips are proportional to a speed difference between a speed of each of the plurality of wheels and a speed of the vehicle relative to ground,
wherein the control unit is configured and arranged to use a wheel slip request on an interface towards the MSDs to maintain the wheel slips so as to maintain the speed of each of the plurality of wheels relative to speed of the vehicle relative to the ground to control the heavy duty vehicle during the desired maneuver.

2. The control unit according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit is arranged to request wheel slip as a wheel speed offset from a vehicle speed over ground if the vehicle speed over ground is below a first threshold.

3. The control unit according to claim 2 , wherein a desired wheel speed ω w to be maintained by the MSD is determined as

ω
w

=

v
x

R

+

(

ω
off

*

A
ped

)

where v x is a vehicle speed over ground, R is a wheel radius, ω off is the wheel speed offset, and A ped is an accelerator pedal position value between 0 and 1.

4. The control unit according to claim 3 , where the wheel speed offset ω off is determined in dependence of a gain factor k PedalFeel associated with a driver preference and/or a low speed offset limit k OffsetLim .

5. The control unit according to claim 2 , wherein the control unit is arranged to request wheel slip as a normalized difference between the wheel speed ω w and vehicle speed over ground if the vehicle speed over ground is above a second threshold.

6. The control unit according to claim 5 , wherein a desired wheel speed ω w to be maintained by an MSD is determined as

ω
w

=

λ

r
⁢
e
⁢
q

⁢

v
x

+

v
x

R

or

ω
w

=

λ

r
⁢
e
⁢
q

⁢

max
⁡
(

❘
"\[LeftBracketingBar]"

R
⁢

ω
w

❘
"\[RightBracketingBar]"

,

❘
"\[LeftBracketingBar]"

v
x

❘
"\[RightBracketingBar]"

)

+

v
x

R

where v x is the vehicle speed over ground, R is a wheel radius, and λ req is a requested wheel slip.

7. The control unit according to claim 5 , wherein the second threshold is equal to the first threshold.

8. The control unit according to claim 5 , wherein the second threshold is offset from the first threshold by a pre-determined speed value, wherein the control unit is arranged to request a wheel behavior representing an interpolation between a wheel speed corresponding to a speed offset and a wheel speed corresponding to a wheel speed difference with respect to speed over ground if the vehicle speed is between the first and second thresholds.

9. The control unit according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit is arranged to receive data indicating a capability of one or more MSDs, and to verify that the requested wheel slips are within capability of the respective MSDs.

10. The control unit according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit is arranged to perform brake blending by requesting a constant negative torque from a service brake or auxiliary brake MSD and to request the wheel slips from one or more electric machine MSDs.

11. The control unit according to claim 10 , wherein the control unit is arranged to configure the constant negative torque of the service brake or auxiliary brake at a torque level which is below a total torque request by a margin, wherein the margin is configured in dependence of an expected time to disengage the service brake or auxiliary brake from an active braking state.

Assignees

• Volvo Truck Corp

Inventors

• Laine Leo
• Arikere Adithya
• Ray Sidhant
• Åsbogård Mattias
• Henderson Leon

Classifications

• B60W2520/26

  Wheel slip · CPC title

• B60W2520/105

  Longitudinal acceleration · CPC title

• B60W40/101

  Side slip angle of tyre · CPC title

• B60W40/06

  Road conditions · CPC title

• B60T2240/00

  Monitoring, detecting wheel/tyre behaviour; counteracting thereof · CPC title