Method for steering a vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12337864-B2
Application number	US-202117905584-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 23, 2021
Priority date	Mar 4, 2020
Publication date	Jun 24, 2025
Grant date	Jun 24, 2025

Abstract

A method for controlling a vehicle including an actuator along a trajectory, in which the trajectory is planned within a search space, and considers a projection of a manipulated variable of the actuator. The method includes creating an actuator model of the actuator on the basis of the manipulated variable of the actuator; defining time increments of the projection; determining the change in the manipulated variable of the actuator along the time increments on the basis of the actuator model and a limit value for the manipulated variable; limiting the search space on the basis of the limit value of the manipulated variable of the actuator; determining an acceleration value and/or a deceleration value of the vehicle by converting the manipulated variable using the vehicle mass and the wheel radius; and outputting the acceleration value and the deceleration value to limit the search space within which the trajectory is planned.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for controlling a vehicle comprising at least one actuator along a trajectory, in which the trajectory is planned within a search space, taking into account a projection of at least one manipulated variable of the actuator, the method comprising:
creating an actuator model of the actuator on the basis of the at least one manipulated variable of the actuator,
defining time increments of the projection,
determining a change in the at least one manipulated variable of the actuator along the time increments on the basis of the actuator model and a limit value for the at least one manipulated variable,
limiting a search space on the basis of the limit value of the at least one manipulated variable of the actuator,
determining at least one of an acceleration value or a deceleration value of the vehicle by converting the at least one manipulated variable using vehicle mass and wheel radius,
outputting the at least one of the acceleration value or the deceleration value to limit the search space within which the trajectory is planned, the planned trajectory being based at least in part upon the at least one of the acceleration value of the deceleration value, and
controlling the vehicle along the planned trajectory,
wherein a change in driving resistance is determined over the time increments of the projection, and
wherein the change in driving resistance is additionally taken into account when determining the at least one of the acceleration value or the deceleration value.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the actuator is at least one of an engine or a brake of the vehicle.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the manipulated variable is a torque, in particular an engine torque of the engine or a braking torque of the brake.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the limit value is a maximum possible change in the manipulated variable in at least one of a positive or negative direction.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the actuator model is based on a function of the manipulated variable and includes a positive gradient of the manipulated variable for manipulated variable build-up and a negative gradient of the manipulated variable for manipulated variable reduction with respect to time t.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the acceleration value is a maximum possible acceleration of the vehicle, and the deceleration value is a maximum possible deceleration of the vehicle.

7. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising providing at least one sensor for detecting the surroundings.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the detected surroundings are used to define at least one of the search space or trajectory planning.

9. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the at least one sensor comprises at least one of a camera, a Lidar sensor, a radar sensor or an ultrasonic sensor.

10. A computer program comprising program code for carrying out the method according to claim 1 , wherein the computer program is executed on a computer.

11. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that cause a computer on which the instructions are executed to carry out the method according to claim 1 .

12. A control device for controlling a vehicle along a trajectory, wherein
the control device comprises a hardware processor and program code maintained in non-transitory memory which, when executed by the hardware processor, causes the hardware processor to control the vehicle by the method according to claim 1 .

13. A computer program product maintained in non-transitory memory and having instructions which, when executed by a computer processor, causes the computer processor to perform operations including at least partly controlling a vehicle having at least one actuator along a trajectory, the operations comprising:
creating an actuator model of the actuator on the basis of at least one manipulated variable of the actuator,
defining time increments of a projection of the at least one manipulated variable of the actuator,
determining a change in the at least one manipulated variable of the actuator along the time increments on the basis of the actuator model and a limit value for the at least one manipulated variable,
limiting a search space on the basis of the limit value of the at least one manipulated variable of the actuator,
determining at least one of an acceleration value or a deceleration value of the vehicle by converting the at least one manipulated variable using vehicle mass and wheel radius,
outputting the at least one of the acceleration value or the deceleration value to limit the search space within which the trajectory is planned, the planned trajectory being based at least in part upon the at least one of the acceleration value or the deceleration value, and
controlling the vehicle along the planned trajectory,
wherein a change in driving resistance is determined from the time increments of the projection, and
wherein the change in driving resistance is additionally taken into account when determining the at least one of the acceleration value or the deceleration value.

14. The computer program product according to claim 13 , wherein the actuator is at least one of an engine or a brake of the vehicle, and wherein the manipulated variable is a torque of the engine or a braking torque of the brake.

15. The computer program product according to claim 13 , wherein the actuator model is based on a function of the manipulated variable and includes a positive gradient of the manipulated variable for manipulated variable build-up and a negative gradient of the manipulated variable for manipulated variable reduction with respect to time t.

16. The computer program product according to claim 13 , wherein the acceleration value is a maximum possible acceleration of the vehicle, and the deceleration value is a maximum possible deceleration of the vehicle.

17. A control device comprising a computer processor which, when executing instructions, is configured to perform operations including at least partly controlling a vehicle having at least one actuator along a trajectory, the operations comprising:
creating an actuator model of the actuator on the basis of at least one manipulated variable of the actuator,
defining time increments of a projection of the at least one manipulated variable of the actuator,
determining a change in the at least one manipulated variable of the actuator along the time increments on the basis of the actuator model and a limit value for the at least one manipulated variable,
limiting a search space on the basis of the limit value of the at least one manipulated variable of the actuator,
determining at least one of an acceleration value or a deceleration value of the vehicle by converting the at least one manipulated variable using vehicle mass and wheel radius, wherein the planned trajectory being based at least in part upon the at least one of the acceleration value or the deceleration value,
planning the trajectory within the search space based at least in part upon the at least one of the acceleration value or the deceleration value, and
controlling the vehicle along the planned trajectory,
wherein a change in driving resistance is determined from the time increments of the projection, and
wherein the change in driving resistance is additionally taken into account when determining the at least one of the acceleration value or the deceleration value.

18. The control device according to claim 17 , wherein the

Assignees

• Continental Autonomous Mobility Germany GmbH

Inventors

• Kuntschar Andreas
• Landfried Kai

Classifications

• B60W2420/408

  Radar; Laser, e.g. lidar · CPC title

• B60W2420/403

  Image sensing, e.g. optical camera · CPC title

• B60W2710/18

  Braking system · CPC title

• B60W2710/0666

  Engine torque · CPC title

• B60W2520/00

  Input parameters relating to overall vehicle dynamics · CPC title