Method and electronic control system for ascertaining a distance travelled by a vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12559111-B2
Application number	US-202118269016-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 16, 2021
Priority date	Dec 22, 2020
Publication date	Feb 24, 2026
Grant date	Feb 24, 2026

Abstract

A method and a corresponding electronic control system for ascertaining a distance traveled by a vehicle predicts with a Kalman filter a distance traveled by the vehicle using a change in angle of rotation of at least one right wheel and/or at least one left wheel of the vehicle for a specific period of time while the vehicle is traveling and an ascertained radius of the right wheel and/or ascertained circumference of the right wheel of the vehicle and/or an ascertained radius of the left wheel and/or ascertained circumference of the left wheel of the vehicle; and corrects the predicted traveled distance by a Kalman filter correction to ascertain the distance traveled by the vehicle using the predicted traveled distance and a local distance between at least two absolute positions of the vehicle recorded within the specific period of time with a time interval while the vehicle is traveling.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A method for ascertaining a distance traveled by a vehicle comprising:
carrying out a prediction step of a Kalman filter so as to predict a predicted distance traveled by the vehicle using a change in angle of rotation of at least one right wheel and/or at least one left wheel of the vehicle for a specific period of time while the vehicle is traveling and an ascertained radius of the right wheel and/or ascertained circumference of the right wheel of the vehicle and/or an ascertained radius of the left wheel and/or ascertained circumference of the left wheel of the vehicle; and carrying out a correction step of the Kalman filter so as to correct the predicted traveled distance so as to ascertain the distance traveled by the vehicle using the predicted traveled distance and a local distance between at least two absolute positions of the vehicle that are recorded within the specific period of time with a time interval while the vehicle is traveling; electronically controlling, by an electronic control device, an automated driving control system of the vehicle using the ascertained distance and/or position information of the vehicle; wherein a state vector {circumflex over (x)} for describing a state of the vehicle has the form:
{circumflex over (x)}=[x yψ δ R δ L ΔS] T

where:
x vehicle position in odometry coordinates with respect to an X-axis of an underlying coordinate system;
y vehicle position in odometry coordinates with respect to a Y-axis of an underlying coordinate system;
ψ yaw angle (yaw) of the vehicle;
δ R radius error between an ascertained radius of a right wheel and the stored radius of the right wheel;
δ L radius error between an ascertained radius of the left wheel and the stored radius of the left wheel; and
ΔS using the traveled distance recorded by way of a global navigation satellite system.

2 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the ascertained radius of the right wheel and/or the ascertained circumference of the right wheel of the vehicle is ascertained based on a stored radius of the right wheel and/or stored circumference of the right wheel of the vehicle and an ascertained radius error of the right wheel and/or ascertained circumference error of the right wheel of the vehicle and/or the ascertained radius of the left wheel and/or ascertained circumference of the left wheel of the vehicle is ascertained based on a stored radius of the left wheel and/or stored circumference of the left wheel of the vehicle and an ascertained radius error of the left wheel and/or ascertained circumference error of the left wheel of the vehicle.

3 . The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the ascertained radius error of the right wheel and/or the ascertained circumference error of the right wheel of the vehicle and/or the stored radius of the right wheel and/or the stored circumference of the right wheel of the vehicle and/or the ascertained radius error of the left wheel and/or the ascertained circumference error of the left wheel of the vehicle and/or the stored radius of the left wheel and/or the stored circumference of the left wheel of the vehicle are corrected for use in a subsequent iteration of the Kalman filter based on a residual ascertained during the correction step of the Kalman filter and/or a Kalman gain.

4 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the prediction step is based on a non-linear motion model and/or the correction step is based on a linear measurement model.

5 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the prediction step is based on a non-linear motion model f and wherein the non-linear motion model f is in the form:

f
=

[

x

(

k
❘

k
-
1

)

y

(

k
❘

k
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1

)

ψ

(

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k
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1

)

δ

(

R
,

k
❘

k
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δ

(

L
,

k
❘

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Δ
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S

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Assignees

• Continental Automotive Tech Gmbh
• Aumovio Germany Gmbh

Inventors

• Youssef Mohanad
• Bretzigheimer Kai

Classifications

• B60W2530/18

  Distance travelled · CPC title

• B60W2422/70

  on the wheel or the tyre · CPC title

• B60W2050/0031

  Mathematical model of the vehicle · CPC title

• B60W60/00

  Drive control systems specially adapted for autonomous road vehicles · CPC title

• G01S19/393

  Trajectory determination or predictive tracking, e.g. Kalman filtering · CPC title