Variable control apparatus and method for determining short-term driving tendency

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8983743-B2
Application number	US-201314143769-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 30, 2013
Priority date	Jun 7, 2013
Publication date	Mar 17, 2015
Grant date	Mar 17, 2015

Abstract

A variable control apparatus and method determines a short-term driving tendency. The apparatus may include a driving information collecting unit configured to collect driving information for determining a driving tendency, a first short-term driving tendency calculating module configured to calculate a first short-term driving tendency index using a fuzzy control theory based on an inputted opening degree of an accelerator pedal position sensor (APS), a second short-term driving tendency calculating module configured to calculate a second short-term driving tendency index using the fuzzy control theory based on an inputted forward vehicle relative speed, and a control module configured to calculate a final short-term driving tendency index by differentially applying weight values of the first short-term driving tendency index and the second short-term driving tendency index for each vehicle speed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A variable control apparatus for determining a short-term driving tendency of a driver according to driving a vehicle, comprising:
a driving information collecting unit configured to collect driving information for determining a driving tendency;
a first short-term driving tendency calculating module configured to calculate a first short-term driving tendency index using a fuzzy control theory based on an inputted opening degree of an accelerator pedal position sensor (APS);
a second short-term driving tendency calculating module configured to calculate a second short-term driving tendency index using a fuzzy control theory based on an inputted forward vehicle relative speed; and
a control module configured to calculate a final short-term driving tendency index by differentially applying weight values that correspond to each of the first short-term driving tendency index and the second short-term driving tendency index for each vehicle speed.

2. The variable control apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the control module stores a sporty index weight value function for obtaining each of the weight values of the first short-term driving tendency index and the second short-term driving tendency index for each vehicle speed.

3. The variable control apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the control module increases a proportion of the weight value of the first short-term driving tendency index compared to the second short-term driving tendency index when the vehicle speed is equal to or less than a first reference speed.

4. The variable control apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the control module increases a proportion of the weight value of the second short-term driving tendency index compared to the first short-term driving tendency index when the vehicle speed is equal to or greater than a second reference speed.

5. The variable control apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the final short-term driving tendency index is calculated by an equation of
SI TOTAL =SI 1 ×W 1 +SI 2 ×W 2 ,
wherein SI 1 denotes the first short-term driving tendency index, W 1 denotes a first weight value, SI 2 denotes the second short-term driving tendency index, and W 2 denotes a second weight value.

6. The variable control apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the driving information collecting unit collects at least one of a vehicle speed according to driving the vehicle by the driver, vehicle acceleration, an inter-vehicle distance, the APS opening degree, a position of a brake pedal, a position of gear shifting, a steering state of the vehicle, position information based on a GPS/GIS, road information, a degree of congestion of a driving section, and weather information.

7. The variable control apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the driving information collecting unit calculates a difference in speed between a forward vehicle and the vehicle of the driver using a distance from the forward vehicle, which is detected by an inter-vehicle distance sensor.

8. The variable control apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first short-term driving tendency calculating module sets a membership function on the basis of the APS opening degree, and calculates the first short-term driving tendency index from the inputted membership function of the APS opening degree.

9. The variable control apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the second short-term driving tendency calculating module sets a membership function on the basis of the forward vehicle relative speed, and calculates the second short-term driving tendency index from the inputted membership function of the forward vehicle relative speed.

10. A variable control method for determining a short-term driving tendency of a driver according to driving a vehicle, comprising:
collecting driving information for determining a short-term driving tendency according to driving the vehicle;
calculating a first short-term driving tendency index by calculating a first fuzzy result value from a first membership function based on an accelerator pedal position sensor (APS) opening degree;
calculating a second short-term driving tendency index by calculating a second fuzzy result value from a second membership function based on a forward vehicle relative speed; and
calculating a final short-term driving tendency index by differentially applying weight values that correspond to each of the first short-term driving tendency index and the second short-term driving tendency index according to a vehicle speed.

11. The variable control method of claim 10 , wherein the calculating of the final short-term driving tendency index includes increasing a proportion of the weight value of the first short-term driving tendency index compared to the second short-term driving tendency index when the vehicle speed is equal to or less than a first reference speed.

12. The variable control method of claim 10 , wherein the calculating of the final short-term driving tendency index includes increasing a proportion of the weight value of the second short-term driving tendency index compared to the first short-term driving tendency index when the vehicle speed is equal to or greater than a second reference speed.

13. The variable control method of claim 10 , wherein the collecting of the driving information includes initiating calculation of the short-term driving tendency when an accumulated running time or running distance reaches a predetermined condition for initiating the calculation of the short-term driving tendency index after the vehicle is started.

Assignees

• Hyundai Motor Co Ltd
• Kia Motors Corp

Inventors

• Jeon Byeong Wook
• Jeong Dong Hoon

Classifications

• B60W2552/35

  Road bumpiness, e.g. potholes · CPC title

• B60W2520/10

  Longitudinal speed · CPC title

• B60W2554/801

  Lateral distance · CPC title

• B60W2540/30

  Driving style · CPC title

• B60W2552/05

  Type of road, e.g. motorways, local streets, paved or unpaved roads · CPC title