Method and device for controlling a coasting operating mode in a motor vehicle with an internal combustion engine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9921589-B2
Application number	US-201213623862-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 20, 2012
Priority date	Sep 23, 2011
Publication date	Mar 20, 2018
Grant date	Mar 20, 2018

Abstract

A method and a device for automatically deactivating a coasting operating mode in a motor vehicle with an internal combustion engine is disclosed. An activated coasting operating mode is deactivated if the current vehicle speed exceeds a threshold value. The threshold value is set as the sum of a minimum vehicle speed and of a maximum permissible increase in speed.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method for automatically deactivating a coasting operating mode in a motor vehicle with an internal combustion engine, comprising:
deactivating a coasting operating mode if a current vehicle speed exceeds a threshold value;
wherein the threshold value is set as a sum of a minimum vehicle speed and a maximum permissible increase in speed; and
setting a coasting prohibition marker for temporarily preventing operation in the coasting operating mode.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the minimum vehicle speed is defined as a minimum vehicle speed measured in a time interval directly preceding deactivation of the coasting operating mode.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the time interval is a time interval equal to an entire duration of the coasting operating mode activation.

4. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the minimum vehicle speed is defined as a mean value of vehicle speeds measured during the time interval.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the maximum permissible increase in speed is either: a preset fixed value; a preset fraction of a current vehicle speed; the preset fixed value plus a variable proportional to a preset maximum permissible acceleration; or the preset fraction of the current vehicle speed plus a variable proportional to the preset maximum permissible acceleration.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the deactivating step includes engaging a drive train of the motor vehicle.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the maximum permissible increase in speed is a non-fixed value dependent on the current vehicle speed.

8. The method of claim 1 , comprising periodically adjusting the minimum vehicle speed based on the current vehicle speed.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein periodically adjusting the minimum vehicle speed includes filtering a signal representative of the current vehicle speed.

10. A method of operating a vehicle in a coasting operating mode, comprising:
activating a coasting operating mode;
measuring vehicle speed;
deactivating the coasting operating mode when a vehicle speed is greater than a minimum speed plus a predefined maximum change in speed, and the predefined maximum change in speed is a non-fixed value dependent on a current vehicle speed; and
setting a coasting prohibition marker for temporarily preventing operation in the coasting operating mode.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the minimum speed is a measured value based on vehicle speed during activation of the coasting operating mode.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the minimum speed is a measured value based on vehicle speed prior to deactivation of the coasting operating mode.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the minimum speed is defined by a mean value of measured vehicle speeds during activation of the coasting operating mode.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein the predefined maximum change in speed is defined by any one of: a preset fraction of the current vehicle speed; and the preset fraction of the current vehicle speed plus a variable proportional to the preset maximum acceleration.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Wegner Goetz-Philipp
• Christen Urs
• Busch Rainer
• Stefan Frederic

Classifications

• B60W2520/10

  Longitudinal speed · CPC title

• B60W10/02 Primary

  including control of driveline clutches · CPC title

• B60W2520/105

  Longitudinal acceleration · CPC title

• B60W30/18072

  Coasting · CPC title

• Y02T10/76

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic