Automotive control unit programmed to estimate road slope and vehicle mass, vehicle with such a control unit and corresponding program product

An automotive electronic control system comprising:

• an accelerometer;
• a sensor associated with the accelerometer for providing a vehicle acceleration signal;
• a vehicle speed sensor for providing a vehicle speed signal;
• a plurality of vehicle propulsion and torque sensors for providing vehicle propulsive/resistive torque signals;
• a stationary lateral compensation means which makes a correction to limit vehicle lateral dynamics that, in curves, introduces an additional term to the vehicle acceleration signal wherein said lateral compensation means is based on a bike model and on target parameters of the vehicle;
• a forgetting factor means which minimizes prediction error according to quadratic principles and reduces recursive least squares problems regarding progressive decay of algorithm reactivity with sampling aging;
• an electronic control unit configured to receive the vehicle acceleration signal, the vehicle speed signal, and the vehicle propulsive/resistive torque signals for generating a command for vehicular control based in part on the vehicle mass, wherein the vehicle mass is estimated in real time:
• when the vehicle is in motion,
• compensating for accelerometric disturbances due to:
• the vehicle dynamic pitch;
• accelerometric components due to the vehicle lateral dynamics;
• and
• based on a recursive least square algorithm with the forgetting factor inputted with a compensated acceleration signal for the vehicle, and
• at different low gears, to estimate the vehicle mass and associated variance for each gear, and
• based on the vehicle mass estimations and corresponding variances for each gear,
• minimizing uncertainties on propulsive/resistive torque due to gear efficiency and rolling resistance;
• and
• a vehicle control means for providing automated control of the vehicle based on the control command from the electronic control unit.