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US 10,293,653 B2Granted
Obstacle avoidance system with active suspensions
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsDavor David Hrovat, Hongtei Eric Tseng, Jianbo Lu, Li Xu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present disclosure generally relates to an obstacle avoidance system with active suspensions. The obstacle avoidance system uses one or more active suspensions to lift or jump one or more corresponding wheels over an obstacle in the vehicle's path to avoid contact with the obstacle when the vehicle cannot practically drive over, steer around, or stop before hitting the obstacle.
Claims18
An obstacle avoidance system comprising:
- a sensor configured to obtain data external to a vehicle;
- an active suspension coupled to a wheel of the vehicle, the active suspension including an actuator and a spring and disposed between a body of the vehicle and a control arm connected to the wheel of the vehicle;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- identify, based on the obtained data, an obstacle in a path of the wheel;
- determine whether the vehicle is able to steer the wheel around the obstacle;
- determine whether the vehicle is able to stop before the wheel hits the obstacle;
- and
- responsive to determining that the vehicle is unable to at least one of steer the wheel around the obstacle or stop before hitting the obstacle, independently control the active suspension to rapidly elevate the wheel by controlling the actuator to:
- when the obstacle has a first size, retract to lift the control arm and compress the spring to cause the wheel to be lifted over the obstacle, and
- when the obstacle has a second greater size, retract to lift the control arm and compress the spring, extend to lower the control arm and decompress the spring, and re-retract to re-lower the control arm and recompress the spring to cause the wheel to jump airborne over the obstacle.
8 more elements
An obstacle avoidance method comprising:
- obtaining, by a sensor, data external to a vehicle;
- identifying, by a controller using the data, an obstacle in a path of the vehicle;
- determining, by the controller using the data, whether the vehicle can at least one of steer around the obstacle or stop before hitting the obstacle;
- and
- in response to determining that the vehicle cannot at least one of steer around or stop before hitting the obstacle, independently controlling, by the controller, an active suspension disposed between a vehicle body and a control arm connected to a wheel of the vehicle to rapidly elevate the wheel over the obstacle by:
- when the obstacle has a first size, retracting an actuator of the active suspension to lift the control arm toward the body and compress a spring of the active suspension to cause the wheel to lift over the obstacle, and
- when the obstacle has a second greater size, retracting the actuator to lift the control arm and compress the spring, extend to lower the control arm and decompress the spring, and re-retract to re-lift the control arm and re-compress the spring to cause the wheel to jump airborne over the obstacle.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.