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US 11,167,592 B2Granted
Vehicle with track width learning mode
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsScott Wilson, Andrew Monticello
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vehicle includes an axle having driven wheels each with an associated wheel-speed sensor and the vehicle includes a yaw rate sensor. A controller is programmed to, responsive to a request to reprogram a track width of the driven axle, receive signals from the wheel speed sensors and the yaw rate sensor to learn a track width of the driven axle based on the signals.
Claims12
A vehicle comprising:
- a driven axle including driven wheels each having an associated driven wheel-speed sensor;
- an undriven axle including at least one undriven wheel and having at least one associated undriven wheel-speed sensor;
- a yaw rate sensor;
- and
- a controller programmed to:
- responsive to a request to reprogram a track width of the driven axle, receive signals from the driven wheel speed sensors, the at least one undriven wheel-speed sensor, and the yaw rate sensor while the vehicle is in a track width learning mode and moving in a particular manner to learn the track width of the driven axle based on the signals, wherein the track width of the driven axle is computed by (i) calculating an average wheel speed of the driven wheels of the driven axle based on first signals from the driven wheel-speed sensors, (ii) subtracting a wheel speed of one of the at least one undriven wheel based on second signals from the at least one associated undriven wheel-speed sensor from the calculated average wheel speed of the driven wheels of the driven axle to determine a speed offset, (iii) dividing the speed offset by a yaw rate based on third signals from the yaw rate sensor to determine a distance, and (iv) utilizing at least the determined distance to calculate a learned track width of the driven axle,
- issue driving instructions to a driver for modifying the operation of the vehicle to achieve the particular manner during the track width learning mode;
- and
- discard the learned track width responsive to a vehicle speed exceeding a threshold while the driving instructions are executed.
6 more elements
A vehicle comprising:
- a driven axle including driven wheels;
- an electronic differential;
- an undriven axle including at least one undriven wheel;
- a yaw rate sensor configured to calculate a vehicle yaw rate;
- and
- a controller programmed to:
- responsive to a request to enter a track width learning mode, (i) calculate a track width of the driven axle derived from a difference between an average speed of the driven wheels and a speed of one of the at least one undriven wheel divided by the vehicle yaw rate, (ii) if learning conditions are satisfied during the calculation of the track width, update a rolling average of track widths using the track width as a learned track width, otherwise, discard the track width and maintain the rolling average of track widths as the learned track width, and (iii) responsive to a timer expiring, rewrite a previously stored learned track width in a permanent memory with the learned track width, and
- control the electronic differential to induce oversteer in the vehicle based on the learned track width.
5 more elements
A method of learning a track width of a vehicle comprising:
- receiving a request to reprogram a stored track width of a driven axle;
- responsive to the request, issuing driving instructions to a driver for modifying operation of the vehicle to achieve a particular vehicle state;
- once the vehicle achieves the particular vehicle state:
- measuring wheel speeds of driven wheels associated with the driven axle and a wheel speed of at least one undriven wheel associated with an undriven axle;
- measuring a yaw rate of the vehicle;
- calculating the track width of the driven axle based on a difference between an average of the measured wheel speeds of the driven wheels and a wheel speed of one of the at least one undriven wheel, and further based on the difference divided by the yaw rate;
- and
- either overwriting the stored track width of the driven axle with the calculated track width of the driven axle or else discarding the calculated track width responsive to a vehicle speed exceeding a threshold while the driving instructions are executed.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.