Vehicle stability operator feedback system
Assignee3rd Milennium solutions, Ltd.
InventorsSteve McKeown, Bruce Gilkes, Jon Sheaff
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
System for monitoring vehicle operating conditions and parameters and issuing warnings to the operator when a predetermined vehicle status is present. The predetermined vehicle status includes a variety of unsafe driving conditions and is responsive to a changing center of gravity. The warnings include visual, audible and tactile feedback. By way of the tactile feedback, the system can affect the operator's operation of the vehicle to prevent vehicle instability, rollover, loss of vehicle control or other unsafe driving conditions from occurring.
Claims11
A vehicle condition operator feedback system comprising:
- a vehicle operating condition determining apparatus mounted to a vehicle, the determining apparatus determining a plurality of operating conditions, at least one of the plurality of operating conditions being affected by a present center of gravity of the vehicle;
- a controller which receives an input from the determining apparatus and deduces the presence of a predetermined vehicle status;
- and
- an operator feedback apparatus, activated by the controller to indicate the presence of the predetermined vehicle status to the operator of the vehicle based upon the input, the feedback apparatus providing at least one form of feedback comprising at least one of an audible warning, a visual warning, a tactile warning, and vehicle control override.
A vehicle condition operator feedback system comprising:
- a vehicle operating condition determining means for determining a plurality of operating conditions, at least one of the plurality of operating conditions being affected by a present center of gravity of the vehicle;
- a control means for deducing the presence of a predetermined vehicle status based upon an operating condition signal received from the determining means;
- and
- an operator feedback means for indicating the presence of the predetermined vehicle status to the operator of the vehicle based upon a control signal received from the control means.
A method for alerting an operator to the presence of a predetermined vehicle status in a vehicle, comprising steps of:
- determining a plurality of operating conditions of a vehicle, at least one of the plurality of operating conditions being affected by a present center of gravity of the vehicle;
- deducing the presence of predetermined vehicle status based upon the determined plurality of conditions, and
- indicating to an operator the presence of the predetermined vehicle status.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.