Vehicle load monitoring for four wheel steering
AssigneeGM Global Technology Operations LLC
InventorsScott Williston, Kevin Lavigne
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and apparatus are provided for automatically determining the steering system calibration of a vehicle in accordance with vehicle loading. The apparatus comprises a combination of a load monitor and a steering controller. The load monitor senses the actual loading of the vehicle and provides a corresponding feedback signal to the steering controller. The steering controller determines a steering calibration appropriate for the load represented by the feedback signal. As a result, the handling performance of the vehicle can be improved over that of a single, fixed steering calibration for a wide range of load conditions.
Claims18
A method of calibrating a vehicle steering system based on the loading of the vehicle, comprising the steps of:
- a) receiving a vehicle load signal;
- b) processing the vehicle load signal to determine a load-based steering calibration for the vehicle;
- and
- c) applying the load-based steering calibration to the vehicle steering system.
A vehicle steering system having a load-based calibration, comprising:
- a load sensing device configured to generate a load feedback signal corresponding to the actual loading of the vehicle;
- and
- a steering controller configured to receive the load feedback signal from the load sensing device and to determine an appropriate steering calibration of the vehicle in accordance with the received load feedback signal.
A four wheel steering system for a vehicle, comprising:
- a front wheel steering mechanism;
- a load monitor configured to measure the loading of the vehicle;
- and
- a rear wheel steering system comprising a controller and a rear wheel steering device, wherein the controller is configured to determine a load-related rear wheel steering calibration curve based on a measured load signal received from the load monitor, and wherein the controller is further configured to activate the rear wheel steering device in accordance with the load-related rear wheel steering calibration curve.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.