Automobile collision avoidance system

A collision avoidance system for a roadway vehicle comprising:

• at least two laser radar sets being mounted on at least one of the vehicle's four sides including the front side, rear side, right side or left side, wherein on each of an equipped side, at least one laser radar set being mounted near one end of the equipped side and at least another set being mounted near the other end of the equipped side of the vehicle, each laser radar set including at least one laser radar unit, said laser radar unit including:
• a transmitter means for transmitting laser radar signals;
• a highly directional receiver means for receiving reflected laser radar signals by an obstacle from the transmitted laser radar signals and generating a first electronic signal thereof;
• means for processing the first electronic signal to determine the distance of the obstacle and the radial component of the relative speed along the laser beam direction of the obstacle as relative to the vehicle, and generating a second electronic signal for the detected distance and the radial component of the relative speed;
• an angle encoder or an angle sensor functionally connected with each laser radar unit, wherein the angle encoder or angle sensor can generate a third electronic signal for the direction of the associated laser radar unit at a same time when the laser radar unit receives reflected signals, said third electronic signal being indicative of the direction of location of the detected obstacle;
• a steering wheel rotation sensor for determining the degree of steering angle and the direction of movement of the vehicle as relative to the earth to generate a fourth electronic signal for the vehicle's direction of movement;
• an outside condition input means with a plurality of selectors including road condition selector, day or night light selector, and driver's condition selector, wherein the selectors can be either manually selected by the vehicle user or automatically selected by branch circuits from the windshield wiper and the headlight, to match the ongoing road condition, light condition, and driver's condition respectively, and the selectors can generate fifth, sixth and seventh electronic signals representing the ongoing road condition, light condition and driver's condition respectively;
• a speed sensor functionally connected with a speedometer, wherein the speed sensor can generate an eighth electronic signal representing the system-equipped vehicle's speed as relative to the earth;
• a computer receiving information from the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth electronic signals, wherein the computer can process the received information and determine when a collision is imminent;
• alarm means functionally connected to the computer for producing an alarm upon receipt of a signal from the computer indicating a determination by the computer that a collision is imminent;
• and
• an optional automatic braking means functionally connected with the computer, to be actuated by the computer after a predetermined waiting period of time following the actuation of the alarm means, and to be rendered unactivable or be deactivated by the computer either when the computer detects a change of the fourth electronic signal exceeding a predetermined amount after the actuation of the alarm means, or when the computer detects a change of the eighth electronic signal exceeding a predetermined amount within the waiting period.

A wheel skidding detecting system for a roadway vehicle comprising:

• a laser gyroscope horizontally mounted on the vehicle to detect any horizontal directional change rate of the vehicle and to generate a first electronic signal for the actual directional change rate of the vehicle;
• a speed sensor functionally connected with a speedometer, wherein the speed sensor can generate a second electronic signal for the vehicle's speed;
• a steering wheel rotation sensor for determining the degree of steered angle and the direction of movement of the vehicle, wherein the steering wheel rotation sensor can generate a third electronic signal for the direction of movement of the vehicle;
• a computer receiving information of the first, second and third electronic signals, wherein the computer includes means to process the second and the third electronic signals to determined a predicted directional change rate of the vehicle;
• and the computer also includes means to calculate a discrepancy between the actual directional change rate and the predicted directional change rate and to determine the presence of wheel skidding based on the magnitude of the discrepancy exceeding a predetermined amount, with the magnitude, positivity or negativity of the discrepancy being correlated with the severity and direction of the wheel skidding;
• and the computer further includes means to generate electronic output signals for the presence, magnitude and direction of wheel skidding thereof;
• and
• a vehicle control means receiving the electronic output signals for the presence, magnitude and direction of wheel skidding, wherein the vehicle control means includes various means to respond to the electronic output signals by adjusting at least one of the vehicle acceleration, vehicle steering, vehicle braking, vehicle transmission and other designs related to vehicle control;
• said vehicle control means being actuated or deactivated by the presence or the absence of said electronic output signals respectively.