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US 7,401,871 B2Granted
Method of controlling an automotive vehicle having a trailer using rear axle slip angle
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsJianbo Lu, Timothy G. Offerle
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method of controlling a vehicle with a trailer comprises determining the presence of a trailer, determining a vehicle velocity, determining a steering wheel angle, and determining a rear axle side slip angle. When the rear axle side slip angle is above a predetermined value, the vehicle velocity is above a velocity threshold, and the steering wheel is about zero, brake-steer is applied to the vehicle.
Claims3
A control system for an automotive vehicle and a trailer comprising:
- means to determine the presence of the trailer;
- a vehicle velocity sensor generating a vehicle velocity signal;
- a steering wheel angle sensor generating a steering wheel angle signal;
- and
- a controller coupled to the means, the velocity sensor and the steering angle sensor, said controller determining a rear axle side slip angle of the vehicle, and when the rear axle side slip angle is above a predetermined rear axle slip angle, the vehicle velocity signal is above a velocity threshold and the steering wheel angle is about zero, said controller programmed to apply brake-steer to the vehicle to stabilize the vehicle and trailer further in response to a reverse direction signal.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.