402results about "Automatic control systems" patented technology

A hybrid electric vehicle includes a high voltage DC bus and an internal combustion engine. The internal combustion engine is mechanically coupled to a non self-excited generator / motor which is preferably a switched reluctance machine. A power inverter electrically and bidirectionally couples the high voltage DC bus to the non self-excited switched reluctance generator / motor. Front and rear axle dual DC-AC inverters electrically and bidirectionally couple two traction AC non self-excited switched reluctance motors / gear reducers to the high voltage DC bus for moving the vehicle and for regenerating power. An ultracapacitor coupled to the high voltage DC bus. A bidirectional DC-DC converter interposed between a low voltage battery and the high voltage DC bus transfers energy to the high voltage DC bus and ultracapacitor to ensure that the non self-excited switched reluctance generator / motor operating in the motor mode is able to start the engine.

A vehicle apparatus used in a vehicle measures a first elapsed time after completion of a parking operation by which the vehicle is parked in a parking region, and prohibits movement of the vehicle to adjust the parking position when the first elapsed time reaches a first predetermined time before receipt of a instruction signal by the receiver Accordingly, it is possible to improve safety by preventing the vehicle from moving out of a parking position even if the moving part is erroneously operated when the predetermined time elapses after the completion of parking operation.

Disclosed are driver assistance apparatus and a control method for the same. The driver assistance apparatus includes a sensing unit configured to acquire information regarding an object outside a vehicle, the object including a first other vehicle being driven in the vicinity of the vehicle, and a processor configured to judge whether the first other vehicle is a dangerous vehicle based on at least one of the information regarding the object, user input provided from a driver of the vehicle, information regarding the state of the driver, and information regarding the first other vehicle provided from a second other vehicle being driven in the vicinity of the vehicle, and to execute at least one predetermined operation upon judging that the first other vehicle is a dangerous vehicle.

A vehicle control system includes a first detection unit configured to detect a direction of a face or a line of sight of an occupant of a subject vehicle, an automatic driving control unit configured to execute an automatic driving control, and a switching control unit configured to switch an automatic driving mode for causing the automatic driving control unit to execute the automatic driving control to one of a plurality of automatic driving modes including a first automatic driving mode and a second automatic driving mode. The switching control unit prevents the automatic driving control executed by the automatic driving control unit on the basis of a detection result by the first detection unit.

A hybrid powertrain includes a combustion engine, an electric machine arrangement, a gearbox operable to receive motive power from at least one of the combustion engine and the electric machine arrangement for providing motive power to a load of the powertrain. The powertrain is configurable in operation so that its combustion engine is switchable between an inactive state and an active state. The combustion engine is cranked to switch it from its inactive state to its active state. Application of cranking torque to the combustion engine is controlled in operation to substantially temporally coincide with a gear change in the gearbox.

A passive entry passive start (PEPS) system is provided for performing at least one PEPS function with respect to a vehicle as an end device (e.g., smart phone or key fob, etc.) approaches the vehicle and comes within range for authorization. The vehicle includes a plurality of sensors and a central module. The central module is communicatively coupled to the end device and to the sensors via short-range wireless connections. The central module can determine, based on signal strength information provided from the sensors or the end device, whether the end device is within range for authorization. When the end device is determined to be within range for authorization, the central module can control performance of at least one PEPS function at the vehicle.

Interaction-aware decision making may include training a first agent based on a first policy gradient, training a first critic based on a first loss function to learn goals in a single-agent environment using a Markov decision process, training a number N of agents based on the first policy gradient, training a second policy gradient and a second critic based on the first loss function and a second loss function to learn goals in a multi-agent environment using a Markov game to instantiate a second agent neural network, and generating an interaction-aware decision making network policy based on the first agent neural network and the second agent neural network. The N number of agents may be associated with a driver type indicative of a level of cooperation. When a collision occurs, a negative reward or penalty may be assigned to each agent involved based on a lane priority level of respective agents.

In a first forward drive mode, at speeds of the vehicle lower than a predetermined speed, an electric traction motor (17) drives the wheels (12, 13) of the vehicle, while an internal-combustion engine (27) drives an electric generator (34) or rests. The generator charges an electric battery (38), or powers the traction motor, or both. In a second forward drive mode, at speeds of the vehicle higher than the predetermined speed, the engine drives the electric generator and the wheels of the vehicle, while the traction motor is not energized. In a third forward drive mode, at speeds of the vehicle higher than the predetermined speed, the traction motor, powered by the electric battery, together with the engine drive the wheels of the vehicle. In a reverse drive mode the traction motor alone drives the wheels of the vehicle. A clutch (32) selectively interrupts the power transmission between the engine and the wheels of the vehicle. The traction motor selectively operates as an electric braking generator, during speed retardation and braking of the vehicle, and charges the electric battery. A central electronic controller (46) controls and coordinates the operation of the clutch, traction motor, and engine for achieving high fuel efficiency at both city and highway operational conditions.

A powertrain of a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is controlled. A first value α1 and a second value α2 are determined, α1 represents a proportion of an instantaneous power requirement (Preq) supplied by an engine of the HEV. α2 controls a recharging rate of a battery of the HEV. A determination is performed, based on α1 and α2, regarding how much engine power to use (Peng) and how much battery power to use (Pbatt). Peng and Pbatt are sent to the powertrain.

A method for entering a preceding vehicle autonomous following mode includes the steps of registering and identifying at least one preceding vehicle in front of a host vehicle by at least a first and a second sensor device, comparing the preceding vehicle with vehicle data in a remote database system, and upon a match establishing a communication channel between the preceding vehicle and the host vehicle, identifying to an operator of the host vehicle preceding vehicles with which the communication channel has been established, and obtaining from the operator a selection of a target vehicles to engage following of. Finally, autonomous following mode of the target vehicle is engaged, wherein a vehicle control system automatically controls at least the following three main functions of the host vehicle: forward propulsion, steering, and braking.

An adaptive cruise control system for a motor vehicle includes a forward looking object detecting arrangement for simultaneously detecting several target objects moving in the predicted path and adjacent paths of the equipped vehicle. The detecting arrangement is arranged to continuously monitor velocity and distance to each of the target objects, and a processing arrangement processes signals from the detecting means to provide information of distance to and relative speed of vehicles travelling in front of the equipped vehicle. The processing arrangement repeatedly generates velocity control signals based on the information of distance to and relative speed of vehicles travelling in front of the equipped vehicle. An arrangement controls velocity of the vehicle in response to the control signals from the processing arrangement. The processing arrangement calculates a distance in time from the equipped vehicle to a virtual target vehicle, the distance to and velocity of the virtual target vehicle being calculated on basis of the number of vehicles in the group, the spread in distance of the group, and thus the vehicle density of the group, and the variability of positions in the group, such that the algorithm of the processing means decides from the above parameters on the allowed deviations in time distance, wherein the processing arrangement is arranged to produce a signal to the velocity control arrangement based on the calculated distance in time between the equipped vehicle and the virtual vehicle.

A control apparatus and method for controlling a hybrid vehicle is arranged to prevent shock and to minimize adverse influence on lag and fuel consumption when one of a start / stop control of an engine and a shift control of an automatic transmission is requested while the other control is occurring. The control apparatus includes an engine, a motor / generator, a first clutch, an automatic transmission, an integrated controller, an AT controller and an engine / transmission coordinate controlling section. When a second control request is generated during the first control, the engine / transmission coordinate controlling section starts the second control at a request timing when a condition does not exist such that a shock does not exceed an acceptable level and starts the second control at a later timing when the condition exists such that the shock would exceed the acceptable level if the second control is started at the request timing.

A parking support device 1 includes a calculation unit 17 that calculates a speed pattern, an acceleration recognition unit 13 that recognizes driver-requested acceleration, a parking support control unit 19 that performs parking support control in a target parking position based on the speed pattern, and a determination unit 18 that determines whether a host vehicle V can stop in the target parking position at a set deceleration. When the driver-requested acceleration is recognized during the control and exceeds acceleration of the speed pattern at the time of recognition, the parking support control unit 19 accelerates the host vehicle V at the driver-requested acceleration. When the determination unit 18 determines that the host vehicle V can stop in the target parking position at the set deceleration, the host vehicle V is decelerated at the set deceleration and is stopped in the target parking position regardless of the driver-requested acceleration.

A vehicle hitch detection system is provided. The vehicle hitch detection system includes a camera arranged to capture images of a vehicle hitch and a controller processing the images to detect a powered hitch ornament connected to the hitch based on the processed images when an electrical hitch connection is detected. The controller may further control a driver assistance system based on the detected hitch ornament to enable or disable the system.

The invention discloses an automobile active anti-collision automatic lane change control system and an operating method thereof. The system comprises a real-time driving safety state judging module and an automatic lane change control module which are connected with each other; the real-time driving safety state judging module comprises a critical braking distance calculation module and a safety state judging module unit; the automatic lane change control module comprises a lateral dynamics and CarSim vehicle dynamics model establishing module, an expected yaw velocity acquiring module and a design terminal sliding formwork lane change controller module. The method includes two steps of driving safety state judgment and automatic lane change control. The system and method adopt pedestrians in front as the study objects of active anti-collision, whether driving is in the dangerous state or not can be judged by calculating the critical braking distance and corresponded automatic control is performed, the smoothness and operating stability during lane change are guaranteed, and safety of the pedestrians in front is guaranteed.

A parking assist apparatus that causes a vehicle to be parked in a target parking position generates a traveling route of a vehicle M from a parking travel start position P0 to a target parking position P2 (S12); generates a plurality of speed patterns having different speeds when the vehicle travels on the traveling route (S14); selects a target speed pattern from the plurality of speed patterns based on information of an object around the traveling route (S18); and controls the traveling of the vehicle M based on the target speed pattern (S24).

A hybrid vehicle control device is provided with an engine, a motor and a mode switch section, an automatic transmission and a controller. The controller outputs the gear shift command prior to an engine start command when a simultaneous output prediction condition is met that predicts the output of a gear shift request and a start request at the same time. In this way, the generation of a large shock by the entering of the engine start in the start prohibiting region during the gear shift is prevented.

A method and system for controlling charging and discharging for a hybrid vehicle that may consume regenerative electric power collected by a motor through regenerative braking while coasting the hybrid vehicle when operating an integrated starter-generator (ISG) according to a state of charge (SOC) of a battery. The method of controlling charging and discharging for a hybrid vehicle which includes a motor operated by power of a battery and an ISG configured to start an engine or generate electric power by torque of the engine includes: changing a running mode of the hybrid vehicle to a regenerative braking mode when the hybrid vehicle is coasting, controlling the motor to generate electric power in the regenerative braking mode, determining whether an SOC of the battery is a charge limiting state, and operating the ISG by electric power generated by the motor when the SOC of the battery is the charge limiting state.

A travel control apparatus for a vehicle detects a vehicle to be passed that is an target of passing and is located in front of a vehicle equipped with the travel control apparatus in a traveling lane thereof on the basis of peripheral environment information and travel information, detects a following vehicle that is behind the vehicle in the traveling lane thereof as a following vehicle in the original lane on the basis of the peripheral environment information, monitors the vehicle to be passed and the following vehicle in the original lane, and variably controls a passing maneuver with respect to the vehicle to be passed on the basis of a monitoring result.

A vehicle control apparatus configured to selectively establish one of a first drive state in which a vehicle drive force is generated primarily by a second motor / generator operated with an electric energy supplied from an electric-energy storage device while an engine is placed in a rest state, and a second drive state in which a first motor / generator is operated with a drive force of the engine, to generate an electric energy and in which the vehicle drive force is generated primarily by the second motor / generator operated with at least the electric energy generated by the first motor / generator. The vehicle control apparatus is further configured such that the vehicle drive force generated in the second drive state at a given value of an accelerator pedal operation amount θacc is larger than that generated in the first drive state.

A plug-in hybrid vehicle includes: an internal combustion engine outputting driving power; an electric motor outputting driving power; an electrical storage device storing electric power; and a controller. The controller is configured to learn an electric power consumption rate by calculating the electric power consumption rate when the vehicle has traveled on the electric power stored in the electrical storage device using only the electric motor as a driving force source and to control travel of the vehicle using at least one of the internal combustion engine and the electric motor as the driving force source. The controller is configured to, when a driving frequency of the internal combustion engine that is driven as the vehicle travels on at least one of an uphill and a downhill is higher than a predetermined frequency, invalidate the calculated electric power consumption rate or information acquired to calculate the electric power consumption rate.

It is provided a control device of a hybrid vehicle including a plurality of drive power sources for running including an electric motor driven by electric energy of an electric storage device, the hybrid vehicle configured to perform motor running or assist running using the electric motor for running, the control device being configured to divide a running road acquired from map data into a plurality of sections and stores a change amount of a charged capacity of the electric storage device for each of the divided sections, to acquire all possibly-traveled running routes within a predetermined distance from a current position of the vehicle based on the map data, to calculate a variation characteristic of the charged capacity in correlation with a distance from the current position for each of the running routes based on the change amount of the charged capacity, if it is determined from the variation characteristic of the charged capacity that the possibly-traveled running routes include at least one running route in which electric energy can be recovered to the extent exceeding a predetermined charged capacity upper limit value for permitting charging of the electric storage device, permission being given for the motor running or the assist running using a consumable amount of the electric energy based on electric energy exceeding the predetermined charged capacity upper limit value on the condition that the charged capacity does not fall below a predetermined charged capacity lower limit value for permitting discharging of the electric storage device in all the possibly-traveled running routes even when the electric energy exceeding the predetermined charged capacity upper limit value is consumed before recovery.

The invention relates to a motor vehicle, comprising at least one driver assistance system (2) for calculating future driving situations of the motor vehicle (1) in advance for a specified time interval by evaluating ego-data related to the motor vehicle (1) and environment data related to the motor vehicle environment, wherein the motor vehicle (1) can be controlled by a driver in a first operating mode of the driver assistance system (2), wherein the driver assistance system (2) is designed to temporarily switch to a second operating mode if a switching condition dependent at least on the future driving situations is satisfied, in which second operating mode the motor vehicle (1) is controlled autonomously by the driver assistance system (2) without the possibility of intervention by the driver, wherein in the second operating mode the driving operation is continued.

A control system is provided for controlling a hybrid vehicle that includes an internal combustion engine; an electric motor for starting the internal combustion engine; an inverter for controlling the electric motor; a clutch for selectively connecting and disconnecting power transmission between the internal combustion engine and the electric motor; and a battery for supplying power to the electric motor. The control device includes: a voltage detection unit for detecting the voltage of the battery a voltage control unit for controlling the output of the battery in accordance with a first power value currently available within the voltage limit range of the battery; and an internal combustion engine starting unit for engaging the clutch to start engine while controlling the inverter in accordance with the output from the battery that in turn is controlled by the voltage control unit.

A driving assist device (10) is provided. A driving assist device includes a driver state detection unit (120) for detecting an inattentive state as a driver state, an alerting unit (140) for altering the driver upon detection of the inattentive state of the driver, a driving operation unit (500) for being operated by the driver for driving operations; and a driving state switching unit (130) that switches at least one of the driving operations in an automated driving state to a manual driving state when the driver's operation of the driving operation unit is detected during the automated driving state of the vehicle. When at least one of the driving operations in the automated driving state is switched to the manual driving state by the driving state switching unit, the driver state detection unit detects whether the state of the driver is an excited state. When the excited state of the driver is detected, the alerting unit alerts the driver.

A hybrid electric vehicle includes a high voltage DC bus and an internal combustion engine. The internal combustion engine is mechanically coupled to a non self-excited generator / motor which is preferably a switched reluctance machine. A power inverter electrically and bidirectionally couples the high voltage DC bus to the non self-excited switched reluctance generator / motor. Front and rear axle dual DC-AC inverters electrically and bidirectionally couple two traction AC non self-excited switched reluctance motors / gear reducers to the high voltage DC bus for moving the vehicle and for regenerating power. An ultracapacitor coupled to the high voltage DC bus. A bidirectional DC-DC converter interposed between a low voltage battery and the high voltage DC bus transfers energy to the high voltage DC bus and ultracapacitor to ensure that the non self-excited switched reluctance generator / motor operating in the motor mode is able to start the engine.

An electric motor-generator controller (8) is configured to control a left electric power of the left electric motor-generator (2A) and a right electric power of the right electric motor-generator (2B), based on the sum of the left electric power and the right electric power, wherein the left electric power is defined as an electric power generated or consumed by the left electric motor-generator (2A) and, the right electric power is defined as an electric power generated or consumed by the right electric motor-generator (2B). The electric motor-generator controller (8) control the left electric power of the left electric motor-generator and the right electric power of the right electric motor-generator such that the sum of the left electric power and the right electric power becomes a constant value, when the rotation restrictor controller (8) controls the rotation restrictor (60A, 60B) such that the rotation restrictor releases the third rotation elements.