Intelligent vehicle steering systems with control unit for touchscreen-configurable steering wheels

Abstract

A method for operating a vehicle includes a control unit that receives a power-on command to start the vehicle. A touchscreen display interface, mounted on a central hub of a steering wheel assembly of the vehicle's steering system, displays a wheel angle indicator at one location and a soft-touch control set at another. A position sensor generates sensor data indicating the steering angle of a front vehicle wheel and / or the position of a user's hand on a handwheel of the steering wheel assembly.The touchscreen display interface shows the following: the wheel angle indicator, which moves to a new orientation in response to sensor data indicating that the steering angle of the front vehicle wheel is a non-zero angle, and / or the soft-touch control set, which moves to a new position in response to sensor data indicating that the user's hand position is moved to a new position on the steering wheel assembly's handwheel.

Description

INTRODUCTIONThe present description relates generally to steering systems for motor vehicles. More specifically, aspects of this description relate to steering wheel assemblies having touch screen display interfaces for steer-by-wire automobiles.Current mass-produced vehicles, such as the modern automobile, are originally equipped with a steering system that allows the driver to maintain the desired heading of the vehicle while controlling the changes in direction of the vehicle. Most vehicle steering systems use a hand operated steering wheel operated by the driver to input the desired direction of travel of the vehicle. The steering wheel is attached via a central hub to a steering column assembly that connects the steering wheel to the steering mechanism of the vehicle, which is typically a rack and pinion steering system. In this construction, a pinion at the lower end of a steering shaft engages a linear rack, the so-called "rack". When the steering wheel is turned, the pinion rotates with the rotating steering shaft, whereby the rack linearly moves along a transverse plane of the vehicle. A tie rod at each end of the rack is connected to the steering arm of a wheel spindle; the moving rack and the tie rod pivot the spindle, thereby rotating the wheel. The inputs to the driver may be supplemented by an electric, hydraulic, or pneumatic power steering (also referred to as "PAS", or more generally "power steering") to introduce additional energy into the steering mechanism to reduce the effort of the driver.In some modern vehicle steering systems, the direct mechanical connection between the steering wheel and the wheels is eliminated, e.g. by removing the steering column and the shaft couplings, and these connections are replaced by electromechanical components and a man-machine interface (HMI), which has become known as a "steer-by-wire" system (SBW). Such a steer-by-wire system uses a steering wheel position sensor that monitors the position, path, and rate of rotation of the steering wheel. A controller converts these inputs to corresponding position, speed and displacement values for turning the vehicle wheels. A powertrain control unit or a dedicated steering control unit then outputs command signals to an electric motor that turns the wheels of the vehicle according to the command signals. To provide a feel for the road to the driver, the steer-by-wire system may include tactile sensors, linear actuators, drag brakes, and / or stepper motors that, under the control of the electronic control unit, provide controllable feedback during operation of the vehicle.DESCRIPTIONVehicle steering systems with associated control logic for providing steering wheels configurable by a touchscreen, methods for producing and operating such vehicle steering systems, and motor vehicles equipped with such steering systems are presented below. A non-limiting example of steer-by-wire vehicle steering is a specially designed steering wheel assembly having a central hub provided with a touch screen interactive display interface and integrated into an outer hand wheel ring with embedded sensors that sense the real-time positions of the hands of the driver. The touch screen display interface may be interactive and customizable such that selectable fast-access soft touch" buttons, dials, switches, etc. (collectively, soft touch control set") may be added, removed, repositioned, and / or resized by the driver. During vehicle operation, the buttons displayed on the touch screen may be automatically repositioned and optionally repositioned to match the detected positions of the driver's hands, e.g., to make the system more ergonomic. Upon starting the vehicle, a control module of the SBW system may automatically align the images on the central touch screen display of the steering wheel such that the rotational position of the steering wheel appears to match the current angle of the front wheels of the vehicle. During operation of the vehicle, the controller of the SBW system may automatically synchronize the perceived rotational position of the steering wheel with the angle of the road wheels without actually rotating the steering wheel, e.g., to provide a seamless experience for drivers and vehicle occupants.Aspects of this description relate to stored vehicle control protocols and vehicle control logic for providing touch screen configurable steering wheels to SBW vehicle steering systems. In one example, a method of operating a motor vehicle is presented, including a vehicle body, a plurality of wheels mounted to the vehicle body, and a vehicle steering system for steering a single or a plurality of front wheels. A touchscreen display interface is attached to a central hub of a steering wheel assembly of the vehicle steering system. This representative method includes, in any order and in any combination with any of the options and features disclosed above and below: receiving, e.g., from a body control module (BCM), via a resident or remote microcontroller, control module, programmable logic device, or network of control units / modules / devices (collectively "control unit"), a turn-on command to turn on the motor vehicle; displaying, for example, via the touch screen display interface upon receipt of the enable command, a wheel angle display indicating a steering angle of the front road wheel(s) in a first orientation at a first location and a soft touch control set including soft touch input elements for operating various vehicle subsystems in a second orientation at a second location; generating, for example, via an in-vehicle position sensor of the motor vehicle, sensor data indicating a real-time steering angle of the front vehicle wheel and / or a real-time hand position of a user's hand on a hand wheel of the steering wheel assembly; displaying, for example, via the touch screen display, the wheel angle indicator moved to a new orientation responsive to the sensor data indicating that the real-time steering angle of the front / front wheels of the vehicle is a non-zero value and / or the soft touch control set moved to a new position responsive to the sensor data indicating that the real-time hand position of the user is moved to a new position on the hand wheel of the steering wheel assembly.Aspects of this description also relate to smart vehicle steering systems with associated control logic for providing touch screen configurable steering wheels. In one example, a vehicle steering system for a motor vehicle, such as a drive-by-wire (DBW) automobile, is presented. The vehicle steering system includes a steering wheel assembly rotatably mounted to the vehicle body and usable for steering a front vehicle wheel of the road wheels of the vehicle. The steering wheel assembly includes a central hub with a hand wheel secured to the central hub. One or more hand position sensors are attached to the hand wheel, which can detect the hand of the user on the hand wheel. A touch screen display is integrated into the steering wheel assembly and is attached to the central hub. The steering wheel assembly includes a controller programmed to receive a turn-on command to turn the motor vehicle on; upon receiving the turn-on command, the controller commands the touch screen display interface to display both a wheel angle display at one location and a series of soft touch control sets at another location. The control unit of the system communicates with a wheel angle sensor to obtain therefrom angle sensor data indicative of a real time steering angle of one or both front wheels of the vehicle. The control unit also communicates with the hand position sensor(s) to obtain from this (s) position sensor data indicative of the real-time hand positions of the user's hands on the hand wheel. The controller simultaneously commands the touch screen display interface to display the wheel angle indicator moved to a new orientation in response to the angle sensor data indicating that the steering angle of the front vehicle wheel(s) is a non-zero angle value, and the soft touch control set moved to a new position in response to the position sensor data indicating that the hand positions of the user's hands have been moved to new hand positions on the hand wheel of the steering wheel assembly.Further aspects of this description relate to motor vehicles equipped with smart vehicle steering systems with actively adjustable touch screen steering wheels. Hereinafter, the terms "vehicle" and "motor vehicle" may be used interchangeably and interchangeably to include any relevant vehicle platform, such as passenger cars, commercial vehicles, industrial vehicles, sport utility vehicles, and all terrain vehicles (ATVs), motor wheels, agricultural equipment, aircraft, spacecraft, watercraft, etc. In one example, a motor vehicle includes a vehicle body having a passenger compartment, multiple wheels attached to the vehicle body (e.g., via corner modules coupled to a unibody or body-on-frame chassis), and other standard original equipment. A prime mover, which may be an electric traction motor and / or an internal combustion engine, is located within the vehicle body and drives the wheel / wheels to propel the vehicle. A vehicle steering system is also mounted on the vehicle body for turning one or more of the front wheels of the vehicle to steer the vehicle. The vehicle steering system includes a steering wheel assembly having a hand wheel secured to a central hub. The hand wheel and the central hub may be rotatably mounted to the vehicle body by a steering column assembly; alternatively, the central hub may be rigidly mounted to the vehicle body and the hand wheel may be rotatably mounted to the vehicle body, e.g., by a wheel torque and angle unit.To continue the discussion of the above example, the vehicle is also equipped with a fixed or remote control unit programmed to receive, for example, from an onboard BCM, an acknowledgement of a turn-on command to turn the motor vehicle on. Upon turning on the vehicle, the controller commands a touch screen display interface mounted on the central hub to display: (1) a wheel angle display positioned at a first location in a first orientation, and (2) a series of soft touch control sets positioned at a second location in a second orientation. The controller then communicates with one or more vehicle-mounted devices to receive sensor data indicative of (1) a real-time steering angle of one or more front wheels of the vehicle and / or (2) a real-time hand position of one or more hands of a user on the hand wheel of the steering wheel assembly. The controller then commands the touch screen display interface to display: (1) the wheel angle indicator to be moved to a new orientation and / or position in response to the sensor data indicating that the vehicle wheel steering angle is a non-zero value, and / or (2) the soft touch control set to be moved to a new position and / or orientation in response to the sensor data indicating that the user's hand position is moved to a new hand position on the hand wheel.For each of the disclosed vehicles, systems, and methods, the position sensor in the vehicle may include multiple pressure sensors in the cabin, and the received sensor data may indicate that a first pressure sensor senses the user's hand position at a first hand wheel angle (e.g., left hand -60 degrees (°) from the top center) and a second pressure sensor subsequently senses the user's new hand position at a second hand wheel angle (e.g., left hand -130° from the top center). It is conceivable that the intelligent vehicle steering system actively monitors one or both hands of the user in order to automate the repositioning of one or more soft touch operator control units. In this case, the original position of the soft touch control set may be radially aligned with the first hand wheel angle and the new position may be radially aligned with the second hand wheel angle. It may be desirable for the pressure sensors in the cab to take the form of a networked array of pressure sensors mounted equi-spaced around the hand wheel. The pressure sensors may take any suitable form factor, including piezoresistive pressure sensors, capacitive pressure sensors, diffuse silicon pressure sensors, piezoelectric pressure sensors, and / or inductive pressure sensors.In all disclosed vehicles, systems, and methods, the touch screen display interface may display the soft touch control set rotating to a new position and orientation when the sensor data indicates that the user's real-time hand position has been shifted to the new position on the hand wheel. The user has the ability to disable the automatic repositioning / realignment of the wheel angle display and / or soft touch control set. As another option, the touch screen display interface may receive one or more user selections to add, remove, reposition, and / or resize one or more of the soft touch control sets in a soft touch control set. In response, the touch screen display interface may change the soft touch control set according to the selection received from the user. The user may be given the ability to reposition, re-align, and / or re-arrange a soft touch control set.In all disclosed vehicles, systems, and methods, the on-board position sensor may include one or more wheel angle sensors, each operatively attached to and monitoring rotation of a respective front wheel of the vehicle. In this case, the received sensor data may indicate that the real-time steering angle of a vehicle front wheel is a non-zero angle with respect to a front-drive longitudinally extending reference plane of the motor vehicle (e.g., the front-left wheel assembly is rotated +26° from the front-rear reference plane extending through the upper pivot mount of the vertical arm of the knuckle). As another option, the wheel angle indicator may be rotated about the non-zero angle value of the front vehicle wheel measured by the sensor relative to a longitudinal zero angle reference line of the steering wheel assembly (e.g., direction indicator rotated +26° from the top center of the touch screen). In another example, a rotary encoder may be mounted to the steering wheel assembly (e.g., at a lower end of a steering shaft). The rotary encoder may actively measure a real-time displacement and rotational speed of the hand wheel during operation of the motor vehicle. In this case, the touch screen display interface may display the wheel angle display rotating in accordance with the real-time displacement and the rotation rate of the hand wheel.In all disclosed vehicles, systems, and methods, the controller of the vehicle may receive, e.g., from the on-board BCM, the acknowledgement of a wake-up command to wake up the motor vehicle prior to turning on the vehicle. In this case, the touch screen display interface may automatically respond to the wake-up command by displaying the wheel angle display at a standard position in a standard orientation. Optionally, the wheel angle indicator may include a vehicle emblem and / or a vehicle name corresponding to the make and / or model of the subject motor vehicle. Moreover, the default position of the wheel angle display may be located at the center of the touch screen display interface, and the default orientation may be substantially horizontal. As another option, a lighting element (e.g., a color changing fabric or an internally packaged LED array) may be attached to the hand wheel of the steering wheel. In this case, the light element may indicate a hand wheel steering reference point indicating the current steering direction of the steering wheel assembly.The summary above does not represent every embodiment or aspect of the present description. Rather, the summary above provides a summary of only some of the novel concepts and features set forth herein. The above features and advantages, as well as other features and attendant advantages of this disclosure, will be readily apparent from the following detailed description of illustrated examples and representative modes for carrying out the disclosure when considered in connection with the accompanying figures and appended claims. Moreover, this specification expressly includes all combinations and sub-combinations of the elements and features set forth above and below.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURESFIG. 1 is a partial schematic side view of a representative motor vehicle having a steer-by-wire (SBW) vehicle steering system and a network of in-vehicle controllers, sensing devices, and communication devices for providing a touch screen configurable steering wheel in accordance with aspects of the present description. FIGS. 2A-2C are top view representations of a representative vehicle steering wheel assembly with an integrated touch screen display interface and hand position sensors embedded in the hand wheel for automatically aligning button to hand in accordance with aspects of the present description. FIGS. 3A-3C are perspective and top view representations of a representative vehicle steering wheel assembly having an integrated touch screen display interface and a steering shaft mounted position transducer for automatic steering wheel-to-wheel alignment in accordance with aspects of the present description. FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating a representative vehicle steering system control protocol for a touch screen configurable steering wheel operation that may correspond to stored commands executable by a fixed or remote microcontroller, control module, logic circuit, or other integrated circuit (IC) device or network of circuits / modules / microcontrollers / IC devices (collectively "controller") in accordance with aspects of the disclosed concepts.The present specification is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, and some representative embodiments of the specification are shown by way of example in the drawings and will be described herein in detail. It should be understood, however, that the novel aspects of this specification are not limited to the particular forms illustrated in the above-listed drawings. Rather, this specification includes all modifications, equivalents, combinations, permutations, groupings and alternatives falling within the scope of this specification, such as those encompassed by the appended claims.DETAILED DESCRIPTIONThis description may be embodied in many different forms. Representative embodiments of the disclosure are illustrated in the drawings and will be described in detail herein, with the understanding that these embodiments are provided as examples of the disclosed principles and do not constitute limitations on the broad aspects of the disclosure. As such, elements and limitations described, for example, in the sections "Summary", "Introduction", "Description", "Brief Description of the Drawings", and "Detailed Description", but not expressly recited in the claims, should not be included in the claims, either individually or collectively, neither by way of brevity, nor by way of inference, or otherwise. Moreover, the phrase "first," "second," "third," etc., in the specification or claims is not intended per se to specify a serial or numerical limitation; unless expressly stated otherwise, these terms may be used to facilitate reference to similar features in the specification and drawings and to distinguish between similar elements in the claims.For purposes of this specification, unless expressly excluded: the singular includes the plural and vice versa (e.g., the indefinite articles "a" and "an" are generally to be understood as meaning "one or more"); the words "and" and "or" are to be understood as both conjunctiva and disjunction; the words "each" and "all" mean "each and all"; and the words "including", "including", "comprising", "having" and the like mean "including without limitation". Moreover, words of approximation such as "about", "fast", "substantially", "generally", "about" and the like may be used herein to refer to, for example, "at, near or near", or "within 0-5% of", or "within acceptable manufacturing tolerances", or any logical combination thereof. Finally, directional adjective and adverbes such as "front", "rear", "inside", "outside", "starboard", "port", "vertical", "horizontal", "upward", "downward", "front", "rear", "left", "right", etc. may refer to a motor vehicle, e.g., to the forward direction of travel of a motor vehicle when the vehicle is operated on a horizontal driving surface.Referring now to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like features throughout the several views, there is shown in FIG. 1 a representative motor vehicle, generally designated 10, which is shown herein as a sedan style electrically powered automobile for discussion purposes. The illustrated motor vehicle 10-also referred to herein briefly as a "motor vehicle" or "vehicle"-is merely an example application with which aspects of this description may be practiced. Likewise, the implementation of the present concepts for the illustrated vehicle steering system should be understood as a non-limiting implementation of the disclosed features. It will be appreciated that the aspects and features of this description may be incorporated into various steering wheel assemblies, implemented by other vehicle steering architectures, and incorporated into any logically relevant type of motor vehicle. In addition, only selected components of the motor vehicle and vehicle steering system are shown and described in detail herein. Nevertheless, the vehicles and systems described below may include numerous additional and alternative features and other available peripheral hardware for carrying out the various methods and functions of this specification.The representative vehicle 10 of FIG. 1 is originally equipped with a vehicle telecommunications and information unit ("telematics") 14 that wirelessly communicates, e.g., via a cellular network, satellite service, wireless modem, etc., with a remote cloud computing host service 24 (e.g., OnStar®). Some of the other vehicle hardware components 16 generally illustrated in FIG. 1 include, by way of non-limiting examples, a video electronic display device 18, a microphone 28, audio speakers 30, and various user input controls 32 (e.g., buttons, buttons, pedals, switches, touchpads, touch screens, etc.). These hardware components 16 function, in part, as a human-machine interface (HMI) that allows the user to communicate with the telematics unit 14 and other components located in and remote from the vehicle 10. For example, occupants may input verbal commands via the microphone 28; the vehicle 10 may be equipped with an integrated speech processing unit that uses audio filtering, processing, and analysis modules. Conversely, speaker 30 provides acoustic output to a vehicle occupant and may be either a stand-alone speaker for telematics unit 14 or part of audio system 22. audio system 22 is connected to network connection interface 34 and audio bus 20 to receive analog information and play it back as sound via one or more speaker components.Communicatively coupled to telematics unit 14 is a network connection interface 34, suitable examples of which include twisted pair / fiber Ethernet switches, parallel / serial communication buses, local area network (LAN) interfaces, controller area network (CAN) interfaces, and the like. The network connection interface 34 allows the vehicle hardware 16 to send and receive signals among each other and with various systems both onboard and offboard the vehicle body 12. This allows the vehicle 10 to perform various vehicle functions, such as modulation of powertrain power, activation of friction and regenerative braking systems, vehicle steering control, and other automatic functions. For example, telematics unit 14 may communicate signals with a powertrain control module (PCM) 52, an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) module 54, an electronic battery control module (EBCM) 56, a steering control module (SCM) 58, a brake system control module (BSCM) 60, and various other vehicle ECUs, such as a transmission control module (TCM), an engine control module (ECM), a sensor system interface module (SSIM), etc.As shown in FIG. 1, telematics unit 14 is an in-vehicle device that provides a series of services both singly and through its communication with other networked devices. This telematics unit 14 may generally consist of one or more processors 40, each of which may be implemented as a discrete microprocessor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or a special purpose control module. The vehicle 10 may provide central vehicle control via a central processing unit (CPU) 36 operatively connected to a real-time clock (RTC) 42 and one or more electronic storage devices 38, each of which may take the form of a CD-ROM, a magnetic disk, an IC device, a solid state drive (SSD) memory, a hard disk drive (HDD) memory, a flash memory, a semiconductor memory (e.g., various types of RAM or ROM), etc.Long-range communication (LRC) with remote devices external to the vehicle may be provided via one or more or all of cellular chipsets / components, navigation and location chipsets / components (e.g., GPS transmitter / receiver), or a wireless modem, all of which are collectively shown at 44. The short-range wireless connection may be established via an SRC device 46 (e.g., a Bluetooth® unit or an NFC transmitter / receiver), a DSRC component 48, and / or a dual antenna 50. The communication devices described above may provide the communication as part of a periodic transmission in a vehicle-to-vehicle communication system (V 2V) or a vehicle-to-general communication system (V 2X), e.g., vehicle-to-infrastructure (V 2I), vehicle-to-pedestrian (V 2P), vehicle-to-device (V 2D), vehicle-to-cloud (V 2C), etc.The CPU 36 receives sensor data from one or more devices using, for example, photodetection, radar, laser, ultrasound, optics, infrared, or other suitable technologies, including short-range communication (e.g., DSRC) or ultra-wide-band (UWB) radio technologies, to perform controller-automated (AV / ADAS) driving operation or vehicle navigation service. According to the example shown, the motor vehicle 10 may be equipped with one or more digital cameras 62, one or more range sensors 64, one or more vehicle speed sensors 66, one or more vehicle dynamics sensors 68, and the required filtering, classifying, merging, and analysis hardware and software for processing raw sensor data. The vehicle speed sensor(s) 66 may / may be embodied as a mechanical or electromagnetic transmission shaft sensor or an electronic wheel speed sensor for sensing vehicle speed. The vehicle dynamics sensor(s) 68 may / may be a single-axis or triaxial accelerometer, a yaw rate sensor, an inclination sensor, a steering wheel angle sensor, a brake sensor, etc., to sense longitudinal and lateral acceleration, yaw, roll, and / or pitch rates, steering angle, and other driving dynamics parameters. The type, arrangement, number, and interoperability of the distributed array of on-board sensors may be adjusted individually or jointly to a particular vehicle platform to achieve the desired level of automated vehicle operation.To propel the motor vehicle 10, an electrified powertrain may generate and deliver a traction torque to one or more of the vehicle's drive wheels 26. The powertrain is illustrated in FIG. 1 by a rechargeable energy storage system (RESS), which may be in the form of a chassis-mounted traction battery pack 70 connected to a traction electric motor (M) 78. The traction battery pack 70 generally consists of one or more battery modules 72 each containing a bundle of battery cells 74, such as cells of the lithium, zinc, nickel, or organosilicon class of the pouch, can, or cylindrical type. One or more electric machines, such as traction motor / generator (M) units 78, draw electrical energy from and optionally provide electrical energy to battery pack 70. An inverter module (PIM) 80 electrically connects the battery pack 70 to the motor(s) 78 and modulates the transfer of the electrical current therebetween. The battery pack 70 may include an integrated electronics package, such as a wireless cell monitoring unit (CMU) 76 that enables intra-module management, cell sensing, etc.Smart vehicle steering systems are presented below that use embedded hand position sensors and a touch screen display interface that are integrated into a symmetric or asymmetric steering wheel assembly to enable user configurability of soft touch control sets, dynamic key-to-hand position tracking, and immediate synchronization of hand wheel and road wheel. The touch screen interface may take various form factors including a high resolution capacitive or resistive touch screen display unit or a touch sensitive electronic ink (E-ink) display. The outer hand wheel ring of the steering wheel assembly may include an annular track pad, a circumferentially spaced array of pressure sensors, or other position sensing device that senses the position of the driver's hands on the hand wheel in real time. Unlike conventional steering wheels, the hand wheel is not hindered by hard end stops and can therefore rotate freely and infinitely. For autonomous vehicle applications, the touch screen interface may be modulated in real-time alone or in conjunction with the hand wheel during vehicle operation to emulate the movement of the steering wheel assembly to control the vehicle.When the vehicle is sleeping (e.g., with the powertrain off and vehicle electronics off, or in the low power mode), the vehicle steering system may allow the occupant to manipulate the hand wheel to any position. In response to a wake-up event (e.g., when the occupant activates accessory mode), a steer-by-wire control module (SWCM) may read the absolute position sensor of the steering wheel and display a vehicle logo, quick-access buttons, and other desired information in a horizontally oriented perspective. When the vehicle is turned on (e.g., when the driver presses the key key key), the SWCM synchronizes the graphics of the touchscreen on the steering wheel to the current angle of the wheels. For example, the SWCM may read the wheel angle sensors of the front wheels and immediately adjust the features displayed on the touch screen of the steering wheel to the angle of the wheels. At the same time, the SWCM may learn a new angle offset that correlates the current value of the hand wheel position sensor to the currently displayed angle of the touch screen; the SWCM may maintain this offset for the remainder of the key cycle (e.g., reset in response to the "key off" event). It may be desirable that the steering wheel not move during this alignment operation; after completion of the operation, the driver may then drive the vehicle freely.During operation of the steering system, the application software stored in memory may detect overruns and underflows of the position sensor / encoder to ensure that the hand wheel may be initialized at any encoder value. When the vehicle is parked, the driver may obtain one or more options for adjusting the position, size, location, orientation, color, presence, etc. of the quick-accessible soft touch control set on the steering wheel, e.g., reducing or eliminating conventional electromechanical "hard" buttons in the assembly. If desired, the steering wheel adjustment options may be invoked via the steering wheel touch screen interface and optionally via the telematics unit in the center stand. The driver may also be prompted to enable or disable automatic alignment of the touch screen soft touch control set with the driver's hands as they move in various positions along the hand wheel. Since each driver may have different preferences for the position of his resting hand, this function provides the driver with easy access to his soft touch control set regardless of the position of his hand. When the vehicle is turned off (e.g., when the key is turned off), the touch screen surface integrated into the steering wheel may default to display the vehicle logo / name and other desired information in a horizontally oriented form. In e-ink configurations, this information can be displayed even when the vehicle is sleeping.Among the advantages of at least some of the concepts presented is a continuously configurable steering wheel assembly that enables a universal assembly to be deployed for multiple vehicle platforms with a concomitant reduction in design time, cost, and complexity. In SBW applications, the hand wheel and the hub-mounted touch screen interface may be immediately synchronized with the current heading of the vehicle and vehicle wheels before travel begins. This function also allows the smart vehicle steering system to emulate conventional mechanical drive systems in an SBW vehicle. For circularly symmetric steering wheels, the steering system need not synchronize the hand wheel, but may automatically assign its current angular position to match the angle of the road wheel. Due to the possibility of individually adapting the touchscreen interface of the steering wheel, the driver can access more functions desired by him and at the same time screen out unused functions. Since different drivers hold the steering wheel in different positions, automatically adjusting the buttons to the position of the driver's hands would increase user friendliness and comfort.FIGS. 2A-2C show a representative smart vehicle steering system 100 that includes a manually operable vehicle steering wheel assembly 110 with an integrated touch screen display interface 102 and an outer hand wheel ring 104 (or "hand wheel" for short) equipped with hand position sensors 106 for automatically aligning soft touch control sets with the hand positions of the driver. According to the example shown, the touch screen display interface 102 is embedded in, mounted on, or otherwise securely attached to a central hub 108 of the steering wheel assembly 110. The outer hand wheel ring 104 may be rigidly attached to the central hub 108, e.g., via radially elongated hub spokes 111, such that the hand wheel 104 encircles and rotates with the hub 108 and the touch screen 102. The central hub 108, and thus the touch screen display interface 102 and the sensor embedded hand wheel 104, may be rotatably mounted, e.g., via an adjustable steering column assembly (e.g., steering shaft 112 of FIG. 3A ), to a body of a vehicle (e.g., vehicle body 12 of the motor vehicle 10 of FIG. 1 ). It is contemplated that the steering wheel assembly 110 may take various combinations of shapes, sizes, and designs within the intended scope of this description.The hand position sensors 106 of FIGS. 2A-2C may take a number of different arrangements and form factors, including a networked array of circumferentially spaced pressure sensors. As shown, the pressure sensors are mounted inside the hand wheel and are equidistant around the hand wheel (e.g., approximately 30°). Although the steering wheel assembly 110 is shown as having a total of twelve (12) sensors 106, it may be understood that more or fewer sensors are included within the scope of this description, including a single continuous contact sensor. Additionally, the sensors 106 may include any suitable type of contact pressure sensor, such as piezoresistive pressure sensors, capacitive pressure sensors, diffuse silicon pressure sensors, piezoelectric pressure sensors, ceramic pressure sensors, microelectromechanical system (MEMS) pressure sensors, and inductive pressure sensors, to name a few non-limiting examples. Alternative embodiments may omit the embedded position sensors altogether and instead use, for example, an image processing-based position sensing system to track the movement and positioning of a user's hands on the hand wheel 104 in real time.With continued reference to FIGS. 2A-2C, the vehicle steering wheel assembly 110 may actively monitor the movement of the user's hand or hands on the hand wheel 104, and optionally on the touch screen display interface 102. As shown in FIG. 2C, a first pressure sensor 106A first senses the user's left hand that is at a first hand wheel angle (e.g., ~27° / -90° from the top center) on the hand wheel 104. A second (10 o'clock) pressure sensor 106B then detects the movement of the user's left hand to a new position with a second hand wheel angle (e.g., ~3000° / -60° from the top center). Similarly, a third (2 o'clock) pressure sensor 106C first detects the user's right hand located at a third hand wheel angle (e.g., ~80° from the top center) on the hand wheel 104, and a fourth (4 o'clock) pressure sensor 106D then detects the movement of the user's right hand to a new position at a fourth hand wheel angle (e.g., ~120° from the top center).The touch screen display interface 102 provides an interactive graphical user interface (GUI) with subsystem control functions and vehicle dynamics feedback to a driver or other vehicle occupant (collectively "user") to control operation of selected aspects of a vehicle, such as the motor vehicle 10 of FIG. 1. For example, the touch screen display interface 102 displays a wheel angle display 114A or 114B that indicates a steering angle of the front wheels of the vehicle and thus an intended / current direction of travel of the vehicle. At the same time, the touch screen display interface 102 displays one or more soft touch control sets 116A, 116B, and / or 116C, each including soft touch buttons, wheels, switches, etc., for operating various vehicle subsystems. The first wheel indicator 114A is shown as a vehicle emblem that points to the manufacturer ("trademark") of the vehicle, while the second wheel angle indicator 114B is shown as a vehicle name of the vehicle manufacturer. Comparing FIG. 2A with FIG. 2B, a user may switch the displayed direction display on the touch screen display interface 102 from the first wheel angle display 114A to the second wheel angle display 114B.As mentioned above, the first set of soft touch control sets 116A may include a series of soft touch buttons for activating, deactivating, and controlling a TOW / HAUL MODE for the vehicle propulsion system. In contrast, the second set of soft touch control sets 116B may include a set of soft touch buttons for activating, deactivating, and controlling an active cruise control mode for the advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) of the vehicle. The third set of soft touch control sets 116C, on the other hand, may include a set of soft touch buttons for operating the audio system within the vehicle. Comparing FIG. 2A to FIG. 2B, a user may remove the first group of soft touch control sets 116A from the touch screen display interface 102, add the third group of soft touch control sets 116C, and reposition the third group of soft touch control sets 116C at a desired new location.FIG. 2B shows the touch screen display interface 102 positioning the wheel angle indicator 114B at a first location (e.g., at the radial center of the display) and in a first orientation (e.g., substantially horizontal). In contrast, the touch screen display interface 102 displays the second set of soft touch control sets 116B disposed at a second position (e.g., at 3 o'clock or approximately 90° from the top center) and in a second orientation (e.g., substantially horizontal). The third set of soft touch control sets 116C is displayed at a third position (e.g., at 7 o'clock or about 210 / -150° ° from the top center) and in a third orientation (e.g., about 150° from the horizontal). It should be appreciated that the touch screen display interface 102 may include a variety of different types, arrangements, and numbers of wheel angle indicators and soft touch control sets that vary from those shown in the figures.During operation of the steering wheel assembly 110, a controller (e.g., SWCM 136 of FIGS. 2A-2C, in cooperation with the vehicle CPU 36 of FIG. 1 ) reads the hand position sensors 106 to detect movement of a user's hand or hands from a (first) home position to a new (second) position on the hand wheel 104 in real-time or near real-time. In accordance with the example described above, the pressure sensor 106B (FIG. 2C ) detects that the user's left hand moves to a new hand position at 10 o-clock or about -300 / -60° ° from the top center of the hand wheel 104; SWCM 136 then moves the third set of soft touch control sets 116C to a new operating position at 10 o-clock or about -300 / -60° ° from the top center of the touch screen 102 to be radially aligned with the user's left hand on the hand wheel 104. At the same time, the touch screen display interface 102 may rotate the soft touch control set 116C to a new orientation (e.g., about 85° from horizontal) in response to received hand position sensor data indicating that the user's left hand has been moved to the new hand position. In addition, the pressure sensor 106D (FIG. 2C ) detects that the user's right hand moves to a new hand position at 4 o'clock or about ~120° from the top center of the hand wheel 104; SWCM 136 then moves the second controller 116B to a new position at 4 o'clock or about ~120° from the top center of the touch screen 102 to be radially aligned with the user's right hand.FIGS. 3A-3C show the representative smart vehicle steering system 100 of FIGS. 2A-2C with an integrated rotary position encoder 118 mounted to a distal end of a steering shaft 112 for automatic steering wheel-to-wheel alignment. The rotary encoder 118 may include a variety of suitable shaft rotation sensing devices, including rotary encoders, electro-mechanical rotary position sensors, rotary potentiometers, etc. Upon vehicle wake-up / start, the SWCM 136 of FIG. 3A may read an absolute position value of the hand wheel 104 from the rotary encoder 118. At the same time, the touch screen display interface 102 may display the wheel angle display 114B and the soft touch control set 116B in the respective default positions and orientations. FIG. 2A shows the wheel angle display 114B as default at the center of the touch screen display interface 102 with a horizontally oriented orientation, and the soft touch control set 116B as default at the edge of the touch screen 102 at 3 o'clock / 90° from the center of the touch screen 102 with a horizontally oriented orientation.As shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, a pair of left (first) and right (second) wheel angle sensors 120A and 120B are operatively attached to left (first) and right (second) vehicle front wheels 126A and 126B, respectively (e.g., to a strut mounting upper joint of a vertical arm of a knuckle). During vehicle operation, each wheel angle sensor 120A, 120B actively monitors the rotational motion of its respective road wheel 126A, 126B and outputs sensor data indicative of a real-time or near-real-time steering angle θ SA1 or θ SA2 of that front wheel 126A, 126B. According to the example shown, the steering angle θ SA1 or θ SA2 may be derived as a non-zero negative or positive angle value relative to a longitudinal forward reference plane P R1 or P R2 of each vehicle wheel. It is also conceivable that the wheel angle values are derived from a single wheel angle sensor, a linear measuring sensor on the rack or, in SBW applications, from a pinion angle sensor which is attached to a rack and pinion steering motor.To emulate the positioning and movement of the steering wheel assembly 110 relative to the front wheels 126A, 126B, the SWCM 136 may be actively coordinated with the wheel angle sensors 120A, 120B and the touch screen display interface 102 to rotate the wheel angle display 114B in unison with the wheels 126A, 126B to correspond to the measured steering angle values θ SA1, θ SA2 of the vehicle wheels. For example, comparing FIG. 3B to FIG. 3C, it can be seen that the front wheels 126A, 126B rotate clockwise from an initial (first) steering angle of about 0° (FIG. 3B ) relative to the advancing reference plane P R1, P R2 to a new (second) steering angle θ SA1, θ SA2 of about 30° (FIG. 3C ). Simultaneously, the touch screen display interface 102 rotates the wheel angle indicator 114B from an initial (first) indicator orientation of about 0° (FIG. 3B ) relative to a longitudinal zero angle reference line R L1 of the steering wheel assembly 110 to the new (second) indicator orientation of about 30° (FIG. 3C ). Once the hand wheel 104 / encoder 118 and touch screen 102 / display 114B are synchronized with the front wheels 126A, 126B, e.g., during a vehicle wake-up or power-on operation, the user may be enabled to drive the vehicle.During dynamic vehicle operation, the SWCM 136 may read the rotary encoder 118 and the wheel angle sensors 120A, 120B to track the movement of the front wheels 126A, 126B in real time and actively rotate the wheel angle indicator 114B to reflect these changes in direction. The encoder data output by the encoder 118 may include values representing the real-time displacement and rotation rates of the hand wheel 104 during operation of the motor vehicle. The touch screen display interface 102 may rotate the wheel angle display 114B simultaneously with the real-time displacement and the rate of rotation of the hand wheel 104, and thus the angular displacement of the vehicle wheels 126A, 126B. An optional lighting element 122, e.g., a color changing fabric or an internally housed light emitting diode (LED) arrangement, may be attached to the hand wheel 104 of the steering wheel assembly 110. This light element 122 generates a visual indicator (e.g., a red cross) indicating the current steering direction of the steering wheel assembly 110.Referring to the flowchart of FIG. 4, an improved method or control protocol for operating a vehicle steering system, such as the smart vehicle steering system 100 of FIGS. 2A-2C and 3A-3C, of a motor vehicle, such as the motor vehicle 10 of FIG. 1, in accordance with aspects of the present description is described in FIG. 200. Some or all of the operations illustrated in FIG. 2 and described in more detail below may represent an algorithm corresponding to non-transitory processor-executable instructions stored, for example, in a main or auxiliary storage or in a remote storage (e.g., in resident storage device 38 and / or remote cloud computing service database 24 of FIG. 1 ). These instructions may be executed, for example, by an electronic control unit, processing unit, dedicated control module, logic circuit, or other module or device or network of control units / modules / devices (e.g., CPU 36 of FIG. 1 and / or SWCM 136 of FIG. 2A ) to perform any or all of the functions described above and below that are related to the disclosed concepts. It should be appreciated that the order of execution of the illustrated operation blocks may be changed, that additional operation blocks may be added, and that some of the operations described herein may be modified, combined, or eliminated.The method 200 begins at the start terminal 201 of FIG. 2 with processor-executable instructions stored in the memory for initializing a protocol for the steering wheel control of a motor vehicle having a touchscreen configuration. This routine may be initialized in real-time, near real-time, continuously, systematically, sporadic, and / or at predefined time intervals, for example every 10 or 100 milliseconds during operation of the motor vehicle 10. Upon completion of some or all of the control operations depicted in FIG. 2, method 200 may proceed to end terminal 217 and may be temporarily ended, or optionally return to end terminal 201 and run in a continuous loop.Upon transitioning from the junction block 201 to the VEHICLE SLEEP process block 203, the method 200 may provide process executable instructions stored in memory that request the SWCM 136 to communicate, e.g., with the PCM 52 and any of the other subsystem control modules described herein to determine whether / when the vehicle is sleeping (e.g., vehicle powertrain off and vehicle electronics off or in the low power mode). When the vehicle is sleeping, the SWCM 136 may receive confirmation, e.g., from the PCM 52, the body control module (BCM), or other suitable source, that a wake-up event has occurred (e.g., an occupant activates accessory mode); the vehicle is then awakened (e.g., the powertrain of the vehicle remains off, but the vehicle electronics enter full-load mode). Upon receiving the confirmation of the wake-up command and wake-up of the subject host vehicle, the method 200 responsive executes the VEHICLE WAKE process block 205 in which the SWCM 136 instructs the touch screen display interface 102 to display a wheel angle indicator (e.g., wheel angle indicators 114A, 114B) in a default orientation at a default position, as shown in FIGS. 2A and 3A.The method 200 proceeds from the VEHICLE WAKE process block 205 to the VEHICLE ON process block 207 when the SWCM 136 receives the acknowledgement of a turn-on command to turn on the host vehicle in question (e.g., when the driver simultaneously actuates the brake pedal and the ignition button). When the vehicle is powered on, the touch screen display interface 102 may first display the wheel angle display 114A / 114B at an initial (first) display orientation at an initial (first) display position (e.g., FIG. 3A ) and a soft touch control set 116B at an initial (second) operation orientation at an initial (second) operation position (e.g., FIG. 3A ). At this point, the vehicle steering system determines a road wheel angle for at least one of the steered vehicle wheels and simultaneously determines a transmitter offset to correlate the current angle of rotation of the hand wheel to the road wheel angle. As mentioned above, a vehicle-side position sensor (e.g., wheel angle sensor 120A, 120B in FIG. 3B ) outputs sensor data indicative of the steering angle of one or both of the vehicle front wheels 126A, 126B. The touch screen display interface 102 then moves the wheel angle indicator 114A, 114B to a new display orientation corresponding to the steering angle of the vehicle front wheel / wheels (a non-zero angle value). At the same time, the touch screen display interface 102 may move the soft touch control set 116B to a new position corresponding to the vehicle wheel angle and the new orientation of the angle display.With continued reference to FIG. 4, the method 200 determines whether or not the vehicle is still on, as indicated in VEHICLE ON decision block 209. If not (block 209=NO), the touch screen display interface 102 may display the wheel angle display 114A, 114B and all associated soft touch control sets 116B in their respective default position / orientation, and the method 200 may proceed to end block 217 and may be temporarily ended. On the other hand, if the vehicle is still on (block 209=Ja), the method 200 may, in response, execute the decision block 211 via the HAND MOVE to determine whether or not the driver has moved a hand on the hand wheel 104. If not (block 211=NEIN), in response, the method 200 may execute the process block 213 SCREEN CONTROL and maintain the soft touch control set 116B in its current position / orientation; thereafter, the method 200 may loop back to the decision block 209. In response, if it is determined that one or both hands of the user have moved on the hand wheel (block 211=JA), the method 200 may execute the SCREEN CONTROL process block 215 and move the soft touch control set 116B to a new position / orientation; thereafter, the method 200 may loop back to the decision block 209.Aspects of this description may, in some embodiments, be implemented by a computer-executable program having instructions, such as program modules, commonly referred to as software applications or application programs, executed by a controller or the variants of the controller described herein. Software may include, by way of non-limiting examples, routines, programs, objects, components, and data structures that perform particular tasks or implement particular types of data. The software may form an interface that allows the computer to respond according to an input source. The software may also cooperate with other code segments to trigger a plurality of tasks in response to received data associated with the source of the received data. The software may be stored on a variety of storage media such as CD-ROM, magnetic disk, and semiconductor memory (e.g., various types of RAM or ROM).Moreover, aspects of the present description may be performed with a variety of computer system and computer network configurations, including multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like. Moreover, aspects of the present description may be applied in distributed data processing environments where tasks are performed by stationary and remote devices interconnected via a communication network. In a distributed data processing environment, program modules may reside in both local and remote computer storage media, including storage devices. Aspects of the present description may therefore be implemented in conjunction with various hardware, software, or a combination thereof in a computer system or other processing system.Any of the methods described herein may include machine readable instructions for execution by (a) a processor, (b) a controller, and / or (c) any other suitable processing device: (a) a processor, (b) a controller, and / or (c) any other suitable device. Any algorithm, software, control logic, protocol, or method disclosed herein may be embodied as software stored on a tangible medium, such as flash memory, solid state drive (SSD), hard disk drive (HDD), CD-ROM, digital versatile disk (DVD), or other storage devices. The entire algorithm, control logic, protocol, or method, and / or portions thereof may alternatively be executed by a device other than a controller and / or embodied in firmware or dedicated hardware in an available manner (e.g., implemented by an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a programmable logic device (PLD), a field programmable logic device (FPLD), discrete logic, etc.). Although specific algorithms may be described with reference to the flowcharts and / or workflow diagrams illustrated herein, many other methods of implementing the example machine readable instructions may alternatively be used.Aspects of the present description have been described in detail with reference to the depicted embodiments; however, those skilled in the art will appreciate that many modifications may be made thereto without departing from the scope of the present description. The present specification is not limited to the exact construction and compositions disclosed herein; all modifications, changes, and variations apparent from the foregoing descriptions fall within the scope of the disclosure as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, the present concepts expressly include all combinations and sub-combinations of the foregoing elements and features.

Claims

A method of operating a motor vehicle having a vehicle body, a plurality of road wheels mounted to the vehicle body, and a vehicle steering system operable to steer a front vehicle wheel of the road wheels, the method comprising: receiving, via a controller of the motor vehicle, confirmation of a turn-on command to turn the motor vehicle on; displaying, via a touch screen display interface mounted to a central hub of a steering wheel assembly of the vehicle steering system, a wheel angle display in a first orientation at a first location and a soft touch control set in a second orientation at a second location; generating sensor data via a position sensor of the motor vehicle indicative of a steering angle of the front vehicle wheel and / or a hand position of a user's hand on a hand wheel of the steering wheel assembly; displaying, via the touch screen display interface, the wheel angle indicator moved to a new first orientation in response to the sensor data indicating that the steering angle of the front vehicle wheel is a non-zero angle value and / or the soft touch control set moved to a new second position in response to the sensor data indicating that the hand position of the user hand has been moved to a new hand position on the hand wheel of the steering wheel assembly.The method of claim 1, wherein the position sensor comprises a plurality of pressure sensors, and wherein the sensor data indicates that a first of the pressure sensors detects the hand position of the user's hand at a first hand wheel angle and a second of the pressure sensors subsequently detects the new hand position of the user's hand at a second hand wheel angle.The method of claim 2, wherein the second position of the soft touch control set is radially aligned with the first hand wheel angle and the new second position is radially aligned with the second hand wheel angle.The method of claim 3, wherein the plurality of pressure sensors comprises a networked array of pressure sensors attached to and equidistant around the hand wheel.The method of claim 4, wherein the plurality of pressure sensors comprises piezoresistive pressure sensors, capacitive pressure sensors, diffuse silicon pressure sensors, piezoelectric pressure sensors, and / or inductive pressure sensors.The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying, via the touch screen display interface, the soft touch control set rotated to a new second orientation in response to the sensor data indicating that the hand position of the user's hand has been moved to the new hand position.The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a user selection from the user via the touch screen display interface to add, remove, reposition, and / or change size of a soft touch controller in the soft touch controller set; and changing the soft touch controller set via the touch screen display interface based on the selection made by the user.The method of claim 1, wherein the position sensor comprises a wheel angle sensor operatively attached to the front wheel of the vehicle, and wherein the sensor data indicates that the steering angle of the front wheel of the vehicle is the non-zero angle value relative to a longitudinally forward reference plane of the motor vehicle.The method of claim 8, wherein the wheel angle indicator rotates the non-zero angle value of the front vehicle wheel to the new first orientation relative to a longitudinal zero angle reference line of the steering wheel assembly.The method of claim 9 further comprising: receiving, via a rotary encoder mounted on the steering wheel assembly, encoding data indicative of a real-time displacement and rotational speed of the hand wheel during operation of the motor vehicle; and displaying, via the touch screen display interface, the wheel angle indicator rotating in accordance with the real-time displacement and rotational speed of the hand wheel.

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