Steering Disturbance Detection for Autonomous Control Reliability

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Solution Overview

Problem

Steering control systems in vehicles are prone to errors due to disturbances affecting steering sensors, leading to safety risks, especially in autonomous driving scenarios, and existing systems lack effective methods for predicting breakdowns on specific roads and updating software in legacy ECUs without the Over-The-Air (OTA) function.

Innovation Solution

A steering control system that determines disturbances in steering sensors, provides map data for handling potential breakdowns, and includes an OTA function to update legacy ECUs, ensuring safer autonomous driving and efficient software updates.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Extent of automation

If steering control is performed using only a steering torque sensor to determine driver intention in autonomous driving, then the system can operate autonomously, but the abnormal change of the steering torque sensor may cause serious danger to the driver and occupants

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveautonomous driving capabilityVSAvoidsafety risk from sensor disturbance

Core Design Contradiction:

Extent of automationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces a disturbance determination unit that acts as an intermediary between the steering torque sensor and the steering control unit. This intermediary component monitors the steering torque sensor output and determines whether abnormal changes are caused by disturbances (e.g., vehicle vibrations, road conditions) before passing control signals to the steering control unit, thereby preventing false autonomous driving intentions while maintaining automation capability

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system implements feedback by continuously monitoring steering torque sensor values and comparing them against expected ranges. When abnormal changes are detected, the disturbance determination unit generates feedback signals to prevent erroneous control actions, creating a closed-loop safety mechanism that maintains reliability during autonomous operation

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

2Reliability

If map data is stored for every possible travel road to predict breakdowns, then vehicle safety on specific roads improves, but the system complexity and data storage requirements increase significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvebreakdown prediction capabilityVSAvoiddata storage and processing complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies local quality by storing map data with specific attributes (curvature, gradient, road type) only for roads where breakdowns are more likely to occur or where specific safety measures are needed. Rather than uniform comprehensive data for all roads, the system selectively enriches map data for critical road sections, reducing overall data complexity while maintaining breakdown prediction capability where most needed

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

3Ease of manufacture

If software updates are performed wired for each ECU in legacy vehicles, then each ECU can be updated, but huge human and material resources are required

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesoftware update capabilityVSAvoidupdate time and resource consumption

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of manufactureVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent merges multiple individual ECU update operations into a single unified wireless update process. By introducing an update server that can simultaneously distribute software updates to multiple ECUs through wireless communication, the system combines what would otherwise require separate wired connections and manual interventions into one efficient operation, dramatically reducing time and resource consumption

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

4Productivity

If the number of ECUs and data communication is increased to provide OTA function, then software update efficiency improves, but the probability of error occurrence in software increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesoftware update efficiencyVSAvoidsoftware error probability

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies preliminary action by implementing comprehensive error checking and validation mechanisms before software updates are executed. The update server verifies update packages, checks ECU compatibility, and validates communication protocols in advance, preventing errors from occurring during the actual update process. This proactive error prevention approach maintains high update efficiency while minimizing software error probability

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP3670300B1Steering control system and control method thereof

Publication Date: 2022.10.05 HL MANDO CORP

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AI summary

Provided are a steering control system and method. The steering control system includes a control unit configured to perform steering control using a steering torque and a steering angle detected by a steering torque sensor and a steering angle sensor of a vehicle, wherein the control unit performs the steering control in consideration that the steering torque or the steering angle is changeable by a disturbance.