Vehicle Longitudinal Motion Arbitration for Unified Request Control

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing vehicle motion request systems face inefficiencies and redundancies due to duplicative conversions of acceleration and jerk metrics to axle torque, leading to high engineering costs, inconsistent performance, and poor drive quality, especially when switching between different request types.

Innovation Solution

A vehicle longitudinal motion request architecture that receives speed requests and constraints from multiple requestors, utilizing a supervisory control layer, arbitration module, and profile generation module to generate efficient motion profiles with minimized RAM and ROM consumption, eliminating duplicative conversions and using a single global vehicle model for consistent performance.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If duplicative conversions of acceleration and jerk metrics to axle torque are performed by multiple requestors, then each requestor can independently control vehicle motion, but engineering costs increase and performance consistency deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveindependent control capabilityVSAvoidengineering costs

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent merges multiple independent conversion functions into a single centralized arbitration module that receives acceleration and jerk requests from multiple requestors, converts them to torque requests, and distributes them to actuators. This eliminates duplicative conversion operations while preserving the ability of multiple requestors to independently control vehicle motion through the unified arbitration interface.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The arbitration module serves multiple functions: it receives requests from various requestors (cruise control, adaptive cruise control, hands-free driving, one-pedal drive), arbitrates between conflicting requests, converts acceleration and jerk metrics to torque requests, and manages actuator distribution. This single multi-functional component replaces multiple specialized conversion modules, reducing engineering complexity while maintaining versatility.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

2Adaptability or versatility

If multiple independent motion control systems operate simultaneously, then diverse driving assistance features can be implemented, but performance consistency and drive quality deteriorate

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedriving assistance featuresVSAvoidperformance consistency

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The arbitration module acts as an intermediary between multiple motion control requestors and the vehicle actuators. It receives acceleration and jerk requests from diverse driving assistance features, arbitrates between conflicting requests based on priority and current vehicle state, converts them to unified torque requests, and ensures consistent performance by managing all actuator outputs through a single coordination point.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

Instead of allowing multiple requestors to independently convert acceleration and jerk to torque (which causes inconsistency), the system inverts the approach by having a single arbitration module receive acceleration and jerk requests, perform the conversion centrally, and then distribute torque requests. This ensures all motion control features share a common conversion logic and maintain performance consistency.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #13The other way round (Inversion)

3Adaptability or versatility

If each requestor performs separate acceleration to torque conversions, then requestor independence is maintained, but RAM and ROM consumption increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improverequestor independenceVSAvoidhardware resource consumption

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The patent merges multiple separate acceleration-to-torque conversion operations into a single centralized conversion process within the arbitration module. Multiple requestors can independently submit acceleration and jerk requests, but the conversion to torque requests is performed once by the arbitration module using shared conversion logic and data structures, significantly reducing RAM and ROM consumption compared to maintaining separate conversion modules for each requestor.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Data Source

PatentUS20250206302A1Vehicle longitudinal motion request system for providing motion requests and constraints based on requests from multiple requestors

Publication Date: 2025.06.26 GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC

AI summary

A motion system for a vehicle includes: an arbitration module configured to arbitrate a request and one or more constraints received from each of multiple feature requesting modules to generate a resultant request and one or more resultant constraints; a profile generation module configured to determine whether to modify at least one of the resultant request and the one or more resultant constraints, and output i) the resultant request or a modified version of the resultant request as a first profile request, and ii) the one or more resultant constraints or a modified version of the one or more resultant constraints as one or more profile constraints; and a vehicle motion control module configured, based on the first profile request and the one or more profile constraints, to control one or more actuators of the vehicle.