Utilizing axle loading information to determining braking capabilities of vehicles for platooning operations

• Main Authors: Carbaugh, Jeffrey M, Kasper, Phillip J, Sasmal, Subashish
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 18.10.2022
• Subjects: CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE ORDIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; CONTROLLING; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; REGULATING; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TOTHE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT; SIGNALLING; SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLING OR REGULATING NON-ELECTRIC VARIABLES; TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS; TRANSPORTING; VEHICLES IN GENERAL

Dynamic braking capability of a combination vehicle including a tractor and at least one trailer is provided based on a distribution of the load carried by the combination vehicle. Load distribution is determined directly using load sensors disposed at wheel pairs of the tractor and trailer(s) or indirectly by using a load sensor located at the drive axle of the tractor together with engine torque and vehicle speed signals for determining gross vehicle mass. A database having sub-databases therein each storing stopping distance calculation results for a corresponding combination vehicle type e.g. 5-axle single or 8-axle double, is indexed by using the determined load distributions for providing the dynamic braking capability based on the vehicle type and its load distribution. The database may also be indexed using Axle Load Allocation Factor that is calculated based on a mathematical combination of drive, steering, and gross trailer axle loading.