Enhanced Road Characterization for Adaptive Mode Drive

• Main Authors: TSENG Fling, LU Jianbo, MACNEILLE Perry Robinson, WANG Xiaoming, SZWABOWSKI Steven Joseph, PRAKAH-ASANTE Kwaku O
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 11.08.2016
• Subjects: CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE ORDIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; LAND VEHICLES FOR TRAVELLING OTHERWISE THAN ON RAILS; MOTOR VEHICLES; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TOTHE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT; TRAILERS; TRANSPORTING; VEHICLE SUSPENSION ARRANGEMENTS; VEHICLES IN GENERAL

A vehicle selectively operates in a plurality of operational modes. The operational modes carry with them different commands for operating a controlled suspension system such as a continuously controlled damping suspension system, a controlled steering system such as an electronic power-assist steering system, and a powertrain of the vehicle. For example, in one operational mode, the powertrain might be more sensitive to output torque from a motor or engine quickly with little hesitation. The vehicle includes a sensing system, such as a plurality of suspension height sensors and a corresponding controller programmed to receive suspension height signals indicating the characteristic of the road, to categorize the signals, and to compute categorized vehicle characteristics such as vehicle pitch, heave, roll, yaw, etc. The controller can discretize the categorized signals into a discrete number of index values, and then command the vehicle to change operational mode based on the discrete index value.