Patent Application
20180178765
This patent generally relates to vehicle braking systems, and more particularly, this patent relates to a vehicle braking assist system that implements a braking scheme that accounts for preceding and proceeding vehicles/obstacles, and to vehicles incorporating such systems and schemes.
Vehicles for the road, such as passenger cars, trucks and vans, incorporate braking systems to slow and ultimately stop the vehicle during normal use. These systems interpret one or more inputs, such as a user command, a semi-autonomous or autonomous vehicle operation command, and the like, to execute a physical response of the braking system to reduce vehicle speed. Vehicle speed may be reduced by converting kinetic energy of the vehicle to heat, by recovering and storing the kinetic energy and combinations thereof.
The vehicle may further include systems that enhance or assist the braking system both during user commanded or semi-autonomous/autonomous commanded operation. One type of braking system assist is obstacle avoidance. Obstacle avoidance systems utilize one or more systems of forward looking sensors to detect obstacles within the vehicle's intended path and whether, given the state of motion of the vehicle, an encounter with the obstacle is possible. The obstacle avoidance system may cause application of the braking system, among other actions, to slow or stop the vehicle in order to avoid the obstacle.
While braking assist systems such as obstacle avoidance reduce the likelihood of the vehicle encountering an obstacle, upon slowing or stopping the vehicle may itself become an obstacle to other vehicles operating in the vicinity. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide within a vehicle a braking assist a system that reduces the likelihood of the vehicle encountering a vehicle/obstacle as well as the vehicle being encountered by another vehicle operating near the vehicle. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the devices, systems and methods of the herein described exemplary embodiments will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.
In another non-limiting exemplary embodiment, a brake assist system for a vehicle is operably coupled to a brake system of the vehicle to affect deceleration and stopping of the vehicle. The brake assist system includes a first sensor arranged to provide first data indicative of a distance and relative velocity of a first obstacle forward of the vehicle, and a second sensor arranged to provide second data indicative of a distance and relative velocity of a second obstacle rearward of the vehicle. A braking assist module is operably coupled to receive the first and second data, and to affect deceleration of the vehicle via the brake system in accordance with a braking scheme based upon the first data and the second data.
In another non-limiting exemplary embodiment, a vehicle includes a brake assist system to affect deceleration and stopping of the vehicle. The brake assist system includes a first sensor arranged to provide first data indicative of a distance and relative velocity of a first obstacle forward of the vehicle, and a second sensor arranged to provide second data indicative of a distance and relative velocity of a second obstacle rearward of the vehicle. A braking assist module is operably coupled to receive the first and second data and to affect deceleration of the vehicle via the brake system in accordance with a braking scheme based upon the first data and the second data.
In another non-limiting example, a method of decelerating and stopping a vehicle includes determining from first data and second data, the first data indicative of a distance and relative velocity of a first obstacle forward of the vehicle and the second data indicative of a distance and relative velocity of a second obstacle rearward of the vehicle, a stopping distance between the vehicle and the first obstacle and the vehicle and the second obstacle. Within the stopping distance, the vehicle is stopped.
The exemplary embodiments will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the following drawing figures, wherein like numerals denote like elements, and wherein:
The following detailed description is merely exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the application and uses. Furthermore, there is no intention to be bound by any expressed or implied theory presented in the preceding technical field, background, brief summary or the following detailed description. It should be understood that throughout the drawings, corresponding reference numerals indicate like or corresponding parts and features. As used herein, the term system or module may refer to any combination or collection of mechanical and electrical hardware, software, firmware, electronic control component, processing logic, and/or processor device, individually or in any combination, including without limitation: application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group), memory that executes one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logic circuit, and/or other suitable components that provide the described functionality.
The exemplary embodiments may be described herein in terms of functional and/or logical block components and various processing steps. It should be appreciated that such block components may be realized by any number, combination or collection of mechanical and electrical hardware, software, and/or firmware components configured to perform the specified functions. For example, an exemplary embodiment may employ various combinations of mechanical components and electrical components, e.g., integrated circuit components, memory elements, digital signal processing elements, logic elements, look-up tables, or the like, which may carry out a variety of functions under the control of one or more microprocessors or other control devices. In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciate that embodiments described herein may be practiced in conjunction with any number of mechanical and/or electronic systems, and that the vehicle systems described herein are merely exemplary embodiment.
For the sake of brevity, conventional components and techniques and other functional aspects of the systems (and the individual operating components of the systems) may not be described in detail herein. Furthermore, the connecting lines shown in the various figures contained herein are intended to represent example functional relationships and/or physical couplings between the various elements. It should be noted that many alternative or additional functional relationships or physical connections may be present in a herein described embodiment.
Referring to
Referring again to
With reference to
The braking assist unit 20 is operable to modulate an output of the brake hydraulic unit 28 to affect a change, either to increase or decrease, the rate of deceleration of the vehicle 10. While not depicted, the braking assist unit 20 may also cooperate with energy recovery systems (not depicted) further to modulate deceleration of the vehicle 10 to avoid encountering the vehicle 12 and to enhance the likelihood the vehicle 14 will not encounter the vehicle 10.
In accordance with the herein described embodiments, the braking assist unit 20 executes a braking scheme that optimizes the operating distance between the host vehicle 10 to both the preceding vehicle 12 or other obstacle and the proceeding vehicle 14. For example, the braking assist unit 20 may execute upon data received from the sensor systems 16 and 18 as well as data received from other vehicle systems, e.g. controller 34, to decrease the probability of occurrence that the proceeding vehicle 14 encounters the host vehicle 10 from behind while concomitantly increasing the likelihood that the host vehicle 10 itself avoids encountering the vehicle 12. In cases where an encounter cannot be avoided, the braking assist system can minimize the effect of contact between the vehicle 10 with either or both of vehicles 12 and 14.
With reference to
A second scenario of the braking of vehicles 10 and 14 is depicted by traces 46 and 48, respectively, in
A third scenario of the braking of vehicle 10 is depicted by trace 50 while vehicle 14 brakes according to trace 44 as depicted in
In situations in which the total available distance between the vehicle 12 and the vehicle 14, representing the total available distance within which to control the braking of vehicle 10 to avoid encounters with either or both of the vehicle 12 and vehicle 14, an encounter by vehicle 10 with one or both of vehicle 12 and vehicle 14 may be unavoidable. In contrast to a single, potentially higher energy encounter between vehicle 10 and either vehicle 12 or vehicle 14, the braking assist unit 20 may modulate the brake system 22 to control encounters of vehicle 10 with both vehicle 12 and vehicle 14 to minimize the effect of both encounters.
Thus it will be appreciated that in accordance with the herein described embodiments, a vehicle braking integrates information regarding relative distance and velocity of both a preceding vehicle/obstacle and a proceeding vehicle in order to execute a braking scheme that controls deceleration of the vehicle to optimize the operating distance between the host vehicle to both the preceding vehicle/obstacle and the proceeding vehicle. In another non-limiting exemplary embodiment, a braking assist system may include a brake assist unit operably coupled to forward looking and rearward looking sensor systems to execute upon data received from the sensors and data received from other vehicle systems to decrease the probability of situations in which a proceeding vehicle encounters the host vehicle from behind, particularly during emergency braking as the host vehicle itself attempts to avoid encountering a vehicle/obstacle. In cases where an encounter cannot be avoided, the system can minimize the effect.
With reference to
While at least one exemplary embodiment has been presented in the foregoing detailed description, it should be appreciated that a vast number of variations exist. It should also be appreciated that the exemplary embodiment or exemplary embodiments are only examples, and are not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the disclosure in any way. Rather, the foregoing detailed description will provide those skilled in the art with a convenient road map for implementing the exemplary embodiment or exemplary embodiments. It should be understood that various changes can be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the scope of the disclosure as set forth in the appended claims and the legal equivalents thereof.
