Patent Application
20050183901
The invention relates to an electro-hydraulic power steering system, for an automobile with a steering wheel, rotationally connected with a steering column, intended for determining the orientation of the steered wheels of the vehicle, by means of a steering device with an integrated hydraulic cylinder, said system having a booster pump rotated by an electric motor controlled by a computer as a function of a signal representing the speed of the vehicle and a signal representing the rate of steering wheel angle change.
In known systems of this type, the signal representing the rate of steering wheel angle change is provided by an angle sensor. These known systems have the disadvantage that the presence of such a sensor considerably increases the cost of the system.
The present invention aims to remedy this disadvantage.
To achieve this objective, a power assist system according to the invention is characterized by the fact that the device generating the signal representing the rate of steering wheel angle change is a device suitable for establishing this signal from the current drawn by the motor controlling the booster pump.
According to one characteristic of the invention, the aforementioned signal is derived from the rate of change of the current consumption of the electric motor.
The invention will be better understood, and other aims, characteristics, details and advantages of it will appear more clearly, in the following explanatory description given with reference to the appended diagrammatic drawings, provided only by way of example, illustrating an embodiment of the invention, and in which:
Since the general structure just described is itself known, it is not necessary to describe it in more detail.
Described in the following with reference to
With reference to
As shown in this figure, current Cb is first run through high-pass filter PH designated by 24; the absolute value of the signal output from the filter is then computed at 25, and filtering is done by means of an estimating filter, designated by 26, realized in the form of low-pass filter PB. The signal output from this filter PB can be applied to comparator CO bearing reference 27 which receives the output signal from high-pass filter PH at a second input. The output signal from the comparator is transmitted via amplifier AM, designated by 29, to output terminal 30. The signal available at this terminal is representative of the angular speed of the steering wheel; in the context of
More precisely, the high-pass filter is advantageously a filter of the Butterworth or an equivalent type, and is used to eliminate the direct current component. This filter could be a fourth order filter defined by the following formula
S(n)=A3×S(n−3)+A2×S(n−2)+A1×S(n−1)+B3×E(n−3)+B2×E(n−2)+B1×E(n−1)+B0×E(n),
Here, A and B are coefficients, E is an input value, and n indicates that it pertains to the processing operation in progress done by the computer, an operation of reading the current consumption of the motor and processing by the microprocessor that is done at predetermined intervals, for example, every millisecond.
For example, the coefficients could have the following values:
A1=0,9509253;
These coefficients will be stored in a memory of the EEPROM type so as to be accessible and modifiable. The high-pass filter must have unity gain.
The estimating filter or low-pass filter PB 26 is preferably also a filter of the Butterworth or an equivalent type, and its function is to eliminate the high frequency noise and to create a memory effect on the signal for the purpose of making it possible to create a return torque of the steering wheel which corresponds to the assisting torque just provided by the system.
This filter can be defined by the following expression of a fourth order filter:
S(n)=A3.S(n−3)+A2.S(n−2)+A1.S(n−1)+B3.E(n−3)+B2.E(n−2)+B1.E(n−1)+B0.E(n)
A and B again represent coefficients that are advantageously stored in a memory of the EEPROM type so as to be modifiable. The filter has unity gain. For example, the coefficients could have the following values:
The function of comparator CO 27 is to compare the signals output from filters PH and PB, and it produces as output the higher signal of the two. This comparator makes possible a variation of the reactivity of the system. Thus, a gain greater than 1 is applied to the signal of the high-pass filter in order to increase the reactivity. This gain is variable as a function of the speed of the vehicle and will be stored and modifiable in a memory of the EEPROM type.
The gain values matched to the speeds of the vehicle are stored in a matrix which, for example, has six specific values; the other values can be determined by extrapolation, for example, linear extrapolation.
The processing of the current provided by battery 11 as described in the preceding enables one to obtain a parameterizing matrix, as represented in the following, which has a certain number of points indicating, for values of the vehicle speed V in km/h indicated in the left column and values of the angular speed in °/sec obtained by computation and indicated in the upper row, the associated values of the rotational speed VM of motor 9 for driving pump 10.
Rotational Speed of Booster Motor (rpm)
The points indicated in the matrix constitute control points which can be chosen arbitrarily and make it possible to establish intermediate values by extrapolation, for example, linear extrapolation, from the bearing values. The choice of the control points can be done judiciously as a function of the desired precision of response of the power assist system in certain ranges of vehicle speed values. In effect, it is from this matrix that the microprocessor determines the rotational speed that is appropriately imparted to motor 9 such that pump 8 driven by the motor can provide the appropriate power assist.
It should be noted that in
With regard to the operation of the system according to the invention, a power assist demand is detected by means of the current consumption of motor 9 for driving pump 8. During an operation of the steering wheel, the motor load increases, and the consumption of current also increases as a function of this increase in load. This makes it possible to detect a power assist demand without the necessity of an angle sensor, and makes it possible to obtain the appropriate level of power assist. More precisely, as long as the driver of the vehicle does not operate the steering wheel, the motor of the power assist pump rotates without load at an idling speed that varies as a function of the speed of the vehicle. Subsequent to operation of the steering wheel and a consequent power assist demand, the booster motor turns at an appropriate power assist speed which varies as a function of the speed of the vehicle and the rate of change of the motor current. When the system observes that there is no longer a power assist demand, the motor returns to its initial idling speed.
It should be noted that various modifications can be made to the system as described and represented. For example, the computation of the angular speed of the steering wheel done by the microprocessor could be done in any other appropriate way, and in the context of the computation just described as an example, the filtering functions could be done according to any other filtering expression different from that given above, and the coefficients in these expressions could be chosen to have any other appropriate value.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 03 14 944 | Dec 2003 | FR | national |
