Patent Application
20250199155
The present disclosure relates to methods and control units for ensuring safe and efficient vehicle motion management of a heavy-duty vehicle. The methods are particularly suitable for use with cargo transporting vehicles, such as trucks and semi-trailers. The invention can however also be applied in other types of heavy-duty vehicles, e.g., in construction equipment and in mining vehicles, as well as in cars.
Heavy-duty vehicles have traditionally been controlled using torque request signals generated based on the position of an accelerator or brake pedal and sent to motion support devices (MSDs) such as service brakes and propulsion devices over digital interfaces. However, advantages may be obtained by instead controlling the actuators using wheel slip or wheel speed requests sent from a central vehicle controller to the different actuators. This moves the actuator control closer to the wheel end, and therefore allows for a reduced latency and a faster more accurate control of the MSDs. Wheel-slip based MSD control approaches are particularly suitable for use with wheel-end electrical machines in a battery or fuel cell powered heavy-duty vehicle, which axle speeds can be accurately controlled at high bandwidth. Wheel-slip based vehicle motion management (VMM) and its associated advantages are discussed, e.g., in WO 2017/215751 and also in WO 2021/144010.
Wheel slip and wheel speed-based control of heavy-duty vehicles rely on accurate knowledge of the vehicle speed over ground as well as the rotation speed of the wheel, since these two quantities together determine the wheel slip. The rotation speed of the wheel can be reliably obtained from sensors such as Hall effect sensors or rotary encoders. However, the vehicle speed over ground may be more difficult to obtain robustly and in a cost efficient manner, at least in some challenging environments and operating conditions, such as low friction operating conditions and during maneuvering involving large wheel forces. A global positioning system (GPS) receiver is often able to determine vehicle speed over ground, but satellite systems are prone to error in environments with strong multipath radio propagation and of course require a clear view of the sky to operate, which is not always available. Advanced radar systems and vision-based sensor can also be used to determine vehicle speed over ground, but these sensors may be costly and may also be prone to error due to, e.g., sun glare and interference from nearby transmitters.
US 2004/0138802 discusses use of radar techniques for determining vehicle speed over ground. However, there is a continuing need for reliable and cost-effective methods of determining vehicle speed over ground suitable for use in heavy-duty vehicles controlled based on wheel slip.
It is an object of the present disclosure to provide improved methods for determining the speed over ground of a heavy-duty vehicle. The object is obtained by a radar module configured to determine a two-dimensional velocity vector of a heavy-duty vehicle with respect to a ground plane or road surface supporting the vehicle. The system comprises a radar transceiver arranged to transmit and to receive a radar signal via an antenna array. The antenna array is configured to emit the radar signal in at least a first azimuth direction and in a second azimuth direction different from the first azimuth direction, e.g., as a wide transmission lobe covering a range of different azimuth directions or as a number of more narrow transmission lobes over the range of azimuth directions, or as one or more transmission lobes that are swept over the range of azimuth directions. The radar module further comprises a processing device arranged to detect, i.e., identify, first and second radar signal components of the received radar signal based on their respective angles of arrival (AoA), where the first radar signal component has an AoA corresponding to the first azimuth direction and the second radar signal component has an AoA corresponding to the second azimuth direction. The processing device is arranged to determine the two-dimensional velocity vector of the heavy-duty vehicle based on respective Doppler frequencies of the first and second radar signal components.
This way the speed over ground of the vehicle can be determined in a reliable manner in two dimensions, e.g., in longitudinal and lateral directions, by a single radar signal. Compared to the radar systems discussed in US 2004/0138802, the present system uses a single radar transceiver to determine a two-dimensional velocity vector, instead of separate radar transceivers, which is made possible by the detection based on angle of arrival of the radar components. This allows for a cost efficient system with small physical footprint. Also, the radar system can be more easily calibrated, and allows for integration into a compact wheel end module. By using an antenna array in combination with a processing device arranged to detect or identify first and second radar signal components of the received radar signal based on their respective angles of arrival, the system becomes less sensitive to calibration errors between transmission direction and receive direction, since radar signal energy from arbitrary receive directions is captured and processed by the system. A system like the disclosed is able to perform receive array processing to select suitable received radar signal components from which the two-dimensional velocity vector of the heavy-duty vehicle can be determined.
The antenna array of the disclosed radar module can be configured to emit the radar signal simultaneously or sequentially over a range of azimuth directions, and the processing device can be arranged to evaluate received radar signal power over the range of azimuth directions. This way the first and the second radar signal components can be detected as radar signal components associated with radar signal power that satisfies an acceptance criterion. In other words, the processing device can use the antenna array to scan over the range of different azimuth directions, and use two or more received radar signal components arriving from different azimuth directions for determining the two-dimensional velocity vector of the heavy-duty vehicle. The processing device does not need to be pre-configured with the expected azimuth directions of the radar signal components, since it finds the radar signal components using angle of arrival processing of the received radar signal. There is no need for fixed-beam Janus configuration antennas or the like, since the processing device is able to detect incoming radar signal energy based on the angle of arrival of the radar signal energy.
The radar module may be configured to emit the radar signal in a wide transmission lobe which simultaneously covers the range of azimuth directions. This means that a relatively large portion of the road surface is illuminated by the radar transmitter. Radar signal components are then received from a plurality of different azimuth directions (and also from different elevation directions), which allows the processing device to select suitable radar signal components after performing angle of arrival processing of the received radar signal. In other words, a larger portion of road surface comprising a potential plurality of strong radar reflectors is illuminated and a narrow receive lobe is then electronically generated by the processing device to pick out suitable radar signal components which can be used to determine the two-dimensional velocity vector of the heavy-duty vehicle.
The antenna array may also be configured to emit the radar signal in a transmission lobe which is narrower than the range of azimuth directions. This transmission lobe is then swept over the range of azimuth directions, whereby a larger portion of the road surface is illuminated in a sequential manner. Since angle of arrival processing is implemented in the system (detection based on angle of arrival of separate radar signal components), the antenna array may comprise a transmit portion and a receive portion arranged spatially separated from the transmit portion.
The processing device of the radar module is preferably also arranged to determine respective accuracy metrics for the first and second radar signal components, based on a spread of received radar signal power over Doppler frequency and/or over range. This enables more advanced estimation algorithms to process the radar signal components to increase the accuracy and the robustness of the radar system, e.g., by weighting the different components according to their respective accuracy metrics. The processing device may also be arranged to control transmission of the radar signal in dependence of the determined accuracy metrics, e.g., to focus emitted radar signal energy on portions of the road surface which reflect the radar signal better compared to other portions of the road surface. Reciprocity between reception and transmission may in some cases be relied upon to send a radar signal component in a direction corresponding to a strong received radar signal component, and/or in an azimuth direction associated with low interference.
The first azimuth direction can for instance be the same direction as the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, and the second azimuth direction can be the same direction as the lateral direction of the vehicle, meaning that lateral and longitudinal vehicle velocity components are obtained directly from the Doppler shifts of the radar signal components without any significant post-processing of the received radar signal. Alternatively, the first azimuth direction and the second azimuth direction can be configured on respective sides of a bore sight direction of the radar module, where the bore sight direction of the radar module is arranged to be aligned with a longitudinal direction of the vehicle. In this case the processing device can be arranged to detect a lateral velocity component of the vehicle based on a difference of the respective Doppler frequencies of the first and second radar signal components without significant computational burden, which is an advantage. This approach is also resilient to calibration errors since the detection of lateral motion is performed in a differential manner. The first and the second azimuth directions may also be arbitrary azimuth directions selected based on received radar signal energy as function of azimuth direction of arrival.
According to some aspects, the processing device is arranged to detect the first and second radar signal components over respective distances exceeding a distance from the antenna array to the ground plane along a bore sight direction of the antenna array, i.e., based on a ground-penetrating radar signal which also captures relative motion of a volume under the road surface with respect to the vehicle. This way the measured radial velocities, i.e., the Doppler frequencies of the radar signal components, will not be affected by disturbances on the road surface, such as water, snow, or other matter moving relative to the road surface. The detected Doppler frequencies which form the base for determining the two-dimensional velocity of the vehicle will be more stable and therefore also yield a more reliable estimate of the vehicle speed over ground. The direction of transmission relative to the road surface is preferably configured at an angle relative to the road surface. This angle provides a more pronounced radial motion of the target points relative to the radar transceiver, which is an advantage.
The processing device can optionally be arranged to adjust a setting of the antenna array based on a pre-determined target AoA of the first and second radar signal components during a calibration procedure. This essentially means that the processing device has the capability of calibrating the antenna array used to determine vehicle speed over ground. For example, the vehicle can be controlled to travel without sideslip in the longitudinal direction, and the processing device can then optimize the setting of the antenna array to maximize the radar signal power and the Doppler frequency in the first azimuth direction, and to maximize the radar signal power but minimize the Doppler frequency in the second azimuth direction. This essentially means that the processing device performs a beam steering operation involving the antenna array in order to focus antenna beams in desired directions. The antenna beams can also be directed at either side of a bore sight direction of the antenna array, in order to enable differential detection of lateral vehicle motion.
In this case the processing device will perform beam steering to make the Doppler frequencies of the two radar signal components as equal as possible when the vehicle is driving in the longitudinal direction without sideslip or lateral motion.
According to further aspects, the processing device is arranged to obtain data associated with a steering angle of a wheel of the heavy-duty vehicle, and to transform the two-dimensional velocity vector of the heavy-duty vehicle into a coordinate system of the wheel based on the data associated with the steering angle of the wheel. This way the speed over ground of a given wheel, in the coordinate system of the wheel can be obtained, which is a valuable input to many VMM systems arranged in heavy-duty vehicles. The coordinate system of the wheel is normally defined relative to the rolling direction of the wheel, and hence depends on the applied steering angle. The transform is straight forward from a mathematical point of view, but is more easily performed locally, i.e., close to the wheel. It is an advantage that a central VMM system does not need to obtain steering angles and perform the transform, but instead obtain velocity information that is already transformed into the wheel coordinate system.
The object is also obtained by a wheel end module for a heavy-duty vehicle. The wheel end module comprises a radar system as discussed above, and a wheel speed sensor arranged to determine a rotational velocity of a wheel on the heavy-duty vehicle. The processing device is arranged to determine a wheel slip and/or a slip angle of the wheel based on the rotational velocity of the wheel and on the two-dimensional velocity vector of the heavy-duty vehicle. The wheel end module can be tightly integrated into an integrally formed module with small footprint. The wheel end module is able to determine wheel slip in a stand-alone manner without relying on any external systems, which improves reliability. The wheel end module can be expanded to also comprise an electric machine or at least a controller for an electric machine. This allows the processing device to control an axle speed of the electric machine based on a target wheel slip, in a self-contained manner, which is an advantage. A central VMM system can for instance just send requests for a given wheel slip, and the wheel end module will have the necessary capabilities to actuate according to the request in a self-contained manner.
The wheel end module optionally comprises an inertial measurement unit (IMU), which means that the processing device obtains the capability of outputting one or more acceleration values to a central VMM system in addition to the speed over ground in two dimensions.
There is also disclosed herein control units, vehicles, computer programs, computer readable media, and computer program products associated with the above discussed advantages.
Generally, all terms used in the claims are to be interpreted according to their ordinary meaning in the technical field, unless explicitly defined otherwise herein. All references to “a/an/the element, apparatus, component, means, step, etc.” are to be interpreted openly as referring to at least one instance of the element, apparatus, component, means, step, etc., unless explicitly stated otherwise. The steps of any method disclosed herein do not have to be performed in the exact order disclosed, unless explicitly stated. Further features of, and advantages with, the present invention will become apparent when studying the appended claims and the following description. The skilled person realizes that different features of the present invention may be combined to create embodiments other than those described in the following, without departing from the scope of the present invention.
The above, as well as additional objects, features and advantages, will be better understood through the following illustrative and non-limiting detailed description of exemplary embodiments, wherein:
The present disclosure will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodiments are shown. The disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided for thoroughness and completeness. Like reference characters refer to like elements throughout the description.
A heavy-duty vehicle may be taken to mean a motor vehicle rated at more than 8,500 pounds Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR), which is about 3855 kg, or that has a vehicle curb weight of more than 6,000 pounds, or that has a basic vehicle frontal area in excess of 45 square feet.
A heavy-duty vehicle may also be taken to mean a motor vehicle having GVWR in excess of 7.5 tonnes.
It is appreciated that the herein disclosed methods and control units can be applied with advantage also in other types of heavy-duty vehicles, such as trucks with drawbar connections, construction equipment, buses, and the like. The vehicle 100 may also comprise more than two vehicle units, i.e., a dolly vehicle unit may be used to tow more than one trailer. Some aspects of the herein proposed techniques are particularly suitable for articulated vehicles such as semi-trailers, as will be discussed in more detail below in connection to
The MSDs 104 may be arranged for generating a torque on a respective wheel of the vehicle or for both wheels of an axle. The MSD may be a propulsion device, such as an electric machine 106 arranged to e.g., provide a longitudinal wheel force to the wheel(s) of the vehicle 100. Such an electric machine may thus be adapted to generate a propulsion torque as well as to be arranged in a regenerative braking mode for electrically charging a battery (not shown) or other energy storage system(s) of the vehicle 100. Electric machines may also generate braking torque without storing energy. For instance, brake resistors and the like may be used to dissipate the excess energy from the electric machines during braking. The electric machines may be integrally formed with respective wheel end modules as will be discussed in more detail below.
The MSDs 104 may also comprise friction brakes such as disc brakes or drum brakes arranged to generate a braking torque by the wheel 102 in order to decelerate the vehicle. Herein, the term acceleration is to be construed broadly to encompass both positive acceleration (propulsion) and negative acceleration (braking).
The methods disclosed herein primarily relate to controlling propulsion of heavy-duty vehicles, i.e., acceleration. However, the disclosed methods may also find use in decelerating heavy-duty vehicles, i.e., during braking maneuvers.
Moreover, each of the MSDs 104 is connected to a respective MSD control system or control unit 330 arranged for controlling operation of the MSD 104. The MSD control system 330 is preferably a decentralized motion support system 330, although centralized implementations are also possible. It is furthermore appreciated that some parts of the MSD control system may be implemented on processing circuitry remote from the vehicle, such as on a remote server 120 accessible from the vehicle via wireless link. Still further, each MSD control system 330 is connected to a VMM system or function 360 of the vehicle 100 via a data bus communication arrangement 114 that can be either wired, wireless or both wired and wireless. Hereby, control signals can be transmitted between the vehicle motion management system 360 and the MSD control system 330. The vehicle motion management system 360 and the MSD control system 330 will be described in further detail below with reference to
The VMM system 360 as well as the MSD control system 330 may include a microprocessor, microcontroller, programmable digital signal processor or another programmable device. The systems may also, or instead, include an application specific integrated circuit, a programmable gate array or programmable array logic, a programmable logic device, or a digital signal processor. Where the system(s) include(s) a programmable device such as the microprocessor, microcontroller or programmable digital signal processor mentioned above, the processor may further include computer executable code that controls operation of the programmable device. Implementation aspects of the different vehicle unit processing circuits will be discussed in more detail below in connection to
Generally, the MSDs on the vehicle 100 may also be realized as, e.g., a power steering device, active suspension devices, and the like. Although these types of MSDs cannot be used to directly generate longitudinal force to accelerate or brake the vehicle, they are still part of the overall vehicle motion management of the heavy-duty vehicle and may therefore form part of the herein disclosed methods for vehicle motion management. Notably, the MSDs of the heavy-duty vehicle 100 are often coordinated in order to obtain a desired motion by the vehicle. For instance, two or more MSDs may be used jointly to generate a desired propulsion torque or braking torque, a desired yaw motion by the vehicle, or some other dynamic behavior. Coordination of MSDs will be discussed in more detail in connection to
Longitudinal wheel slip λx may, in accordance with SAE J370 (SAE Vehicle Dynamics Standards Committee Jan. 24, 2008) be defined as
where R is an effective wheel radius in meters, ωx is the angular velocity of the wheel, and vx is the longitudinal speed of the wheel (in the coordinate system of the wheel). Thus, λx is bounded between −1 and 1 and quantifies how much the wheel is slipping with respect to the road surface. The two terms road surface and ground plane are used interchangeably herein. Both terms refer to the surface supporting the vehicle 100, which is also the reference for the vehicle speed over ground in lateral and longitudinal directions. Wheel slip is, in essence, a speed difference measured between the wheel and the vehicle. Thus, the herein disclosed techniques can be adapted for use with any type of wheel slip definition. It is also appreciated that a wheel slip value is equivalent to a wheel speed value given a velocity of the wheel over the surface, in the coordinate system of the wheel. The VMM 360 and optionally also the MSD control system 330 maintains information on vx in the reference frame of the wheel, while a wheel speed sensor or the like can be used to determine ωx (the rotational velocity of the wheel).
Slip angle α, also known as sideslip angle, is the angle between the direction in which a wheel is pointing and the direction in which it is actually traveling (i.e., the angle between the longitudinal velocity component vx and the vector sum of wheel forward velocity vx and lateral velocity vy. This slip angle results in a force, the cornering force, which is in the plane of the contact patch and perpendicular to the intersection of the contact patch and the midplane of the wheel. The cornering force increases approximately linearly for the first few degrees of slip angle, then increases non-linearly to a maximum before beginning to decrease.
The slip angle, α is often defined as
where vy is the lateral speed of the wheel in the coordinate system of the wheel. Herein, longitudinal speed over ground may be determined relative to the vehicle, in which case the speed direction refers to the forward direction of the vehicle or relative to a wheel, in which case the speed direction refers to the forward direction, or rolling direction, of the wheel. The same is true for lateral speed over ground, which can be either a lateral speed of the vehicle or a lateral speed over ground of a wheel relative to its rolling direction. The meaning will be clear from context, and it is appreciated that a straight forward conversion can be applied in order to translate speed over ground between the coordinate system of the vehicle and the coordinate system of the wheel, and vice versa. Vehicle and wheel coordinate systems are discussed, e.g., by Thomas Gillespie in “Fundamentals of Vehicle Dynamics” Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers, 1992.
In order for a wheel (or tyre) to produce a wheel force which affects the motion state of the heavy-duty vehicle, such as an acceleration, slip must occur. For smaller slip values the relationship between slip and generated force is approximately linear, where the proportionality constant is often denoted as the slip stiffness Cx of the tyre. A tyre is subject to a longitudinal force Fx, a lateral force Fy, and a normal force Fz. The normal force Fz is key to determining some important vehicle properties. For instance, the normal force to a large extent determines the achievable longitudinal tyre force Fx by the wheel since, normally, Fx≤μFz, where μ is a friction coefficient associated with a road friction condition. The maximum available lateral force for a given wheel slip can be described by the so-called Magic Formula as described in “Tyre and vehicle dynamics”, Elsevier Ltd. 2012, ISBN 978-0-08-097016-5, by Hans Pacejka, where wheel slip and tyre force is also discussed in detail.
An inverse tyre model can be used to translate between a desired longitudinal tyre force Fx and longitudinal wheel slip λx. The interface between VMM and MSDs capable of delivering torque to the vehicle's wheels has as mentioned above traditionally been focused on torque-based requests to each MSD from the VMM without any consideration towards wheel slip. However, this approach has some performance limitations. In case a safety critical or excessive slip situation arises, then a relevant safety function (traction control, anti-lock brakes, etc.) operated on a separate control unit normally steps in and requests a torque override in order to bring the slip back into control. The problem with this approach is that since the primary control of the actuator and the slip control of the actuator are allocated to different electronic control units (ECUs), the latencies involved in the communication between them significantly limits the slip control performance. Moreover, the related actuator and slip assumptions made in the two ECUs that are used to achieve the actual slip control can be inconsistent and this in turn can lead to sub-optimal performance. Significant benefits can be achieved by instead using a wheel speed or wheel slip-based request on the interface between VMM 360 and the MSD controller or controllers 330, thereby shifting the difficult actuator speed control loop to the MSD controllers, which generally operate with a much shorter sample time compared to that of the VMM system. Such an architecture can provide much better disturbance rejection compared to a torque-based control interface and thus improves the predictability of the forces generated at the tyre road contact patch.
Referring again to
A problem encountered when using wheel slip to actively control one or more wheels on a heavy-duty vehicle, such as the vehicle 100, and also when executing more low complex control such as imposing the above-mentioned wheel slip limit λlim locally at wheel end, is that the speed over ground vx of the wheel (and of the vehicle) may not be accurately known. For instance, if wheel speed sensors such as Hall effect sensors or rotational encoders are used to determine vehicle speed over ground, then the vehicle speed over ground will be erroneously determined in case the wheels used for estimating the speed over ground are themselves slipping. Also, vehicle speed over ground determined based on wheel rotation is one-dimensional, i.e., the method does not allow determining a wheel lateral speed over ground vy in addition to the longitudinal speed over ground vx, i.e., a speed vector in two dimensions. This of course makes estimating the sideslip angle α challenging.
Satellite based positioning systems can be used to determine the speed over ground of a heavy-duty vehicle 100 and of any given wheel on the vehicle 100. However, these systems do not function well in some environments, such as environments without a clear view of the sky. Multipath propagation of the satellite radio signals can also induce large errors in the estimated vehicle position, which then translates into errors in the estimated vehicle speed over ground.
Vision-based sensor systems and radar systems can also be used to determine vehicle speed over ground. However, such systems are relatively costly and not always without issues when it comes to accuracy and reliability. Vision-based sensor may for instance suffer from performance degradation due to sun glare while radar sensor systems may be prone to interference from other radar transceivers.
The present disclosure proposes the use of radar to determine both longitudinal and lateral velocity of a vehicle with respect to ground. With reference to
The principle of determining speed over ground exploited herein builds on the disclosure of US 2004/0138802, but has a more efficient implementation due to that a single radar transceiver module comprising an antenna array and a processing device capable of angle-of-arrival radar signal processing is used to determine velocity in two dimensions, whereas US 2004/0138802 uses separate radar transceivers for each dimension.
Ground speed radar systems have been proposed previously in numerous disclosures in addition to the disclosure of US 2004/0138802. However, these systems are all associated with analog fixed direction receive beamforming based, e.g., on Janus antenna configurations. The systems discussed herein uses more modern array signal processing to extract information related to the speed over ground of the heavy-duty vehicle from received radar signal energy inbound from at least two different azimuth directions by detecting first and second radar signal components of the received radar signal based on their respective angles of arrival. In other words, a single antenna array is used to receive radar signal energy simultaneously from a plurality of different azimuth directions, and to separate the different radar signal components from each other based on their angles of arrival.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,845,506 describes an antenna system suitable for use in ground speed radar systems such as those discussed herein. A switch is implemented that can be used to direct the antenna lobe in either of two fixed directions. The antenna can be used to determine longitudinal velocity of a vehicle if the two directions are aligned with the forward directions of a vehicle, and also lateral velocity of the vehicle if another separate antenna system is mounted on the vehicle with the two directions aligned laterally compared to the forward direction of the vehicle. U.S. Pat. No. 4,845,506 does not describe an array processing system able to analyze radar signal energy received simultaneously from arbitrary azimuth directions.
DE 3885397 describes an antenna array that generates two fixed lobes pointing in different azimuth directions. The antenna array is used in a radar system to determine longitudinal velocity of a vehicle. The two directions are fixed directions, and the processing circuitry described in DE 3885397 is not able to exploit more dynamic angle of arrival signal processing to identify suitable received radar signal component for determining a two-dimensional velocity vector of a vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,363,253 describes a four-beam antenna with fixed direction beams that can be used for ground speed determination. The system is not set up to separate radar signal components received via the same antenna array from each other based on the respective angles of arrival.
EP0095300 describes a vehicle mounted Doppler radar system which comprises a fixed-beam antenna system in Janus configuration. The beams are directed such that the impact of vehicle vibration is minimized. There is no dynamic angle of arrival signal processing in the system of EP0095300, i.e., the system uses fixed beams for transmission and for reception of radar signal energy, instead of detecting different simultaneously received radar signal components of the received radar signal, and separating them from each other, based on their respective angle of arrival.
DE19720846 discloses a system for measuring the speed of a vehicle using a ground speed radar system. The system comprises a fixed beam antenna in Janus configuration, and is not able to separate radar signal components received simultaneously by the same antenna array based on the respective angles of arrival.
The radar transceiver may illuminate a small portion of the road surface, as illustrated in the inserted illustrations at the bottom of
The radar transceiver is arranged to transmit a radar signal over a radar bandwidth, where a larger bandwidth improves range resolution in a known manner. Velocity resolution depends on the radar wavelength and the repetition period of the waveform in a known manner. According to some aspects, the transceiver is arranged to transmit a frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar signal over the radar bandwidth, where a frequency chirp is swept over the radar bandwidth in cycles. Other types of radar signal formats may also be used, such as band-spread radar signals where orthogonal codes are used to spread a modulated signal over a wide frequency band, or an orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) radar signal. Given an FMCW radar signal format, the distance to the ground plane 101 (and also to reflecting material under the road surface) may be determined based on a first Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT), or Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), and the radial velocity or Doppler frequency of the illuminated portion of ground may be determined based on a second DFT or FFT, in a known manner. The result of applying a range FFT and a Doppler FFT is often denoted a range-Doppler map or R-D map for short. A range-Doppler map is a matrix of complex values, where each column index corresponds to backscatter energy received at a given radar antenna from reflections at a given range, and where each row index corresponds to radar backscatter energy received at a given radar antenna from reflections at a given radial velocity relative to the position of the radar transceiver. A good overview of rudimentary FMCW radar processing is given in the lecture notes “Introduction to mmwave Sensing: FMCW Radars” by Sandeep Rao, Texas Instruments, 2017. The Doppler frequency at the range corresponding to the distance between the radar transceiver and ground is indicative of the radial speed at which the ground moves relative to the radar transceiver, as explained in US 2004/0138802.
The antenna array comprised in the radar module 110 is configured to emit the radar signal 115 in a first azimuth direction d1 and in a second azimuth direction d2 different from the first azimuth direction. This means that the radar signal illuminates the ground plane 101 in at least two directions. This can be done by illuminating a larger area of the road surface by a relatively broad antenna beam as illustrated in
It is appreciated that a pitch motion of the vehicle 100 will have an impact on the radial velocity determined by forward and rearward looking radars, and that a roll motion by the vehicle 100 will impact laterally facing radar transceivers. This is because roll motion and pitch motion by the vehicle will move the radar transceivers closer and further away from the ground, which relative motion will appear in the determined radial velocity as a velocity by the radar transceiver relative to the ground. Significant pitch and roll motions by the vehicle, which may occur during hard braking and steering, will negatively impact accuracy of longitudinal and lateral velocity determined by the type of radar systems discussed herein, unless compensated for. However, in most cases of interest the impact from vehicle pitch and roll motion is not significant. The statements made in 2004/0138802 regarding the need for more than two radar antenna lobes to determine vehicle longitudinal and lateral velocity are therefore not entirely correct, unless particularly strict requirements on accuracy are placed on the system. It is indeed possible to obtain sufficiently accurate speed over ground measurements using only two antenna lobes directed in a first azimuth direction and in a second azimuth direction different from the first azimuth direction. Further to this, it is appreciated that additional motion sensors such as IMUs and wheel speed sensors can be used as complement to the radar sensors in order to obtain a robust vehicle speed determination system.
Suppose that a radial velocity vr is measured using a radar module with a narrow transmission main lobe pointing at an azimuth angle α relative to a longitudinal direction of the vehicle 100. This radial velocity can then be projected onto longitudinal and lateral velocity components to obtain a straight-forward estimate of vehicle two-dimensional velocity as
v
x
=v
r cos(α)
v
y
=v
r sin(α)
Hence, in fact, only one radar measurement is necessary for a basic speed estimation. It is, however, appreciated that the radar cannot measure velocity perpendicular to the bore-sight direction, as such velocity does not give rise to radial velocity. Thus, the estimator is preferably complemented by at least one more radar transmission beam at angle δ relative to the longitudinal direction of the vehicle 100. This additional radial velocity measurement will pick up velocity components orthogonal to the boresight direction of the first measurement, and vice versa. Practical experimentation using a ground speed radar system of this kind on a heavy-duty vehicle has indeed indicated that this is a feasible approach to determining the speed of a heavy-duty vehicle in many if not all driving scenarios.
The radar module 110 comprises a processing device arranged to detect first and second radar signal components of the received radar signal 115 based on their respective angle of arrival (AoA) according to the techniques discussed above, where the first radar signal component has an AoA corresponding to the first azimuth direction d1 and the second radar signal component 430 has an AoA corresponding to the second azimuth direction d2. In other words, processing device 440 analyzes the received radar signal, which comprises a plurality of simultaneously received radar signal components, with respect to angle of arrival, and identifies at least the first and second radar signal components based on their respective AoA.
An antenna array is a device comprising a plurality of antenna elements. Each pair of transmit antenna and receive antenna in the array gives rise to a respective range-Doppler map, indicating received radar signal energy at different distances and radial velocities. Each range-Doppler map cell is a complex value associated with a phase and a magnitude, in a known manner. A complex-valued vector of signal values corresponding to a given range and Doppler can be obtained by extracting corresponding values from the R-D map of each antenna pair. The array may comprise multiple antenna elements that are spaced uniformly such as on the order of a half-lambda. Alternatively they may be spaced more than half lambda. Some previously known radar systems use multiple transmission antennas either sequentially or simultaneously in time to create a virtual aperture sometimes referred to as a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), that is larger than the physical array. The net effect is a relatively small number of real or virtual antenna elements and a relatively small physical aperture. The angle of arrival of an incoming radar reflection can be determined conveniently by a third FFT—the angle FFT, applied to range-Doppler cells from each range-Doppler map generated by each transmit-antenna pair in the radar sensor array, after appropriate zero-padding. The determination of target angle using an FFT may for instance be realized using the Bartlett algorithm. The Bartlett algorithm is generally known and will therefore not be discussed in more detail herein. In case the antenna element spacing is non-uniform, a zero-padding of the complex-valued vector may be needed prior to the FFT operation. Using this technique for angle-of-arrival processing, the processing device of the radar module can analyze a received radar signal in terms of angle of arrival, and detect first and second radar signal components of the received radar signal based on their respective angle of arrival. Thus, it does not matter in which direction the radar signal was transmitted, or if the radar signal was transmitted in a wide lobe or in one or more narrow lobes, since the processing device will identify radar signal components based on their angles of arrival, and from there determine the two-dimensional velocity vector [vx, vy] of the heavy-duty vehicle based on respective Doppler frequencies of the first and of the second detected radar signal component.
Thus, to summarize, the radar transceiver illuminates one or more portions of the road surface under the vehicle, either smaller portions or larger portions, and receives backscattered energy from the road surface from at least two different azimuth directions. The use of an antenna array allows the processing device to perform AoA signal processing to separate backscattered radar signal energy which arrives from different directions, thereby allowing the radar module to identify two or more radar signal components arriving from different azimuth directions. The radial velocity of the road surface in the two different directions will be indicative of the velocity of the vehicle in two dimensions, or even in three dimensions in case a more advanced antenna array is used, such as a two-dimensional antenna array. For instance, if the first azimuth direction is a longitudinal direction of the vehicle 100 and the second azimuth direction is a lateral direction of the vehicle 100, then the Doppler information of the first and the second radar signal components will be directly indicative of the vehicle longitudinal and lateral speeds. The radar transceiver can also be mounted together with a steered wheel, and turn as the wheel is steered, which means that the velocity components will be determined in the coordinate system of the wheel without need for mathematical transforms from a vehicle coordinate system into the coordinate system of the wheel.
The antenna array 450 schematically illustrated in
If the two directions d1 and d2 are pointing in some other azimuth direction compared to the vehicle longitudinal and lateral directions, then a transform may be required in order to obtain the vehicle speed in longitudinal and lateral directions. This transform is straight forward and will therefore not be discussed in more detail herein.
With reference also to
A set of discrete azimuth directions may also constitute the range A of azimuth directions, i.e., the processing device 440 can be arranged to evaluate the received radar signal power in a number of discrete azimuth directions which cover the range A of azimuth directions. This option is preferred if angle-FFTs are determined by the processing device. Alternatively, the range A of azimuth directions can be configured as a continuous range of azimuth directions, in which case the processing device 440 may be configured to steer a receive lobe of the antenna array to investigate from which angles of arrival that useful radar signal energy is received, that can be used to determine the two-dimensional velocity vector vx, vy of the heavy-duty vehicle 100 based on the Doppler frequencies of the radar signal components. Steered receive lobe beamforming can be used to optimize received signal power by adjusting the direction of the receive lobe to maximize received signal power. In both cases the antenna array of the radar module 110 is used to monitor incoming radar signal energy from different azimuth directions, and optionally also from different elevation directions, detect radar signal components that can be used for ground speed determination, and determine the two-dimensional velocity vector of the heavy-duty vehicle 100 based on the detected radar signal components.
The actual azimuth direction of arrival of a radar signal component corresponding to a given antenna array beam steering configuration may be obtained from calibration. Both on-line and off-line calibration can be used. An off-line calibration may, e.g., comprise a look-up table where beam steering vectors can be translated into azimuth angle of arrival. On-line calibration may comprise detecting that the vehicle is moving in a straight line (no applied steering), with little or no applied wheel force, in which case the vehicle speed over ground should only comprise longitudinal speed and no lateral speed. Hence, a detected radial velocity can be related to a vehicle speed over ground direction. Wheel speeds can be used to calibrate radial velocity magnitude. Calibration of radar systems such as the ones discussed herein are generally known and will therefore not be discussed in more detail herein.
The antenna array 400, 450 can be configured to emit the radar signal 115 in a transmission lobe simultaneously covering the range A of azimuth directions, as illustrated by the example 1300 in
An advantage of using this type of receive array processing where received radar signal components coming from different azimuth directions are detected is that the transmission direction of the radar signal energy that illuminates the road surface 101 does not need to be coordinated with the receive direction of the receiver. Hence, the antenna array 400, 450 may comprises a transmit portion and a receive portion arranged spatially separated from the transmit portion, operating independently from each other. A transmit portion of the antenna array may be arranged at one location on the vehicle 100, and one or more receive portions of the antenna array can be arranged at other locations where they receive a part of the transmitted and reflected radar signal energy. The angle of arrival of the different radar signal components received by the receive portions can then be used to determine the two-dimensional velocity vector of the heavy-duty vehicle.
According to some aspects, the processing device 440 is arranged to determine respective accuracy metrics for the first and second radar signal components 420, 430, based on a spread of received radar signal power over Doppler frequency and/or over range.
where n is a number of Doppler samples related to the radar signal component, Di is the Doppler frequency of the i-th sample, and D is the mean of the Doppler samples. The n samples may, e.g., be selected as FFT bins having signal power above a threshold.
The second radar signal component 1620 is much more distinct compared to the first radar signal component 1610. This radar signal component, associated with azimuth direction d2, will be assigned a higher accuracy metric compared to the first radar signal component d1. The third radar signal component arriving from azimuth direction d3 is distinct, but there is also a lot of clutter 1640 which complicates the determination of the two-dimensional velocity vector of the heavy-duty vehicle 100 based on the Doppler frequency of the radar signal component 1630. An example accuracy metric M2 indicating amount of interference may, e.g., be formulated as a peak radar signal component power compared to an average received signal power over the range-Doppler map, or as an accumulated signal power of a detected received radar signal component compared to an average signal power in the range-Doppler map. A number of separate radar signal detections in a range-Doppler map can also be used as indication of amount of interference, since there should only be one strong radar signal component per angle of arrival.
The accuracy metric may be determined in a number of different ways, e.g., as a measure of radar signal energy spread from the centroid of the radar signal component in the range-Doppler map, as a measure of variance of the radar signal component over the range-Doppler map, as a measure of the total radar signal energy of the radar signal component, and also as a measure of the peak power of the radar signal component.
The processing device 440 can also be arranged to control transmission of the radar signal in dependence of the determined accuracy metrics. For instance, in case particularly good reflections are received from a given azimuth direction, then the processing device 440 may be arranged to control transmission such that radar signal energy becomes more focused in those good directions, and less focused in directions where worse reflections is obtained. A “good” reflection may be determined based on one or more of the accuracy metrics discussed above. The processing device may be configured to sweep a transmission lobe 115a over the range A of azimuth directions, and/or over the range E of different elevation directions, and select a sub-range or a discrete number of directions where the transmission lobe may dwell. The sweep can be repeated regularly, such as every 500 ms to determine if better transmission directions have appeared.
Particular advantages when it comes to determining vehicle lateral speed can be obtained if the first azimuth direction and the second azimuth direction are configured on respective sides of a bore sight direction of the radar module configured to be aligned with a longitudinal direction of the vehicle. In this case the processing device 440 can detect a lateral velocity component of the vehicle based on a difference of the respective Doppler frequencies of the first and second radar signal components.
The TSM function 370 plans driving operation with a time horizon of 10 seconds or so. This time frame corresponds to, e.g., the time it takes for the vehicle 100 to negotiate a curve or the like. The vehicle maneuvers, planned and executed by the TSM function, can be associated with acceleration profiles and curvature profiles which describe a desired target vehicle velocity in the vehicle forward direction and turning to be maintained for a given maneuver. The TSM function continuously requests the desired acceleration profiles areq and steering angles (or curvature profiles creq) from the VMM system 360 which performs force allocation to meet the requests from the TSM function in a safe and robust manner. The VMM system 360 operates on a timescale of below one second or so and will be discussed in more detail below.
The wheel 310 has a longitudinal velocity component vx and a lateral velocity component vy (in the coordinate system of the wheel or in the coordinate system of the vehicle, depending on implementation). There is a longitudinal wheel force Fx and a lateral wheel force Fy, and also a normal force Fz acting on the wheel (not shown in
A vehicle speed sensor 380 based on the herein disclosed radar systems is used to determine vehicle speed over ground, which can then be translated into wheel speed components vx and/or vy, in the coordinate system of the wheel. This means that the wheel steering angle δ is taken into account if the wheel is a steered wheel, while a non-steered wheel has a longitudinal velocity component which is the same as the vehicle unit to which the wheel is attached. The type of inverse tyre models exemplified by the graph 200 in
Instead of requesting a torque corresponding to the desired tyre force, the VMM can translate the desired tyre force into an equivalent wheel slip (or, equivalently, a wheel speed relative to a speed over ground) and request this slip instead. The main advantage being that the MSD control device 330 will be able to deliver the requested torque with much higher bandwidth by maintaining operation at the desired wheel slip, using the vehicle speed vx from the vehicle speed sensor 380 and the wheel rotational velocity ωx, obtained from the wheel speed sensor 350.
The control unit or units can be arranged to store one or more pre-determined inverse tyre models in memory, e.g., as look-up tables or parameterized functions. An inverse tyre model can also be arranged to be stored in the memory as a function of the current operating condition of the wheel 310.
Particular advantages can be obtained if the radar systems discussed herein are integrated into a wheel end module, i.e., a highly integrated device mounted close to a wheel of the heavy-duty vehicle. A plurality of such wheel end modules can then be used to provide efficient vehicle motion management of a heavy-duty vehicle, as illustrated in
The wheel end module optionally comprises an electric machine 340, or at least a control unit for controlling an electric machine. The processing device 440 can then be arranged to control an axle speed of the electric machine 340 based on a target wheel slip λ. This integrates both wheel slip determination and wheel slip control into a single wheel end module which can be mounted close to the wheel of a heavy-duty vehicle, where it can facilitate high bandwidth, i.e., rapid, wheel slip control. Further advantages are obtained of the wheel end module also comprises an inertial measurement unit (IMU), in which case the processing device 440 can be arranged to output one or more acceleration values to the central VMM system 360. This means that the VMM system 360 can obtain both accelerations, speeds over ground, and wheel slip from the wheel end module, allowing the VMM system close to full data about the current motion of the heavy-duty vehicle 100 in a dependable and cost efficient manner.
The radar module 110 can as explained above determine vehicle speed components in two dimensions by processing Doppler frequency of radar signal components received from first and second different directions, using the same radar signal, which is an advantage. Further advantages can, however, be obtained by arranging the processing device to detect the first and second radar signal components 420, 430 over respective distances exceeding a distance from the antenna array 400, 450 to the ground plane 101 along a bore sight direction of the antenna array, i.e., by configuring the radar transceiver as a ground penetrating radar transceiver.
There is also disclosed herein a method for determining speed over ground of a heavy-duty vehicle based on a ground-penetrating radar operation. The method comprises configuring a ground-penetrating radar transceiver with a first and second transmission lobe having respective directions pointing towards a road surface supporting the heavy-duty vehicle. The method comprises detecting first and second Doppler frequencies associated with at least one target point at a distance below the ground plane 101, and determining the speed over ground of the heavy-duty vehicle based on the detected Doppler frequencies in two dimensions. This way the radial velocity of the target point or points will not be affected by disturbances on the road surface, such as water, snow, or other matter moving relative to the road surface. The detected Doppler frequencies will be more stable and therefore also yield a more reliable estimate of the vehicle speed over ground.
According to some aspects, the plane 102 is a road foundation layer which is associated with relatively strong scattering. The actual distance r at which the speed over ground is determined is not so important, as long as it is below the surface 101, away from the matter which may be moving there and cause errors in the determination of the speed over ground.
The radar transceiver is advantageously configured with a boresight direction of a transmission lobe in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle that intersects the road surface 101 at an angle a, as shown in
where FD is the radial velocity determined from the Doppler frequency of the target point under the road surface. The radar signal processing involved in determining relative speed from received radar reflections is generally known and will not be discussed in more detail herein. The techniques described in, e.g., EP1739451 A1 can be applied with advantage to determine Fp.
The radar transceiver 1160 is preferably configured with a transmission lobe azimuth angular width below ten degrees, and preferably below five degrees, i.e., a relatively narrow beam. This narrow beam decreases the amount of reflections received from the ambient environment and from the vehicle itself, and therefore simplifies detecting the Doppler frequency associated with the point under the road surface 101.
The carrier frequency of the radar transceivers discussed herein is preferably in the GHz range, such as above 30 GHz and preferably around 80 GHz or so. The reason for preferring this high carrier frequency is the small wavelength which allows scattering even from relatively smooth surfaces and/or homogenous materials. The small wavelength also improves the velocity resolution of the proposed techniques.
The range r at which the Doppler value is determined can advantageously be determined relative to the road surface, say about 10 cm beyond the range to the road surface, i.e., according to some aspects
where Δ is the positive offset value added to s to obtain r. This means that the actual range r changes continuously to follow, e.g., motion of the vehicle along a normal vector to the road surface, but stays more or less at the same distance relative to the road surface 101. The road surface at distance s is often visible as a strong reflection, although the Doppler content at this range s may comprise more than one component due to clutter as discussed above. Thus, according to some aspects, the radar transceiver may first detect the distance s from the radar transceiver 1160 to the road surface along the pointing direction of the antenna transmission lobe and then determine the distance r to the point of interest below the road surface 101 relative to the road surface distance s, e.g., by adding a predetermined positive offset A to the detected distance s as discussed above. According to other aspects, the radar transceiver 160 may just determine the distance d below the road surface 101 as a pre-determined distance from the radar transceiver 1160. In this case any suitable distance r may be selected as long as it is larger than the distance s. To improve accuracy further, the radar transceiver 1160 may be configured to receive data indicative of a vehicle height over ground, or a height over ground of the radar transceiver 1160. This type of data may, e.g., be obtained from a linear position sensor configured in connection to the vehicle suspension, such as a suspension system sensor. Thus, as the vehicle moves up and down along a normal to the road surface, the detected Doppler frequency can be adjusted to account for the motion, which improves the estimated speed over ground in the longitudinal direction.
The processing device 440 is, according to some aspects, arranged to adjust a setting of the antenna array 400, 450 based on a pre-determined target AoA of the first and second radar signal components. This means that the processing device may calibrate the settings of the antenna array, i.e., the beamforming weights of the antenna array or its phase settings, in order to point the antenna lobes in the desired directions, such as the longitudinal and lateral directions of the vehicle 100. For example, the vehicle can be controlled to travel without sideslip in the longitudinal direction, and the processing device can then optimize the setting of the antenna array to maximize the radar signal power and the Doppler frequency in the first azimuth direction, and to maximize the radar signal power but minimize the Doppler frequency in the second azimuth direction. This essentially means that the processing device performs a beam steering operation involving the antenna array in order to focus antenna beams in desired directions. The antenna beams can also be directed at either side of a bore sight direction of the antenna array, in order to enable differential detection of lateral vehicle motion. In this case the processing device will perform beam steering to make the Doppler frequencies of the two radar signal components as equal as possible when the vehicle is driving in the longitudinal direction without sideslip or lateral motion.
The VMM system 360 operates with a time horizon of about 1 second or so, and continuously transforms the acceleration profiles areq and curvature profiles creq from the TSM function into control commands for controlling vehicle motion functions, actuated by the different MSDs of the vehicle 100 which report back capabilities to the VMM, which in turn are used as constraints in the vehicle control. The VMM system 360 performs vehicle state or motion estimation 510, i.e., the VMM system 360 continuously determines a vehicle state s comprising positions, speeds, accelerations, and articulation angles of the different units in the vehicle combination by monitoring operations using various sensors 550 arranged on the vehicle 100, often but not always in connection to the MSDs. An important input to the motion estimation 510 may of course be the signals from the vehicle speed sensor 380 and the wheel speed sensors 350 on the heavy duty vehicle 100, where the vehicle speed sensor 380 comprises a radar-based system as discussed herein.
The result of the motion estimation 510, i.e., the estimated vehicle state s, is input to a force generation module 520 which determines the required global forces V=[V1, V2] for the different vehicle units to cause the vehicle 100 to move according to the requested acceleration and curvature profiles areq, creq, and to behave according to the desired vehicle behavior. The required global force vector V is input to an MSD coordination function 530 which allocates wheel forces and coordinates other MSDs such as steering and suspension. The MSD coordination function outputs an MSD control allocation for the i:th wheel, which may comprise any of a torque Ti, a longitudinal wheel slip λi, a wheel rotational speed ωi, and/or a wheel steering angle δi. The coordinated MSDs then together provide the desired lateral Fy and longitudinal Fx forces on the vehicle units, as well as the required moments Mz, to obtain the desired motion by the vehicle combination 100.
The MSD control units may obtain wheel speed from one or more wheel speed sensors 350, and also a reliable vehicle speed over ground 380 from the predictor antenna arrangements discussed above. One or more controllers may be connected to the predictor antenna arrangement.
Thus, according to some aspects of the present disclosure, the VMM system 360 manages both force generation and MSD coordination, i.e., it determines what forces that are required at the vehicle units in order to fulfil the requests from the TSM function 370, for instance to accelerate the vehicle according to a requested acceleration profile requested by TSM and/or to generate a certain curvature motion by the vehicle also requested by TSM. The forces may comprise e.g., yaw moments Mz, longitudinal forces Fx and lateral forces Fy, as well as different types of torques to be applied at different wheels. The forces are determined such as to generate the vehicle behavior which is expected by the TSM function in response to the control inputs generated by the TSM function 370.
This enables the VMM system 360 to determine relative vehicle motion of the different parts of the vehicle, and also a rotation, such as a yaw motion vo. In other words, the VMM system 360 may be arranged to determine a yaw motion of the vehicle 100 based on the speed over ground of the vehicle 100 at the different radar modules 110. Wheel end modules, as discussed herein, can also be distributed over a heavy-duty vehicle 100 in this manner, allowing the VMM system 360 to obtain a detailed view of the motion of the vehicle.
Particularly, the processing circuitry 910 is configured to cause the control unit 900 to perform a set of operations, or steps, such as the methods discussed in connection to
The storage medium 930 may also comprise persistent storage, which, for example, can be any single one or combination of magnetic memory, optical memory, solid state memory or even remotely mounted memory.
The control unit 900 may further comprise an interface 920 for communications with at least one external device. As such the interface 920 may comprise one or more transmitters and receivers, comprising analogue and digital components and a suitable number of ports for wireline or wireless communication.
The processing circuitry 910 controls the general operation of the control unit 900, e.g., by sending data and control signals to the interface 920 and the storage medium 930, by receiving data and reports from the interface 920, and by retrieving data and instructions from the storage medium 930. Other components, as well as the related functionality, of the control node are omitted in order not to obscure the concepts presented herein.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/EP2022/055739 | Mar 2022 | WO | international |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/EP2023/052337 | 1/31/2023 | WO |
