Patent Application
20120185118
The present invention relates to a system and method for optimizing a driving route for a vehicle.
Vehicles employ various power sources for propulsion. Such power sources may include an internal combustion engine and/or one or more electric motors or a fuel-cell.
Each power source typically requires an energy storage device configured to receive and store energy, and to supply the stored energy to operate the power source. A specific amount of energy stored within the energy storage device generally operates the vehicle for a finite driving range. Such a driving range typically depends on a number of factors which may be related to the vehicle itself, as well as to road and weather conditions. Additionally, a vehicle operator's driving style may also influence the vehicle's available driving range.
A method of optimizing a route for a vehicle driving on a plurality of roads includes recording information in a memory location relating to the plurality of roads, including: a geographical location of a plurality of road segments; topographical information pertaining to the plurality of road segments; and at least one intersection defined between one of the plurality of roads and at least two of the plurality of road segments. At least one of the plurality of road segments likely to be driven upon by the vehicle in the future is identified. Powertrain limitations of the vehicle are determined and at least one of the plurality of road segments likely to be driven upon by the vehicle in the future are modeled with the determined powertrain limitations of the vehicle to predict if the vehicle can drive upon the at least one of the plurality of road segments likely to be driven upon by the vehicle without a substantial degradation of vehicle operating performance. At least one of the plurality of road segments likely to be driven upon by the vehicle that has been determined to not result in a substantial degradation of vehicle operating performance is identified. The intersection defined between the identified at least one of the plurality of road segments likely to be driven upon by the vehicle that has been determined to not result in a substantial degradation of vehicle operating performance and the one of the plurality of roads the vehicle is currently being driven upon is identified. The driver of the vehicle is alerted as to the location of an intersection where the vehicle may enter the at least one of the plurality of road segments likely to be driven upon by the vehicle that has been determined to not result in a substantial degradation of vehicle operating performance.
A vehicle includes a power source, an energy storage device, and a navigation system. The power source is configured to drive the vehicle. The energy storage device is configured to supply energy to the power source. The navigation system includes a memory location and a controller. The controller is configured for recording information in the memory location relating to a plurality of roads, including: a geographical location of a plurality of road segments, topographical information pertaining to the plurality of road segments, and at least one intersection defined between one of the plurality of roads and at least two of the plurality of road segments. The controller is also configured for geographically locating the vehicle on the one of the plurality of roads; identifying at least one of the plurality of road segments that are likely to be driven upon by the vehicle in the future; and determining a state of charge (SOC) of the energy storage device to assess powertrain limitations of the vehicle. Additionally, the controller is configured for modeling the at least one of the plurality of road segments likely to be driven upon by the vehicle in the future and the determined powertrain limitations of the vehicle to predict if the vehicle can drive upon the at least one of the plurality of road segments likely to be driven upon by the vehicle without a substantial degradation of vehicle operating performance. The controller is also configured to identify at least one of the plurality of road segments likely to be driven upon by the vehicle that has been determined to not result in a substantial degradation of vehicle operating performance and to locate the intersection defined between the identified at least one of the plurality of road segments likely to be driven upon by the vehicle that has been determined to not result in a substantial degradation of vehicle operating performance and the one of the plurality of roads the vehicle is currently being driven upon. Additionally, the controller is configured to alert a driver of the vehicle of the location of an intersection where the vehicle may enter the at least one of the plurality of road segments likely to be driven upon by the vehicle that has been determined to not result in a substantial degradation of vehicle operating performance.
The above features and advantages and other features and advantages of the present invention are readily apparent from the following detailed description of the best modes for carrying out the invention when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.
Referring to the drawings, wherein like reference numbers correspond to like or similar components throughout the several figures,
The vehicle 10 may be an internal combustion vehicle or an electric vehicle (EV), such as a battery electric vehicle (BEV), a fuel cell vehicle, a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), and the like. The performance of certain vehicles may have limitations. The limitations may, for example, be a result of a state of charge (SOC) of the energy storage device 14 being insufficient for the power source 12 to generate enough power to propel or drive the vehicle 10 up roads 22 having high grades. The performance may also be limited by a cargo load of the vehicle 10. The limited performance may affect the operation of the vehicle 10 on some extreme roads 22, e.g., roads with high grades. For example, driving the vehicle 10 on certain extreme roads 22 may cause the vehicle 10 to drive much slower than a posted speed limit and/or stop all together. Choosing alternative roads that are not extreme may minimize the impact of these limitations on performance of the vehicle 10, which may prevent a driver of the vehicle 10 from becoming stuck and/or humiliated on the extreme road 22.
The navigation system 16 is configured to determine and/or provide an optimized driving route to a driver of the vehicle 10. The navigation system 16 may include or otherwise be operatively connected to a memory location 18 and a controller 20. In one embodiment, the memory location 18 may be disposed remotely from the navigation system 16 such that the navigation system 16 is configured to access the memory location 18 remotely, i.e., wired, wirelessly, and the like. Information relating to a plurality of roads 22, including maps 24, a geographical location of a plurality of road segments 26, topographical information pertaining to the plurality of road segments 26, at least one intersection 28, 30, and posted speed limit is recorded in the memory location 18. The topographical information includes road grades that the vehicle 10 would need to ascend in order to traverse the roads 22 and/or road segments 26.
The controller 20 includes an algorithm 100 that provides a method of determining the optimized driving route for the vehicle 10, as explained in more detail below. The controller 20 may be configured as a digital computer generally comprising a microprocessor or central processing unit (CPU), at least one memory device, a high-speed clock, analog-to-digital (A/D) and digital-to-analog (D/A) circuitry, and input/output circuitry and devices (I/O), as well as appropriate signal conditioning and buffer circuitry. The memory device may include read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), electrically-erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), and the like. It should be appreciated that more than one algorithm may also be included in the controller 20. The algorithms 100 resident in the controller 20, or accessible thereby, including the algorithm 100, as described below with reference to
In general, computing systems and/or devices, such as the CPU, may employ any of a number of computer operating systems and generally include computer-executable instructions, where the instructions may be executable by one or more computing devices such as those listed above. Computer-executable instructions may be compiled or interpreted from computer programs created using a variety of well known programming languages and/or technologies, including, without limitation, and either alone or in combination, Java™, C, C++, Visual Basic, Java Script, Perl, etc. In general, a processor (e.g., a microprocessor) receives instructions, e.g., from a memory, a computer-readable medium, etc., and executes these instructions, thereby performing one or more processes, including one or more of the processes described herein. Such instructions and other data may be stored and transmitted using a variety of known computer-readable media.
A computer-readable medium (also referred to as a processor-readable medium) includes any non-transitory (e.g., tangible) medium that participates in providing data (e.g., instructions) that may be read by a computer (e.g., by a processor of a computer). Such a medium may take many forms, including, but not limited to, non-volatile media and volatile media. Non-volatile media may include, for example, optical or magnetic disks and other persistent memory. Volatile media may include, for example, dynamic random access memory (DRAM), which typically constitutes a main memory. Such instructions may be transmitted by one or more transmission media, including coaxial cables, copper wire and fiber optics, including the wires that comprise a system bus coupled to a processor of a computer. Common forms of computer-readable media include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, DVD, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, an EPROM, a FLASH-EEPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, or any other medium from which a computer can read.
The navigation system 16 may optionally include a telematics unit 32 and/or a visual display screen 34. More specifically, in one embodiment, the controller 20 may communicate the statistical information to the telematics unit 32. The telematics unit 32 may use, by way of a non-limiting example, Bluetooth®, OnStar®, cell phone, or other suitable system, and the like. The telematics unit 32 may be configured to monitor, record, and transmit the statistical information pertaining to operation of vehicle 10 by the driver. The telematics unit 32 may also be configured to monitor internal communication, such as bus traffic between various distributed control modules of the controller 20 when the controller 20 is so configured. The statistical information may be transmitted from the memory location 18 to a remote station, or be recorded and retained within the memory location 18 for later access and processing. As described below, the vehicle 10 may be equipped with the visual display screen 34 that is adapted for displaying messages in the form of maps 24, text messages, e-mail, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) links, and the like. The electric vehicle 10 may also be equipped with speakers 29 that are configured for providing audio messages and alerts to the driver of the vehicle 10.
Still referring to
Still referring to
The statistical information is specific to the vehicle 10 and/or any driver(s) thereof over a period of time, and could also include, without being limited to: average fuel consumption or average vehicle speed over a specified time period; a cumulative density function chart describing the percentage of driving where less than a predetermined amount of fuel consumption was achieved over the specified time period; a probability density function chart showing a distribution of fuel consumption over the specified time period; a cumulative density function chart showing a percentage of driving where greater than a threshold distance was achieved over the specified time period; a probability density function chart showing distribution of driving distances over the specified time period; and city driving fuel consumption, which is defined as the average fuel consumption for all driving over a specified time period where the average vehicle speed over a given key operating cycle is below a specified vehicle speed.
The statistical information may further include: highway driving fuel consumption defined as the average fuel consumption for all driving over a specified time period where the average vehicle speed over a given key cycle was above a specified speed; city driving fuel consumption divided by vehicle label city fuel consumption; highway driver intensity factor defined as highway driving fuel consumption divided by the vehicle label city fuel consumption; composite driver intensity factor defined as average fuel consumption divided by the vehicle label composite fuel consumption; local electric utility rates; the current and/or projected average price of gasoline; etc.
Referring to
The vehicle 10 is driven on one of the roads 22, as shown in
At step 114, at least one of the road segments 26 that is to be driven upon by the vehicle 10 in the future is identified. More specifically, based on the identified geographical location of the vehicle 10, a determination is made as to upcoming road segments 26 of the road 22 to be driven upon by the vehicle 10 or road segments 26 that intersect with the road 22 being driven upon by the vehicle 10 at the first intersection 28, as illustrated in
The powertrain limitations of the vehicle 10 are determined at step 116. The powertrain limitations may include, but are not limited to, energy capacity of the energy storage device 14, e.g., SOC, the cargo load within the vehicle 10, outside temperature, weather conditions, altitude, posted speed limit, the grade of the road 22 and/or road segments 26, and the like. The powertrain limitations are those operating variables that may have an effect on the energy output of the power source 12.
At step 118, each of the road segments 26 likely to be driven upon by the vehicle 10 in the future are modeled, along with the determined powertrain limitations of the vehicle 10, in order to predict if the vehicle 10 can drive upon at least one of the road segments 26 without a substantial degradation of vehicle 10 operating performance.
At step 120, a determination is made as to whether the vehicle 10 can operate at a vehicle speed that is at least substantially equal to the posted speed limit, based on the determined powertrain limitations. If it is determined that the vehicle 10 can operate at a vehicle speed that is at least substantially equal to the posted speed limit, based on the determined powertrain limitations, step 114 is initiated. By way of a non-limiting example, if the SOC of the vehicle 10 and the road grade are such that the vehicle 10 can operate at a maximum speed of 60 mph, the determined powertrain limitations may be considered to not result in a substantial degradation of vehicle 10 operating performance. Alternatively, if it is determined that the vehicle 10 cannot operate at a vehicle speed, i.e., operation would result in substantial degradation of vehicle 10 operating performance, then step 122 is initiated. By way of a non-limiting example, if the SOC of the vehicle 10 and the road grade are such that the vehicle 10 can only operate at a maximum speed of 30 miles per hour (mph), while the posted speed limit is 55 mph, the determined powertrain limitations may be considered to provide a substantial degradation of vehicle 10 operating performance. In step 122, an identification is made as to the first intersection(s) 28 where the vehicle 10 may enter one of the road segments 26 to avoid a substantial degradation of vehicle 10 operating performance.
At step 124, an identification is made as to the second intersection(s) 30 where the vehicle 10 may leave the road segments 26.
At step 126, a route along at least one of the road segments 26 that has been determined to not result in a substantial degradation in vehicle 10 operating performance is generated. At step 128, a determination is made as to whether all of the routes along at least one of the road segments 26 that have been determined to not result in a substantial degradation of vehicle 10 operating performance have been generated. If it is determined that all possible routes have not been generated, then step 122 is initiated. If, however, it is determined that all possible routes have been generated, step 130 is initiated.
At step 130, the driver of the vehicle 10 is alerted as to the route(s) generated along at least one of the road segments 26. More specifically, the location of the first intersection 28 where the vehicle 10 may enter at least one of the road segments 26 likely to be driven upon by the vehicle 10, and that has been determined to not result in a substantial degradation of vehicle operating performance is displayed to the driver of the vehicle 10, i.e., on the visual display screen 34. Where possible, the driver is alerted to the location of the first intersection(s) 28 where the vehicle may enter at least two different road segments 26 likely to be driven upon by the vehicle 10, and that have each been determined to not result in a substantial degradation of vehicle operating performance Alerting a driver means that the location of the first intersection 28 is displayed on the visual display screen 34.
Referring specifically to
Additionally, alerting the driver at step 130 may also include displaying an indicator 36 in the visual display screen 34 that displays a choice between road segments 26. Referring again to
Also, the driver may be alerted at step 130 as to one or more road segments 26 that would result in a substantial degradation of vehicle 10 operating performance. Accordingly, a directional icon 40 may be displayed on the visual display screen 34 that indicates a direction of travel of the vehicle 10 for the respective road segment 26 that would result in a substantial degradation of vehicle 10 operating performance on the display screen. For instance, the directional icon 40 may be an arrow 48 that indicates a direction for the vehicle 10 to turn to reach the respective road segment 26, along with the distance to travel between the first and second intersections 28, 30. To further alert the driver that driving on a particular road segment 26 is a bad choice that would result in a substantial degradation of vehicle performance, at least one choice feedback icon 42 may be displayed on the visual display screen 34. The choice feedback icon 42 may be a turtle 50, a prohibition symbol 52, and the like. The prohibition symbol 52 may be displayed to overlay the respective directional icon 40 to communicate to the driver of the vehicle 10 that the road segment 26 associated with the directional arrow 48 would result in a substantial degradation of vehicle 10 operating performance. To further communicate to the driver that the road segment 26 is not a good choice, i.e., would result in a slowed vehicle speed and/or slowed acceleration rate, the turtle 50 may also be displayed in association with the directional arrow. It should be appreciated that other indicators 36 may also be used to communicate to the driver that a particular road segment 26 would result in a substantial degradation of vehicle 10 operating performance. Additionally, an audio message pertaining to the road segments 26 that would result in a substantial degradation of vehicle operating performance may be transmitted through the speakers 29. The audio message may be in lieu of the visual display screen 34 or a supplement to the visual display screen 34 so as to limit any unnecessary distraction to the driver.
Referring to
At step 132, a determination is made as to whether the vehicle 10 is still on one of the road segments 26 that have been determined to not result in a substantial degradation of vehicle 10 operating performance. If the vehicle 10 is determined to still be on such a road segment 26, steps 128 and 130 are repeated until a determination is made that the vehicle is no longer on such a road segment 26, at which time step 112 is initiated.
While the best modes for carrying out the invention have been described in detail, those familiar with the art to which this invention relates will recognize various alternative designs and embodiments for practicing the invention within the scope of the appended claims.
