Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Fujitsu Ten Limited

Hiroto Miura

Kenichi Ishii

Hideki Ohashi

Yosuke Yamashita

Masataka Okuda

Motoki Komiya

Masatoshi Watanabe

Keisuke Kido

Shigeto Umeyama

Chiharu Morisaki

Satoshi Noguchi

A controller of an air-fuel-ratio sensor according to an embodiment includes a current supplying unit, a sweep processing unit, and an abnormality detecting unit. The current supplying unit supplies a current to the pump cell through a first terminal connected with the pump cell so as to control the pump cell. The sweep processing unit executes a sweeping process in which a predetermined voltage or a predetermined current is applied to the detection cell through a second terminal connected with the detection cell so as to change a voltage and a current of the detection cell. The abnormality detecting unit detects a short-circuited state between the first terminal and the second terminal on the basis of a fluctuation in a voltage or a current, generated by the sweeping process, of the first terminal.

Controller and abnormality detecting method of air-fuel-ratio sensor

A controller of an air-fuel-ratio sensor includes a control unit, a voltage-abnormality detecting unit, and a short-circuit-abnormality detecting unit. The control unit controls a current and a voltage of a gas sensor element through a plurality of terminals connected with the gas sensor element. The voltage-abnormality detecting unit changes, when at least one of voltages of the plurality of terminals is out of a predetermined range, a voltage level of an output voltage. The short-circuit-abnormality detecting unit causes, when the voltage level of the output voltage changes from a first voltage into a second voltage, a control unit to perform for a predetermined time a protective operation that suppresses currents from the control unit to the plurality of terminals, and detects, when the voltage level of the output voltage is the second voltage after the protective operation is released, a short-circuit abnormality.

A vehicle control apparatus is provided that can maintain an automatic engine stop function when an abnormality occurs in a preceding vehicle following control function. The vehicle control apparatus includes a first control unit configured to include a preceding vehicle following control function to control vehicle speed, based on a traveling state of a preceding vehicle, and to output a prohibition request to an automatic engine stop function; and a second control unit configured to include the automatic engine stop function, and to maintain the automatic engine stop function, contrary to the prohibition request output from the first control unit, when an abnormality occurs in the preceding vehicle following control function.

Vehicle control apparatus

An engine control device applied to a vehicle equipped with an actuator for changing a suspension property of the vehicle, a suspension control device for driving the actuator, and an engine. The engine control device automatically stops the engine operation when a stop condition is satisfied and automatically starts the engine operation when a start condition is satisfied, continues the engine operation when a signal for inhibiting the automatic stop of the engine operation is sent to the engine control device in order to drive the actuator and the engine control device judges that no malfunction occurs in the suspension control device even if the stop condition is satisfied, and ignores the signal and automatically stops the engine operation when the stop condition is satisfied and judges that the malfunction occurs in the suspension control device even if the signal is sent to the engine control device.

Engine control device

The engine control device is applied to a vehicle equipped with a suspension control device for driving stepping motors for changing damping forces of shock absorbers. The suspension control device performs an initializing process for resolving the step-out of the stepping motors by driving the stepping motors when an initialization performing condition is satisfied. The engine control device continues the engine operation when a signal for inhibiting the automatic stop of the operation of the engine is sent to the engine control device and the engine control device judges that no malfunction occurs in the suspension control device even if the engine stop condition is satisfied. The engine control device automatically stops the operation of the engine when the engine stop condition is satisfied and the engine control device judges that a malfunction occurs in the suspension control device even if the signal is sent to the engine control device.

Growing community of inventors

Toyota, Japan

Hiroto Miura