Daimler Chrysler Ag

Daimler Ag

Schenck Final Assembly Products Gmbh

Ottmar Gehring

Gernot Spiegelberg

Andreas Schwarzhaupt

Armin Sulzmann

Harro Heilmann

Frederic Holzmann

Wolfgang Stahl

Felix Kauffmann

Juergen Elser

Christian Michael Mayer

Hans Fritz

Daniel Nullmeier

Carsten Haemmerling

Thomas Tentrup

Christophe Veber

Jan Schenk

Sascha Englert

Andreas Schwartzhaupt

Carsten Hämmerling

Harro Heilman

Erik Sieglin

Armin Sulzman

A method for optimizing a power requirement of a motor vehicle that includes a speed control system for a drive unit and a temperature control system for a cooling circuit of the drive unit. A first power requirement of the drive unit to be expected and a second power requirement of the cooling circuit to be expected are determined based on at least one route parameter. A driving strategy corresponding to the route parameter is initially selected, and the first power requirement corresponding to the driving strategy and the second power requirement corresponding to the driving strategy are determined. Based on the determined first and second power requirements, the driving strategy is then adjusted in such a way that an overall power requirement of the motor vehicle is minimized.

Method for optimizing a power requirement of a motor vehicle

A hybrid drive control device for a hybrid motor vehicle includes a control or regulation unit having a hybrid operating module that predictively controls or regulates at least a state of charge of an energy store as a function of at least one route parameter. The control or regulation unit has at least one speed control operating module that predictively controls or regulates a motor vehicle speed as a function of the at least one route parameter.

Hybrid drive control device

The present invention discloses a method for energy management, by means of which significant fluctuations in the power consumption in the on-board electrical system are reduced, in particular, current consumption peaks arising due to a very high start-up current of electrical actuators and solenoid valves, are more evenly distributed over time. To achieve this, the method for energy management according to the invention operates predictively, i.e. it determines both the energy available in the subsequent time interval and the energy required on the basis of activation requests, and selects consumers to be activated according to their priority and a prevailing tolerance time within which a consumer must be activated following the submission of its activation request. The tolerance time is thereby continuously adapted.

Method for energy management

The invention relates to a method for logging messages on a data bus and temporarily storing the sent messages in a cyclically overwritable volatile storing means. The temporarily stored messages can be examined in a targeted manner for attributes of interest by using a verification program. A storage of the temporarily stored messages in a non-volatile second storing means can be initiated by means of definable trigger events that, for example, are formed from individual or a number of attributes of the messages. To this end, the occurrence of the defined trigger event is determined by a monitoring unit, and the data content of the volatile storing means are subsequently transferred into the storage locations of the non-volatile storing means. The principal advantage achieved with the above method resides in the possibility of backtracking the bus traffic. The exchanged messages may be backtracked and thus provide for the possibility to determine from which process and from which control device was the error message sent on the bus. This assists in a decisive manner in the error-seeking in complex communications networks. By means of the backtracking of the error message or with the analysis as to which message has eventually triggered an error in the communications network, it may be ascertained which process is responsible for the error and which program step triggered it. The error-seeking in the software programming of complex control device combination is thereby decisively facilitated.

Data logging in a motor vehicle

Many day-to-day driving situations require that an operator of a motor vehicle guide the motor vehicle along a specific course and bring the vehicle to a stop at a specific location, for example in a parking bay or at a loading platform. To assist a vehicle operator in such situations, a method and a suitable device for implementing this method, include detecting the potential target objects in the image data of an image sensor and identifying the potential target objects as potential destinations in a multi-stage exclusionary method, whereupon a trajectory describing an optimized travel path is computed at least in relation to the most proximate destination. By using the multi-stage exclusionary method according to the present invention, it is possible to reliably identify potential destinations in complex image scenarios solely on the basis of their geometric form, even when the destinations have not been encoded by specific symbols.

Docking assistant

A system for coupling a trailer () to a motor vehicle (), in particular a trailer () to a motor tractor (), is provided with an image sensor (), which is located in the coupling area. The coupling process involves connecting a trailer coupler () of the motor vehicle () and a tow bar () of the trailer (), which is detected by an image sensor () detecting a movement of a locking element () associated with the trailer coupling (). Thereupon a process of braking of the motor vehicle () is initiated.

System for hitching a trailer to a motor vehicle

In a control system for a train composed of a towing vehicle and a trailer, the towing vehicle is equipped with an electronically actuatable drive train. A trailer steering angle actual value sensor determines a trailer actual steering angle of a wheel axle which steers the trailer. The driver of the vehicle can input a trailer setpoint steering angle via a trailer steering angle setpoint value sensor. A reversing device is provided which determines, from the trailer actual steering angle and the trailer setpoint steering angle, a modified towing vehicle setpoint steering angle of a wheel axle which steers the towing vehicle. In the active state of the reversing device, the modified towing vehicle setpoint steering angle takes the place of the present towing vehicle setpoint steering angle in a modified movement vector; and when the train is moving, it changes the trailer actual steering angle into the trailer setpoint steering angle when the modified movement vector is processed.

Control system for a vehicle

In the case of a method for hitching a trailer () to a motor vehicle (), in particular a semitrailer to a semitrailer towing machine, an image sensor () is provided which is arranged in a hitching region () in such a manner that image data of the hitching region () are recorded. During the approach of the motor vehicle () to the trailer (), stored model data of the hitching region () of the trailer () are segmented in the image data recorded by the image sensor () and are in each case placed in the correct position in the image data. A target zone () for the hitching is determined therefrom. The arrangement of the target zone () in the image data is used as a measurement for a steering operation of the motor vehicle () during hitching.

Process for coupling a trailer to a motor vehicle

A transport () or an associated trailer () with a loadable swap body () having a support frame and support legs () attached to the frame and moveable between a resting position and a support position wherein that the swap body () can be set on the ground without the transport/trailer. At least one support leg () is allocated an element () for automatically moving the support leg () from the resting position into the support position and/or vice versa. A control device () disposed on the transport/trailer () transmits a control signal to an actuating element (), secured to the transport/trailer (), that cooperates with the support leg () to move the leg into the support or resting position, and the control device () is connected to at least one further locking actuator for determining whether the swap body () is secured to the transport during travel.

Transport for swap body

In a module for detecting the docking of a vehicle, changes of vehicle engine torque and rotational wheel speed of the vehicle are determined as a function of time. It is checked whether the change of the engine torque is &#x3e;&#x3e;0 and the change of the rotational wheel speed is &#x3c;&#x3c;0. If both of these conditions are met, docking is detected and the vehicle can be braked. The module may be implemented in the form of software.

Method of detecting the docking of vehicles

The invention relates to a vehicle test stand including a device for fixing a motor vehicle on the test stand. A loading machine is adapted to be coupled to the drive train of the motor vehicle, whereby the loading machine can both drive and brake the drive train. In accordance with the invention, the loading machine is directly or indirectly connectable to a rim of a motor vehicle wheel in force-locking manner.

Vehicle test stand

In a device for actuating vehicle assemblies, vehicle movement data is fed to a central arithmetic unit which generates the actuation signals for the vehicle assemblies. The central arithmetic unit has a plurality of software modules, a longitudinal dynamics software module which processes a component of the predefined vehicle movement data in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, and a lateral dynamics software module which processes a component of the vehicle movement data in the lateral direction of the vehicle.

Device for actuating vehicle assemblies

In a process and a system for controlling the longitudinal dynamics of a motor vehicle, a drive train actuating signal is determined from actual vehicle condition data, controller-internal desired longitudinal velocity values, and desired longitudinal acceleration values determined by means of fed input data concerning the desired longitudinal acceleration and the actual driving condition. According to the invention, as a function of the controller-internal desired longitudinal velocity values and desired longitudinal acceleration values as well as of actual driving condition data, by means of an inverse characteristic vehicle longitudinal dynamics diagram, a desired drive train actuating signal is determined and the drive train actuating signal is determined therefrom.

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Kernen, Germany

Ottmar Gehring