Nissan Motor Company Limited

Sota Yasuda

Toru Iwata

A vehicle stability apparatus and method with an on-off-switch, to prevent the driving road wheel from applying excessive braking force when the traction control apparatus is off. When a selectable switch is selected off, a control unit does not exert the traction control to decrease the engine output power to restrain the driving wheels slip even if driving wheel slip is generating. Then the control unit exerts the yaw moment control apparatus for optimizing vehicle stability to control wheel braking force of respective road wheels, and the control unit compulsory exerts the traction control during generating wheel slip irrespective of the switch.

Vehicle stability control apparatus and method

Disclosed are apparatus and method for controlling a yawing motion variable such as a yaw rate for an automotive vehicle in which a) detecting the yawing motion variable which is actually developed in the vehicle is detected, a vehicular running status information except the yawing motion variable is detected, a target yawing motion variable is calculated on the basis of the vehicular running status information, a determination of whether the vehicle is stopped on the basis of the vehicular running status information is made a feedback control of the yawing motion variable is carried out so that the detected yawing motion variable is coincident with the target yawing motion variable, the feedback control of the yawing motion variable being suspended at least when the vehicle is stopped. The suspension (inhibit) of the feedback control of the yawing motion variable is carried out when the vehicle is parked on such a turn table or movable platform as found in a parking machine to enter the vehicle in such a tower parking such as a multi-floor parking building.

Apparatus and method for controlling yawing motion variable for

In an apparatus and method for controlling a yaw rate of an automotive vehicle, a correction of a steering angular sensor detected absolute value of a steering angular displacement of a steering wheel of the vehicle is made by means of a controller by a correction variable for an offset of the neutral steered point to a real neutral steered point by a correction using which the detected absolute value of the steering angular displacement corresponds to the real neutral steered point and indicates zero at the neutral steered point to derive a neutral point corrected steering angle, determination of a target yaw rate of the vehicle on the basis of the neutral point corrected steering angular displacement is made, and a motion of the vehicle as a yaw rate control is controlled so as to achieve the target yaw rate, a determination of whether a variation rate of the neutral point offset correction variable is equal to or above a predetermined variation rate during a predetermined control period is made, and a suppression of the yaw rate control is carried out while determining that the variation rate of the neutral point offset correction variable is equal to or above the predetermined variation rate. In a preferred embodiment, a reduction of the yaw rate is carried out to suppress the yaw rate control.

Apparatus and method for controlling yaw rate of automotive vehicle

In a four wheel drive vehicle, when rear wheels which are principal drive wheels skid, first a traction control system is operated so as to reduce the drive power to the rear wheels. Thereafter the proportion of drive power apportioned to the front wheels which are auxiliary drive wheels is increased by a torque splitting control system. By doing this, skidding of a wheel due to delay in application of traction control is prevented.

Drive power control device for vehicle

The drive wheels of a vehicle are connected to an engine via a torque converter and racing of the drive wheels during starting of the vehicle and subsequent acceleration is prevent by reducing the torque of the drive wheels according to the driving state of the vehicle. A slip factor of the torque converter is computed, and a lower limit of the torque is set based on the slip rate. Insufficient acceleration after starting is avoided by preventing the torque of the drive wheels from falling below this lower limit.

Vehicle drive torque controller

A control system for controlling an acceleration slip of a wheeled vehicle by performing a fuel cut control and an ignition timing control is designed to prevent a temperature increase of an engine system and to prevent a heating of a catalyst in an exhaust system when an engine output reduction control is continued. When a predetermined engine operating condition such as a high engine load condition or a high engine speed condition or a high engine temperature condition is detected during the engine torque reduction control, the control system further reduces the engine output gradually, or alternatively the control system inhibits the ignition timing control to reduce the engine output and instead increases the number of fuel cut cylinders.

Fuel cut and ignition timing control system for controlling acceleration

A control system, such as a traction control system, for a wheel vehicle comprises a detecting section for detecting a hydroplaning condition by comparing a difference between a sensed undriven wheel speed, and a filter signal obtained by passing the sensed undriven wheel speed signal through a low-pass filter, and a controlling section for performing a control action adapted to the hydroplaning condition. This control system can detect the hydroplaning condition accurately, and control the vehicle adequately to negotiate the hydroplaning condition.

System for detecting hydroplaning of vehicle

An automobile total traction control system comprises a primary traction control system utilizing at least one of a fuel-cut control and an ignition-timing control, a secondary traction control system utilizing a driving-force reduction control different from the fuel-cut control and the ignition-timing control, sensors for detecting a wheel speed of each road wheel to derive a slip rate of each drive wheel and detecting an engine condition such as engine load and engine speed, and a controller for determining an acceleration-slip state of the vehicle based on the derived slip rate. During acceleration-slip, the controller determines the control allocation between the primary and secondary traction control systems based on the detected engine load, such that the control allocation of the primary traction control system to the secondary traction control system is decreased in accordance with an increase in the detected engine load.

Automobile traction control system

An apparatus for determining wheel slippage which may be utilized for traction control of an automotive vehicle is provided. This apparatus determines a compliance wheel speed difference between right and left compliance wheels. When the compliance wheel speed difference is smaller than a preselected threshold value, a compliance wheel reference speed is determined by averaging right and left compliance wheel speeds, when it is greater than the preselected threshold value, the compliance wheel reference speed is determined based on a greater one of the right and left compliance wheel speeds. The apparatus determines a degree of the wheel slippage based on a difference between the compliance wheel reference wheel and a driven wheel speed.

Determining appropriate wheel speeds to be used for traction control

A traction control system for an automotive vehicle comprises, a brake fluid pressure control actuator associated with at least driven wheels for reducing traction created through the driven wheels, and sensors for monitoring an acceleration-slip state of at least one of the driven wheels. A recovery control unit is arranged for deriving a degree of turn of the vehicle, and for deriving a rate of change in the vehicle turning degree. The recovery control unit is responsive to the change-rate in the turning degree during an acceleration-slip control, for controlling traction in a transient state shifting from turning to straight-ahead driving, in such a manner as to increase a recovery amount of driving torque caused by the driven wheel as the turning degree is weakened.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Sota Yasuda