Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Tadayoshi Okada

Toshiaki Arai

Naoto Sen

Yasuhiko Tomokuni

Hisaya Izawa

Makoto Matsumoto

Akira Sugiyama

Kenichi Nishida

Hiroshi Sato

Masahiko Asakura

Kohei Hanada

Ryuji Sato

Yoshinari Sugita

Eisuke Horii

Hiroshi Yoneguchi

Mahito Ishiyama

Kazuo Yamashita

Hideo Nakahama

Shunichi Kawasumi

A control unit for a vehicle comprises an automatic engine stop-and-restart unit for stopping the engine responsive to predefined stop conditions and for restarting the engine responsive to predefined restart conditions, and a following-cruise control unit for controlling the vehicle to follow a vehicle ahead responsive to predefined following-cruise conditions. The automatic stop-and-restart unit for stopping and restarting the engine is configured to modify at least one of the stop conditions and the restart conditions during the following-cruise control.

Stop-and-restart control of a vehicle engine

A vehicular travel control device according to the invention includes an inter-vehicle distance measuring section that is mounted on a subject vehicle and measures an inter-vehicle distance between the subject vehicle and a preceding vehicle, a target inter-vehicle distance setting section that sets a target inter-vehicle distance, a following travel control section that performs a travel control so as to make the inter-vehicle distance become equal to the target inter-vehicle distance and stops the subject vehicle while following a stopping of the preceding vehicle, a gradient acquiring section that acquires a gradient of a road being traveled of the subject vehicle, and a vehicle speed sensor that measures a travel speed of the subject vehicle. The target inter-vehicle distance setting section sets the target inter-vehicle distance based on the gradient and the travel speed.

Vehicular travel control device

When a start-up operation by a driver is detected while a vehicle is maintained at a stopped state, a target driving force for suppressing the movement of the vehicle on the road to be driven is calculated, based on the grade obtained regarding the road to be driven on. After the vehicle is driven by the target driving force, the braking force is released so as to terminate the maintaining of the stopped state of the vehicle. Preferably, the state of being driven by the target driving force is maintained until the releasing of the braking force is completed. When the releasing of the braking force is completed, the driving force is increased to start-up the vehicle. With such a start-up control, vehicles are prevented from moving temporarily in a direction opposite from the traveling direction, and a smooth star-up can be achieved.

Apparatus and method for movement control of a vehicle

A vehicle running control device including: a vehicle speed sensor which detects an actual vehicle speed; a target vehicle speed setting unit; a target drive force calculation unit; a drive force control unit; a vehicle speed lowering allowance value setting unit; and a target drive force upper limit calculation unit. If the actual vehicle speed lowering amount with respect to the target vehicle speed is within the lowering allowance value, the target drive force calculation unit limits the target drive force to be not greater than the target drive force upper limit and the drive force control unit executes drive force control in accordance with the limited target drive force.

Vehicle running control device

A travel speed limiting apparatus including: a travel speed measurement device which measures a travel speed of a vehicle; a speed limit memory device which stores a speed limit set by an operator; a first driving force limit value calculation device which calculates a first driving force limit value based on a deviation of the travel speed from the speed limit; a requested driving force calculation device which calculates a requested driving force based on an operator's acceleration operation; and a second driving force limit value calculation device which calculates a second driving force limit value based on the requested driving force, wherein the driving force limiting device sets an eventual driving force limit value to the smaller of the first driving force limit value and the second driving force limit value, and controls the driving force of the vehicle to be less than the eventual driving force limit value.

Travel speed limiting apparatus

A drive control apparatus for a vehicle includes: a follow-up control device; a stop hold device that is capable of holding the vehicle in a stopped state by controlling a brake pressure; and a driving operation detection device that detects at least one of a brake operation and a shift operation to a reverse or neutral position, wherein the follow-up control device cancels the holding of the vehicle in the stopped state by making the stop hold device cancel the holding of the vehicle in the stopped state after holding the vehicle in the stopped state for a predetermined time period or by making the stop hold device gradually reduce the brake pressure when the driving operation detection device detects at least one of the brake operation and the shift operation to the reverse or neutral position while the vehicle is held in the stopped state.

Drive control apparatus for vehicle

A follow running control system of the present invention includes a running control device for performing running control of the present vehicle based on data of the preceding vehicle and a signal from the driving operation detecting device. If advancing of the preceding vehicle is detected by a preceding vehicle advancing detecting device while the advancing request information is stored by a advancing request storing device, the running control device changes a control state of the present vehicle with respect to a follow running control device and starts follow running control.

Follow running control system

In a control system for an internal combustion engine having a plurality of cylinders and mounted on a vehicle, in which the engine operation is switched based on the throttle opening between a full-cylinder operation in which all of the cylinders are operative and a cut-off cylinder operation in which some of the cylinders are inoperative, and a running control including a cruise control in which the vehicle runs at a desired vehicle velocity and a preceding vehicle follow-up control in which the vehicle runs at a desired vehicle velocity to maintain a desired inter-vehicle distance from a preceding vehicle are conducted. In the system, an acceleration suppression control is conducted if the engine operation is switched from the cut-off cylinder operation to the full-cylinder operation when the running control is in progress. With this, sharp or drastic acceleration accompanying torque fluctuation is effectively avoided, when the engine operation is switched to the full-cylinder operation.

Control system for cylinder cut-off internal combustion engine

A driving control apparatus comprising: an detecting device that detects objects; a preceding vehicle determining device that determines a preceding vehicle; a driving control device that executes a driving control; a control start intention detection device that detects an intention of a driver to start the control; and a control start intention detection device that detects an intention of a driver to start the follow-up control or the stop hold control, wherein the control state determination device sets to the follow-up control state when the preceding vehicle is detected by the preceding vehicle detection device and when the intention is detected, and sets to the stop hold state when the intention is detected while the vehicle is substantially in the stopped and no object is detected by the object detection device.

Driving control apparatus

In a control system for an internal combustion engine having a plurality of cylinders and mounted on a vehicle, in which the engine operation is switched based on the throttle opening between a full-cylinder operation in which all of the cylinders are operative and a cut-off cylinder operation in which some of the cylinders are inoperative, and a running control including at least a cruise control in which the vehicle runs at a desired vehicle velocity is conducted, the engine operation is switched to the full-cylinder operation when it is determined that deceleration is required in the running control, so as to increase pumping loss (engine loss). With this, it becomes possible to generate the deceleration sufficiently as desired, when, for example, the vehicle descends a downhill.

In an adaptive cruise control (ACC) region where vehicle speed V is greater than a predetermined third vehicle speed #V, a decrease amount of a target inter-vehicle distance per predetermined unit vehicle speed decrease amount in a state where the vehicle speed V is less than a predetermined fourth vehicle speed #Vis smaller than a decrease amount of the target inter-vehicle distance per predetermined unit vehicle speed decrease amount in a state where the vehicle speed V is greater than the predetermined fourth vehicle speed #V. The decrease amount of the target inter-vehicle distance per predetermined unit vehicle speed decrease amount in a state where the vehicle speed V is less than a predetermined first vehicle speed #Vis larger than a decrease amount of the target inter-vehicle distance per predetermined unit vehicle speed decrease amount in a state where the vehicle speed V is greater than the predetermined first vehicle speed #Vand less than a predetermined second vehicle speed #V

Cruise control apparatus for vehicle

A running control system of the present invention includes a follow-up intention detection device for detecting an operation of requesting a follow-running control by the driver, and a running control device for aborting the follow-running control with respect to the preceding vehicle based on a signal from the braking operation detection device. If an operation by the driver for requesting the follow-running control is detected by the driver while the braking operation by the driver is detected by the braking operation detection device, the running control device starts the follow-running control after the end of the driver's braking operation.

Running control system

A follow running control system includes a running control section for performing running control of the present vehicle based on data of the preceding vehicle and a signal from a device for detecting a driving operation performed by a driver of the present vehicle. If a driving operation by the driver for requesting starting of the present vehicle is detected while the present vehicle is stopped in a stop control state, the running control section changes a control state of the present vehicle, with respect to a follow running control device for controlling follow running of the present vehicle based on a target speed of the vehicle, from the stop control state to a follow control state for following the preceding vehicle, regardless of starting of preceding vehicle.

In a control system for an internal combustion engine having a plurality of cylinders whose operation of the engine can be switched between full-cylinder operation during which all of the cylinders are operative and cut-off-cylinder operation during which some of the cylinders are non-operative, and running control, i.e., either cruise control during which the vehicle is controlled to run at a desired vehicle velocity or preceding vehicle follow-up control during which the vehicle is controlled to run at a desired vehicle velocity to maintain a desired inter-vehicle distance from a preceding vehicle, is performed in response to an instruction of an operator, it is judged whether a velocity error between a detected vehicle velocity and the desired vehicle velocity and load of the engine are equal to or smaller than corresponding threshold values. If the result is affirmative when the running control is in progress, it is determined that running condition of the vehicle is stable and the engine operation is switched to the cut-off-cylinder operation, thereby preventing a control hunting from happening, while ensuring to improve fuel consumption by utilizing the cut-off-cylinder operation as much as possible.

Growing community of inventors

Shioya-gun, Japan

Tadayoshi Okada