Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Tomoyuki Shinmura

Kenji Kodaka

Yoichi Sugimoto

Hiromi Inagaki

Masakatsu Hori

Akihiro Iwazaki

Tatsuhiro Tomari

Shohei Matsuda

Takashi Kuribayashi

Kazuhiro Wada

Shinji Okuma

Yasuji Shibahata

Kohei Hanada

Shinji Ohkuma

Yoshinori Aoki

Kaoru Kusaka

Suguru Ito

A vehicle controlling device includes: a VSA-ECU that performs deceleration control of a host vehicle using an inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle and another vehicle traveling in front of the host vehicle; and an engine control unit that performs idling stop control of stopping drive of an engine as a driving source of the host vehicle upon satisfying stop conditions including a condition that vehicle speed of the host vehicle enters a predetermined low vehicle speed range and performs restart control of restarting the engine upon satisfying a predetermined restart condition. A power supply mounted on the host vehicle is used in common as a power supply used in executing the deceleration control and a power supply used in executing the restart control. The engine control unit prohibits execution of the idling stop control during execution of the deceleration control.

Vehicle controlling device and vehicle having the same

A vehicular suspension system is provided which includes upper and lower arms connected to a vehicle body in such a manner as to pivot in an up-and-down direction. The upper arm and the lower arm retain upper and lower portions of a knuckle, respectively. The suspension system includes retention mechanisms for retaining the upper and lower arms in such a manner as to allow the upper and lower arms to shift in a lateral direction of the vehicle body, and conversion mechanisms for converting pivotal movements of the upper and lower arms in the up-and-down direction into displacements of the upper and lower arms in the lateral direction of the vehicle body.

Suspension system for vehicle

A vehicle co-operative control system is provided which suppresses the torque steer phenomenon by co-operatively controlling a driving force and/or braking force distribution device and an electric power steering device without changing the control device of the electric power steering device for a vehicle having a specification in which the co-operative control is not carried out or with the introduction of only a minimal change. The control device can also be applied to a vehicle having a specification in which the co-operative control is carried out. In order to achieve this, the steering torque detected by the steering torque detecting device is input into a corrected steering torque calculating device of a first electronic control unit for controlling the driving force and/or braking force distribution device and a corrected steering torque which has been calculated in the corrected steering torque calculating device is input into the second electronic control unit for controlling the electric power steering device. The second electronic control unit controls the electric power steering device based on the corrected steering torque and thus the torque steer phenomenon caused by the driving force and/or braking force distribution device is suppressed.

Vehicle co-operative control system

A collision avoiding system is provided to enhance a collision avoiding effect by stabilizing a vehicle behavior during automatic braking. Steering controlling apparatus includes not only an ordinary electric power steering control unit but also an active steering reaction calculating unit for driving a motor of a steering system to compensate for the influence of disturbances, if the vehicle is shocked by an unusual bounce from an uneven road or the like. When obstacle detecting apparatus such as a laser-radar detects an obstacle which requires operation of automatic braking, a control parameter changing unit receives the automatic braking activating signal to make a change in the control parameters for an active steering reaction control. As a result, the steering control apparatus controls steering to suppress the influence of the disturbances more substantially during automatic control of the vehicle than otherwise, so that the turbulence of the vehicle can be prevented to retain a sufficient braking force, thereby enhancing the collision avoiding effect.

Collision avoiding system for vehicles

A steering actuator is prevented from generating excess steering torque that gives an uncomfortable feeling to a driver who is holding a steering wheel when a collision between a vehicle and an oncoming vehicle is avoided by automatic steering by the actuator. When there is a possibility of a collision between the vehicle and an oncoming vehicle, the collision with the oncoming vehicle is avoided by supplying a lateral movement control current having a sinusoidal shape to the actuator of an electric power steering device to move the vehicle laterally. The yaw angle of the vehicle is detected by integrating the yaw rate simultaneously with the start of the lateral movement, and in order to return the vehicle attitude of the vehicle to its original state by converging the yaw angle to 0 in the final stage of the lateral movement, a yaw angle correction control current is superimposed on the lateral movement control current and supplied to the actuator. By using the current supplied to the actuator (that is, the steering torque generated by the actuator) as the steering target value for avoiding a collision instead of the steering angle, the actuator can be prevented from generating excess steering torque which gives an uncomfortable feeling to a driver.

Vehicle travel safety device

An electric power steering system for a vehicle that consists of a motor control signal calculation device for calculating a motor control signal for driving a motor to generate a steering assist torque, which is based on at least a steering torque detected by a steering torque sensor, a motor control signal correction calculation device for calculating a corrected motor control signal from an amount of motor control signal correction calculated by an external control device and the motor control signal, a driving device for driving a motor based on the corrected motor control signal calculated by the motor control signal correction calculation device; and a motor control signal correction amount reducing device for reducing the amount of motor control signal correction according to vehicle speed.

Electric power steering system

A co-operative control system for a vehicle including a force distribution device for distributing the driving force or braking force between the right and left wheels or between the front and rear wheels, includes a first control means for controlling the operation of the force distribution device, an electric power steering device, having a motor for applying a steering assist torque to a vehicle steering system, and a second control means for calculating a motor control signal for driving the motor. The motor control signal is based on at least the steering torque detected by a steering torque detecting means. The first control means calculates a correction signal for correcting said motor control signal based on the distributed force generated by the force distribution device, the second control means drives the motor based on the corrected motor control signal obtained by correcting the motor control signal with the correction signal and the first control means stops the operation of the force distribution device when the electric power steering device or the second control means malfunctions.

Co-operative control system for a vehicle

The operational burden and uncomfortable feeling given to a driver by automatically restoring the disturbance in the vehicle attitude of a vehicle caused by a collision avoidance control, is reduced when avoiding a collision between the vehicle and an oncoming vehicle by automatic steering. When there is a possibility of a collision between the vehicle and an oncoming vehicle, the collision with the oncoming vehicle is avoided by supplying a lateral movement control current I having a sinusoidal shape to the actuator of the electric power steering device, to move the vehicle laterally. The yaw angle of the vehicle is detected by integrating the yaw rate simultaneously with the start of the lateral movement, and in order to return the vehicle attitude of the vehicle to its original state by converging the yaw angle to 0 in the final stage of the lateral movement, a yaw angle correction control current I is superimposed on the lateral movement control current I and supplied to the actuator. Thus, after avoiding a collision with the oncoming vehicle, the disturbance in the vehicle attitude can automatically be restored and the operational burden and uncomfortable feeling given to the driver can be reduced.

In a safety running system, a transverse travelling distance resulting when a subject vehicle travels to a current position of an oncoming vehicle is calculated based on the vehicle velocity and yaw rate of the subject vehicle, a relative transverse distance of the oncoming vehicle relative to a vehicle body axis of the subject vehicle is calculated based on a relative distance, relative velocity and relative angle between the subject vehicle and the oncoming vehicle detected by a radar information processor. When a relative transverse deviation obtained by subtracting the transverse travelling distance from the relative transverse distance resides within a range and that state continues to exist over a predetermined time period, it is judged that there is a collision possibility of the subject vehicle with the oncoming vehicle, and automatic steering is performed so as to avoid a collision.

Safety running system for vehicle

A co-operative control system for a vehicle having a force distribution device for distributing at least one of a driving force and a braking force between spaced apart wheels, the co-operative system having: a first control mechanism for controlling the operation of the force distribution device, an electric power steering device having a motor for applying a steering assist torque to a steering system of the vehicle, and a second control mechanism for calculating a motor control signal for driving the motor based on at least a steering torque detected by a steering torque sensor, and for inhibiting drive of the motor based on at least an actual motor detected by a current sensor and the steering torque. The first control mechanism calculates a correction signal for correcting the motor control signal based on the amount of control of the force distribution device and an offset current for correcting the actual motor current signal; and the second control mechanism drives the motor based on a corrected motor control signal obtained by correcting the motor control signal with the correction signal and inhibits the drive of the motor based on a value obtained by correcting the actual motor current signal with the offset current and the steering torque signal, the offset current being set smaller than the correction signal.

An integrated vehicle control system including: contact possibility determining means for determining whether a possibility of contact with an obstacle is great, first brake control means for controlling operation of the vehicle brake in response to the possibility of contact, vehicle behavior detecting means for detecting parameters such as the vehicle yaw rate, vehicle behavior control means for calculating a value such as the error between the detected yaw rate and a reference yaw rate and calculating a manipulated variable (braking force difference) such that the veerability of vehicle is enhanced, and second brake control means for controlling operation of the vehicle brake in response to the calculated manipulated variable. In the system, the vehicle behavior control means advances the timing of the calculation of the manipulated variable or increases the manipulated variable, when the possibility of contact is great, whereby effecting the vehicle behavior sufficient for avoiding an obstacle, while enhancing the vehicle veerability.

Integrated control system of vehicle

An integrated vehicle control system including: contact possibility determining means for determining whether a possibility of contact with an obstacle is great, first brake control means for controlling operation of the vehicle brake in response to the possibility of contact, vehicle behavior detecting means for detecting parameters such as the vehicle yaw rate, vehicle behavior control means for calculating a value such as the error between the detected yaw rate and a reference yaw rate and calculating a manipulated variable (braking force difference) to make vehicle behavior stable, and second brake control means for controlling operation of the vehicle brake in response to the calculated manipulated variable. In the system, the vehicle behavior control means advances the timing of the calculation of the manipulated variable or increases the manipulated variable, when the possibility of contact is great, whereby effecting the vehicle behavior sufficient for avoiding an obstacle, while ensuring stable vehicle behavior.

A lateral deviation &dgr;d which is a lateral distance between an intrinsic appropriate course R for a vehicle Ai and a contact position P at which the vehicle Ai will come into contact with an on-coming vehicle Ao, is calculated based on a relative angle &thgr;, a relative distance L and a relative speed Vs which are detected by a radar device, and based on a vehicle speed Vi of the vehicle Ai detected by vehicle speed sensors. When the lateral deviation &dgr;d is in a range of &dgr;dn<&dgr;d<&dgr;dx, it is determined that there is the possibility that the vehicle Ai will collide frontally with the on-coming vehicle Ao. The lateral deviation &dgr;d can be calculated based on the relative angle &thgr;, the relative distance L and the relative speed Vs provided in one cycle of transmission and reception of beam by the radar device. Therefore, the possibility of collision can be determined immediately at a time point when the on-coming vehicle Ao is recognized, without continuous detection of the correlation between the vehicle Ai and the on-coming vehicle Ao by the radar device.

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Wako, Japan

Tomoyuki Shinmura