Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Yutaka Hirano

Shintaro Inoue

Pongsathorn Raksincharoensak

Hideo Inoue

Akira Eiraku

Shinichi Soejima

Kaoru Ohashi

Yoshiyuki Hatakeyama

Hiroshi Kawakami

Yoshinori Kadowaki

Chiaki Hamada

Zensaku Murakami

Hiroki Okamura

Shin'ichi Soejima

There is provided a structure in a driving support system of a vehicle equipped with a steering assist mechanism and a torque vectoring mechanism of right and left wheels, the system capable of reducing an occurrence of a driver's sense of incongruity as much as possible also during the operation of a control based on a machine input and reflecting a driver's steering in the control. The inventive device comprises a steering assist torque controller which controls a steering assist torque given by the steering assist mechanism, a right and left braking-driving force difference controller which controls the braking-driving force difference between the right and left wheels given by the torque vectoring mechanism and a control target value determiner which determines the target values of the steering assist torque and braking-driving force difference for driving support control, based on the steering torque by the driver.

Vehicle driving support control device

An apparatus as an aspect of the invention acquires a vehicle motion index value, a driving state index value of a driver, a driving characteristic value that is estimated based on the vehicle motion index value and the driving state index value, and a vehicle motion target value and a driving state target value that are determined regardless of the driver's driving. Using these values, the apparatus determines a target value of a steering assist torque and a target value of a difference in braking/driving force between right and left wheels that converge at least one of a difference between the vehicle motion target value and the vehicle motion index value and a difference between the driving state target value and the driving state index value. The apparatus controls the steering assist torque and the difference in braking/driving force between the right and left wheels to their respective target values.

Driving support control apparatus for vehicle

In a driving support system of a vehicle, there is provided a structure that, even during operating a control based on a machine input, a driver's sense of incongruity can be reduced as much as possible and/or the steering of the driver be can reflected. The vehicle is equipped with a steering assist mechanism and a braking-driving force distribution mechanism of right and left wheels. In operations of the inventive device, a steering assist torque, applied by the steering assist mechanism, is controlled to a target value determined with reference to a target steering torque to achieve the target route, determined without depending on steering of a driver, and a driver's steering torque; and a braking-driving force difference between the right and left wheels is controlled to a target value based on a steering angle of the driver.

Provided are a physiological condition estimation device and a vehicle control device capable of preventing an error in the operation of an apparatus, such as a vehicle, and improving the safety of the operation of the apparatus. The physiological condition estimation device includes an eye-open time acquiring unit that acquires the eye-open time of the driver, a variation calculating unit that acquires a variation in the eye-open time acquired by the eye-open time acquiring unit, and a drowsiness predicting unit that determines the physiological condition of the driver on the basis of the variation in the eye-open time acquired by the variation calculating unit. In this way, since the physiological condition is determined on the basis of the variation in the eye-open time, it is possible to detect a slight reduction in the arousal level and estimate a significant reduction in the arousal level to a value that will cause an error in the driving of the vehicle in the future.

Physiological condition estimation device and vehicle control device

A braking control system for a motor vehicle in which various braking controls, including an antiskid braking control and a traction control, are realized comprehensively, accurately and smoothly without being based on the slip factor of a wheel. The actual wheel speed (Wvr) of the rear wheel side is detected, and the desired wheel speed (Wrf) of the front wheel side is set so as to be lower than the actual wheel speed (Wvr). Besides, the actual wheel speed (Wvf) of the front wheel side is detected, and the deviation (ef) between the actual wheel speed (Wvf) and the desired wheel speed (Wrf) is detected. Subsequently, the desired braking torque (Nrf) of the front wheel side is calculated from the deviation (ef) and the actual wheel speed (Wvf). Further, the desired braking torque (Nrr) of the rear wheel side is set on the basis of the desired braking torque (Nrf). The braking pressure of the braking apparatus is controlled so as to establish the desired braking torques (Nrf) and (Nrr).

Braking control system for motor vehicle

A vehicle state estimating apparatus includes a slip-angle determining unit which determines a slip angle of a wheel of a vehicle. A friction-coefficient determining unit determines a friction coefficient between a tire of the wheel and a road. A tire characteristics unit generates a lateral force of the wheel from the slip angle and the friction coefficient based on predetermined tire characteristics. A vehicle-state estimating unit determines an estimated quantity of a state of motion of the vehicle based on the lateral force output by the tire characteristics unit. A vehicle-state observing unit detects an observed quantity for the estimated quantity determined by the vehicle-state estimating unit. A friction-coefficient correcting unit corrects the friction coefficient determined by the friction-coefficient determining unit, based on a difference between the observed quantity and the estimated quantity, so that the lateral force generated by the tire characteristics unit is corrected by the corrected friction coefficient.

Apparatus for determining an estimated quantity of a state of motion of

A movement state control apparatus for a wheeled vehicle capable of constantly maintaining the movement state of the vehicle in an optimal condition even if various kinds of parameters of the vehicle are changed. The control apparatus includes a yaw rate sensor for detecting a yaw rate as one of movement state variables of the vehicle, a microcomputer programmed to detect a lateral slip angle as one of the other movement state variables for determining a target yaw rate and a target lateral slip angle as a target movement state variable and to calculate a feedback rear wheel steering angle by multiplying a difference between the detected movement state variable and the target movement state variable with a feedback gain of a predetermined frequency characteristic for ensuring robust stability of the vehicle and robust control performance without any influences caused by a zero-point drift and high frequency noises of the yaw sensor.

Movement state control apparatus for wheeled vehicle

A movement state estimation method wherein a state equation of an observer is converted into a discrete equation by bilinear transformation and successively calculated to estimate unobserved movement state variables on a basis of observable movement state variables applied as a reference input.

Movement state estimation method in wheeled vehicle

A braking force control system for a motor vehicle, in which a hydraulic pressure control device controls a hydraulic pressure generated by the master cylinder or the pump, in such a way that a target braking torque (Nr in FIG. 1) is calculated from a target slip factor (Sr) and an actual slip factor (S), the target braking torque (Nr) is converted into a target braking hydraulic pressure (Pr), and that an estimative braking hydraulic pressure (P) currently under action is calculated by the use of a hydraulic pressure model, while the controlled variable of the hydraulic pressure control device is calculated from the estimative braking hydraulic pressure (P) and the target braking hydraulic pressure (Pr) by the use of a reverse hydraulic pressure model. Thus, the hydraulic pressure can be controlled in conformity with the actual motion state of the motor vehicle.

Braking force control system for motor vehicle

Provided is a so-called active suspension controller for a vehicle especially effective during turning. The controller comprises: an actuator provided between the body and every wheel of the vehicle; sensors for a turning condition of the vehicle, here the turning condition including a steering angle, vehicle speed, yaw rate and others; and a control apparatus responsive to the sensed turning condition for driving the actuators in order to control the allotment ratio between the front and the rear axles of the load shift between the right and the left wheels. The allotted load shift realizes stable turning under various circumstances.

Growing community of inventors

Susono, Japan

Yutaka Hirano