Nippondenso Co., Ltd.

Denso Corporation

Advics Co., Ltd.

Nippon Soken, Inc.

Toyoda Koki Kabushiki Kaisha

Jidosha Kiki Co., Ltd.

Other

Aisin Seiki Kabushiki Kaisha

Bosch Braking Systems Co. Ltd.

Jtekt Corporation

Adivics Co., Ltd.

Yuzo Imoto

Mamoru Sawada

Toshihiro Takei

Yoshiyuki Hattori

Yoshiyuki Yasui

Yuji Muragishi

Yoshiyasu Takasaki

Hiroaki Aizawa

Minekazu Momiyama

Hideo Wakata

Hiroaki Kato

Hiroyuki Oka

Masahiro Shimada

Eiichi Ono

Hidefumi Inoue

Michio Kobayashi

Isao Kobayashi

Haruhiko Uno

Mitsuo Inagaki

Kenji Takeda

Shinsuke Sakane

Wataru Tanaka

Masashi Kishimoto

Kenji Asano

Katsuhiro Asano

Takahisa Yokoyama

Takayuki Takeshita

Shinji Takeuchi

Masahiko Kamiya

Hiroaki Niino

Yoshihisa Nomura

Taro Tanaka

Masashi Hori

Hideaki Sasaya

Makoto Watanabe

Akihiko Takenaka

Kazuya Maki

Masahiro Ikeda

Nobuyoshi Onogi

Kiyonori Sekiguchi

Hideyuki Hayakawa

Takayuki Ohta

Masanobu Yamaguchi

Toshio Kohno

Kazuo Masaki

Satoru Watanabe

Makoto Imaeda

Junichi Hirayama

Masayoshi Oishi

Masuhiro Kondo

Tomoharu Yamanaka

Takehiro Sengoku

Shinya Takemoto

Tetuya Izumi

Masamichi Watanabe

Syoji Ogawa

Katsushi Mizushima

Masaki Tate

Masuhiro Kondoh

When a vehicle stops, a brake control unit maintains a braking force applied on a wheel by a braking-force application unit for maintaining a halted state. In this state, if a driver depresses the accelerator pedal to execute starting of the vehicle, the braking force is gradually decreased, and the vehicle starts at a speed that accords with a degree of accelerator opening and a gradient of a road on which the vehicle is stopped. When a movement direction at this time is the same as a movement direction intended by the driver, the braking force is decreased to zero for smooth starting. When the movement direction is opposite to the intended movement direction, the braking force is increased to control the movement in the opposite direction, such that the movement changes from the opposite direction to the same direction, and finally, smooth starting in the desired direction is executed.

Automatic braking device for controlling movement of vehicle in unintended direction of the driver with target brake decreasing control

A creep drive control device according to the invention sets a target creep vehicle speed when a driver has neither one of an acceleration intention or a stop maintenance intention. An engine output is increased (or decreased) by a vehicle speed increase processing (or a vehicle speed decrease processing), or a braking force is decreased (or increased), and an actual vehicle speed is controlled so as to be equal to the target creep vehicle speed or a value in the proximity thereof. The target creep vehicle speed, and respective engine output and braking force increase amounts and decrease amounts are corrected and set in accordance with driving conditions, road surface conditions and driver operations.

Creep drive control device for driving vehicle at creep speed

A grip factor estimating apparatus includes a steering torque detecting unit M, and an assist torque detecting unit M. When a self-aligning torque estimating unit Mestimates self-aligning torque generated in front wheels on the basis of detection result of the detecting unit, the quantity of influence of longitudinal force on self-aligning torque is removed on the basis of longitudinal force acting on the front wheels and estimated by a longitudinal force estimating unit Mand a front wheel slip angle estimated by a front wheel slip angle estimating unit M. A grip factor estimating unit Mestimates the grip factor of the front wheels on the basis of change in self-aligning torque in accordance with the side force.

Wheel grip factor estimating apparatus and vehicle motion control apparatus

Automatic brake device for controlling movement of vehicle in direction opposite to intended direction of movement of driver

An internal planetary gear mechanism reduces a load applied to tooth surfaces of an external gear and an internal gear, a sliding portion such as a bearing and the like. By setting the amount of eccentricity &#x3b1; of an eccentric part to be larger than a theoretical value, a distance between the center of the external gear and the center of the internal gear is increased to allow the reduction of a loss in the bearing and on the tooth surfaces of the gears, and a mesh zone between the internal gear and the external gear can be reduced to decrease a part at a large pressure angle, thereby reducing a loss generated by a large pressure angle. As a result of reduction in the mesh zone between the external gear and the internal gear, rolling contact of the gears is maintained.

Internal planetary gear mechanism

The present invention is directed to a road condition estimation apparatus for estimating a road condition for use in a vehicle having steering control unit for actuating a device mechanically independent of a manually operated steering member to steer each wheel. The apparatus includes a reaction torque detection unit for detecting reaction torque for detecting a reaction torque when at least a wheel of the vehicle is steered by the steering control unit, an aligning torque estimation unit for estimating an aligning torque produced on the wheel on the basis of the reaction torque detected by the reaction torque detection unit, a wheel factor providing unit for providing at least one of wheel factors including a side force and a slip angle applied to the wheel, and a grip factor estimation unit for estimating a grip factor of at least a tire of the wheel, in accordance with a relationship between the aligning torque estimated by the aligning torque estimation unit and the wheel factor estimated by the wheel factor providing unit.

Road condition estimation apparatus

A first ECUdetects a steering torque applied to a steering system, estimates a self-aligning torque generated in a front wheel on the basis of the steering torque, and estimates a side force for the front wheel on the basis of lateral acceleration and a yaw rate. The first ECUestimates a grip factor &#x3b5; for the front wheel on the basis of a change of the self-aligning torque to the side force. The first ECUjudges whether the grip factor is below a second OS (oversteer) start threshold value. A second ECUcontrols the transfer ratio according to the vehicle state when the grip factor is less than the second OS start threshold value.

Vehicular steering device

The present invention is directed to a vehicle motion control apparatus, which includes a steering factor detection unit for detecting at least one of steering factors including a steering torque and steering effort applied to a steering system, an aligning torque estimation unit for estimating an aligning torque produced on at least a wheel of the vehicle on the basis of the steering factor, a vehicle state variable detection unit for detecting a state variable of the vehicle, a wheel factor estimation unit for estimating at least one of wheel factors including a side force and slip angle applied to the wheel on the basis of the vehicle state variable, and a grip factor estimation unit for estimating a grip factor of at least a tire of the wheel, in accordance with the estimated alignment torque and the estimated wheel factor. The apparatus further includes a first control unit for performing a closed loop control on the basis of the grip factor, and a second control unit for performing a closed loop control on the basis of a deviation between a detected actual vehicle behavior and a desired vehicle behavior set on the basis of the vehicle state variable.

Vehicle motion control apparatus

The present invention is directed to a wheel grip factor estimation apparatus, which includes a steering factor detection unit for detecting at least one of steering factors including a steering torque and steering effort applied to a steering system extending from a steering wheel to a suspension of a vehicle, an aligning torque estimation unit for estimating an aligning torque produced on at least a wheel of the vehicle on the basis of the steering factor detected by the steering factor detection unit, and a vehicle state variable detection unit for detecting a state variable of the vehicle. The apparatus further includes a wheel factor estimation unit for estimating at least one of wheel factors including a side force and slip angle applied to the wheel on the basis of the vehicle state variable, and a grip factor estimation unit for estimating a grip factor of at least a tire of the wheel, in accordance with a relationship between the estimated alignment torque and the estimated wheel factor.

Wheel grip factor estimation apparatus

The vehicle operation control apparatus multiplies the variable gain G controlled based on the vehicle velocity V, the steering angle &thgr;h, the steering angle velocity &ohgr;h and the actual steering angle &thgr;T with the steering angle &thgr;h, and controls the actual steering angle &thgr;T of the driven wheels on a result of this multiplication. Consequently, the additional turning time gear ratio Ga or the turning-back gear ratio Ga , set up individually, can be selected depending on the turning direction of the steering wheel. Therefore, the steering feeling both at the time of additional turning and turning-back can be improved.

Vehicle operation control method and vehicle operation control apparatus

Method of calibrating sensitivity of pressure sensing cells of vehicle passenger seat

A brake system of the present invention comprises a brake operating means such as a brake pedal for carrying braking operation, a fluid variable stroke means which variably controls the stroke of the brake operating means by using fluid, and a braking force output means which is actuated by the operation of the brake operating means to produce braking forces. By manipulating the brake operating means , the braking force output means performs the braking operation. The traveling rang of the brake operating means i.e. the stroke can be changed variously by the fluid variable stroke means using fluid. Since the stroke of the brake pedal can be changed as mentioned above, a proper pedal stroke can be obtained.

Brake system

In a vehicle brake apparatus for executing ABS control to prevent a wheel from locking in such a manner that braking force is controlled so as to keep a slip ratio of a wheel at a target slip ratio so that an excessive drop of a wheel speed from a vehicle body speed is adjusted, an output current for driving a braking actuator is set to a current on which oscillating waves are superimposed during ABS control so that the wheel speed changes to show oscillating waves. Even if the wheel speed once drops to an extent that the slip ratio exceeds the target slip ratio, further decrease of the wheel speed is restricted and the wheel speed turns to an increase soon and this cycle is repeated. Accordingly, there occurs no excessive drop of the wheel speed due to the response delay so that sufficient braking force is generated.

Brake apparatus for vehicle

A hydraulic-pressure counter-force mechanism which produces a counter force when a brake booster is operated is made up of an input-side member slidable disposed within a valve body , a second constant-pressure chamber formed on the rear side of the input-side member and into which a pressure is introduced from a constant pressure chamber A, and a second constant-pressure chamber formed on the front side of the input-side member and into which a pressure is introduced from a variable pressure chamber B. The counter force from the hydraulic-pressure counter-force mechanism is reduced by an orifice passage as counter-force reducing means in rapid operation for brake.

A counter-force mechanism (,), which produces a counter force when a brake booster is operated, is made up of an input-side member (,) slidably disposed within a valve body (,), a second constant-pressure chamber (,) formed on the rear side of the input-side member and into which a pressure is introduced from a constant pressure chamber (A), and a second constant-pressure chamber (,) formed on the front side of the input-side member and into which a pressure is introduced from a variable pressure chamber (B). The counter force from the counter-force mechanism (,) is reduced by an orifice passage (,) as a counter-force reducing means in rapid operation of the brake.

Growing community of inventors

Chita-gun, Japan

Yuzo Imoto