The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 19, 2005
Filed:
Oct. 17, 2002
Ronald Hugh Miller, Saline, MI (US);
Medville Jay Throop, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
Rena Hecht Basch, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
Ronald Hugh Miller, Saline, MI (US);
Medville Jay Throop, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
Rena Hecht Basch, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
Ford Global Technologies, LLC, Dearborn, MI (US);
Abstract
A method of adaptively controlling the speed of a reference vehicle having a controller is provided. The method includes detecting a target vehicle, setting a reference vehicle headway distance indicative of a desired separation between the reference vehicle and the target vehicle, receiving at the reference vehicle, target vehicle data from the target vehicle, and modifying the reference vehicle headway distance as a function of the target vehicle data. The target vehicle data includes a braking capability value (BC) of the target vehicle. A braking capability value (BC) for the reference vehicle is also determined. If the BCor BCindicates a less than optimum braking capability for the reference or target vehicles, the reference vehicle headway distance is increased. In this way, the relative braking capability of the two vehicles is used to modify the reference vehicle headway distance during adaptive cruise control operation.