US-12617388-B2 - Predictive heavy-duty vehicle motion management based on environment sensing

Abstract

A control unit for controlling a heavy-duty vehicle, the control unit being arranged to receive ambient environment data from one or more environment sensors on the heavy-duty vehicle, and to predict an impact of the ambient environment on the motion of the heavy-duty vehicle, wherein the control unit is arranged to coordinate control of one or more motion support devices, MSDs, on the heavy-duty vehicle to compensate for the predicted impact of the ambient environment on the motion of the heavy-duty vehicle.

Inventors

• Leo Laine
• Kristoffer Tagesson
• Mikael ASKERDAL

Assignees

• VOLVO TRUCK CORPORATION

Dates

Publication Date

20260505

Application Date

20211220

Claims (17)

1. 1 . A electronic control unit for controlling a heavy-duty vehicle, the electronic control unit being configured to receive ambient environment data from one or more environment sensors on the heavy-duty vehicle, and configured to predict an impact of the ambient environment on the motion of the heavy-duty vehicle, wherein the electronic control unit is configured to coordinate control of one or more motion support devices, MSDs, on the heavy-duty vehicle to compensate for the predicted impact of the ambient environment on the motion of the heavy-duty vehicle, where the electronic control unit is configured to predict one or more wheel tracks of the heavy-duty vehicle, and wherein the ambient environment data comprises a road surface condition along the one or more predicted wheel tracks of the heavy-duty vehicle, wherein the predicted impact of the ambient environment on the motion of the heavy-duty vehicle comprises a predicted change in rolling resistance for one or more wheels on the heavy-duty vehicle.
2. 2 . The electronic control unit according to claim 1 , wherein the ambient environment data comprises wind speed and or wind direction data, wherein the predicted impact of the ambient environment on the motion of the heavy-duty vehicle comprises a predicted change in wind force on the heavy-duty vehicle.
3. 3 . The electronic control unit according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more environment sensors comprises a forward looking camera, lidar or radar sensor.
4. 4 . The electronic control unit according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more environment sensors comprises one or more anemometers and/or one or more rain gauges.
5. 5 . The electronic control unit according to claim 1 , wherein the predicted impact of the ambient environment on the motion of the heavy-duty vehicle is at least in part determined based on a model of a tire mounted onto a wheel on the heavy-duty vehicle.
6. 6 . The electronic control unit according to claim 1 , arranged to control the one or more MSDs on the heavy-duty vehicle to generate a longitudinal and/or lateral wheel force to compensate for the predicted impact of the ambient environment on the motion of the heavy-duty vehicle.
7. 7 . The electronic control unit according to claim 6 , arranged to account for lateral and/or longitudinal relaxation length of one or more tires of the heavy-duty vehicle, when controlling said one or more MSDs, by increasing tires slip ahead of the predicted impact.
8. 8 . The electronic control unit according to claim 1 , arranged to control the one or more MSDs on the heavy-duty vehicle to generate a steering angle to compensate for the predicted impact of the ambient environment on the motion of the heavy-duty vehicle.
9. 9 . The electronic control unit according to claim 8 , arranged to account for lateral relaxation length of a tire on the heavy-duty vehicle by generating a compensating steering angle ahead of the predicted impact.
10. 10 . The electronic control unit according to claim 6 , arranged to account for one or more predetermined dynamic properties of an MSD by changing the set-point of said MSD ahead of the predicted impact.
11. 11 . The electronic control unit according to claim 1 , arranged to receive weather data from a remote server.
12. 12 . The electronic control unit according to claim 1 , arranged to classify a section of road surface ahead of the vehicle in dependence of road type, where each road type is associated with an expected rolling resistance.
13. 13 . The electronic control unit according to claim 1 wherein the ambient environment data comprises data from one or more smart tire sensors, wherein the electronic control unit is arranged to determine a road surface condition based on the data from the one or more smart tire sensors, and to use the data for controlling one or more MSDs arranged rearward from the wheel comprising the smart tire sensors.
14. 14 . The electronic control unit according to claim 1 , arranged to classify a section of road surface ahead of the vehicle in dependence of data gather during a previous drive on the road section.
15. 15 . A vehicle comprising an electronic control unit according to claim 1 .
16. 16 . A computer implemented method performed in an electronic control unit for controlling a heavy-duty vehicle, the method comprising: predicting one or more wheel tracks of the heavy-duty vehicle, receiving ambient environment data from one or more environment sensors on the heavy-duty vehicle, wherein the ambient environment data comprises a road surface condition along the one or more predicted wheel tracks of the heavy-duty vehicle, predicting an impact of the ambient environment on the motion of the heavy-duty vehicle, where the predicted impact of the ambient environment on the motion of the heavy-duty vehicle comprises a predicted change in rolling resistance for one or more wheels on the heavy-duty vehicle, and coordinating control of one or more motion support devices, MSDs, on the heavy-duty vehicle to compensate for the predicted impact of the ambient environment on the motion of the heavy-duty vehicle.
17. 17 . A non-transitory computer readable medium storing program code for performing the steps of claim 16 when said program code is run on a computer or on an electronic control unit.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a U.S. National Stage application of PCT/EP2021/086758, filed Dec. 20, 2021 and published on Jun. 29, 2023, as WO 2023/117031, all of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to vehicle motion management for heavy-duty vehicles, i.e., coordinated control of motion support devices such as service brakes and propulsion devices. The invention can be applied in heavy-duty vehicles such as trucks, buses, and construction machines. Although the invention will be described mainly with respect to cargo transport vehicles such as semi-trailer vehicles and trucks, the invention is not restricted to this particular type of vehicle but may also be used in other types of vehicles such as cars. BACKGROUND Vehicles are becoming ever more complex in terms of mechanics, pneumatics, hydraulics, electronics, and software. A modern heavy-duty vehicle may comprise a wide range of different physical devices, such as combustion engines, electric machines, friction brakes, regenerative brakes, shock absorbers, air bellows, and power steering pumps. These physical devices are commonly known as Motion Support Devices (MSD). The MSDs may be individually controllable, for instance such that friction brakes may be applied at one wheel, i.e., a negative torque, while another wheel on the vehicle, perhaps even on the same wheel axle, is simultaneously used to generate a positive torque by means of an electric machine. Recently proposed vehicle motion management (VMM) functionality executed, e.g., on a central vehicle control unit (VCU) or distributed over a network of electronic control units (ECU) relies on a coordinated plurality of MSDs to operate the vehicle in order to obtain a desired motion effect while at the same time maintaining vehicle stability, cost efficiency and safety. WO2019072379 A1 discloses one such example where wheel brakes are used selectively to assist a turning operation by a heavy-duty vehicle. EP 3851346 A1 Also Discloses Methods for Vehicle Motion Management. The MSD control on a heavy-duty vehicle is normally based on feedback, i.e., the MSDs are coordinated based on sensor input indicative of the current vehicle state compared to a desired target vehicle state, such that an already existing discrepancy between the estimated vehicle state and the desired vehicle state is reduced. It is of course desired to reduce this discrepancy as much as possible and also as fast as possible. SUMMARY It is an object of the present disclosure to provide control units and methods which facilitate improved vehicle motion management for heavy-duty vehicles, i.e., improved coordination and actuation of a plurality of MSDs on the heavy-duty vehicle. This object is at least in part obtained by a control unit for controlling a heavy-duty vehicle. The control unit is arranged to receive ambient environment data from one or more environment sensors on the heavy-duty vehicle, and to predict an impact of the ambient environment on the motion of the heavy-duty vehicle. The control unit is also arranged to coordinate control of one or more MSDs on the heavy-duty vehicle to compensate for the predicted impact of the ambient environment on the motion of the heavy-duty vehicle. This way effects from changes in the environment can be compensated for instantaneously or even before the change occurs, which means that the environment changes will never have time to cause significant discrepancy between a desired motion state of the vehicle and an actual motion state of the vehicle. All-in-all the proposed technique results in a smoother more convenient vehicle motion if this is desired. The techniques are able to predict a direction resistance impact due to a change in the environment and/or a yaw moment resistance impact. The techniques disclosed herein can also be used to reduce component wear, since smaller MSD actuation can be used overall. For instance, in case an increase is rolling resistance is predicted, then a relatively slow increase in vehicle speed can be configured in order to compensate for the upcoming change, which slow increase will most likely result in less component wear compared to a strong actuation at a later point in time. The same is of course very much true for actuation of friction brakes, where harder braking leads to increased brake pad wear. The ambient environment data may, for instance, comprise a road surface condition along one or more predicted wheel tracks of the heavy-duty vehicle. The predicted impact of the ambient environment on the motion of the heavy-duty vehicle may then comprise a predicted change in rolling resistance for one or more wheels on the heavy-duty vehicle. Notably, changes in road surface condition which will not be traversed by one or more wheel tracks will not affect the motion of the heavy-duty vehicle. For instance, a patch of ice which the vehicle will drive o