JP2021143917A - Vehicle weight estimation method - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a vehicle weight estimation method with which it is possible to estimate the weight of a vehicle with high accuracy, even when the vehicle is traveling a ramp.SOLUTION: A vehicle weight estimation method includes: when a scheduled travel road that a vehicle travels is determined, determining a weight estimation section in the scheduled travel road that the vehicle travels, which fulfills a previously set condition; acquiring information of road surface gradient θ in the weight estimation section; when the vehicle travels the weight estimation section, controlling the braking/driving force Fbd of the vehicle so that the longitudinal acceleration Gx of the vehicle becomes constant and acquiring information pertaining to the longitudinal acceleration Gx of the vehicle and the braking/driving force Fbd of the vehicle; and computing a weight Mve of the vehicle on the basis of the acquired longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle, road surface gradient and braking/driving force of the vehicle.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

The present invention relates to a method for estimating the weight of a vehicle such as an automobile.

As a method of estimating the weight of a vehicle such as an automobile, for example, as described in Patent Document 1 below, a vehicle using Newton's kinetic equation based on the vehicle's longitudinal acceleration and the vehicle's controlling driving force. It is known to estimate weight. According to this estimation method, the weight of the vehicle can be estimated by obtaining the front-rear acceleration and the controlling driving force of the vehicle in a situation where the vehicle is traveling on a horizontal road.

It is also known to consider the road surface gradient when estimating the weight of the vehicle. According to this estimation method, the front-rear acceleration and control driving force of the vehicle are obtained, and the road surface gradient is detected not only when the vehicle is traveling on a horizontal road but also when the vehicle is traveling on a slope. Alternatively, the weight of the vehicle can be estimated by estimating.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2019-117051

[Problems to be solved by the invention]
As described above, when trying to estimate the weight of a vehicle even when the vehicle is traveling on a slope, it is necessary to detect or estimate the road surface gradient. However, since the road surface gradient cannot be accurately detected or estimated by an in-vehicle device such as an inclination angle sensor while the vehicle is traveling, the weight of the vehicle cannot be estimated with high accuracy.

A main object of the present invention is to provide an improved method for estimating the weight of a vehicle so that the weight of the vehicle can be estimated with high accuracy even when the vehicle is traveling on a ramp.

[Means for Solving Problems and Effects of Invention]
According to the present invention, the weight estimation section that satisfies the preset conditions is determined based on the three-dimensional road map among the travel paths on which the vehicle (20) is scheduled to travel, and the road surface gradient (θ) is determined for the weight estimation section. When the vehicle travels in the weight estimation section, the information on the vehicle's front-rear acceleration (Gx) and the vehicle's control driving force (Fbd) is acquired, and the acquired information on the vehicle's front-rear acceleration, road surface gradient, and vehicle's Provided is a vehicle weight estimation method comprising calculating a vehicle weight (Mve) based on a control driving force.

According to the above configuration, the weight estimation section that satisfies the preset conditions is determined based on the three-dimensional road map among the travel paths on which the vehicle is scheduled to travel, and the road surface gradient information is acquired for the weight estimation section. Will be done. Further, when the vehicle travels in the weight estimation section, information on the vehicle's front-rear acceleration and the vehicle's control driving force is acquired, and the vehicle weight is obtained based on the acquired vehicle's front-rear acceleration, road surface gradient, and vehicle's control driving force. Is calculated. Therefore, since the weight of the vehicle is calculated using the road surface gradient accurately obtained based on the three-dimensional road map, the weight of the vehicle is calculated using the detected or estimated road surface gradient. Therefore, the weight of the vehicle can be calculated with high accuracy.

Further, a weight estimation section satisfying a preset condition is determined based on a three-dimensional road map, and the weight of the vehicle is calculated when the vehicle travels in the weight estimation section. Therefore, the section for calculating the weight of the vehicle can be limited to the section that satisfies the preset conditions based on the three-dimensional road map. Therefore, the weight of the vehicle can be calculated with higher accuracy than when the weight of the vehicle is calculated without determining whether or not the preset conditions are satisfied.

The preset conditions are that the difference between the maximum value and the minimum value of the road surface gradient is a section that is less than or equal to the gradient difference reference value, and that the driving road is either an expressway, a motorway, or a first-class national road. , The travel path may be straight, and the distance may include at least one condition that the distance is equal to or greater than the reference distance.

Further, the information on the vehicle's front-rear acceleration and the vehicle's control-driving force may be acquired by controlling the vehicle's control-driving force so that the vehicle's front-rear acceleration becomes constant.

Further, when the preset estimation release condition is satisfied, the calculation of the weight of the vehicle may be stopped.

In the above description, in order to help the understanding of the present invention, the reference numerals used in the embodiments are added in parentheses to the configurations of the invention corresponding to the embodiments described later. However, each component of the present invention is not limited to the component of the embodiment corresponding to the reference numerals attached in parentheses. Other objects, other features and accompanying advantages of the invention will be readily understood from the description of embodiments of the invention described with reference to the drawings below.

It is a schematic block diagram which shows the vehicle weight estimation apparatus configured to carry out one Embodiment of the vehicle weight estimation method of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the control routine of the weight Mve estimation calculation of the vehicle in embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the subroutine of the weight Mvei calculation of the vehicle executed in step 50 of FIG. It is a figure which shows the front-rear acceleration Gx of a vehicle for calculating the weight Mve of a vehicle, the road surface gradient θ, and the control driving force Fbd of a vehicle. It is a figure which shows an example of the operation of an embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the subroutine of the weight Mvei calculation of the vehicle in the modification of the weight estimation method of the vehicle of this invention.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying figures.

In FIG. 1, the vehicle weight estimation device 10 includes an electronic control device 12 for weight estimation and a front-rear acceleration sensor 14, and is mounted on a vehicle 20 provided with a driving support device 16 and a navigation device 18. The front-rear acceleration sensor 14 may be any front-rear acceleration sensor known in the art as long as it can detect the front-rear acceleration Gx of the vehicle 20. The navigation device 18 has a built-in storage device 18B that stores information of the high-precision three-dimensional road map 18A. In this specification, the "electronic control unit" is abbreviated as "ECU".

The vehicle 20 includes a drive device 26 and a braking device 28 controlled by a driving ECU 22 and a braking ECU 24, respectively. The drive device 26 may be any drive device known in the art, such as an engine and an automatic transmission, a hybrid system, and an electric motor, as long as the driving force can be applied to the vehicle 20 in a controllable manner. The braking device 28 may be any braking device known in the art, such as an electronically controlled braking device, as long as the braking force can be controlledly applied to the vehicle 20.

In the illustrated embodiment, the vehicle 20 further includes a camera 30, a vertical acceleration sensor 32, and a lateral acceleration sensor 34 that photograph the traveling path 100 in front of the vehicle. The camera 30 may be any imaging device known in the art, such as a CCD camera or a video camera, as long as it can photograph the traveling path in front of the vehicle 20. The vertical acceleration sensor 32 and the lateral acceleration sensor 34 may be any acceleration sensors known in the art as long as they can detect the vertical acceleration Gz and the lateral acceleration Gy of the vehicle 20, respectively. The information on the travel path in front of the vehicle 20 may be acquired by means other than the camera such as a radar sensor, or may be acquired by a combination of the camera and other means.

When the destination is input, the navigation device 18 sets a target route to the destination. When the driving support switch (not shown in FIG. 1) is on, the driving support device 16 has a driving ECU 22 and a braking device so that the vehicle 20 travels along the target route to the destination at a predetermined vehicle speed, respectively. The drive device 26 and the braking device 28 are controlled via the ECU 24. Further, the driving support device 16 controls the steering angle of the steering wheels by controlling the steering device (not shown in FIG. 1) as necessary, and there is a possibility that the own vehicle collides with an obstacle or the like. When it is determined that there is, the collision is avoided by controlling the driving device 26, the braking device 28, and the steering device.

The weight estimation ECU 12, the drive ECU 22, and the braking ECU 24 each have a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, and an input / output port device, and include a microcomputer in which they are connected to each other by a bidirectional common bus. Further, the weight estimation ECU 12, the drive ECU 22, and the braking ECU 24 exchange information with each other by communication as necessary, and signals from the front-rear acceleration sensor 14, the driving support device 16, the navigation device 18, and the like as necessary. To receive. Further, the weight estimation ECU 12 includes a readable and writable non-volatile storage device 36, and the storage device 36 stores the weight Mve of the vehicle 20 in an updateable manner.

As will be described in detail later, the weight estimation ECU 12 determines a weight estimation section that satisfies preset conditions in the travel path on which the vehicle 20 is scheduled to travel, and obtains information on the road surface gradient θ of the weight estimation section. get. Further, the weight estimation ECU 12 acquires information on the vehicle front-rear acceleration Gx and the vehicle control driving force Fbd when the vehicle travels in the weight estimation section, and acquires the vehicle front-rear acceleration Gx, the road surface gradient θ, and the vehicle. The weight Mve of the vehicle is calculated according to the following equation (1) based on the control driving force Fbd.
Mve = Fbd · g / (Gx−gsinθ) (1)

In the above equation (1), g is the gravitational acceleration, and the road surface gradient θ has a positive upslope. As shown in FIG. 4, the above equation (1) is derived from the following equation (2) relating to the balance of forces in the direction along the road surface 40, where the mass of the vehicle is M (= Mve / g). Is.
Fbd = MGx-Mgsinθ (2)

In particular, when the target running state of the vehicle 20 in the weight estimation section is a driving force generation state, such as when the weight estimation section is an uphill section, the weight estimation ECU 12 is driven by the vehicle's front-rear acceleration Gx. A control command is output to the drive ECU 22 so that the acceleration becomes a predetermined constant acceleration based on the driving support by the support device 16. The drive ECU 22 controls the drive device 26 so as to have a predetermined acceleration, and outputs a signal indicating the control driving force Fbd (driving force) of the vehicle at that time to the weight estimation ECU 12.

On the other hand, when the target running state of the vehicle 20 in the weight estimation section is a braking force generation state as in the case where the weight estimation section is a downhill section, the weight estimation ECU 12 is driven by the vehicle's front-rear acceleration Gx. A control command is output to the braking ECU 24 so that the deceleration becomes a constant predetermined speed based on the driving support by the support device 16. The braking ECU 24 controls the braking device 28 so as to achieve a predetermined deceleration, and outputs a signal indicating the controlling driving force Fbd (braking force) of the vehicle at that time to the weight estimation ECU 12.

Specifically, the weight estimation ECU 12 follows the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 in a situation where the driving support device 16 automatically controls the driving force of the vehicle 20 to provide driving support. The weight Mve of the vehicle 20 is estimated. In particular, the control routine for the weight estimation calculation according to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 is stored in the ROM of the microcomputer of the weight estimation ECU 12.

Next, the control routine of the weight Mve estimation calculation of the vehicle 20 in the embodiment will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. The control according to the flowchart shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 is repeatedly executed by the CPU of the microcomputer of the weight estimation ECU 12 at predetermined time intervals when the ignition switch (not shown in FIG. 1) is on. .. In the following description, the control of the weight estimation calculation according to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 is simply referred to as “control”.

First, in step 10, it is determined whether or not the route to the destination is determined by the navigation device 18. When the negative determination is made, the control ends once, and when the affirmative determination is made, the control proceeds to step 20.

In step 20, the information of the high-precision three-dimensional road map 18A stored in the storage device 18B built in the navigation device 18 is referred to, so that the route to the set destination is preset. A weight estimation section that satisfies the following conditions is determined. If there are a plurality of sections satisfying the following preset conditions A to D, a plurality of weight estimation sections are determined. In addition, any of the following conditions A to D may be omitted, and the first-class national highway may be excluded from the condition B.
Condition A: The difference between the maximum value and the minimum value of the road surface gradient θ is a section equal to or less than the gradient difference reference value (positive constant) Condition B: Whether the road is an expressway, a motorway, or a first-class national road Condition C: The road is straight Condition D: The distance is equal to or greater than the reference distance (positive constant, for example, 100 m).

In step 30, it is determined whether or not at least one weight estimation section has been determined. When the negative determination is made, the control ends once, and when the affirmative determination is made, the control proceeds to step 40.

In step 40, it is determined whether or not the vehicle 20 is traveling in the weight estimation section. When the negative determination is made, step 40 is repeatedly executed, and when the affirmative determination is made, in step 50, the weight Mvei (i = 1, 2, ... n, n) of the vehicle 20 according to the flowchart shown in FIG. (Positive integer) is calculated.

In step 70, it is determined whether or not the weight Mvei of the vehicle 20 has been calculated for all the weight estimation sections from i = 1 to i = n determined in step 20. When the negative determination is made, i is incremented by 1 and the control returns to step 40. When the positive determination is made, the average value Mva of the weight Mvei of the vehicle 20 is calculated in step 80. If there is a weight Mvei whose calculation is canceled in step 66 described later, the weight Mvei is excluded from the calculation of the mean value Mva.

In step 90, the difference ΔMv (= Mve-Mva) between the weight Mve of the vehicle 20 and the average value Mva stored in the storage device 36 is calculated, and the absolute value of the difference ΔMv is the reference value ΔMv (positive constant). It is determined whether or not it is larger than. When the negative determination is made, the control is temporarily terminated without updating the weight Mv of the vehicle 20, and when the positive determination is made, the weight Mve of the vehicle 20 stored in the storage device 36 in step 100 is averaged. It is updated by being rewritten to the value Mva.

In step 52 of the subroutine of calculating the weight Mvei of the vehicle 20 shown in FIG. 3, the road surface gradient of the i-th weight estimation section from the information of the high-precision three-dimensional map 18A stored in the storage device 18B of the navigation device 18. θi is acquired.

In step 54, the undulating shape of the road surface of the traveling path is acquired by analyzing the image information of the traveling path 100 in front of the vehicle 20 taken by the camera 30 in a manner known in the art.

In step 56, it is determined whether or not the road surface of the traveling path 100 has irregularities or the like that are equal to or higher than the reference not displayed on the high-precision three-dimensional map 18A. When the affirmative determination is made, the control proceeds to step 68, and when the negative determination is made, the control proceeds to step 58.

In step 58, it is determined whether or not a disturbance that adversely affects the estimation of the weight Mve of the vehicle 20 has acted on the vehicle 20. When the affirmative determination is made, the control proceeds to step 68, and when the negative determination is made, the control proceeds to step 60. Whether or not the disturbance has acted on the vehicle 20 may be determined by a method known in the art, for example, the vertical acceleration Gz and the lateral acceleration detected by the vertical acceleration sensor 32 and the lateral acceleration sensor 34. It may be done based on Gy.

In step 60, the driving support device 16 determines whether or not it is determined that the own vehicle may collide with an obstacle or the like. When the affirmative determination is made, the control proceeds to step 68, and when the negative determination is made, the control proceeds to step 62.

As can be seen from the above description, steps 56 to 60 are steps for determining whether or not the condition for accurately calculating the weight of the vehicle 20 (preset estimation release condition) is satisfied. Therefore, according to steps 56 to 60, when the preset estimation release condition is satisfied, the calculation of the weight of the vehicle is stopped.

In step 62, the driving force of the vehicle is controlled so that the front-rear acceleration Gx of the vehicle 20 in the i-th weight estimation section becomes a constant predetermined front-rear acceleration Gxi as described above. Further, the front-rear acceleration Gxi detected by the front-rear acceleration sensor 14 is read, and a signal indicating the controlling driving force Fbdi of the vehicle is input from the driving ECU 22 or the braking ECU 24. Further, the weight of the vehicle 20 is Mveij (j) for the i-th weight estimation section according to the following equation (3) corresponding to the above equation (1) based on the road surface gradient θi, the front-rear acceleration Gxi of the vehicle 20, and the control driving force Fbdi. = 1,2 ... m, m is a positive integer) is calculated.
Mveij = Fbdi · g / (Gxi-gsinθi) (3)

The weight Mveij of the vehicle 20 is calculated when the vehicle starts and accelerates from a stopped state and when the vehicle is running by driving support in which the control driving force of the vehicle 20 is automatically controlled by the driving support device 16. It may be performed only when decelerating and stopping.

In step 64, it is determined whether or not the calculation of the weight Mvei of the vehicle 20 is completed for the i-th weight estimation section. When the negative determination is made, the control returns to step 54, and when the positive determination is made, the control proceeds to step 66. Therefore, the calculation of the weight Mveij is repeated until the affirmative determination is made in step 64, whereby the weights Mvei1 to Mveim of the m vehicles 20 are calculated for the i-th weight estimation section.

In step 66, the weight Mvei of the vehicle 20 for the i-th weight estimation section is calculated as the average value of the m weights Mvei1 to Mveim calculated in step 62.

In step 68, the calculation of the weight Mvei of the vehicle 20 is stopped, so that the calculation of the weight Mvei of the vehicle for the i-th weight estimation section is stopped. That is, the weight Mvei of the vehicle is not calculated.

As can be seen from the above description, when the route to the destination is determined by the navigation device 18 (step 10), the preset conditions A to D among the routes to the set destination are satisfied. The weight estimation section to be used is determined (step 20). When at least one weight estimation section is determined (step 30), when the vehicle 20 is traveling in the weight estimation section (step 40), the road surface gradient θi, the front-rear acceleration Gxi of the vehicle 20, and the control driving force Fbdi are set. Based on this, the weight Mvei of the vehicle 20 is calculated (step 50).

Further, the average value Mva of the weight Mvei of the vehicle 20 is calculated (step 80), and the difference ΔMv between the weight Mve of the vehicle 20 and the average value Mva stored in the storage device 36 is calculated. When the absolute value of the difference ΔMv is less than or equal to the reference value ΔMv. When the weight Mv of the vehicle 20 is not updated, but the absolute value of the difference ΔMv is larger than the reference value ΔMv. The weight Mve of the vehicle 20 stored in the storage device 36 is updated by being rewritten to the average value Mva.

According to the above-described embodiment, the weight estimation section satisfying the preset conditions A to D is determined based on the high-precision three-dimensional road map 18A among the travel paths on which the vehicle 20 is scheduled to travel, and the weight is estimated. Information on the road surface gradient θ is acquired for the section. Further, when the vehicle travels in the weight estimation section, information on the vehicle's front-rear acceleration Gx and the vehicle's control driving force Fbd is acquired, and the vehicle is based on the acquired vehicle's front-rear acceleration, road surface gradient, and vehicle's control driving force. Weight Mve is calculated. Therefore, since the weight of the vehicle is calculated using the road surface gradient accurately obtained based on the three-dimensional road map, the weight of the vehicle is calculated using the detected or estimated road surface gradient. Therefore, the weight of the vehicle can be calculated with high accuracy.

Further, according to the above-described embodiment, the weight estimation section satisfying the preset conditions is determined based on the three-dimensional road map, and the weight Mve of the vehicle is calculated when the vehicle 20 travels in the weight estimation section. NS. Therefore, the section for calculating the weight of the vehicle can be limited to the section that satisfies the preset conditions based on the three-dimensional road map. Therefore, the weight of the vehicle can be calculated with higher accuracy than when the weight of the vehicle is calculated without determining whether or not the preset conditions are satisfied.

In particular, according to the above-described embodiment, the preset conditions are the above-mentioned conditions A to D. Therefore, in the section where the weight of the vehicle is calculated, the weight Mve of the vehicle is calculated based on the front-rear acceleration Gx of the vehicle with little fluctuation, the road surface gradient θ, and the driving force Fbd of the vehicle. Can be done.

Further, according to the above-described embodiment, in step 62, the vehicle's front-rear acceleration Gx is controlled so that the front-rear acceleration Gx of the vehicle 20 becomes constant, and information on the vehicle's front-rear acceleration and the vehicle's front-rear acceleration Gx is acquired. Will be done. Therefore, the weight of the vehicle can be calculated with high accuracy by using the front-rear acceleration of the vehicle and the controlling driving force of the vehicle as constant as possible.

Further, according to the above-described embodiment, when the preset estimation release condition is satisfied in steps 56 to 60, the calculation of the weight of the vehicle is stopped. Therefore, the weight of the vehicle can be calculated with higher accuracy than when the weight of the vehicle is calculated without determining whether or not the preset estimation cancellation condition is satisfied.

For example, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of operation of the embodiment. In FIG. 5, 100 indicates a travel path on which the vehicle 20 is scheduled to travel. Of the travel paths 100, section 1 and section 2 are determined as weight estimation sections, and section 1 includes a region 102 having an uneven road surface. Suppose it exists. Further, it is assumed that the vehicle 20 approaches the section 1 at the time point t1, passes the section 1 at the time point t4, approaches the section 2 at the time point t5, and passes through the section 2 at the time point t6. Further, it is assumed that the vehicle 20 passes through the uneven region 102 from the time point t2 to the time point t3.

At the time point t1, the calculation of the weight of the vehicle 20 is started, but since the affirmative determination is performed in the step 56 from the time point t2 to the time point t3, the step 68 is executed after the time point t2, and the calculation of the weight of the vehicle in the section 1 is performed. Will be canceled.

Further, at the time point t5, the calculation of the weight of the vehicle 20 is started, and the calculation of the weight of the vehicle is continued until the time point t6. Therefore, the vehicle weight Mveij is calculated for the section 2 from the time point t5 to the time point t6, and the vehicle weight Mvei (i = 2) is calculated at the time point t6.

Further, according to the above-described embodiment, in step 62, the control driving force of the vehicle is controlled so that the front-rear acceleration Gx of the vehicle 20 becomes a predetermined constant front-rear acceleration Gxi based on the driving support by the driving support device 16. Then, the weight Mveij of the vehicle is calculated using the front-rear acceleration Gxi and the control driving force Fbdi of the vehicle in that situation. Therefore, compared to the case where the control driving force of the vehicle is not controlled so as to have a predetermined constant front-rear acceleration Gxi, the weight Mveij of the vehicle can be accurately determined by using the front-rear acceleration Gxi and the vehicle control driving force Fbdi, which have less fluctuation. Can be calculated in.

In particular, in the embodiment, as described above, the weight Mveij of the vehicle 20 is calculated only when the vehicle starts and accelerates from the stopped state and when the vehicle decelerates and stops from the running state. Is preferable. In that case, in order to calculate the weight of the vehicle 20 with high accuracy, the control driving force of the vehicle is controlled so that the front-rear acceleration Gx of the vehicle becomes a constant front-rear acceleration Gxi based on the driving support by the driving support device 16. As a result, it is possible to reduce the risk that the occupants of the vehicle will feel uncomfortable.

Although the present invention has been described in detail above with respect to specific embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various other embodiments are possible within the scope of the present invention. Will be obvious to those skilled in the art.

For example, in the above-described embodiment, the high-precision three-dimensional road map 18A used for determining the weight estimation section is stored in the storage device 18B built in the navigation device 18. However, the three-dimensional road map 18A may be acquired by wireless communication from a server outside the vehicle.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the calculation of the weight Mveij of the vehicle 20 in step 62 and the calculation of the weight Mvei of the vehicle 20 in step 66 are executed by the microcomputer of the electronic control device 12 for weight estimation. However, signals indicating the vehicle's front-rear acceleration Gx, road surface gradient θ, and vehicle control driving force Fbd are transmitted to an arithmetic unit outside the vehicle by wireless communication, and the arithmetic unit calculates the weight of the vehicle 20 to indicate the weight of the vehicle. The signal may be input to the microcomputer of the weight estimation electronic control unit 12 by wireless communication.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the weight estimation section satisfying the following preset conditions is determined in step 20, and the road surface gradient θi of the weight estimation section is acquired in step 52 of step 50. However, in step 20, the weight estimation section may be determined and the road surface gradient θi of that section may be acquired.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, when it is determined by the determination of steps 56 to 60 that the condition for accurately calculating the weight of the vehicle 20 is satisfied, the calculation of the weight of the vehicle is stopped in step 68. The weight of the vehicle is not calculated for that section. However, as shown in FIG. 6, when a positive determination is made in any of steps 56-60, the control may be modified to return to step 54. In that case, the weight Mvei of the vehicle 20 may be calculated for the weight estimation section as the average value of the weight Mveij of the vehicle 20 calculated when the negative determination is made in all of steps 56 to 60.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the road surface properties of the traveling path in the weight estimation section are not considered. However, the road surface properties of the road are detected by a road surface sensor or the like, or the road surface properties of the road are wirelessly transmitted from an information transmission device installed along the road, and the road surface becomes wet or snowy. It may be modified so that the calculation of the weight of the vehicle is stopped when it is covered by. According to this modified example, it is possible to reduce the possibility that the weight of the vehicle is inaccurately estimated due to the slip of the wheels.

10 ... Vehicle weight estimation device, 12 ... Weight estimation ECU, 14 ... Front-rear acceleration sensor, 16 ... Driving support device, 18 ... Navigation device, 20 ... Vehicle, 22 ... Drive ECU, 24 ... Braking ECU, 26 ... Drive Device, 28 ... Braking device, 30 ... Front wheel, 32 ... Vertical accelerometer, 36 ... Storage device

Claims (1)

The weight estimation section that satisfies the preset conditions is determined based on the three-dimensional road map among the travel paths on which the vehicle is scheduled to travel, and the road surface gradient information is acquired for the weight estimation section, and the vehicle carries the weight. When traveling in the estimated section, information on the front-rear acceleration of the vehicle and the controlling driving force of the vehicle is acquired, and the weight of the vehicle is calculated based on the acquired front-rear acceleration of the vehicle, the road surface gradient, and the controlling driving force of the vehicle. A method for estimating the weight of a vehicle, which comprises calculating.

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