WO2017148576A1 - Braking assisting system and method thereof - Google Patents

Braking assisting system and method thereof Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2017148576A1
WO2017148576A1 PCT/EP2017/000254 EP2017000254W WO2017148576A1 WO 2017148576 A1 WO2017148576 A1 WO 2017148576A1 EP 2017000254 W EP2017000254 W EP 2017000254W WO 2017148576 A1 WO2017148576 A1 WO 2017148576A1
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
vehicle
braking
braking assisting
weight
luggage
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Ceased
Application number
PCT/EP2017/000254
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French (fr)
Inventor
Yi Lu
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Audi AG
Original Assignee
Audi AG
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Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Audi AG filed Critical Audi AG
Publication of WO2017148576A1 publication Critical patent/WO2017148576A1/en
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Ceased legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
    • B60T—VEHICLE BRAKE CONTROL SYSTEMS OR PARTS THEREOF; BRAKE CONTROL SYSTEMS OR PARTS THEREOF, IN GENERAL; ARRANGEMENT OF BRAKING ELEMENTS ON VEHICLES IN GENERAL; PORTABLE DEVICES FOR PREVENTING UNWANTED MOVEMENT OF VEHICLES; VEHICLE MODIFICATIONS TO FACILITATE COOLING OF BRAKES
    • B60T8/00—Arrangements for adjusting wheel-braking force to meet varying vehicular or ground-surface conditions, e.g. limiting or varying distribution of braking force
    • B60T8/18—Arrangements for adjusting wheel-braking force to meet varying vehicular or ground-surface conditions, e.g. limiting or varying distribution of braking force responsive to vehicle weight or load, e.g. load distribution
    • B60T8/1837—Arrangements for adjusting wheel-braking force to meet varying vehicular or ground-surface conditions, e.g. limiting or varying distribution of braking force responsive to vehicle weight or load, e.g. load distribution characterised by the load-detecting arrangements
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
    • B60W—CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE OR DIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TO THE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT
    • B60W30/00—Purposes of road vehicle drive control systems not related to the control of a particular sub-unit, e.g. of systems using conjoint control of vehicle sub-units
    • B60W30/18—Propelling the vehicle
    • B60W30/18009—Propelling the vehicle related to particular drive situations
    • B60W30/18109—Braking
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
    • B60W—CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE OR DIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TO THE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT
    • B60W40/00—Estimation or calculation of non-directly measurable driving parameters for road vehicle drive control systems not related to the control of a particular sub unit, e.g. by using mathematical models
    • B60W40/08—Estimation or calculation of non-directly measurable driving parameters for road vehicle drive control systems not related to the control of a particular sub unit, e.g. by using mathematical models related to drivers or passengers
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
    • B60W—CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE OR DIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TO THE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT
    • B60W40/00—Estimation or calculation of non-directly measurable driving parameters for road vehicle drive control systems not related to the control of a particular sub unit, e.g. by using mathematical models
    • B60W40/12—Estimation or calculation of non-directly measurable driving parameters for road vehicle drive control systems not related to the control of a particular sub unit, e.g. by using mathematical models related to parameters of the vehicle itself, e.g. tyre models
    • B60W40/13—Load or weight
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
    • B60W—CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE OR DIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TO THE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT
    • B60W2530/00—Input parameters relating to vehicle conditions or values, not covered by groups B60W2510/00 or B60W2520/00
    • B60W2530/10—Weight
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
    • B60W—CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE OR DIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TO THE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT
    • B60W2710/00—Output or target parameters relating to a particular sub-units
    • B60W2710/18—Braking system

Definitions

  • This invention relates generally to a braking assisting system for a vehicle, more particularly, to a braking assisting system for a vehicle which will detect the weight and/or weight distribution of passengers and/or luggage in the vehicle, and to a braking assisting method thereof.
  • braking assisting systems can brake the vehicle by detecting some factors such as the distance from others vehicles and/or objects, the vehicle speed, the weather condition, the road condition, etc. In particular, when the distance between the two vehicles is relatively long, then the braking distance determined by the braking assisting system will also be longer; when the vehicle speed is very fast, then the braking distance will be set shorter; when it is a raining or snowing day, the braking distance will be much longer than the situation in a sunny day; and when the vehicle is running on an icy road, then the braking distance is also much longer than on a dry road.
  • the braking distance will also be different when the weight of the vehicle is different, wherein the weight of the vehicle includes the weight of the passengers and the weight of the luggage in the vehicle. Specifically, when only the driver sits in the vehicle and thus the whole weight, i.e., the sum weight of the vehicle itself and the passengers in the vehicle is relatively light, the braking distance is normally short; and when the vehicle is occupied by several passengers and thus the above-mentioned whole weight becomes heavier, the braking distance will become longer. The same applies to the situation when there are less and more luggage in the vehicle. That is, the braking distance will also vary according to the weight of luggage in the vehicle.
  • the aim of the present invention is to provide a braking assisting system for a vehicle which can brake the vehicle in a more accurate way by also considering the weight of passengers and/or luggage in the vehicle.
  • a braking assisting system which will detect the weight and/or weight distribution of passengers and/or luggage in the vehicle, and to a braking assisting method thereof.
  • a braking assisting system for a vehicle comprising: a detection unit adapted to detect the weight of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle, a braking assisting signal generation unit adapted to generate a braking assisting signal based on the weight detected by the detection unit, a signal transmission unit adapted to receive the braking assisting signal from the braking assisting signal generation unit and transmitting the braking assisting signal to a braking system of the vehicle.
  • the detection unit is further adapted to detect the weight distribution of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle
  • the braking assisting signal generation unit is further adapted to generate the braking assisting signal based on said weight distribution.
  • detection of weight distribution can help to provide an even more accurate braking control on the braking of the vehicle, for example, by providing different braking force to the four tyres of the vehicle.
  • the detection unit is further adapted to detect one or any combination of the following factors: the distance between the vehicle and other surrounding objects, the speed of the vehicle, the weather condition, and/or the road condition, and the braking assisting signal generation unit is further adapted to generate the braking assisting signal based on one or a combination of said factors.
  • the internal factors such as weight and/or weigh distributions of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle
  • external factors mentioned here are also very important to help the driver of the vehicle to do more accurate and safer control of the vehicle.
  • the detection unit is weight or mass sensors which detect the weight of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle directly. With such weight or mass sensors which could achieve the detection directly, the structure of the whole system is simple.
  • the detection unit comprises tyre pressure sensors adapted to sense the tyre pressure of four tyres of the vehicle and a calculation unit adapted to calculate the weight distribution of the passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle based on the tyre pressure sensed by the tyre pressure sensors.
  • the tyre pressures of the four tyres of the vehicle are also different from each other. Therefore, by sensing the tyre pressures of the four tyres and doing a calculation based on the sensed tyre pressure, the weight and/or the weight distribution can be obtained and then used for generating the braking assisting signal.
  • a braking assisting method for a vehicle comprising a first step of detecting the weight of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle, a second step of generating a braking assisting signal based on the weight detected in the first step, and a third step of transmitting the braking assisting signal to a braking system of the vehicle.
  • the first step further comprises detecting the weight distribution of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle, and in the second step the braking assisting signal is generated further based on said weight distribution.
  • the first step further comprises detecting one or any combination of the following factors: the distance between the vehicle and other surrounding objects, the speed of the vehicle, the weather condition, and/or the road condition, and in the second step the braking assisting signal is generated further based on one or a combination of said factors.
  • Fig. 1 is an illustration a first embodiment of a braking assisting system 100 for a vehicle according to the present invention.
  • Fig. 2 is an illustration of a second embodiment of a braking assisting system 200 for a vehicle according to the present invention.
  • Fig. 3 shows several examples of different weight distributions in a vehicle of the second embodiment.
  • Fig. 4 shows an embodiment of a braking assisting method for a vehicle according to the present invention.
  • Fig. 1 is an illustration of a first embodiment of a braking assisting system 100 for a vehicle according to the present invention.
  • the system 100 comprises: a detection unit 10 for detecting the weight of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle, a braking assisting signal generation unit 20 for generating a braking assisting signal based on the weight detected by the detection unit 10, and a signal transmission unit 30 for receiving the braking assisting signal generated by the braking assisting signal generation unit 20 and transmitting the braking assisting signal to a braking system 300 of the vehicle which implements the braking of the vehicle individually by itself or in combination with any other systems of the vehicle.
  • the braking system 300 then brakes the vehicle, based only on the above braking assisting signal generated by the braking assisting signal generation unit 20, or also on a combination of the above braking assisting signal and other braking-related signals given by any other systems included in the vehicle or even outside of the vehicle.
  • the braking system 300 could be any kind of braking system in the prior art and any other braking system developed in the future.
  • the detection unit 10 can detect the weight of the passengers and/or luggage in the vehicle by using any existing technology in the art or any technology developed in the future which have the above detecting function directly or indirectly.
  • the detection unit 10 can be a unit which has the weight detection function directly such as mass/weight sensors in the field.
  • the sensors can be mounted within or on any suitable structure that is part of the vehicle, as long as they could detect the weight of the passengers and/or luggage in the vehicle, including but not limited to vehicle seats and rear compartment of the vehicle.
  • the detection unit 10 can comprise tyre pressure sensors and a calculation unit adapted to calculate the weight of the passengers and/or luggage in the vehicle based on the tyre pressures of the four tyres of the vehicle sensed by the tyre pressure sensors.
  • the calculation unit implements the above calculation based on tyre pressure distribution differences.
  • the detection unit 10 can also be of any other forms as a combination of sensors, cameras, and/or calculation units which function together to achieve the purpose of detecting the weight of the passengers and/or luggage in the vehicle.
  • the braking assisting signal may include information which indicates the detected weight, which could be an accurate weight value, a weight range or just descriptive information such as "light” or "heavy".
  • the braking assisting signal may also include information which indicates the recommended braking distance, which also could be an accurate distance value, for example, the most recommended braking distance, or a range defined by a minimum value and a maximum value.
  • the braking assisting signal may also include information indicating a response time of the vehicle which counts from current time to the time of implementing braking action to the vehicle. Moreover, the braking assisting signal may also include any other information which is related to braking of the vehicle.
  • the signal transmission unit 30 will then receive the braking assisting signal generated by the braking assisting signal generation unit 20 and including one or more of the above-mentioned information as well as other information and transmit the braking assisting signal to a braking system 300 of the vehicle.
  • the signal transmission unit 30 can also be used to receive other signals, for example, other braking assisting signals, from other units of the vehicle, and then transmit such signals to the braking system 300 of the vehicle.
  • the above-mentioned other braking assisting signals could be braking assisting signals generated based on distance from other vehicles, vehicle speed, weather condition and/or road condition, etc. Under such circumstances, the signal transmission unit 30 will also transmit such braking assisting signals to the braking system 300 of the vehicje simultaneously, together with the braking assisting signal generated by the braking assisting signal generation unit 20.
  • the braking system 300 can implement the braking of the vehicle individually by itself or in combination with any other systems of the vehicle. For example, when the braking assisting signal generated by the braking assisting signal generation unit 20 is the only braking assisting signal provided to the braking system 300, the braking system 300 will brake the vehicle only based on the braking assisting signal generated by the braking assisting signal generation unit 20. On the other hand, in the situation where there are other braking assisting signals provided from any other units of the vehicle and then transmitted to the braking system 300, the braking system 300 will brake the vehicle based on a combination of the braking assisting signal generated by the braking assisting signal generation unit 20 and those other braking assisting signals.
  • Fig. 2 is an illustration of a second embodiment of a braking assisting system 200 for a vehicle according to the present invention.
  • the braking assisting system 200 for a vehicle comprises: a detection unit 101 for detecting the weight of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle and providing a weight distribution of the passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle, a braking assisting signal generation unit 201 for generating a braking assisting signal based on the weight and the weight distribution provided by the detection unit 101, and a signal transmission unit 301 for receiving the braking assisting signal generated by the braking assisting signal generation unit 201 and transmitting the braking assisting signal to a braking system 300 of the vehicle which implements the braking of the vehicle individually by itself or in combination with any other systems of the vehicle.
  • the braking system 300 then brakes the vehicle based only on the above braking assisting signal generated by the braking assisting signal generation unit 201, or also on a combination of the above braking assisting signal and other braking-related signals given by any other systems included in the vehicle or even outside of the vehicle.
  • the braking system 300 could be any kind of braking system in the prior art and any other braking system developed in the future.
  • the braking assisting system 200 of the second embodiment is the same as the braking assisting system 100 of the first embodiment described according to Fig.l except that the detection unit 101 of the braking assisting system 200, in addition to detecting the weight of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle, further provides the weight distribution of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle, and that the braking assisting signal generation unit 201 of the braking assisting system 200 generates the braking assisting signal based on said weight and said weight distribution provided by the detection unit 101.
  • similar descriptions will not be given to the same aspects as those which have been explained above with reference to Fig. 1.
  • the detection unit 101 can detect the weight of the passengers and/or luggage in the vehicle by using any existing technology in the art and provide a weight distribution of the passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle. After the detection unit 101 finishes the above detection and providing, the weight distribution provided by the detection unit 101 will be provided to the braking assisting signal generation unit 201, and then the braking assisting signal generation unit 201 will generate a braking assisting signal based on the weight and the weight distribution of the passengers and/or luggage in the vehicle provided by the detection unit 101. The signal transmission unit 301 will then receive the braking assisting signal generated by the braking assisting signal generation unit 201 and transmit the braking assisting signal to a braking system 300 of the vehicle.
  • the braking system 300 can implement the braking of the vehicle individually by itself or in combination with any other systems of the vehicle.
  • Other variations in all aspects which have been described with reference to the first embodiment also apply to the second embodiment and will be omitted here for avoiding redundancy.
  • Fig. 3 shows several examples of different weight distributions in a vehicle which has two rows only, wherein Fig. 3a shows that there are three passengers in the vehicle, one is the driver PI and the other two P2 and P3 sit at the rear row; Fig. 3b shows that there are three passengers in the vehicle, one is the driver PI, the second one is P2 sitting beside PI at the front row, and the third one P3 sit at the rear row right behind the driver PI; Fig. 3c shows that there are three passengers in the vehicle, one is the driver PI, the second one is P2 sitting beside PI at the front row, and the third one P3 sit at the rear row right behind P2; Fig. 3a shows that there are three passengers in the vehicle, one is the driver PI and the other two P2 and P3 sit at the rear row; Fig. 3b shows that there are three passengers in the vehicle, one is the driver PI, the second one is P2 sitting beside PI at the front row, and the third one P3 sit at the rear row right behind
  • Fig. 3d shows that there are four passengers in the vehicle, PI is the driver, P2 sit beside PI at the front row, and the other two P3 and P4 sit at the rear row behind PI and P2 respectively; and Fig. 3e shows that there are five passengers in the vehicle, PI is the driver, P2 sit beside PI at the front row, and the other three P3, P4 and P5 sit at the rear row.
  • the weight distributions shown in Fig. 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d and 3e are totally different from each other, thereby, the braking assisting signals generated by the braking assisting signal generation unit 201 of the second embodiment as shown in Fig. 2 are also different from each other.
  • the vehicle shown in Fig. 3 only has two rows, and the conditions of luggage in the vehicle are not shown in Fig. 3 as well.
  • the same or similar principles also apply to vehicles which have three or more rows and/or which carry luggage. And in this description no further explanations will be given to such varieties.
  • Fig. 4 shows an embodiment of a braking assisting method for a vehicle, comprising a first step of detecting the weight of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle, a second step of generating a braking assisting signal based on the weight detected in the first step, and a third step of transmitting the braking assisting signal to a braking system of the vehicle.
  • the first step further comprises detecting the weight distribution of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle, and in the second step the braking assisting signal is generated further based on said weight distribution.
  • the first step further comprises detecting one or any combination of the following factors: the distance between the vehicle and other surrounding objects, the speed of the vehicle, the weather condition, and/or the road condition, and in the second step the braking assisting signal is generated further based on one or a combination of said factors.

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Transportation (AREA)
  • Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
  • Automation & Control Theory (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Mathematical Physics (AREA)
  • Regulating Braking Force (AREA)
  • Electric Propulsion And Braking For Vehicles (AREA)

Abstract

It is disclosed a braking assisting system for a vehicle, comprising: a detection unit adapted to detect the weight of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle, a braking assisting signal generation unit adapted to generate a braking assisting signal based on the weight detected by the detection unit, a signal transmission unit adapted to receive the braking assisting signal from the braking assisting signal generation unit and transmitting the braking assisting signal to a braking system of the vehicle. By keeping the weight of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle in consideration and providing such braking assisting signal to the braking system of the vehicle, the braking of the vehicle can be implemented in a more accurate way.

Description

Braking Assisting System and Method thereof
Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a braking assisting system for a vehicle, more particularly, to a braking assisting system for a vehicle which will detect the weight and/or weight distribution of passengers and/or luggage in the vehicle, and to a braking assisting method thereof.
Technical Background
Most modern vehicles include driving assisting systems to assist drivers of the vehicles in driving, among them are braking assisting systems. As is known, current braking assisting systems can brake the vehicle by detecting some factors such as the distance from others vehicles and/or objects, the vehicle speed, the weather condition, the road condition, etc. In particular, when the distance between the two vehicles is relatively long, then the braking distance determined by the braking assisting system will also be longer; when the vehicle speed is very fast, then the braking distance will be set shorter; when it is a raining or snowing day, the braking distance will be much longer than the situation in a sunny day; and when the vehicle is running on an icy road, then the braking distance is also much longer than on a dry road.
However, in addition to the above-mentioned factors, there are still other aspects which may also have an influence on the braking distance. Due to inertia force, the braking distance will also be different when the weight of the vehicle is different, wherein the weight of the vehicle includes the weight of the passengers and the weight of the luggage in the vehicle. Specifically, when only the driver sits in the vehicle and thus the whole weight, i.e., the sum weight of the vehicle itself and the passengers in the vehicle is relatively light, the braking distance is normally short; and when the vehicle is occupied by several passengers and thus the above-mentioned whole weight becomes heavier, the braking distance will become longer. The same applies to the situation when there are less and more luggage in the vehicle. That is, the braking distance will also vary according to the weight of luggage in the vehicle.
For the above reasons, there is a need for a braking assisting system for a vehicle, which brakes the vehicle also based on the weight of and/or weight distribution of passengers and/or luggage in the vehicle.
Summary of the Invention
The aim of the present invention is to provide a braking assisting system for a vehicle which can brake the vehicle in a more accurate way by also considering the weight of passengers and/or luggage in the vehicle. In particular, it is disclosed a braking assisting system which will detect the weight and/or weight distribution of passengers and/or luggage in the vehicle, and to a braking assisting method thereof. In a first aspect of the invention, it is disclosed a braking assisting system for a vehicle, comprising: a detection unit adapted to detect the weight of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle, a braking assisting signal generation unit adapted to generate a braking assisting signal based on the weight detected by the detection unit, a signal transmission unit adapted to receive the braking assisting signal from the braking assisting signal generation unit and transmitting the braking assisting signal to a braking system of the vehicle. By keeping the weight of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle in consideration and providing such braking assisting signal to the braking system of the vehicle, the braking of the vehicle can be
implemented in a more accurate way.
In a second aspect of the invention, the detection unit is further adapted to detect the weight distribution of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle, and the braking assisting signal generation unit is further adapted to generate the braking assisting signal based on said weight distribution. In addition to the weight detection, such detection of weight distribution can help to provide an even more accurate braking control on the braking of the vehicle, for example, by providing different braking force to the four tyres of the vehicle.
In a third aspect of the invention, the detection unit is further adapted to detect one or any combination of the following factors: the distance between the vehicle and other surrounding objects, the speed of the vehicle, the weather condition, and/or the road condition, and the braking assisting signal generation unit is further adapted to generate the braking assisting signal based on one or a combination of said factors. In addition to the internal factors such as weight and/or weigh distributions of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle, external factors mentioned here are also very important to help the driver of the vehicle to do more accurate and safer control of the vehicle.
In a fourth aspect of the invention, the detection unit is weight or mass sensors which detect the weight of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle directly. With such weight or mass sensors which could achieve the detection directly, the structure of the whole system is simple.
In a fifth aspect of the invention, the detection unit comprises tyre pressure sensors adapted to sense the tyre pressure of four tyres of the vehicle and a calculation unit adapted to calculate the weight distribution of the passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle based on the tyre pressure sensed by the tyre pressure sensors. When the weight and/or the weight distribution of the passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle are different, the tyre pressures of the four tyres of the vehicle are also different from each other. Therefore, by sensing the tyre pressures of the four tyres and doing a calculation based on the sensed tyre pressure, the weight and/or the weight distribution can be obtained and then used for generating the braking assisting signal.
In a sixth aspect of the invention, a braking assisting method for a vehicle, comprising a first step of detecting the weight of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle, a second step of generating a braking assisting signal based on the weight detected in the first step, and a third step of transmitting the braking assisting signal to a braking system of the vehicle. In a seventh aspect of the invention, the first step further comprises detecting the weight distribution of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle, and in the second step the braking assisting signal is generated further based on said weight distribution.
In an eighth aspect of the invention, the first step further comprises detecting one or any combination of the following factors: the distance between the vehicle and other surrounding objects, the speed of the vehicle, the weather condition, and/or the road condition, and in the second step the braking assisting signal is generated further based on one or a combination of said factors.
Additional features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Brief description of the drawings
Fig. 1 is an illustration a first embodiment of a braking assisting system 100 for a vehicle according to the present invention.
Fig. 2 is an illustration of a second embodiment of a braking assisting system 200 for a vehicle according to the present invention.
Fig. 3 shows several examples of different weight distributions in a vehicle of the second embodiment.
Fig. 4 shows an embodiment of a braking assisting method for a vehicle according to the present invention.
Detailed Description of the Embodiments
The following discussion of the embodiments of the invention directed to a braking assisting system for a vehicle which can brake the vehicle in a more accurate way is merely exemplary in nature, and is in no way intended to limit the invention or its applications or uses.
Fig. 1 is an illustration of a first embodiment of a braking assisting system 100 for a vehicle according to the present invention. In Fig. 1, the system 100 comprises: a detection unit 10 for detecting the weight of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle, a braking assisting signal generation unit 20 for generating a braking assisting signal based on the weight detected by the detection unit 10, and a signal transmission unit 30 for receiving the braking assisting signal generated by the braking assisting signal generation unit 20 and transmitting the braking assisting signal to a braking system 300 of the vehicle which implements the braking of the vehicle individually by itself or in combination with any other systems of the vehicle. The braking system 300 then brakes the vehicle, based only on the above braking assisting signal generated by the braking assisting signal generation unit 20, or also on a combination of the above braking assisting signal and other braking-related signals given by any other systems included in the vehicle or even outside of the vehicle. The braking system 300 could be any kind of braking system in the prior art and any other braking system developed in the future.
The detection unit 10 can detect the weight of the passengers and/or luggage in the vehicle by using any existing technology in the art or any technology developed in the future which have the above detecting function directly or indirectly. For example, the detection unit 10 can be a unit which has the weight detection function directly such as mass/weight sensors in the field. The sensors can be mounted within or on any suitable structure that is part of the vehicle, as long as they could detect the weight of the passengers and/or luggage in the vehicle, including but not limited to vehicle seats and rear compartment of the vehicle. Or, for example, the detection unit 10 can comprise tyre pressure sensors and a calculation unit adapted to calculate the weight of the passengers and/or luggage in the vehicle based on the tyre pressures of the four tyres of the vehicle sensed by the tyre pressure sensors. In particular, for example, the calculation unit implements the above calculation based on tyre pressure distribution differences. The detection unit 10 can also be of any other forms as a combination of sensors, cameras, and/or calculation units which function together to achieve the purpose of detecting the weight of the passengers and/or luggage in the vehicle.
After the detection unit 10 detects the weight of the passengers and/or luggage in the vehicle, the weight detected by the detection unit 10 will be provided to the braking assisting signal generation unit 20, and then the braking assisting signal generation unit 20 will generate a braking assisting signal based on the weight of the passengers and/or luggage in the vehicle detected by the detection unit 10. The braking assisting signal may include information which indicates the detected weight, which could be an accurate weight value, a weight range or just descriptive information such as "light" or "heavy". The braking assisting signal may also include information which indicates the recommended braking distance, which also could be an accurate distance value, for example, the most recommended braking distance, or a range defined by a minimum value and a maximum value. The braking assisting signal may also include information indicating a response time of the vehicle which counts from current time to the time of implementing braking action to the vehicle. Moreover, the braking assisting signal may also include any other information which is related to braking of the vehicle.
The signal transmission unit 30 will then receive the braking assisting signal generated by the braking assisting signal generation unit 20 and including one or more of the above-mentioned information as well as other information and transmit the braking assisting signal to a braking system 300 of the vehicle. In addition to the receiving and transmitting of the braking assisting signal generated by the braking assisting signal generation unit 20, the signal transmission unit 30 can also be used to receive other signals, for example, other braking assisting signals, from other units of the vehicle, and then transmit such signals to the braking system 300 of the vehicle. As is known in the art, the above-mentioned other braking assisting signals could be braking assisting signals generated based on distance from other vehicles, vehicle speed, weather condition and/or road condition, etc. Under such circumstances, the signal transmission unit 30 will also transmit such braking assisting signals to the braking system 300 of the vehicje simultaneously, together with the braking assisting signal generated by the braking assisting signal generation unit 20.
After receiving braking assisting signal from the signal transmission unit 30, the braking system 300 can implement the braking of the vehicle individually by itself or in combination with any other systems of the vehicle. For example, when the braking assisting signal generated by the braking assisting signal generation unit 20 is the only braking assisting signal provided to the braking system 300, the braking system 300 will brake the vehicle only based on the braking assisting signal generated by the braking assisting signal generation unit 20. On the other hand, in the situation where there are other braking assisting signals provided from any other units of the vehicle and then transmitted to the braking system 300, the braking system 300 will brake the vehicle based on a combination of the braking assisting signal generated by the braking assisting signal generation unit 20 and those other braking assisting signals.
Fig. 2 is an illustration of a second embodiment of a braking assisting system 200 for a vehicle according to the present invention.
In particular, the braking assisting system 200 for a vehicle according to the second embodiment of the present invention comprises: a detection unit 101 for detecting the weight of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle and providing a weight distribution of the passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle, a braking assisting signal generation unit 201 for generating a braking assisting signal based on the weight and the weight distribution provided by the detection unit 101, and a signal transmission unit 301 for receiving the braking assisting signal generated by the braking assisting signal generation unit 201 and transmitting the braking assisting signal to a braking system 300 of the vehicle which implements the braking of the vehicle individually by itself or in combination with any other systems of the vehicle. The braking system 300 then brakes the vehicle based only on the above braking assisting signal generated by the braking assisting signal generation unit 201, or also on a combination of the above braking assisting signal and other braking-related signals given by any other systems included in the vehicle or even outside of the vehicle. The braking system 300 could be any kind of braking system in the prior art and any other braking system developed in the future.
The braking assisting system 200 of the second embodiment is the same as the braking assisting system 100 of the first embodiment described according to Fig.l except that the detection unit 101 of the braking assisting system 200, in addition to detecting the weight of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle, further provides the weight distribution of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle, and that the braking assisting signal generation unit 201 of the braking assisting system 200 generates the braking assisting signal based on said weight and said weight distribution provided by the detection unit 101. In the following, similar descriptions will not be given to the same aspects as those which have been explained above with reference to Fig. 1.
According to the second embodiment shown in Fig.2, the detection unit 101 can detect the weight of the passengers and/or luggage in the vehicle by using any existing technology in the art and provide a weight distribution of the passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle. After the detection unit 101 finishes the above detection and providing, the weight distribution provided by the detection unit 101 will be provided to the braking assisting signal generation unit 201, and then the braking assisting signal generation unit 201 will generate a braking assisting signal based on the weight and the weight distribution of the passengers and/or luggage in the vehicle provided by the detection unit 101. The signal transmission unit 301 will then receive the braking assisting signal generated by the braking assisting signal generation unit 201 and transmit the braking assisting signal to a braking system 300 of the vehicle. After receiving braking assisting signal from the signal transmission unit 301, the braking system 300 can implement the braking of the vehicle individually by itself or in combination with any other systems of the vehicle. Other variations in all aspects which have been described with reference to the first embodiment also apply to the second embodiment and will be omitted here for avoiding redundancy.
Fig. 3 shows several examples of different weight distributions in a vehicle which has two rows only, wherein Fig. 3a shows that there are three passengers in the vehicle, one is the driver PI and the other two P2 and P3 sit at the rear row; Fig. 3b shows that there are three passengers in the vehicle, one is the driver PI, the second one is P2 sitting beside PI at the front row, and the third one P3 sit at the rear row right behind the driver PI; Fig. 3c shows that there are three passengers in the vehicle, one is the driver PI, the second one is P2 sitting beside PI at the front row, and the third one P3 sit at the rear row right behind P2; Fig. 3d shows that there are four passengers in the vehicle, PI is the driver, P2 sit beside PI at the front row, and the other two P3 and P4 sit at the rear row behind PI and P2 respectively; and Fig. 3e shows that there are five passengers in the vehicle, PI is the driver, P2 sit beside PI at the front row, and the other three P3, P4 and P5 sit at the rear row. The weight distributions shown in Fig. 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d and 3e are totally different from each other, thereby, the braking assisting signals generated by the braking assisting signal generation unit 201 of the second embodiment as shown in Fig. 2 are also different from each other.
The vehicle shown in Fig. 3 only has two rows, and the conditions of luggage in the vehicle are not shown in Fig. 3 as well. However, the same or similar principles also apply to vehicles which have three or more rows and/or which carry luggage. And in this description no further explanations will be given to such varieties.
Fig. 4 shows an embodiment of a braking assisting method for a vehicle, comprising a first step of detecting the weight of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle, a second step of generating a braking assisting signal based on the weight detected in the first step, and a third step of transmitting the braking assisting signal to a braking system of the vehicle. In another embodiment, the first step further comprises detecting the weight distribution of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle, and in the second step the braking assisting signal is generated further based on said weight distribution. In another embodiment, the first step further comprises detecting one or any combination of the following factors: the distance between the vehicle and other surrounding objects, the speed of the vehicle, the weather condition, and/or the road condition, and in the second step the braking assisting signal is generated further based on one or a combination of said factors.
The forgoing discussion disclosed and describes merely exemplary embodiments of the present invention. On skilled in the art will readily recognize from such discussion and from the accompanying drawings and claims that various changes, modifications and variations can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the following claims.

Claims

Claims
1. A braking assisting system for a vehicle, comprising:
a detection unit adapted to detect the weight of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle,
a braking assisting signal generation unit adapted to generate a braking assisting signal based on the weight detected by the detection unit,
a signal transmission unit adapted to receive the braking assisting signal from the braking assisting signal generation unit and transmitting the braking assisting signal to a braking system of the vehicle.
2. The braking assisting system according to claim 1, characterized in that the detection unit is further adapted to detect the weight distribution of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle, and the braking assisting signal generation unit is further adapted to generate the braking assisting signal based on said weight distribution.
3. The braking assisting system according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the
detection unit is further adapted to detect one or any combination of the following factors: the distance between the vehicle and other surrounding objects, the speed of the vehicle, the weather condition, and/or the road condition, and the braking assisting signal generation unit is further adapted to generate the braking assisting signal based on one or a combination of said factors.
4. The braking assisting system according to claim 1, characterized in that the detection unit is weight or mass sensors which detect the weight of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle directly.
5. The braking assisting system according to claim 2, characterized in that the detection unit comprises tyre pressure sensors adapted to sense the tyre pressure of four tyres of the vehicle and a calculation unit adapted to calculate the weight distribution of the passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle based on the tyre pressure sensed by the tyre pressure sensors.
6. A braking assisting method for a vehicle, comprising
a first step of detecting the weight of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle, a second step of generating a braking assisting signal based on the weight detected in the first step, and
a third step of transmitting the braking assisting signal to a braking system of the vehicle.
7. The braking assisting method according to claim 6, characterized in that the first step further comprises detecting the weight distribution of passenger(s) and/or luggage in the vehicle, and in the second step the braking assisting signal is generated further based on said weight distribution.
8. The braking assisting method according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that the first step further comprises detecting one or any combination of the following factors: the distance between the vehicle and other surrounding objects, the speed of the vehicle, the weather condition, and/or the road condition, and in the second step the braking assisting signal is generated further based on one or a combination of said factors.
PCT/EP2017/000254 2016-03-01 2017-02-23 Braking assisting system and method thereof Ceased WO2017148576A1 (en)

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