Systems and methods for slowing (and stopping) a subject vehicle in response to detection of an emergency vehicle with activated emergency lights, or a school bus with activated stop lights.

A collision avoidance support device comprises target detection unit, target type determination unit, relative position determination unit, target track prediction unit, and vehicle track prediction unit, obstacle determination unit. The vehicle track prediction unit is configured to enlarge said width of a vehicle predicted track compared with a case where an enlargement condition is not satisfied when the enlargement condition is satisfied. The enlargement condition is satisfied when the relative position determination unit detects that a target determined to be a pedestrian by the target type determination unit is positioned on a travel lane at least once.

A method in controlling a steering assistance actuator in a steering system (100) of a vehicle and one or more controllable vehicle state actuators so that the steering-wheel torque applied by the driver is an indicative for the driver intention and transformed to a target yaw and/or lateral vehicle state to be controlled by one or more vehicle state controllers and actuated by the vehicle state actuators along with the fact that the level of understeer is used to achieve an additional steering-wheel torque in the form of a ramp in the steering-wheel torque as a function of the level of understeer.

Methods and systems for controlling vehicle braking using a steering wheel mounted brake activation mechanism are disclosed herein. In an exemplary embodiment, a method for braking a vehicle includes providing the vehicle with a steering system including a steering wheel having a brake activation mechanism, a braking system, and a controller in electronic communication with the braking system and the brake activation mechanism, receiving a user input from the brake activation mechanism, calculating an amount of vehicle braking to apply based on the user input, and automatically controlling the vehicle braking system based on the calculated amount of vehicle braking.

An apparatus for operating a load-controlled hydraulic supply of an agricultural tractor includes a hydraulic pump which is adjustable with respect to the displacement volume for supplying pressurized hydraulic fluid, a proportional valve which is electrically actuatable, a primary hydraulic consumer to carry out a superordinate hydraulic function and to be directly connected to a conveying outlet of the hydraulic pump, a secondary hydraulic consumer to carry out a subordinate hydraulic function and to be connected to the conveying outlet of the hydraulic pump via the proportional valve, and a control unit configured to move the proportional valve into a closed valve position when the control unit recognizes that at least one of a required power of the primary and secondary hydraulic consumers exceeds the conveying capacity of the hydraulic pump and the subordinate hydraulic function of the secondary hydraulic consumer is inactive.

There is provided a vehicle control system capable of ensuring stability even if an ego vehicle spins slowly. The invention computes a relative slip angle between a leading vehicle and the ego vehicle on the basis of distance between the ego vehicle and the leading vehicle and distance between a traveling-direction virtual line extending from the ego vehicle in a traveling direction and the leading vehicle, sets a spin judgment threshold value according to the relative slip angle, and controls yaw moment to reduce the relative slip angle when the relative slip angle exceeds the spin judgment threshold value.

A steering system which is capable of being controlled by a redundant brake system, which includes a primary brake control module, a secondary brake control module, and a plurality of brake units controlled by the primary brake control module or the secondary brake control module. There is at least one hydraulic motor connected to a component of the steering system, and the fluid pressure in the hydraulic motor is controlled by the secondary brake control module. The wheels of the steering system are configured to make a right-hand turn when the secondary brake control module operates the hydraulic motor during a first mode of operation, and the wheels of the steering system are configured to make a left-hand turn when the secondary brake control module operates the hydraulic motor during a second mode of operation.

A braking system for vehicles may have a control unit for two brake groups operatively connected to electromechanical actuators for each brake group through a relative piloting device. Each control unit may be powered by a power source and being galvanically isolated from other power sources. Each control unit may be programmed to implement, via a piloting device, a standard braking strategy in case of detection of a standard operation of each brake group and a fault braking strategy, if it detects an electrical fault of one or more of the brake groups.

Methods and systems are provided for determining a road surface friction coefficient and controlling a feature of the vehicle based thereon. In one embodiment, a method includes: receiving signals from an electronic power steering system and an inertial measurement unit; estimating parameters associated with an electronic power steering system model using an iterative optimization method; calculating an electronic power steering system variable using the electronic power steering system model, the estimated parameters and one or more of the received signals; determining whether the calculated electronic power steering system variable satisfies a fitness criterion; and when the calculated electronic power steering system variable does satisfy the fitness criterion, determining a road surface friction coefficient based on at least one of the estimated parameters.

A target steering angle calculator calculates, based on a target curvature, a target steering angle representing a steering angle of the vehicle at a target position. A current steering-angle obtainer obtains a current steering angle representing a steering angle of the vehicle at a current position. A steering controller controls the steering of the vehicle to cause the current steering angle to follow the target steering angle. A distance estimator estimates, based on at least one of the environmental information around the vehicle and control information about the vehicle, a visible distance representing a distance visibly recognizable by the driver of the vehicle to a front of the vehicle. The target curvature obtainer uses the visible distance as the target distance to obtain the target curvature at the predetermined target position that has the visible distance away from the current position along the road in the travelling direction.