A liquid sprayer control method to induce drift driving for a vehicle, wherein the control apparatus includes a liquid sprayer attached to a tank of fluid, which in turn has two small hoses aiming towards the rear tires of a vehicle. With a simple push-button controller at the driver’s command, the driver sprays liquid onto the rear tires, coating them for an effective loss of traction of the rear tires, allowing the driver to induce a drift, or intentional loss of rear traction of the vehicle for closed-course exhibition or educational purposes.

The technology employs a variable motion control envelope that enables an on-board computing system of a self-driving vehicle to estimate future vehicle driving behavior along an upcoming path, in order to maintain a desired amount of control during autonomous driving. Factors including intrinsic vehicle properties, extrinsic environmental influences and road friction information are evaluated. Such factors can be evaluated to derive an available acceleration model, which defines an envelope of maximum longitudinal and lateral accelerations for the vehicle. This model, which may identify dynamically varying acceleration limits that can be affected by road conditions and road configurations, may be used by the on-board control system (e.g., a planner module of the processing system) to control driving operations of the vehicle in an autonomous driving mode.

A vehicle and associated method for calculating tire saturation is provided. The method may include the stability control computer calculating slip ratio and longitudinal force for the tire, calculating tire longitudinal stiffness by dividing longitudinal force by slip ratio, calculating tire saturation from tire longitudinal stiffness, and the stability control computer altering dynamic control of the vehicle based on calculated tire saturation. The stability control computer may calculate tire saturation from a tire saturation membership function which includes a first tire longitudinal stiffness value representing an unsaturated tire, a second tire longitudinal stiffness value representing a saturated tire, and a function line connecting the first tire longitudinal stiffness value to the second tire longitudinal stiffness value.

The present disclosure relates to an apparatus for controlling the motion of a vehicle to improve riding comfort, and a method thereof. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a processor may determine a boarding location for a user and may determine a vehicle control signal in consideration of riding comfort according to acceleration or jerk based on the boarding location. A controller may control the vehicle depending on the vehicle control signal.

A vehicle positioning method via data fusion and a system using the same are disclosed. The method is performed in a processor electrically connected to a self-driving-vehicle controller and multiple electronic systems. The method is to perform a delay correction according to a first real-time coordinate, a second real-time coordinate, real-time lane recognition data, multiple vehicle dynamic parameters, and multiple vehicle information received from the multiple electronic systems with their weigh values, to generate a fusion positioning coordinate, and to determine confidence indexes. Then, the method is to output the first real-time coordinate, the second real-time coordinate, and the real-time lane recognition data that are processed by the delay correction, the fusion positioning coordinate, and the confidence indexes to the self-driving-vehicle controller for a self-driving operation.

Coordinates of a point, representing a current pair of states of a vehicle, can be determined to be outside of a first curve. An interior of the first curve, representing a first region of operation of the vehicle, can be characterized by values of forces produced by tires being less than a saturation force. A distance between the point and a second curve can be determined. An interior of the second curve, representing a second region of operation of the vehicle, can be characterized by an ability of an operation of a control system to cause the vehicle to change from being operated in the current pair of states to being operated in the first region of operation. A manner in which the vehicle changes from being operated in the current pair of states to being operated in a different pair of states can be controlled based on the distance.

A system for supervisory control for eAWD and eLSD in a motor vehicle includes a control module, and sensors and actuators disposed on the motor vehicle. The sensors measure real-time motor vehicle data, and the actuators alter behavior of the motor vehicle. The control module receives the real-time data; receives one or more driver inputs to the motor vehicle; determines a status of a body of the motor vehicle; determines a status of axles of the motor vehicle; determines a status of each wheel of the motor vehicle; and generates a control signal to the actuators from the driver inputs and the body, axle, and wheel statuses. The control module also exercises supervisory control by actively adjusting constraints on the control signal to each of the actuators where actively adjusting constraints on the control signal alters boundaries of control actions in response to the one or more driver inputs.

An integrated control system for a vehicle is provided. The system includes a friction coefficient calculation unit that calculates friction coefficients of left side and right side road surfaces, respectively, based on vehicle wheel state information and a predetermined setting information collected during ABS operation. A feedforward braking pressure calculation unit calculates a feedforward braking pressure of each vehicle wheel using the friction coefficients. An ABS braking pressure calculation unit calculates an ABS braking pressure of the each vehicle wheel based on the feedforward braking pressure and slip rate information. A rear wheel steering control amount calculation unit calculates a rear wheel steering control amount for yaw compensation using the ABS braking pressure of each vehicle wheel and a rear wheel steering controller executes a rear wheel steering control according to the rear wheel steering control amount.

A drift-assessment device includes a turn information detection unit that detects turn information of a vehicle, an image recognition and detection unit that detects position information of the vehicle relative to a lane, a vehicle speed detection unit that detects a vehicle speed, a selection unit that selects the image recognition and detection unit when the vehicle speed is equal to or greater than a predetermined vehicle speed and selects the turn information detection unit when the vehicle speed is less than the predetermined vehicle speed, and a drift-assessment unit that determines the drift of the vehicle based on the position information of the vehicle relative to the lane when the selection unit selects the image recognition and detection unit and determines the drift of the vehicle based on the turn information of the vehicle when the selection unit selects the turn information detection unit.

Coordinates of a point, representing a current pair of states of a vehicle, can be determined to be outside of a first curve. An interior of the first curve, representing a first region of operation of the vehicle, can be characterized by values of forces produced by tires being less than a saturation force. A distance between the point and a second curve can be determined. An interior of the second curve, representing a second region of operation of the vehicle, can be characterized by an ability of an operation of a control system to cause the vehicle to change from being operated in the current pair of states to being operated in the first region of operation. A manner in which the vehicle changes from being operated in the current pair of states to being operated in a different pair of states can be controlled based on the distance.