A travel control apparatus for a vehicle includes a travel environment information acquisition unit, a travel information detection unit, and a control unit. The acquisition unit acquires travel environment information of the vehicle, which is on a traveling environment of the vehicle. The detection unit detects travel information of the vehicle. The control unit performs self-driving control, on the basis the information. The control unit detects a relative distance between an oncoming vehicle and the vehicle, and performs turn control to cause the vehicle to make a turn while crossing ahead of the oncoming vehicle, in a case where the relative distance is not smaller than a preset threshold value. When the vehicle makes the turn, in a case where a traction control for preventing tire slippage by decreasing a drive torque is operated, the control unit increasingly corrects the preset threshold value in accordance with at least a tire grip state.

An object is to provide an attitude control system that can suppress an understeering characteristic when a vehicle such as an automobile travels in a medium-speed or low-speed range. A vehicle drives front wheels, and controls steering angles of the front wheels and steering angles of rear wheels. In an attitude control system to be mounted on the vehicle, a control amount detecting unit detects an operation amount of an accelerator pedal operated by a driver of the vehicle. A driving force estimating unit estimates a driving force generated on the front wheels based on the operation amount of the accelerator pedal. A rear-wheel steering angle determining unit determines a rear-wheel steering angle instruction value for controlling steering angles of the rear wheels based on an estimated front-wheel driving force that is the driving force estimated by the driving force estimating unit.

A method actuates a vehicle drivetrain of a vehicle having a drive unit, in particular an electric motor, wherein the drivetrain has at least one first partial drivetrain which is assigned to a first output unit which transmits a torque between the drive unit and the first output unit, and has at least one second partial drive train which is assigned to a second output unit which transmits a torque between the drive unit and the second output unit. When a positive torque is transmitted, a load is applied to the drivetrain in a first direction, and when a negative torque is transmitted, a load is applied to the drivetrain in a second direction opposed to the first direction. At least one pre-load device is provided which, when a predetermined positive torque limiting value is reached or when a predetermined negative torque limiting value is reached, pre-loads the first partial drivetrain in the first direction of the positive torque and pre-loads the second partial drivetrain in the second direction of the negative torque.

A method for using a closed-loop control system to control an autonomous system is disclosed, the closed-loop control system comprising an explicit Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) framework. The method (i) computes operation parameters for the autonomous system using the closed-loop control system, the output of the explicit NMPC framework comprising the operation parameters; (ii) modifies the output of the explicit NMPC framework to consider unmeasured system states, unknown system model values, and external disturbances, to create modified operation parameters, using an extended high-gain observer (EHGO) to estimate the unmeasured system states and the external disturbances and a dynamic inverter to compute values of unknown input coefficients for a system model of the autonomous system; (iii) generates a modified output signal including the modified operation parameters; and (iv) transmits the modified output signal to control operation of the autonomous system using the modified operation parameters.

Provided is control apparatus for an electric vehicle, which is capable of suppressing simultaneous slip of front and rear wheels. The control apparatus for an electric vehicle controls a front electric motor and a rear electric motor so that a difference between a torque command value of the front electric motor and a torque command value of the rear electric motor is larger than a predetermined value.

Provided herein is a method of disconnecting and connecting elements of a tandem axle system (100) drivingly connected to an engine (206) and transmission (204) of a vehicle, the method including the steps of: providing a tandem axle system (100) having: an inter-axle differential and clutch assembly (102) in driving engagement with the engine, wherein the inter-axle differential and clutch assembly includes an inter-axle differential (108) and an inter-axle differential lock (110); a forward axle assembly (104) including a differential assembly (116), a disconnect assembly (114) and two axle half shafts (104a, 104b); and a rear axle assembly (106) including a differential assembly (120), a disconnect assembly (122) and two axle half shafts (106a, 106b); providing a control system (300) in communication with the inter-axle differential lock, the disconnect assemblies and the engine; detecting (402) a disconnect opportunity; commanding (404) the engine torque set to zero; disconnecting (406) the axle half shafts of the forward and rear axle assemblies; engaging (408) the inter-axle differential lock; and allowing (410) the engine to idle.

A method of controlling driving of a vehicle when battery charging is limited is provided. The method includes calculating a target wheel torque from a speed of the vehicle, calculating a target motor torque from a differential gear device of the vehicle, and calculating a discharge power of a hybrid starter generator when the target motor torque and a motor charging limitation torque are compared with each other and the target motor torque is greater than the motor charging limitation torque. A fuel injection of the vehicle is blocked and an engine clutch is disengaged when the discharge power of the hybrid starter generator and a discharging limitation power of the hybrid starter generator are compared with each other and the discharge power of the hybrid starter generator is less than the discharging limitation power of the hybrid starter generator. Additionally, an engine reference speed of the vehicle is determined.

A fuel-saving control device equipped with: a surplus drive force calculation unit for calculating surplus drive force; a fuel-saving control unit for executing a fuel-saving control which lowers and corrects the indicated fuel injection amount according to the accelerator position when the surplus drive force reaches or exceeds a threshold, and stopping the fuel-saving control when the surplus drive force falls below the threshold; a vehicle position detection unit for detecting the vehicle position; a map information storage unit for storing map information; a downshift operation detection unit for detecting a downshifting operation; and a forward gradient identification unit for identifying the forward gradient on the basis of the vehicle position and the map information. Therein, the fuel-saving control unit stops the fuel-saving control when a downshifting operation is detected and the forward gradient is an uphill grade equal to or greater than a threshold.

A fuel-saving control device equipped with: a surplus drive force calculation unit for calculating surplus drive force; a fuel-saving control unit for executing a fuel-saving control which lowers and corrects the indicated fuel injection amount according to the accelerator position when the surplus drive force reaches or exceeds a first threshold, and stopping the fuel-saving control when the surplus drive force falls below the first threshold; a vehicle position detection unit for detecting the vehicle position; a map information storage unit for storing map information; a road information identification unit for identifying the curvature radius and gradient of the road upon which travel is planned, on the basis of the vehicle position and the map information; and a flat/straight road determination unit for determining whether or not the road upon which travel is planned is a flat and straight road, on the basis of the curvature radius and gradient of the road upon which travel is planned. Therein, the fuel-saving control unit executes the fuel-saving control when the road upon which travel is planned is a flat and straight road.

A start-stop device and a corresponding method brings about an automatic switch-off and/or switch-on operation of an automatically switched-off drive machine of a motor vehicle, in particular of a motor vehicle having an automatic transmission. The start-stop device has a switch-off logic, by way of which an automatic switch-off of the drive machine can be brought about in the case of a moving vehicle in accordance with a predefined switch-off operating strategy, and a switch-on logic, by way of which an automatic switch-on of the automatically switched-off drive machine can be brought about in accordance with a predefined switch-on operating strategy. The switch-off operating strategy and/or the switch-on operating strategy are/is configured in a manner which is based on wheel torque.