Systems and methods described herein concern estimating the mass of a vehicle. One embodiment uses a slope estimator to estimate the grade of a roadway on which the vehicle is traveling; inputs state estimates from the slope estimator, an estimated wheel force, and an estimated wheel acceleration to a secondary mass estimator that calculates a first estimated mass of the vehicle; selects, based at least in part on the first estimated mass, a calibration value using a tuning map; inputs the calibration value, the estimated wheel force, the state estimates, and a measurement noise value to a main mass estimator that calculates a second estimated mass of the vehicle that is more accurate than the first estimated mass due, at least in part, to the calibration value; and adjusts automatically one or more operational parameters of the vehicle based, at least in part, on the second estimated mass.

A mobile object includes: a first braking/driving torque application unit that applies first braking/driving torque to a right driving wheel; a second braking/driving torque application unit that applies second braking/driving torque to a left driving wheel; a right driven wheel and a left driven wheel each of which is constituted of a caster wheel; and a control unit that controls the first braking/driving torque application unit and the second braking/driving torque application unit. Moreover, the control unit is configured to perform turning, advancing/reversing and braking of the mobile object by controlling the first braking/driving torque and the second braking/driving torque or by controlling rotational speed of the right driving wheel and rotational speed of the left driving wheel.

A driver's hands on/off detection system for detecting whether a driver's hands are on/off a steering wheel during driving is applied to a vehicle. When a driving assistance system is operated by a controller during driving, the driver's hands on/off detection system calculates an electronic motor driven power steering system (MDPS) torque representative value and a vehicle measurement data representative value as a representative value ratio between sensors, and divides a disturbance driving area and a normal driving area by a magnitude of the representative value ratio between sensors to perform sensor detection correction control of a hands on/off check using a disturbance torque threshold to the torque filtering value or torque-based sensing control of a hands on/off check using an upper/lower torque limit value to the torque filtering value, thereby reducing the hands on/off detection errors during driving with only a vehicle-mounted sensor without using a capacitive sensor.

A drive force control system for hybrid vehicles configured to reduce a change in a drive force simultaneous execution of a starting operation of an engine and a shifting operation of a transmission. The drive force control is applied to a hybrid vehicle comprising: an engine connected to front wheels; a first motor connected to rear wheels; and a transmission that changes a speed ratio between the first motor and the rear wheels. A controller restricts execution of any one of an engine staring operation and a shifting operation of the transmission during execution of other one of the engine staring operation and shifting operation of the transmission.

In various embodiments, a system and method for determining a gross combined weight of a vehicle and its load is disclosed. A method includes: providing predetermined calibration settings relating force to engine speed for a specific vehicle travelling in a reverse direction, altering accelerometer data based on filtered vehicle pitch and roll data, determining that one or more vehicle performance parameters fall within a threshold range, storing a plurality of data pairs that include longitudinal acceleration and drive force, and determining a slope of a line that linearly approximates the plurality of data pairs, the slope indicating a total weight, the total weight comprising a weight of the vehicle and a weight being hauled by the vehicle; and transmitting the total weight to a remote system for display.

A method and system for blending between different torque maps of a vehicle in a smooth and progressive manner. Blending is delayed if the vehicle driver cannot detect that blending is taking place, for example, when the difference between a source map and target map is below a predetermined threshold.

A surface roughness estimator for a vehicle configured to generate a first surface roughness index value indicative of terrain surface roughness and to output a signal in dependence at least in part on the first surface roughness index value, the estimator being configured to receive first acceleration information indicative of a first acceleration along a first axis, receive second acceleration information indicative of a second acceleration along a second axis, calculate a combined value in dependence on the first acceleration and second acceleration, and adjust the combined value in dependence on a speed of the vehicle to generate the first surface roughness index value.

Provided herein is a vehicle including a powertrain including a prime mover operably coupled to a transmission, wherein the transmission is operably coupled to a plurality of wheels; a plurality of sensors configured to monitor operating conditions of the vehicle including an accelerator pedal position; and a controller configured to receive signals from the plurality of sensors and send an output signal to control a torque request to the powertrain, wherein the controller includes a calibrateable map having values of the torque request based on the accelerator pedal position and an estimated weight of the vehicle.

A vehicle having a drivetrain is controlled based on a difference between a torque transmitted by the drivetrain when the vehicle has constant non-zero speed and the torque transmitted by the drivetrain when the vehicle is accelerating. The drivetrain torque may be measured by a drivetrain torque sensor. The effective vehicle mass is computed from the torque difference. The computed mass of the vehicle is used to adjust the activation of a collision warning system or a collision avoidance system. A method of operating a vehicle where the activation of a collision avoidance system is adjusted based on a difference between a torque transmitted by a drivetrain when the vehicle has constant non-zero speed and the torque transmitted by the drivetrain when the vehicle is accelerating is disclosed. The torque difference is used to compute a vehicle mass that is used to adjust a collision warning distance.

A method of controlling a driving force of a four-wheel drive vehicle includes causing a control unit to acquire a vehicle speed, a lateral acceleration, a driving force of a wheel, a road surface friction coefficient, and a ground contact load of the wheel when the vehicle is traveling, determine whether a road surface is rough based on the acquired road surface condition, correct, when the road surface is determined to be rough, the load of the wheel, by applying thereto a load change rate set according to the roughness, predict a slip occurrence of the wheel by comparing a product of the corrected load and the road surface friction coefficient to a total force of the driving force and a lateral force caused by a lateral acceleration in cornering, and reduce, when the slip occurrence is predicted, the driving force so as to prevent the slip occurrence.