A method and system are disclosed for estimating a relative motion of vehicle body portions with respect to each other along a road segment having a length (L); the method and system allow to estimate road unevenness induced vehicle body motions and are based on the estimation of the deformation, over multiple tire rotations, of at least two tires of a vehicle.

Dynamic throttle pedal filtering of a vehicle is provided. An automated throttle filtering system may be included in the vehicle that may operate to filter throttle pedal input based on detection of a rough driving surface. The rough driving surface detection may be based on an evaluation of wheel speed signals or an indication of traction loss. The throttle pedal input may be filtered corresponding to rough driving surface magnitude values determined based on the wheel speed signals. For example, filtered torque demand values may be determined based on the rough driving surface magnitude values and included in a torque demand request communicated to the vehicle's powertrain system. The resulting torque output may modulate an undesirable oscillating torque demand that may be generated in relation to operation of the vehicle on a rough driving surface.

A vehicle control device includes a sleep depth estimation unit that estimates a sleep depth of an occupant seated in a seat provided in a vehicle, and a control unit that controls the vehicle such that a magnitude of the external force to be applied to at least one of a plurality of the occupants is equal to or less than a first threshold value when the estimated sleep depth of the occupant is equal to or lower than a predetermined reference depth or when the occupant is awake, and that controls the vehicle such that the magnitude of the external force to be applied to each of all the occupants is equal to or less than a second threshold value larger than the first threshold value when the sleep depth of each of the occupants is greater than the reference depth.

A planning system for an autonomous work vehicle system includes a controller having a memory and a processor. The controller is configured to provide an indication of a work area for operation of the autonomous work vehicle system, identify a plurality of zones of the work area, and identify one or more rules for each respective zone of the plurality of zones. The one or more rules define operation of the autonomous work vehicle system in the respective zone. The controller is configured to generate a plan for operation of the autonomous work vehicle system based on the plurality of zones and the one or more rules for each respective zone of the plurality of zones.

A vehicle control system to be mounted in a hybrid electric vehicle includes an engine, a center differential that includes a front-wheel-side output portion and a rear-wheel-side output portion and distributes torque outputted from the engine to a front wheel and a rear wheel, a limited slip differential mechanism that limits a differential between the front-wheel-side output portion and the rear-wheel-side output portion, and a motor disposed in a drive-power transferring system that transfers drive power from the rear-wheel-side output portion to the rear wheel. The vehicle control system includes a processor. When the hybrid electric vehicle is switched from a first traveling mode to a second traveling mode, the processor stops the engine while causing the limited slip differential mechanism to limit the differential between the front-wheel-side output portion and the rear-wheel-side output portion.

A vehicle control system has a plurality of subsystem controllers including an engine management system 28, a transmission controller 30, a steering controller 48, a brakes controller 62 and a suspension controller 82. These subsystem controllers are each operable in a plurality of subsystem modes, and are all connected to a vehicle mode controller 98 which controls the modes of operation of each of the subsystem controllers so as to provide a number of driving modes for the vehicle. Each of the modes corresponds to a particular driving condition or set of driving conditions, and in each mode each of the functions is set to the function in mode most appropriate to those conditions.

A safety system for a vehicle may include one or more processors configured to determine, based on a friction prediction model, one or more predictive friction coefficients between the ground and one or more tires of the ground vehicle using first ground condition data and second ground condition data. The first ground condition data represent conditions of the ground at or near the position of the ground vehicle, and the second ground condition data represent conditions of the ground in front of the ground vehicle with respect to a driving direction of the ground vehicle. The one or more processors are further configured to determine driving conditions of the ground vehicle using the determined one or more predictive friction coefficients.

An estimation apparatus performs non-contact estimation of a friction coefficient of a road surface. The estimation apparatus includes at least one processor. The processor determines a state of the road surface and determine which of preset road-surface states the state of the road surface belongs to. The processor performs primary identification of a first range of a friction coefficient corresponding to the determined road-surface state on the basis of friction coefficient information and the determined state of the road surface. The friction coefficient information is sectioned for each of the road-surface states. The processor narrows down a range of the friction coefficient from the first range to a second range on the basis of the identified first range of the friction coefficient, and thereby perform secondary identification of the friction coefficient of the road surface. The second range is narrower than the first range.

A method for determining a driving state of a vehicle includes determining a torque command of a vehicle drive apparatus based on vehicle driving information collected during driving of the vehicle, determining an acceleration error defined as a difference between a reference longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle interlocked with the torque command and a measured longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle, determining an acceleration disturbance rate defined as a difference between an actual rotational acceleration of the vehicle drive and a reference drive apparatus rotational acceleration interlocked with the torque command based on the determined torque command, integrating the determined acceleration disturbance rate to determine the acceleration disturbance, and determining a current vehicle driving state of the vehicle based on the determined acceleration error, the determined acceleration disturbance rate and the acceleration disturbance.

A method for ascertaining the instantaneous roadway roughness in a vehicle. In the method, the frequency-dependent amplitude response is determined from the wheel speed, and a roughness characteristic variable is ascertained as a measure of the roadway roughness.