An anticipating module for a device for controlling, in real time, the path of a motor vehicle includes a sub-module for computing a turning command for compensating for the curvature of a bend in the lane of the vehicle and a variable-gain device that is connected to an output of the computing sub-module. The gain of the variable-gain device is connected to a controller to adjust the gain so as to decrease the lateral offset between the centre of gravity of the vehicle and the centre of the lane of the vehicle depending on the result of the comparison of components of a vector of current measurements of state variables of the device to one another and to a detection threshold, the output of the variable-gain device being the steering command for compensating for the curvature of the bend.

Systems, methods, and computer program products for autonomous car-like ground vehicle guidance and trajectory tracking control. A multi-loop 3DOF trajectory linearization controller provides guidance to a vehicle having nonlinear rigid-body dynamics with nonlinear tire traction force, nonlinear drag forces and actuator dynamics. The controller may be based on a closed-loop PD-eigenvalue assignment and a singular perturbation (time-scale separation) theory for exponential stability, and controls the longitudinal velocity and steering angle simultaneously to follow a feasible guidance trajectory. A line-of-sight based pure-pursuit guidance controller may generate a 3DOF spatial trajectory that is provided to the 3DOF controller to enable target pursuit and path-following/trajectory-tracking. The resulting combination may provide a 3DOF motion control system with integrated simultaneous steering and speed control for automobile and car-like mobile robot target pursuit and trajectory-tracking.

Systems, methods, and computer program products for autonomous car-like ground vehicle guidance and trajectory tracking control. A multi-loop 3DOF trajectory linearization controller provides guidance to a vehicle having nonlinear rigid-body dynamics with nonlinear tire traction force, nonlinear drag forces and actuator dynamics. The controller may be based on a closed-loop PD-eigenvalue assignment and a singular perturbation (time-scale separation) theory for exponential stability, and controls the longitudinal velocity and steering angle simultaneously to follow a feasible guidance trajectory. A line-of-sight based pure-pursuit guidance controller may generate a 3DOF spatial trajectory that is provided to the 3DOF controller to enable target pursuit and path-following/trajectory-tracking. The resulting combination may provide a 3DOF motion control system with integrated simultaneous steering and speed control for automobile and car-like mobile robot target pursuit and trajectory-tracking.

A yaw motion control method for a four-wheel distributed vehicle includes: calculating the steering response of the vehicle in a steady state using a nonlinear vehicle model in reference with an understeering degree while constraining by the limit value of the road surface adhesion condition according to the sideslip angle response and the vertical load change in the steady state, calculating the lateral force response and the self-aligning moment response of the tires in the steady state by a magic tire formula, calculating the required additional yaw moment by using the yaw motion balance equation, reasonably distributing the generalized control force to the four drive motors through the optimization algorithm in combination with the current driving conditions; finally, off-line storing and retrieving the calculation results of the off-line distribution of different vehicle parameters required by different upper layers to distribute the torques to the four drive wheels.

In motion control in the present invention, operation amounts relating to braking and drive are set as a control command when a difference between a physical quantity relating to a target vehicle attitude which is based on a target trajectory and a physical quantity relating to a linear model vehicle attitude which is based on a linear model of a vehicle exceeds a threshold value, operation amounts relating to braking and steering are set as the control command when the difference is equal to or smaller than the threshold value, and an attitude of the vehicle in a yaw direction is controlled based on the control command.

In motion control in the present invention, operation amounts relating to braking and drive are set as a control command when a difference between a physical quantity relating to a target vehicle attitude which is based on a target trajectory and a physical quantity relating to a linear model vehicle attitude which is based on a linear model of a vehicle exceeds a threshold value, operation amounts relating to braking and steering are set as the control command when the difference is equal to or smaller than the threshold value, and an attitude of the vehicle in a yaw direction is controlled based on the control command.

Methods and systems are provided for inducing vehicle side slip. In one example, a method includes opening a sole driveline disconnect clutch positioned between an engine and an electric machine upstream of a transmission, and closing the sole driveline disconnect clutch within a predetermined amount of time after opening the sole driveline disconnect without shifting gears of the transmission. In this way, vehicle drift may be reliable initiated in a hybrid electric vehicle with an automatic transmission, without shifting gears of the transmission.

Methods and systems are provided for inducing vehicle side slip. In one example, a method includes opening a sole driveline disconnect clutch positioned between an engine and an electric machine upstream of a transmission, and closing the sole driveline disconnect clutch within a predetermined amount of time after opening the sole driveline disconnect without shifting gears of the transmission. In this way, vehicle drift may be reliable initiated in a hybrid electric vehicle with an automatic transmission, without shifting gears of the transmission.

A slip angle estimation device for a vehicle comprises an imaging device for capturing an image of at least one of the front and the rear of the vehicle and a control unit. The imaging device is a CCD camera including a lens and an imaging sensor. The control unit is configured to determine a plurality of tracking points for a plurality of captured objects, determine an optical flow for the plurality of tracking points based on two images captured at predetermined elapsed time intervals, determine a vanishing point based on intersections of the plurality of optical flows, and calculate a slip angle of the vehicle based on a ratio of a horizontal distance between an image center and the vanishing point to a distance between a lens center of the CCD camera and an imaging sensor.

A slip angle estimation device for a vehicle comprises an imaging device for capturing an image of at least one of the front and the rear of the vehicle and a control unit. The imaging device is a CCD camera including a lens and an imaging sensor. The control unit is configured to determine a plurality of tracking points for a plurality of captured objects, determine an optical flow for the plurality of tracking points based on two images captured at predetermined elapsed time intervals, determine a vanishing point based on intersections of the plurality of optical flows, and calculate a slip angle of the vehicle based on a ratio of a horizontal distance between an image center and the vanishing point to a distance between a lens center of the CCD camera and an imaging sensor.