The present invention relates to a control unit for determining a value indicative of a load bearing capability of a ground segment supporting a vehicle. The control unit is configured to issue a control signal to the vehicle to thereby impart a motion change of the vehicle, and receive response information from the vehicle indicative of the vehicle's response to the imparted motion change. The control unit is further configured to, based on the response information, determine a vertical position change of at least one wheel of the vehicle, and based on the determined vertical position change and the imparted motion change, determine the value indicative of the load bearing capability of the ground segment.

A system, method, and apparatus can provide control signaling to control one or more autonomous machines during a plurality of predefined periods of time. Each of the one or more autonomous machines can be controlled according to a maximized productivity level for each task performed by the autonomous machine while at the same time generating sound during performance of the task at the maximized productivity level no louder than respective maximum noise limit levels specific for the plurality of predefined periods of time.

The disclosure provides a fuel saving robot system of mixed hybrid heavy duty trucks mainly for long haul logistics on highways. According to the vehicle-mounted 3D electronic map, the dynamic 3D positioning data of the vehicle measured by the GNSS, parameters of vehicle subsystems and the state of charge of the power battery pack, and data such as relative speed and absolute distance between the vehicle and the vehicle ahead in the same lane measured by the forward looking millimeter wave radar, the electrical power split device is commanded by the vehicle control unit through dynamic collaboration between the cloud AI brain and the vehicle-mounted AI brain of the fuel saving robot to allocate the flow direction and amplitude of 100 kW-class electric power accurately and dynamically among the internal combustion engine, generator, battery pack and driving motor with response time of 10 ms level, meet the transient power balance required by the vehicle dynamics equation in real time, and achieve the beneficial effects of minimization of vehicle fuel consumption and emissions, reduction of drivers' labor intensity of long-distance driving, improvement of active safety of vehicle running and the like through the fuel saving control algorithm of predictive adaptive cruise.

Through-the-road (TTR) hybrid designs using control strategies such as an equivalent consumption minimization strategy (ECMS) or an adaptive ECMS are implemented at the supplemental torque delivering electrically-powered drive axle (or axles) in a manner that follows operational parameters or computationally estimates states of the primary drivetrain and/or fuel-fed engine, but does not itself participate in control of the fuel-fed engine or primary drivetrain. BSFC type data particular to the paired-with fuel-fed engine allows an ECMS implementation (or other similar control strategy) to adapt to efficiency curves for the particular fuel-fed engine and to improve overall efficiencies of the TTR hybrid configuration.

Aspects and implementations of the present disclosure relate to performance and safety improvements for autonomous trucking systems, including techniques of obtaining an identification of an unfavorable condition on a route of an autonomous vehicle (AV), causing the AV to exit the route, and performing one or more waiting loops until the unfavorable condition is resolved, the AV is rerouted, assistance arrives, and the like.

The invention relates to a method for determining a parameter indicative of a road capability of a road segment (18) supporting a vehicle (10). The vehicle (10) comprises a plurality of ground engaging members (12, 14, 16, 38, 40, 42). The method comprises: —for each ground engaging member (14, 42) in a sub-set of the plurality of ground engaging members (12, 14, 16, 38, 40, 42), setting a contact force (N.sub.14,S, N.sub.42,S) between the ground engaging member (12, 14, 16, 38, 40, 42) and the road segment (18); —determining a target global load vector (G) to be imparted to the vehicle (10), the target global load vector (G) comprising at least a vertical load and an inclining moment, —determining contact forces (N.sub.12, N.sub.16, N.sub.38, N.sub.40) for the ground engaging members (12, 16, 38, 40) of the plurality of ground engaging members (12, 14, 16, 38, 40, 42) which are not in the sub-set such that the contact forces (N.sub.12, N.sub.14,S, N.sub.16, N.sub.38, N.sub.40, N.sub.42,S) for the plurality of ground engaging members (12, 14, 16, 38, 40, 42) together result in a resulting global load vector (R), a difference measure (DM) between the resulting global load vector (R) and the target global load vector (G) being equal to or lower than a predetermined difference measure threshold, —applying the contact force (N.sub.12, N.sub.14,S, N.sub.16, N.sub.38, N.sub.40, N.sub.42,S) to each ground engaging member of the plurality of ground engaging members (12, 14, 16, 38, 40, 42), —for at least one ground engaging member (14, 42) in the sub-set, determining a parameter indicative of the road capability of the road segment (18) associated with the ground engaging member (14, 42).

A power regeneration system of a work vehicle includes: a first generator (12) and a second generator (31) that are driven by an engine (11); a first electric circuit (C1) for supplying electric power to traveling motors (10L, 10R); a second electric circuit (C2) for supplying electric power to an auxiliary device (35); a voltage step down converter (21) providing electric power from the first electric circuit to the second electric circuit; and a controller (51) that determines whether a travel mode of the work vehicle is a powering mode or a regeneration mode in order to control driving of the voltage step down converter. If the travel mode is the regeneration mode, the controller provides the regenerative power from the first electric circuit through the voltage step down converter to the second electric circuit, in order to drive the auxiliary device with the regenerative power.

A scalable tractive power system for vehicles (car, truck, bus, semi-trailer), integrated with all-wheel steering system which leverage synergies between plurality of differently designed electric traction-motors and all-wheel electric steering-motors is configured with plurality of sensors to virtually eliminate wheel-dragging and EPS, as part of virtually 100% dynamic efficiency. A fully automated electronic clutch-system attached to selected electric traction motors is configured to carry out above 90% traction efficiency by coupling to wheels selected electric traction-motors in their high efficiency range of operation, and de-coupling and replacing electric traction-motors with another electric traction-motors while the vehicle is changing speed or when the vehicle requires higher or lower tractive-power, from forward-motion start to top-rated speed of the vehicle. A holistic controller is configured with multi-objective optimization design (MOOD) procedures computing complex variable values and parameters, finding the required trade-off among design objectives, and improving the pertinence of solutions, while complying with NHTSA's ‘fail operational systems’ for steer-by-wire.

A control system of an unmanned vehicle includes: a requested steering speed calculation unit that calculates a requested steering speed of the unmanned vehicle such that the unmanned vehicle travels along a traveling course; an actual steering speed acquisition unit that acquires an actual steering speed of the unmanned vehicle detected by a steering sensor; and a traveling control unit that adjusts a traveling speed of the unmanned vehicle based on a result of comparison between the requested steering speed and the actual steering speed.

An on-site test facility and method for validation of an off-road vehicle intervention system onboard an utility vehicle, for example at a mine, using a testing area in the field with a test lane and a computer unit configured to emulate a virtual test object by generating and transmitting a RF-signal corresponding to RF-signal of a real object being in risk of collision with the oversized vehicle when a driver is driving the utility vehicle on the test lane.