The present invention relates to a method for estimating the side slip angle (β.sup.stim) of a four-wheeled vehicle, comprising: —detecting signals representing the vehicle longitudinal acceleration (Ax), lateral acceleration (Ay), vertical acceleration (Az), yaw rate (formula I), roll rate (formula II), wheels speeds (V.sub.FL, V.sub.FR, V.sub.RL, V.sub.RR); —pre-treating (1) said signals in order to correct measurement errors and/or noises, so to obtain corrected measurements of at least the longitudinal acceleration (a.sub.x), the lateral acceleration (a.sub.y), the yaw rate (formula I) and the wheels speeds (ν.sub.FL, ν.sub.FR, ν.sub.RL, ν.sub.RR), —determining (2) an estimated vehicle longitudinal speed (V.sub.x.sup.stim) on the basis of at least one of the corrected measurements of the wheel speeds (ν.sub.FL, ν.sub.FR, ν.sub.RL, ν.sub.RR); —determining a yaw acceleration (formula III) from the signal representing the yaw rate (formula I); —solving (25) a time-depending parametrical non-linear filter, such as a Kalman filter or a Luenberger filter, describing the vehicle longitudinal and lateral speeds (formula IV) and longitudinal and lateral accelerations (formula V) as a function of the corrected measurements of the longitudinal acceleration (a.sub.x), of the lateral acceleration (a.sub.y), of the yaw rate (formula I) and the estimated vehicle longitudinal speed (V.sub.x.sup.stim) and of a filter parameter (F) depending from depending from at least one of the vehicle yaw acceleration (formula III), yaw rate (formula I) and lateral acceleration (ay) which adds a negative component to the lateral acceleration (formula VI) determined by the filter itself, said filter parameter (F) being selected such that said negative component reaches a maximum value when it is determined that the vehicle is moving straight on the basis of said at least one of the vehicle yaw acceleration (formula III), yaw rate (formula I) and lateral acceleration (ay); —determining the vehicle estimated side slip angle (β.sup.stim) from said longitudinal and lateral vehicle speeds (formula IV) determined by solving the non-linear filter. The present invention further relates to a computer program implementing said method, a control unit having said computer program loaded, and a vehicle comprising said control unit.

A moving body (1) according to the invention includes: a drive unit (12); a control unit (exemplified by a drive control unit (11) and a speed instruction unit (10b)) that controls driving by the drive unit (12); an object recognition unit (13) that recognizes an object; and a determination unit (exemplified by a degree-of-risk determination unit (10a)) that, in accordance with a recognition result by the object recognition unit (13), determines a degree of risk of collision with the object. In a case where determination is made as being risky by the determination unit, the control unit performs control of reducing a target speed of the moving body (1), and returns the target speed of the moving body (1) to the original one, in a case where determination is made as being safe by the determination unit for a predetermined period in a state where the target speed has been reduced.

A vehicle traveling control apparatus that performs an automatic driving control based on traveling environment information and traveling information includes a steering holding state detector, a target parameter setting unit, a target parameter correcting unit, and an acceleration and deceleration controller. The steering holding state detector detects a steering wheel holding state of a driver. The target parameter setting unit recognizes a curve ahead of the own vehicle based on the traveling environment information. The target parameter setting unit sets a target parameter that is based on one or both of a target vehicle speed and an allowable lateral acceleration rate of the own vehicle in passing through the curve. The target parameter correcting unit corrects the target parameter depending on the steering wheel holding state. The acceleration and deceleration controller sets a target acceleration rate of the own vehicle based on the target parameter, and controls acceleration and deceleration.

Among other things, techniques are described for screening and monitoring the health of a vehicle user including receiving sensor data produced by a sensor at the vehicle, processing the sensor data to determine at least one health condition of the user of the vehicle, and in response to determining the at least one health condition, executing a vehicle function selected from a plurality of vehicle functions based on the at least one health condition.

An automatic speed control device includes: an upper limit lateral acceleration degree setting part for setting an upper limit lateral acceleration degree; a road curvature acquiring part for acquiring a value of a curvature parameter relating to curvature of a road; an upper limit speed setting part for calculating a speed of the vehicle at which if the vehicle runs on that road, the lateral acceleration degree of the vehicle becomes the upper limit lateral acceleration degree and setting the calculated speed as the upper limit speed; and a speed control part for controlling the speed of the vehicle to be less than or equal to the upper limit speed. The upper limit lateral acceleration degree when running on a connecting road is set lower than the upper limit lateral acceleration degree when running on a main road of a motorway.

A turning control system of a vehicle includes: a database storing road information; a sensor part to detect a steering angle of a vehicle, a wheel speed of the vehicle, whether the vehicle is accelerated, whether the vehicle is braking, and whether a speed gear of the vehicle is shifted; and a controller that determines whether the vehicle enters a turning section based on one or more pieces of the information detected by the sensor part and the road information stored in the database. In particular, when the vehicle is entering the turning section, the controller sets a target speed of the vehicle and controls a speed of the vehicle to be decelerated to the set target speed.

A driving assist method and a driving assist device is provided for controlling a transmission ratio of a continuously variable transmission, which steplessly shifts gears and outputs an engine rotation speed. The driving assist method and a driving assist device continuously performs downshifting until an upshift occurs, when the transmission ratio of the continuously variable transmission is controlled so that the engine rotational speed increases in conjunction with an increase in a vehicle speed and the upshift will be performed after the vehicle has accelerated.

A method for detecting a situation of loss of grip of a vehicle provided with a steering system operated by a steering wheel, said method being in that it comprises a step (a) of evaluating a first indicator of loss of grip (P1) comprising calculating, as the first indicator of loss of grip (P1), the partial derivative

[00001]$\left(P.Math..Math.1=\frac{\partial \stackrel{.}{\psi }}{\partial \alpha }\right),$

relative to a variable (α) representative of the angular position of the steering wheel, of a driving parameter which is representative of the yaw rate ({dot over (ψ)}) of the vehicle.

A method and a device is described for determining the cross slope of a roadway or a negotiated curve for a motor vehicle, an evaluation unit being suppliable with measured values of a yaw rate sensor, of a driving speed sensor and of a lateral acceleration sensor as input signals, and the evaluation unit ascertaining therefrom a cross slope of the presently traveled roadway in that the difference value is formed between a calculated and a measured lateral acceleration, from which the roadway cross slope is derivable. The ascertained value is supplied to an adaptive cruise controller or a system for vehicle dynamics control in order to predefine an acceleration or a deceleration.

A method is intended to regulate the speed of an at least partially automated vehicle traveling on a first traffic lane adjacent to a second traffic lane. This method comprises a step (10-80) in which, if a radius of curvature of a future portion representative of a bend is detected, a phase of deceleration to a first deceleration speed adapted to the radius of curvature is imposed on the first vehicle unless it is in the course of overtaking a second vehicle traveling in the second traffic lane, since in that case a current speed of the second vehicle is determined and then, if the first deceleration speed is less than this current speed, the first deceleration speed is replaced with a second deceleration speed greater than this current speed.