Provided is a method of generating a pseudo-emotion of a vehicle including a wheel, the method including: obtaining a tire force which is an external force exerted on the wheel from a ground surface; deriving an emotion evaluation index as a rating of a pseudo-emotion; and generating the pseudo-emotion based on the derived emotion evaluation index. The emotion evaluation index includes a positive evaluation index as a rating of a positive emotion. The positive evaluation index is derived based on the tire force in such a manner that the larger the tire force is, the higher the positive evaluation index is.

An attitude estimation apparatus for estimating the attitude of a movable body includes an attitude estimation unit for estimating the roll angle of the movable body and for using a calculation process to estimate the offset error for at least one of first and second angular velocity detection units and first, second and third acceleration detection units. The attitude estimation unit includes a plurality of Kalman filters that each receive at least two or more imaginary offset quantities for a detection unit of interest, the imaginary offset quantities being different from each other. Each of the Kalman filters uses detected values from the detection units, estimated values from the previous estimation operation and the imaginary offset quantities to calculate a likelihood, which indicates how reliable the estimated values are. The attitude estimation unit weights the estimated values from the Kalman filters based on the likelihood to estimate the roll angle of the movable body.

A computer includes a processor and a memory storing instructions executable by the processor to determine at least one of a vehicle pitch or a longitudinal center of gravity from data measured while deactivating a first brake for a first axle and applying a second brake for a second axle, and operate the vehicle based on the at least one of vehicle pitch or longitudinal center of gravity. The instructions may further include to determine a vehicle weight from the data, and operate the vehicle based on the vehicle weight.

A weight ratio of each driving wheel of the vehicle at the time of automatic driving is calculated, a front and rear distribution ratio of a driving force of the vehicle is calculated from the weight ratio, a rear wheel plan driving force is calculated from the front and rear distribution ratio and an action plan required driving force, and a temperature of a rear wheel motor is estimated. Then, when the estimated attainment temperature of the rear wheel motor is higher than the upper limit value of the temperature, the front and rear distribution ratio is changed within a range in which excessive slip does not occur at the front wheels, the rear wheel plan driving force is recalculated, and the automatic driving of the vehicle is implemented taking the rear wheel plan driving force as a target driving force.

A system for estimating a tire load of a tire includes a pressure sensor configured to generate a tire pressure signal; an acceleration sensor configured to generate a tire acceleration signal; a temperature sensor configured to generate a tire temperature signal; and at least one processor configured to calculate a duration of a contact patch based on the tire acceleration signal, calculate a vehicle speed based on the tire acceleration signal, determine at least one system model coefficient based on the tire pressure signal and the tire temperature signal, and calculate the tire load of the tire using a linear system model that relates tire pressure, the duration of the contact patch, and the vehicle speed to the tire load of the tire, where the linear system model further includes the at least one system model coefficient for calculating the tire load of the tire.

A brake control system has an electronic control unit such that, when the motor vehicle is at a standstill, an automatic parking brake function can be activated by the control unit. In the presence of an activation condition for the parking brake function, the brake pressure required for this purpose can be determined at least in a manner dependent on the longitudinal inclination and in a manner dependent on an estimated normal force distribution of all of the wheels and/or an estimated capability of all of the wheels to transmit braking and/or drive torque to the underlying surface. Here, the brake pressure can be predefined to be higher the more wheels have a reduced normal force.

A vehicle travel control device controls travel of a vehicle toward a target stop position. Travel state information indicates a travel state of the vehicle and includes vehicle position information indicating positions the vehicle and each wheel. Difference-in-level position information indicates a position of a difference-in-level on a travel path. The vehicle travel control device determines whether the vehicle goes beyond the target stop position when a subject wheel of the vehicle passes the difference-in-level, based on the difference-in-level position information and the vehicle position information. When determining that the vehicle goes beyond the target stop position, the vehicle travel control device changes the target stop position so as to prevent the subject wheel from passing the difference-in-level, or generates a braking force to stop the vehicle before the subject wheel passes the difference-in-level.

A method for controlling driving force of a vehicle includes determining a natural frequency of vehicle suspension pitch motion according to characteristics of a suspension device of the vehicle, providing a filter configured for removing or passing a natural frequency component of the vehicle suspension pitch motion to a control unit of the vehicle, determining, by the control unit, a required driving force command based on vehicle driving information collected during vehicle driving, determining, by the control unit, a final front wheel driving force command and a final rear wheel driving force command through a filtering process using the filter from the determined required driving force command, and controlling, by the control unit, a driving force applied to a front wheel and a rear wheel of the vehicle by a driving device for driving the vehicle according to the determined final front wheel driving force command and the determined final rear wheel driving force command.

A system and method for computationally estimating a tire normal force for use in vehicle antilock braking, adaptive cruise control, and traction and stability control by correcting measured accelerations with respect to the estimated road angles. The system and method are operative to measure an acceleration at three points on a sprung mass of the vehicle and estimate a tire normal force of a tire in response to the three acceleration measurements as an input to the vehicle controller.

An apparatus for controlling a four-wheel drive vehicle includes a tire friction circle calculator that calculates the size of a tire friction circle of each wheel on the basis of vehicle information including a tire vertical load, a resultant force calculator that calculates the magnitude of a resultant force of tire lateral and longitudinal forces for each wheel, a tire-friction-force usage rate calculator that calculates a tire-friction-force usage rate of each wheel that is the ratio of the magnitude of the resultant force to the size of the tire friction circle, and a driving-braking force adjustment controller that adjusts driving force or braking force applied to each wheel. When the tire-friction-force usage rate of any wheel exceeds a predetermined threshold of less than one, the driving-braking force adjustment controller restrains an increase in the driving force or the braking force of the wheel while increasing the driving force or the braking force of at least one of the other wheels that is selected on the basis of driving operation information indicative of the state of a driving operation by a driver.