Various applications for use of mass estimations of a vehicle, including to control operation of the vehicle, sharing the mass estimation with other vehicles and/or a Network Operations Center (NOC), organizing vehicles operating in a platoon and/or partially controlling the operation of one or more vehicles operating in a platoon based on the relative mass estimations between the platooning vehicles. When vehicles are operating in a platoon, the relative mass between a lead and a following vehicle may be used to scale torque and/or brake commands generated by the lead vehicle and sent to the following vehicle.

Controllers, control architectures, systems and methods are described for controlling a host vehicle's participation in a platoon. In some embodiments, a vehicle control system includes a vehicle controller configured to determine vehicle control commands for at least partially automatically controlling the host vehicle based at least in part on sensor information. The vehicle control commands are arranged to be directly or indirectly utilized by one or more host vehicle control units resident on the host vehicle. The vehicle control system also includes one or more safety monitoring algorithms that, during at least partially automated driving, verify that selected vehicle control commands received from the vehicle controller meet selected safety criteria. At least some of the safety algorithms utilize sensor data in the verification of the commands received from the vehicle controller. The sensor data used by the safety algorithms may come from the host vehicle and/or a second vehicle.

A mode transition control device is provided for a hybrid vehicle. The mode transition control device reduces a sensation of discomfort that may be imparted to a driver at a time of a mode transition from a series traveling mode to a parallel traveling mode during traveling. During mode transition from the series traveling mode to the parallel traveling mode in a hybrid vehicle, a gear shift stage is selected such that a rotational speed change amount of an internal combustion engine accompanying mode transition is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold value.

A work vehicle incudes a traveling mechanism driven by a rotational power from an engine and an implement for effecting a ground work by the rotational power of the engine. The work vehicle further includes a load ratio calculation section 53 for calculating an engine load ratio indicative of an engine load of the engine, a ground speed calculation section 51 for calculating a ground speed of the vehicle body with using satellite positioning data, a slip ratio calculation section 52 for calculating a slip ratio indicative of slippage of the traveling mechanism relative to a ground surface by using the ground speed, a traveling work control section 4 for creating an appropriate traveling work state by controlling a rotational speed of the engine and a posture of the implement, and a traveling work management section 50 for outputting a state changing command that commands a change of the traveling work state, based on the engine load ratio and the slip ratio.

The invention is related to a method for controlling the rotational speed of an engine operating as the power source of a work machine, preferably an agricultural harvester, wherein a change in the load required from the engine during operation of the machine results in the controlled change of the engine speed towards a target value defined by a control curve, wherein the controlled change takes place according to one of a plurality of active control characteristics, depending on the degree of change in the engine speed detected as a direct consequence of the load change. A faster or slower speed change may for example be selected, and/or the target value may be continuously updated. According to a further embodiment, the control curve is referenced to the crop load, being the part of the load related to crop processing. The invention is related also to a machine equipped with a control mechanism configured to implement the method of the invention.

Controllers, control architectures, systems and methods are described for controlling a host vehicle's participation in a platoon. In some embodiments, a vehicle control system includes a vehicle controller configured to determine vehicle control commands for at least partially automatically controlling the host vehicle based at least in part on sensor information. The vehicle control commands are arranged to be directly or indirectly utilized by one or more host vehicle control units resident on the host vehicle. The vehicle control system also includes one or more safety monitoring algorithms that, during at least partially automated driving, verify that selected vehicle control commands received from the vehicle controller meet selected safety criteria. At least some of the safety algorithms utilize sensor data in the verification of the commands received from the vehicle controller. The sensor data used by the safety algorithms may come from the host vehicle and/or a second vehicle.

Various applications for use of mass estimations of a vehicle, including to control operation of the vehicle, sharing the mass estimation with other vehicles and/or a Network Operations Center (NOC), organizing vehicles operating in a platoon and/or partially controlling the operation of one or more vehicles operating in a platoon based on the relative mass estimations between the platooning vehicles. When vehicles are operating in a platoon, the relative mass between a lead and a following vehicle may be used to scale torque and/or brake commands generated by the lead vehicle and sent to the following vehicle.

A method includes reducing automatically a speed of an engine from a first speed value to a second speed value in response to both the first speed value being at or above a first speed threshold value and a rate of change of one or both of (i) engine power and (ii) the engine speed is substantially zero for a designated period.

Methods and systems are provided for controlling an engine speed in a hybrid vehicle system during steady-state conditions and in response to transient acceleration and/or deceleration requests. In one example, an engine speed is controlled to an optimal engine speed for fuel economy during steady-state conditions, and in response to an acceleration or deceleration request, a target engine speed is obtained from a rate-limited optimal engine speed to vehicle speed ratio, and the engine is controlled to the target engine speed provided the target speed is below a threshold difference from optimal engine speed. In this way, the vehicle system may simulate a fixed ratio transmission during accelerations and decelerations, while maintaining optimal engine speed for fuel economy at steady state.

A hybrid vehicle and method for operating such a hybrid vehicle. The hybrid vehicle includes an internal combustion engine, an electric machine, an electric storage device, and a control system. The method includes determining a power currently available of the electric storage device by the control system when a current state of charge of the electric storage device is less than a charge threshold value; activating the internal combustion engine when the determined power currently available from the electric storage device exceeds a first power threshold; and determining the power currently available from the electric storage device by the control system when the determined power currently available from the electric storage device is less than the first power threshold.