METHOD AND DEVICE FOR CONTROLLING PEDALS OF A VEHICLE

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for operating a driver model for controlling a vehicle. The driver model comprises a vehicle module (203) which determines an accelerator pedal position to be set on the vehicle. In addition, the vehicle module (203) determines a required power as a component of a total power, which total power can be generated by a drive system of the vehicle, wherein the required power corresponds to a power that is necessary for moving the vehicle at a required speed and/or a required acceleration (311) along a predefined road course. The method according to the invention further provides for a value (313) of a permissible pedal position to be assigned to the required power and for the value (313) of the permissible pedal position to be transmitted to the driver model in order to control the vehicle.

Claims

1. Method for operating a driver model for controlling a vehicle, wherein the driver model comprises a vehicle module (203) which determines an accelerator pedal position to be set on the vehicle, wherein the vehicle module (203) determines a required power as a component of a total power which can be generated by a drive system of the vehicle, wherein the required power corresponds to a power that is necessary for moving the vehicle at a required speed and/or a required acceleration (311) along a predefined road course, and wherein the required power is assigned a value (313) of a permissible pedal position, and wherein the value (313) of the permissible pedal position is transmitted to the driver model in order to control the vehicle.

2. Method according to claim 1, characterised in that the driver model comprises a control module (300) by means of which an actuating value for adjusting the accelerator pedal is determined, wherein the actuating value is limited, in particular dynamically, by an upper limit value which is determined on the basis of the value (313) of the permissible pedal position.

3. Method according to claim 2, characterised in that the upper limit value for the actuating value of the pedal is determined by means of the control module (300) in that, in the event that a power requirement which is to be provided by the drive system of the vehicle increases, the upper limit value for the power requirement is increased accordingly, and in the event that the current power requirement is less than a weighted characteristic value which corresponds to a value of a power requirement immediately preceding the current power requirement, weighted with a weighting factor, the weighted value is selected as the upper limit value.

4. Method according to claim 3, characterised in that a transmitted value which is transmitted to the control module (300) to determine the upper limit value corresponds to a value of the permissible pedal position which was multiplied by a factor.

5. Method according to claim 3, characterised in that the weighting factor corresponds to a value of less than one.

6. Method according to claim 2, characterised in that the control module (300) adjusts the actuating value by means of a PID controller (307).

7. Method according to claim 2, characterised in that the actuating value is limited by a lower limit value, wherein the lower limit value is determined on the basis of the value (313) of the permissible pedal position or the lower limit value is specified.

8. Method according to claim 1, characterised in that the driver model comprises a target acceleration determination module by means of which an acceleration power to be provided by the vehicle is determined in that a difference in speed between a speed required for at least one future time and a speed required for a current time is determined and an acceleration power required in order to equalise the difference in speed is determined on the basis of the determined difference in speed, and wherein the target acceleration determination module transmits the determined required acceleration power to the driver model as required acceleration power.

9. Method according to claim 1, characterised in that the predefined road course is a road course registered by means of at least one sensor of the vehicle and/or a road course determined by means of a digital map for a respective route which is to be driven.

10. Control device (200) for operating a driver model for controlling a vehicle, wherein the control device includes a driver module (201) which is configured to operate the driver model, wherein the driver module includes a vehicle module (203) which is configured to determine a pedal position to be set on the vehicle, wherein the driver module includes a requirement determining module (205) which is configured to determine a required power as a component of a total power which can be generated by a drive system of the vehicle, wherein the required power corresponds to a power that is necessary for moving the vehicle at a required speed and/or a required acceleration along a predefined road course, and wherein the driver module includes an assignment module (207) which is configured to assign the required power a value (313) of a permissible pedal position, and wherein the driver module includes a transmitter module (209) which is configured to transmit the value (313) of the permissible pedal position to the driver model to control the vehicle.

11. Control device according to claim 10, characterised in that the driver module includes a control module (300) which is configured to determine an actuating value for adjusting the accelerator pedal, wherein the control module (300) is configured to limit the actuating value dynamically through an upper limit value, and to determine the upper limit value on the basis of the value (313) of the permissible pedal position.

12. Control device according to claim 10, characterised in that the driver module (201) includes a target acceleration determination module which is configured to determine an acceleration power to be provided by the vehicle in that a difference in speed between a speed required for at least one future time and a speed required for a current time is determined and the acceleration power required in order to equalise the difference in speed is determined on the basis of the determined difference in speed, wherein the driver module (201) is configured to transmit the determined required acceleration power to the driver model as required acceleration power.

13. Method to carry out a test run for a vehicle using a control device (200) according to claim 10.

14. Computer program product comprising program code means which configure a computer to carry out all steps according to at least one method of claim 1 when run on the computer.

Description

[0043] In each case schematically:

[0044] FIG. 1 shows a sequence diagram of a sequence of a possible embodiment of the method according to the invention.

[0045] FIG. 2 shows a representation of a possible embodiment of the control device according to the invention.

[0046] FIG. 3 shows a visualisation of a possible embodiment of a control module.

[0047] A sequence 100 of a possible embodiment of the present method is represented schematically in FIG. 1.

[0048] In a first determining step 101, a pedal position which is to be set on a vehicle, in the present case, by way of example, an accelerator pedal position, is determined by means of a driver module of a driver model which is run on a computer.

[0049] In order to determine the accelerator pedal position which is to be set on the vehicle, in a second determining step 103 a required power is determined by the driver module as a component of a total power which can be generated by a drive system. The required power thereby corresponds to a power that is necessary for moving the vehicle at a required speed, i.e. a speed specified for a predefined road course, and a required acceleration along the predefined road course. The required acceleration power can thereby be determined for example on the basis of the required speed in that for example a difference in speed between a current speed of the vehicle and a speed required at a known time is determined. The required acceleration thereby corresponds to the acceleration which is required in order, starting out from the current speed, to attain at the known time the speed required at the known time.

[0050] In an assignment step 105, the determined required power is assigned a value of a permissible accelerator pedal position. The value of the permissible accelerator pedal position is thereby selected in such a way that the fuel consumption and/or pollutant emissions of the vehicle are minimised while providing the determined required power.

[0051] In a transmission step 107, the value of the permissible accelerator pedal position is transmitted to the driver model in order to control the vehicle. Accordingly, the driver model controls a pedal control device for example in such a way that a pedal of the vehicle is moved at most up to the value of the permissible accelerator pedal position. For this purpose, the driver model can for example generate a corresponding control command which configures the pedal control device to move the pedal according to a characteristic specified through the control command or which specifies a corresponding limit value for the pedal control device which limits a movement of the pedal according to the value of the permissible accelerator pedal position.

[0052] The driver module uses a vehicle model to determine a relative required power using formulas (2) and (3).

[00001]$\begin{array}{cc}{P}_{\mathrm{dem}}=F_{\mathrm{total}}.Math.v_{\mathrm{dem}},& \left(2\right)\end{array}$$\begin{array}{cc}{P}_{\mathrm{rel}}=\frac{P_{\mathrm{dem}}}{P_{\max }}.Math.100\%.& \left(3\right)\end{array}$

[0053] where: “v.sub.dem” is a current target speed in metres per second and F.sub.total=F.sub.Lift+F.sub.inc+F.sub.prop, where F.sub.Luft=A.sub.0+B.sub.0.Math.v.sub.dem+C.sub.0.Math.v.sub.dem.sub.2,

[0054] F.sub.Inc=m.Math.g.Math.v.sub.dem.Math.sin ∝, and F.sub.Prop=m.Math.a.sub.dem, “P.sub.rel” corresponds to a in a, and F.sub.prop required power, P.sub.dem a demanded power, P.sub.max a maximum power of a respective vehicle, v.sub.dem a demanded speed. The parameters m, P.sub.max, A.sub.0, B.sub.0 and C.sub.0 are variables of the function, the acceleration due to gravity g corresponds to 9.81 m/s.sup.2 squared and the angle of inclination is determined by

[00002]$\alpha =\tan -1\frac{\mathrm{rg}}{100}.$

[0055] A control device 200 is represented in FIG. 2. The control device 200 comprises a driver module 201 which is configured to operate a driver model.

[0056] The driver module 201 includes a vehicle module 203 which is configured to determine an accelerator pedal position to be set on the vehicle.

[0057] The driver module 201 further includes a requirement determining module 205 which is configured to determine a required power as a component of a total power which can be generated by a drive system of the vehicle, wherein the required power corresponds to a power that is necessary for moving the vehicle at a required speed and/or a required acceleration along a predefined road course.

[0058] The driver module 201 further includes an assignment module 207 which is configured to assign the required power a value of a permissible accelerator pedal position.

[0059] The driver module 201 further includes a transmitter module 209 which is configured to transfer the value of the permissible pedal position to the driver model in order to control the vehicle.

[0060] By means of an interface 211, which can for example be designed as a wireless interface or a wired interface, the control device 200 is in communicative connection with a vehicle or an actuator system, for example a pedal actuator, in order to control a vehicle.

[0061] A control module 300 is represented in FIG. 3. The control module 300 includes a determining unit 301 for adaptive or dynamic determination of an upper limit value and a lower limit value of a permissible accelerator pedal position.

[0062] As input signal, the determining unit 301 receives a current value of an accelerator pedal position 303 from a pedal pre-control unit and a specified minimum value function 305, on the basis of which the lower limit value is determined directly. The specified minimum value function 305 can for example be a function of an assignment table for determining a minimum position of an accelerator pedal.

[0063] Furthermore, the determining unit 301 determines the upper limit value of the permissible accelerator pedal position on the basis of a required power which is required for a respective road course or section of road.

[0064] Furthermore, the control module 300 includes a PID controller 307 which determines a value 313 for adjusting the accelerator pedal of the vehicle on the basis of a current vehicle acceleration 309 and a required acceleration 311 which is required for the respective road course or section of road.

[0065] The determining unit 301 compares a value 313 for adjusting the accelerator pedal determined by the PID controller with the lower and the upper limit value. If the value determined by the PID controller 307 is greater than the upper limit value or less than the lower limit value, a corresponding movement of the accelerator pedal beyond the upper limit value or below the lower limit value is prevented in that for example the value determined by the PID controller 307 is replaced by the upper or the lower limit value.

[0066] Alternatively, it can be the case that the PID controller 307 is replaced by the determining module or that the PID controller 307 is installed after the determining module in order to smooth values determined by the determining module or equalise fluctuations in the values determined by the determining module.

[0067] The upper limit value and the lower limit value are continuously updated depending on the road course and a current vehicle speed and/or the current speed of the vehicle.

[0068] The value for adjusting the accelerator pedal can for example be determined by means of the following formulas (4), (5):

y(t)=u(t)  (4)

[0069] Formula (4) is valid for the following condition: u(t)≥0.999y(t−1), otherwise formula (5) applies.

y(t)=0.999y(t−1)  (5)

[0070] where: “y(t)” corresponds to a value for adjusting an accelerator pedal, “u(t)” an input value, for example a value, factorised by means of a factor of in particular 1.5, for adjusting an accelerator pedal, which was determined in an actuating step immediately preceding a current time, “t” corresponds to the time in [seconds], “0.999” a weighting value.

[0071] In addition to the illustrated embodiments, the invention allows for further design principles. That is to say, the invention should not be considered to be limited to the exemplary embodiments explained with reference to the figures.

LIST OF REFERENCE SIGNS

[0072] 100 sequence [0073] 101 first determining step [0074] 103 second determining step [0075] 105 assignment step [0076] 107 transmission step [0077] 200 control device [0078] 201 driver module [0079] 203 vehicle module [0080] 205 requirement determining module [0081] 207 assignment module [0082] 209 transmitter module [0083] 211 interface [0084] 300 control module [0085] 301 determining unit [0086] 303 value of an accelerator pedal position [0087] 305 minimum value function [0088] 307 PID controller [0089] 309 value of a current vehicle acceleration [0090] 311 required acceleration [0091] 313 value for adjusting the accelerator pedal