METHOD AND DEVICE FOR DYNAMICALLY ADJUSTING A DRIVING PEDAL CHARACTERISTIC

Abstract

A method for dynamically adjusting a driving pedal characteristic of a vehicle, in particular, an OPD characteristic of a vehicle, is disclosed. The driving pedal characteristic defines a correlation between a driving pedal position and a deceleration demand. The method includes the following steps: step (S1): providing a first adjustment point (AP1) of the driving pedal characteristic; step (S2): providing a second adjustment point (AP2) of the driving pedal characteristic; step (S3): receiving a current driving pedal position as a driver input; step (S4): adjusting a calculation method for calculating a current deceleration demand; step (S5): calculating the current deceleration demand according to the adjusted calculation method; and step (S6): outputting the current deceleration demand to the vehicle.

Claims

1. A method for dynamically adjusting a driving pedal characteristic of a vehicle, wherein the driving pedal characteristic includes an OPD characteristic of the vehicle, wherein the driving pedal characteristic defines a correlation between a driving pedal position and a deceleration demand, the method comprising: step (S1): providing a first adjustment point (AP1) of the driving pedal characteristic defined by a first driving pedal position and a first deceleration demand; step (S2): providing a second adjustment point (AP2) of the driving pedal characteristic defined by a second driving pedal position and a second deceleration demand; step (S3): receiving a current driving pedal position as a driver input; step (S4): adjusting a calculation method for calculating a current deceleration demand, wherein the calculation method is based on the current driving pedal position and the first adjustment point (AP1) and the second adjustment point (AP2); step (S5): calculating the current deceleration demand according to the adjusted calculation method; and step (S6): outputting the current deceleration demand to the vehicle.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein a third adjustment point (AP3) for the driving pedal characteristic is provided, wherein the adjusting of the calculation step (S4) is additionally based on the third adjustment point (AP3).

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first adjustment point (AP1) defines a transition from a portion of the driving pedal characteristic comprising deceleration demands to a portion of the driving pedal characteristic comprising an acceleration demand, or to a portion of the driving pedal characteristic comprising no acceleration or deceleration demand.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first adjustment point (AP1) is the point of the driving pedal characteristic with a lowest deceleration demand value.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second adjustment point (AP2) of the driving pedal characteristic defines the deceleration demand at driving pedal position of 0%.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second adjustment point (AP2) is the point of the driving pedal characteristic with a highest deceleration demand value.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first adjustment point (AP1) and/or the second adjustment point (AP2) are reset in step (S4).

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein a driving pedal position for the driving pedal characteristic is set for resetting the first adjustment point (AP1) and/or the second adjustment point (AP2).

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein a deceleration demand for the driving pedal characteristic is set for resetting the first adjustment point (AP1) and/or the second adjustment point (AP2).

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the adjusting of the calculation method according to step (S4) depends on at least one of the following: a vehicle speed, a vehicle load, a driver input, a deceleration strategy, a road type, a traffic volume, an environment temperature, an information about precipitation such as snow and rain, and a friction coefficient of the road.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein a trajectory for the driving pedal characteristic comprising the first adjustment point (AP1) and the second adjustment point (AP2) is set in step (S4).

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein an interpolation method is adjusted in step (S4) for generating the current deceleration demand according to step (S5).

13. The method according to claim 6 with one of the preceding claims, wherein a pedal position for the driving pedal characteristic is set for resetting the first adjustment point (AP1) and a deceleration demand for the driving pedal characteristic for the first adjustment point (AP1) is zero, and a deceleration demand for the driving pedal characteristic is set for resetting the second adjustment point (AP2) and a pedal position for the driving pedal characteristic for the second adjustment point (AP2) is zero.

14. The method according to claim 2, wherein the third adjustment point (AP3) defines a transition from a portion of the driving pedal characteristic comprising no acceleration or deceleration demands to a portion of the driving pedal characteristic comprising an acceleration demand, and/or wherein the third adjustment point (AP3) of the driving pedal characteristic is reset.

15. Device A device for carrying out the method according to claim 1, wherein the device comprises electronic control means configured to carry out the method, and/or wherein the device is configured as a driving pedal.

16. A vehicle, wherein the vehicle is configured to carry out the method according to claim 1.

17. A vehicle comprising the device according to claim 15.

Description

[0069] In the following, embodiments of the invention are described referring to the attached drawings.

[0070] FIG. 1 shows pedal characteristics according to the prior art.

[0071] FIG. 2 shows a flow chart of the method according to a preferred embodiment.

[0072] FIG. 3 shows a way to adjust a driving pedal characteristic according to a first embodiment.

[0073] FIG. 4 shows a way to adjust a driving pedal characteristic according to a second embodiment.

[0074] FIG. 5 shows a way to adjust a driving pedal characteristic according to a third embodiment.

[0075] FIG. 2 shows a flow chart of the method according to a preferred embodiment.

[0076] A flow chart of a method for dynamically adjusting a driving pedal characteristic of a vehicle, in particular, of an OPD characteristic of a vehicle, is shown.

[0077] The method comprises the following steps: [0078] step S1: providing a first adjustment point of the driving pedal characteristic defined by a first driving pedal position and a first deceleration demand; [0079] step S2: providing a second adjustment point of the driving pedal characteristic defined by a second driving pedal position and a second deceleration demand; [0080] step S3: receiving a current driving pedal position as a driver input; [0081] step S4: adjusting a calculation method for calculating a current deceleration demand, wherein the calculation method is based on the current driving pedal position and the first adjustment point and the second adjustment point; [0082] step S5: calculating the current deceleration demand according to the adjusted calculation method; and [0083] step S6: outputting the current deceleration demand to the vehicle.

[0084] In the following drawings, several ways are described to carry out the method above or particular aspects of this method.

[0085] FIG. 3 shows a way to adjust a driving pedal characteristic 2 according to a first embodiment. The axis and the brake pedal characteristic 1 are identical to FIG. 1. Therefore, reference is made to the respective description above. However, the visualisation of the brake pedal characteristic 1 in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 shall not be understood as limiting the invention to this brake pedal characteristic 1. Instead, the brake pedal characteristic 1 is only intended to show an example of a brake pedal characteristic that may be provided together with the shown driving pedal characteristics 2.

[0086] A first adjustment point AP1 is shown. According to this embodiment, the first adjustment point AP1 defines a transition from a portion of the driving pedal characteristic 2 between 0% driving pedal input and the point B with deceleration demands to a portion with a deceleration demand of zero between the points B and C which is the coasting portion. I.e., according to this embodiment the first adjustment point AP1 is identical with the point B. In the drawing, the first adjustment point AP1 is the point of the driving pedal characteristic with the lowest deceleration demand value.

[0087] A dashed frame marks three second adjustment points AP2 of the driving pedal characteristic 2 at driving pedal position of 0%. These are defined by three different deceleration demands named as LOW, MID and HIGH.

[0088] Regardless which one of the second adjustment points AP2 is regarded, each of these points defines the point of the driving pedal characteristic 2 with the highest deceleration demand value.

[0089] Between the first adjustment point AP1 and each of the second adjustment points AP2 a linear characteristic of the driving pedal characteristic 2 is shown. This may be realised by a respective look-up table or by a respective interpolation method between the values of the look-up table or between the first adjustment point AP1 and one of each of the second adjustment points AP2.

[0090] In the drawing, a way for resetting the second adjustment point AP2 is shown according to step S4. Depending on the current driving or traffic situation and/or depending on current environmental impact, one of the second adjustment points AP2 is selected in step S4. Thereby, the maximum deceleration value of the driving pedal characteristic 2 at 0% driving pedal input is selected which leads to a reset of the second adjustment point AP2. Since the second adjustment point AP2 is reset, the connection line between the first adjustment point AP1 and the second adjustment point AP2 is adjusted which leads to an adjustment of the driving pedal characteristic 2.

[0091] FIG. 4 shows a way to adjust a driving pedal characteristic according to a second embodiment.

[0092] According to this embodiment, the first adjustment point AP1 and the second adjustment point AP2 are kept, wherein the first adjustment point AP1 is identical to the first adjustment point AP1 shown in FIG. 3 and wherein the second adjustment point AP2 is the point of the driving pedal characteristic 2 at 0% driving pedal position and with the maximum deceleration demand.

[0093] According to this embodiment, trajectory for the driving pedal characteristic 2 comprising the first adjustment point AP1 and the second adjustment point AP2 is set in step S4. The adjustment points AP1, AP2 are kept in their positions and only the shape of the driving pedal characteristic 2 is adjusted between both adjustment points AP1, AP2. E.g., when the driving pedal characteristic is provided by a look-up table, it may be switched to another look-up table in step S4 causing another trajectory. This can be a more degressive (the lower trajectory) or progressive (the upper trajectory) shape or a linear (the middle trajectory) shape. By switching the look-up table, the driving pedal characteristic 2 is adjusted with low computing effort.

[0094] Alternatively or additionally, an interpolation method is adjusted in step S4 which is used for generating the current deceleration demand according to step S5. If a look-up table is used, the interpolation method may be adjusted for calculating deceleration demand values between single points of the look-up table. Further, if no look-up table is used, the interpolation method may be adjusted for calculating deceleration demand values between the adjustment points. The interpolation method may be switched in step S4 between methods that are linear, quadratic, polynomial, etc.

[0095] The embodiments of FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 can also be combined. I.e., the first and the second adjustment point AP1, AP2 can be reset in step S4 by changing their deceleration demand values and/or their driving pedal values in combination with the switching to another look-up table and/or to another interpolation method for calculating the current deceleration demand.

[0096] Further, in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 an optional third adjustment point AP3 is shown at the point C. This point may also be reset for adjusting the driving pedal characteristic 2. The resetting may be similar to the resetting of the first and second adjustment points AP1, AP2. However, in the drawings, the third adjustment point AP3 defines the transition of the driving pedal characteristic 2 between a portion comprising zero deceleration demand which is a coating portion and a portion comprising acceleration demands. I.e., that the coasting portion, or in general another portion of the driving pedal characteristic 2 may be adjusted in the same way as the portion of the driving pedal characteristic 2 for generating deceleration demands. It is also possible to use further adjustment points.

[0097] FIG. 5 shows a way to adjust driving pedal characteristic according to a third embodiment.

[0098] In the drawing, two curves are shown, wherein the axis extending to the right comprises a driving pedal position and the axis extending upwards comprises a vehicle speed.

[0099] The optional left curve C1 shows a correlation between a driving pedal position and a vehicle speed for the first adjustment point, e.g. for the first adjustment point AP1 shown in FIG. 3 or FIG. 4. Such curve may be provided as a look-up table on a device configured to carry out the method, wherein, when step S4 is carried out, the driving pedal position of the first adjustment point AP1 is reset according to the left curve depending on the current vehicle speed as indicated by the arrows which show the election of the respective driving pedal position for 60 km/h.

[0100] The optional right curve C2 shows a correlation between a driving pedal position and a vehicle speed for the optional third adjustment point, e.g. for the first adjustment point AP3 shown in FIG. 3 or FIG. 4. This adjustment point may be reset in step S4 according to the preceding description of resetting the first adjustment point AP1.

[0101] Further aspects for dependencies for resetting these points and/or the second adjustment point may be taken into account. The aspects may be the following: [0102] a vehicle load, [0103] a driver input, [0104] a deceleration strategy, [0105] a road type, [0106] a traffic volume, [0107] an environment temperature, [0108] an information about precipitation such as snow and rain, [0109] a friction coefficient of the road.

[0110] The invention is not limited to the embodiments described above. E.g., the first adjustment point AP1 does not necessarily have to be on the horizontal axis shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 comprising the driving pedal position. It can also be located above or below this axis. Additionally or alternatively, the second adjustment point AP2 does not necessarily have to be on the perpendicular axis shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 comprising the driving pedal position. It can also be located on the right of this axis.

[0111] In particular, the aspects shown in FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 may be combined. E.g. the second adjustment point AP2 may be set on one of the levels LOW, MID or HIGH, e.g. depending on the vehicle speed and/or the vehicle lead and/or the friction coefficient of the road surface. The first adjustment point AP1 and the third adjustment point AP3 may be reset according to the limits shown in FIG. 5. I.e. they are at least dependent on the vehicle speed in this example. Furthermore, the interpolation method or trajectory between the first adjustment point AP1 and the third adjustment point AP3 may be adjusted as it is shown in FIG. 4.

LIST OF REFERENCE SIGNS

[0112] 1 brake pedal characteristic [0113] 2 driving pedal characteristic [0114] 3 adjusted driving pedal characteristic [0115] A point of maximum deceleration demand [0116] AP1 first adjustment point [0117] AP2 second adjustment point [0118] AP3 third adjustment point [0119] B point [0120] B point [0121] C point [0122] C1 curve [0123] C2 curve [0124] D point of maximum acceleration demand [0125] S1-S6 method steps