Patent ID: 6418369
Filing Date: 2002-07-09
Classification: B60T,B60W,Y10T

Abstract:
A road surface friction coefficient estimating apparatus for a vehicle equipped with a plurality of wheels, comprising:a driving force controller that is operatively coupled to the wheels to generate a driving force in at least one of the wheels in accordance with a pre-selected force; a braking force controller that is operatively coupled to the wheels to generate a braking force in at least one of other wheels in accordance with the pre-selected force, the braking force having a magnitude to cancel the driving force; a wheel velocity sensor that produces a wheel velocity signal indicative of a wheel velocity; a wheel load sensor that produces a wheel load signal indicative of a wheel load; and a control unit operatively coupled to said driving force controller, said braking force controller, said wheel velocity sensor and said wheel load sensor, said control unit being configured to set the pre-selected force to be generated, obtain the wheel load signal of each wheel from said wheel load sensor, obtain the wheel velocity signal of each wheel from said wheel velocity sensor, and calculate a road surface friction coefficient based on the wheel load, the wheel velocity, and the braking and driving forces.