Patent Description:
At present, motion control over a vehicle mainly includes: braking control, drive control, steering control, and suspension control. Autonomous driving functions generally relate to the test of controllers for vehicle motion control. When a controller is faulty but still has a control capacity, an autonomous driving control system generally prohibits the autonomous driving functions from being enabled or directly exits the autonomous driving functions, such that when the controller fails, a high-level autonomous driving function is unavailable and a low-level autonomous driving function is also prohibited from being enabled. In addition, when a high-level autonomous driving function is activated, if the vehicle motion controller fails, it cannot be downgraded to a low-level autonomous driving function but is directly transferred to a driver to take over.

Therefore, it is urgent to seek an autonomous driving control method to solve the above problems.

<CIT> discloses electrical power steering control using system state predictions. An embodiment of a method of controlling one or more components of a vehicle includes receiving a reference steering command and one or more measurement signals related to a steering system of a vehicle, and estimating, by a processing device, a state of the steering system based on the one or more measurement signals, the steering system including at least a handwheel and a steering motor.

<CIT> relates to vehicle curvature determination. A current state of a vehicle is identified. Vehicle path curvature limits are determined. A curvature performance profile to follow is determined based at least in part the vehicle path curvature limits. A direction of the vehicle is controlled based at least in part the curvature performance profile.

<CIT> discloses systems and methods for navigating a host vehicle. A system for navigating a host vehicle may: receive, from an image capture device, an image representative of an environment of the host vehicle; determine a navigational action for accomplishing a navigational goal of the host vehicle; analyze the image to identify a target vehicle in the environment of the host vehicle; determine a next-state distance between the host vehicle and the target vehicle that would result if the navigational action was taken; determine a maximum braking capability of the host vehicle, a maximum acceleration capability of the host vehicle, and a speed of the host vehicle; determine a stopping distance for the host vehicle; determine a speed of the target vehicle and assume a maximum braking capability of the target vehicle; and implement the navigational action if the stopping distance for the host vehicle is less than the next-state distance summed together with a target vehicle travel distance.

The subject-matter of the present invention is defined by the features of the independent claims. In view of this, according to a first aspect of the invention, an autonomous driving control method is provided, for effectively solving the above problems and other problems in the prior art. The autonomous driving control method comprises:.

Optionally, in the autonomous driving control method as described above, estimating motion control capacities of a vehicle on the basis of performance parameters and/or structure parameters of the vehicle comprises:.

Disclosed is also an autonomous driving control method with estimating motion control capacities of a vehicle on the basis of performance parameters and/or structure parameters of the vehicle which comprises:.

A autonomous driving control method as described above, estimating motion control capacities of a vehicle on the basis of performance parameters and/or structure parameters of the vehicle comprises:
estimating a state of a suspension stiffness control capacity of the vehicle on the basis of the state of the suspension system, to estimate the suspension capacity.

According to a second aspect of the invention, an autonomous driving control system is provided. The autonomous driving control system comprises:.

Optionally, in the autonomous driving control system as described above, the estimating module comprises: a road adhesion force estimation unit, an electric motor estimation unit, a battery estimation unit, a braking estimation unit, a steering estimation unit, a parking estimation unit, and a suspension estimation unit.

According to a third aspect of the invention, a vehicle is provided, comprising the autonomous driving control system described above.

It can be appreciated that the autonomous driving control method of the invention can provide the motion control capacities of the vehicle in real time, give play to the maximum performance of each controller, and support better grading of the autonomous driving functions, so as to provide different grades of autonomous driving functions in different vehicle states to improve driving experience.

The invention will become more readily understood with reference to the accompanying drawings. Those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the accompanying drawings are merely for illustrative purposes and are not intended to limit the scope of protection of the invention. In addition, like components are indicated by like numbers in the figures, in which:.

<FIG> shows a flowchart of an autonomous driving control method <NUM> according to an embodiment of the disclosure. Hereinafter, as a non-limited example, the vehicle is considered to be a type of motor vehicle, for example, refers to a car, a coach, a truck, or a commercial vehicle. However, the disclosure is not limited to this type of vehicle. The disclosure relates to any type of land vehicle that can be moved and driven on the ground and can be parked in or leave a parking area.

Referring to <FIG>, the autonomous driving control method <NUM> includes: estimating motion control capacities of a vehicle on the basis of performance parameters and/or structure parameters of the vehicle (step S110); grading autonomous driving functions of the vehicle on the basis of the motion control capacities (step S120); and providing the graded autonomous driving functions on the basis of a state of the vehicle (step S130).

<FIG> shows a schematic block diagram of an autonomous driving control system <NUM> according to an embodiment of the invention. Referring to <FIG>, the autonomous driving control system <NUM> includes an estimating module <NUM>, a grading module <NUM>, and an autonomous driving function providing module <NUM>.

For the purpose of illustration, the autonomous driving control method <NUM> is described below with reference to <FIG>.

In step S110, the motion control capacities of the vehicle are estimated on the basis of performance parameters and/or structure parameters of the vehicle. In some embodiments, step S110 is implemented by the estimating module <NUM>. Specifically, the estimating module <NUM> estimates the motion control capacities of the vehicle on the basis of the performance parameters and/or the structure parameters of the vehicle. As an example, the motion control capacities of the vehicle generally include an acceleration capacity, a deceleration capacity, a steering capacity, a parking capacity, and a suspension capacity. The performance parameters include: a road adhesion coefficient, a battery charge and discharge performance, an electric motor drive performance, an input of a steering system, a steering control performance fed back by a brake system, a state of an electronic parking system, a brake torque of the brake system, a braking torque of an electric motor, a state of a suspension system, etc. The structure parameters are related to the structure of the vehicle itself, including: vehicle weight, a location of the center of mass, etc..

Further referring to <FIG> , the estimating module <NUM> of the autonomous driving control system <NUM> includes: an adhesion force estimation unit <NUM> configured to estimate a road adhesion force; an electric motor estimation unit <NUM> configured to estimate a drive torque and a braking torque of an electric motor; a battery estimating module <NUM> configured to estimate a torque corresponding to a battery charge and discharge capacity; a brake estimation unit <NUM> configured to estimate a braking torque of a brake; a steering estimation unit <NUM> configured to estimate a capacity of a steering system; a parking estimation unit <NUM> configured to estimate a state of a parking system; and a suspension estimation unit <NUM> configured to estimate a suspension control state. According to the invention, the autonomous driving control system estimates the motion control capacities of the vehicle from the vehicle system level, and synergizes various controllers of the vehicle during motion control estimation. The following will describe for the specific motion control capacities.

For the acceleration capacity and the deceleration capacity of the vehicle, step S110 includes: calculating an available adhesion force for each tire of the vehicle on the basis of the road adhesion coefficient, the vehicle weight and the location of the center of mass; and calculating a maximum acceleration and a maximum deceleration of the vehicle on the basis of the adhesion force, the battery charge and discharge performance and the electric motor drive performance, to estimate the acceleration capacity and the deceleration capacity. In this case, the acceleration capacity and the deceleration capacity of the vehicle are estimated by means of the adhesion force estimation unit <NUM>, the electric motor estimation unit <NUM> and the battery estimation unit <NUM>.

For the steering capacity of the vehicle, step S110 includes: calculating an available adhesion force for each tire of the vehicle on the basis of the road adhesion coefficient, the vehicle weight and the location of the center of mass; and calculating a maximum steering of the vehicle on the basis of the adhesion force, the input of the steering system and the steering control performance fed back by the brake system, to estimate the steering capacity. In this case, the steering capacity of the vehicle is estimated by means of the adhesion force estimation unit <NUM>, the braking estimation unit <NUM> and the steering estimation unit <NUM>.

For the parking capacity of the vehicle, step S110 includes: computing available parking function states of the vehicle on the basis of the state of the electronic parking system, the brake torque of the brake system and the braking torque of the electric motor, to estimate the parking capacity. The parking function states include a full-function execution state, a five-minute execution state, and a non-execution state. In this case, the parking capacity of the vehicle is estimated by means of the electric motor estimation unit <NUM> and the parking estimation unit <NUM>.

For the suspension capacity of the vehicle, step S110 includes: estimating a state of a suspension stiffness control capacity of the vehicle on the basis of the state of the suspension system, to estimate the suspension capacity. In this case, the suspension capacity of the vehicle is estimated by means of the suspension estimation unit <NUM>.

In the above, by estimating road conditions, the location of the center of gravity and the vehicle weight in conjunction with feedbacks of capacities of executors, the acceleration capacity, the deceleration capacity, the steering capacity, the parking capacity, and the suspension capacity of the vehicle are estimated from the vehicle level. An estimation result obtained can be output as a final estimation result of the various motion control capacities after performing "stability confirmation" (see <FIG>).

In step S120, autonomous driving functions of the vehicle are graded on the basis of the motion control capacities. In some embodiments, step S120 is implemented by the grading module <NUM>. Specifically, the grading module <NUM> grades the autonomous driving functions of the vehicle on the basis of the final estimation result of the motion control capacities mentioned above. For example, if the motion control capacities of the vehicle including the acceleration capacity, the deceleration capacity, the steering capacity, the parking capacity and the suspension capacity are estimated by the estimating module <NUM>, and only the parking capacity is poor, then the grading module <NUM> may grade the autonomous driving function related to parking as a low-level autonomous driving function, and grade the autonomous driving functions related to acceleration, deceleration, steering, and suspension as high-level autonomous driving functions. Through the motion control estimation under the synergy of multiple controllers mentioned above, providing the vehicle motion control capacities to the autonomous driving control system without increasing the hardware cost is ensured, and better grading of the autonomous driving functions is supported.

In step S130, the graded autonomous driving functions are provided on the basis of a state of the vehicle. In some embodiments, step S130 is implemented by the autonomous driving function providing module <NUM>. Specifically, the autonomous driving function providing module <NUM> provides the graded autonomous driving functions on the basis of the state of the vehicle. That is, after the autonomous driving functions are graded, the autonomous driving control system provides different grades of autonomous driving functions for different states of the vehicle (for instance, when the vehicle accelerates, decelerates, turns or parks). For example, when the autonomous driving function related to parking is graded low, and the autonomous driving functions related to acceleration, deceleration, steering and suspension are graded high, function downgrading may be carried out during parking of the vehicle, and a driver takes over the steering wheel. The high-level autonomous driving functions of the vehicle can still maintain normal operation during acceleration, deceleration and steering, such that the high-level autonomous driving functions of the vehicle are prevented from directly exiting, thereby facilitating providing of different grades of autonomous driving functions in different vehicle states, and significantly improving experience of using the autonomous driving functions.

According to another aspect of the invention, the above-mentioned autonomous driving control system <NUM> is also provided, which includes an estimating module <NUM>, a grading module <NUM>, and an autonomous driving function providing module <NUM>.

The estimating module <NUM> is configured to estimate motion control capacities of a vehicle on the basis of performance parameters and/or structure parameters of the vehicle;.

The operations of the various modules of the autonomous driving control system <NUM> have been described in detail above with respect to the embodiment of the autonomous driving control method in <FIG>, and will not be described in detail for the sake of concision. It will be appreciated that the autonomous driving control system <NUM> can have the same advantages as the embodiment of autonomous driving control method described above.

In addition, although specific functions are discussed above with reference to specific modules, it should be noted that the functions of each module discussed herein may be divided into a plurality of modules, and/or at least some functions of the plurality of modules may be combined into a single module. The specific modules that perform an action discussed herein include the specific module itself performing the action, or alternatively the specific modules call or otherwise access another component or module that performs the action (or performs the action in combination with the specific modules). Therefore, the specific modules that perform the action may include the specific modules that perform the action themselves and/or another module that is called or otherwise accessed by the specific modules that perform the action.

According to still another aspect of the invention, a vehicle is also provided. The vehicle according to an embodiment of the disclosure may include the autonomous driving control system <NUM> as described above. According to some embodiments, the autonomous driving control method <NUM> described above may be implemented on the vehicle.

Claim 1:
An autonomous driving control method, comprising:
estimating motion control capacities of a vehicle on the basis of performance parameters and/or structure parameters of the vehicle (S110);
grading autonomous driving functions of the vehicle on the basis of the motion control capacities (S120); and
providing the graded autonomous driving functions on the basis of a state of the vehicle (S130), wherein the motion control capacities of the vehicle comprise an acceleration capacity, a deceleration capacity, a steering capacity, a parking capacity, and a suspension capacity, wherein
the performance parameters comprise: a road adhesion coefficient, a battery charge and discharge performance, an electric motor drive performance, an input of a steering system, a steering control performance fed back by a brake system, a state of an electronic parking system, a brake torque of the brake system, a braking torque of an electric motor, and a state of a suspension system; and
the structure parameters comprise: vehicle weight and a location of the center of mass, which is characterised in that,
estimating motion control capacities of a vehicle on the basis of performance parameters and/or structure parameters of the vehicle (S110) comprises:
computing available parking function states of the vehicle on the basis of the state of the electronic parking system, the brake torque of the brake system and the braking torque of the electric motor, to estimate the parking capacity,
wherein the parking function states comprise a full-function execution state, a five-minute execution state, and a non-execution state,
estimating a state of a suspension stiffness control capacity of the vehicle on the basis of the state of the suspension system, to estimate the suspension capacity.