Vehicle system and longitudinal vehicle control method

Abstract

The vehicle control method can include: determining a vehicle state based on a set of vehicle state inputs; determining a command based on the vehicle state; and controlling the vehicle according to the command. The method can optionally include updating a vehicle model based on a control outcome. However, the method S100 can additionally or alternatively include any other suitable elements. The method can function to determine longitudinal vehicle control based on a set of vehicle state inputs (e.g., a limited set of inputs—such as without direct knowledge of a throttle input, etc.). Additionally or alternatively, the vehicle control method can function to infer driving intent based on vehicle state measurements and/or translate inferred driving intent into low-latency vehicle control. Additionally or alternatively, the system can function to autonomously augment longitudinal propulsion, autonomously augment vehicle braking, and/or facilitate autonomous (longitudinal) vehicle control.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A method for a combination roadway vehicle, the combination roadway vehicle comprising an autonomous electric vehicle coupled to a tractor at a fifth wheel coupling, the method comprising:
 determining a longitudinal force at the fifth wheel coupling with a sensor of the autonomous electric vehicle;   with a first dynamic vehicle model, determining a vehicle trajectory based on the longitudinal force;   with a model of an autonomous controller, determining a vehicle command based on the vehicle trajectory; and   facilitating control of a set of actuators of the autonomous electric vehicle based on the vehicle command.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the autonomous controller comprises an autonomous admittance controller associated with a nonlinear effective impedance. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: receiving, from the tractor, a brake light signal comprising a binary state, wherein the vehicle command is determined based on the binary state. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the set of actuators comprises a traction motor, wherein facilitating control of the set of actuators comprises regeneratively braking with the traction motor. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the set of actuators further comprises a set of independent brakes of the autonomous electric vehicle, wherein the vehicle command comprises a blended braking command associated with the traction motor and the set of independent brakes, wherein determining the vehicle command based on the vehicle trajectory comprises: determining the blended braking command based on the longitudinal force satisfying a compression threshold. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the compression threshold comprises a dynamic threshold associated with the first dynamic model. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the vehicle command comprises a velocity reference. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the dynamic model comprises a road grade estimate. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first dynamic model comprises a first set of invariant intrinsic parameters and a second set of invariant extrinsic parameters; wherein the method further comprises:
 autonomously detecting a vehicle trip with a sensor suite of the autonomous electric vehicle; and   estimating values of each invariant extrinsic parameter of the second set of invariant extrinsic parameters for the vehicle trip based on the longitudinal force.