Method of universally organizing shifts for an automatic transmission system

Claim 1

In a vehicle having an engine and a transmission including an input member, a torque converter assembly for transmitting torque between the engine and the input member, an output member, a gear assembly for changing the ratio of torque between the input member and output member, a plurality of friction elements for shifting the gear assembly, a fluid actuating device being moveable to engage and disengage at least one friction element, at least one solenoid-actuated valve being moveable in response to the presence or absence of electrical power for injecting fluid flow between the fluid source and the fluid actuation device; a plurality of input sensors providing input signals indicative of predetermined conditions; a controller having memory for processing and storing the input signals and predetermined values and providing output signals to control the actuation of the solenoid-actuated valve, a method of organizing universally predetermined shifts of the gear assembly, said method comprising the steps of: organizing a plurality of different predetermined shifts into a lesser pluralit of predetermined sets of shifts in the controller; storing predetermined parametric entities for each predetermined shift in a control table in memory of the controller; storing predetermined calibration variables for each predetermined shift in a volume table in memory of the controller; executing a predetermined shift by selecting the predetermined set of shifts for the predetermined shift and getting the necessary values for the predetermined shift from the volume table and control table for use in the predetermined set of shifts.