Traction control apparatus

Claim 2

A traction control apparatus comprising: acceleration slippage detecting means for, when it is detected that acceleration slippage occurs in driving wheels of a vehicle, outputting at least one of an engine control start instruction and a braking control start instruction; drive state detecting means for detecting a drive state of the vehicle; driving wheel velocity detecting means for detecting left and right driving wheel velocities of the vehicle; driving wheel velocity selecting means for selecting and outputting one of a driving wheel rotating speed calculated using the left and right driving wheel velocities detected by said driving wheel velocity detecting means, and said left and right driving wheel rotation speeds, in accordance with a result obtained from said drive state detecting means; driven wheel velocity detecting means for detecting a driven wheel velocity of the vehicle; reference velocity setting means for setting a reference velocity on the basis of an output from said driven wheel velocity detecting means; first slip value detecting means for detecting slip values of the driving wheels on the basis of difference between the outputs from said driving wheel velocity selecting means and an output from said reference velocity setting means; engine output control means for controlling an engine output of the vehicle in accordance with the slip values detected by said first slip value detecting means upon reception of the engine control start instruction; second slip value detecting means for detecting slip values of the driving wheels on the basis of differences between the outputs from the driving wheel velocity detecting means and the output from said reference velocity setting means; and braking force control means for controlling braking forces of the driving wheels in accordance with the slip values detected by said second slip value detecting means upon reception of the braking control start instruction.

Claim 3

An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said driving wheel velocity selecting means selects and outputs a lower one of the left and right driving wheel velocities detected by said driving wheel velocity detecting means.

Claim 4

An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said driving wheel velocity selecting means comprises lower driving wheel velocity selecting means for selecting and outputting a lower one of the left and right driving wheel velocities detected by said driving wheel velocity detecting means, average driving wheel velocity calculating means for calculating an average value of the left and right driving wheel velocities, coefficient setting means for determining a value between 0 and 1 to be a coefficient KG in accordance with the result obtained from said drive state detecting means, and driving wheel velocity calculating means for outputting a driving wheel velocity Vd calculated by the following equation on the basis of an output Vdl from said lower driving wheel velocity selecting means, an output Vde from said average driving wheel velocity calculating means and the output KG from said coefficient setting means: Vd=(1-KG)·Vdl+KG·Vde

Claim 5

An apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said drive state detecting means detects a plurality of kinds of drive states of the vehicle, and said coefficient setting means determines values of variables which change within a range of 0 to 1 using the plurality of kinds of drive states as parameters on the basis of outputs from said drive state detecting means, and sets a maximum one of the determined variables as the coefficient KG.

Claim 6

An apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said drive state detecting means comprises vehicle velocity detecting means for detecting a travel velocity of the vehicle, and control time measuring means for measuring a time elapsed after said acceleration slippage detecting means outputs the braking control start instruction.

Claim 7

An apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said drive state detecting means comprises vehicle velocity detecting means for detecting a travel velocity of the vehicle, control time measuring means for measuring a time elapsed after said acceleration slippage detecting means outputs the braking control start instruction, and lateral acceleration detecting means for detecting a lateral acceleration generated in a widthwise direction of the vehicle.

Claim 8

An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said drive state detecting means comprises turning state detecting means for detecting a turning state of the vehicle, when it is determined on the basis of an output from said turning state detecting means that a vehicle is turning, said driving wheel velocity selecting means selects and outputs a higher one of the left and right driving wheel velocities detected by said driving wheel velocity detecting means, and said driven wheel velocity detecting means comprises left and right driven wheel velocity detecting means for respectively detecting left and right driven wheel velocities, and higher driven wheel velocity selecting means for, when it is determined on the basis of an output from said turning state detecting means that a vehicle is turning, selecting and outputting a higher one of the left and right driven wheel velocities detected by said left and right driven wheel velocity detecting means.

Claim 9

An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said drive state detecting means comprises turning state detecting means for detecting a turning state of the vehicle, said driving wheel velocity selecting means comprises higher driving wheel velocity selecting means for selecting and outputting a higher one of the left and right driving wheel velocities detected by driving wheel velocity detecting means, average driving wheel velocity calculating means for calculating an average value of the left and right driving wheel velocities detected by said driving wheel velocity detecting means, driving wheel side coefficient setting means for determining a value between 0 and 1 to be a coefficient KG in accordance with the output from said turning state detecting means, and driving wheel velocity calculating means for outputting a driving wheel velocity Vd calculated by the following equation on the basis of an output Vdh from said higher driving wheel velocity selecting means, an output Vde from said average driving wheel velocity calculating means and the output KG from said driving wheel side coefficient setting means: Vd=KG·Vdh+(1-KG)·Vde and, said driven wheel velocity detecting means comprises left and right driven wheel velocity detecting means for respectively detecting left and right driven wheel velocities, higher driven wheel velocity selecting means for selecting and outputting a higher one of the left and right driven wheel velocities detected by said left and right driven wheel velocity detecting means, lower driven wheel velocity selecting means for selecting and outputting a lower one of the left and right driven wheel velocities detected by said left and right driven wheel velocity detecting means, driven wheel side coefficient setting means for determining a value between 0 and 1 to be a coefficient Kr in accordance with the output from said turning state detecting means, and driven wheel velocity calculating means for outputting a driven wheel velocity Vr calculated by the following equation on the basis of an output Vrh from said higher driven wheel velocity selecting means, an output Vrl from said lower driven wheel velocity selecting means, and the output Kr from said driven wheel side coefficient setting means: Vr=(1-Kr)·Vrh+Kr·Vrl

Claim 10

An apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said turning state detecting means detects a lateral acceleration generated in a widthwise direction of the vehicle.

Claim 11

An apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said driving wheel side coefficient setting means sets a value of the coefficient KG to be 1 when a degree of turning of the vehicle exceeds a predetermined first degree of turning on the basis of the output from said turning state detecting means, and said driven wheel side coefficient setting means sets a value of the coefficient Kr to be 1 when the degree of turning of the vehicle exceeds a predetermined second degree of turning which is equal to the predetermined first degree of turning or is different from the first degree of turning.

Claim 12

An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said driven wheel velocity detecting means respectively detecting left and right driven wheel velocities of the vehicle, said reference velocity setting means comprises first reference velocity setting means for setting a first reference velocity on the basis of the left and right driven wheel velocities detected by said left and right driven wheel velocity detecting means, and second reference velocity setting means for setting a second reference velocity on the basis of the left and right driven wheel velocities detected by said left and right driven wheel velocity detecting means, said first slip value detecting means detects the slip values of the driving wheels on the basis of the differences between the outputs from said driving wheel velocity selecting means and an output from said first reference velocity setting means, and said second slip value detecting means detects the slip values of the driving wheels on the basis of the differences between the outputs from said driving wheel velocity detecting means and an output from said second reference velocity detecting means.

Claim 13

An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said second reference velocity setting means selects a higher one of the left and right driven wheel velocities, and sets the selected velocity as the second reference velocity.

Claim 14

An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said reference velocity setting means calculates the reference velocity on the basis of the driven wheel velocities detected by said driven wheel velocity detecting means, and corrects the reference velocity in accordance with the result obtained from said drive state detecting means.

Claim 15

An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said drive state detecting means comprises travel acceleration detecting means for detecting a travel acceleration of the vehicle, and said reference velocity setting means comprises reference velocity calculating means for calculating the reference velocity by multiplying the driven wheel velocity detected by said driven wheel velocity detecting means with a predetermined coefficient to obtain a result and adding a predetermined correction value to the result, and reference velocity correcting means for increasing the predetermined correction value with an increase in said travel acceleration detected by said travel acceleration detecting means.

Claim 16

An apparatus according to claim 14, wherein said travel acceleration detecting means detects a changing value in driven wheel velocity detected by said driven wheel velocity detecting means as a function of time as the travel acceleration.

Claim 17

An apparatus according to claim 14, wherein a value of the predetermined coefficient is 1.

Claim 18

An apparatus according to claim 14, wherein said reference velocity calculating means calculate the reference velocity by multiplying the driven wheel velocity detected by said driven wheel velocity detecting means with a correction coefficient, and said reference velocity correcting means increases the correction coefficient with an increase in said travel acceleration detected by said travel acceleration detecting means.