The present disclosure relates to a method and system for integrated path planning and path tracking control of an autonomous vehicle. The method includes: obtaining five input control variables and eleven system state variables of an autonomous vehicle at current time; constructing a vehicle path planning-tracking integrated state model according to the obtained variables at the current time; enveloping external contours of two autonomous vehicles using elliptical envelope curves to determine elliptical vehicle envelope curves of the two autonomous vehicles, respectively; determining time to collision (TTC) between the vehicles according to elliptical vehicle envelope curves and vehicle driving states; establishing an objective function of a model prediction controller (MPC) according to the model; and solving the objective function based on the TTC, and determining input control variables to the MPC at the next time. Autonomous vehicle collision avoidance can be achieved according to the present disclosure.

A determining method for determining a state of a road surface includes: sequentially acquiring a rotational speed of tires mounted on the vehicle, sequentially acquiring a driving force of the vehicle, calculating a slip ratio based on the sequentially acquired rotational speed of the tires, calculating a regression equation and a confidence interval width for a relationship between the slip ratio and the driving force, based on data sets of the slip ratio and the driving force in a predetermined zone, and determining a state of the road surface on which the vehicle travels, based on the confidence interval width calculated for the predetermined zone.

An embodiment inter-platooning vehicle distance controller includes a processor configured to separate a linear control section from a non-linear control section based on whether a preceding vehicle brakes during platooning, predict a real-time deceleration for each platooning vehicle with regard to a disturbance factor when generating a deceleration in the linear control section, and set target decelerations of platooning vehicles based on the predicted real-time deceleration, and a memory configured to store data and an algorithm executable by the processor.

A method for determining road surface conditions in a system with at least one vehicle and a data processing device. The vehicle exchanges data with the data processing device wirelessly. The vehicle has at least one sensor for determining measured values describing a road surface friction coefficient, and a computing unit. The data processing device includes a database, containing a road map having a plurality of route sections. The method includes determining measured values for a route section by the sensor, determining a first friction coefficient for the route section by the vehicle's computing unit, sending a data record, containing measured values and/or the first determined friction coefficient and a piece of information identifying the route section, to the data processing device, determining an average friction coefficient for the route section, sending the average friction coefficient determined for the route section to the vehicle, and determining the road surface condition.

The present disclosure relates to a steering control system for a vehicle, a vehicle comprising such a steering control system and a method for operating such a steering control system for a vehicle. The steering control system comprises a frequency filter unit, a first control unit, and a second control unit. The frequency filter unit comprises a high pass filter and a low pass filter. The frequency filter unit is configured to receive a request for a steering angle and filter the request into a low-pass filtered request and a high-pass filtered request. The first control unit is configured to determine a first controlling torque based on the low-pass filtered request the second control unit is configured to determine a second controlling torque based on the high-pass filtered request. The first control unit is different of the second control unit.

Methods and systems are provided for controlling and diagnosing a mechanical vehicle component. In one example, a method may include determining an input device state and an electric machine torque at a diagnostic controller, and identifying a fault condition based on these determinations. Further, the diagnostic controller may trigger an active fault state of the mechanical vehicle component to avoid unintended vehicle acceleration, particularly at low speeds.

Methods and systems are provided for controlling and diagnosing a mechanical vehicle component. In one example, a method may include determining a vehicle speed and a plurality of clutch position settings at a diagnostic controller, and identifying unauthorized conditions based on these determinations. Further, the diagnostic controller may trigger an active fault state of the mechanical vehicle component in order to avoid unauthorized conditions that may lead to unwanted or unanticipated changes in vehicle motion.

A traction control device and method for a four-wheel drive electric vehicle are disclosed. When the drive wheels of an electric vehicle spin, a drive force of the electric vehicle is controlled so as to restrain the spinning of the drive wheels and to secure the starting performance and acceleration performance of the electric vehicle.

A method actuates a vehicle drivetrain of a vehicle having a drive unit, in particular an electric motor, wherein the drivetrain has at least one first partial drivetrain which is assigned to a first output unit which transmits a torque between the drive unit and the first output unit, and has at least one second partial drive train which is assigned to a second output unit which transmits a torque between the drive unit and the second output unit. When a positive torque is transmitted, a load is applied to the drivetrain in a first direction, and when a negative torque is transmitted, a load is applied to the drivetrain in a second direction opposed to the first direction. At least one pre-load device is provided which, when a predetermined positive torque limiting value is reached or when a predetermined negative torque limiting value is reached, pre-loads the first partial drivetrain in the first direction of the positive torque and pre-loads the second partial drivetrain in the second direction of the negative torque.

A method for controlling autonomous driving in an autonomous vehicle includes: determining whether a human driver is in a forward gaze state under an autonomous driving mode, setting a first steering wheel torque threshold and a first torque holding time, based on a result of determining whether the human driver is in the forward gaze state, determining whether human driver intervention has occurred, based on the first steering wheel torque threshold and the first torque holding time, and switching the autonomous driving mode to a manual driving mode when the human driver intervention has occurred.