Post-impact path assist for vehicles

Abstract

An environment monitor has a plurality of sensors for detecting predetermined safety risks associated with a plurality of potential destination regions around a vehicle as the vehicle moves over a roadway. The environment monitor selects one of the potential destination regions having a substantially lowest safety risk as a target area. A path determination unit assembles a plurality of plausible paths between the vehicle and the target area, monitors predetermined safety risks associated with the plurality of plausible paths, and selects one of the plausible paths having a substantially lowest safety risk as a target path. An impact detector detects an impact between the vehicle and another object. A stability control is configured to autonomously steer the vehicle onto the target path when the impact is detected.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]Not Applicable.STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH[0002]Not Applicable.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]The present invention relates in general to autonomous vehicle control, and, more specifically, to planning and following a post-impact path that reduces risks of secondary crash events.[0004]Several vehicle control systems currently exist which are used to augment the driving capability of a vehicle operator such as antilock brake systems (ABS), traction control systems (TCS), and stability control systems (SC). Example of stability control systems include electronic stability control (ESC) systems (sometimes referred to as yaw stability control (YSC) systems) and roll stability control (RSC) systems. ESC systems are also sometimes called ESP (Electronic Stability Program) systems or DSTC (Dynamic Stability Traction Control) systems.[0005]The stability control systems are utilized to maintain controlled and stable vehicle ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The system effectively reduces the risk and severity of secondary impact events by continuously monitoring surroundings, selecting a safe path, and autonomously steering the vehicle to a low-risk area, even if the driver's actions are inappropriate or absent, thereby minimizing damage and injury.

Problems solved by technology

A body force disturbance may also occur when the vehicle experiences a sudden strong wind gust applied to the vehicle body.

A yaw motion may be generated when a vehicle receives a body force disturbance from an external source, resulting in an altered vehicle trajectory or path which can result in a secondary impact event.

In many situations, the risk of injury or damage can be much greater from a secondary event than from the primary event.

As a result of the impending or actual application of a body force disturbance, however, a driver may panic and perform driving tasks that are inappropriate or drastic in an attempt to avoid receiving the external body force disturbance which can lead to further undesirable events.

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