Vehicle traction control
A method for controlling wheel slip comprising determining an actual wheel slip of a set of driven wheels on a vehicle, adjusting the actual wheel slip for cornering distortion, setting a target slip condition using a traction control unit with a multi-position switch depending upon road conditions, calculating overslip of the wheels, and retarding an engine output to minimize overslip, and an apparatus for accomplishing same.
1. A vehicle control system comprising:
an engine;
an engine control unit;
a traction control system including a processor;
a slip selection switch;
a plurality of wheels, where some wheels are driven and some wheels are not driven; and wheel sensors;
wherein the vehicle wheel control system interprets signals from the wheel sensors and the slip selection switch, and determines a target slip;
and the vehicle wheel control system then sends a command to the engine control unit to reduce the engine output according to a predetermined value for the target slip; and
wherein the processor further outputs four digital pulse outputs for each wheel that is used for electronic recording and datalogging; and
wherein the output signal is divided to prevent an output pulse rate from exceeding a maximum input frequency of a reading device.
2. The vehicle wheel control system of claim 1 , wherein the slip selection switch is manually adjusted.
3. The vehicle wheel control system of claim 1 , wherein the slip selection switch is computer controlled.
4. The vehicle wheel control system of claim 1 , wherein the engine control unit reduces the engine output by omitting an engine cylinder sparking event.
5. The vehicle wheel control system of claim 4 wherein the omitting an engine cylinder sparking event is sequenced to avoid factors of an engine cylinder count.
6. The vehicle wheel control system of claim 1 , wherein the traction control system includes a processor, and the processor provides three inputs to the engine control unit: (a) a CAN interface; (b) a serial interface; and (c) an analog voltage amplifier.
7. The vehicle wheel control system of claim 6 wherein the analog voltage amplifier provides an analog output voltage proportional to a calculated wheel over slip.