Appeal No. 2000-1511
Application 08/671,853
The disclosed invention pertains to a method and
apparatus for controlling the travel of a powered vehicle having
manual steering and acceleration controls. More particularly,
the invention monitors objects related to the path of the vehicle
and controls the steering and acceleration of the vehicle based
on the locations of monitored objects.
Representative claim 100 is reproduced as follows:
100. A method for controlling the travel of a powered
vehicle having manual steering and acceleration controls and
supporting a ranging apparatus comprising:
(a) as the powered vehicle travels a roadway, measuring
the distance to and relative velocity with respect to the vehicle
of a plurality of objects in the vicinity of the vehicle;
(b) calculating, with respect to each of the objects,
whether the object and the powered vehicle are on a collision
course;
(c) when the calculation reveals that a collision is
imminent, (i) selecting one of a plurality of state vectors based
on which of a plurality of directions from the vehicle there are
detected objects on a collision course with respect to the
vehicle and whether or not another object is detected in each
other of the plurality of directions, (ii) using the selected
state vector to select one of a plurality of sets of fuzzy logic
inference rules, and (iii) using the selected set of rules to
determine a combination of steering and acceleration that is
coordinated to attempt to avoid a collision between the powered
vehicle and the detected objects;
(d) wherein the fuzzy logic inference rules in each of
the plurality of sets are each dependent on at least (i) the
distance and relative velocity with respect to the vehicle of at
least one of the detected objects on a collision course with
respect to the powered vehicle and (ii) in which of the plurality
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