JP2007122579A - Vehicle control device - Google Patents

Abstract

Driving assistance is performed based on more accurate necessity determination based on acquired biological information.
Whether or not biological information such as a heartbeat exceeds a predetermined threshold (reference value) is used as a condition for determining whether or not to perform driving operation support such as warning or vehicle control. The threshold is changed according to the presence or absence of a passenger. This makes it possible to provide more accurate driver assistance than before.
In other words, when the person is driving alone and when a partner who is usually nervous, such as a boss, is riding next to him, the normal biological information is different, and therefore it cannot be determined with the same threshold.
Therefore, when the degree of tension is increased by the passenger, a threshold value is set based on the degree of tension to facilitate detection of the degree of tension with respect to the driving operation.
[Selection] Figure 3

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle control device, and more particularly to a vehicle control device that detects a driver's biological information and controls the vehicle.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a technique has been proposed in which biological information such as a driver's heart rate and blood pressure is detected and controlled using the detected values to support driving.
For example, in the technology described in Patent Document 1, a driver's heartbeat information and respiratory information are detected as biometric information, and a warning sound is emitted when the driver's arousal level is reduced, or a display unit such as a speedometer in the vehicle is blinked. I have to.

JP-A-2005-95408

In the above-mentioned patent document description technology, driving assistance is provided when the detected biological information exceeds a predetermined threshold value.
However, for example, the actual situation is that the degree of driver tension differs between when the president is on board and when the family is on board. Thus, although the driver's tension state changes depending on the presence or absence of a passenger, the technique described in the patent document uses a certain threshold value.
For this reason, although the tension state is caused by the passenger and does not necessarily require driving assistance, unnecessary driving assistance may be provided.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle control device capable of performing driving support based on the acquired biological information based on more accurate necessity determination.

(1) In the invention described in claim 1, biometric information acquiring means for acquiring the driver's biometric information, and driving support means for supporting driving when the value of the acquired biometric information exceeds a predetermined threshold value And passenger detection means for detecting the presence or absence of a passenger, and the support means changes the threshold according to the presence or absence of a passenger by the passenger detection means to achieve the object.
(2) In the invention described in claim 2, in the vehicle control device according to claim 1, the passenger detection means includes passenger determination means for determining passengers, and the support means determines passenger identification. The threshold value is changed in accordance with the passenger determined by the means.
(3) In the invention described in claim 3, in the vehicle control device according to claim 1 or 2, the biological information acquired by the biological information acquisition means is at least one of heart rate, sweat state, and blood pressure. It is characterized by being.
(4) In the invention described in claim 4, in the vehicle control device according to claim 1, claim 2, or claim 3, the driving support means includes a warning to the driver, an inter-vehicle distance control, a vehicle speed control. Or at least one of brake control.

  According to the present invention, the driver's biometric information value is changed according to the presence / absence of a passenger by changing the predetermined threshold value, and driving assistance is performed when the changed threshold value is exceeded. It is possible to provide accurate driving support under

Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the navigation device of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5.
(1) Outline of Embodiment In the vehicle control device of this embodiment, whether or not biological information such as heartbeats exceeds a predetermined threshold (reference value), whether or not driving operation support such as warning or vehicle control is performed. The threshold of this biological information is changed according to the presence or absence of a passenger. This makes it possible to provide more accurate driver assistance than before.
In other words, when the person is driving alone and when a partner who is usually nervous, such as a boss, is riding next to him, the normal biological information is different, and therefore it cannot be determined with the same threshold.
Therefore, when the degree of tension is increased by the passenger, a threshold value is set based on the degree of tension to facilitate detection of the degree of tension with respect to the driving operation.

Specifically, in the case where there is no passenger, when the heart rate detected as the biological information exceeds a predetermined threshold value 100 (default value), the driver determines that the driver is in a nervous state with respect to the driving operation. Therefore, driving assistance such as warnings to call attention is provided.
On the other hand, even when there is a passenger who is nervous for a driver such as a boss or a customer, biometric information such as an increase in heart rate indicates a tension state. For this reason, even if the heart rate is 101, the passenger is the cause, not the tension for the driving operation. Therefore, when there is a nervous passenger such as a boss, the threshold for biometric information is changed to a higher value than when there is no passenger (for example, the heart rate threshold 110), and it is determined whether or not driving assistance is performed. To do.
Furthermore, in this embodiment, as a case where the degree of tension is considered to decrease, for example, the in-vehicle environment such as a case where the number of passengers is large (for example, three or more people) or an intermittent conversation is determined. In such a case, the threshold value of the biological information is lowered (for example, the threshold value of the heart rate 95).

As described above, in this embodiment, when the biological information is detected and the value exceeds a predetermined threshold value, the driving operation support is performed. The threshold value of the biological information serving as a reference for the determination is set based on the presence / absence of the passenger and By changing according to the in-vehicle environment, more accurate driving assistance is performed.
In the present embodiment, the heart rate and the amount of sweat are detected as biometric information, but other information on the autonomic nervous system such as a state where the pupil is open (the size of the pupil), blood pressure, and electroencephalogram corresponds to the biometric information. At least one of these may be detected.

(2) Details of Embodiments Preferred embodiments of the navigation device of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a vehicle control device in the present embodiment.
As shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle control device includes an ECU (electronic control device) 10 that controls the entire vehicle control device according to various programs and data. The ECU 10 includes a current position detection device 11 and a biological information sensor 12. Passenger information detection unit 13, driving operation detection unit 14, data storage unit 16, program storage unit 17, warning unit 18, vehicle control unit 19, and other devices (for connecting to an external information center or the Internet as a communication means) Communication control device or the like).

  The current position detection device 11 is for detecting the current position (absolute coordinate value composed of latitude and longitude) of the vehicle on which the vehicle control device is mounted, and is a GPS that measures the position of the vehicle using an artificial satellite. (Global Positioning System) One or more of a receiving device 111, a geomagnetic sensor 112, a gyro sensor 113, a vehicle speed sensor 114, and the like that detect the geomagnetism and determine the direction of the vehicle are used.

The biological information sensor 12 includes a heart rate sensor 121 and a sweat sensor 122 as sensors for acquiring the driver's biological information.
When the vehicle starts running, the heart rate and the amount of sweat are detected at predetermined time intervals and supplied to the ECU 10.

  The heart rate sensor 121 is a sensor that detects the heart rate of the driver, and detects the heart rate from the pulse rate of the driver. The heart rate sensor 121 according to the present embodiment detects a heart rate by collecting a heart rate signal from the hand of a driver who is driving by an electrode disposed on a steering wheel. The heart rate sensor 121 may be provided with a dedicated sensor on the driver's body such as a wrist.

  The perspiration sensor 122 is disposed on the steering and detects the perspiration state from the change in the current value that flows depending on the perspiration state.

The passenger information detection unit 13 includes a camera 131, a seat pressure sensor 132, a seat belt sensor 133, a microphone 134, and a touch panel 135 as sensors for detecting the presence or absence of a passenger other than the driver and information on the passenger. I have.
The camera 131 images the passenger seat and the rear seat. The image picked up by the camera 131 is used for specifying who the passenger is by the image recognition process. For example, an image of a face portion of a family member, a boss, a friend, or the like is registered in advance, and the fellow passenger is specified by comparing with the face portion of the fellow passenger extracted from the captured image.
In the present embodiment, the camera 131 is a CCD camera.

The seat pressure sensor 132 includes pressure-sensitive sensors arranged in the passenger seat and the rear seats, and detects passengers at each seat position.
The seat belt sensor 133 is a sensor that detects whether or not the seat belt is worn, and determines that there is a passenger in the seat where the seat belt is worn.

The microphone 134 is disposed for each seat, and collects the voice of the passenger in each seat. The collected voice is used, for example, for determining whether or not conversation with the driver is intermittent.
The microphone 134 is also arranged in the driver's seat, and it is determined whether or not the driver is a nervous passenger such as a boss by recognizing whether or not honorifics are used from the driver's conversation. It has become so.

The touch panel 135 is disposed on a display device (not shown), and is used when the driver himself inputs information about who the passenger is. That is, the display device displays a person who may ride in the vehicle such as a boss, a president, a family, a friend, etc., and the driver selects the corresponding person on the touch panel 135, so that the passenger is specified. The
Instead of the touch panel 135, a passenger may be input by using various input devices such as a keyboard, a mouse, a light pen, a joystick, and a remote controller using infrared rays.

The driving operation detection unit 14 includes a distance sensor 141, an accelerator sensor 142, and a brake sensor 143.
The distance sensor 141 is configured by a millimeter wave radar, a laser radar, or the like disposed in front of the vehicle, and detects an inter-vehicle distance from the preceding vehicle.
The accelerator sensor 142 detects the speed at which the accelerator is depressed, the stepping force, the number of times of depression, and the like.
The brake sensor 143 detects the speed at which the brake is depressed, the depression force, the number of depressions, and the like.

  Although not explicitly shown as the driving operation detection unit 14, the vehicle control device includes an average speed detection unit, and the average vehicle speed is detected from the vehicle speed detected by the vehicle speed sensor 114.

The data storage unit 16 and the program storage unit 17 include a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic recording medium such as a flexible disk, a hard disk, and a magnetic tape, a semiconductor recording medium such as a memory chip and an IC card, a CD-ROM, an MO, a PD ( Recording medium on which information is optically read, such as a phase change rewritable optical disk), and other recording media on which data and computer programs are recorded by various methods.
Different recording media may be used depending on the recording contents.

  The data storage unit 16 stores various data used in this embodiment such as a road map database 161, passenger determination data 162, biometric information determination data 163, travel route history data 164, driving operation history data 165, and the like. .

  The road map database 161 uses data used in the navigation function, and displays map information for displaying various maps and roads around the current location of the vehicle and around the destination on the display device, and route search to the destination. It is a database storing various maps and road-related data such as road information and facility information (POI information) in which information on each facility is stored.

In the present embodiment, the road map data 161 is used to detect a position on the currently traveling road by map matching between the current position of the vehicle detected by the current position detection device 11 and the road data.
The currently running road data detected by map matching is accumulated in the travel route history data 164 together with the travel time data.

  Further, the identified road data currently being traveled is compared with the accumulated travel route history and used to determine whether the road has traveled before.

The passenger determination data 162 is data for specifying or categorizing passengers based on the image recognition of the image captured by the camera 131, the weight detected by the seat pressure sensor 132, the recognition of the sound collected by the microphone 134, and the like. is there.
That is, the image (face part) of passengers such as family members, friends, and bosses, the weight, the waveform of the reference voice, and the relationship with the driver (family members, friends, bosses, etc.) are registered in the passenger determination data 162 in advance. Has been.
Then, the passenger is identified by comparing the image of the passenger's face extracted from the captured image, the detected weight, and the sound with each data of the passenger determination data 162.

The biometric information determination data 163 stores a threshold value and a change amount for determining that the heart rate and the sweating amount are dominant in the sympathetic nervous system.
This threshold value is a threshold value of biometric information for determining whether or not driving assistance is performed, and a threshold value when there is no passenger (this threshold value is referred to as a normal time threshold value) is defined as a default value.

  In the biological information determination data 163, for example, a heart rate 100 is defined as a normal time threshold, and in accordance with various driving operations and in-vehicle environment (passenger number, conversation state, etc.) It defines how to change the threshold.

FIG. 2 conceptually shows the change of the threshold value of the biological information by the driving operation and the change of the threshold value by the in-vehicle environment related to the passenger defined in the biological information determination data 163.
As shown in FIG. 2, there are the following cases as driving operations that change due to the presence of a passenger.
(A) The inter-vehicle distance becomes wider than usual.
If there is a passenger and the inter-vehicle distance is wider than usual, it is considered that the degree of tension has increased, so the threshold value is increased.
For example, in the case of a heart rate, when the normal threshold value is 100, the threshold value when the passenger is present and the inter-vehicle distance is wider than normal is changed to 110. Note that the threshold after the change due to the presence of a passenger is referred to as a post-change threshold.
Then, when the increased heart rate threshold value 110 is exceeded, driving assistance such as warning is provided on the assumption that tension for driving operation has occurred in addition to the tension caused by the presence of a passenger.

  As an example of increasing the threshold value, the case where the heart rate is set to 10 higher than the normal time threshold value has been described. However, including other biological information, the normal time threshold value is set to 100, and the changed threshold value for increasing the normal value is set to normal. It may be 110% of the hour threshold.

(B) The pedaling force is reduced with respect to the accelerator (c) The number of times of stepping is increased with respect to the brake (d) The speed is reduced (or the acceleration is low) with respect to the average speed.
In the cases (b) to (d) above, the tension is considered to increase due to the influence of the passenger, so the threshold value is increased.

Further, as a factor that changes due to the presence of a passenger, there is a state (in-vehicle state) with the passenger in the vehicle.
(A) Regarding the number of passengers When there are many passengers on board, attention will be distracted and the degree of tension will decrease. Accordingly, when such a state is detected, the post-change threshold value of the biological information is lowered. That is, when the normal time threshold is 100, the post-change threshold is lowered to 90. When the threshold value is lowered, as in the case of raising the threshold value, when the normal time threshold value is set to 100 including biological information other than the heartbeat, the changed threshold value for lowering is set to 90% of the normal time threshold value.

(B) Conversation Concerning conversations with passengers in the car, if there are many conversations intermittently, attention will be distracted and the tension will be reduced.
Therefore, also in this case, the threshold value is lowered from the normal threshold value.

  As a case where the threshold value is changed other than the exemplary items in FIG. 2, for example, it is also determined whether or not the currently traveling road has been traveled in the past. Since this is a familiar road, the threshold is lowered.

In FIG. 1, the travel route history data 164 stores history data of routes traveled in the past.
The travel route history data 164 stores not only a travel route for which route guidance has been performed based on route search, but also a route traveled without route guidance as history data.
The travel route history data 164 stores the travel route, but the road number of each road stored in the road map database 161 may be stored.

The driving operation history data 165 stores various driving operations of the driver detected by the driving operation detection unit 14.
The driving operation history data 165 is used in the driving support program 171 to determine whether or not the driving operation is in an abnormal state.
The driving operation history data 165 is stored in a predetermined area of the RAM.
The driving operation history data 165 stores output signals from the distance sensor 141, the accelerator sensor 142, and the brake sensor 143.

  The program storage unit 17 includes a driving support program 171, a passenger information detection program 172, a biological information collection program 173, a warning program 174, a vehicle control program 175, a travel route history collection program 176, a voice recognition program 177, and an image processing program 178. A driving operation history collection program 179 and other various programs are stored.

As will be described later, the driving support program 171 is a program that changes the threshold value of the biological information depending on the presence or absence of a passenger, and performs driving operation support such as warning and vehicle control when the changed threshold value is exceeded.
The passenger information detection program 172 is a program for identifying the detected passenger and determining the state of the passenger with the passenger based on the recognition results of the voice recognition program 177 and the image processing program 178 described later. is there.

The biometric information collection program 173 is a program that acquires biometric information (heart rate, sweating state, etc.) detected by the biometric information sensor 12 at predetermined time intervals and stores it in a predetermined area of the RAM.
The acquired biological information is stored for a predetermined time, for example, 2 minutes, and the oldest information is deleted and the latest information is stored. The biometric information may be stored for a predetermined number of times instead of a predetermined time.
The biometric information collection program 173 is a program that is always executed during the guidance of the travel route, and is executed independently of the driving support program 171.

  In the driving support process, the warning program 174 and the vehicle control program 175, when the detected biological information exceeds the normal threshold when there is no passenger, or the changed threshold changed when there is a passenger, This is a program that performs warning processing such as alerting to the driver and control processing of the accelerator, brake, steering wheel, and the like.

The travel route history collection program 176 identifies the route (road) on which the vehicle is traveling from the current position of the vehicle detected by the current position detection device 11 and the road map database 161, and stores the travel route history data 164 in the travel route history data 164. It is a program to save.
The travel route history collection program 176 is executed while the vehicle is traveling to collect travel histories and is executed independently of the driving support program 171.

  The voice recognition program 177 and the image processing program 178 are programs for recognizing voices such as in-car conversations collected by the microphone 134 and recognizing passengers from images captured by the camera 131.

The driving operation history collection program 179 is a program that acquires various driving operations detected by the driving operation detector 14 at predetermined time intervals and stores them in the driving operation history data 165.
The data related to the driving operation stored in the driving operation history data 165 is stored for a predetermined time, for example, two minutes, and the oldest information is deleted and the latest information is stored.
Similarly to the biological information collection program 173, the driving operation history data 165 is a program that is always executed independently while the vehicle is traveling.

Next, the processing operation of the driving support process in the vehicle control device configured as described above will be described.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the processing content of the driving support processing.
This driving support process is executed when the vehicle starts to run and continues to be executed while the vehicle is running. However, the driving support process may be executed when the ignition is turned on and may be terminated when the ignition is turned off.

  The ECU 10 determines whether or not there is a passenger from the detection values of the seat pressure sensor 132 and the seat belt sensor 133 (step 10). If there is no passenger (step 10; N), the process proceeds to step 12.

On the other hand, when a passenger is detected, the ECU 10 detects passenger information from the output of the passenger information detection unit 13 (step 11).
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the processing operation of the passenger information detection process in step 11.
The ECU 10 first detects the number of passengers and the place where each passenger rides (step 21).

That is, the ECU 10 detects the number of passengers from the seat pressure detected by the seat pressure sensor 131, the position where the seat bell detected by the seat belt sensor 133 is mounted, and the captured image of the camera 131. When the seat pressure is equal to or higher than the predetermined pressure and when the seat belt is attached, it is determined that there is a passenger in the corresponding seat.
Further, the ECU 10 detects the vehicle position when detecting the passenger's seat pressure or when detecting the wearing of the seat belt from the output of the current position detection device 11.

Next, the passenger is specified for each seat from the output value of the passenger information detection unit 13 (step 22).
That is, the ECU 10 identifies a passenger from the face image captured by the camera 131 and the sound collected by the microphone 133.
When there are a plurality of candidates, the passenger is identified from the weight of the passenger detected by the seat pressure sensor 132 and the boarding position of the passenger identified in step 21. These are preliminarily input as passenger data and stored in the data storage unit 16.

Further, the ECU 10 determines the in-vehicle state (step 23), and returns to the flow of FIG.
Here, as the determination item of the in-vehicle state, the in-vehicle state such as talking, sleeping, or on the phone is determined from the sound collection data of the microphone 134.

When the passenger information detection (step 11, FIG. 3) ends, the ECU 10 detects the travel time and the travel location (step 12).
That is, the ECU 10 specifies the current time from the internal clock. Further, a location (road) where the vehicle is currently running is detected from the current vehicle position detected by the current position detection device 11 by map matching using the road map database 161.
Then, the ECU 10 detects from the travel route history data 164 whether or not the vehicle has traveled in the past in the same time zone (morning, afternoon, night, midnight).

Next, the ECU 10 determines whether the driver is in a state of tension with respect to the driving operation based on the presence or absence of a passenger, the specified passenger when there is a passenger, the determined in-vehicle state, and whether or not the road has traveled. A threshold for determining whether or not from the biological information is determined (step 13).
For example, when there is no passenger and the vehicle is traveling on a road that has not traveled more than a predetermined number of times, the threshold value is determined as a default value stored in the biometric information determination data 163. Further, when there is a passenger and the vehicle has traveled more than a predetermined number of times, the threshold value is lowered.
In addition, when there is a passenger, as described with reference to FIG. 2, the threshold value is increased or decreased according to the change in driving operation and the in-vehicle situation.

Then, the ECU 10 determines whether each value of the current biological information detected by the biological information sensor 12 exceeds the value determined in step 13 or about the driving operation (step 14).
The ECU 10 determines that there is an abnormality when the biological information exceeds the threshold value. Whether the driving operation is abnormal or not is determined by analyzing the history contents stored in the driving operation history data 165 and determining that the accelerator or brake operation exceeds a predetermined value. For example, the case where the brake pedal force exceeds 30 kg, the case where the brake pedal force is 10% or more larger than the previous history data, and the like are defined. Similarly, the accelerator is also defined in advance.

If the ECU 10 determines that it is normal at step 14 (step 14; normal), it returns to step 10 and continues the process.
On the other hand, if it is determined that there is an abnormality (step 14; abnormality), the ECU 10 issues a warning to the driver (step 15).
That is, the ECU 10 gives a warning by sounding a beep sound from the warning unit 18. Furthermore, relaxing music or the like for calming the state (the feeling of the driver) may be played from the audio device, or the temperature may be adjusted such that the wind of an air conditioner is applied to the face.
Moreover, ECU10 instruct | indicates by a voice as a warning so that it may stop to a safe place around.

After the above warning, the ECU 10 checks the biological information and the driving operation in the same manner as in step 14 to determine whether it is normal or abnormal (step 16).
If the warning calms down and the normal state is restored (step 16; normal), the process returns to step 10 to continue the process.
On the other hand, if the warning does not return to the normal state and remains in the abnormal state even after a predetermined time has elapsed (step 16; abnormal), the ECU 10 performs vehicle control (step 17).

That is, the ECU 10 first turns on the hazard lamp as vehicle control.
Further, the ECU 10 performs follow-up traveling or constant speed traveling by accelerator / brake control and steering wheel control, and makes an emergency stop at a safe place in the vicinity.
The determination as to whether or not the vehicle is a safe place is made based on the current position of the vehicle, road data based on the road map data, and whether or not there are obstacles around the vehicle based on the distance sensor 141.

After the vehicle is urgently stopped, the ECU 10 determines whether or not the driver has got off (step 18). If not, the ECU 10 returns to step 10 to continue the process.
On the other hand, when the driver gets off (step 18; Y), the driving support process is terminated and the process returns to the main routine.

  As described above, according to the vehicle control device of the present embodiment, when biological information such as heartbeats is abnormal, it becomes a criterion for determining whether or not biological information is abnormal when performing driving support such as warning or vehicle control. Since the threshold value is changed depending on the presence or absence of a passenger, driving support that is unnecessary for the driver can be reduced.

Although one embodiment of the vehicle control apparatus of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the described embodiment, and various modifications can be made within the scope described in each claim. .
In the described embodiment, the contents of the warning (step 15) and the vehicle control (step 17) have been described for the case where the same processing is performed without distinguishing between abnormalities in biological information and abnormalities in driving operation. You may make it distinguish the warning and vehicle control in the case of abnormality, and the warning and vehicle control in case driving | operation operation is abnormal.

FIG. 5 shows the contents of the warning and vehicle control when the biological information is abnormal and when the driving operation is abnormal.
FIG. 5A shows the contents of warning processing.
As shown in FIG. 5A, the content of the warning when it is determined that the living body is abnormal is the same as the warning in step 15 of FIG.
On the other hand, when it is determined that the driving operation is abnormal, the ECU 10 vibrates the vibrator (vibration device) disposed on the steering wheel, and then vibrates the vibrator disposed on the driver seat. Both vibrators may be vibrated simultaneously.
After that, as in the case of abnormal biological information, the user is instructed by voice to move to a nearby safe place and stop.

On the other hand, FIG. 5B shows the contents of the vehicle control process, and the contents of the vehicle control when it is determined that the biological information is abnormal are the same as those in step 17 of FIG.
On the other hand, when it is determined that the driving operation is abnormal, as shown in FIG. 5B, the ECU 10 performs accelerator control and steering wheel control to increase the inter-vehicle distance in accordance with the information and operation determined to be abnormal. Do.

Note that, in steps 14 and 16 in FIG. 3, when both abnormal biological information and abnormal driving are detected, the control with the higher abnormality level is performed.
Here, in order to determine which abnormality level is higher, comparison and determination are performed by predefining the level of the abnormal value corresponding to the value of each detected value.
In the case of abnormal biological information, for example, an abnormal value “small” is specified for heartbeats 130 to 150, an abnormal value “medium” for 151 to 180, and an abnormal value “large” for 181 or more.
On the other hand, in the case of a driving operation abnormality, for example, the brake pedal force is defined as an abnormal value “small” in the case of 150 kg to 20 kg, an abnormal value “medium” in the case of 20 to 30 kg, and an abnormal value “large” in the case of 30 kg or more. Keep it.

When there is a difference between the above abnormal value levels, the ECU 10 performs control of the higher level, and when both are at the same level, the ratio of the change amount of the biological information and the driving operation is compared. The higher one is controlled.
For example, when the heart rate is increased by 20% and the brake pedal force is increased by 10%, control corresponding to an abnormality in biological information having a large change amount is performed.
If it is not possible to determine whether the level is higher or lower than the above criteria, an emergency stop is made at a safe place in the vicinity.

  In addition, when both abnormality of biological information and abnormality of driving operation are detected, you may make it perform both control.

In the described embodiment, the pulse rate and sweating information are detected as the biological information to be detected. However, other information of the autonomic nervous system such as the pupil and brain waves is detected as the other biological information, and the change is detected. Therefore, it may be determined that the path is off due to an error when the sympathetic nervous system is dominant.
Alternatively, the face may be imaged and judgment may be made based on changes in the pupil. That is, when the pupil changes in the opening direction, it is determined that the sympathetic nervous system is dominant.

Further, the driver's blood pressure may be detected by a blood pressure sensor as biometric information.
In the present embodiment, the blood pressure sensor, for example, shows a correlation between a pulse wave transmission time (PWTT: Pulse Wave Transmit Time) until the blood pulse wave accompanying the heart contraction reaches the fingertip from the heart and blood pressure in the human body. It is used to measure blood pressure.
The blood pressure sensor detects an electrical potential change that occurs when the heart beats and detects the heart contraction timing, and the timing when the pulse wave reaches the fingertip by detecting a change in blood flow at the fingertip using infrared rays. An infrared sensor for capturing (pulse) is provided, and blood pressure is measured by calculation based on the pulse wave propagation time detected by these sensors.
As described in JP 2000-107141 A, pulse sensors that measure a pulse by using a difference in distance from the heart may be arranged in both sensor units.

Further, in the embodiment described above, a warning and a case where control is performed when either a biological information abnormality or a driving operation abnormality is detected have been described, but only a warning may be performed.
Moreover, although both the biological information abnormality and the driving operation abnormality are determined, it may be determined only about the biological abnormality.

  In the embodiment described above, the case where the passenger's determination data 162 is registered in advance has been described. However, the passenger's information such as the face image recognized from the captured image, the detected weight, and the sound is not registered in advance. In the case of a passenger who is similar for the first time, the degree of tension is higher than that of a passenger who rides well, so the threshold of biometric information should be increased as the number of previous passengers decreases. Also good.

It is a lineblock diagram of the vehicle control device in one embodiment of the present invention. It is explanatory drawing about prescription | regulation of biometric information determination data. It is a flowchart showing the processing content of a driving assistance process. It is a flowchart showing the processing operation of passenger information detection processing. It is explanatory drawing showing the warning in the case of abnormality of biometric information, and the case where driving | operation operation is abnormal, and the content of vehicle control.

Explanation of symbols

10 ECU
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Present position detection apparatus 12 Biological information sensor 121 Heart rate sensor 122 Sweat sensor 13 Passenger information detection part 131 Camera 132 Seat pressure sensor 133 Seat belt sensor 134 Touch panel 14 Driving | operation operation detection part 141 Distance sensor 142 Acceleration sensor 143 Brake sensor 16 Data storage Section 17 Program storage section 18 Warning section 19 Vehicle control section

Claims (4)

Biometric information acquisition means for acquiring the biometric information of the driver;
Driving support means for driving support when the value of the acquired biometric information exceeds a predetermined threshold;
Passenger detection means for detecting the presence or absence of a passenger,
The vehicle control apparatus characterized in that the support means changes the threshold value according to the presence or absence of a passenger by the passenger detection means.
The passenger detection means comprises passenger determination means for determining passengers,
The vehicle control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the support unit changes the threshold value according to the passenger determined by the passenger determination unit.
The vehicle control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the biological information acquired by the biological information acquisition unit is at least one of a heart rate, a sweating state, and a blood pressure.
  4. The vehicle control according to claim 1, wherein the driving support means performs at least one of a warning to a driver, an inter-vehicle distance control, a vehicle speed control, or a brake control. apparatus.

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