JP2012001078A - Lighting tool system for vehicle, control device of the same, and lighting tool for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a lighting tool system for a vehicle which can achieve accurately glare suppression to a vehicle which travels ahead, and to provide a control device of the lighting tool system, and the lighting tool for the vehicle.SOLUTION: A lighting tool system 100 for the vehicle includes: the lighting tool 20 for the vehicle for a high beam which is divided into a plurality of irradiation regions in the vehicle width direction and can form a light distribution pattern for a high beam in which irradiation states of respective irradiation regions can be switched; and a control part 40 which performs control so as to suppress irradiation to an irradiation region in which a front vehicle exists based on information indicating a position of the front vehicle. After obtaining the information of the present position of the front vehicle of a certain time point, the control part 40 obtains a prediction position at which the front vehicle indicated by the information is predicted to move, and the irradiation region including the predicted position is used as a control object region for suppressing glare.

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicular lamp system, a control device for the vehicular lamp, and a vehicular lamp, and more particularly to a system for controlling an irradiation area of a light distribution pattern in accordance with an existing position of a front car, a control device, and a vehicular lamp.

  Conventionally, a vehicle lamp device that forms a low beam light distribution pattern having a cutoff line by shielding light from a light source with a shade, and forms a high beam light distribution pattern by irradiating light that is not shielded by the shade. There is. Further, along with the recent improvement in performance of vehicles, there has been proposed a vehicle lamp that forms a light distribution pattern having a shape different from that of a standard low beam or high beam according to the surrounding conditions.

  For example, the vehicle headlamp device disclosed in Patent Document 1 divides a light distribution pattern forming a high beam into a plurality of parts, enables a part of the light distribution pattern to be lit, and additionally adds to the light distribution pattern for low beam. Thus, a light distribution pattern in which a part of the high beam is not irradiated is formed. Further, the vehicle headlamp device of Patent Document 2 includes a left lamp and a right lamp for a high beam, and the left light distribution pattern formed by the left lamp and the right light distribution pattern formed by the right lamp are superimposed on each other. The light distribution pattern for high beam is formed. Further, the left lamp and the right lamp have a configuration capable of shielding a part of each high beam irradiation area. With this configuration, while a light distribution pattern similar to the high beam light distribution pattern is formed, glare can be suppressed by blocking only the area where an oncoming vehicle or the like is detected. Similarly, Patent Document 3 discloses a vehicle headlamp device that forms a light distribution pattern as a whole by superimposing a left light distribution pattern formed by a left lamp and a right light distribution pattern formed by a right lamp. Yes. In the case of such a vehicle headlamp device, the distance to the preceding vehicle and the position where glare should be taken into account are specified based on information from a detection device such as a camera or a radar, and the region is shielded from light. By performing such control, it is possible to suppress glare application while maintaining the high beam irradiation region as much as possible.

JP 2009-179113 A JP 2009-227088 A JP 2010-000957 A

  However, in the case of the system as described above, information (data) acquired by a camera, a radar, or the like is first transferred to a processing device, where it is arithmetically processed to calculate the distance to the preceding vehicle and its position. Then, based on the result, the light distribution pattern is determined or the area to be shielded is determined, and the lamp unit is controlled. The time from the acquisition of information by a camera or the like to the control of the lamp unit depends on the size of information and the calculation speed, but generally requires a processing time of about several tens of ms to several hundreds of ms. Also, it is necessary to add information and control signal transmission time to this processing time. In other words, the light distribution pattern is actually switched after the elapse of the above-described processing time even if the front vehicle that should suppress glare is confirmed by a camera or the like. The oncoming vehicle approaching the host vehicle appears to move outward from the center of the image as it approaches the host vehicle on the camera image. The amount of movement increases as the vehicle approaches the vehicle. In other words, even if a part of the high beam is shielded against the position of the oncoming vehicle confirmed by the camera, etc. In some cases, the suppression cannot be performed well.

  The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described problems. The purpose of the present invention is to obtain a glare for a preceding vehicle even when there is a time lag from when information about a preceding vehicle is acquired until irradiation control can actually be executed. An object of the present invention is to provide a vehicular lamp system, a control device for the vehicular lamp system, and a vehicular lamp that can be accurately controlled.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, a vehicle lamp system according to an aspect of the present invention can form a high-beam light distribution pattern that is divided into a plurality of irradiation areas in the vehicle width direction and the irradiation state of each irradiation area can be switched. A vehicle lamp, and a control unit that controls to suppress irradiation of the irradiation region where the vehicle ahead is present based on information indicating the position of the vehicle ahead. The control unit obtains a predicted position where the forward vehicle indicated by the information at a certain time point is predicted to move after obtaining the information at a certain time point, and sets an irradiation region including the predicted position as a control target region.

  According to this aspect, based on the information indicating the presence of the preceding vehicle, a position where the preceding vehicle will move is predicted, and the predicted position is set as a control target region for irradiation suppression. The predicted position at this time can be a position after the elapse of a period corresponding to a period from when the information indicating the presence of the preceding vehicle is acquired until the irradiation region can be switched. As a result, even if there is a time lag from when information about the preceding vehicle is acquired until the irradiation control can actually be executed, the irradiation suppression control can be performed on the position where the preceding vehicle actually exists, and the glare suppression can be suppressed. Accuracy can be improved.

  In addition to the predicted position, the control unit may set a region including a detection position of a forward vehicle indicated by the information at a certain time as a control target region. If the behavior of at least one of the host vehicle or the preceding vehicle changes after the information indicating the presence of the preceding vehicle is acquired and before the predicted position is calculated, an error may occur in the predicted position. In addition, the predicted position itself may include an error. Therefore, the control target area is expanded using the area including the detection position of the preceding vehicle in addition to the predicted position as the control target area. As a result, it becomes easy to absorb the error of the predicted position, and the effect of suppressing glare can be improved.

  The control unit may hold the plurality of pieces of information acquired in the past, and obtain the predicted position by obtaining an approximate expression using the plurality of pieces of information. By calculating an approximate expression using a plurality of position information acquired in the past, the predicted position can be easily calculated. At this time, if a linear expression is used as an approximate expression, the calculation load can be reduced, and the approximate expression can be excluded from the speed parameters of the host vehicle and the preceding vehicle. As a result, the calculation accuracy of the predicted position can be improved.

  When the detection position of the preceding vehicle indicated by the information acquired before and after has changed by a predetermined amount or more, the control unit discards the held information and interrupts the acquisition of the predicted position, If a predetermined number of information can be newly held, the acquisition of the predicted position may be resumed. Information related to the vehicle ahead can be acquired, for example, as image information. is there. Further, there are cases where the vehicle cannot be confirmed due to a left or right turn or stop of the preceding vehicle, or the oncoming vehicle cannot be temporarily confirmed due to an antiglare wall or the like. In such a case, the position information of the preceding vehicle becomes an irregular value and is discontinuous information with respect to the past position information. When such discontinuous information is used, the accuracy of the predicted position also decreases. Therefore, when the detection position of the preceding vehicle indicated by the information acquired before and after changes more than a predetermined set amount, it is assumed that the information includes noise, and the information and the past information held are discarded. The calculation of the predicted position is temporarily interrupted. Then, after the stable information is constructed again, the calculation of the predicted position is resumed. According to this aspect, the reliability of the predicted position can be improved. When calculation of the predicted position is interrupted, the glare suppression may be reliably executed by preferentially executing the low beam light distribution pattern.

  Another aspect of the present invention is a control device. This device is a control device for controlling a vehicular lamp that can form a light distribution pattern for a high beam that is divided into a plurality of irradiation areas in the vehicle width direction and switches the irradiation state of each irradiation area. After acquiring information at a certain time indicating the position of the vehicle, a predicted position where the forward vehicle indicated by the information at the certain time is predicted to move is acquired, and irradiation control including the irradiation region including the predicted position as a control target region is performed. To do.

  According to this aspect, based on the information indicating the presence of the preceding vehicle, it is possible to predict the position where the preceding vehicle will move from now on, and to control that predicted position as a control target region for irradiation suppression. The predicted position at this time can be a position after the elapse of a period corresponding to a period from when the information indicating the presence of the preceding vehicle is acquired until the irradiation region can be switched. As a result, even if there is a time lag from when information about the preceding vehicle is acquired until irradiation control can actually be executed, irradiation suppression control can be performed on the position where the preceding vehicle actually exists, and glare is suppressed. The vehicle lamp can be controlled smoothly.

  Yet another embodiment of the present invention is a vehicular lamp. This vehicular lamp is divided into a plurality of irradiation areas in the vehicle width direction and forms a high beam light distribution pattern in which the irradiation state of each irradiation area is switched, while based on information at a certain time point indicating the position of the preceding vehicle. Irradiation control is made possible by setting an irradiation area including a predicted position where the preceding vehicle is predicted to move relative to the detection position of the preceding vehicle as a control target area.

  According to this aspect, even when there is a time lag from when information related to the preceding vehicle is acquired to when irradiation control can actually be executed, irradiation suppression control can be performed on the position where the preceding vehicle actually exists, and glare suppression is possible. It is possible to provide a vehicular lamp that can improve the accuracy of the vehicle.

  According to the vehicular lamp system, the control device, and the vehicular lamp of the present invention, even when there is a time lag from the acquisition of information related to the preceding vehicle until the actual irradiation control can be performed, the glare suppression with respect to the preceding vehicle is accurately performed. Well realized.

It is a schematic sectional drawing explaining the internal structure of the lamp unit containing the vehicle lamp in the vehicle lamp system of this embodiment. It is a schematic sectional drawing explaining the internal structure of the vehicle lamp for high beams of this embodiment. It is explanatory drawing explaining the irradiation area | region of the light distribution pattern which can be formed with the vehicle lamp system of this embodiment. It is a functional block diagram of the vehicular lamp system of this embodiment. It is explanatory drawing explaining that the position of an oncoming vehicle moves at the time of the information acquisition regarding an oncoming vehicle and control execution in the vehicle lamp system of this embodiment. It is explanatory drawing explaining calculating the predicted position of an oncoming vehicle using an approximate expression in the vehicle lamp system of this embodiment. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating the case where two or more oncoming vehicles exist in the vehicle lamp system of this embodiment. It is explanatory drawing explaining the setting of the irradiation control area | region when there are multiple oncoming vehicles in the vehicle lamp system of this embodiment. It is a control flowchart of the vehicle lamp system of this embodiment. It is a flowchart explaining in detail the prediction process of S100 in the flowchart of FIG.

  EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Hereinafter, the form (henceforth embodiment) for implementing this invention is demonstrated based on drawing.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a lamp unit 10 constituting the vehicular lamp system according to the present embodiment. The vehicular lamp system of the present embodiment includes a pair of lamp units 10 at the left and right ends in the vehicle width direction of the front portion of the vehicle. And the irradiation as a vehicle lamp system is completed by superimposing the light distribution pattern irradiated from the left and right lamp units 10 in front of the vehicle. FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a lamp unit 10 arranged on the right side of left and right vehicle lamps. FIG. 1 shows a cross-sectional view of the lamp unit 10 cut from a horizontal plane and seen from above for easy understanding. The lamp unit arranged on the left side has a symmetrical structure with the lamp unit arranged on the right side, and the basic structure is the same. Therefore, the description of the lamp unit 10 arranged on the left side is omitted by describing the lamp unit 10 arranged on the right side. In the following description, for the sake of convenience, the direction in which the light from the lamp is irradiated may be described as the vehicle front (front side) and the opposite side as the vehicle rear (rear side).

  The lamp unit 10 includes a translucent cover 12, a lamp body 14, an extension 16, a low beam vehicle lamp 18, and a high beam vehicle lamp 20. The lamp body 14 is formed into a cup shape having a long and narrow opening with resin or the like. The translucent cover 12 is formed of a translucent resin or the like, and is attached to the lamp body 14 so as to close the opening of the lamp body 14. Thus, the lamp body 14 and the translucent cover 12 form a lamp chamber that is substantially a closed space, and the extension 16, the low beam vehicle lamp 18, and the high beam vehicle lamp 20 are disposed in the lamp chamber.

  The extension 16 has an opening for allowing the irradiation light from the low beam vehicle lamp 18 and the high beam vehicle lamp 20 to pass through, and is fixed to the lamp body 14. The low beam vehicular lamp 18 is disposed outside the high beam vehicular lamp 20 in the vehicle width direction of the vehicle. The low beam vehicular lamp 18 is a so-called parabolic vehicular lamp, and forms a low beam light distribution pattern to be described later.

  The low beam vehicular lamp 18 includes a reflector 22, a light source bulb 24, and a shade 26. The reflector 22 is formed in a cup shape, and an insertion hole is provided in the center. In the present embodiment, the light source bulb 24 is configured by an incandescent lamp having a filament such as a halogen lamp. The light source bulb 24 may employ other types of light sources such as a discharge lamp. The light source bulb 24 is inserted into the insertion hole of the reflector 22 so as to protrude inside, and is fixed to the reflector 22. The reflector 22 has a curved inner surface so as to reflect the light emitted from the light source bulb 24 toward the front of the vehicle. The shade 26 blocks light that travels directly from the light source bulb 24 toward the front of the vehicle. Since the configuration of the low beam vehicular lamp 18 is known, a detailed description of the low beam vehicular lamp 18 will be omitted.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a high beam vehicular lamp 20 included in the lamp unit 10 of the present embodiment. FIG. 2 shows a cross-sectional view of the high beam vehicle lamp 20 cut from a horizontal plane and viewed from above. The high beam vehicular lamp 20 includes a holder 28, a projection lens 30, a light emitting module 32, and a heat sink 38. The high beam vehicular lamp 20 is a vehicular lamp that emits light capable of forming all or part of the high beam light distribution pattern. That is, the high beam vehicular lamp 20 forms a high beam light distribution pattern above the low beam light distribution pattern formed by the low beam vehicular lamp 18 when the high beam is irradiated. By adding the high-beam light distribution pattern to the low-beam light distribution pattern, the irradiation range is widened as a whole, and the distance viewing performance is improved.

  The projection lens 30 is a plano-convex aspheric lens having a convex front surface and a flat rear surface, and projects a light source image formed on the rear focal plane onto a virtual vertical screen in front of the lamp as a reverse image. To do. The projection lens 30 is attached to one opening of a holder 28 formed in a cylindrical shape. In the present embodiment, the light emitting module 32 includes a first light emitting unit 36a, a second light emitting unit 36b, a third light emitting unit 36c, a fourth light emitting unit 36d, a fifth light emitting unit 36e, a sixth light emitting unit 36f, And a substrate 34 that supports the light emitting unit 36a to the sixth light emitting unit 36f. Note that the first light emitting unit 36a to the sixth light emitting unit 36f are collectively referred to as the light emitting unit 36 unless otherwise distinguished.

  The light emitting module 32 emits light of a high beam light distribution pattern, and is configured to selectively irradiate a part of a plurality of regions divided into a plurality in the vehicle width direction. In the case of the present embodiment, a high beam light distribution pattern is formed by combining the irradiation areas divided corresponding to the first light emitting unit 36a to the sixth light emitting unit 36f. The number of divisions can be determined according to the performance required in the high beam irradiation mode. For example, the number of divided areas may be more or less than six as long as it is plural, and may be an odd number or an even number.

  Each of the first light emitting unit 36a to the sixth light emitting unit 36f is formed in a rectangular shape, and is arranged in a straight line on the substrate 34 so as to form a band shape in the order of the first light emitting unit 36a to the sixth light emitting unit 36f. The 1st light emission unit 36a-the 6th light emission unit 36f can be comprised by the LED light source which can control luminous intensity separately, for example. In other words, the high beam vehicular lamp 20 is a multi-lamp light source.

  The LED light sources constituting the first light emitting unit 36a to the sixth light emitting unit 36f are configured by white LEDs having a square light emitting surface of about 1 mm square, for example. Needless to say, the light source of the light emitting unit 36 is not limited to this, and may be another element-like light source that emits light in a substantially dot-like manner, such as a laser diode.

  The heat sink 38 is formed in a shape having a large number of fins from a metal such as aluminum, and is attached to the back surface of the substrate 34. In this way, by configuring the first light emitting unit 36a to the sixth light emitting unit 36f with LED light sources, the light emission state of each light emitting unit 36 can be adjusted with high accuracy. As a result, when performing high beam partial irradiation, which will be described later, it is possible to realize a light distribution characteristic for a desired irradiation region with high accuracy.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the substrate 34 is placed in the other opening of the holder 28 so that the light emitting module 32 is arranged in the holder 28 in the order of the first light emitting unit 36 a to the sixth light emitting unit 36 f from the left. It is attached. Each of the first light emitting unit 36a to the sixth light emitting unit 36f emits light, thereby projecting each image on a virtual vertical screen in front of the lamp.

  FIG. 3 shows a light distribution pattern formed on, for example, a virtual vertical screen disposed at a position 25 meters ahead of the vehicle by light emitted forward from the left and right lamp units 10 of the vehicle lamp system according to the present embodiment. FIG.

  The low beam light distribution pattern PL is formed by the low beam vehicle lamp 18. The low beam light distribution pattern PL is a left light distribution low beam light distribution pattern used in a left-hand traffic area, and has a first cut-off line CL1 to a third cut-off line CL3 at an upper end edge thereof. The first cut-off line CL1 and the third cut-off line CL3 extend in the horizontal direction at the left and right steps with the vertical line V-V set in the lamp front direction as a boundary. The first cut-off line CL1 extends in the horizontal direction below the horizontal line HH set on the right side of the vertical line VV and in the front direction of the lamp. For this reason, the first cutoff line CL1 is used as an oncoming lane cutoff line.

  The third cutoff line CL3 extends obliquely at an inclination angle of, for example, 45 ° from the left end portion of the first cutoff line CL1 toward the upper left. The second cutoff line CL2 extends on the horizontal line HH on the left side from the intersection of the third cutoff line CL3 and the horizontal line HH. For this reason, the second cutoff line CL2 is used as the own lane side cutoff line. In the low beam light distribution pattern PL, the elbow point E, which is the intersection of the first cutoff line CL1 and the vertical line VV, is located about 0.5 to 0.6 ° below the intersection HV. . A hot zone HZ, which is a high luminous intensity region, is formed by adjusting the shape of the reflector 22 so as to surround the elbow point E slightly from the left, thereby improving the visibility on the own lane side.

  The additional light distribution pattern PA, which is a partial region of the high beam light distribution pattern, is formed by irradiation light from the high beam vehicle lamp 20. The additional light distribution pattern PA is formed in a strip shape including the horizontal line HH and extending in the horizontal direction.

  The additional light distribution pattern PA is divided into six rectangular areas arranged in the horizontal direction according to the number of the light emitting units 36. Hereinafter, these regions are referred to as a first partial region PA1 to a sixth partial region PA6 in order from the right, and a boundary line between adjacent partial regions is referred to as a division line. For example, the dividing line between the third partial area PA3 and the fourth partial area PA4 is set to 0 ° and corresponds to the vertical line V-V.

  The first partial area PA1 is formed by the irradiation light of the first light emitting unit 36a. The second partial area PA2 is formed by the irradiation light of the second light emitting unit 36b. The third partial area PA3 is formed by the third light emitting unit 36c. The fourth partial area PA4 is formed by the fourth light emitting unit 36d. The fifth partial area PA5 is formed by the fifth light emitting unit 36e. The sixth partial area PA6 is formed by the sixth light emitting unit 36f.

  As will be described in detail later, the first light emitting unit 36a to the sixth light emitting unit 36f are based on information from a driver's operation or a device that is mounted on the vehicle and detects a forward vehicle or a pedestrian such as an oncoming vehicle or a preceding vehicle. It is possible to turn on / off or dimm each of a plurality of individual or grouped units. Therefore, the glare given to the forward vehicle or the pedestrian can be suppressed by turning off the light emitting unit 36 that irradiates the region where the forward vehicle or the pedestrian exists in the first partial region PA1 to the sixth partial region PA6.

  For example, on a straight road as shown in FIG. 3, when there is an oncoming vehicle traveling in the oncoming lane, turning off one of the first light emitting unit 36 a to the third light emitting unit 36 c causes glare to the driver of the oncoming vehicle. Can not be given. In addition, when there is a preceding vehicle traveling in the own lane on a straight road, any one of the third light emitting unit 36c to the sixth light emitting unit 36f is turned off so as not to give glare to the preceding driver. Can do. Moreover, when a pedestrian exists in the roadside zone of a road, glare can be given to a pedestrian by turning off the 1st light emission unit 36a and the 6th light emission unit 36f. In this way, the plurality of light emitting units 36 are partially turned off and the remaining light emitting units 36 are turned on so that the oncoming vehicle, the preceding vehicle, the pedestrian, etc. do not feel glare. Securement becomes possible.

  By the way, the presence of a forward vehicle such as the oncoming vehicle and the preceding vehicle as described above can be detected based on information acquired by an in-vehicle camera, a radar, or the like. In this case, first, image information captured by a camera or the like is transferred to a processing device, where the image processing is performed to calculate the distance to the preceding vehicle and its position. Then, based on the result, the area to be shielded or the light distribution pattern is determined to control the lamp unit. The time from the acquisition of information by a camera or the like to the control of the lamp unit depends on the size of information and the calculation speed, but generally requires a processing time of about several tens of ms to several hundreds of ms. Also, it is necessary to add information and control signal transmission time to this processing time. In other words, the light distribution pattern is actually switched after the elapse of the above-described processing time even if the front vehicle that should suppress glare is confirmed by a camera or the like. For example, when the host vehicle and the oncoming vehicle are traveling at 60 km / h, the relative distance between the host vehicle and the oncoming vehicle is reduced by about 3.34 m in 100 ms. In this case, on the camera image, the position of the oncoming vehicle approaching the host vehicle appears to move outward from the center of the image (to the right in the case of left-hand traffic) as the vehicle approaches. The amount of movement increases as the vehicle approaches the vehicle. In other words, even if it is controlled to block a part of the high beam with respect to the position of the oncoming vehicle confirmed by the camera etc., there is a possibility that the oncoming vehicle has moved to another area when the blocking is performed. May be insufficient to suppress glare.

  Therefore, in the present embodiment, the time until the actual shading control becomes possible after processing the information acquired by the camera or the like is obtained in advance by a test or the like, and the position where the forward vehicle moves after that time is predicted. . Then, the predicted position is set as a control target region to be shielded from light, and irradiation control is executed.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of the vehicular lamp system 100 for determining the irradiation control region based on the above-described predicted position, that is, for realizing the determination of the light distribution pattern.
As described above, the vehicular lamp system 100 turns on / off the low-beam vehicular lamp 18 and the high-beam vehicular lamp 20 of the lamp unit 10 based on the information indicating the front situation of the host vehicle provided to the control unit 40. Execute control. A power supply circuit 42 is connected between the control unit 40 and the lamp unit 10. The power supply circuit 42 supplies power to the light source bulb 24 of the low beam vehicle lamp 18 of the lamp unit 10 and the first light emitting unit 36 a to the sixth light emitting unit 36 f of the high beam vehicle lamp 20 based on an instruction from the control unit 40. To light up.

  The control unit 40 is provided with image information acquired by the photographing unit 44 as information indicating the front situation of the host vehicle. The photographing unit 44 is composed of, for example, an in-vehicle CCD camera or the like, and has an angle of view capable of photographing the own lane, the opposite lane, the roadside band, and the like. The control unit 40 may be connected to a navigation system 46 and an external information system receiving unit 48 that can acquire shape information of a road on which the vehicle is traveling. The control unit 40 automatically switches to the high beam light distribution pattern according to the surrounding conditions based on the shape of the currently running road provided by the navigation system 46 and the external information system receiving unit 48 and the traffic congestion of the road. The automatic mode that makes it possible may be executed automatically. The control unit 40 is connected to a storage unit 50 that stores information about the current position of the preceding vehicle sequentially acquired by the photographing unit 44 for a predetermined period. The latest current position is sequentially stored in the storage unit 50, and information on positions acquired in the past during the above-described predicted position calculation processing is read out.

  In addition, a light switch 52 is connected to the control unit 40. For example, the light switch 52 is disposed on a steering column or an instrument panel, and manually turns on / off the low beam light distribution pattern and the high beam light distribution pattern and turns on / off the partial area in the high beam light distribution pattern by the driver's operation. To control. The light switch 52 may also be equipped with a changeover switch for switching between manual on / off control of the low beam vehicle lamp 18 and the high beam vehicle lamp 20.

  Next, the calculation procedure of the predicted position in the control unit 40 will be described. FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B are explanatory diagrams for explaining that the position of the oncoming vehicle moves when information related to the oncoming vehicle is acquired and when the control is executed. FIG. 5A is an image photographed by the photographing unit 44 and shows the current position of the oncoming vehicle C (position at the time of photographing). When the light blocking position of the high beam light distribution pattern is determined based on the current position of the oncoming vehicle C as in the prior art, the road in FIG. The glare is suppressed by turning off the fifth light emitting unit 36e and the sixth light emitting unit 36f corresponding to the partial area PA5 and the sixth partial area PA6. However, as described above, since the host vehicle and the oncoming vehicle C are traveling with each other, image processing of the image acquired by the photographing unit 44 is performed to identify the current position of the oncoming vehicle C and determine the light emitting unit to be turned off. At the same time, the oncoming vehicle C moves to the position indicated by the oncoming vehicle Ca in FIG. 5B during the elapse of the processing time for turning off the high beam vehicle lamp 20. As a result, there is a possibility that glare with respect to the oncoming vehicle C (oncoming vehicle Ca) cannot be suppressed even if the region (the fifth partial region PA5 or the sixth partial region PA6) corresponding to the current position is shielded.

  Therefore, the control unit 40 of the present embodiment calculates an approximate expression using a plurality of pieces of position information regarding the same preceding vehicle (oncoming vehicle) acquired in the past by the imaging unit 44, and presents the current of the oncoming vehicle C that has been captured. For a position, a predicted position predicted to move during the processing time spent for the arithmetic processing and signal transmission is estimated. FIG. 6 is an image diagram for explaining that the imaging unit 44 estimates the predicted position using the position information of the oncoming vehicle C acquired, for example, in the past 500 ms. In the example shown below, the information acquired by the photographing unit 44 is subjected to image processing in the control unit 40, and the position of the oncoming vehicle C (position on the screen) is sequentially held in the storage unit 50, for example, for 500 ms. Consider an example. Further, the predicted position of the oncoming vehicle C (the position of the oncoming vehicle Ca) shows an example in which the position that has moved, for example, one second after the photographing unit 44 photographs the oncoming vehicle C is calculated as the predicted position. The predicted time for calculating the predicted position is preferably set as appropriate according to the calculation processing speed of the control unit 40 and the information transfer speed, and is preferably determined in advance by a test or the like.

In the case of the present embodiment, a case is considered in which the position of the oncoming vehicle C and the predicted position for the past 500 ms are approximated by the following first-order approximation formula with emphasis on reducing the calculation load. In the case of this embodiment, since the prediction cycle is a short time such as 50 ms, for example, sufficient prediction accuracy can be expected even by approximation with a linear expression.
Accordingly, a and b that minimize Equation (1), which is a square error when the approximate straight line is y = at + b, are obtained. Here, t is time.

つまり、最小二乗法からａ，ｂは以下の式（２）で表せる。

ここで、ｎは過去５００ｍｓ分のサンプル数であるとする。つまり、ｔ_iは５００ｍｓ前をｔ＝０として、サンプリング間隔をｄｔとすると、ｔ_i＝ｉｄｔである。したがって、式（２）におけるΣｔ_iは以下の式（３）、Σｔ_i ²は以下の式（４）で表せる。

したがって、例えば、サンプル数ｎ＝１０（ｄｔ＝５０ｍｓ）の場合、ａ，ｂは以下の式（５）で表せる。

したがって、例えば１秒先の対向車Ｃの位置を予測する場合は、時間ｔ＝２９ｄｔ（サンプル数ｎ＝２９）におけるｙの値を求めればよいことになる。その結果が下記の式（６）である。

なお、撮影ユニット４４から得られる情報の取得間隔が制御部４０のサンプリング間隔ｄｔより長い場合、例えば、撮影ユニット４４の情報の取得間隔または伝送間隔が１００ｍｓで制御部４０のサンプリング間隔ｄｔが５０ｍｓの場合、撮影ユニット４４から得られる同じ情報を２回用いて補完してもよい。

That is, a and b can be expressed by the following equation (2) from the least square method.

Here, n is the number of samples for the past 500 ms. In other words, t _i is t _i = idt, where t = 0 before 500 ms and the sampling interval is dt. Therefore, Σt _i in equation (2) can be expressed by the following equation (3), and Σt _i ² can be expressed by the following equation (4).

Therefore, for example, when the number of samples n = 10 (dt = 50 ms), a and b can be expressed by the following equation (5).

Therefore, for example, when predicting the position of the oncoming vehicle C one second ahead, the value of y at the time t = 29 dt (number of samples n = 29) may be obtained. The result is the following formula (6).

When the information acquisition interval obtained from the imaging unit 44 is longer than the sampling interval dt of the control unit 40, for example, the information acquisition interval or transmission interval of the imaging unit 44 is 100 ms and the sampling interval dt of the control unit 40 is 50 ms. In this case, the same information obtained from the photographing unit 44 may be used twice to complement the information.

  Further, since the photographing unit 44 obtains an image from the traveling vehicle, the intensity of light that jumps into the photographing unit 44 when the own vehicle or the preceding vehicle moves up and down or left and right due to vibrations accompanying traveling. It may change, and the acquired image may blur and become noise. However, the use of the least square approximation enables robust control against such noise. Further, in a scene where the oncoming vehicle C is actually approaching the host vehicle, the amount of movement in the horizontal direction (vehicle width direction) increases as the oncoming vehicle C approaches. You may do it. However, in this case, since the error when the prediction is lost is large, it is desirable to approximate with the linear expression as described above.

  As described above, when the predicted position is calculated in the control unit 40, the lighting unit 36 is turned on and off so as to shield the predicted position. In the case of the example of FIGS. 5A and 5B, since the own vehicle and the oncoming vehicle are traveling on a curved road, for example, the photographing unit 44 has the oncoming vehicle C at the position of FIG. When an existing image is acquired, the third partial area PA3 and the fourth partial area PA4 are shielded from light as control target areas. In other words, the control unit 40 can turn off the third light emitting unit 36c and the fourth light emitting unit 36d, thereby shielding the position where the oncoming vehicle C exists (the position of the oncoming vehicle Ca) at the timing when the turn-off control is actually completed. Thus, glare for the driver of the oncoming vehicle C (Ca) can be suppressed.

  In the case where light is shielded based on the predicted position, as described above, glare suppression can be substantially achieved by shading at least the divided region corresponding to the predicted position. However, since the position of the oncoming vehicle Ca is the predicted position at the timing when the turn-off control is actually completed, an error is included. In addition, the actual moving position may differ from the predicted position due to changes in the speed of the own vehicle or the oncoming vehicle. Therefore, in this embodiment, in addition to the predicted position, an area including the detection position of the oncoming vehicle C at the time when the image is acquired by the photographing unit 44 is set as a control target area. For example, the third partial area PA3 to the fifth partial area PA5 are shielded from light as control target areas. That is, the control unit 40 performs control such that the possibility of suppressing glare is increased even when the predicted position is deviated from the actual moving position by turning off the third light emitting unit 36c to the fifth light emitting unit 36e. In the case of an oncoming vehicle, the vehicle moves to the right from the center of the screen as shown in FIGS. 5 (a) and 5 (b). Therefore, a divided area on the right side of the predicted position may be further set as a control target area.

  By the way, when a preceding vehicle exists ahead of the host vehicle, it is necessary to perform glare suppression control for the preceding vehicle. In the case of the preceding vehicle, the relative distance changes little because it moves in the same direction as the own vehicle. Therefore, there are many cases where there is not much change between the current position in the image information acquired by the photographing unit 44 and the position of the preceding vehicle at the timing when the turn-off control is actually completed. Therefore, when the control unit 40 can determine that the preceding vehicle is a preceding vehicle, for example, when the taillight can be confirmed by detecting the red light spot, the photographing unit 44 acquires the above-described predictive control without performing the above-described predictive control. You may switch to the control which light-shields the division area corresponding to the current position in image information as a control object area. Further, as described above, when a region including both the current position and the predicted position is set as the control target region, the control target region may be determined based on the prediction control without distinguishing the preceding vehicle and the oncoming vehicle. .

  In addition, when the distance between the vehicle and the preceding vehicle is large, that is, when the speed of the own vehicle is slow or the speed of the preceding vehicle is high, the preceding vehicle is near the center on the screen in the left-hand traffic. It seems to move from left to right. Also in this case, since the predicted position can be calculated in the same manner using the primary approximation formula, the control target region can be determined according to the predicted position.

  By the way, when actually driving on a road, there are many cases where a plurality of vehicles such as oncoming vehicles C1 and C2 exist as shown in FIG. In this case, it is necessary to perform glare suppression with both the oncoming vehicles C1 and C2 as control target vehicles. In addition, since the preceding vehicle is included in the image acquired by the photographing unit 44, there are a plurality of control target vehicles even when the preceding vehicle and the oncoming vehicle exist. Therefore, first, the predicted position as described above is calculated for these control target vehicles. Then, the left end position of the current position of the control target vehicle is compared with the left end position of the predicted position, and the one on the left side is adopted as the left end position of the control target region. Similarly, the right end position of the current position of the control target vehicle is compared with the right end position of the predicted position, and the one on the right side is adopted as the right end position of the control target region.

  FIG. 8 is a position transition diagram showing changes in the left end position and the right end position of the preceding vehicle (for example, when there are two oncoming vehicles) and changes in the left end position and the right end position of the predicted position in the image acquired by the photographing unit 44. It is. In this case, the left end position L of the oncoming vehicle C1 in FIG. Further, a right end position R of the oncoming vehicle C2 in FIG. The left end position at the predicted position of the oncoming vehicle C1 is indicated by a transition R, and the right end position at the predicted position of the oncoming vehicle C2 is indicated by a transition S. In this case, the light shielding range, that is, the control target region is a range corresponding to the transition P and the transition S. When only the predicted position is set as the control target region, the control target region is a range corresponding to the transition R and the transition S.

  As described above, when the control target area is determined for a plurality of forward vehicles, the range becomes large and the light shielding area is widened. However, since it is possible to reliably suppress glare by enlarging the light-shielding area and to control as much as possible the irradiation of a part of the high-beam light distribution pattern while approaching the low-beam light distribution pattern. It is possible to perform glare suppression control that executes as much as possible to ensure the driver's visibility.

  As described above, when there are a plurality of control target vehicles, verification of the left end position of the left end vehicle and verification of the right end position of the right end vehicle are performed. On the other hand, as described in FIGS. 5A and 5B, when there is one forward vehicle (oncoming vehicle), the left end position and the right end position are verified for the same vehicle.

  By the way, the calculation of the predicted position using the above-described approximate straight line is based on the premise that the position of the same vehicle ahead (the vehicle of interest) is acquired by the photographing unit 44 sequentially. However, when the vehicle of interest turns left or right at an intersection or stops, it may disappear from the image information acquired by the photographing unit 44. Furthermore, in the case of an oncoming vehicle or the like, the shooting area may be blocked by a glare-proof wall or the like and temporarily disappear. When there is a lack of information in this way, the information becomes discontinuous with the past information for deriving the approximate expression, and the reliability of the approximate expression decreases, resulting in an increase in the error of the calculated predicted position. Further, even when the image information acquired by the photographing unit 44 is deviated due to external factors such as vibration, the current position information may contain a large error. The reliability of the formula is lowered, and the error of the calculated predicted position is increased.

  Therefore, when the current position of the preceding vehicle acquired before and after has changed by a predetermined amount or more, the control unit 40 of the present embodiment is not information of the vehicle of interest, or is reliable even with information of the vehicle of interest. Is determined to be low information. In other words, it is determined that the reliability of the information has decreased due to turning left and right of the vehicle of interest, stopping, shielding by an antiglare wall, blurring of the image, etc., and discarding the information, and discarding the information with low reliability Discards the past information that was held continuously, and interrupts the acquisition of the predicted position. And the control part 40 starts acquisition of the information of the present position of a preceding vehicle anew, and will restart acquisition of a predicted position, if the predetermined number of information whose change amount before and behind is less than setting amount can be hold | maintained. For example, the prediction process is executed when information of the number of samples for 500 ms (10 in the example of FIG. 6) can be acquired. As a result, the error in the predicted position can be reduced. In this way, when the calculation of the predicted position is stopped, the control unit 40 temporarily stops the automatic irradiation switching of the high beam light distribution pattern and irradiates the low beam light distribution pattern. Also good.

  The procedure for determining the control target region and determining the light distribution pattern when automatic switching control of the high-beam light distribution pattern is executed will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. First, the control part 40 performs the prediction process which calculates the predicted position where a front vehicle moves based on the image information which the imaging | photography unit 44 acquired as mentioned above (S100). If the necessary number of samples has not been obtained, or if information that is estimated to contain a large error has been obtained and the acquisition of the predicted position has been stopped (N in S102), this flow is terminated and necessary. Wait until you have the correct number of samples. When the predicted position can be acquired in S102 (Y in S102), the control unit 40 compares the left end of the current position of the control target vehicle with the left end of the predicted position, and the left end of the current position ≦ the left end of the predicted position. (Y in S104), the left end of the light shielding area of the control target area is determined as the left end of the current position (S106). In S104, if the left end of the current position> the left end of the predicted position (N in S104), the left end of the light shielding area of the control target area is determined as the left end of the predicted position (S108). In this case, the position of the vertical line VV is compared with (+) on the left side and (-) on the right side.

  Subsequently, the control unit 40 compares the right end of the current position of the control target vehicle with the right end of the predicted position. When the right end of the current position ≧ the right end of the predicted position (Y in S110), the light shielding area right end of the control target area. Is defined as the right end of the current position (S112). In S110, if the right end of the current position <the right end of the predicted position (N in S110), the right end of the light shielding area of the control target area is determined as the right end of the predicted position (S114). Then, the control unit 40 determines the light emitting unit 36 corresponding to the light shielding area (S116), and turns off the light emitting unit. That is, the high-beam light distribution pattern is switched (S118), the control of the high-beam light distribution pattern at this timing is terminated, and the process proceeds to the next timing prediction process (S100).

  FIG. 10 is a flowchart for explaining in detail the prediction process in S100 of FIG. When the information indicating the current position of the preceding vehicle cannot be acquired from the photographing unit 44 (N in S200), the control unit 40 ends this flow. On the other hand, when information indicating the current position of the preceding vehicle can be acquired in S200 (Y in S200), the current position is stored in the storage unit 50. When the number of samples stored in the storage unit 50 has reached a predetermined number (Y in S202), and the amount of change from the current position acquired immediately before (the amount of change before and after) is less than a predetermined set amount (Y in S204), calculation of the predicted position is started (S206). Then, the predicted position with respect to the current position is determined and the predicted position is temporarily stored (S208), and this flow ends. In S204, if the amount of change (the amount of change before and after the current position) acquired immediately before is greater than or equal to a predetermined amount (N in S204), information on the same control target vehicle could not be acquired, vibration, etc. It is determined that the current position cannot be acquired due to noise in the image due to external factors. Then, the current position acquired this time and the past position information (stored value of the current position) stored in the storage unit 50 are all discarded (S210), this flow is terminated, and as shown in FIG. A control target area corresponding to the above is determined, and glare suppression control is executed.

  In S202, if the number of samples has not reached the predetermined number because the stored value has been discarded or the like (N in S202), this flow ends. That is, assuming that the predicted position is not obtained in the flowchart of FIG. 9, the glare suppression control at this timing is terminated.

  In the above-described embodiment, the example in which the light-shielding region is formed by configuring the high-beam vehicle lamp 20 with a plurality of light-emitting units 36 as shown in FIG. In other embodiments, a high beam vehicular lamp having another configuration may be employed. For example, the formation of individual divided areas in the high beam vehicle lamp may be performed using a shade. In this case, a plurality of shades divided in the vehicle width direction are individually moved to the light shielding position / non-light shielding position so that a part of the light from the light source can be shielded so that the divided area is equivalent to the divided area shown in FIG. Form. Further, a shade called a rotary shade may be used. The rotary shade has a plurality of shades on a cylindrical surface extending in the vehicle width direction, and a desired shade is selected by rotating the cylinder, and a part of light from the light source is blocked to form a divided region. Good. In these cases, the same effects as in the present embodiment can be obtained.

  In the above-described embodiment, the predicted position is predicted using an approximate expression, but the predicted position may be obtained by other methods. For example, the predicted position may be calculated by image processing using the road shape, the speed and position of the host vehicle and the preceding vehicle, and the same effects as in the present embodiment can be obtained.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications such as design changes can be added based on the knowledge of those skilled in the art. The configuration shown in each figure is for explaining an example, and any configuration that can achieve the same function can be changed as appropriate, and the same effect can be obtained.

  10 lamp unit, 18 low beam vehicle lamp, 20 high beam vehicle lamp, 32 light emitting module, 36a first light emitting unit, 36b second light emitting unit, 36c third light emitting unit, 36d fourth light emitting unit, 36e fifth light emitting Unit, 36f sixth light emitting unit, 40 control unit, 44 photographing unit, 50 storage unit, C oncoming vehicle, 100 vehicle lamp system.

Claims (6)

A vehicle lamp capable of forming a light distribution pattern for a high beam that is divided into a plurality of irradiation areas in the vehicle width direction and the irradiation state of each irradiation area is switched;
A control unit that controls to suppress irradiation to the irradiation region where the vehicle ahead is present based on information indicating the position of the vehicle ahead;
With
The control unit acquires a predicted position where the forward vehicle indicated by the information at the certain time point is predicted to move after acquiring the information at a certain time point, and sets an irradiation region including the predicted position as a control target region A vehicular lamp system characterized by the above.   The vehicle lamp system according to claim 1, wherein the control unit sets a region including a detection position of a preceding vehicle indicated by the information at the certain time point in addition to the predicted position as a control target region.   3. The control unit according to claim 1, wherein the control unit retains the plurality of pieces of information acquired in the past, and obtains the predicted position by obtaining an approximate expression using the plurality of pieces of information. Vehicle lamp system.   When the detection position of the preceding vehicle indicated by the information acquired before and after has changed by a predetermined amount or more, the control unit discards the held information and interrupts the acquisition of the predicted position, The vehicle lamp system according to claim 3, wherein the acquisition of the predicted position is resumed when a predetermined number of pieces of information can be newly held. A control device for controlling a vehicular lamp capable of forming a high-beam light distribution pattern that is divided into a plurality of irradiation areas in the vehicle width direction and in which the irradiation state of each irradiation area is switched,
After acquiring information at a certain time point indicating the position of the preceding vehicle, a predicted position where the preceding vehicle indicated by the information at the certain time point is predicted to move is acquired, and the irradiation area including the predicted position is irradiated as the control target area A control device characterized by performing control.   The detection position of the preceding vehicle based on information at a certain time point indicating the position of the preceding vehicle, while forming a high beam light distribution pattern that is divided into a plurality of irradiation regions in the vehicle width direction and switches the irradiation state of each irradiation region A vehicle lamp characterized in that irradiation control is possible with an irradiation area including a predicted position where the vehicle ahead is predicted to move as a control target area.

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