JP2734219B2 - Vehicle control device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a control device for a vehicle that follows a preceding vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Hitherto, for the purpose of improving the operability and safety of a vehicle, there have been proposed a constant speed traveling device, a following traveling control device for maintaining a constant inter-vehicle distance, and the like. In other words, on a highway or the like or an automobile exclusive road, there is a case where the vehicle travels at a constant high speed for a long time. In such a case, the accelerator opening is automatically controlled by the constant-speed traveling device, the vehicle speed is kept constant, and the burden on the driver is reduced. Also, if there is a preceding vehicle while traveling at a constant speed using the constant speed traveling device, the vehicle must be decelerated to maintain the following distance. Therefore, in the following traveling apparatus, an inter-vehicle distance sensor detects an inter-vehicle distance from a preceding vehicle, and controls the vehicle speed to maintain the inter-vehicle distance.

[0003] Such constant-speed running and following running are usually used during high-speed running on a highway, and an inter-vehicle distance sensor is also used for a relatively long distance (for example, 2 km).
(0 to 30 m or more) is adopted as the detection range, and in normal cases, it can be operated only when the traveling speed is 40 km / h or more.

[0004]

However, there is a demand to follow a vehicle at a low speed and between very small vehicles at the time of traffic congestion on a highway or the like. Therefore, an inter-vehicle distance sensor that can be detected from a short distance (for example, several meters) may be employed, and the following traveling device may be operated even when the traveling speed is 40 km / hour or less. However, if the following traveling device can be operated even at a low speed in this way, the following traveling device may be used even in an urban area. A large number of traffic lights are installed on a road in an urban area, and the course is frequently changed. Therefore, it is not desirable to operate a following traveling device that attempts to maintain a constant inter-vehicle distance with a preceding vehicle. For this reason, it was not possible to operate the follow-up traveling device during low-speed traveling.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and relates to a vehicular control device that can use a control device such as an appropriate following drive only when its use is appropriate.

[0006]

The vehicle control device according to the present invention SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION includes position detecting means for detecting a current position of the vehicle, above
Control means for controlling automatic traveling such as following a running vehicle
And the location information of an available road on which the control means can be used.
A road map storing broadcast as road information, and a current position acquired by the previous SL position detecting means, is associated with the road information obtained from the road map, the current position is on the available road
A determining means, the whether, in the determination means
The control means is operated only when it is determined that the current position is on a usable road .

[0007]

As described above, according to the control apparatus for a vehicle according to the present invention, the control means can perform automatic running such as following running.
You. The road map contains roads that can be used by the control means.
Road position information is stored. Therefore, it is possible to use a control device that allows the current position of the own vehicle to follow, etc.
It is possible to determine whether or not the vehicle is on a suitable road .
Therefore, it is possible to prevent the use of the control means on roads where the use of the control means is not possible , and the control means can be provided .
Effective utilization is achieved. For example, when driving at low speed such as on a highway
Automated driving, even in the same low-speed driving, such as in urban areas
Ru can prohibit automatic operation.

[0008]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a control system for a vehicle according to the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration, and includes a current position calculating means 10, a map information storing means 12, and a usable area determining means 14 in order to determine whether or not the control device can be used. doing. Further, in order to perform vehicle running control according to the determination result, a vehicle speed detecting means 20, an inter-vehicle distance detecting means 22, an operation request signal inputting means 24 and a vehicle speed control calculating means for generating a control signal in accordance with a signal from these means. 26, and the vehicle speed control calculating means 26
The vehicle speed control means 30 for actually controlling the vehicle speed is connected.

The current position calculating means detects the absolute position of the vehicle, including the latitude and longitude.
(Global positioning system) or the like is used. This GPS receives a plurality of (normally four) radio waves from a predetermined artificial satellite (Navstar) orbiting an orbit, and recognizes the current position (latitude, longitude, altitude) of the vehicle from the propagation times. . The current position calculating means also employs dead reckoning navigation which specifies the position of the vehicle based on the bearing of the vehicle (for example, detected by a geomagnetic sensor), the traveling distance (detected by a normal distance sensor or the like), and the like. be able to. Further, the current position may be grasped by information from a beacon or the like provided on the ground, intersection information, or the like, or these may be combined.

[0011] The map information storage means stores information on how a road is running, that is, information on what road is located at what latitude and longitude.
In this embodiment, the type of road such as an expressway, a motorway, or a general road is described in the map information for each road.

The usable area determining means 14 obtains the data from the current position calculating means 10 and the map information storing means 12 and determines which kind of road the current position is on. Then, it is determined whether or not the road is a road (an expressway, a motorway, or the like) on which a preset control device may be operated (following traveling may be performed).

The vehicle motion detecting means 20 detects, for example, a vehicle speed, and employs a method in which a magnet sensitive element is driven by a magnet rotated by a gear of a transmission. The inter-vehicle distance detecting means 22 includes:
It detects the distance to the vehicle in front, for example, a device that transmits an infrared laser pulse to the front and detects a time until the pulse returns. Further, the operation request signal input means 24 is, for example, a switch provided on a lever provided near the steering wheel, and performs an input when the driver wants to follow the vehicle.

The vehicle speed control calculating means 26 generates a control signal for setting the vehicle speed to a predetermined speed, and calculates a target inter-vehicle distance based on the current vehicle speed from the vehicle motion detecting means 20. . This is performed based on data stored as a map in a ROM or the like in advance. Then, the target inter-vehicle distance is compared with the inter-vehicle distance detected by the inter-vehicle distance detection means 22, and if the inter-vehicle distance is smaller than the target inter-vehicle distance, a deceleration command is sent to the vehicle speed control means 30. Accordingly, the vehicle speed control means 30 performs control such as decreasing the accelerator opening in response to the deceleration command, thereby reducing the vehicle speed and controlling the inter-vehicle distance to the target inter-vehicle distance.

If the inter-vehicle distance is larger than the target inter-vehicle distance, the vehicle speed control calculating means 26 compares the preset constant speed traveling speed with the current speed detected by the vehicle motion detecting means 20, and calculates the target speed. A control signal is sent to the vehicle control means 30 so that And this vehicle control means 3
0 controls the accelerator opening in accordance with the control signal to maintain the vehicle at the target vehicle speed.

Here, in this embodiment, a signal about the determination result from the usable area determination means 14 is supplied to the vehicle speed control calculation means 26. Therefore, the vehicle control calculating means 26 determines whether or not to perform the follow-up control and the constant-speed running control according to the signal from the usable area determining means 14, and only when the road is usable, the above-described control signal Is supplied to the vehicle speed control means 30.

Such an operation will be described with reference to FIG. That is, the usable area determination unit 14 first takes in the position coordinates (x, y) from the current position calculation unit 10 (S1). Next, the usable area determination unit 14 specifies the fetched position (x, y) and fetches the road information of the position from the map information storage unit 12. Then, based on this road information, it is determined whether or not the current position is a place where a constant speed traveling and a following traveling such as an expressway or an automobile exclusive road can be performed (S3).

If the area is in the usable area, the vehicle is followed (S4). If not, the vehicle is not followed (S5). Therefore, even if a constant speed and a follow-up running are commanded by the driver's request, the vehicle control calculating means 20
Does not send a control signal to the vehicle speed control means 30. Therefore, it is possible to prevent inappropriate control from being performed.

In the above embodiment, the control device is
Although the following traveling control device is employed, the invention is not limited thereto, and an obstacle avoidance control, an automatic steering control, an inter-vehicle distance warning device, or the like may be employed.

[0020]

As described above, according to the vehicle control device of the present invention, vehicle control such as following can be performed only in a situation where this is permitted, and inappropriate use in an urban area or the like is possible. Can be prevented.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall block diagram of an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Current position calculation means 12 Map information storage means 14 Usable area determination means 20 Vehicle motion detection means 22 Inter-vehicle distance detection means 24 Activation request signal input means 26 Vehicle speed control calculation means 30 Vehicle speed control means

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A position detecting means for detecting a current position of a vehicle, and a control means for controlling automatic running such as running following a preceding vehicle.
Stage and a road map for storing positional information of the available road allows the use of the control means as <br/> road information, a current position acquired by the previous SL position detecting means, the road information obtained from the road map And the current position can be used.
Determining means for determining whether or not the vehicle is on a road , and determining that the current position is on a usable road by the determining means.
Only when it is constant, the vehicle control apparatus characterized by operating the control means.