JP2500199Y2 - Vehicle tracking control device - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] Industrial Application Field of the Invention
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle follow-up running control device for running a vehicle, and more particularly to a technique for controlling the start of a host vehicle accompanying the start of a vehicle in front.

2. Description of the Related Art Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 62-28950 discloses an example of a follow-up running control device. This is based on (a) an inter-vehicle distance sensor that detects the inter-vehicle distance between the front vehicle and the host vehicle, and (b) based on the detection result of the inter-vehicle distance sensor, the host vehicle starts, stops, and runs following the front vehicle. It is configured to include a traveling state control means for performing the above.

This conventional device starts the own vehicle by releasing the brake or increasing the output torque of the engine when the front vehicle starts and the inter-vehicle distance becomes long while the own vehicle is stopped, On the other hand, when the preceding vehicle stops and the inter-vehicle distance becomes short while the host vehicle is traveling, the host vehicle is decelerated and stopped by reducing the output torque of the engine or operating the brake. Therefore, in this conventional device, when the road is congested with vehicles and it is necessary to frequently start and stop the vehicle, the driver is relieved of the trouble of repeatedly starting and stopping the vehicle. It In this conventional device, controlling the brake or controlling the output torque of the engine is "controlling the running state of the vehicle" in the present invention.

Further, the traveling state control method in the following traveling control device conventionally determines the target vehicle speed of the own vehicle according to the amount of acceleration operation of the driver in the own vehicle, and according to a preset relationship between the vehicle speed and the inter-vehicle distance, A method has been adopted in which a target inter-vehicle distance corresponding to the target vehicle speed is determined, and the traveling state of the own vehicle is controlled based on the relationship between the target inter-vehicle distance and the actual inter-vehicle distance.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention In addition to this conventional method, the applicant has developed another method. It is a method of determining a target vehicle speed corresponding to an actual inter-vehicle distance according to a preset relationship between the inter-vehicle distance and the vehicle speed, and controlling the traveling state of the host vehicle so that the target vehicle speed is realized. That is, the conventional method determines the target vehicle speed according to the driver's intention in the own vehicle, determines the target inter-vehicle distance according to the target vehicle speed, and based on the relationship between the target inter-vehicle distance and the actual inter-vehicle distance. In contrast to the method of determining the target driving state of the host vehicle, the method developed by the applicant determines the target vehicle speed of the host vehicle according to the actual inter-vehicle distance, and the target vehicle speed is realized so that the target vehicle speed is realized. This is a method of determining the target traveling state of.

However, when this method is adopted, there are the following problems.

When this method is adopted, the traveling state of the host vehicle is controlled only based on the actual inter-vehicle distance, so that if the preceding vehicle starts, the host vehicle is always started. However, there are cases where the driver does not want to start the own vehicle even if the vehicle ahead starts, for example. Therefore, when adopting this method, there is a problem that the driver is started even if the driver does not want to start, which is inconvenient.

The present invention has been made to solve the problem by controlling the traveling state of the own vehicle based not only on the actual inter-vehicle distance but also on the start permission of the driver.

Means for Solving the Problem In order to solve the problem, the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, is an inter-vehicle distance sensor 1 for detecting an inter-vehicle distance between a front vehicle and a host vehicle, and an inter-vehicle distance sensor 1 thereof. In a vehicle follow-up traveling control device including a traveling state control means 2 for controlling the traveling state of the own vehicle based on the actual inter-vehicle distance detected by, the traveling state control means 2 controls the inter-vehicle distance and the vehicle speed of the own vehicle. The inter-vehicle distance sensor 1 according to the relationship set in advance
The target vehicle speed corresponding to the actual inter-vehicle distance detected by is determined, the traveling state of the own vehicle is controlled so that the target vehicle speed is realized, and the stop detection means 3 for detecting the stop of the own vehicle is provided. , When the vehicle stop detection means 3 detects the vehicle stop, the vehicle start state prohibiting means 4 for prohibiting the vehicle from starting by the traveling state control means 2 and the vehicle start prohibition releasing for canceling the vehicle start prohibition by the vehicle start prohibiting means 4 based on the driver's command And means 5 are provided.

Note that the start prohibition canceling unit 5 has, for example, an operation member, and can be configured to cancel the start prohibition when the operation member is operated, and further, a voice recognition unit that recognizes a voice emitted by the driver. It is also possible to adopt a mode in which the start prohibition is released when the voice recognition means recognizes a specific voice emitted by the driver. In the former mode, the driver's operation of the operating member means that the driver issues a "command" in the present invention, and in the latter mode, the driver issues a specific voice.

The vehicle follow-up running control device according to the present invention, even when the front vehicle starts and the actual inter-vehicle distance becomes long while the own vehicle is stopped, unless the driver gives a start permission command, The vehicle cannot be started.

Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to determine whether or not to allow the vehicle to start even though it is a vehicle follow-up traveling control device of the type that determines the target vehicle speed according to the actual inter-vehicle distance and controls the traveling state of the vehicle. Since the driver's intention is reflected, there is an effect that the usability of the following drive control device is improved.

Embodiment Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

The follow-up running control device according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a computer 10 as shown in FIG. Computer
10 is composed of a CPU, ROM, RAM, bus, input interface, output interface, and the like. An inter-vehicle distance sensor 12 for detecting the inter-vehicle distance between the preceding vehicle and the host vehicle, and a vehicle speed sensor 14 for detecting the speed of the host vehicle are connected to the input interface. The follow-up running control device does not always operate, but operates only while the driver issues a follow-up running command, and the follow-up running switch is operated from OFF to ON to issue that command. 16 is also connected to the input interface. In addition, the follow-up running control device is always in a start prohibition state in which the host vehicle does not start even if the distance between the front vehicle and the front vehicle becomes long, and when the start permission command is issued from the driver, If the distance becomes long, the vehicle is shifted to a start permission state for starting the own vehicle, and a start permission switch 18 operated from OFF to ON to issue the command is also connected to the input interface.

On the other hand, the output interface includes a brake actuator 2 that controls the brakes of the four wheels of the vehicle.
0, a throttle actuator 22 for controlling a throttle valve provided in an intake manifold of an engine, a transmission actuator 24 for controlling a valve for controlling a shift of an automatic transmission, etc. are connected.

The ROM stores various control routines including the follow-up traveling control routine shown by the flowchart in FIG.
The ROM also stores a function that defines the relationship between the inter-vehicle distance and the target vehicle speed represented by the graph in FIG. Hereinafter, how the follow-up traveling control is performed will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

After the power is turned on, the routine shown in FIG. 3 is executed at regular intervals. First, in step S1 (hereinafter referred to simply as S1; the same applies to other steps), the follow-up traveling switch 16
It is determined whether or not (normally OFF) is operated to ON. Otherwise, the determination result is NO, and one execution of this routine ends.

On the other hand, if the follow-up traveling switch 16 is operated to be ON, the determination result in S1 is YES, and in S2, the current inter-vehicle distance is measured based on the detection result of the inter-vehicle distance sensor 12. Then, in S3, the target vehicle speed corresponding to the current inter-vehicle distance is calculated using the function stored in the ROM, and in S4, the current vehicle speed is measured based on the detection result of the vehicle speed sensor 14.

In S5, it is determined whether or not the vehicle speed is 0, that is, whether or not the host vehicle is stopped. Assuming that the host vehicle is currently stopped, the determination result in S5 is YES, and the start permission switch 18 (usually OFF) is turned ON in S6.
It is determined whether or not it is operated. Assuming that this is not the case at present, the determination result is NO, and one execution of this routine ends. Therefore, even if the inter-vehicle distance becomes longer than 3 m shown in FIG. 4 because the vehicle ahead has started,
The own vehicle is still stopped. Unless the start permission switch 18 is operated to ON, the own vehicle will not start even if the target vehicle speed is set higher than zero.

On the other hand, since the start permission switch 18 has been operated to ON, S6
If the result of determination is YES, in S7, the target acceleration / deceleration of the host vehicle is calculated based on the difference between the target vehicle speed and the current vehicle speed and the current inter-vehicle distance, and in S8, the target acceleration / deceleration is calculated. The brake actuator 20, the throttle actuator 22, and the transmission actuator 24 are controlled in a state suitable for realizing the above. When the brake is released and the drive torque of the drive wheels is increased, the start of the host vehicle is started.
After that, if the current vehicle speed becomes higher than 0 and the determination result of S5 becomes NO while the execution of S1 to S8 is repeated many times,
In S9, the start permission switch 18 is restored to OFF.
Therefore, at the next start of the host vehicle (when the target vehicle speed of the host vehicle becomes greater than 0 because the front vehicle started while the host vehicle was stopped and the inter-vehicle distance from the front vehicle became longer than 3 m). Is always in the start-prohibited state, and when the start-permission switch 18 is operated to be ON during the start, the state shifts to the start-permission state.

As is clear from the above description, in the present embodiment, the vehicle speed sensor 14, the follow-up traveling switch 16, the brake actuator 20, the throttle actuator 22, the transmission actuator 24, etc. are the detection results of the inter-vehicle distance sensor 12 of the computer 10, The vehicle speed sensor 14 and the computer 10 constitute a traveling state control means in cooperation with a portion for controlling the actuators 20 to 24 on the basis of the detection result of the vehicle speed sensor 14 and the ON / OFF state of the following traveling switch 16.
The part that executes S5 in FIG. 3 constitutes a vehicle stop detection means, and the start permission switch 18 and the third part of the computer 10
The part that executes S6 and S9 in the figure constitutes the starting prohibition means and the starting prohibition canceling means. The vehicle speed sensor 14 functions as both an element of the traveling state control means and an element of the vehicle stop detection means.

In the above embodiment, the start permission switch 18 is
Even if it is turned on, it will automatically turn off if the vehicle starts.
The vehicle is always restored to the starting state, and is always in the start prohibiting state, and temporarily shifts to the start permitting state. The vehicle is not started because the driver forgets to perform the operation to return to the start-prohibited state.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail with reference to the drawings, various modifications, based on the knowledge of those skilled in the art,
The present invention can be implemented in an improved mode.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram conceptually showing the structure of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a vehicle follow-up running control device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a follow-up running control routine stored in the ROM of the computer shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a graph showing the relationship between the inter-vehicle distance stored in the ROM and the target vehicle speed. 10: Computer, 12: Inter-vehicle distance sensor 14: Vehicle speed sensor, 16: Follow-up switch 18: Start enable switch 20: Brake actuator 22: Throttle actuator 24: Transmission actuator

Claims (1)

(57) [Scope of utility model registration request] 1. An inter-vehicle distance sensor for detecting an inter-vehicle distance between a front vehicle and an own vehicle, and a traveling state control means for controlling a traveling state of the own vehicle based on an actual inter-vehicle distance detected by the inter-vehicle distance sensor. In a vehicle following traveling control device including, the traveling state control means corresponds to an actual inter-vehicle distance detected by the inter-vehicle distance sensor according to a preset relationship between the inter-vehicle distance and the vehicle speed of the host vehicle. The target vehicle speed is determined, and the traveling state of the own vehicle is controlled so that the target vehicle speed is realized.At the same time, the stop detection means for detecting the stop of the own vehicle, and the stop detection of the stop detection means, There are provided start prohibition means for prohibiting the start of the own vehicle by the traveling state control means, and start prohibition canceling means for canceling the start prohibition by the start prohibition means based on a driver's command. A follow-up running control device for a vehicle, which is characterized by being distorted.