JP5212487B2 - Driving support device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention receives information such as obstacles ahead of the vehicle by performing road-to-vehicle communication, provides an alarm for avoiding a collision to the obstacles, and generates braking force as necessary. The present invention relates to a travel support device.

Conventionally, for example, an obstacle existing ahead in the traveling direction of the host vehicle is detected by a monitoring device provided on the road side, and the detected obstacle information is received from the monitoring device by road-to-vehicle communication to avoid the obstacle. In addition to providing an alarm for this purpose, it has been proposed to activate a braking device as necessary to avoid a collision with an obstacle.
For example, in the curved road alarm device described in Patent Document 1, the road monitoring device provided on the road side detects the presence or absence of obstacles and the position of the obstacle in a predetermined monitoring area on the curved road, The detection result is provided to the driver. In addition, along with this, the propriety of the current driving state of the vehicle is determined based on the current position of the vehicle and its driving state and the position of the obstacle notified as a monitoring result, and an alarm is issued based on the determination result. The alarm is generated according to the magnitude of the deceleration required to stop at the current vehicle speed until just before the obstacle.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-53695

  In general, when driving on a sharp curve, the driver checks the shape of the road and performs deceleration and steering in order to deal with the sharp curve. Since the awareness is concentrated on this, as described above, even if an alarm or information is provided for an obstacle ahead of the vehicle, there is less room to recognize the alarm or information provided. It may take time to recognize and perform operations on this.

  Therefore, it is necessary to provide information early considering the road form. However, even if information is provided sooner or later, the meaning of the information cannot be understood because the information in front of the vehicle recognized by the driver does not match the information provided, or only in the road environment. In addition, the driver's operation load related to driving varies depending on the traffic environment of other vehicles and pedestrians. For this reason, it is necessary to determine an appropriate timing considering these comprehensively.

  In addition, when there is a fault in front of the host vehicle, when there is a vehicle between the fault and the host vehicle, traffic jam occurs due to the presence of the fault, and as a result, the position of the fault is , It may be equivalent to the state of moving to the own vehicle side. In such a situation, even after information is provided by road-to-vehicle communication or the like, the obstacle approaches the own vehicle side every moment.

Therefore, if the timing of alarm and information provision is calculated from the necessary deceleration for stopping the vehicle at the position before the obstacle, for example, based on the position where the failure occurred, it is more than the stop position assumed at the time of calculation. Since the position at which the vehicle must actually stop changes to the front, there is a case where a deceleration operation without a margin is required.
Therefore, the present invention has been made paying attention to the above-mentioned conventional unsolved problems, and provides a driving support device capable of providing information on obstacles ahead of the vehicle at an appropriate timing. It is an object.

In order to achieve the above object, a travel support apparatus according to claim 1 of the present invention includes a travel state detection unit that detects a travel state of the host vehicle and a road state detection unit that detects a road state of a road around the host vehicle. And a braking force generating means for generating a braking force, and a detection of a failure on the traveling route of the host vehicle based on the road condition detection information detected by the road condition detecting means. A fault countermeasure means for notifying fault information relating to the fault based on the road condition detection information and operating the braking force generating means at a fault countermeasure timing set in advance according to the running state of the host vehicle. When the obstacle is detected on the travel route of the own vehicle based on the road condition detection information, the occurrence of the obstacle is detected from the current position of the own vehicle based on the road condition detection information. And traffic amount predicting means for predicting the traffic volume in the interval leading to location, the fault countermeasure timing set by the fault countermeasure means, for compensation in accordance with the traffic amount predicted by the traffic amount predicting means disorder And countermeasure timing correction means.

  In the driving support apparatus according to claim 2, the traffic volume predicting unit predicts the number of traveling vehicles existing in a section from the current position of the host vehicle to the position where the failure occurs as the traffic volume, and the obstacle The countermeasure timing correction means is characterized in that the stop position of the host vehicle is predicted according to the predicted number of traveling vehicles, and the failure countermeasure timing is corrected based on the predicted stop position.

In addition, the driving support device according to claim 3 includes an inter-vehicle distance detection unit that detects an inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle and the preceding vehicle, and the traffic volume prediction unit includes an inter-vehicle distance detected by the inter-vehicle distance detection unit. It is characterized in that the number of traveling vehicles is predicted based on the distance.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the travel support apparatus, the traffic volume predicting unit predicts the number of traveling vehicles based on an inter-vehicle distance fluctuation amount per predetermined time of the inter-vehicle distance detected by the inter-vehicle distance detecting unit. It is characterized by becoming.

In the driving support apparatus according to claim 5, the traffic volume predicting unit is configured to predict the number of traveling vehicles based on a change amount of the failure occurrence position based on the road condition detection information. It is characterized by.
Further, in the driving support apparatus according to claim 6, the road condition detection means is a road-to-vehicle communication device that receives the average vehicle head time from a communication device that is provided on the road side and notifies the average vehicle head time in a predetermined section. The traffic volume predicting means predicts the number of traveling vehicles based on the average vehicle head time in the predetermined section received by the road condition detecting means.

Further, the travel support device according to claim 7 performs inter-vehicle communication with other vehicles, and information on the average inter-vehicle distance and the number of continuous communication between vehicles in which the communication destination vehicle is continuously communicating by inter-vehicle communication , Vehicle-to- vehicle communication means for receiving from the communication destination vehicle ,
The traffic volume predicting means predicts the number of traveling vehicles based on the average inter-vehicle distance obtained by the inter-vehicle communication means and the number of continuous communication .
In the driving support apparatus according to claim 8, the occurrence of the failure at the time when the failure countermeasure timing correction unit detects a failure on the traveling route of the own vehicle based on the road state detection information of the road state detection unit. When the position is predicted to be the limit position on the vehicle side of the detection range on the travel route that can be detected by the road condition detection means, the failure countermeasure timing is corrected so that the failure information is immediately notified. It is characterized by being to do.

  Further, in the driving support apparatus according to claim 9, the occurrence of the failure at the time when the failure countermeasure timing correction unit detects a failure on the traveling route of the own vehicle based on road condition detection information of the road condition detection unit. When the position is predicted to be the limit position on the own vehicle side of the detection range on the travel route that can be detected by the road condition detection unit, the timing for operating the braking force generation unit is also advanced. It is characterized by having.

  In the driving support apparatus according to the first to ninth aspects of the present invention, when a fault is detected on the driving route of the host vehicle based on the road condition detection information detected by the road condition detecting means, the driving condition detecting means The failure information detected based on the road condition detection information is notified at a failure countermeasure timing set in advance according to the detected traveling state of the host vehicle, so that the driver has a fault on the traveling route of the host vehicle. It has become possible to recognize that there is.

At this time, when it is detected that there is a fault on the travel route of the host vehicle based on the road condition detection information detected by the road condition detection means, the fault is detected from the current position of the host vehicle based on the road condition detection information. The traffic volume in the section leading to the occurrence position is predicted, and the failure countermeasure timing for notifying the failure information is corrected according to the predicted traffic volume.
Here, when there is another vehicle between the own vehicle and the location where the failure occurred, traffic jams occur due to the failure, and this is equivalent to the failure moving to the own vehicle side. There may be situations. Based on the failure occurrence position notified by the road condition detection information, when the failure information is notified, etc., when the failure occurrence position moves to the own vehicle side as described above, the timing is late, A sudden deceleration operation may be required.

  However, because the traffic volume in the section to the fault location is predicted and the failure countermeasure timing is corrected accordingly, the traffic volume in the section to the fault location is taken into account By correcting the countermeasure timing, it is possible to notify failure information at an appropriate timing.

According to the driving support apparatus according to claims 1 to 9 of the present invention, the traffic volume in the section from the current position of the host vehicle to the position where the failure occurs is predicted based on the road condition detection information, and the predicted traffic volume is obtained. Accordingly, the failure countermeasure timing is corrected accordingly, so that the failure information can be notified at an appropriate timing according to the traffic volume in the section leading to the position where the failure occurs.
At this time, the number of traveling vehicles existing in the section from the current position of the host vehicle to the position where the fault occurs is predicted as the traffic volume, and based on this, the predicted stop position where the host vehicle is predicted to stop is predicted. By correcting the failure countermeasure timing based on the predicted stop position, it is possible to correct the timing appropriately according to the road condition.

In addition, it is possible to easily predict the number of traveling vehicles existing in the section from the current position of the own vehicle to the position where the failure occurs based on the inter-vehicle distance between the own vehicle and the preceding vehicle. it can.
At this time, the amount of inter-vehicle distance fluctuation per predetermined time of the inter-vehicle distance is detected, and based on this, the maximum number of traveling vehicles between the own vehicle and the position where the fault occurs is predicted, thereby making it easier and The number of traveling vehicles can be predicted with high accuracy.

In addition, it is possible to easily predict the number of traveling vehicles by detecting the amount of change in the position where the failure occurs and predicting the maximum number of traveling vehicles between the own vehicle and the position where the failure occurs based on this. it can.
In addition, the average traffic volume actually detected by the road condition detection means is detected by detecting the average traffic volume between the own vehicle and the position where the failure occurred by the road condition detection means and predicting the number of traveling vehicles based on the average traffic volume. Therefore, the number of traveling vehicles can be predicted with higher accuracy.

  In addition, vehicle-to-vehicle communication means for performing vehicle-to-vehicle communication with other vehicles and receiving the average vehicle-to-vehicle distance between the host vehicle and the vehicle to communicate with from the communication destination vehicle is provided. Thus, by predicting the number of traveling vehicles based on the average inter-vehicle distance, the number of traveling vehicles can be accurately predicted even when, for example, road condition detection information cannot be obtained.

In addition, when a fault is detected on the travel route of the host vehicle based on the road status detection information of the road status detection means, the location of the fault at this point is detected on the travel route that can be detected by the road status detection means. When it is predicted that the position is the limit position on the own vehicle side in the range, the trouble moves to the own vehicle side and the position information is obtained by correcting the trouble countermeasure timing so that the trouble information is immediately notified. Even if it becomes impossible, the driver can deal with the failure with a margin by notifying the driver of the failure information at an earlier time.
Further, at this time, even if the obstacle moves to the own vehicle side and the position information cannot be obtained by correcting the trouble countermeasure timing so that the timing for operating the braking force generating means is also advanced. By decelerating the generation timing of the braking force, it is possible to perform deceleration without a sense of incongruity.

It is a vehicle block diagram which shows an example of the vehicle provided with the driving assistance device in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing with which it uses for operation | movement description of 1st Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the process sequence of the road condition response process performed with the control apparatus of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the process sequence of the operation mode determination process of FIG. It is an example of a predicted vehicle speed pattern. It is a characteristic view showing the correspondence between the lateral acceleration and the steering load. It is a characteristic view showing the correspondence between acceleration / deceleration and acceleration / deceleration load. It is a characteristic view showing a response | compatibility with a front visible distance and a front visible distance load amount. It is a characteristic view showing the correspondence between the confirmation task time ratio and the confirmation load amount. It is an example of the change pattern of operation load amount. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the process sequence of an information content setting process. It is explanatory drawing with which it uses for operation | movement description of 1st Embodiment. It is an example of the change pattern of the operation load amount in the road condition of FIG. It is explanatory drawing with which it uses for operation | movement description of 1st Embodiment. It is an example of the change pattern of the operation load amount in the road condition of FIG. It is a characteristic view which shows an example of the correction coefficient for correct | amending information provision recognition time. It is an example of the relationship for making prediction lateral acceleration into a fuzzy variable. It is an example of the relationship for making prediction acceleration and prediction deceleration into a fuzzy variable. It is an example of the relationship for making the load amount which a driver | operator visually recognizes a road condition into a fuzzy variable. It is an example of the relationship for making the probability of encountering a related vehicle into a fuzzy variable. For defining the relationship between the body burden Wl-body and cognitive load Wl-cog when calculating the body burden Wl-body and cognitive load Wl-cog based on fuzzy variable w ₁ to w ₄ It is a coefficient. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the process sequence of the road condition corresponding | compatible process in 3rd Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the process sequence of the initial process of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the process sequence of the stop estimated position calculation process of FIG. It is a characteristic view showing the correspondence between coherence γ _DV and correction coefficient K (γ _DV ). It is a characteristic view which shows the characteristic of the correction function f (Thead, (DELTA) Xob) by traffic volume. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the process sequence of the operation mode determination process of FIG. It is explanatory drawing with which it uses for operation | movement description of 3rd Embodiment. It is explanatory drawing with which it uses for operation | movement description of 3rd Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the process sequence of the stop estimated position calculation process in 4th Embodiment. It is a vehicle block diagram which shows an example of the vehicle provided with the driving assistance apparatus in the 5th Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the process sequence of the stop estimated position calculation process in 5th Embodiment.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
First, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a vehicle provided with a driving support device of the present invention. This vehicle is a rear wheel drive vehicle in which the rear wheels 1RL and 1RR are driving wheels and the front wheels 1FL and 1FR are driven wheels, and the driving torque of the engine 2 is transmitted to the rear wheels 1RL and 1RR via the automatic transmission 3. Is done.

The rotation state, torque, output, etc. of the engine 2 can be controlled by the engine control device 11. Specifically, the rotational state, torque, output, etc. of the engine 2 can be controlled by adjusting the throttle valve opening, the idle valve opening, the ignition timing, the fuel injection amount, the fuel injection timing, and the like.
The automatic transmission 3 can be controlled by a transmission control device 12. Specifically, by adjusting the working fluid pressure supplied to the clutch and brake in the automatic transmission 3, the selected gear ratio can be changed to obtain a desired reduction ratio.

  Each of the wheels 1FL to 1RR includes wheel cylinders 4FL to 4RR that constitute a so-called disc brake. The wheel cylinders 4FL to 4RR apply a braking force to the wheels 1FL to 1RR by the supplied brake fluid pressure. The braking force applied to each of the wheels 1FL to 1RR can be controlled by the braking fluid pressure control device 13. Specifically, for example, each wheel cylinder 4FL˜ is increased by increasing the brake fluid pressure as in the driving force control device (TCS) or decreasing the brake fluid pressure as in the anti-skid control device (ABS). The braking fluid pressure to 4RR can be adjusted and the braking force to each wheel 1FL-1RR can be controlled. The braking fluid pressure regulated in the braking fluid pressure control device 13 is supplied from a master cylinder that is boosted by depressing a brake pedal (not shown).

  Each of these control devices controls the running state of the vehicle, and as a result, the running state can be controlled by adjusting the acceleration / deceleration, the longitudinal speed, etc. of the host vehicle. Moreover, although these control apparatuses can operate | move independently, as a whole function, the control apparatus 10 which performs a road condition response process based on the road condition ahead of a vehicle is governed.

  Further, the vehicle is provided with a scanning laser radar type or millimeter wave type radar, and an inter-vehicle distance sensor 16 that detects an inter-vehicle distance to a preceding vehicle, a wheel speed sensor 17 that detects a rotational speed of each wheel 1FL to 1RR, An acceleration sensor 18 that detects longitudinal and lateral acceleration generated in the vehicle is provided. In addition, the vehicle has a display, a speaker, and an alarm for presenting an occupant, in particular, a driver with the presence or absence of an obstacle detected in the road condition handling process in the control device 10 or road form information in front of the vehicle. An information presentation device 23 including an alarm is provided.

The vehicle further includes a road-to-vehicle communication device 7 for communicating information with the so-called infrastructure, a vehicle position detection device 19 such as a so-called GPS (Global Positioning System) for detecting the absolute position of the vehicle. ing.
The road-to-vehicle communication device 7 receives detailed road conditions relating to the road being traveled as broadcast data from a radio installed on the road side. As the road situation, for example, road shape information, road surface information, obstacle information, intersection information, and the like are notified. As the road shape information, the number of lanes and road alignment of a section in which the notified road condition is valid (hereinafter, information providing section) is notified. Further, as the road surface information, information related to the slipperiness of the road surface such as wet, dry, freezing, snow accumulation, etc. of the lane in which the host vehicle is traveling is notified. Further, as the obstacle information, the type of obstacle existing in the traveling direction of the own vehicle, that is, information on whether it is an object, a person or a vehicle, and its size and position are notified. The Further, the information on the intersection includes the distance to the center of the target intersection, the number of lanes of the intersection road, the position and speed of the vehicle traveling on the intersection road and the oncoming road, the position of the pedestrian crossing, the pedestrian on the pedestrian crossing The position and the like are notified.

Of these, all the information related to the position and distance is expressed as a position based on the reference position (usually the base point) of the information providing section or a distance from the reference position.
Furthermore, the position of the base point of the information provision section is also notified as the road situation.
For example, as shown in FIG. 2, if the base point of the information provision section is Z ₀ , the position of the obstacle B such as a stopped vehicle is the distance from the base point Z ₀ as indicated by the arrow T in FIG. Will be notified. Therefore, the own vehicle A can collate the positional relationship between the notified road situation and the own vehicle by counting the travel distance from the time when the vehicle passes the base point Z ₀ of the information providing section.

Further, a plurality of the information providing sections are set for the road, and the driver can obtain the road condition of the information providing section set at the vehicle position as the vehicle travels. ing.
Next, the calculation process of the road condition handling process performed by the control device 10 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. This arithmetic processing is executed by a timer interruption every predetermined sampling time ΔT set to about 10 [msec], for example. In this flowchart, no particular communication step is provided, but the results obtained by the arithmetic processing are updated and stored in the storage device as needed, and necessary information and programs are read from the storage device as needed. Further, the above-described engine control device 11, transmission control device 12, and brake fluid pressure control device 13 communicate with each other at any time, and necessary information and commands are exchanged bidirectionally at any time.

  In this calculation process, first, in step S1, a road situation is read from the road-to-vehicle communication device 7, and it is determined whether this road situation is a newly received road situation and contains obstacle information. Then, when it is not the newly received road condition or when the obstacle information is not included in the road condition, the process proceeds to step S16 described later. On the other hand, if the road condition is newly received and the obstacle information is included, the process proceeds to step S2.

In step S2, it determines after passing through the base point Z ₀ of the information providing section, whether the road condition was first received. This determination is performed based on, for example, communication with a beacon (not shown) to receive the position of the base point Z ₀ of the information provision section and the current position detected by the own vehicle position detection device 19.
Then, when the road condition is the first received after passing through the base point Z ₀ of the information providing section, the process proceeds to step S3, and the obstacle notified by the obstacle information that is sequentially stored in the predetermined storage area The position history is deleted, the obstacle position in the newly notified road condition obstacle information is registered as history information, and the creation of a new obstacle position history is started. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S4.

Moreover, after passing through the base point Z ₀ of the information providing section in the step S2, when it is determined not to be road conditions received first, the control proceeds to step S4.
In step S4, an operation mode determination process shown in FIG. 4 is executed.
In this operation mode determination process, first, a target stop position Xstop is set. The target stop position Xstop is set to a position obtained by subtracting a margin distance (for example, 5 m) from the obstacle position received by the road-to-vehicle communication device 7 (step S21).

Next, the process proceeds to step S22, and the operation load amount Wload of the operation performed by the driver is calculated on the travel route of the host vehicle until the host vehicle reaches the target stop position Xstop set in step S21.
That is, first, a vehicle speed pattern up to the target stop position Xstop is created based on the road shape obtained by the road-to-vehicle communication device 7. For example, as shown in FIG. 2 described above, when an obstacle is located near the curve, the vehicle speed pattern is as shown in FIG. In FIG. 5, the horizontal axis represents the distance from the base point Z ₀ of the information provision section, and the vertical axis represents the predicted vehicle speed Vpre.

That is, the road obtained by the road-to-vehicle communication device 7 based on the following equation (1) from the curvature radius R ₀ of the road received as road shape information and the driver's common lateral acceleration Glateral stored in advance. A vehicle speed Vcurve when traveling on a road having a shape is determined.
Vcurve = (Glateral · g / R ₀ ) ^1/2 (1)
In addition, g in a type | formula is a gravitational acceleration.

Subsequently, a distance X ₁ required for decelerating from the current vehicle speed V ₀ to the vehicle speed Vcurve at the driver's regular deceleration Gbrk is calculated based on the following equation (2).
X ₁ = (V ₀ ² −Vcurve ² ) / (2 · Gbrk · g) (2)
Subsequently, from the position L ₂ corresponding to the normal deceleration end point at the time of the driver's curve driving stored in advance, the position corresponding to the own vehicle is started by the distance corresponding to the distance X ₁ calculated by the equation (2). It is set as the position L _1. Note that L _{S in} FIG. 2 is a curve start point.

Further, as the road shape in FIG. 2, the target stop position Xstop is, when there ahead position L ₃ corresponding to the conventional acceleration start point of time of cornering of the driver by conventional acceleration Gacl driver Assuming acceleration, the vehicle speed is predicted. And the vehicle speed of another point is interpolated according to the acceleration / deceleration at each point.
Thus, when the vehicle speed pattern as shown in FIG. 5 is obtained, the operation load amount Wload at each point is calculated based on the following equations (3) to (5).
Wload = Kbody / Wl-body + Kmental / Wl-cog (3)
Wl-body = Kstrg / Wl-strg + Klong / Wl-long (4)
Wl-cog = Kgaze, Wfront-gaze (Vpre, Lvis) + Kaware, Wl-awar
...... (5)

  In Equation (3), Wl-body is a physical load, Wl-cog is a cognitive load, and Kbody and Kmental are predetermined numbers. In Equation (4), Wl-strg is a steering load amount, and is set to have the characteristics shown in FIG. 6, for example, based on the steering reaction force corresponding to the normal lateral acceleration Glateral. That is, the steering load amount Wl-strg is set to increase as the normal lateral acceleration Glateral increases. Wl-long is an acceleration / deceleration load amount, and is set based on the acceleration / deceleration Glong (the normal deceleration Gbrk and the normal acceleration Gacl) so as to have, for example, the characteristics shown in FIG. That is, the acceleration / deceleration load amount Wl-long gradually increases as the normal acceleration Gacl increases, and the acceleration / deceleration load amount Wl-long increases more rapidly as the normal deceleration Gbrk increases. Kstrg and Klong are predetermined numbers.

  Further, in the equation (5), Kgaze and Kaware are predetermined numbers, and Wfront-gaze (Vpre, Lvis) is a forward gaze load caused by the traveling speed of the host vehicle and the road shape, and the vehicle speed shown in FIG. Based on the predicted vehicle speed Vpre estimated by the pattern and the forward visible distance Lvis specified from the road shape, for example, the characteristics shown in FIG. 8 are set. That is, the forward gaze load amount Wfront-gaze (Vpre, Lvis) is set to increase as the predicted vehicle speed Vpre increases and the forward visible distance Lvis decreases. Further, Wl-awar is a confirmation load amount, and is set to a characteristic as shown in FIG. 9, for example, corresponding to the confirmation task time ratio TLload per unit time required for the confirmation task in the road condition at each point. That is, the confirmation load amount Wl-awar is set to increase as the confirmation task time ratio TLload increases. The confirmation task time ratio TLload is obtained by calculating the confirmation time ratio [ΔTcross] per unit time according to the intersection pattern obtained by road-to-vehicle communication and the arrival time to the intersection based on characteristics set in advance. According to the encounter probability Pov determined from the total detected and added each time and the vehicle speed of the related vehicle involved in the travel of the host vehicle obtained by road-to-vehicle communication, the distance to the intersection, the host vehicle position and the host vehicle speed The sum of the calculated confirmation time ratio per unit time [ΔTpov] for each intersection and the sum is added.

The above calculation is performed from the base point Z ₀ of the information providing section to the target stop position Xstop. Thereby, for example, in the case of the road alignment shown in FIG. 2, the operation load amount Wload at each point becomes as shown in FIG.
In other words, the operation load amount Wload when traveling on a straight path from the point of passing through the base point Z ₀ is relatively small, approaching the curve from this state, the driver's recognition of the curve situation or obstacle detection operation Is performed, the operation load amount Wload increases accordingly. Then, when passing the curve corresponding deceleration start position L ₁ considering the curve, the operation load Wload further increases with the deceleration operation, passes through the normal deceleration end point L ₂ and enters the curve, and the normal acceleration start point after passing through the L _3, a high state of operation load Wload to the target stop position Xstop continues.

In the process of step S22 in FIG. 4, the normal lateral acceleration Glateral, the normal deceleration Gbrk, the normal acceleration Gacl, the normal deceleration end point L ₂ , and the normal acceleration start point L ₃ are travel patterns in which the driver is always driving. Is stored, and a prestored value averaged for this is used.
At the time of shipment from the factory, the running pattern is not yet defined, so the specified value is used. Further, in the case of a vehicle with a high possibility of changing drivers, for example, each set value is stored in a storage medium that can be easily changed, and the set value is changed for each driver and used. May be. In addition, when a plurality of specific drivers use the vehicle, characteristics for a plurality of persons are stored, and a characteristic corresponding to each driving vehicle is selected by a selection unit such as a switch. Good. In this case, as the selection means, for example, a personal authentication signal based on a keyless entry may be used for automatic selection.

Subsequently, the process proceeds to step S23, where the vehicle is decelerated from the current vehicle speed V _{0 of the} host vehicle at a preset information provision reference deceleration Ginfo, and a necessary stop distance Xbrk necessary to stop at the target stop position Xstop is calculated. . Then, the position from the host vehicle is set as the information providing position Xinfo by the required stop distance Xbrk from the target stop position Xstop.
The current vehicle speed V ₀ of the host vehicle is calculated from, for example, the average value of the front left and right wheel speeds Vw _FL and Vw _FR among the detection signals of the wheel speed sensor 17.

  Next, the process proceeds to step S24, and in the change pattern of the operation load amount Wload on the travel route of the host vehicle calculated in step S23, the operation load amount Wload exceeds the reference load amount Bload as shown in FIG. It is determined whether or not the information providing position Xinfo is included in a certain range (hereinafter referred to as an operating load increasing section). In this determination, for example, when a section where the operation load amount Wload exceeds the reference load amount Bload continues for a predetermined section or more, this section is set as a driving load increase section, and the information provision position Xinfo is included in this driving load increase section. It may be determined whether or not.

If the information provision position Xinfo is included in the driving load increase section, the process proceeds to step S25. If not included, the process proceeds to step S27.
In step S25, the driving load is increased by the travel distance corresponding to the time Tcog required for the driver to recognize the provision of obstacle information set in advance, and the product of the vehicle speed V ₀ and Tcog (V ₀ × Tcog). The position from the own vehicle is specified from the start point of the section, and this is set as the load increase correspondence information providing position Sinfo, which is an information providing position when the driving operation load increases.

  Next, the process proceeds to step S26, where it is determined whether or not the host vehicle has passed the load increase correspondence information providing position Sinfo. The process ends and the process returns to the main routine of FIG. On the other hand, if the host vehicle passes the load increase correspondence information providing position Sinfo, the process proceeds to step S28 described later.

On the other hand, in the step S27, it is determined whether or not the own vehicle has passed the information providing position Xinfo. If the own vehicle has not passed the information providing position Xinfo, the processing is ended as it is and the process shown in FIG. Return to the main routine. On the other hand, if the host vehicle passes the information providing position Xinfo, the process proceeds to step S28 described later.
In this step S28, the required deceleration Greq at the present time for the host vehicle to stop at the target stop position Xstop is calculated, and then the process proceeds to step S29, where the required deceleration Greq is set to the preset alarm reference deceleration Gwarn. It is determined whether or not. The required deceleration Greq is calculated based on, for example, the current host vehicle speed V ₀ , the current position of the host vehicle, and the target stop position Xstop.

If the required deceleration Greq does not exceed the alarm reference deceleration Gwarn, the process proceeds to step S30, the operation mode is set to the information providing mode, and the process returns to the main routine of FIG.
On the other hand, if the required deceleration Greq exceeds the warning reference deceleration Gwarn in step S29, the process proceeds to step S31 to determine whether the required deceleration Greq exceeds the preset control reference deceleration Gcont. To do. If the necessary deceleration Greq exceeds the control reference deceleration Gcont, the process proceeds to step S32, the operation mode is set to the control mode, and the process returns to the main routine of FIG. On the other hand, if the required deceleration Greq does not exceed the control reference deceleration Gcont, the process proceeds to step S33, the operation mode is set to the alarm mode, and the process returns to the main routine of FIG.

  The warning reference deceleration Gwarn and the control reference deceleration Gcont are values set in advance so as to satisfy Gwarn <Gcont, and it is determined that the warning reference deceleration Gwarn needs to give a warning to the driver. The control reference deceleration Gcont is set to a value that determines that it is necessary to control the engine control device 11, the transmission control device 12, and the brake fluid pressure control device 13 to forcibly decelerate.

  In this way, when the operation mode is set in the operation mode determination process of FIG. 4, the process proceeds from step S4 to step S5 of FIG. 3, and it is determined whether or not the control mode is set as the operation mode. When the control mode is set as the operation mode, the process proceeds to step S6. When the control mode is not set as the operation mode, the process proceeds to step S7.

In step S6, control parameter processing is performed. Specifically, after setting a deceleration force command value and a throttle-off command value corresponding to the preset stop target deceleration Gref, the process proceeds to step S8.
On the other hand, in step S7, it is determined whether an alarm mode is set as the operation mode. If the alarm mode is set as the operation mode, the process proceeds to step S8. If the alarm mode is not set as the operation mode, the process proceeds to step S9.

In step S8, alarm parameter processing is performed. Specifically, after setting a command signal for operating a warning alarm of the information presentation device 23 and a warning display output command to the display, the process proceeds to step S10.
On the other hand, in step S9, it is determined whether or not the information providing mode is set as the operation mode. Then, if the information providing mode is not set as the operation mode, the process is terminated, and if the information providing mode is set as the operation mode, the process proceeds to step S10.

In this step S10, an information provision parameter process is performed, and the display content and the voice utterance phrase are set as the information provision parameter, and then the process proceeds to step S11.
The display content and the voice utterance phrase are set according to the flowchart of FIG. 11, for example.
That is, first, in step S41, it is determined whether or not the load increase correspondence information providing position Sinfo is set. If it is set, the process proceeds to step S42, and road load information with the highest load in the driving load increasing section is extracted. For example, in the case of the road shape shown in FIG. 2, the “left steep curve” is selected from the operation load amount Wload at each point shown in FIG. 10.

  Subsequently, the process proceeds to step S43, where the road load information of the driving load increase section selected in step S42 is displayed as the display content and the voice utterance phrase as the provision information for the response at the time of driving load increase, and the obstacle (or stopped vehicle). Set the combined data. For example, in the case of the road alignment in FIG. 2, a road alignment representing a left curve is synthesized as the display content in front of an obstacle (or a stopped vehicle), and the voice utterance and display content is “the obstacle ahead of the left abrupt curve”. Set the phrase “thing”.

On the other hand, if the load increase correspondence information provision position Sinfo is not set in step S41, the process proceeds to step S44, and the display content and the voice utterance phrase are data representing only an obstacle as the provision of information corresponding to the increase in driving load. Set. That is, for example, in the case of the road alignment in FIG. 2, the phrase “stopped vehicle” is set as the voice utterance and display content.
When the display content and the voice utterance phrase are set in this way, the process returns to FIG. 3 and proceeds from step S10 to step S11, and the various command values set in any of steps S6, S8, and S10 are changed to the engine control device. 11. After outputting to the transmission control device 12, the braking fluid pressure control device 13, and the information presentation device 23, the process is terminated.

On the other hand, when no new road condition is received from the road-to-vehicle communication device 7 in step S1, or when obstacle information is not included in the road condition, the process proceeds to step S16. In this step S16, it is determined whether or not the vehicle has passed the position of the finally received obstacle, that is, the latest position of the currently stored obstacle position information. The process proceeds to step S4, and if it passes, the process is finished as it is.
As a result, when there is a restriction on the communication range on the road side, road conditions cannot be received continuously until the host vehicle reaches the obstacle occurrence position, or road-to-vehicle communication is performed for some reason. Even if it is interrupted, information can be continuously provided to the occupant.

Next, the operation of the first embodiment will be described.
The road-to-vehicle communication device 7 communicates with a radio device provided on the road side, receives information such as road alignment in front of the host vehicle or presence / absence of an obstacle, and notifies the control device 10 of the information.
In the control device 10, a calculation process of the road situation handling process is executed at a predetermined cycle, and it is determined whether obstacle information is included based on the road situation input from the road-to-vehicle communication device 7.

Now, assuming that the host vehicle travels on a road with an obstacle ahead of the left curve shown in FIG. 2, the road-to-vehicle communication device 7 receives the road condition including the obstacle information and sends it to the control device 10. Notice.
When the own vehicle receives the obstacle information immediately after passing through the base point Z ₀ of the information providing section, the control device 10 updates the obstacle position history and newly creates the obstacle information history. (Steps S2 and 3), a target stop position Xstop is calculated based on the notified obstacle position (Step S21), and an operation performed by the driver on the travel route of the host vehicle up to the target stop position Xstop. Is calculated according to the driving characteristics of the driver, such as the driver's normal lateral acceleration Glateral, the normal deceleration Gbrk, and the like.

In this case, as described above, the operation load Wload at each point, as shown in FIG. 10, while traveling substantially straight path from the time of passing through the base point Z _0, the operation load Wload is relatively When the vehicle is small and approaches a curve, and the driver recognizes the curve state or performs an obstacle detection operation, the operation load amount Wload increases accordingly. Then, when passing the curve corresponding deceleration start position L ₁ considering the curve, the operation load Wload further increases with the deceleration operation, passes through the normal deceleration end point L ₂ and enters the curve, and the normal acceleration start point after passing through the L _3, a high state of operation load Wload to the target stop position Xstop continues.

Then, the vehicle is decelerated from the current vehicle speed V _{0 of the} host vehicle at a preset information provision reference deceleration Ginfo, and a necessary stop distance Xbrk necessary to stop at the target stop position Xstop is calculated, and is required from the target stop position Xstop. A position from the host vehicle by the stop distance Xbrk is set as the information providing position Xinfo (step S23).
At this time, in the change pattern of the operation load amount Wload on the travel route of the host vehicle shown in FIG. 10 calculated in step S23, the information providing position Xinfo is within the driving load increase section exceeding the reference load amount Bload. when included, traveling proceeds from step S24 to step S25, which corresponds to the start point of the operating load increases interval time required to the driver to provide information of the obstacle when the L ₀ of FIG. 10 recognizes Tcog The position from the own vehicle by the distance is set as the load increase corresponding information providing position Sinfo, and when the own vehicle passes this load increase corresponding information providing position Sinfo, the process proceeds from step S26 to step S28, and the same as above. Thus, the traveling state of the host vehicle is determined.

For example, when the host vehicle is traveling at a relatively low speed and the current required deceleration Greq for stopping the host vehicle at the target stop position Xstop does not exceed the warning reference deceleration Gwarn, the process starts from step S29. In step S30, the information providing mode is set as the operation mode. In step S4 in FIG. 4, the process proceeds to step S10 through steps S7 and S9. The “obstacle” is set first (step S10), and this is output to the information presentation device 23 (step S11).
As a result, the information presenting device 23 provides notification that the “obstacle ahead of the left sharp curve” is in front of the vehicle by sound and display on the display.

  Therefore, the driver can recognize that there is a sudden left curve ahead of the vehicle and that there is an obstacle ahead by listening to or seeing them. At this time, if the driver enters the curve, he / she is distracted by the driving operation associated with the curve driving, so there is a case where there is no room to listen to the voice or to see the display. Considering the load, the host vehicle has passed the load increase response information providing position Sinfo that is earlier than the section where the load increases by a distance corresponding to the time Tcog required for the driver to recognize the information supply of the obstacle. Information is provided at the time. Therefore, since the information is provided before the vehicle enters the curve and before the driver's load increases, the driver can recognize the information provided by voice or display with a margin. Since it is possible to perform driving considering the presence of obstacles from the time point, it is possible to avoid obstacles by natural driving operation without sudden deceleration later.

  On the other hand, for example, when the host vehicle is traveling at a relatively high speed and the required deceleration Greq exceeds the alarm reference deceleration Gwarn and does not exceed the control reference deceleration Gcont, the process proceeds from step S29 to S31 to step S33. The alarm mode 33 is set as the operation mode. Therefore, the process proceeds from step S5 to step S7 in FIG. 3 to step S8, where an alarm alarm operation command value and an instruction to display an alarm on the display are given (step S8). As the utterance phrase, “the obstacle ahead of the sudden curve” is set (step S10), and this is output to the information presentation device 23 (step S11).

As a result, the information presenting device 23 notifies that there is an obstacle ahead of the left sharp curve by voice and display on the display, and further generates an alarm sound, and further, for example, is displayed on the display. An alarm display such as blinking display of character information of “obstacle” is performed.
Therefore, the driver recognizes that there are obstacles in front of the vehicle by listening to them and watching them. At this time, since the alarm is issued, it is necessary to perform the deceleration operation relatively quickly. Can recognize that there is. At this time, since an alarm is issued or an alarm is displayed, the driver's attention can be directed to voice or display, and an obstacle can be dealt with more reliably.

  Further, for example, when the host vehicle is traveling at a high speed and the required deceleration Greq exceeds the alarm reference deceleration Gwarn and exceeds the control reference deceleration Gcont, the process proceeds from step S29 to step S32 to step S32. The control mode 33 is set as the mode. Therefore, the process proceeds from step S5 to S6 in FIG. 3, and a deceleration force command value and a throttle-off command value corresponding to the stop target deceleration Gref are set as control parameters (step S6), and an alarm alarm output command value and An alarm display command to the display is set (step S8), "obstacles ahead of the left curve" is set as the display contents and the speech utterance phrase (step S10), and these are output.

As a result, the vehicle is decelerated regardless of the driver's deceleration operation, a warning alarm is generated, a warning is displayed on the display, and the presence of an obstacle is notified by voice and display. Is done.
Therefore, the driver can recognize that the deceleration operation has been automatically performed by listening to or seeing them because an obstacle exists in front of the vehicle and the deceleration operation is necessary. . At this time, in addition to providing information and warnings, the driver is forced to perform deceleration operations regardless of the driver's will, so the driver is careful about driving on the curve and information on obstacles Even when it is not possible to recognize the obstacle or when the obstacle is not properly dealt with, the obstacle can be dealt with accurately and the safety can be further improved.

  On the other hand, in the change pattern of the operation load amount Wload on the travel route of the host vehicle shown in FIG. 10 calculated in step S23, the information provision position Xinfo is within the driving load increase section exceeding the reference load amount Bload. Is not included, the process proceeds from step S27 to step S28 in FIG. 4 when the host vehicle passes the information providing position Xinfo, and the traveling state of the host vehicle is determined in the same manner as described above.

Thus, when it is predicted that information will be provided in a section with a high driving operation load, information is provided at a point a predetermined amount before the start point of the section with a high driving operation load. Therefore, the driver can perform the driving operation taking into account the information of the obstacle with a margin.
Further, for example, as shown in FIG. 12, when there is a vehicle C to be joined in a road alignment such as a junction part of an interchange, the operation load amount Wload of the driver is, for example, as shown in FIG. 13. It is predicted that the section in which the operation load amount Wload increases from before the joining point and the operation load amount Wload exceeds the reference load amount Bload continues, and then decreases before the target stop position Xstop.

For this reason, as shown in FIGS. 12 and 13, the reference information providing position Xinfo is included in the operation load increasing section (starting point is L ₀ ) in which the operation load amount Wload exceeds the reference load amount Bload. May end up.
In this case, since the information providing position Xinfo is included in the driving load increasing section, the information is provided at the load increasing correspondence information providing position Sinfo before the driving load increasing section. Can deal with obstacles as well as dealing with vehicles coming together.

On the other hand, for example, as shown in FIG. 14, when there is no vehicle C to join in FIG. 12, the driver's operation load Wload increases from before the joining point, for example, as shown in FIG. 15. However, it is expected to decrease rapidly after passing the junction.
For this reason, as shown in FIG. 15, the reference information providing position Xinfo is not included in the operation load increasing section (start point is L ₀ ) in which the operation load amount Wload exceeds the reference load amount Bload. The provision position Xinfo is not corrected, information is provided when the host vehicle passes the information provision position Xinfo, and information is not provided at an earlier time than necessary.

In the above first embodiment, in the processing in step S26 in FIG. 4, a load increase during the corresponding information providing position SINFO, relative to the start point L ₀ of the operating load increases interval, the driver of the obstacle Although the case where the time Tcog required for recognizing the provision of information is set at a minimum position has been described, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the operation load integration amount ΣWload in the operation load increase section is calculated, and as shown in FIG. 16, the information provision recognition has a characteristic that the value increases from 1 to Kw _load-max as the operation load integration amount increases. A correction coefficient Kw _load for correcting time is set. Then, the time Tcog required for information provision recognition is corrected by the correction coefficient Kw _load , and the driving load is calculated by the travel distance of the vehicle at the corrected time Tcog required for information provision recognition [V ₀ × (Kw _load × Tcog)]. A position before the start point L ₀ of the increase section may be set as the load increase correspondence information providing position Sinfo.

In this way, when the subsequent driving operation load is large, it is possible to provide information at an earlier timing, so that it is possible to support driving behavior with a driver's margin.
In the first embodiment, the case where the operation load amount Wload is calculated in consideration of the road alignment or the merged vehicle has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the road shape information and road surface information are described. The operation load amount Wload may be calculated in consideration of information notified as road conditions, such as obstacle information and intersection information.

  In the first embodiment, a brake lamp switch, an accelerator pedal stroke sensor, a sensor for detecting the operation status of the direction indicator, and a steering angle sensor are provided as means for detecting the operation status of the driver. Further, a yaw rate sensor or the like may be provided as means for detecting the traveling state of the host vehicle, and the driver's operation load amount Wload may be calculated in consideration of these factors.

  Here, the wheel speed sensor 17 and the acceleration sensor 18 correspond to the traveling state detection means, the road-to-vehicle communication device 7 corresponds to the road condition detection means, and the braking fluid pressure control device 13 corresponds to the braking force generation means. 4 corresponds to the fault countermeasure means, the processes in steps S21 to S26 in FIG. 4 correspond to the fault countermeasure timing correction means, and the processes in steps S22 and S24 in FIG. It corresponds to.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.
This second embodiment is different from the first embodiment except that the processing at the time of calculating the driving load until the host vehicle calculated at step S22 in FIG. 4 reaches the target stop position Xstop is different. It is the same.
In the second embodiment, the driving operation load amount Wload is inferred by introducing fuzzy variables shown in FIGS.

17 to 20 show the predicted lateral acceleration (w ₁ ) and FIG. 18 show the predicted acceleration and deceleration (w ₂ ), assuming the driving pattern corresponding to the road condition shown in FIG. 19 is a load amount (w ₃ ) required for the driver to visually recognize the road condition obtained by the road-to-vehicle communication device 7, and FIG. 20 is a probability (w ₄ ) of encountering a related vehicle involved in the traveling of the host vehicle. Is shown for each point as a fuzzy variable. Thus, the body load amount Wl-body and the cognitive load amount Wl-cog are calculated based on the determined fuzzy variables w _{1 to} w ₄ , and these are substituted into the equation (3) to obtain the operation load amount Wload. Is calculated. In other words, the body load amount Wl-body is calculated by the sum when i is changed from 1 to Nb with respect to {(p ₁ ) ⁱ · w ₁ + (p ₂ ) ⁱ · w ₂ }. Similarly, the cognitive load amount Wl-cog is calculated by the sum when i is changed from 1 to Nc with respect to {(p ₃ ) ⁱ · w ₃ + (p ₄ ) ⁱ · w ₄ }.

(P ₁ ) ⁱ , (p ₂ ) ⁱ , (p ₃ ) ⁱ , (p ₄ ) ⁱ are coefficients previously identified in the map format shown in FIG. And the cognitive load Wl-cog. Nb is the number of rules for calculating the body load Wl-body from w ₁ and w _2. Similarly, Nc is for calculating the cognitive load Wl-cog from w ₃ and w ₄ . The number of rules.
Then, based on the operation load amount Wload calculated in this way, processing is performed in the same manner as in the first embodiment.

Here, as in the first embodiment, the predicted lateral acceleration, the predicted acceleration / deceleration, and the visual recognition time are used as the fuzzy variables, but the steering angle, the steering angular velocity, The amount directly operated by the driver, such as the accelerator opening, the accelerator opening change rate, the brake pedal stroke amount, the brake pedal stroke change amount, and the like, the inter-vehicle distance from the preceding vehicle by the forward vehicle detection radar, and the road-to-vehicle communication device 7 The detected relative position of the received related vehicle, the predicted speed, the visible distance by road alignment, etc. are detected, and the physical quantity related to the driver's cognitive load is converted into a fuzzy variable, similar to the above equation (5) The driving operation load can be calculated in the same manner.
As described above, by using the fuzzy variable, it is possible to obtain the same effect as that of the first embodiment, and it is possible to express the relationship of the nonlinear operation load amount with a simple relationship. The period for identifying the load relationship can be shortened.

Next, a third embodiment of the present embodiment will be described.
The third embodiment is the same as the first embodiment except that the road situation handling process executed by the control device 10 is different from the first embodiment.
In the third embodiment, road condition handling processing is performed according to the processing procedure shown in the flowchart of FIG.
First, in step S101, a road condition is read from the road-to-vehicle communication device 7, and it is determined whether this road condition is a newly received road condition and includes obstacle information. And when it is not the newly received road condition, or when obstacle information is not included in the road condition, it transfers to below-mentioned step S116. On the other hand, if the road condition is newly received and the obstacle information is included, the process proceeds to step S102.

In step S102, it determines after passing through the base point Z ₀ of the information providing section, whether the road condition was first received. This determination is made based on, for example, communication with a beacon (not shown) to receive the position of the information provision zone Z _{0 and} the current position detected by the own vehicle position detection device 19.
Then, after passing through the base point Z ₀ of the information providing section TINFO, when a road situation which is first received, the process proceeds to step S103, for the first time processing shown in FIG. 23.

  In this initial processing, as shown in FIG. 23, first, the notified obstacle position is a boundary value of a detection range detected by a road condition detection device (not shown) installed on a passing road, that is, a detection range. It is determined whether it is a limit value and the position closest to the host vehicle (step S121). If it is not the detection range limit value, the process proceeds to step S122, where the obstacle position history that is notified as obstacle information and sequentially stored in a predetermined storage area is deleted. The obstacle position in the object information is registered as history information, and creation of a new obstacle position history is started. Then, the process proceeds to step S123.

In step S123, after setting the out-of-detection range mode flag F to F = OFF, the process is terminated, and the process returns to the process of FIG. On the other hand, if the notified obstacle position is the detection range limit value and the position closest to the host vehicle in step S121, the process proceeds to step S124, and the out-of-detection range mode flag F is set to F = ON. Then, the process is terminated, and the process returns to the process of FIG.
When the initial process is executed in step S103 of FIG. 22 in this way, the process proceeds to step S104. If it is not immediately after passing through the base point position in step S102, the process proceeds to step S104 as it is.
In step S104, stop position calculation processing based on vehicle number prediction shown in FIG. 24 is performed.

Specifically, first, in step S131, the average vehicle head time Thead in the vicinity of the host vehicle is calculated from the history of the inter-vehicle distance data with the preceding vehicle. In the control device 10, the inter-vehicle distance data is read from the inter-vehicle distance sensor 16 at a predetermined cycle and sequentially stored, and the latest history for a predetermined period is stored in a predetermined storage area.
Specifically, the average vehicle head time Thead is calculated as a coherence γ _DV between a sampling data string Dpre (i) of a prescribed time of the inter-vehicle distance Dpre and a sampling data string V (i) of a prescribed time of the own vehicle speed, It calculates from following Formula (6) according to the magnitude | size of the average value Dpre-mean between predetermined frequencies.
Thead = K (γ _DV ) · Dpre-mean + Lcar (6)

Note that K (γ _DV ) in the equation is a correction coefficient set according to the coherence γ _DV and has the characteristics shown in FIG. That is, while the coherence γ _DV is low, the correction coefficient K (γ _DV ) is maintained at 1, and when the coherence γ _DV exceeds a certain threshold, the correction coefficient K (γ _DV ) decreases according to the increase. Set to
Lcar in the formula is a predetermined number corresponding to the length per car.
In other words, assuming that the coherence between the change in the inter-vehicle distance and the vehicle speed is low, and the more unrelated factors there are, the higher the traffic volume, and the average head time is brought close to the sum of the average inter-vehicle distance from the preceding vehicle and the vehicle length. Yes.

Subsequently, the process proceeds to step S132, and an obstacle position change amount ΔXob per unit time is calculated based on the history of obstacle positions newly stored in the process of step S103 of FIG.
Subsequently, the process proceeds to step S133, and the predicted stop position Xstop ′ of the host vehicle near the obstacle is calculated according to the following equation (7).
Xstop ′
= (Xob-Xown) -Kd.f (Thead, .DELTA.Xob). {(Xob-Xown) / Dpre}
...... (7)
In the formula, Xob is the current obstacle position received from the road-to-vehicle communication device 7, Xown is the current position of the host vehicle, Kd is a predetermined number corresponding to the distance between vehicles at the time of stop, and f (Thead, ΔXob) is traffic. It is a correction function by quantity.

  The correction function f (Thead, ΔXob) is set based on the average vehicle head time Thead and the vehicle arrival time (Kd / ΔXob) near the obstacle position calculated based on the obstacle position change amount ΔXob. For example, the correction function has the characteristics shown in FIG. That is, the maximum value is “1”, and the smaller one of the average vehicle head time Thead and the vehicle arrival time (Kd / ΔXob) near the obstacle position is larger, the smaller the correction function is. Become. Therefore, the smaller the vehicle head time and the greater the traffic volume, the closer to “1”.

In FIG. 26, Tcap is a predetermined number corresponding to the traffic capacity of the target road, and K of K · Tcap is, for example, a predetermined number that can be regarded as a traffic volume that is K times the predetermined number of traffic capacity, For example, it is set to about “10”. That is, FIG. 26 means that the closer to the maximum traffic capacity value, the closer to “1”.
When the predicted stop position Xstop ′ is calculated in this way, the process proceeds to step S105, and the operation modes of the actuators and the information presentation device 23 are determined based on the flowchart shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 27, first, in step S141, it is determined whether or not the out-of-detection range mode flag F is F = ON. If F = OFF, the process proceeds to step S142, and F = ON. If YES, the process proceeds to step S143.
In step S142, the control mode deceleration Gcont, the alarm mode deceleration Gwarn, and the information provision mode deceleration Ginfo, which are later used as the reference for determining the operation mode, are set, and Gnor-cont, Set Gnor-warn and Gnor-info.

  On the other hand, in step S143, when the obstacle is out of the detection range as the control mode deceleration Gcont, the alarm mode deceleration Gwarn, and the information provision mode deceleration Ginfo, that is, from the next input timing of the road condition, Gout-cont, Gout-warn, and “0” are set as default values to cope with the case where the object position information cannot be obtained. Each deceleration is set to satisfy Gnor-cont> Gout-cont, Gnor-warn> Gout-warn, and Gnor-info> 0.

When each deceleration is set in this way, the process proceeds to step S144, and the necessary deceleration Greq necessary for stopping at the predicted stop position Xstop ′ predicted in step S104 of FIG. 22 is calculated. The required deceleration Greq is calculated based on the current vehicle speed of the host vehicle, the current position of the host vehicle, and the predicted stop position Xstop ′.
Subsequently, the process proceeds to step S145, and it is determined whether the required deceleration Greq exceeds the information providing mode deceleration Ginfo.

  If the required deceleration Greq does not exceed the information provision mode deceleration Ginfo, the process is terminated as it is, and the process returns to FIG. On the other hand, if the required deceleration Greq exceeds the information provision mode deceleration Ginfo, the process proceeds to step S146, and it is determined whether the required deceleration Greq exceeds the alarm mode deceleration Gwarn. If the required deceleration Greq does not exceed the alarm mode deceleration Gwarn, the process proceeds to step S147, the operation mode is set to the information providing mode, and the process returns to FIG. On the other hand, if the required deceleration Greq exceeds the alarm mode deceleration Gwarn, the process proceeds to step S148, and it is determined whether the required deceleration Greq exceeds the control mode deceleration Gcont.

If the required deceleration Greq does not exceed the control mode deceleration Gcont, the process proceeds to step S149, the operation mode is set to the alarm mode, and the process returns to FIG. On the other hand, if the required deceleration Greq exceeds the control mode deceleration Gcont, the process proceeds to step S150, the operation mode is set to the control mode, and the process returns to FIG.
In this manner, when the operation mode is set in the operation mode determination process of FIG. 27, the process proceeds from step S105 to step S106 in FIG. 22 to determine whether or not the control mode is set as the operation mode. When the control mode is set as the operation mode, the process proceeds to step S107, and when the control mode is not set as the operation mode, the process proceeds to step S108.

In step S107, control parameter processing is performed. Specifically, after setting a deceleration force command value and a throttle-off command value corresponding to a preset stop target deceleration Gref, the process proceeds to step S109.
On the other hand, in step S108, it is determined whether an alarm mode is set as the operation mode. If the alarm mode is set as the operation mode, the process proceeds to step S109. If the alarm mode is not set as the operation mode, the process proceeds to step S110.

In step S109, alarm parameter processing is performed. Specifically, a command signal for operating the alarm alarm of the information presentation device 23 and a command value for instructing display of the alarm on the display are set, and then the process proceeds to step S111. To do.
On the other hand, in step S110, it is determined whether or not the information providing mode is set as the operation mode. Then, when the information providing mode is set as the operation mode, the process proceeds to step S111, and when the information providing mode is not set as the operation mode, the process is ended as it is.

In step S111, information provision parameter processing is performed, and the display content and the voice utterance phrase are set as information provision parameters, and then the process proceeds to step S112.
In this step S112, after outputting the various command values set in any of the steps S107, S109, S111 to the engine control device 11, the transmission control device 12, the brake fluid pressure control device 13, and the information presentation device 23, The process ends.

On the other hand, when no new road condition is received from the road-to-vehicle communication device 7 in step S101 or when obstacle information is not included in the road condition, the process proceeds to step S116. It is determined whether or not the vehicle has passed the position finally received as the position of the object, that is, the latest position of the position information of the obstacle currently stored. If not, the process proceeds to step S105. If it has moved and passed, the processing is terminated as it is.
As a result, when there is a restriction on the communication range on the road side, road conditions cannot be received continuously until the host vehicle reaches the obstacle occurrence position, or road-to-vehicle communication is performed for some reason. Even if it is interrupted, information can be continuously provided.

Next, the operation of the third embodiment will be described.
In the third embodiment, as in the first embodiment, the road-to-vehicle communication device 7 communicates with a radio device provided on the road side, and road alignment in front of the host vehicle. Alternatively, information such as the presence or absence of an obstacle is received and this is notified to the control device 10.
In the control device 10, a calculation process of the road situation handling process is executed at a predetermined cycle, and it is determined whether obstacle information is included based on the road situation input from the road-to-vehicle communication device 7.

Assuming that the host vehicle travels on a road with an obstacle ahead as shown in FIG. 28, the road-to-vehicle communication device 7 receives the road condition including the obstacle information and notifies the control device 10 of this. To do.
When the own vehicle receives obstacle information immediately after passing through the base point Z ₀ of the information provision section Tinfo, the control device 10 updates the obstacle position history and newly creates the obstacle information history. Then, based on the notified obstacle position, own vehicle position, average vehicle head time Thead, inter-vehicle distance from the preceding vehicle, and change amount ΔXob of the obstacle position, the predicted stop position Xstop ′ is calculated from the equation (7). Calculate (step S104).

Then, a necessary deceleration Greq necessary for stopping at the predicted stop position Xstop ′ is calculated, and an operation mode is set based on the calculated deceleration Greq, and in the same manner as in the first embodiment according to the operation mode, Provide information only, generate alarms, and perform braking control.
Here, the calculation of the predicted stop position Xstop ′ is based on the notified obstacle position, the own vehicle position, the average vehicle head time Thead, the inter-vehicle distance from the preceding vehicle, and the obstacle position change amount ΔXob. Calculated from equation (7). That is, the estimated stop position Xstop ′ is calculated in consideration of the fact that the obstacle position changes from moment to moment.

For example, when another vehicle is interposed between the obstacle position and the host vehicle, the data sequence per predetermined time of the inter-vehicle distance from the preceding vehicle and the data sequence per predetermined time of the vehicle speed of the host vehicle Since the coherence γ _DV is relatively low, the average head time Thead is close to the sum of the average distance between the preceding vehicle and the vehicle length, and traffic jams occur due to obstacles on the road. Since the amount of change ΔXob increases as the obstacle position moves, the correction function f (Thead, ΔXob) becomes “1” as the average vehicle head time Thead decreases and the traffic volume increases, and as the obstacle position movement amount increases. A value close to. Therefore, the predicted stop position Xstop ′ is set to a position closer to the front as the average vehicle head time Thead is smaller and the traffic volume is larger, and the movement amount of the obstacle position is larger.

Then, the operation mode is set based on the predicted stop position Xstop ′ thus set, and processing corresponding to the operation mode is performed.
For example, when the obstacle position moves to the own vehicle side with the passage of time, the distance between the own vehicle and the obstacle position decreases as the time passes, as shown by a solid line in FIG. The proportion increases.
When the predicted stop position Xstop ′ is calculated based on the notified obstacle position and the movement situation is not taken into consideration, as shown by a one-dot chain line in FIG. 29, the distance between the host vehicle and the obstacle position is calculated. The operation mode is set on the assumption that the distance changes in a straight line in the tangential direction of the obstacle position change curve shown by the solid line in FIG. 29, and processing corresponding to the operation mode is performed accordingly. .

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 29, for example, at the timings t _i1 , t _w1 , t _c1 , the information provision mode, the alarm mode, and the control mode are set, and processing corresponding to each mode is performed at this time. In particular, there is no room between the time points t _w1 and t _c1 in the vicinity of the stop position where the rate of change in the distance between the obstacle position and the host vehicle becomes large, and until the vehicle actually stops from the time point t _c1. There will be no room in between.

On the other hand, the predicted stop position Xstop ′ is calculated from the above equation (7) in consideration of the movement status of the obstacle position, and as shown by a broken line in FIG. As shown in FIG. 29, for example, at the time points t _i2 , t _w2 , and t _c2 , the information providing mode, the alarm mode, and the control mode are set. Processing according to each mode is performed.

Therefore, since the operation mode can be set at an accurate timing according to the actual situation, processing corresponding to the operation mode can be performed at an accurate timing according to the change state of the obstacle position. Accordingly, since the driver can receive notification of failure information and the like at a more appropriate timing, the driver can perform the driving operation with more margin.
Further, for example, in the obstacle information received by the road-to-vehicle communication device 7, the obstacle position is a boundary value of a detection range detected by a road condition detection device (not shown) installed on the passing road, and When the position is close to the host vehicle, in the initial process of step S103 of FIG. 22, the process proceeds from step S121 of FIG. 23 to step S124, and the out-of-detection range mode flag F is set to F = ON.

  Therefore, after calculating the predicted stop position Xstop ′ in step S104 of FIG. 22, when setting the operation mode in step S105, the out-of-detection range mode flag F is set to F = ON as shown in FIG. Therefore, the process proceeds from step S141 to step S143, and when the obstacle position is located at a normal position as the control mode deceleration Gcont, the alarm mode deceleration Gwarn, and the information providing mode deceleration Ginfo, that is, Gout-cont, Gout-warn, and 0, which are smaller than those in the case where the road condition detecting device provided on the road side is within the detectable range, are set.

  Therefore, at this time, at least the control mode is set as the operation mode, and the failure information is notified. Therefore, since the driver can recognize this when the obstacle information is notified by road-to-vehicle communication, the driver can recognize an obstacle existing near the own vehicle at the earliest possible time. The driving operation for the obstacle can be performed.

  At this time, the control mode deceleration Gcont and the alarm mode deceleration Gwarn are set to values smaller than usual. Here, when the position where the obstacle occurs is located at the boundary of the range that can be detected by the road condition detection device and located at the boundary on the own vehicle side, in some cases, such as when the obstacle is moving, In the execution cycle of the next road condition handling process, the obstacle moves out of the range that can be detected by the road condition detection device, and the position information of the obstacle cannot be obtained as the road condition thereafter. Therefore, in the subsequent control, the control is performed in a state where it is difficult to specify the position of the obstacle. In this case, the control mode deceleration Gcont and the alarm mode deceleration Gwarn are set to values smaller than usual. Therefore, the operation mode is shifted to an operation mode earlier than usual, an alarm can be issued at an earlier stage, and a braking operation can be performed at an earlier stage. Therefore, even when the position of the obstacle cannot be specified, the driver can perform a deceleration operation without a sense of incongruity, and can perform a braking operation without causing a sense of incongruity.

  Here, the road situation response processing in FIG. 22 corresponds to the fault countermeasure means, the processing in steps S131 and S132 in FIG. 24 corresponds to the traffic volume prediction means, step S133 in FIG. 24 and steps S144 to S150 in FIG. This process corresponds to the failure countermeasure timing correction means, and the inter-vehicle distance sensor 16 corresponds to the inter-vehicle distance detection means.

Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described.
In the fourth embodiment, in the road-to-vehicle communication device 7, as shown in the first embodiment, road shape information, road surface information, obstacle information is transmitted from a communication device provided on the road side. , And intersection information, etc., as well as traffic volume information, an average vehicle head time Thead calculated by an average value for 5 minutes, etc. is notified.
In the fourth embodiment, the calculation process of the predicted stop position Xstop ′ performed in step S104 of FIG. 22 in the third embodiment is performed according to the processing procedure shown in FIG.

That is, as shown in FIG. 30, first, the average vehicle head time Thead is extracted from the road condition received by the road-to-vehicle communication device 7 through road-to-vehicle communication in step S131a.
Thereafter, similarly to the third embodiment, the process proceeds to step S132 to calculate an obstacle position change amount ΔXob, and then proceeds to step S133 to stop the vehicle when in the vicinity of the obstacle. The predicted position Xstop ′ is calculated according to the equation (7).
Therefore, in the fourth embodiment, since the actual predicted change in traffic volume, that is, the estimated stop position Xstop ′ is calculated using the average vehicle head time Thead, it is compared with the third embodiment. Thus, the stop position can be predicted with higher accuracy, and the process according to the operation mode can be performed at a more accurate timing.

Next, a fifth embodiment of the present invention will be described.
As shown in FIG. 31, the fifth embodiment is further provided with an inter-vehicle communication device 9 as inter-vehicle communication means for performing inter-vehicle communication in the fourth embodiment. The inter-vehicle communication device 9 is adapted to exchange the average inter-vehicle distance Dmean-head and the continuous communication number Ncar by inter-vehicle communication.
In the fifth embodiment, in the process of step S104 of FIG. 22, according to the flowchart of FIG. 32, the average inter-vehicle distance Dmean-head received by the inter-vehicle communication device 9 and the number of continuous communication Ncar are shown. From this, the average vehicle head time Thead is calculated.

That is, in the process of step S131b of FIG. 32, the average vehicle head time Thead is calculated according to the following equation (8) from the average vehicle distance Dmean-head received by the vehicle-to-vehicle communication device 9 and the continuous communication number Ncar.
Thead = {(Ncar · Dmean-head + Dpre) / (Ncar + 1)} + Lcar
...... (8)
The inter-vehicle communication device 9 transmits the average inter-vehicle distance Dmean-head and the continuous communication number Ncar to the subsequent vehicle when there is a subsequent vehicle. At this time, the first term of the equation (8) is used. Is the average inter-vehicle distance Dmean-head and (Ncar + 1) is Ncar, and is transmitted to the following vehicle.

When the average vehicle head time Thead is calculated in this way, the process proceeds to step S132, the obstacle position change amount ΔXob is calculated in the same manner as in the third embodiment, and then the process proceeds to step S133a to stop. The predicted position Xstop ′ is calculated.
At this time, in the case of Ncar · Dmean-head> Xob−Xown, the calculation is made based on the following equation (9), and in the case of Ncar · Dmean-head ≦ Xob−Xown, based on the above equation (7). calculate.
Xstop '= Xob-Kd / Ncar (9)

In other words, since the number of vehicles that are continuously communicating with at least one's own vehicle is known through inter-vehicle communication, the number of vehicles that are continuously communicating when the traveling distance for that number of vehicles already exceeds the obstacle position. The distance of the minute is fixed.
As described above, by using the inter-vehicle communication, the average head time of the vehicle group is directly measured, and the predicted stop position Xstop ′ is calculated based on the average time, thereby calculating the predicted stop position Xstop ′ with higher accuracy. Can do. Therefore, the operation mode can be set at a more accurate timing, and processing corresponding to the operation mode can be performed at a more accurate timing.
Further, even when the road condition cannot be obtained by the road-to-vehicle communication device 7 due to communication abnormality or the like, the processing can be continuously performed by measuring the average head time using the vehicle-to-vehicle communication. it can.

1FL to 1RR Wheel 2 Engine 3 Automatic transmission 4FL to 4RR Wheel cylinder 7 Road-to-vehicle communication device 9 Inter-vehicle communication device 10 Control device 11 Engine control device 12 Transmission control device 13 Braking fluid pressure control device 16 Inter-vehicle distance sensor 17 Wheel speed Sensor 18 Acceleration sensor 19 Own vehicle position detection device 23 Information presentation device

Claims (9)

Traveling state detection means for detecting the traveling state of the host vehicle;
Road condition detection means for detecting the road condition of the road around the own vehicle;
Braking force generating means for generating braking force;
When a failure is detected on the travel route of the host vehicle based on the road condition detection information detected by the road condition detection unit, a failure countermeasure set in advance according to the traveling state of the host vehicle detected by the traveling state detection unit A timing support means for notifying fault information related to the fault on the basis of the road condition detection information and operating the braking force generating means, and a driving support device comprising:
When a fault is detected on the travel route of the host vehicle based on the road condition detection information, the traffic volume in the section from the current position of the host vehicle to the position where the fault occurs is predicted based on the road condition detection information. Traffic volume prediction means,
Drive assist system characterized in that it comprises, and fault tolerance timing correction means for compensation in accordance with the fault countermeasure timing set by the fault protective means, the volume of traffic expected in the traffic volume prediction means. The traffic volume predicting means predicts, as the traffic volume, the number of traveling vehicles existing in a section from the current position of the own vehicle to the position where the failure occurs,
The failure countermeasure timing correction means predicts a stop position of the host vehicle according to the predicted number of traveling vehicles, and corrects the failure countermeasure timing based on the predicted stop position. The travel support apparatus according to claim 1. An inter-vehicle distance detecting means for detecting an inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle and the preceding vehicle;
3. The travel support apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the traffic volume predicting unit predicts the number of traveling vehicles based on the inter-vehicle distance detected by the inter-vehicle distance detecting unit.   4. The traffic volume predicting means predicts the number of traveling vehicles based on an inter-vehicle distance fluctuation amount per predetermined time of an inter-vehicle distance detected by the inter-vehicle distance detecting means. The driving support apparatus according to the description.   3. The travel support apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the traffic volume predicting unit predicts the number of traveling vehicles based on a change amount of the failure occurrence position based on the road condition detection information. . The road condition detection means is a road-to-vehicle communication device that receives the average vehicle head time from a communication device that is provided on the road side and notifies the average vehicle head time within a predetermined section ,
3. The travel support apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the traffic volume predicting means predicts the number of traveling vehicles based on an average head time within the predetermined section received by the road condition detecting means. . Perform other vehicles and vehicle-to-vehicle communication, inter-vehicle communication means the communication destination of the vehicle is the information of the average distance between vehicles and continuous communications number between vehicles is continuous communication with the inter-vehicle communication, it received from the communication destination vehicle With
The traffic volume predicting means predicts the number of traveling vehicles based on the average inter-vehicle distance obtained by the inter-vehicle communication means and the number of continuous communication . Driving support device.   The failure countermeasure timing correction means can detect the position of the failure at the time when a failure is detected on the travel route of the host vehicle based on the road condition detection information of the road condition detection means. The failure countermeasure timing is corrected so as to immediately notify the failure information when the vehicle is predicted to be a limit position on the own vehicle side of the detection range on the travel route. Item 8. The driving support device according to any one of Items 1 to 7.   The failure countermeasure timing correction means can detect the position of the failure at the time when a failure is detected on the travel route of the host vehicle based on the road condition detection information of the road condition detection means. 9. The timing for operating the braking force generating means is further advanced when it is predicted that the detection position on the travel route is a limit position on the own vehicle side. The driving support device according to any one of the above.

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