CN111497765A

CN111497765A - Autonomous vehicle, control method, control device, and computer processing medium

Info

Publication number: CN111497765A
Application number: CN201910099407.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王志新; 罗赛
Original assignee: Uisee Technologies Beijing Co Ltd
Current assignee: Uisee Technologies Beijing Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-01-31
Filing date: 2019-01-31
Publication date: 2020-08-07

Abstract

The present application relates to the field of vehicle technology, and relates to an autonomous vehicle, a control method for an autonomous vehicle, a control device for an autonomous vehicle, and a computer processing medium. The control method of the autonomous vehicle includes: receiving a general chassis control signal; packaging the instruction set of the universal chassis control signal to construct a universal control signal; converting the general control signal to obtain an execution signal according to parameters of a chassis controller of the vehicle; and sending the execution signal to the chassis controller to control the chassis controller. The universal control signal is adopted to realize the universal control of different vehicle types, the flexibility of the control instruction transplanted to a new vehicle type is improved, the difficulty of controlling different chassis controllers is greatly reduced, and the product value is improved.

Description

Autonomous vehicle, control method, control device, and computer processing medium

Technical Field

The application relates to the technical field of vehicles, in particular to the technical field of intelligent automobiles, and particularly relates to an automatic driving vehicle, a control method of the automatic driving vehicle, a control device of the automatic driving vehicle and a computer processing medium.

Background

The automatic driving vehicle is a novel intelligent vehicle, road, vehicle position and obstacle information are obtained in real time along with the change of the running environment of the vehicle in the running process, a controller (such as an on-board ECU) carries out accurate calculation and analysis based on the information and the current states of all parts in the vehicle, corresponding control instructions are sent out to respectively control different parts in the vehicle, and the purpose of controlling the steering and the speed of the vehicle is achieved, so that the vehicle can run on the road safely and reliably.

The control of the chassis of an autonomous vehicle is central to the autonomous driving process. The chassis is positioned at the bottom of the automatic driving vehicle and comprises an engine, a clutch, a transmission, a steering gear, a brake, a pull rod and other devices for bearing a vehicle body and controlling the vehicle state. At present, various chassis controllers of an engine, a clutch, a transmission, a brake, and the like have been developed to the level of a wire-controlled controller, but these devices transmit and receive control signals and feedback signals by different CAN bus protocols. In a vehicle manufacturing process, the chassis controllers may be supplied by different manufacturers, and the chassis controllers implementing the same function may have different parameters. When the automatic driving design is realized, the parameter details of each chassis controller must be considered, so that the design is difficult to diversify and complicate, the design difficulty is increased, and the safety of vehicles or personnel is more possibly endangered due to control errors.

Due to the fact that chassis structures and corresponding chassis controllers of vehicles of different brands or vehicle types are different, a control instruction generated by a controller of a designed mature vehicle type cannot be applied to another vehicle type, and the bottleneck of design of an automatic driving vehicle is caused.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides an automatic driving vehicle, a control method of the automatic driving vehicle, a control device of the automatic driving vehicle and a computer processing medium, universal control of different vehicle types is realized by adopting a universal control signal, the flexibility of control instructions transplanted to new vehicle types is improved, the difficulty of control over chassis controllers of different vehicle types is greatly reduced, and the product value is improved.

As one aspect of the present invention, an embodiment of the present invention provides a control method of an autonomous vehicle, including:

receiving a general chassis control signal;

packaging the instruction set of the universal chassis control signal to construct a universal control signal;

converting the general control signal to obtain an execution signal according to parameters of a chassis controller of the vehicle;

and sending the execution signal to the chassis controller to control the chassis controller.

In some embodiments, the generic control signal comprises different types of attribute fields of the chassis controller.

In some embodiments, the common control signal comprises at least one frame of data, and the common chassis control signals corresponding to different chassis controllers are distributed in different bits of different bytes.

In some embodiments, converting the generic control signal into an execution signal comprises:

reading a configuration file, the configuration file including at least parameters of the chassis controller of the autonomous vehicle;

identifying and reading parameters of the chassis controller in the configuration file;

and converting the general control signal based on the parameters of the chassis controller of the automatic driving vehicle to obtain an execution signal, wherein the execution signal is used for controlling the chassis controller.

In some embodiments, after the step of sending the execution signal to the chassis controller to control the chassis controller, the method further includes:

receiving a feedback message comprising state information of the chassis controller;

acquiring state information of the chassis controller, packaging the state information and generating a general feedback signal;

and transmitting the general feedback signal back.

In some embodiments, obtaining state information of the chassis controller, encapsulating the state information, and generating a general feedback signal includes:

analyzing state information of the chassis controller from the feedback message, wherein the state information comprises actual execution quantity of the chassis controller;

packaging the state information of the chassis controller into different attribute fields to generate a general feedback signal;

wherein at least information in the generic feedback signal corresponds to at least part of the information in the generic control signal.

In some embodiments, the general feedback signal includes at least one frame of data, and the status information corresponding to different chassis controllers is distributed in different bits of different bytes.

In some embodiments, encapsulating the instruction set of the universal chassis control signal, constructing a universal control signal further comprises preprocessing the universal chassis control signal and encapsulating the preprocessed instruction set of the universal chassis control signal; the preprocessing of the universal chassis control signal comprises at least one of safety processing of the universal chassis control signal, smoothness processing of the universal chassis control signal, fault tolerance processing of the universal chassis control signal and protection processing of the universal chassis control signal.

In some embodiments, the chassis controller includes at least a steering controller, a drive controller and a brake controller,

the attribute field in the generic control signal includes: at least one of steering control, drive control, brake control, desired gear, desired front wheel slip angle speed, desired vehicle speed, desired acceleration/deceleration, emergency control.

the attribute field in the general feedback signal comprises: at least one of a steering state, a driving state, a braking state, a gear, a front wheel deflection angle, a vehicle speed direction, a vehicle speed, a steering wheel torque, a brake pedal state, a hand brake state, a button switching state and an emergency state.

As one aspect of the present invention, an embodiment of the present invention provides a control device for an autonomous vehicle, including a first interface module, a control module, a conversion module, and a second interface module, where:

the first interface module is used for receiving a universal chassis control signal;

the control module is used for packaging an instruction set of the universal chassis control signal to construct a universal control signal;

the conversion module is used for converting the general control signal to obtain an execution signal according to parameters of a chassis controller of the vehicle;

and the second interface module is used for transmitting the execution signal to the chassis controller and controlling the chassis controller.

In some embodiments, the generic control signal comprises different types of attribute fields of the chassis controller, and the control module comprises a control distribution unit for encapsulating the generic chassis control signal into different attribute fields.

In some embodiments, the conversion module comprises at least a file reading unit, a parameter identification unit, and an execution signal conversion unit, wherein:

the file reading unit is used for reading a configuration file, and the configuration file at least comprises parameters of the chassis controller of the automatic driving vehicle;

the parameter identification unit is used for identifying and reading parameters of the chassis controller in the configuration file;

the execution signal conversion unit is configured to convert the general control signal based on a parameter of the chassis controller of the autonomous vehicle to obtain an execution signal, where the execution signal is used to control the chassis controller.

In some embodiments, further comprising a feedback module, wherein:

the second interface module is further configured to receive a feedback packet including state information of the chassis controller;

the feedback module is used for acquiring state information of the chassis controller, packaging the state information and generating a general feedback signal;

the first interface module is further configured to transmit the general feedback signal back.

In some embodiments, the feedback module comprises a feedback extraction unit, a feedback distribution unit, wherein:

the feedback extraction unit is configured to analyze state information of the chassis controller from the feedback packet, where the state information includes an actual execution amount of the chassis controller;

the feedback distribution unit is used for packaging the state information of the chassis controller into different attribute fields to generate a general feedback signal;

wherein at least part of the information in the general feedback signal corresponds to at least part of the information in the general control signal.

In some embodiments, the control device further comprises a pre-processing module comprising at least one of a security processing unit, a smoothness processing unit, a fault tolerance and protection processing unit, wherein:

the safety processing unit is used for carrying out safety processing on the universal chassis control signal;

the ride comfort processing unit is used for carrying out ride comfort processing on the universal chassis control signal;

and the fault-tolerant and protection processing unit is used for carrying out fault-tolerant and protection processing on the universal chassis control signal.

As one aspect of the present invention, an embodiment of the present invention provides an autonomous vehicle, including a planning control device, a chassis controller, and a control device of the autonomous vehicle, where the control device of the autonomous vehicle is disposed between the planning control device and the chassis controller.

As one aspect of the invention, an embodiment of the invention provides a computer processing medium having stored therein a plurality of instructions adapted to be loaded and executed by a processor to implement:

receiving a general chassis control signal;

In some embodiments, the instructions are further to implement:

acquiring state information of the chassis controller, packaging the state information, and generating a general feedback signal;

and transmitting the general feedback signal back.

According to the control method of the automatic driving vehicle and the corresponding control device of the automatic driving vehicle, the control instructions on the upper layer are uniformly packaged into the general control signals, and the hierarchical processing and the adaptation are performed according to the logics of different chassis controllers, so that the control of the chassis controllers of different vehicle types is realized.

Furthermore, the lower layer feedback message is packaged into a general feedback signal in a corresponding mode, and the running state of the chassis controller is fed back in time. The universal control signal and the universal feedback signal form a bridge between the automatic driving system and the vehicle chassis controller, so that various different automatic driving systems do not need to be developed for different brands or vehicle types, and the universal control signal and the universal feedback signal can be matched with the vehicle chassis execution controllers (such as the chassis controllers) of different vehicles by arranging the unified controller, thereby greatly improving the flexibility of control instructions transplanted to new vehicle types, greatly reducing the difficulty of controlling different chassis controllers, improving the compatibility of the controllers and improving the product value.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the embodiments of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention and not to limit the invention. The above and other features and advantages will become more apparent to those skilled in the art by describing in detail exemplary embodiments thereof with reference to the attached drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of a control method for an autonomous vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of another method of controlling an autonomous vehicle provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a general control signal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a method for controlling an autonomous vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a detailed flowchart of step S3) in fig. 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a detailed flowchart of step S6) in fig. 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a general feedback signal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a block diagram of a control apparatus for an autonomous vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of the structure of the conversion module of FIG. 8;

fig. 10 is a block diagram showing another control apparatus for an autonomous vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of the feedback module of FIG. 10;

fig. 12 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a control apparatus for an autonomous vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of the preprocessing module of FIG. 12;

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of an autonomous vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention;

in the drawings, wherein:

1-a first interface module;

2-a control module;

3-a conversion module; 31-a file reading unit; 32-a parameter identification unit; 33-an execution signal conversion unit;

4-a chassis controller;

5-a second interface module;

6-a feedback module; 61-a feedback extraction unit; 62-a feedback distribution unit;

7-a pretreatment module; 71-a security processing unit; 72-smoothness processing unit; 73-fault tolerant and protection processing unit;

8-planning the control device.

Detailed Description

In order to make those skilled in the art better understand the technical solution of the present invention, the autonomous vehicle, the control method of the autonomous vehicle, the control device of the autonomous vehicle, and the computer processing medium provided by the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Example embodiments will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, but may be embodied in different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.

As used in this specification, the term "at least one" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

The terminology used in the description is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. The terms "comprises" and/or "comprising," when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

Embodiments of the present disclosure may be described with reference to plan and/or cross-sectional views in light of idealized schematic illustrations of the disclosure. Thus, the regions illustrated in the figures have schematic properties, and the shapes of the regions shown in the figures illustrate specific shapes of regions of elements, but are not intended to be limiting.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and the present invention and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

The control by the same planning control device is undoubtedly the simplest way for different vehicle models, but when the control command generated by the same planning control device is issued to the chassis, the control command may cause great influence due to different chassis, and the vehicle or personnel safety may be endangered by wrong control. The technical idea of the invention is as follows: a conversion mechanism of a universal control signal, namely an individualized execution signal, an individualized feedback signal and a universal feedback signal, between an upper planning control device and a bottom chassis controller is provided, so that a universal scheme that the same planning control device controls the chassis controllers of different vehicle types is realized.

As an aspect of the present invention, the present embodiment provides a control method for an autonomous vehicle, which implements a manner of controlling different vehicle types by using the same controller, so as to implement general control of chassis controllers of respective vehicle types by using one controller in the autonomous vehicle.

As shown in fig. 1, a control method of an autonomous vehicle includes the steps of:

step S1): receiving a general chassis control signal;

step S2): packaging an instruction set of the universal chassis control signal to construct a universal control signal;

step S3): converting the general control signal to obtain an execution signal according to the parameters of a chassis controller of the vehicle;

step S4): and transmitting the execution signal to a chassis controller to control the chassis controller.

As shown in fig. 2, a control method of an autonomous vehicle includes the steps of:

step S1): receiving a general chassis control signal;

step S4): sending the execution signal to a chassis controller to control the chassis controller;

step S5): receiving a feedback message comprising state information of a chassis controller;

step S6): acquiring state information of a chassis controller, packaging the state information and generating a general feedback signal;

step S7): a general feedback signal is returned.

The following will describe each step in detail, taking the control method of the autonomous vehicle shown in fig. 2 as an example.

Step S1): a universal chassis control signal is received.

The automatic driving vehicle comprises a camera, a laser radar and other sensors, the self posture, the self position and the surrounding environment information of the vehicle can be sensed through the sensors, planning decision is carried out on the automatic driving vehicle according to the surrounding environment information (such as the position of an obstacle), the current position of the automatic driving vehicle, the destination to be reached and the like, and therefore control signals for each chassis controller are obtained. That is, the upper-level planning control device can make a judgment and an instruction for the operation of the chassis controller, that is, generate a general chassis control signal, based on the destination, the surrounding environment obtained by the sensor, and the current vehicle body state.

The general chassis control signal is a necessary control parameter for realizing automatic driving, and is used for guiding the action of a power system of an automatic driving vehicle and realizing the control of the posture (such as forward movement, backward movement, braking and the like) of a vehicle body. The universal chassis control signal here mainly includes the core control of the vehicle travel-control of steering, braking and driving, i.e. control relating to steering, deceleration and power. Specifically, the universal chassis control signals include, but are not limited to: the control information of steering control, driving control, braking control, front wheel deflection angle, front wheel deflection speed, vehicle speed, steering and the like, so that the control mode of personalized customization of the automatic driving vehicle can be realized according to different application scenes and different adaptive schemes.

It should be understood that the "generic chassis control signals" may be received regardless of how the various necessary data required for path planning is obtained and how the path is planned and the generic chassis control signals are derived from the necessary data. That is, the general chassis control signal does not limit the forming manner of the control signal, and it does not matter in which order and which algorithm the control signals for different chassis controllers are formed, as long as the control signals can be received and converged here.

In autonomous vehicles, the chassis controllers, which are mainly power operated, capable of feeding back vehicle driving information, may comprise control signals for different chassis controllers. In some embodiments, the chassis controller includes a plurality of different types of actuators, such as: the chassis controller includes but is not limited to an engine, wheels, a brake, a steering gear and the like, wherein the engine and the wheels can accelerate and feed back the vehicle speed, the brake can decelerate and feed back the brake oil pressure, the steering gear can steer and feed back the deflection angle of the front wheels and the like. The embodiment replaces the signal corresponding to the operation and control of the driver when the vehicle is manually driven by receiving the universal chassis control signal, thereby realizing automatic driving.

Step S2): and packaging the instruction set of the universal chassis control signal to construct a universal control signal.

Since chassis controllers in autonomous vehicles perform different functions and require precise motion, the chassis of a vehicle may include the hardware configuration of a variety of chassis controllers. It should be understood that the "universal control signal" formed herein is for all vehicle types, meaning that no vehicle type is distinguished, and can be applied to any vehicle, and also does not distinguish the vendor or specific model of chassis controller that implements the same functionality.

The method comprises the steps of packaging an instruction set of the universal chassis control signal, and presetting a data structure of the universal control signal before the step of constructing the universal control signal, namely classifying different types of chassis controllers, so that different control instructions used by the various types of chassis controllers are configured to various preset attribute fields of the universal control signal, and the different control instructions are integrated into a unified universal control signal to be expressed. The general control signal integrates control commands to a plurality of chassis controllers of the automobile, and is equivalent to information input converted by operations of a driver turning a steering wheel, stepping on an accelerator pedal or a brake pedal, or operating buttons on a center console, and the like, in analogy to control actions of a driver of a manually driven vehicle. By inputting control commands (e.g. how many degrees to turn left, what speed to accelerate, and what force to brake), these commands are converted into a unified, generic control signal that does not differentiate between vehicle types.

Wherein the generic control signal comprises different types of attribute fields of the chassis controller. The universal control signal includes various universal chassis control signal commands, and each command corresponds to a control signal of a chassis controller. The generic chassis control signals are presented in the form of an instruction set (i.e., a set of instructions) and are packaged in a set configuration.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a data frame structure and a corresponding encapsulation structure of the general control signal. Preferably, the common control signal comprises at least one frame of data, each frame of data comprises at least eight bytes, each byte comprises eight bits, and the common chassis control signals corresponding to different chassis controllers are distributed in different bits of different bytes. That is, according to the data frame structure of the universal chassis control signal, the command of the universal chassis control signal is inserted into different bits (bit) of different bytes (Byte) according to the set structure, and packaged as a whole.

The general control signal is an overall message obtained by abstracting control instructions of a plurality of chassis controllers of different vehicle types, so that a plurality of messages do not need to be set for each chassis controller as in the control mode in the prior art. For example, for the sending of the message of the engine, the implementation manner of the embodiment does not directly send the message of the speed or the angle to the engine, but extracts the instruction part corresponding to the engine control from the whole message integrated with the general control signal and converts the instruction part into one message for the engine.

The chassis controller includes at least a steering controller, a driving controller and a braking controller, and the attribute fields in the general control signal in fig. 3 include but are not limited to: steering control, drive control, brake control, desired gear, desired front wheel slip angle speed, desired vehicle speed, desired acceleration/deceleration, emergency control, and the like.

The following will describe in detail the respective commands constituting the above-mentioned general control signal:

and the steering control is used for setting the permission of the steering controller to receive the control signal so that the steering controller can realize steering speed control and steering angle control. In some embodiments, when the vehicle steering control is performed, the steering controller is allowed to receive a control signal to transmit a steering force of a driver turning a steering wheel like a human-driven vehicle to the steering, thereby achieving a change in the steering angle of the vehicle.

And the drive control is used for setting the permission of the drive controller to receive the control signal so as to realize the drive control on the drive controller. In some embodiments, the driving controller is an engine, a transmission and the like, and when the driving control of the vehicle is carried out, the driving controller is enabled to receive a control signal so as to convert the operating force of stepping on the accelerator by a driver similar to a manually-driven vehicle into the control of the engine and the transmission, so that the automobile is started or accelerated.

And the brake control is used for setting the permission of the brake controller to receive the control signal so as to realize the brake control and the brake force control on the brake controller. In some embodiments, the brake controller is a brake, for example, when the vehicle brake control is performed, the brake controller is allowed to receive a control signal so as to transmit the operation force of a driver who drives the vehicle like a person to step on the brake to the brake pad to clamp the brake disc, so that the vehicle is decelerated or stopped.

A desired gear for setting a gear of a desired vehicle during running. In some embodiments, the desired gear may be set to: parking gear P, reverse gear R, neutral gear N or driving gear D, etc.

A desired front wheel slip angle is used to set the angle at which the front wheels are desired to deflect during steering.

A desired front wheel slip angular velocity is used to set the angular velocity at which the front wheels are expected to deflect during steering.

The desired vehicle speed is used to set the speed of the desired vehicle during travel.

The desired acceleration/deceleration is used to set the speed of the desired vehicle speed change at start or brake/stop.

And the emergency control is used for setting whether to allow receiving the emergency stop command during the driving process.

In the above-mentioned multiple commands, the priority of each command to the control of the chassis controller may be set, for example, with the emergency control as the highest priority, and as long as any command issues an emergency stop command, the brake should perform the braking action regardless of the priorities of the commands of the other chassis controllers.

In order to mark the universal control signal and check the general command of the universal control signal, the universal control signal is also correspondingly provided with a version number, a cycle count, a checksum, internal fault code management, a planning control state and the like.

The data frame structure diagram shown in fig. 3 only takes as an example a data structure that encapsulates the general chassis control signals including multiple chassis controllers into a frame of general control signals, and in the application process, the general control signals include which chassis controller corresponding control instructions, in which format and form each control instruction is expressed, bytes and bits are occupied, which can be flexibly set according to needs, and this is not limited here. Similarly, in the packaging structure for the universal control signal, what kind of instruction is the first few bits (bit) of the same byte, what kind of instruction is the last few bits (bit), and what kind of range of information represented by each instruction are, which is not limited herein; moreover, each control signal is specifically distributed in the byte, including several bits, whether spanning bytes or not, and the occupation bit number of the general control signal is 64 bits or 8 bits, which is not limited. The packaging structure adopted by the general control signal can be different for different vehicle types, as long as the necessary chassis control signal is placed in the packaging structure, and the packaging structure is not limited here.

Preferably, encapsulating the instruction set of the general chassis control signal to construct the control signal further comprises preprocessing the control signal and encapsulating the instruction set of the preprocessed control signal. As shown in fig. 4, the control method of the autonomous vehicle further includes a step S2') of preprocessing the general chassis control signal to exclude or correct some unreasonable setting control commands. In step S2'), the pre-processing the universal chassis control signal includes at least one of security processing the universal chassis control signal, ride comfort processing the universal chassis control signal, and fault tolerance and protection processing the universal chassis control signal:

a. safety treatment: the general chassis control signals are subjected to security processing which can filter out general chassis control signals which may bring dangerous operations to people or others, such as: steering operation of a large angle in a short time;

b. smoothness processing: the general chassis control signal is subjected to a ride comfort process that is used to improve the comfort of the occupants of the vehicle, such as: smoothing of an acceleration operation or smoothing of a steering operation;

c. fault tolerance and protection processing: the universal chassis control signal is subjected to fault tolerance and protection processing, and when serious errors occur in an upper control or system message mechanism or a self module, the loss of vehicles and members on the vehicles is reduced to the minimum, for example: when the control instruction is lost, a deceleration parking instruction is issued;

on the basis of performing at least one of the above-mentioned security processing, smoothness processing, fault tolerance and protection processing on the instruction set of the received general chassis control signal, step S2) may encapsulate the instruction set of the processed general chassis control signal, convert the control instruction of each chassis controller into a plurality of fields in a signal message to form a general control signal, and obtain better security, comfort and system stability.

Step S3): and converting the general control signal to obtain an execution signal according to the parameters of a chassis controller of the vehicle.

Different vehicle types have different length, width and height from the appearance, and different space sizes in the vehicle; structurally, automobiles all have different wheelbases, tire sizes, steering gear ratios, and the like. Taking the different steering transmission ratios as an example: when the steering wheel is operated by one turn, the front wheels are deflected by different angles: the front wheel of the a model may be deflected by 50 degrees, and the front wheel of the B model may be deflected by 70 degrees. In this step, the instruction set of the universal chassis control signal in the universal control signal is converted accordingly to fit different vehicle types according to the vehicle type parameters in the configuration file.

As shown in fig. 5, the step of converting the general control signal to obtain the execution signal according to the parameters of the chassis controller of the vehicle specifically includes:

step S31): a configuration file is read, the configuration file including at least parameters of a chassis controller of the autonomous vehicle. In some embodiments, the configuration file further includes a set model of the autonomous vehicle and a type of chassis controller. In still other embodiments, the configuration file further includes models of a plurality of autonomous vehicles and types and parameters of a plurality of chassis controllers.

The chassis controller parameters in the configuration file include control information (such as name and controlled item of the chassis controller) and control parameters corresponding to all chassis controllers, the combination of the multiple chassis controller parameters determines the characteristics of a vehicle type, such as steering transmission ratio of front wheels, tire diameter, force ratio of brake oil pressure and the like, and according to the parameters, an execution signal adapting to the vehicle type can be determined.

Step S32): the parameters of the chassis controller in the configuration file are identified and read.

The universal control signal realizes the unified packaging of instructions of the control signals of the plurality of chassis controllers and comprises control quantity information of all the chassis controllers. In the step, the information of the configuration file is unpacked and unpacked, and the conversion of the general control signal can be performed according to the vehicle type in the configuration file and the parameter of the chassis controller, so that the adaptation of the vehicle type is realized. After the conversion of each instruction of the chassis controller is completed, a personalized execution signal is constructed. That is, the general control signal is a frame of message including all the chassis controllers; and executing the message for the next multi-frame including the interface obtained by converting the field of the general control signal part and configured to different chassis controllers.

The current vehicle type to which the general control signal is to be applied and the parameters of the chassis controller configured by the current vehicle type can be obtained according to the configuration file, for example: the front wheel steering transmission ratio, the brake force-oil pressure corresponding value of the current vehicle type, the tire diameter of the current vehicle type and the like, and controlled items in the general control signals are subjected to adaptive matching and conversion according to the parameters of the chassis controller, so that the chassis controller achieves the control quantity of the corresponding general chassis control signals in the general control signals, and the general control signals can be suitable for controlling vehicles adopting different chassis controllers and realize the control of the general control signals on different vehicles.

Step S33): and converting the general control signal based on the parameters of the chassis controller of the automatic driving vehicle to obtain an execution signal, wherein the execution signal is used for controlling the chassis controller.

The term "conversion" used herein refers to that the control quantity in the general control signal is used as the target control quantity, the actual required execution quantity for reaching the target control quantity is obtained by direct conversion according to the parameter of a certain chassis controller, the conversion and adaptation of the control signal-execution signal of the chassis controller of different vehicle types are realized, and the semantic expression mode of the signal message suitable for the chassis controller is set, so as to convert the control command into the execution signal suitable for the current vehicle. That is, the instruction set encapsulated in the general control signal is a first control instruction, the chassis controller executing amount actually controlling the vehicle body is a second control instruction converted according to the parameters in the configuration file, and a link between the second control instruction and the first control instruction is a parameter of the chassis controller of the automatic driving vehicle of the current vehicle type.

In different set vehicle types, the execution signals for obtaining the same target control amount by the chassis controller of the same type may be different. Taking the example of matching and converting the front wheel slip angle, the amount of execution sent to the steering controller is different due to different front wheel steering rotation ratios of different vehicle types.

Specifically, the control quantity of a control signal corresponding to a certain chassis controller in the general control signal is used as an input parameter of the chassis controller, the relevant parameters of the current vehicle type are extracted from the configuration file, conversion is performed by taking an attribute field in a packaging structure frame of the general control signal as a unit, and an execution signal for each chassis controller is obtained after conversion. For example: and matching and converting the front wheel deflection angle, and calculating a steering execution parameter required for converting to reach the front wheel deflection angle according to the front wheel deflection angle in the universal control signal and a steering parameter (such as a steering transmission ratio) in a configuration file. The following steps are repeated: the matching and conversion of the rotation speed of the front wheel are obtained by conversion according to the diameters or circumferences of tires of different vehicle types, engine power and the like in the configuration file. The following steps are repeated: and matching and converting the braking force according to the conversion of the braking force-oil pressure and the like in the configuration file.

Similarly, matching and converting the front wheel deflection angle are taken as an example, parameters related to steering of the corresponding vehicle type of the vehicle type A and the vehicle type B are extracted, namely, the steering controller of which type is adopted in the vehicle type and a series of parameters of the steering controller can be known, variable values of corresponding fields in the general control signals corresponding to the steering controller are extracted and are calculated together with the parameters of corresponding items in the configuration file so as to carry out conversion. For example, the general control signal requires that the front wheel is turned 45 degrees, and for a vehicle type A: the execution quantity sent to the steering controller is a half turn; for a vehicle type B: the amount of execution sent to the steering controller is 3/4 turns. Therefore, the universal chassis control signal is adapted or corrected for the vehicle type through the parameters in the configuration file, and the execution signal including the quantity to be executed for the chassis controller of different vehicle types can be generated. After each item in the general control signal is converted, the general control signal waits for being sent to a chassis controller to specifically control the vehicle.

Because the control modes of the vehicle speed, the steering, the braking and the like are different, the signal messages of chassis controllers of an engine, a clutch, a speed changer, a brake, a steering gear and the like are also different, and each chassis controller is controlled by an independent frame message. The execution signal including the execution signal of each chassis controller forms a frame of execution message for the chassis controller, and the frame of execution message is used for directly controlling the chassis controller. The instruction set of the universal chassis control signal in the universal control signal is packaged into a frame signal message before conversion, and the frame signal message can become a multi-frame execution message after conversion, wherein each frame execution message corresponds to a chassis controller respectively. The converted general chassis control signals form a plurality of execution messages which can be adapted to chassis controllers of various vehicle types, and the upper interface automatic driving system is adapted to engines, clutches, transmissions, brakes, steering gears and the like of different vehicle types, so that the execution messages can be respectively sent to the chassis controllers in a signal message mode, and the chassis controllers can make corresponding actions after receiving the execution messages.

It should be understood that the configuration file may be provided in a data packet with the general control signal, or may be provided at the actuator side. Accordingly, the read configuration file may be read from the same data packet as the general control signal, or may be read from the actuator side. Because the execution signal finally realizes the control of each part in the execution mechanism end, the process of converting the universal chassis control signal can be converted before the universal chassis control signal enters the execution mechanism end, and can also be converted in the execution mechanism end after the universal chassis control signal enters the execution mechanism end. That is, after the step S2) is completed to obtain the general control signal, in step S3) the conversion of the general chassis control signal may be performed in the same processor as the package of the general control signal, or may be performed after the general control signal is sent to the actuator side without being converted for a while. For the first mode, after the instruction set is packaged, the configuration file is read, then the instruction set and the to-be-executed quantity are converted, and after the conversion is completed, the execution signal including the to-be-executed quantity is issued to the execution mechanism end and distributed to the corresponding chassis controller; for the second mode, after the instruction set is encapsulated, the instruction set is directly issued to the execution mechanism side, the configuration file is read at the execution mechanism side, the corresponding instruction set-to-be-executed amount conversion is performed, and the conversion is completed and issued to the corresponding chassis controller, such as a brake, an accelerator and other chassis controllers.

In this step, the converted execution signal CAN be sent to the corresponding chassis controller through the CAN bus, and the steering controller, the brake, and the like receive the message of the execution signal and execute the mechanical action, thereby realizing the specific control of different instructions on the corresponding chassis controller.

Step S5): and receiving a feedback message comprising the state information of the chassis controller.

In an autopilot system, each type of chassis controller is controlled only by a specific signal message. The autonomous vehicle requires continuous control → feedback (feedback) → update control → update feedback … … during traveling. For example, as for chassis controllers such as a driving controller, since the duration period of sending a control signal to each chassis controller is different, the time of the intermediate interval is also different, and in order to coordinate and control the operation of the vehicle, the commands of a plurality of chassis controllers (for example, seven or eight chassis controllers) are involved, the real-time running status of the vehicle needs to be monitored and fed back, and the feedback process has the same situation that the duration period and the interval time are different, in order to better realize the control and the status monitoring of the continuity, the embodiment sets a general feedback signal mechanism corresponding to the general control signal, and after the chassis controllers receive corresponding execution signals to execute actions, the execution results are fed back, that is, the actual execution quantity/actual execution status such as the vehicle speed, the deflection angle of the wheels, the oil pressure of the brake cylinder can be collected according to the sensors arranged at each chassis controller, and respectively uploading feedback messages comprising the state information of the chassis controller, and performing feedback processing according to the received feedback messages comprising the state information of the chassis controller.

Step S6): and acquiring the state information of the chassis controller, packaging the state information and generating a general feedback signal.

And presetting a general feedback signal structure before the steps of acquiring the state information of the chassis controller, packaging the state information and generating a general feedback signal, wherein the general feedback signal structure comprises attribute fields preset by the chassis controllers of different types.

The general control signal and the general feedback signal form a group of corresponding signal messages, and provide bidirectional data flow, and the general control signal and the general feedback signal are logically corresponding and have opposite transmission directions. The parameters in the general control signal are execution parameters defined by different vehicle types, the parameters in the general feedback signal are real-time running state parameters of the vehicle, and actual execution quantity is filled in each field in the general feedback signal.

As shown in fig. 6, the step of obtaining the status information of the chassis controller, encapsulating the status information, and generating the general feedback signal includes:

step S61): and analyzing the state information of the chassis controller from the feedback message, wherein the state information comprises the actual execution quantity of the chassis controller.

In some embodiments, the actual execution amount of the chassis controller refers to an actual operation amount of a different chassis controller after receiving the execution signal. Further, in some embodiments, the state information also includes the actual execution state (ON or OFF) of the chassis controller.

Step S62): and packaging the state information of the chassis controller into different attribute fields to generate a universal feedback signal.

At least part of the information in the common feedback signal corresponds to at least part of the information in the common control signal. Summarizing the execution conditions of the chassis controllers, and packaging to form a general feedback signal corresponding to the general control signal, wherein the actual execution amount in the feedback message of each chassis controller corresponds to a plurality of fields in the general feedback signal. The general control signal encapsulates the received control instructions of the plurality of chassis controllers and then converts the control instructions into execution messages which can be recognized by hardware equipment such as the chassis controllers, and the general feedback signal encapsulates and returns the state information of the hardware devices fed back by the chassis controllers, so that a mode of control instruction → execution instruction → feedback instruction → updating control instruction is formed, and one cycle is completed after one transmission and one reception, so that a complete operation on the chassis controllers is completed.

The general feedback signal may be in a frame independent message format corresponding to the general control signal. That is, the general feedback signal is a frame of data, each frame of data includes at least eight bytes, each byte includes eight bits, and the status information (including the actual execution amount or the actual execution status) of the chassis controller is distributed in different bits of different bytes. As shown in fig. 7, the attribute field of the general feedback signal includes, but is not limited to: steering state, driving state, braking state, gear, front wheel slip angle, vehicle speed direction, vehicle speed, steering wheel torque, brake pedal state, hand brake state, button switch state, emergency state, etc. As shown in fig. 7, which is an example of a format of a general feedback signal, states in the general feedback signal may correspond to items in a general control signal.

The following will describe in detail the various states that constitute the above-mentioned generic feedback signal:

and the steering state is used for returning the current actual steering state of the vehicle under the control of the general control signal. In some embodiments, the steering state includes a state of whether a control signal is currently received by the steering controller.

And the driving state is used for returning to the current actual driving state of the vehicle under the control of the general control signal. In some embodiments, the steering state includes a state when the front drive controller receives a control signal.

And the braking state is used for returning to the current actual braking state of the vehicle under the control of the general control signal. In some embodiments, the steering state includes a state of whether the current brake controller receives a control signal.

And the gear is used for returning to the current actual gear of the vehicle under the control of the general control signal.

And the front wheel deflection angle is used for returning the current actual front wheel deflection angle of the vehicle under the control of the general control signal.

And a vehicle speed direction for returning the current actual running direction of the vehicle to the forward direction or the backward direction under the control of the general control signal.

And the vehicle speed is used for returning the current actual running speed of the vehicle under the control of the general control signal.

And the steering wheel torque is used for returning the current torque of the steering wheel under the control of the general control signal.

A brake pedal state for returning the state of the vehicle brake pedal under control of the common control signal.

And the hand brake state is used for returning to the state of the vehicle hand brake under the control of the general control signal.

And a button switching state for returning to a state of the vehicle manual/automatic switching button under the control of the general control signal.

And an emergency state for returning to a state of the vehicle emergency stop button under the control of the general control signal.

In addition to the actual execution states of the respective chassis controllers, e.g. braking state, driving state, etc., corresponding to the common control signals as described above, steering system fault codes, driving system fault codes, braking system fault codes, manual brake intervention detection, etc., are added to the common feedback signals.

The steering system fault code is used for returning whether the vehicle has a steering fault under the control of the general control signal; if there is a fault, the fault level is several levels.

The brake system fault code is used for returning whether the vehicle has brake fault under the control of the general control signal; if there is a fault, the fault level is several levels.

And the manual brake intervention detection is used for returning whether the manual brake intervention occurs to the vehicle under the control of the general control signal, for example, whether the phenomenon that a person presses a brake pedal occurs or not.

Similarly, the general feedback signal is also correspondingly provided with cycle counting, checksum, real-time state of the chassis controller and the like. Returning whether the signal has frame loss or not, what kind of processing is carried out on the received error packet and how the fault is processed by accumulating the number of errors to a preset threshold value through cycle counting; checking error frames and other sums per 4 bits (bits) by checksum; the states of initialization, preparation, soft stop and the like of the chassis controller are returned in real time; and so on.

The converted execution message may be downloaded to the chassis controller in a CAN bus manner, and the feedback message including the actual execution information of the chassis controller may also be uploaded from the sensor of the chassis controller in the CAN bus manner.

Step S7): a general feedback signal is returned.

In this step, a feedback message of the encapsulated general feedback signal is sent to a control signal planning decision part (i.e., a planning control device) in the automatic driving system, and the control signal planning decision part receives the message and then analyzes the message, and updates the control signal of the vehicle in real time according to the actual execution effect and the current environment of the vehicle chassis controller.

The control method of the automatic driving vehicle of the embodiment determines a general chassis control signal according to various data mixed together provided by a general control signal planning mode, provides the general control signal, summarizes and adapts the control instruction, and then decomposes the control instruction into a plurality of execution messages which are sent to a chassis controller for execution;

further, the execution result is fed back through the general feedback signal, and the updating and the state monitoring of the running state of the vehicle are obtained through the continuous conversion and the updating of two data flows of the general control signal and the general feedback signal; in a control signal planning decision part, environmental data obtained by combining sensor signals (such as images of a camera) are mixed together to comprehensively evaluate the execution effect, and how to process the next step is decided, so that the automatic driving effect is finally realized.

As another aspect of the present invention, the present embodiment further provides a control apparatus for an autonomous vehicle, which implements a control method using the same controller for different vehicle types, so as to implement general control of chassis controllers of respective vehicle types in the autonomous vehicle using one controller.

As shown in fig. 8, the control apparatus of the autonomous vehicle includes a first interface module 1, a control module 2, a conversion module 3, and a second interface module 5, wherein:

the first interface module 1 is used for receiving a universal chassis control signal;

the control module 2 is used for packaging an instruction set of the universal chassis control signal and constructing a universal control signal;

the conversion module 3 is used for converting the general control signal to obtain an execution signal according to the parameters of a chassis controller of the vehicle;

and the second interface module 5 is configured to issue the execution signal to the chassis controller, and control the chassis controller.

The generic control signals comprise different types of attribute fields of the chassis controller and the control module 2 comprises a control distribution unit for encapsulating the generic chassis control signals into the different attribute fields.

The universal control signal comprises a frame of data, each frame of data comprises at least eight bytes, each byte comprises eight bits, and the universal chassis control signals corresponding to different chassis controllers are distributed in different bits of different bytes.

As shown in fig. 9, the conversion module 3 includes a document reading unit 31, a parameter identification unit 32, and an execution signal conversion unit 33, wherein:

a file reading unit 31 for reading a configuration file, the configuration file including at least parameters of a chassis controller of the autonomous vehicle;

a parameter identification unit 32, configured to identify and read parameters of the chassis controller in the configuration file;

and an execution signal conversion unit 33, configured to convert the general control signal based on a parameter of a chassis controller of the autonomous vehicle to obtain an execution signal, where the execution signal is used to control the chassis controller.

As shown in fig. 10, the present embodiment further provides a control apparatus for an autonomous vehicle, which further includes a feedback module 6, configured to acquire status information of a chassis controller, package the status information, and generate a general feedback signal. Correspondingly, the first interface module 1 is further configured to return a general feedback signal; the second interface module 5 is further configured to receive a feedback packet including status information of the chassis controller.

As shown in fig. 11, the feedback module 6 includes a feedback extraction unit 61 and a feedback distribution unit 62, wherein:

a feedback extracting unit 61, configured to analyze status information of the chassis controller from the feedback packet, where the status information includes an actual execution amount of the chassis controller;

a feedback distribution unit 62, configured to package status information of the chassis controller into different attribute fields to generate a general feedback signal;

The general feedback signal comprises a frame of data, each frame of data comprises at least eight bytes, each byte comprises eight bits, and the corresponding state information of different chassis controllers is distributed in different bits of different bytes. The actual execution amount also includes an actual execution state (ON or OFF).

Preferably, as shown in fig. 12, the control apparatus of the autonomous vehicle further includes a preprocessing module 7. In fig. 13, the preprocessing module includes at least one of a security processing unit 71, a smoothness processing unit 72, and a fault tolerance and protection processing unit 73, wherein:

a safety processing unit 71, configured to perform safety processing on the universal chassis control signal;

a ride comfort processing unit 72 for performing ride comfort processing on the general chassis control signal;

and a fault-tolerant and protection processing unit 73, configured to perform fault-tolerant and protection processing on the universal chassis control signal.

The chassis controller at least comprises a steering controller, a driving controller and a braking controller, and the attribute field of the universal control signal comprises: at least one of steering control, drive control, brake control, desired gear, desired front wheel slip angle speed, desired vehicle speed, desired acceleration/deceleration, emergency control; the attribute fields in the generic feedback signal include: at least one of a steering state, a driving state, a braking state, a gear, a front wheel deflection angle, a vehicle speed direction, a vehicle speed, a steering wheel torque, a brake pedal state, a hand brake state, a button switching state and an emergency state.

According to the method and the corresponding device for controlling the automatic driving vehicle, on one hand, the control instructions on the upper layer are uniformly packaged into the general control signals, and the control on the chassis controllers of different vehicle types is realized by performing layering processing and adaptation according to the logics of the different chassis controllers;

furthermore, the lower layer feedback message is packaged into a general feedback signal in a corresponding mode, and the running state of the chassis controller is fed back in time. The universal control signal and the universal feedback signal form a bridge between the automatic driving system and the vehicle chassis controller, so that various different automatic driving systems do not need to be developed for different brands or vehicle types, the unified controller can be set to adapt to vehicle chassis executing mechanisms of different vehicles, the flexibility of control instructions transplanted to new vehicle types is greatly improved, the difficulty of controlling different chassis controllers is greatly reduced, the compatibility of the controller is improved, and the product value is improved.

As another aspect of the present invention, the present embodiment further provides an autonomous vehicle, as shown in fig. 14, which includes a planning control device 8, a chassis controller 4, and a control device of the autonomous vehicle described above, the control device of the autonomous vehicle being disposed between the planning control device 8 and the chassis controller 4.

As another aspect of the present invention, the present embodiment also provides a computer processing medium having stored therein a plurality of instructions adapted to be loaded and executed by a processor to implement:

receiving a general chassis control signal;

packaging an instruction set of the universal chassis control signal to construct a universal control signal;

converting the general control signal to obtain an execution signal according to the parameters of a chassis controller of the vehicle;

and transmitting the execution signal to a chassis controller to control the chassis controller.

Preferably, the computer processing medium further has instructions for:

receiving a feedback message comprising state information of a chassis controller;

acquiring state information of a chassis controller, packaging the state information and generating a general feedback signal;

a general feedback signal is returned.

It will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that all or some of the steps of the methods disclosed above, functional modules/units in the apparatus, may be implemented as software, firmware, hardware, and suitable combinations thereof. In a hardware implementation, the division between functional modules/units mentioned in the above description does not necessarily correspond to the division of physical components; for example, one physical component may have multiple functions, or one function or step may be performed by several physical components in cooperation. Some or all of the physical components may be implemented as software executed by a processor, such as a central processing unit, digital signal processor, or microprocessor, or as hardware, or as an integrated circuit, such as an application specific integrated circuit. Such software may be distributed on computer readable media, which may include computer processing media (or non-transitory media) and communication media (or transitory media). The term computer processing media includes both volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data, as is well known to those of ordinary skill in the art. Computer-processing media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, Digital Versatile Disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by a computer. In addition, communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media as known to those skilled in the art.

The specification has disclosed example embodiments and, although specific terms are employed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. In some instances, features, characteristics and/or elements described in connection with a particular embodiment may be used alone or in combination with features, characteristics and/or elements described in connection with other embodiments, unless expressly stated otherwise, as would be apparent to one skilled in the art. It will, therefore, be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention encompassed by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A control method of an autonomous vehicle, characterized by comprising:

receiving a general chassis control signal;

2. The control method of an autonomous vehicle as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that converting the general control signal into an execution signal comprises:

3. The control method of an autonomous vehicle as claimed in any of claims 1-2, wherein after the step of issuing the execution signal to the chassis controller to control the chassis controller, the method further comprises:

and transmitting the general feedback signal back.

4. The control method of an autonomous vehicle according to claim 3, wherein the chassis controller includes at least a steering controller, a drive controller, and a brake controller,

the attribute field in the generic control signal includes: at least one of steering control, drive control, brake control, desired gear, desired front wheel slip angle speed, desired vehicle speed, desired acceleration/deceleration, emergency control;

5. A control device for an autonomous vehicle, comprising a first interface module, a control module, a conversion module, and a second interface module, wherein:

6. The control device of an autonomous vehicle according to claim 5, wherein the conversion module includes at least a document reading unit, a parameter recognition unit, an execution signal conversion unit, wherein:

7. The control apparatus of an autonomous vehicle as claimed in any of claims 5 to 6, further comprising a feedback module, wherein:

8. The control apparatus of an autonomous vehicle according to claim 7, wherein the chassis controller includes at least a steering controller, a driving controller, and a braking controller,

the attribute field of the general control signal comprises: at least one of steering control, drive control, brake control, desired gear, desired front wheel slip angle speed, desired vehicle speed, desired acceleration/deceleration, emergency control;

9. An autonomous vehicle comprising planning control means, a chassis controller, characterized in that it further comprises control means of the autonomous vehicle according to any of claims 5-8, said control means of the autonomous vehicle being arranged between said planning control means and said chassis controller.

10. A computer processing medium having stored therein a plurality of instructions adapted to be loaded and executed by a processor to perform:

receiving a general chassis control signal;

sending the execution signal to the chassis controller to control the chassis controller;

the instructions are also to implement:

and transmitting the general feedback signal back.