CN112606847A

CN112606847A - Control method and control device for self-guiding vehicle

Info

Publication number: CN112606847A
Application number: CN202011296859.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张陈林; 郭洋洋; 肖磊; 杨勇; 钟汉文; 肖化友; 周承明; 李俊义; 李岩; 雷春志
Original assignee: Hunan CRRC Zhixing Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Hunan CRRC Zhixing Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-11-18
Filing date: 2020-11-18
Publication date: 2021-04-06
Anticipated expiration: 2040-11-18
Also published as: CN112606847B

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for controlling a self-steering vehicle, and a computer-readable storage medium. The control method comprises the following steps: monitoring a trajectory following state of the self-guided vehicle; executing alarm buffer control to send out lane departure alarm and performing track departure buffer on the self-guided vehicle in response to a monitoring signal indicating track departure; responding to a manual take-over instruction input by a driver, executing manual take-over control to close the automatic steering function, and starting a manual driving function; and in response to determining that no manual driving control command is received from the driver, executing a safety assurance control to actively brake the self-guided vehicle. The invention can avoid the collision risk of the vehicle when the self-guiding vehicle has the problem of track deviation, and reduce the severity of the accident under the condition that the collision accident cannot be avoided.

Description

Control method and control device for self-guiding vehicle

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a safety control technology for a self-guided vehicle, and more particularly, to a control method for a self-guided vehicle and a control device for a self-guided vehicle.

Background

The self-guiding vehicle is a rubber wheel type vehicle which adopts the sensing and positioning technology to carry out electronic restraint on the running of the vehicle and automatically turns to run along a virtual track. The virtual track can be realized in the forms of ground painting identification lines, electromagnetic induction, high-precision positioning and the like. According to the characteristics of the running mode of the self-guiding vehicle and the realization of the electronic/Electrical (electronic/Electrical) system function, the conventional self-guiding vehicle has the problems that the automatic steering function is abnormal due to the fault of a self control system or an execution system, and the track is easy to deviate.

When the track deviation situation occurs, the existing self-guiding vehicle can only reduce the risk of vehicle collision through the manual take-over of a driver. The safety control strategy completely depends on uncontrollable factors such as quick response and operation accuracy of a driver to ensure driving safety. However, due to the uncertainty of the operation scenes such as the vehicle speed, the driver condition, the road condition, the weather condition and the like, and the characteristic that the accident is often caused in a very short time due to the deviation of the vehicle from the track, the driver cannot reliably guarantee the driving safety after taking over the vehicle manually, and a large failure risk exists.

Based on the above description, there is a need in the art for a safety control technique for avoiding a collision risk of a vehicle when a self-guided vehicle has a problem of trajectory deviation and reducing the severity of an accident in a case where a collision accident is unavoidable.

Disclosure of Invention

The following presents a simplified summary of one or more aspects in order to provide a basic understanding of such aspects. This summary is not an extensive overview of all contemplated aspects, and is intended to neither identify key or critical elements of all aspects nor delineate the scope of any or all aspects. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more aspects in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

In order to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, the present invention provides a control method of a self-guided vehicle, a control apparatus of a self-guided vehicle, and a computer-readable storage medium for avoiding a collision risk of a vehicle when a trajectory deviation problem occurs in the self-guided vehicle and reducing the severity of an accident in a case where a collision accident cannot be avoided.

The control method of the self-guiding vehicle provided by the invention comprises the following steps: monitoring a trajectory following state of the self-guided vehicle; executing alarm buffer control to send out lane departure alarm and performing track departure buffer on the self-guided vehicle in response to a monitoring signal indicating track departure; responding to a manual take-over instruction input by a driver, executing manual take-over control to close the automatic steering function, and starting a manual driving function; and in response to determining that no manual driving control command is received from the driver, executing a safety assurance control to actively brake the self-guided vehicle.

Preferably, in some embodiments of the present invention, the step of performing the alarm buffering control may include: executing a lane departure warning function, and sending the lane departure warning to the driver in a sound, light and/or seat vibration mode; executing steering memory and turning functions, and reducing the deviation angle of the self-guiding vehicle to buffer the track deviation; and executing a function of limiting the traction power output, and sending a traction control command to limit the highest output torque so as to buffer the track deviation.

Preferably, in some embodiments of the present invention, the step of performing the steering memory and swivel function may comprise: retrieving a torque curve from a steering system of the self-steering vehicle for a previous memory period, wherein the memory period is determined based on a time difference between occurrence of the trajectory deviation and receipt of the monitoring signal, and the torque curve indicates a torque at each time within the memory period; and controlling the steering system to execute a revolution according to the torque curve of the previous memory cycle so as to reduce the deviation angle of the self-guided vehicle, wherein the torque variation for executing the revolution is not more than the preset maximum torque variation, and the time for executing the revolution is not more than the memory cycle.

Alternatively, in some embodiments of the present invention, the warning buffer control may be implemented in a heterogeneous redundancy manner, wherein the lane departure warning function may be implemented by a vehicle control system and a CAN communication network, the steering memory and swing function may be implemented by a steering system, and the limit traction power output function may be implemented by a traction control system.

Optionally, in some embodiments of the present invention, the step of performing the manual takeover control may include: executing a manual take-over detection function to detect the manual driving control command further input by the driver, wherein the manual driving control command comprises an intervention time and an intervention torque of the driver on a steering wheel; and responding to the intervention time larger than a preset time threshold and/or the intervention torque larger than a preset torque threshold, judging that a manual driving control instruction further input by the driver is received, executing an automatic steering exit control function to close the automatic steering function, and starting the manual driving function to enable the driver to rotate through the steering wheel.

Preferably, in some embodiments of the present invention, the step of performing the safety assurance control may include: executing an active braking function to count the manual take-over time of the driver, wherein the manual take-over time indicates the time from the manual take-over instruction to the automatic steering function being turned off; and responding to the manual take-over time reaching a preset first fault tolerance time, judging that a manual driving control instruction further input by a driver is not received, and actively triggering an emergency brake to actively brake the self-guided vehicle.

Preferably, in some embodiments of the present invention, the step of performing the safety assurance control may further include: executing the active braking function to count the manual take-over time of the driver, wherein the manual take-over time indicates the time from receiving the monitoring signal indicating the track deviation to receiving the manual take-over instruction; and responding to the manual take-over time reaching a preset second fault tolerance time, judging that a manual take-over instruction input by the driver is not received, and actively triggering an emergency brake to actively brake the self-guided vehicle.

Optionally, in some embodiments of the present invention, the control method may further include the steps of: and a vehicle diagnostic control function that executes the safety assurance control to monitor a process of the self-guided vehicle deviating from the trajectory, and a system failure that causes the trajectory deviation.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a control apparatus of a self-guided vehicle for avoiding a collision risk of the vehicle when a trajectory deviation problem occurs in the self-guided vehicle and reducing the severity of an accident in a case where the collision accident cannot be avoided.

The control device of the self-guiding vehicle is suitable for monitoring the track following state of the self-guiding vehicle and comprises an alarm buffer control module, a manual take-over control module and a safety guarantee control module. The alarm buffer control module is configured to: and responding to the monitoring signal indicating the track deviation, sending out a lane deviation alarm, and carrying out track deviation buffering on the self-guided vehicle. The manual takeover control module is configured to: and in response to a manual take-over instruction input by a driver, closing the automatic steering function and starting the manual driving function. The security assurance control module is configured to: and actively braking the self-guiding vehicle in response to judging that no manual driving control command is received by the driver.

Preferably, in some embodiments of the present invention, the alarm buffer control module may be further configured to: executing a lane departure warning function, and sending the lane departure warning to the driver in a sound, light and/or seat vibration mode; executing steering memory and turning functions, and reducing the deviation angle of the self-guiding vehicle to buffer the track deviation; and executing a function of limiting the traction power output, and sending a traction control command to limit the highest output torque so as to buffer the track deviation.

Preferably, in some embodiments of the present invention, the alarm buffer control module may be further configured to: retrieving a torque curve from a steering system of the self-steering vehicle for a previous memory period, wherein the memory period is determined based on a time difference between occurrence of the trajectory deviation and receipt of the monitoring signal, and the torque curve indicates a torque at each time within the memory period; and controlling the steering system to execute a revolution according to the torque curve of the previous memory cycle so as to reduce the deviation angle of the self-guided vehicle, wherein the torque variation for executing the revolution is not more than the preset maximum torque variation, and the time for executing the revolution is not more than the memory cycle.

Optionally, in some embodiments of the present invention, the alarm buffer control module may have a heterogeneous redundant architecture. The warning buffer control module CAN implement the lane departure warning function through a vehicle control system and a CAN communication network, implement the steering memory and gyration functions through a steering system, and implement the traction power output limiting function through a traction control system.

Optionally, in some embodiments of the present invention, the manual takeover control module may be further configured to: executing a manual take-over detection function to detect the manual driving control command further input by the driver, wherein the manual driving control command comprises an intervention time and an intervention torque of the driver on a steering wheel; and responding to the intervention time larger than a preset time threshold and/or the intervention torque larger than a preset torque threshold, judging that a manual driving control instruction further input by the driver is received, executing an automatic steering exit control function to close the automatic steering function, and starting the manual driving function to enable the driver to rotate through the steering wheel.

Preferably, in some embodiments of the present invention, the safety assurance control module may be further configured to: executing an active braking function to count the manual take-over time of the driver, wherein the manual take-over time indicates the time from the manual take-over instruction to the automatic steering function being turned off; and responding to the manual take-over time reaching a preset first fault tolerance time, judging that a manual driving control instruction further input by a driver is not received, and actively triggering an emergency brake to actively brake the self-guided vehicle.

Preferably, in some embodiments of the present invention, the safety assurance control module may be further configured to: executing the active braking function to count the manual take-over time of the driver, wherein the manual take-over time indicates the time from receiving the monitoring signal indicating the track deviation to receiving the manual take-over instruction; and responding to the manual take-over time reaching a preset second fault tolerance time, judging that a manual take-over instruction input by the driver is not received, and actively triggering an emergency brake to actively brake the self-guided vehicle.

Optionally, in some embodiments of the present invention, the safety assurance control module may be further configured to: a vehicle diagnostic control function is executed to monitor the self-guided vehicle for a process of deviating from a trajectory, and a system fault that causes the trajectory to deviate.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a computer readable storage medium for circumventing a collision risk of a self-guided vehicle when a trajectory deviation problem occurs in the vehicle, and reducing the severity of an accident in a case where a collision accident cannot be avoided.

The present invention provides the above computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer instructions. When executed by a processor, the computer instructions may implement the method for controlling a self-guided vehicle provided in any one of the above embodiments.

Drawings

The above features and advantages of the present disclosure will be better understood upon reading the detailed description of embodiments of the disclosure in conjunction with the following drawings. In the drawings, components are not necessarily drawn to scale, and components having similar relative characteristics or features may have the same or similar reference numerals.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic architecture of a control device of a self-steering vehicle provided according to some embodiments of the invention.

Fig. 2 illustrates a flow diagram of a control method of a self-steering vehicle provided in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention.

Reference numerals

10 a control device for a self-steering vehicle;

11, an alarm buffer control module;

12 manually taking over the control module;

13 a safety assurance control module.

21 driver's cab;

22 a steering system;

23 a traction control system;

24 emergency brake.

Detailed Description

The following description of the embodiments of the present invention is provided for illustrative purposes, and other advantages and effects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the present disclosure. While the invention will be described in connection with the preferred embodiments, there is no intent to limit its features to those embodiments. On the contrary, the invention is described in connection with the embodiments for the purpose of covering alternatives or modifications that may be extended based on the claims of the present invention. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. The invention may be practiced without these particulars. Moreover, some of the specific details have been left out of the description in order to avoid obscuring or obscuring the focus of the present invention.

In the description of the present invention, it should be noted that, unless otherwise explicitly specified or limited, the terms "mounted," "connected," and "connected" are to be construed broadly, e.g., as meaning either a fixed connection, a removable connection, or an integral connection; can be mechanically or electrically connected; they may be connected directly or indirectly through intervening media, or they may be interconnected between two elements. The specific meanings of the above terms in the present invention can be understood in specific cases to those skilled in the art.

Additionally, the terms "upper," "lower," "left," "right," "top," "bottom," "horizontal," "vertical" and the like as used in the following description are to be understood as referring to the segment and the associated drawings in the illustrated orientation. The relative terms are used for convenience of description only and do not imply that the described apparatus should be constructed or operated in a particular orientation and therefore should not be construed as limiting the invention.

It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, regions, layers and/or sections, these elements, regions, layers and/or sections should not be limited by these terms, but rather are used to distinguish one element, region, layer and/or section from another element, region, layer and/or section. Thus, a first component, region, layer or section discussed below could be termed a second component, region, layer or section without departing from some embodiments of the present invention.

As described above, when the above-described trajectory deviation situation occurs, the existing self-guided vehicle can reduce the risk of vehicle collision only by the manual take-over of the driver. The safety control strategy completely depends on uncontrollable factors such as quick response and operation accuracy of a driver to ensure driving safety. However, due to the uncertainty of the operation scenes such as the vehicle speed, the driver condition, the road condition, the weather condition and the like, and the characteristic that the accident is often caused in a very short time due to the deviation of the vehicle from the track, the driver cannot reliably guarantee the driving safety after taking over the vehicle manually, and a large failure risk exists.

In some non-limiting embodiments, the control method of the self-guided vehicle provided by the present invention may be implemented by a control apparatus of the self-guided vehicle. Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 illustrates an architecture diagram of a control device of a self-steering vehicle according to some embodiments of the present invention.

As shown in fig. 1, in some embodiments of the present invention, the control device 10 of the self-guided vehicle may include an alarm buffer control module 11, a manual take-over control module 12, and a safety assurance control module 13. The alarm buffer control module 11, the manual takeover control module 12, and the safety assurance control module 13 may be configured in a vehicle control system of a self-steering vehicle. In some embodiments, the alarm buffer control module 11, the manual take-over control module 12, and the safety assurance control module 13 may be implemented by a plurality of software functional modules configured in the same controller of the vehicle control system. Alternatively, in other embodiments, the alarm buffer control module 11, the manual take-over control module 12, and the safety assurance control module 13 may be implemented by a plurality of hardware controller modules configured in the vehicle control system.

Some embodiments of the self-guided vehicle control method will be described below in conjunction with the architecture of the self-guided vehicle control apparatus 10 described above. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that these aspects of the self-guided vehicle control method are merely non-limiting examples provided by the present invention, which are intended to clearly illustrate the broad concepts of the invention and provide specific details for enabling the public to practice the invention, and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

Referring to fig. 2, fig. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a control method of a self-guided vehicle according to some embodiments of the invention.

As shown in fig. 2, the method for controlling the self-guided vehicle according to the present invention may include: the trajectory following state of the self-guided vehicle is monitored.

As mentioned above, the self-guiding vehicle can adopt the sensing and positioning technology to carry out electronic restraint on the running direction of the vehicle, thereby controlling the vehicle to automatically steer along the virtual track. The virtual track can be realized in the forms of ground painting identification lines, electromagnetic induction, high-precision positioning and the like.

Taking the above-described ground painted marking as an example, the control device 10 of the self-guided vehicle may monitor the trajectory following state of the vehicle by using the lane departure detection function of the self-guided vehicle, and may determine whether the vehicle departs from the marking trajectory painted on the ground based on the state information transmitted to the vehicle control system by the lane departure detection function. In particular, the lane departure detection function may be implemented by a lane departure detection module. The lane departure detection module may include one or more cameras facing the road surface and an image processing unit. The image processing unit is suitable for carrying out image recognition on the road surface image collected by the camera and judging whether the self-guiding vehicle deviates from the marking line track painted on the ground or not according to the image recognition result.

In some embodiments, the control device 10 of the self-steering vehicle may send status information that the lane departure detection function delivers to the vehicle control system to the warning buffer control module 11. In response to the status information indicating that the self-guided vehicle has deviated from the identified line trajectory, the alarm buffer control module 11 may determine that a monitoring signal indicating a trajectory deviation is received.

As shown in fig. 2, the method for controlling the self-guided vehicle according to the present invention may further include: in response to a monitoring signal indicating a trajectory deviation, an alarm buffer control is performed to issue a lane deviation alarm and to buffer the trajectory deviation of the self-steering vehicle.

In some embodiments of the invention, the warning buffer control may include a lane departure warning function, a steering memory and slew function, and a limited power output function. The lane departure warning function can send lane departure warning to a driver in sound, light and vibration modes such as a buzzer, a loudspeaker, a warning lamp, a display popup window and/or seat vibration and the like, so that the driver is prompted to take over the vehicle manually to drive manually. The steering memory and slew function may slew the vehicle using a torque before a trajectory deviation occurs to reduce a deviation angle of the self-steering vehicle, thereby implementing a trajectory deviation buffer for a heading angle of the vehicle. The limited traction power output function may send traction control commands to the traction motor or engine limiting the maximum output torque of the traction motor or engine to limit vehicle speed, thereby implementing off-track buffering for vehicle speed. By implementing the trajectory deviation buffering, the time of vehicle collision can be effectively delayed, and the severity of the accident can be reduced as much as possible under the condition that the collision accident cannot be avoided.

In some embodiments, alarm buffer control module 11 may be configured as a heterogeneous redundant architecture to ensure reliability and independence of the various functions of alarm buffer control. Accordingly, alarm buffer control may be synchronously implemented in a heterogeneous redundant manner. Specifically, as shown in fig. 1, in response to the monitoring signal indicating the track deviation, the alarm buffer control module 11 may immediately send an activation instruction to the speaker, the warning light, and the seat vibration module of the cab 21 through the vehicle control system and the CAN communication network of the vehicle, so as to control the speaker, the warning light, and the seat vibration module of the cab 21 to send a lane deviation alarm to the driver.

Meanwhile, the warning buffer control module 11 may retrieve a torque curve T ═ T { T ═ T of the trajectory occurring a previous memory period Δ T from the steering system 22 of the self-steering vehicle₁,T₂,…,T_nAs a torque control amount for executing the vehicle revolution. The memory period delta t can be based on the actual track deviation time t of the self-guiding vehicle₁And the moment t when the alarm buffer control module 11 receives the monitoring signal₂Is determined by the time difference, i.e. t is t₂-t₁. The torque curve T may include a torque control quantity T at each time within a memory period Δ T₁～T_n. Then, the warning buffer control module 11 may control the steering system 22 to set the torque curve T ═ T { T ═ T according to the previous memory period Δ T₁,T₂,…,T_nExecuting a swing of the self-guided vehicle to reduce an angle of the self-guided vehicle deviating from the ground identification trajectory line.

In some embodiments, the warning buffer control module 11 may preset the maximum torque variation Δ T_maxAnd is used for limiting the variation amplitude between two adjacent torque control quantities. For example: defining the original torque of the self-steering vehicle at the beginning of executing the revolution as T₀. If T₁-T₀>ΔT_maxThen the alarm buffer control module 11 can adopt T₁’＝T₀+ΔT_maxThe torque control amount of the motor vehicle is used for executing the rotation so as to prevent the sudden sharp rotation from causing a rollover accident or causing injury to passengers in the vehicle. In the same way, if T₂–T₁’>ΔT_maxThen the alarm buffer control module 11 can adopt T₂’＝T₁’+ΔT_maxThe revolution is performed by the torque control amount of (1). By analogy, the alarm buffer control module 11 may set the torque curve T ═ T { T ] according to the previous memory period Δ T₁,T₂,…,T_nAnd continuously performing rotation on the self-guided vehicle until a driver inputs a manual take-over command or the time for performing rotation reaches a memory period delta t. In general, a memory cycle Δ t is usually setThe buffer time is set between 300 ms and 500ms, and only appropriate buffer time is provided for the reaction of a driver.

In addition, the warning buffer control module 11 can also implement the function of limiting the traction power output through the traction control system 23, and limit the maximum output torque of the traction motor or the engine to limit the vehicle speed, so as to implement the track deviation buffer according to the vehicle speed. In some embodiments, the highest output torque may be verified by a full-scale test.

In some embodiments of the invention, the safety assurance control module 13 may be configured to perform an active braking function to count the driver's manual takeover time Δ t₂₃And taking over the time delta t in the statistic manual₂₃Reach a preset second fault tolerance time FTTI2 (i.e. delta t)₂₃FTTI2), the emergency brake 24 of the vehicle is actively triggered to actively brake the self-guided vehicle. The time delta t of manual pipe connection₂₃Indicating the time t at which the track deviation signal is received from the alarm buffer control module 11₂To the moment t when it receives the manual takeover instruction₃Time duration of (1), i.e. Δ t₂₃＝t₃-t₂。

Specifically, after receiving the lane departure warning sent by the warning buffer control module 11, the driver may input a manual takeover instruction through the human-computer interaction interface of the cab 21, and activate the manual takeover control module 12 to implement manual driving. The manual take-over command includes, but is not limited to, a confirmation command to start the manual driving mode, a switch command to switch the driving mode, and a rotation command to operate the steering wheel of the vehicle. If the counted time delta t of manual take-over is counted₂₃When the preset second fault tolerance time FTTI2 is reached, the safety guarantee control module 13 may determine that the alarm buffer control module 11 does not receive the manual takeover instruction within the second fault tolerance time FTTI 2. At this time, the safety assurance control module 13 may actively activate the emergency brake 24 of the vehicle, actively braking the self-guided vehicle to avoid the risk of vehicle collision. Monitoring the time difference delta t between the track deviation signal and the manual take-over instruction by setting a second fault tolerance time FTTI2₃₄The invention can quickly judge whether the driver has a manual driving vehicleThe vehicle is braked in time to avoid the risk of vehicle collision under the condition that a driver does not express the intention of manually driving the vehicle, or the severity of the accident is reduced as much as possible under the condition that the collision accident cannot be avoided, so that the safety of the whole vehicle is improved.

Otherwise, if the driver is within the second fault tolerance time FTTI2 (i.e., Δ t)₂₃<FTTI2), the control device 10 may send the manual takeover instruction to the manual takeover control module 12 to implement manual takeover control.

As shown in fig. 2, the method for controlling the self-guided vehicle according to the present invention may further include: and responding to a manual take-over instruction input by a driver, executing manual take-over control to close the automatic steering function and starting the manual driving function.

In some embodiments of the present invention, manual takeover control may include a manual takeover detection function, an automatic steering exit control function, and a manual driving function. The manual takeover detection function is used for detecting a manual driving control command further input by a driver. The manual driving control command includes, but is not limited to, a command for operating a steering wheel provided in the cab 21 by a driver. In some embodiments, the manual takeover control module 12 may detect the driver's intervention time and intervention torque on the steering wheel via sensors. If the predetermined time is greater than the predetermined time threshold and the intervention torque is greater than the predetermined torque threshold, the manual takeover control module 12 may determine that the received operation command is a manual driving control command further input by the driver, so as to execute the automatic steering exit control function to turn off the automatic tracking steering function of the vehicle, and start the manual driving function of the vehicle to allow the driver to control the steering system 22 of the self-guided vehicle to rotate via the steering wheel.

On the contrary, if the predetermined time is less than the predetermined time threshold or the intervention torque is less than the predetermined torque threshold, the manual take-over control module 12 may determine that the operation command received by the steering wheel is the false trigger command, so as to continue to maintain the automatic tracking steering function of the vehicle, to wait for the driver to further input the manual driving control command, or to ensure that the control module 13 executes the active braking.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the above criteria for determining whether the intervention time is greater than the predetermined time threshold and the intervention torque is greater than the predetermined torque threshold are merely a non-limiting example of the present invention, which is intended to clearly demonstrate the broad concepts of the present invention and to provide a specific solution for the implementation by the public without limiting the scope of the present invention. Alternatively, in other embodiments, one skilled in the art may use only one of the intervention time or intervention torque, or other criteria, to screen out false trigger commands.

As shown in fig. 2, the method for controlling the self-guided vehicle according to the present invention may further include: in response to a determination that no manual driving control command is received from the driver, a safety assurance control is executed to actively brake the self-guided vehicle.

In some embodiments of the invention, the safety assurance control module 13 may be configured to perform an active braking function to count the driver's manual take-over time Δ t₃₄And at the statistical manual take-over time Deltat₃₄Reach a preset first fault tolerance time FTTI1 (i.e. delta t)₃₄FTTI1), the emergency brake 24 of the vehicle is actively triggered to actively brake the self-guided vehicle. The manual pipe connection time Deltat₃₄Time t for indicating that self-alarm buffer control module 11 receives manual takeover instruction₃To the moment t when the automatic tracking steering function is turned off₄Time duration of (1), i.e. Δ t₃₄＝t₄–t₃。

Specifically, after inputting the manual take-over command, the driver may further input the manual driving control command by rotating the steering wheel of the cab 21, thereby controlling the vehicle to travel along the desired path. If the counted manual take-over time delta t₃₄When the preset first fault tolerance time FTTI1 is reached, the safety assurance control module 13 may determine that the manual override control module 12 does not receive a further manual driving control command within the first fault tolerance time FTTI 1. At this time, the safety assurance control module 13 may actively trigger the emergency brake 24 of the vehicle, actively braking the self-guided vehicle to avoid the vehicleThe risk of vehicle collision, thereby improving the safety of the whole vehicle. Monitoring the time difference delta t between a manual take-over command and a manual driving control command by setting a first fault tolerance time FTTI1₃₄The invention can further judge whether the driver really has the capability of manually driving the vehicle, and brake the vehicle in time to avoid the collision risk of the vehicle under the condition that the driver cannot provide a manual driving control instruction in time, or reduce the severity of the accident as much as possible under the condition that the collision accident cannot be avoided, thereby avoiding the adverse effect caused by the wrong operation of the driver and further improving the safety of the whole vehicle.

Conversely, if the driver is within the first fault tolerance time FTTI1 (i.e., Δ t)₃₄<FTTI1), the manual take-over control module 12 may control the steering system 22 of the self-guided vehicle to perform a corresponding swing operation according to the manual driving control command input by the driver.

Alternatively, in some embodiments of the present invention, if the trajectory deviation signal is eliminated within the second fault tolerant time FTTI2 for the trajectory deviation caused by the performance degradation of the vehicle control system or the steering executing system, the control device 10 may directly end executing the self-guided vehicle control method, so as to continuously maintain the automatic tracking steering function of the vehicle.

Optionally, in some embodiments of the present invention, the safety assurance control module 13 may be further configured with a vehicle diagnostic control function. Specifically, in response to the trajectory deviation signal provided by the lane deviation detection module, the safety assurance control module 13 may perform a vehicle diagnostic control function to monitor the complete process of the self-guided vehicle deviating the trajectory and perform data interaction with the vehicle's control and execution systems to diagnose system faults that lead to the trajectory deviation. Thereafter, the safety assurance control module 13 may display the diagnostic data obtained by the diagnosis to a display of the cab 21, so that the driver can perform correct and accurate control operations according to the process data of the vehicle deviating from the trajectory and the fault data causing the trajectory to deviate from the system.

From the foregoing, it can be seen that the present invention provides a self-guided vehicle control technique that includes a multi-level safety control strategy. By adopting the modes of alarm buffer control, driver manual take-over control and safety guarantee control, the invention can overcome the hidden troubles that the prior art completely depends on the manual take-over of the driver and the quick response and operation accuracy of the driver, effectively avoid the bad influence caused by the wrong operation of the driver, avoid the collision risk of the vehicle and reduce the severity of the accident as much as possible under the condition that the collision accident cannot be avoided, thereby greatly improving the safety of the whole vehicle.

While, for purposes of simplicity of explanation, the methodologies are shown and described as a series of acts, it is to be understood and appreciated that the methodologies are not limited by the order of acts, as some acts may, in accordance with one or more embodiments, occur in different orders and/or concurrently with other acts from that shown and described herein or not shown and described herein, as would be understood by one skilled in the art.

The present invention provides the above computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer instructions. When the computer instructions are executed by a processor loaded with the alarm buffer control module 11, the manual takeover control module 12, and the safety guarantee control module 13, the method for controlling the self-guided vehicle according to any one of the embodiments described above may be implemented.

Those of skill in the art would understand that information, signals, and data may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits (bits), symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout the above description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

Those of skill would further appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present invention.

The various illustrative logical modules, and circuits described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

Although the alarm buffer control module 11, the manual takeover control module 12, and the safety assurance control module 13 described in the above embodiments may be implemented by a combination of software and hardware. However, it is understood that the alarm buffer control module 11, the manual takeover control module 12, and the safety assurance control module 13 may be implemented in software or hardware, respectively. For a hardware implementation, the alarm buffer control module 11, the manual takeover control module 12, and the safety assurance control module 13 may be implemented in one or more Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), digital signal processing devices (DAPDs), Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers, micro-controllers, microprocessors, other electronic devices configured to perform the functions described above, or a selected combination thereof. For software implementation, the alarm buffer control module 11, the manual takeover control module 12, and the security assurance control module 13 may be implemented by separate software modules, such as program modules (programs) and function modules (functions), running on a common chip, each of which may perform one or more of the functions and operations described herein.

The previous description of the disclosure is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the disclosure. Various modifications to the disclosure will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other variations without departing from the spirit or scope of the disclosure. Thus, the disclosure is not intended to be limited to the examples and designs described herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

Claims

1. A control method of a self-steering vehicle, characterized by comprising:

monitoring a trajectory following state of the self-guided vehicle;

executing alarm buffer control to send out lane departure alarm and performing track departure buffer on the self-guided vehicle in response to a monitoring signal indicating track departure;

responding to a manual take-over instruction input by a driver, executing manual take-over control to close the automatic steering function, and starting a manual driving function; and

and executing safety guarantee control to actively brake the self-guided vehicle in response to the judgment that the manual driving control command further input by the driver is not received.

2. The control method according to claim 1, wherein the step of executing the alarm buffer control includes:

executing a lane departure warning function, and sending the lane departure warning to the driver in a sound, light and/or seat vibration mode;

executing steering memory and turning functions, and reducing the deviation angle of the self-guiding vehicle to buffer the track deviation; and

and executing a function of limiting the traction power output, and sending a traction control command to limit the highest output torque so as to buffer the track deviation.

3. The control method of claim 2, wherein the step of performing the steering memory and slew function comprises:

retrieving a torque curve from a steering system of the self-steering vehicle for a previous memory period, wherein the memory period is determined based on a time difference between occurrence of the trajectory deviation and receipt of the monitoring signal, and the torque curve indicates a torque at each time within the memory period; and

and controlling the steering system to execute revolution according to the torque curve of the previous memory cycle so as to reduce the deviation angle of the self-guided vehicle, wherein the torque variation for executing the revolution is not more than the preset maximum torque variation, and the time for executing the revolution is not more than the memory cycle.

4. The control method according to claim 2, wherein the warning buffer control is implemented by means of heterogeneous redundancy, wherein the lane departure warning function is implemented by a vehicle control system and a CAN communication network, the steering memory and swing function is implemented by a steering system, and the limited traction power output function is implemented by a traction control system.

5. The control method of claim 1, wherein the step of performing the manual takeover control comprises:

executing a manual take-over detection function to detect the manual driving control command further input by the driver, wherein the manual driving control command comprises an intervention time and an intervention torque of the driver on a steering wheel; and

and in response to the intervention time being greater than a preset time threshold and/or the intervention torque being greater than a preset torque threshold, judging that a manual driving control instruction further input by the driver is received, executing an automatic steering exit control function to close the automatic steering function, and starting the manual driving function to allow the driver to execute steering through the steering wheel.

6. The control method according to claim 5, wherein the step of executing the safety assurance control includes:

executing an active braking function to count the manual take-over time of the driver, wherein the manual take-over time indicates the time from the manual take-over instruction to the automatic steering function being turned off; and

and responding to the manual take-over time reaching a preset first fault tolerance time, judging that a manual driving control instruction further input by the driver is not received, and actively triggering an emergency brake to actively brake the self-guided vehicle.

7. The control method according to claim 6, wherein the step of executing the safety assurance control further comprises:

executing the active braking function to count the manual take-over time of the driver, wherein the manual take-over time indicates the time from receiving the monitoring signal indicating the track deviation to receiving the manual take-over instruction; and

and responding to the manual take-over time reaching a preset second fault tolerance time, judging that a manual take-over instruction input by the driver is not received, and actively triggering an emergency brake to actively brake the self-guided vehicle.

8. The control method according to claim 1, further comprising:

and a vehicle diagnostic control function that executes the safety assurance control to monitor a process of the self-guided vehicle deviating from the trajectory, and a system failure that causes the trajectory deviation.

9. A control device of a self-guided vehicle, characterized by being adapted to monitor a track following state of the self-guided vehicle, and comprising:

an alarm buffer control module configured to: responding to a monitoring signal indicating track deviation, sending out a lane deviation alarm, and performing track deviation buffering on the self-guided vehicle;

a manual takeover control module configured to: responding to a manual take-over instruction input by a driver, closing the automatic steering function and starting the manual driving function; and

a security assurance control module configured to: and actively braking the self-guiding vehicle in response to judging that no manual driving control command is received by the driver.

10. The control apparatus of claim 9, wherein the alarm buffer control module is further configured to:

11. The control apparatus of claim 10, wherein the alarm buffer control module is further configured to:

12. The control apparatus of claim 10, wherein the warning buffer control module has a heterogeneous redundant architecture, wherein the warning buffer control module implements the lane departure warning function through a vehicle control system and a CAN communication network, implements the steering memory and swing function through a steering system, and implements the limited traction power output function through a traction control system.

13. The control apparatus of claim 9, wherein the manual takeover control module is further configured to:

14. The control apparatus of claim 13, wherein the safety assurance control module is further configured to:

15. The control apparatus of claim 14, wherein the safety assurance control module is further configured to:

16. The control apparatus of claim 9, wherein the safety assurance control module is further configured to:

a vehicle diagnostic control function is executed to monitor the self-guided vehicle for a process of deviating from a trajectory, and a system fault that causes the trajectory to deviate.

17. A computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer instructions, wherein the computer instructions, when executed by a processor, implement a method of controlling a self-steering vehicle as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8.