ES2213091T3 - HELP PROCEDURE FOR THE SAFE DRIVING OF A MOTOR VEHICLE. - Google Patents

Abstract

Acquisition process receives values (V1-Vp) for physical values representing the vehicle state. From the values, the extent of a safety zone in front of the vehicle is determined. Determined zone is then displayed on the windscreen of the vehicle and aids a driver in avoiding an obstacle that initially occurs in the safety zone in front of the vehicle and then seems likely to move into a danger zone immediately in front of the driver.

Description

Safe driving assistance procedure of a motor vehicle.

The present invention relates, in a manner general, to a procedure that allows to offer greater security to drivers of motor vehicles.

More precisely, the invention relates to a procedure for the safe driving of a vehicle that wheel on a road and comprising a passenger compartment protected by a windshield that allows a driver to receive a image of the road, this procedure comprising a acquisition process consisting of collecting, by measurement or estimation, physical parameter values representative of the instant vehicle bearing conditions, and a process of treatment consisting of combining with each other, according to models previously established physical values collected for at least partially locate a boundary between an area of dangerous interference immediately surrounding the vehicle and a safety zone located at a distance from the vehicle and extending beyond the area of dangerous interference.

Thanks to the development of electronics, Driving assistance procedures for motor vehicles are currently increasingly widespread, and may include increasingly numerous functionalities.

Help procedures are known in particular to driving the defined type, particularly when using a radar, under the generic designation of "travel systems smart, "and are better known still under appeal Anglo-Saxon "Intelligent cruise control", abbreviated frequently in "ICC".

Such systems, mainly dedicated to the surveillance of the vehicle environment and in particular those in charge of prevention of risks linked to the presence of obstacles fixed or mobile on the road, they appear for example described in patent documents EP-0 720 928, EP-0 764 279, EP - 0 684 486, US - 5 493 302, EP - 0 706 667, EP - 0 569 095, or also GB - 2 267 544.

Patent application FR-A-2 578 797 describes a system of driving assistance of the car that displays on the vehicle windshield fixed obstacles, such as curbs of the road and safety lanes, as well as obstacles phones that are both behind the vehicle and in front of the Same and on the sides.

Other driving assistance procedures, Usable in combination with ICC systems but essentially designed to monitor the vehicle-road pair and regulate the instantaneous stability of the vehicle, they are known under various appeals such as the French abbreviation "CDS" (dynamic stability control), the German abbreviation "FDR", or Anglo-Saxon abbreviations "DCC" (Dynamic Chassis Control) or "DDC" (Driving-Dynamics Control).

Such systems appear for example described in Patent documents FR-2 719 536, FR-2 719 537, or US-4 984 649.

Other systems are also known, for example illustrated by FR-2 618 743, from one more date far under various appeals such as "ABS" or "ASR", according to the functions assigned to them most specifically, allowing ABS systems to avoid blocking the wheels in case of braking, and allowing the ASR systems prevent roller skating due to excessive acceleration against the adhesion that the road presents.

Currently, these systems are not only able to detect critical situations and define their limits, but they are also designed, in general, to make disappear, to the maximum possible these critical situations, acting  directly on the appropriate organs of the vehicle, for example on the brakes, on the engine, on the suspension, or even on the direction of the rear wheels at least.

Despite the maximum and obvious interest that present these systems, their extensive application stumbles upon Several difficulties

On the one hand, if every driver can easily accept delegating to an electromechanical system the care of fulfill a security function that is unable to secure itself same, as for example the modulation of the brake pressure in several hertz to prevent a wheel lock, many drivers are instead more reluctant to give a circuit electronic the possibility of taking for yourself and applying driving decisions, and for example the possibility of make the decision to brake the vehicle or accelerate it.

On the other hand, some of these systems, such as For example, ICC systems that include a radar are not accessible more than relatively high costs.

Now, the security gain that vehicles equipped with such systems are capable of providing no It depends only on the technical level of your own equipment, but which also depends on the vehicles between which circulate

Therefore, not only the high cost of certain systems, considered in the set of their functionalities, is a factor that limits its exploitation, but that it is also a factor capable of limiting, for the moment, its effectiveness in a concrete plane

Finally and above all, it seems established currently that drivers have a tendency to drive with constant conscious risk, and that the sense of security that gives them the presence of an automatic help system for the driving their vehicles, for example an ABS system, encourages them to take increasing risks as the conviction that these systems are able to avoid these Risks in all circumstances.

Within this context, the present invention It aims to propose a driving assistance system sure able to contribute at least in certain aspects here targeted, a real advantage over systems existing.

To this end, the process of the invention, by other part according to the generic definition that gives the preamble more above, essentially characterized in that it comprises a display process that includes a mixing operation consisting of superimposing the image of the road received by the driver an image of the boundary between the zone of dangerous interference and the safety zone, which allows the driver contribute to driving the vehicle, in real time and from interactive way, any own corrective measure to prevent a obstacle initially visible in the safety zone is encouraged with an apparent movement that causes the risk of taking it to the Dangerous interference zone

In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the mixing operation is performed by projecting on the windshield a luminous image of the boundary between the zone of Dangerous interference and safety zone.

The process of the invention thus makes use of a known technology, called signaling "to view the front ", within a context that gives specific advantages and substantial in matters of security.

Preferably, the limit includes at least when the vehicle is going to start a turn, a lateral edge that defines a path of limit curvature of the vehicle, and a boundary front that defines a minimum safety brake distance over The road.

One of the elements of interest of the procedure of the invention is that it essentially implies no more than operations capable of being carried out on the vehicle to which it is applied, of so that it represents only a moderate differential cost.

Thus, the acquisition and Treatment of the method of the invention may, taken together, be at least partially constituted by operations of acquisition and treatment carried out within a procedure (ICC) intended to at least regulate speed or direction of the vehicle depending on its environment.

The acquisition and treatment processes of process of the invention may also, as a whole, be at less partially constituted by acquisition and process performed within the procedure (FDR) for at least dynamically regulate vehicle stability.

The acquisition and treatment processes of process of the invention can also, as a whole, be at least partially constituted by operations of acquisition and process within a procedure (ABS) intended at least avoid blocking the wheels of the vehicle.

In a more elaborate embodiment of procedure of the invention, the acquisition process can understand a circulation data acquisition operation, the treatment process then comprising an operation of exploitation of circulation data, proper to modify the limit, at any given time, depending on the obstacles that the vehicle must find on the road in an instant later.

The luminous image of the limit is for example formed by lighting, by a light source, a matrix of mirrors operated by an electronic steering circuit, presenting the windshield on which the luminous image of the boundary is projected, advantageously, in a vertical plane, a section in the form of cradle.

Finally, to increase the reliability of the method of the invention, the visualization process comprises preferably a mixing drive operation for conduct the mixing operation, and a caliber operation for determine and supply the mixing drive operation geometric parameters that allow to take into account at least, for the projection of the luminous image of the boundary, the position of the driver in relation to the windshield.

Other features and advantages will come off of the invention clearly from the description we make to then for indicative purposes and in no way limiting, with reference to the attached drawings, in which:

- Figure 1 is a synoptic scheme of the set of the method of the invention, which illustrates at the same time essential operations and processes, operations and processes optional, and known operations and processes, external to the invention;

- Figure 2 is an illustrative scheme of result of the application of the method of the invention; Y

- Figure 3 is a representative scheme of a optical system usable within the scope of the invention.

The invention relates to a method of Safe driving aid for a motor vehicle, vehicle driven by a conductor K (figure 3), having been designed to roll on a road R (figure 2), and which includes, in a classic way, a cabin protected in front by a transparent windshield W (figure 3), which allows the driver receive a lmg1 image of the R circulation path.

This procedure comprises first of all known way in itself, a PAQ acquisition process consisting of collecting, by measurement or estimation, V1 values to Vp of physical parameters that represent instantaneous conditions of vehicle bearing.

These physical parameters may include in particular the speed of the vehicle, its mass, the degree of wheel slip, steering wheel rotation angle, degree of environmental humidity, the adhesion of the vehicle to the ground, the centrifugal force, etc.

In general, these parameters are preferably those that are supplied, in real time, by the procedures of existing driving assistance in the vehicle, such as ICC, FDR, ABS, ASR or other systems.

Failing that, these parameters can therefore less include parameters available on all vehicles, such such as the speed and parameters of the constructor, stored in a once and for all, such as the empty mass of the vehicle.

The process of the invention comprises another part a PT treatment process, which consists of combining with each other the values V1 to Vp of the different parameters, according to to preset physical models.

Again, the operations of this process of treatment may include at least certain operations that are carried out, in real time, by the procedures to help the existing driving in the vehicle, such as ICC systems, FDR, ABS, ASR, or others.

However, while the operations of treatment or process carried out by these known systems have in order to produce signals, such as E1, E2, E3, E5, E7, Ek, which are exploited, within the framework of a drive process PCA, to conduct drive operations OCA1, OCA2, OCAn that they serve to directly drive mechanical or hydraulic organs of the vehicle, the method of the invention does not take into account the PCA drive process and does not include more than operations of process that aims to produce signals, such as E4 a E8, and Ek, which define a boundary or spatial boundary F between a zone of dangerous interference Zid immediately surrounding the vehicle, and a safety zone Zs located at a distance from the vehicle and extending beyond the interference zone dangerous Zid.

In other words, while certain signals at least traditional from the PT treatment process and exploited in the PCA drive process represent respective separations between normal operating zones of various vehicle organs and actual operating areas of these organs, the process of the invention, whose purpose it is outside the one corresponding to the PCA drive process, only affects signals from the process of PT treatment that are representative of a distance between a obstacle and the vehicle, from a position or an orientation relative to an obstacle and the vehicle, and the level of risk associated with the existence of this obstacle, depending on its distance, position or orientation with respect to vehicle.

More precisely, the invention affects the signals, coming from the PT process, that allow to delimit, by medium of limit F, the hazardous interference zone Zid defined as the one that must be free of all obstacles to be able to affirm Vehicle safety

Within this context, the procedure of the invention comprises a PV display process that allows driver K immediately perceives the limit or boundary F that separates this zone of dangerous interference Zid from the zone of Zs security.

To this end, the PV display process includes a MIX mixing operation that consists of superimposing the image Imgl of the road that the driver K receives through of the windshield W, a materialization of the limit F.

Thanks to the invention, the conductor K can thus contribute to the driving of your vehicle, in real time and in a manner interactive, any own corrective measure to prevent a obstacle that he initially perceives in the safety zone Zs is move, within your field of vision, to the interior of the area of dangerous interference Zid.

This visualization is advantageously obtained by the technique known in itself under the name "signaling for front view "and which is for example described in the Patent documents FR-2 734 653, or FR-2 678 079.

Thus, the MIX mixing operation is performed preferably projecting on the windshield W a bright image Img2 of the border or limit F between the interference zone dangerous Zid and the safety zone Zs.

As Figure 3 shows, the bright image Img2 of the boundary is for example formed by lighting, by a source luminosa SL, a matrix of mirrors MM driven by a circuit EC address electronic, the matrix may be constituted of mirrors for the product marketed by the Texas Society Instruments under the name of "Digital Mirrors Display" that It comprises 800 lines of 600 small mirrors.

In this case, performing the operation of MIX mixing may require a mixing drive operation OCM (figure 1), proper to define the coordinates of the mirrors which is about regulating and to conduct the MIX mixing operation transmitting these coordinates to an electronic circuit of CE address.

To make the parasitic images disappear, the Windshield W can receive a specific treatment, such as a metal deposit, a factory job, or a laminate, having Already described these techniques in the prior art.

Within the framework of the invention, they can be get good results using a laminated W windshield that present, in a vertical plane, a wedge-shaped section, and more exactly a windshield whose faces converge the one towards the another, down, at an angle of a few degrees.

As Figure 2 shows, the limit F includes by at least one front boundary limit BF, which defines a minimum distance of safety braking on the road R.

To keep a safe distance between the vehicle that follows the driver and the vehicle that drives him same, the driver K must therefore stay far enough of the vehicle that follows so that the image of the latter appears always above the front edge BF of the F limit.

If the vehicle includes means that allow evaluate the radius of action of the wheels and the limit of adhesion transverse of the vehicle on the track, may also include the limit F, at least when the vehicle starts a turn, one or two lateral boundaries such as BL1 and BL2, which allow defining a vehicle limit curvature trajectory.

To avoid an untimely skid of the vehicle, the driver K must therefore proceed so that his trajectory intended always be at a time on the road R and in the security zone bordered by the edge or the edges BL1 and BL2 sides, and should therefore avoid having to make a turn whose radius of curvature is less than the trajectory of limit curvature materialized by the border or the BL1 boundaries and BL2.

How the braking distance is defined in front of the vehicle, while it varies according to the conditions bearing snapshots thereof, and in particular according to move in a straight line, to take a turn, to be in a upward slope or on a downward slope, it can be advantageous to have information on the route of movement by in front of the vehicle, in order to optimally establish the definition of limit F.

To this end, the PAQ acquisition process can, in a manner known per se, understand an OANav operation of acquisition of travel data l1 to lq, for example transmitted by local emitters installed in the R or extracted from a memorized cartography, linked to a on-board instrumentation that supplies the coordinates vehicle snapshots.

In such case, the PT treatment process it comprises an operation of exploitation of the travel data l1 to lq, annotated as OTNav (figure 1), allowing, at every moment T, modify the limit F according to the obstacles (descents, turns, plugs, etc.) that the vehicle must find on the road R circulation at a later time T + dT.

For optimum accuracy and reliability of the process of the invention, the PV display process may comprise (figure 1) a CAL calibration operation to determine and supply in the OCM mixing actuator operation geometric parameters G1 to Gt that allow to take at least in mind, for the projection of the light image Img2 of the limit F, the position of the driver K in relation to the windshield W.

CAL calibration operation, which is not accurate be performed more than once for a given driver, adopting a given position in a given vehicle, it can be done at will by the driver K and done in a way automatic

For example, geometric parameters G1 to Gt can be obtained from images of various test limits projected on the windshield W, these images being collected in a miniature camera installed on a frame of glasses that carry the driver during the time of this calibration operation LIME.

Claims (10)

1. Procedure for assisting the safe driving of a motor vehicle on a road (R) comprising a passenger compartment protected by a windshield (W) that allows a driver (K) to receive an image (Img1) of the road circulation, this procedure comprising an acquisition process (PAQ) consisting of collecting, by measurement or estimation, values (V1 to Vp) of physical parameters that represent instantaneous vehicle rolling conditions, and a treatment process (PT) consisting of combining with each other, according to pre-established physical models, the collected values (V1 to Vp) to locate at least partially a boundary (F) between a dangerous interference zone (Zid) that immediately surrounds the vehicle and a safety zone (Zs ) located at a distance from the vehicle and extending beyond the hazardous interference zone (Zid), characterized in that it also comprises a visualization process (PV) that includes on the other hand, a mixing operation (MIX) consisting of superimposing, on the image (Img1) of the traffic route received by the driver (K), an image of the limit (F) between the hazardous interference zone (Zid) and the safety zone (Zs), which allows the driver (K) to contribute to the driving of the vehicle, in real time and interactively, any appropriate corrective measures to prevent an initially visible obstacle in the safety zone (Zs ) is encouraged with an apparent movement that presents the risk of taking it to the dangerous interference zone (Zid). 2. A driving aid method according to claim 1, characterized in that the mixing operation (MIX) is carried out by projecting on the windshield (W) a luminous image (Img2) of the limit (F) between the hazardous interference zone (Zid ) and the security zone (Zs). 3. Driving assistance method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the limit (F) between the hazardous interference zone (Zid) and the safety zone (Zs) includes, at least when the vehicle initiates a turn , a lateral border (BL1, BL2) that defines a path of limit curvature of the vehicle. 4. Driving assistance method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the boundary (F) between the hazardous interference zone (Zid) and the safety zone (Zs) includes a frontal edge (BF) defining a distance minimum safety braking on the road. 5. Driving assistance method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the acquisition (PAQ) and treatment (PT) processes are, as a whole, at least partially constituted by acquisition operations (OAQ1 to OAQp; OANav ) and treatment (OT1 to OTm; OTNav) used in a procedure (ICC) intended to at least regulate the speed or direction of the vehicle depending on its environment. 6. Driving assistance method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the acquisition (PAQ) and treatment (PT) processes are, as a whole, at least partially constituted by acquisition operations (OAQ1 to OAQp; OANav) and treatment (OT1 to OTm; OTNav) applied in a procedure (CDS or FDR) to dynamically regulate the stability of the vehicle. 7. Driving assistance method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the acquisition (PAQ) and treatment (PT) processes are, as a whole, at least partially constituted by acquisition operations (OAQ1 to OAQp; OANav ) and treatment (OT1 to OTm; OTNav) applied in a procedure (ABS) to prevent at least one vehicle wheel lock. 8. A driving assistance method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the acquisition process (PAQ) comprises an operation (OANav) for the acquisition of travel data (I1 to Iq) and because the treatment process (PT) It includes an operation of operation (OTNav) of the traffic data (I1 to Iq), proper to modify the limit (F), at a given time (T), depending on the obstacles that the vehicle must find on the road circulation at a later time (T + dT). 9. A driving aid method according to any of the preceding claims, combined with claim 2, characterized in that the light image (Img2) of the limit is formed by illuminating, by means of a light source (SL), a matrix of mirrors (MM) operated by an electronic steering circuit (CE) and because the windshield (W) on which the luminous image (Img2) of the boundary is projected is laminated and presents, in a vertical plane, a wedge-shaped section. 10. A driving aid method according to any of the preceding claims, combined with claim 2, characterized in that the display process (PV) comprises a mixing operation (OCM) for conducting the mixing operation (MIX), and a calibration operation (CAL) to determine and supply to the mixing drive operation (OCM) geometric parameters (G1 to Gt) that allow consideration at least for the projection of the light image (Img2) of the limit, the position of the driver (K) in relation to the windshield (W).