JP2001012958A - Vehicle drive supporting apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vehicle drive supporting apparatus capable of suitably driving and controlling a vehicle by accurately judging whether the vehicle is traveling on a motorway or not. SOLUTION: The vehicle drive supporting apparatus comprises an ETC on-vehicle unit 101 for acquiring predetermined information of a highway toll booth or the like, a traveling road memory 205 for storing information of traveling on a motorway or except the motorway, a traveling road deciding unit 203 for deciding whether an own vehicle is traveling on the motorway or not, based on information from the unit 101 and the memory 205, and a controller 207. Thus, a vehicle automatic controller 211 for automatically controlling the vehicle is allowed or inhibited, based on the information from the unit 211 and the unit 203.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle driving support device, and more particularly, to a vehicle driving support device for controlling an automatic vehicle control device based on a running position of a vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various automatic vehicle control devices have been developed in order to facilitate driving operation by a driver and to ensure safety during traveling. However, none of these types of automatic vehicle control devices are suitable for use on all roads, and are suitable for use only on motorways. Therefore, if the vehicle automatic control device is operated while traveling on a road other than an automobile exclusive road, for example, in a crowded city area or the like, appropriate control may not be possible due to the presence of pedestrians and bicycles.

[0003] In consideration of this point, a technique for making the automatic vehicle control device operable only on an automobile-only road is described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-52579. In this method, first, it is determined whether or not the vehicle is traveling on a dedicated road, and as a result, the operation of the automatic vehicle control device is prohibited while the vehicle is traveling on a road other than the dedicated road. .

[0004]

However, the vehicle driving support apparatus according to the prior art determines whether or not the vehicle is traveling on a dedicated road by using a radio navigation device such as a GPS, a gyro sensor, and a vehicle speed. This is performed based on the current position information of the own vehicle and the map information calculated by the dead reckoning navigation device using a sensor or the like. For this reason, in some cases, depending on the state of the GPS satellites, the traveling position of the vehicle, or the like, necessary radio waves cannot be received, and the position of the own vehicle may be lost.

Further, the current position information obtained by these radio navigation devices and dead reckoning navigation devices is not only two-dimensional information but also has a certain degree of accuracy error. Therefore, when a general road running on the ground surface and an expressway that is an elevated road exist in a short distance and in parallel, the current position cannot be three-dimensionally grasped. There were no cases.

As described above, if vehicle control is performed based on unclear and unreliable information as to whether or not the vehicle is traveling on a highway, the original automatic vehicle control device cannot be used effectively. , Appropriate control becomes impossible.

Further, even if the current position information is accurate, it is impossible to confirm in real time whether or not the vehicle enters or exits an exclusive motorway by the above-described judgment using the dead reckoning navigation device or the like. Therefore, there is a case where a timing shift occurs in controlling the vehicle, which may hinder safe driving.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to appropriately determine whether or not a vehicle is traveling on a motorway, thereby appropriately controlling the operation of the vehicle. It is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle driving support device capable of performing the following. It is another object of the present invention to accurately and in real time determine whether or not the vehicle is traveling on a main line, thereby enabling more appropriate driving control of the vehicle.

[0009]

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle driving support apparatus comprising:
A traveling road recognition unit for recognizing a road on which the vehicle is traveling, a first control unit for automatically controlling the vehicle, and a second control unit for controlling the first control unit in accordance with the recognition result by the traveling road recognition unit. A vehicle driving support device including a control unit, wherein the traveling road recognition unit is configured to detect a tollgate and detect that the own vehicle is traveling on a motorway based on a detection result of the tollgate detection unit. And a traveling road determination unit that determines whether or not the vehicle is traveling.

[0010] According to this, it is possible to accurately determine whether or not the vehicle is traveling on the automobile exclusive road based on the detection result of the tollgate, so that the vehicle driving support that can appropriately control the operation of the vehicle. A device can be provided.

[0011] Preferably, the tollgate detection unit includes an ETC vehicle-mounted device that receives information from an ETC (automatic toll collection system) transmitter provided at the tollgate.

According to this, since ETC can be used,
Further, there is no need to provide a sensor or the like, and accurate information for recognizing the traveling road of the own vehicle can be obtained with a simpler configuration.

Preferably, the traveling road recognition unit further includes a traveling road storage unit that stores traveling road information of the own vehicle, and the traveling road determination unit stores the detection result of the tollgate detection unit and the traveling road storage unit. Based on the stored information, it is determined whether or not the own vehicle is traveling on a motorway.

By storing traveling road information, more appropriate control can be performed by referring to the information.

[0015] Further, preferably, the traveling road determination section comprises:
If the type of detected tollgate is an entrance, it is determined that the vehicle is traveling on a motorway, and if the type of detected tollgate is an exit, the vehicle is traveling on a road other than a motorway. Is determined, and the second control unit permits the operation of the first control unit when the traveling road determination unit determines that the own vehicle is traveling on the vehicle-dedicated road. When it is determined that the vehicle is traveling on a road other than the road, the operation of the first control unit is prohibited.

[0016] Since it is determined whether or not the own vehicle is traveling on a motorway in accordance with the type of tollgate, accurate and real-time determination is possible, and control of the vehicle based on the determination result is more appropriate. Become.

Further, the vehicle driving support device further includes a traveling lane recognizing unit for recognizing the traveling lane of the own vehicle, and the second control unit determines a result of the recognition by the traveling road recognizing unit and a result of the recognition by the traveling lane recognizing unit. It is preferable to control the first control unit based on the following.

By considering whether the vehicle is traveling on a main road in addition to whether the vehicle is traveling on a motorway,
More appropriate operation control of the vehicle can be performed.

Preferably, the traveling lane recognizing section includes a camera mounted on the vehicle, an image processing section for processing output video information from the camera by a predetermined method, and a processing result from the image processing section. And a traveling lane determining unit that determines whether the vehicle is traveling on a main lane.

Since the information from the camera mounted on the vehicle is image-processed in real time, it is possible to accurately and in real time determine whether or not the vehicle is traveling on the main line.

Preferably, the second control unit recognizes that the main lane is traveling by the traveling lane recognizing unit when the traveling road recognizing unit recognizes that the vehicle is traveling on the automobile exclusive road. The operation of the first control unit is permitted when the vehicle is running, and the operation of the first control unit is prohibited when it is recognized that the vehicle is traveling other than on the main line.

Since the operation of the first control unit is permitted only when the vehicle is traveling on a motorway and traveling on a main line, more secure and appropriate operation control of the vehicle can be performed.

[0023]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. [First Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the appearance of a vehicle equipped with a vehicle driving support device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, a vehicle 100 is equipped with an ETC vehicle-mounted device 101 that receives a signal from an ETC transmitter 103 provided at a tollgate such as an expressway. Machine 103 is installed.

Here, the vehicle-mounted ETC device 101 moves the vehicle 1 to a distance at which the output signal from the ETC transmitter 103 can be received.
As 00 approaches, predetermined information such as the location and type of tollgate and billing information can be obtained.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of the vehicle driving support device 1 according to the first embodiment. The vehicle driving support device 1 includes a traveling road recognition unit 202 that recognizes a road on which the own vehicle is traveling, and a control unit 207 that permits or prohibits the operation of the automatic vehicle control device 211 based on information from the traveling road recognition unit 202. And an automatic vehicle control device 211 for performing automatic control of the vehicle.

It should be noted that the vehicle automatic control device 211 determines the vehicle speed,
The accelerator 215 and the brake 21 based on information from the on-board sensor 209 that detects the turn signal state, the steering state, the transmission state, the brake state, the position of the preceding vehicle, and the like.
7, steering 219, transmission 221 and the like, or LCD (liquid crystal display), voice, HUD
(Head-up display) and the like 213 are used to issue a danger warning and information to the driver.

Here, the traveling road recognition unit 202 includes an ETC on-vehicle device 101 for acquiring predetermined information such as a tollgate, and information on whether the own vehicle is traveling on an automobile exclusive road or traveling on a road other than the automobile exclusive road. Road storage unit 205 that stores
And a traveling road determination unit 203 that determines whether or not the own vehicle is traveling on an automobile dedicated road based on information from the on-board ETC device 101 and the traveling road storage unit 205.

Next, FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the control flow of the vehicle driving support device 1. Referring to FIG. 3, first, in step S301, vehicle driving support device 1 performs an initialization process of traveling road storage unit 205. That is, at the time when the system is activated, the traveling road storage unit 205 stores information indicating whether the vehicle is traveling on an automobile exclusive road or on a road other than the automobile exclusive road.

Next, in step S303, the ETC
The in-vehicle device 101 determines whether a tollgate has been detected. If a tollgate is detected, step S
At 305, it is determined whether or not the vehicle is traveling on a motorway by referring to the current traveling road information in the traveling road storage unit 205.

If it is determined in step S305 that the vehicle is traveling on a road other than the exclusive motorway, the flow proceeds to step S30.
Proceeding to the process of 7, it is determined whether or not the detected tollgate is an entrance.

If it is determined that the vehicle is at the entrance, the vehicle that has been traveling on the general road is in a state of starting traveling on the automobile exclusive road. Update that the vehicle is running on the road. Then, in step S311, the operation of the automatic vehicle control device 211 is permitted.

Conversely, if it is determined in step S307 that the detected tollgate is not an entrance, the process returns to step S303 because the vehicle is not in a state to start driving on a motorway.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S305 that the vehicle is traveling on a motorway, the flow proceeds to step S3.
Proceeding to the process of 13, it is determined whether or not the detected tollgate is an exit.

If it is determined that the vehicle is on the exit, the vehicle traveling on the automobile exclusive road is in a state of starting traveling on a general road. Updates that the vehicle is traveling on a road other than the road. Then, in step S317, the operation of the automatic vehicle control device 211 is prohibited.

Conversely, if it is determined in step S313 that the detected tollgate is not an exit, it is considered that the tollgate is a tollgate between motorways, and The information is not rewritten as the information indicating that the vehicle is traveling on a motorway, and the information in step S3
The process returns to the tollgate detection process of 03.

According to such a flow of processing, it is determined whether or not the own vehicle is traveling on an automobile exclusive road on the basis of information from the on-board ETC device. In addition, the automatic vehicle control device can be controlled in real time.

<Modification 1> Next, a modification of the vehicle driving support device 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating the overall configuration of the vehicle driving support device according to the first modification. As shown in the figure, the present modified example has a configuration in which the traveling road storage unit 205 is not included in the traveling road recognition unit 202 as compared with the vehicle driving support device 1 of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a control flow of the vehicle driving support device according to the first modification. Referring to FIG. 5, in the present modification, first, in step S303, it is determined whether a tollgate has been detected based on information from the ETC. And if a toll booth is detected,
In step S506, the type is determined. In other words, it is determined whether the detected tollgate is a tollgate at an entrance of a motorway, an tollgate at an exit, or a tollgate provided between motorwayways. .

If it is determined in step S506 that the detected tollgate is the entrance of the automobile exclusive road, in step S311, the control unit 207 permits the operation of the automatic vehicle control device 211. This is because, in this case, the own vehicle is in a state of starting traveling on the automobile exclusive road.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S506 that the detected tollgate is the exit of the motorway, the control unit 207 prohibits the operation of the automatic vehicle control device 211 in step S317. This is because, in this case, the own vehicle is in a state of starting traveling on a general road.

If it is determined in step S506 that the detected tollgate is a tollgate between motorways, the process returns to step S303 tollgate detection processing.

According to the flow of such processing, it is possible to determine whether or not the own vehicle is traveling on the automobile exclusive road based only on the information from the ETC on-vehicle device. The device can be controlled.

[Second Embodiment] Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.
A vehicle driving support device according to the embodiment will be described. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an appearance of a vehicle equipped with the vehicle driving support device according to the second embodiment of the present invention. FIG.
1, the vehicle 100 has an ETC transmitter 103 provided at a tollgate such as an expressway, as in the case of FIG.
ETC in-vehicle device 101 that receives a signal from the vehicle, and, in addition to this, an in-vehicle camera 60 that can obtain video information in a direction necessary for recognizing whether or not the traveling lane is a main lane.
5 are mounted.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of the vehicle driving support device 2 according to the second embodiment. The vehicle driving support device 2 includes a traveling road recognition unit 202, a control unit 207, and a vehicle automatic control device 211, similarly to the vehicle driving support device 1 shown in FIG. A traveling lane recognizing unit 702 for recognizing whether the traveling lane of the vehicle is the main lane is included.

Here, the traveling lane recognizing unit 702 is based on an in-vehicle camera 701, an image processing unit 703 that performs predetermined image processing on video information from the in-vehicle camera 701, and data transmitted from the image processing unit. A traveling lane determining unit 705 for determining whether or not the own vehicle is traveling in the traveling lane.

Next, the flow of control of the vehicle driving support device 2 is shown in the flowchart of FIG. Referring to FIG. 8, first, in step S301, vehicle driving support device 2 performs an initialization process of traveling road storage unit 205. Next, in step S303, it is determined whether or not the toll booth has been detected by the on-board ETC device 101.

If a tollgate is detected, step S3
At 05, it is determined whether or not the vehicle is traveling on a motorway by referring to the current traveling road information in the traveling road storage unit 205.

If it is determined in step S305 that the vehicle is traveling on a road other than the dedicated road, the flow advances to step S30.
Proceeding to the process of 7, it is determined whether or not the detected tollgate is an entrance.

If it is determined that the vehicle is at the entrance, the vehicle traveling on the general road is in a state of starting traveling on the automobile exclusive road. Update that the vehicle is running on the road.

Conversely, if it is determined in step S307 that the detected tollgate is not the entrance, the vehicle returns to the tollgate detection process in step S303 because it is not in a state to start driving on the motorway.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S305 that the vehicle is traveling on a motorway, the flow proceeds to step S3.
Proceeding to the process of 13, it is determined whether or not the detected tollgate is an exit.

If it is determined that the vehicle is on the exit, the vehicle traveling on the automobile exclusive road is in a state of starting traveling on a general road. Updates that the vehicle is traveling on a road other than the road.

Conversely, if it is determined in step S313 that the detected tollgate is not an exit, the tollgate is considered to be a tollgate between motorways, and The information is not rewritten as the information indicating that the vehicle is traveling on a motorway, and the information in step S3
The process returns to the tollgate detection process of 03.

The processing flow so far is the same as the processing flow in the vehicle driving support device 1 of FIG. 3, but in the present embodiment, it is determined whether or not the own vehicle is traveling on a motorway. Only depending on the control, the control of permitting or not permitting the operation of the automatic vehicle control device 211 by the control unit 207 is not performed. Therefore, the following processing is further performed.

That is, in step S303, ET
If the tollgate is not detected by the on-vehicle device 101, it is determined in step S804 whether or not the own vehicle is traveling on a motorway by referring to the data in the traveling road storage unit 205. If the vehicle is traveling on a road other than the motorway, the process returns to the tollgate detection process in step S303. If it is determined that the vehicle is traveling on the motorway, in step S806, whether the driving lane is the main lane is determined. Is determined.

When it is determined that the vehicle is traveling on the main line, in step S808, the control unit 207 causes
When the operation of the automatic vehicle control device 211 is permitted and it is determined that the vehicle is traveling on a route other than the main line, the operation of the automatic vehicle control device 211 is prohibited by the control unit 207 in step S810.

That is, according to the flow of this processing, the operation of the automatic vehicle control device 211 is permitted only when it is determined that the own vehicle is traveling on the automobile exclusive road and traveling on the main road. Become. Therefore, even when traveling on a motorway, other than the main line, for example, if the vehicle is traveling on a merging lane with a sharp curve and a low speed limit or a lane near a tollgate where there is a high possibility of pedestrians. Therefore, the operation of the automatic vehicle control device 211 is prohibited, and higher safety can be ensured.

<Modification 2> Next, a modification of the vehicle driving support device 2 according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described. The configuration of the vehicle driving support device in Modification 2 is the same as the block diagram of the vehicle driving support device 2 shown in FIG.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a control flow of the vehicle driving support device in the second modification. Referring to FIG. 9, in the present modification, first, in step S301, initialization processing of traveling road storage unit 205 is performed. Next, in step S303, it is determined whether or not the toll booth has been detected by the on-board ETC device 101. And
If a tollgate has been detected, its type is determined in step S506. That is, it is determined whether the vehicle is at the entrance, the exit, or the tollgate provided between the motorways.

If it is determined in the step S506 that the detected tollgate is the entrance of the motorway, then in a step S309, the traveling road storage unit 20
5 stores information that the own vehicle is running on a motorway.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S506 that the detected tollgate is the exit of the motorway, then in step S315, the traveling road storage unit 2
At 05, information that the vehicle is traveling on a road other than the exclusive road is stored.

If it is determined in step S506 that the detected tollgate is a tollgate between motorways, the flow returns to step S303 tollgate detection processing.

Next, in step S303, the processing when no tollgate is detected is the same as the processing in steps S804, S806, S810, and S808 shown in FIG.

Therefore, also in this modification, the operation of the vehicle automatic control 103 is permitted only when it is determined that the own vehicle is traveling on the motorway and the vehicle is traveling on the main road, and the vehicle travels on the motorway. Even if the vehicle is running on a route other than the main line, the operation of the automatic vehicle control device 211 is prohibited, and high safety can be ensured by simple processing.

In each of the embodiments shown in FIG. 2, FIG. 7, etc., it is determined whether or not the own vehicle is traveling on a motorway only based on the information by ETC. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and information from a navigation device using radio navigation, dead reckoning navigation, or the like may be added as judgment material. Therefore, for example, as shown in FIG. 10, information from the navigation device 105 is transmitted to the traveling road recognition unit 202, the traveling lane recognition unit 702, and the control unit 20.
7 or the like, and may be taken into account when performing recognition or control in each unit. With this, ETC
Information can be complemented.

The embodiments disclosed this time are illustrative in all respects, and should not be considered as limiting. The scope of the present invention is defined by the terms of the claims, rather than the description above, and is intended to include any modifications within the scope and meaning equivalent to the terms of the claims.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an appearance of a vehicle equipped with a vehicle driving support device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of the vehicle driving support device 1.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a control flow of the vehicle driving support device 1.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an overall configuration of a vehicle driving support device according to a first modification.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a control flow of a vehicle driving support device according to a first modification.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an appearance of a vehicle equipped with a vehicle driving support device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of the vehicle driving support device 2.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a control flow of the vehicle driving support device 2.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a control flow of a vehicle driving support device according to a second modification.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a vehicle driving support device including a navigation device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 vehicle 101 ETC on-board unit 103 ETC transmitter 202 traveling road recognition unit 203 traveling road determination unit 205 traveling road storage unit 207 control unit 209 on-vehicle sensor 211 automatic vehicle control unit 701 on-board camera 702 traveling lane recognition unit 703 image processing unit 705 traveling Lane judgment unit 105 Navigation device

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] June 26, 2000 (2006.2.
6)

[Procedure amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] Claims

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[Claims]

[Procedure amendment 2]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0009

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[0009]

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle driving support apparatus comprising:
A traveling road recognition unit for recognizing a road on which the vehicle is traveling, a first control unit for automatically controlling the vehicle, and a second control unit for controlling the first control unit in accordance with the recognition result by the traveling road recognition unit. A vehicle driving support device including a control unit, wherein the traveling road recognition unit is configured to detect a tollgate and detect that the own vehicle is traveling on a motorway based on a detection result of the tollgate detection unit. A traveling road determination unit that determines whether or not the vehicle is traveling;
A driving road storage unit for storing road information.
The fixed section records the detection result of the tollgate detection section and the traveling road storage section.
Based on the remembered information, the vehicle
It is determined whether the vehicle is running .

[Procedure amendment 3]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0010

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

According to this, tollgate detection results and storage
Since it is possible to accurately determine whether or not the vehicle is traveling on an automobile exclusive road based on the obtained traveling road information , it is possible to provide a vehicle driving support device that can appropriately perform driving control of the vehicle. It becomes possible.

[Procedure amendment 4]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0013

[Correction method] Deleted

[Procedure amendment 5]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0014

[Correction method] Deleted

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A traveling road recognition means for recognizing a road on which the own vehicle is traveling; a first control means for automatically controlling a vehicle;
And a second control means for controlling the control means of the vehicle, wherein the traveling road recognition means, a tollgate detection means for detecting a tollgate, and a detection result of the tollgate detection means A driving road determination unit that determines whether or not the own vehicle is traveling on a dedicated road based on the vehicle. 2. The vehicle driving support device according to claim 1, wherein said tollgate detecting means includes an ETC vehicle-mounted device that receives information from an ETC transmitter provided at the tollgate. 3. The traveling road recognizing means further includes traveling road storage means for storing traveling road information of the own vehicle, and the traveling road determining means includes a detection result of the tollgate detecting means and the traveling road storing means. The vehicle driving support device according to claim 1, wherein it is determined whether or not the own vehicle is traveling on a motorway based on the information stored in the vehicle driving support device. 4. The travel road determining means determines that the vehicle is traveling on a motorway, when the detected type of tollgate is an entrance, and determines that the detected type of tollgate is an exit. In the case of, it is determined that the vehicle is traveling on a road other than the exclusive road, and the second control means determines that the own vehicle is traveling on the exclusive road by the determination means. 2. The operation of the first control means is permitted if the operation of the first control means is permitted, and the operation of the first control means is prohibited when it is determined that the own vehicle is traveling on a road other than the exclusive road for automobiles.
The vehicle driving support device according to any one of claims 1 to 3. 5. A driving lane recognizing means for recognizing a driving lane of the own vehicle, wherein the second control means is configured to perform the driving based on a recognition result by the driving road recognition means and a recognition result by the driving lane recognition means. The vehicle driving support device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, which controls the first control unit. 6. The traveling lane recognizing means includes: a camera mounted on a vehicle; an image processing unit for processing output video information from the camera in a predetermined method; and a processing result from the image processing unit. Traveling lane determining means for determining whether or not the vehicle is traveling on the main lane;
The vehicle driving support device according to claim 5. 7. The second control means is configured to recognize that the vehicle is traveling on the main lane by the traveling lane recognizing means when the traveling road recognizing means recognizes that the vehicle is traveling on an automobile exclusive road. The operation of the first control means is permitted when the vehicle is running, and the operation of the first control means is prohibited when it is recognized that the vehicle is traveling on a road other than the main line.
Or the vehicle driving support device according to 6.