JP2001043498A - Traveling device in single file - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To smoothly execute reverse travel by storing a travel track at the time of advance travel and executing travel by means of tracking the travel track at the time of advance travel when reverse travel is executed. SOLUTION: A head vehicle C1 manually travels forward by a driver. Tracking vehicles C2 to C6 that can travel without a man by automatic driving form a file and travel forward by tracking the head vehicle C1. Inter-vehicle communication equipment informs the tracking vehicles C2 to C6 of a moving direction, a travel distance and travel speed, which are vehicle information of the head vehicle C1. The tracking vehicles C2 to C6 basically track the track of the head vehicle C1 and they track and travel forward by steering, a brake and a travel device based on vehicle information. When the reverse switch of the head vehicle C1 is turned on, a throttle is manually operated and steering automatically reversetravels by tracking the travel track at the time of advance travel. The tracking vehicles C2 to C6 execute reverse automatic travel by tracking the travel track of the self-vehicles at the time of advance travel.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a platoon running device, and more particularly to a platoon running device capable of running in reverse platoon.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, as environmental problems have been greatly noticed, there has been proposed a technique of sharing an electric vehicle in a specific area in order to improve the problem of traffic congestion. In such a technology using a shared vehicle, ports (parking lots) of the shared vehicle are required to rent or return the shared vehicle, and these ports include:
It is necessary to arrange a certain number of vehicles in consideration of user's convenience.

[0003] By the way, it is expected that such a port for parking a shared vehicle is provided in a place where users are concentrated, for example, around a station. There is no problem if it is uniform at each port, but if there is a bias, shared vehicles may concentrate at a specific port. In order to solve this problem, a plurality of unmanned driving vehicles that run with the manned driving vehicle at the head and follow it, form a row and run forward between the ports, move to the required port and rent a shared vehicle that can be rented A technique of arranging as uniformly as possible has been proposed (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-1700).
No. 08).

[0004] More specifically, when a following vehicle follows a leading vehicle in a platoon run, a method is used in which the following vehicle follows the trajectory of the leading vehicle, and the leading vehicle is obtained by inter-vehicle communication. Vehicle speed, steering angle, vehicle position coordinates, direction, required torque value, brake pressure, etc. are sent to the following vehicle, and the following vehicle follows the leading vehicle while correcting the preceding vehicle position and direction information obtained from the radar. Is what you do.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned prior art, since the following vehicle is an automatic trajectory tracking system in which the following vehicle follows the leading vehicle in forward traveling, for example, the place where the leading vehicle enters is under construction. There is a problem that it is not possible to cope with a situation where the vehicle has entered once but cannot proceed any further when there is an obstacle at the entrance location. Therefore, in such a case, even if it is only necessary to retreat a little bit, there is no choice but to release the convoy and drive one by one and evacuate from the approach place, causing traffic congestion. Problem.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a platoon running device that can smoothly run backward.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention described in claim 1 is directed to a plurality of vehicles (for example, the leading vehicle C1, the following vehicles C2 to C6 in the embodiment) by one driver. In a row running device capable of forming and running in a row, the running locus during forward running is stored, and when traveling backward, the running follows the running locus during forward running. With this configuration, each vehicle can travel backward by following the travel locus stored during forward travel.

According to the invention described in claim 2, at least one following vehicle (for example, the following vehicles C2 to C2 in the embodiment) is added to the leading vehicle (for example, the leading car C1 in the embodiment) which the driver manually travels forward. C6) is a platoon running device capable of unmanned following running by automatic driving, a communication means (for example, an inter-vehicle communication device 4 in the embodiment) for notifying vehicle information between vehicles, and a trajectory information of the own vehicle traveling forward. Trajectory storage means (for example, the storage device 3 in the embodiment) for storing the information, and travel switching determination means (for example, step S3 and step S22 in the embodiment) for determining switching from forward travel to reverse travel. When it is determined by the switching determination means that the leading vehicle has shifted to the reverse running, each vehicle is steered based on the trajectory information stored in the trajectory storage means. Characterized by a reverse running while controlling the grayed. With this configuration, when the leading vehicle shifts to the reverse traveling by the traveling switching determination means, the respective vehicles follow the traveling information based on the trajectory information at the time of the forward traveling stored in the trajectory storing means, and the backward traveling is performed. It becomes possible.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 6A shows a state in which the vehicle is traveling in a forward platoon, and FIG. 6B shows a state in which the vehicle is traveling in a reverse platoon. The leading vehicle C1 is driven forward by the driver by manual driving. Following vehicles C2, C3, C4, C5, and C6, which can travel unattended by automatic driving, form a row and run forward on the leading vehicle C1. The running coordinates, moving direction, running distance, running speed, acceleration, and reverse status (described later), which are vehicle information of the leading vehicle C1, are transmitted to the following vehicles C2 to C6 by the inter-vehicle communication device 4 (shown in FIG. 1 described later). Notice. Following vehicle C that has received this vehicle information
Nos. 2 to C6 basically follow the trajectory of the leading car C1 and follow and travel forward by the steering, brake and traveling devices based on the vehicle information. At this time, the following vehicles C2 to C6
Notifies the other vehicle of the vehicle information of the own vehicle by the communication device 4. Each of the above vehicles may be any type of vehicle such as an electric vehicle, a gasoline vehicle, a hybrid vehicle, and the like.

Here, for example, when the place where the leading car C1 has entered is under construction or in a blind lane, or when there is an obstacle at the entry location, the vehicle may have entered once but cannot proceed further. In this case, as shown in FIG. 6B, when the reverse switch is turned "ON", the leading car C1 is operated manually, the brake is operated, the throttle is operated, and the steering follows the traveling locus during forward traveling. Drive backward automatically. Then, the following vehicles C2 to C6 perform reverse automatic traveling by following the traveling locus of the own vehicle during forward traveling. At this time, the inter-vehicle distance follows the leading vehicle C1.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration.
The processing ECU 1 includes a YAW sensor SE indicating the direction of the vehicle.
1. A distance sensor SE2 for detecting a traveling distance, a radar sensor SE3 for detecting an inter-vehicle distance / direction to a preceding vehicle, and a reverse switch S for detecting a reverse position of a shift lever.
E4, the detection signal from the acceleration sensor SE5 can be input. In addition, the processing ECU 1 stores the leading vehicle (ID
= 1), data can be exchanged between the storage device 2 storing the vehicle data and the storage device 3 storing the own vehicle data. Here, the recorded contents of the storage devices 2 and 3 are a running coordinate, a moving distance, and a running distance, which are set based on detection signals from the sensors SE1 to SE5 and the like. This storage device 3 is provided in each vehicle. Also, when the reverse switch SE4 of the leading vehicle is turned "ON", the leading vehicle is switched to reverse (the following vehicle also) and automatic steering control is performed, and the leading vehicle travels backward while searching for own vehicle traveling locus data during forward traveling. The car also searches for the own vehicle travel locus data and moves backward. At this time, the steering operation of the leading car can be nullified by providing a steering clutch.

Then, the processing ECU 1 is connected to the inter-vehicle communication device 4.
, Traveling ECU 5, steering ECU 6, brake ECU
7 is signaled. The travel ECU 5 is a travel actuator (hereinafter, “actuator” is abbreviated as “TAC”).
5A, the steering ECU 6 drives the steering ATC 6A, and the brake ECU 7 drives the brake ACT 7A. In addition, the vehicle-to-vehicle communication device 4 communicates with other vehicles,
Communication related to travel distance, travel distance, travel speed, acceleration, inter-vehicle distance / direction (radar), reverse status, and steering amount is performed. Here, when the reverse switch SE4 of the leading vehicle is set to the "ON" state, the reverse status is turned "ON" in conjunction therewith. In the case where a steering clutch for disabling the steering operation of the leading vehicle during reverse running is provided, the processing ECU 1 includes the steering clutch and the steering clutch A.
CT can be connected.

FIG. 2 to FIG. 5 (divided into four for the sake of illustration) show a flowchart of an embodiment of the present invention. If there is a sensor input (YAW / distance / radar / reverse switch) from each of the sensors in step S1, it is determined in step S2 whether ID = 1.
Here, the ID is a number assigned to the vehicle, and is assigned in order from the leading vehicle with ID = 1 to the following vehicle. If the determination result in step S2 is "YES",
That is, if it is determined that the vehicle is the leading vehicle, it is determined whether or not the reverse switch is "ON" in step S3. If it is determined that the reverse switch is "OFF", the process proceeds to step S4.

In step S4, the reverse status is set to "0".
Is set, and in step S5, the traveling ECU / steer ECU is set.
/ A manual mode switching signal is output to the brake ECU, and the process proceeds to step S6. In step S6, it is determined whether or not the vehicle has traveled a certain distance. If it is determined that the vehicle has traveled a certain distance, the travel coordinates are calculated based on the YAW sensor input and the travel distance sensor input in step S7.
At 8, the moving direction is calculated based on the previously calculated coordinates and the current coordinates, and the process proceeds to step S9.

Then, in step S9, the own vehicle trajectory data (travel trajectory data), specifically, the travel coordinates, the moving direction, and the travel distance are recorded, and the process proceeds to step S10, where the vehicle information is transmitted to another vehicle by the communication device. To end the control. If it is determined in step S6 that the vehicle has not traveled the predetermined distance, the process proceeds to step S10, and the control ends. The communication contents in step S10 relate to the traveling coordinates, the moving direction, the traveling distance, the traveling speed, the acceleration, and the reverse status.

In step S3, the reverse switch is set to "O"
N ”, the process proceeds to step S11,
The reverse status is set to "1", and in step S12, the vehicle locus data (travel locus data) is searched based on the distance data. The recorded content of the vehicle locus data is the same as the content described in step S9. Next, step S
At 13, the traveling ECU / steer ECU / brake E
An automatic mode switching signal is output to the CU and step S14
Proceed to. In step S14, travel coordinates are calculated based on the YAW sensor input and the travel distance sensor input.
At 15, the moving direction is calculated based on the previously calculated coordinates and the current coordinates, and the process proceeds to step S16. Here, the moving direction is atan (previous Y coordinate-current Y coordinate) / (previous X coordinate-current X coordinate)
Given by

Next, in step S16, a deviation between the traveling coordinates and the read coordinates is calculated, and in step S17, a deviation between the moving direction and the read direction is calculated. Then, in step S18, the steering control amount is calculated from the coordinate deviation and the azimuth deviation, and in step S19, the steer EC is calculated.
The control amount is output to U, and the process proceeds to step S10.

If the result of the determination in step S2 is "N
O ", that is, when it is determined that the vehicle is the following vehicle, the process proceeds to step S21. In step S21, vehicle information of another vehicle is received by the communication device. Here, the content of the communication is step S
Same as 10. Then, the process proceeds to step S22, and it is determined whether or not the reverse status = 1.

If the determination result in step S22 is "N
If "O", that is, it is determined that the reverse status is "0", the flow proceeds to step S23, where the vehicle (leading vehicle) data (vehicle-to-vehicle data) with ID = 1 is recorded, and step S24 is performed.
To retrieve data (trajectory data) of the vehicle (leading vehicle) with ID = 1 based on the distance data. Here, step S23,
The recorded contents in step S24 are the running coordinates, the moving direction, and the running distance.

Next, at step S25, the traveling ECU
An automatic mode switching signal is output to the / steer ECU / brake ECU, and in step S26, travel coordinates are calculated based on the YAW sensor input and the travel distance sensor input. Next, in step S27, the moving direction is calculated from the previously calculated coordinates and the current coordinates. Where the moving direction is atan
It is given by (previous Y coordinate-current Y coordinate) / (previous X coordinate-current X coordinate).

Then, in step S28, a deviation between the traveling coordinates and the read coordinates is calculated, and in step S29, a deviation between the moving azimuth and the read azimuth is calculated. Next, in step S30, the steering control amount is calculated from the deviation of the coordinates and the deviation of the azimuth.
The control amount is output to U, and the process proceeds to step S32. In step S32, the vehicle locus data (travel locus data) is recorded, and the process proceeds to step S41. Note that the recorded contents are in step S
Same as 23.

If the determination result in step S22 is "YE
S ", that is, when it is determined that the reverse status is" 1 ", the vehicle locus data (travel locus data) is searched in step S33 based on the distance data. Here, the recorded contents are the same as in step S24. Next, in step S34, the traveling ECU / steer ECU / brake E
An automatic mode switching signal is output to the CU, and step S3
At 5, the travel coordinates are calculated based on the YAW sensor input and the travel distance sensor input. Then, in step S36, the movement direction is calculated from the previously calculated coordinates and the current coordinates.
Here, the moving direction is atan (previous Y coordinate-current Y coordinate)
/ (Previous X coordinate-current X coordinate).

Next, in step S37, the deviation between the traveling coordinates and the read coordinates is calculated, and in step S38, the deviation between the moving direction and the read direction is calculated. Then, in step S39, a steering control amount is calculated from the deviation of the coordinates and the deviation of the azimuth.
The control amount is output to U, and the process proceeds to step S41. In step S41, the vehicle information of the vehicle with ID = 1 is input by the inter-vehicle communication, and the process proceeds to step S42. Here, step S4
The vehicle information in No. 1 relates to a running distance, a running speed, and an acceleration.

In step S42, each deviation between the own vehicle and the communication data is calculated. Here, step S42
The communication data in is also data relating to the traveling distance, traveling speed, and acceleration. Next, in step S43, a travel control amount is calculated from the deviation, and in step S44, the travel ECU
/ Output the control amount to the brake ECU. Then, in step S45, the vehicle information is transmitted to another vehicle by the communication device, and the control ends. The communication contents in step S45 relate to the traveling coordinates, the moving direction, the traveling distance, the traveling speed, and the acceleration.

Therefore, according to the above-described embodiment, each of the vehicles, that is, the leading vehicle C1 and the following vehicles C2 to C6 can travel backward by following the traveling locus stored when the vehicle is traveling forward. Even during construction where the leading car C1 cannot travel forward or when the vehicle enters a blind alley, the vehicle can quickly reverse and evacuate. Therefore, it does not cause traffic congestion, and it is not necessary to perform a complicated operation such as releasing the row and evacuating the drivers one by one as in the related art. In addition, since each vehicle follows the traveling locus that has traveled forward just before the own vehicle and travels backward, the vehicle can travel backward safely.

[0025]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, since each vehicle can follow the traveling trajectory stored when the vehicle is traveling forward, the vehicle can travel in the reverse direction. Even if the vehicle is unable to travel or is entering a dead alley, there is an effect that the vehicle can quickly reverse and retreat.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, when the leading vehicle shifts to reverse traveling by the traveling switching determination means,
Based on the trajectory information at the time of forward traveling stored in the trajectory storage means, each vehicle can follow and follow the traveling backward, so that the leading vehicle cannot travel forward or enters a dead-end. Also, there is an effect that it is possible to quickly reverse and retreat according to the determination result of the traveling switching determination means.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 shows a row running state of the embodiment of the present invention,
(A) is an explanatory view showing forward platooning, and (b) is a diagram showing reverse platooning.

[Description of Signs] 3 Storage device (trajectory storage device) 4 Inter-vehicle communication device (communication device) C1 Leading vehicle (vehicle) C2 to C6 Following vehicle (vehicle) S3, S22 Traveling switching determination means

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) G05D 1/02 G05D 1/02 S // B62D 137: 00 F term (Reference) 3D032 CC19 CC20 DA22 DA23 DA25 DA32 DA88 DA95 DB07 DC10 FF01 FF10 GG01 3D044 AA45 AB01 AC01 AC22 AC26 AC28 AD00 AD04 AD21 AE03 AE15 3G093 AA01 BA23 CB00 CB10 DB05 DB11 DB16 EA09 EB04 FA03 5H180 BB04 CC14 FF10 LL04 LL09 5H301 A03 CC03 FF09 LL09 5H301 A03

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A platoon traveling device capable of forming a platoon with a plurality of vehicles and driving by one driver, wherein a traveling locus during forward traveling is stored, and when traveling backward,
A platooning device characterized in that the vehicle travels following a traveling locus during forward traveling. 2. A platoon running device in which at least one following vehicle can be driven unmannedly by automatic driving to a leading vehicle that is manually driven forward by a driver, and communication means for notifying vehicle information between the vehicles. And trajectory storage means for storing trajectory information in the forward travel of the own vehicle, and travel switching determination means for determining switching from forward travel to reverse travel, and the leading vehicle has shifted to reverse travel by the travel switch determination means. A vehicle running in reverse while controlling the steering based on the trajectory information stored in the trajectory storage means when it is determined that: