JP2003029841A - Automatic steering device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize the in-lane movement of a vehicle when offset-adjusting its target in-lane position at a proper speed corresponding to the vehicle speed. SOLUTION: When a crew sets (offset adjusts) target adjustable quantity A1 with an adjustable quantity setting unit 2, an arithmetic part 4 which preliminarily stores a limit value L corresponding to the vehicle speed reads the limit value L corresponding to the speed detected by a speed detecting part 1, and calculates present adjustable quantity A3 on the basis of the limit value L and the target adjustable quantity A1. Then, the arithmetic part 4 decides the target in-line position P4 of the vehicle on the basis of the present adjustable quantity A3, and an actuator 5 controls steering on the basis of the target in-line position P4.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic steering system, and more particularly to an automatic steering system for a vehicle to keep running in a lane.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An automatic steering apparatus is a lane detecting section for detecting a lane in which a vehicle is traveling, a calculating section for calculating information necessary for automatic steering, and a steering actuator for controlling steered wheels based on the information of the calculating section. The automatic steering of the vehicle is realized by controlling the steering from the steering actuator.

As the lane detecting section, a section for visually detecting a section lane using a camera or the like, and a marker row composed of a magnet and a radio wave transmitter is laid in the lane, and this marker row is used by a magnetic sensor or a radio wave antenna. What is detected is generally known. Normally, it is considered desirable to drive in the center of the lane.Therefore, in the case of the above lane detection unit, control is performed with the center of the lane width as the target lane position for automatic steering. In the case of the section, a marker row is laid in the center of the lane width as the target lane position, and the automatic steering device controls the marker as the target lane position.

As a result, in any of the above-mentioned lane detection units, the center position of the lane width is controlled as the target in-lane position of the automatic steering device, but the center position of the lane width is always set. If the control is performed as the target lane position of the automatic steering device, there are the following problems.

When the road shoulder adjacent to the traveling lane of the own vehicle is narrow, or when the adjacent lane is under construction, the occupant has anxiety about the road shoulder and the construction lane. Further, if the speed of the traffic flow in the adjacent lane is more than a certain level different from the traveling speed of the own vehicle, the driver also feels anxiety about the adjacent lane. Further, in the case of a road maintenance work vehicle, there is a case where the vehicle must be intentionally driven at the end of the lane.

Therefore, such a problem is solved by allowing an occupant to arbitrarily offset the target in-lane position of the automatic steering in the left-right direction from the center position of the lane width by the adjustment amount setting device. is doing.

[0007]

However, if the occupant deliberately or unintentionally makes a sudden offset adjustment,
The vehicle may become unstable or the passengers may feel discomfort. In particular, if the speed of movement of the vehicle in the target lane is constant regardless of the vehicle speed, the occupants may feel a sense of anxiety because the lane and the shoulders of the vehicle may rapidly approach when the vehicle speed is high. If it is late, the position in the target lane is not easily moved this time, and there is a problem that the anxiety caused by, for example, a narrow road shoulder section cannot be resolved.

Therefore, it is an object of the automatic steering apparatus according to the present invention to perform the movement of the subject vehicle in the lane when the position in the target lane is offset-adjusted at an appropriate speed corresponding to the vehicle speed.

[0009]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an automatic steering apparatus according to the present invention is provided with a vehicle speed detection unit, an adjustment amount setting device for setting a target adjustment amount, a lane detection unit, and the lane detection unit. The relative position between the lane detected by the vehicle and the vehicle is obtained, and the current adjustment amount is calculated based on the limit value corresponding to the vehicle speed and the target adjustment amount stored in advance, and the target of the vehicle is calculated based on the current adjustment amount. A calculation unit that determines the position in the lane,
And an actuator that performs steering control based on the position in the target lane.

That is, in the present invention, when the occupant sets the target adjustment amount (offset adjustment) by the adjustment amount setting device, the calculation unit stores the limit value corresponding to the vehicle speed in advance. The limit value corresponding to the vehicle speed detected by is read out, and the current adjustment amount is calculated based on this limit value and the target adjustment amount.

Then, the calculation unit determines the relative position between the lane and the vehicle detected by the lane detection unit and determines the target in-lane position of the vehicle based on the present adjustment amount, and the actuator determines the in-target position in the lane. Steering control based on. In this way, for example, when the vehicle speed of the own vehicle is fast and when the vehicle speed is slow, even when the anxiety given to the occupant increases in the movement of the position in the target lane of the own vehicle when the offset adjustment is performed by the adjustment amount setting device. By moving the vehicle at an appropriate speed based on the limit value and the target adjustment amount, the anxiety can be reduced.

The above-mentioned arithmetic unit calculates the deviation between the target adjustment amount and the past adjustment amount, and if the deviation exceeds the limit value, the limit value corresponds to the past adjustment amount. When the correction amount is used and the deviation is equal to or smaller than the limit value, the deviation can be used as the correction amount to calculate the current adjustment amount.

That is, even when the deviation is larger than the limit value, the correction amount is set to the limit value, and when the deviation is smaller than the limit value, the deviation is set to the correction value, and the current adjustment amount is set together. Since it is calculated, the current fluctuation of the adjustment amount is always less than or equal to the limit value, and the position of the host vehicle in the target lane can be moved at an appropriate speed.

The limit value may be a value that decreases as the vehicle speed increases. That is, for example, when the vehicle speed is high, the limit value becomes small, so that the current adjustment amount is calculated based on the small limit value, and the moving speed of the position in the lane is reduced to minimize anxiety of the occupant. On the other hand, when the vehicle speed is slow, it is possible to quickly eliminate the anxiety caused by the presence of a narrow road shoulder section or the like by increasing the moving speed of the position in the lane.

The lanes include lane markings or marker lines.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an embodiment of an automatic steering device according to the present invention. In this embodiment, the calculation unit 4 includes a signal indicating the vehicle speed v from the vehicle speed detection unit 1, a signal indicating the target adjustment amount A1 from the adjustment amount setting device 2, and lane information K (or P1) from the lane detection unit 3. ), An CPU 11 for performing arithmetic processing relating to automatic steering control using an output signal from the input section 11, and a CPU for arithmetic processing.
RAM 13 used by 12, a ROM 14 for storing control programs and control parameters, and an output unit 15 for driving the steering actuator 5 in accordance with output data calculated by the CPU 12.
And a power supply unit 16 for supplying necessary power to these units from the vehicle power supply.

Here, the vehicle speed detector 1 is composed of a known device for detecting the vehicle speed. The adjustment amount setting device 2 is configured so that the offset adjustment amount of the target lane position can be variably set using a rotary dial, a slide lever, or the like.
Further, it is installed at an arbitrary position in the vehicle so that the occupant can set it.

The lane detection unit 3 is composed of a combination of a camera and an image processing device, a combination of a lane marker sensor and a signal processing device, and the like, and provides information about the relative position of the lane detected with respect to the own vehicle. Output.
The steering actuator 5 automatically operates the steered wheels of the vehicle via the steering (not shown) by the output from the output unit 15.

2 and 3 show the flow of the control program stored in the ROM 14 in the arithmetic unit 4 shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 3 shows the subroutine (step S4) in FIG. It is shown in the figure. Further, FIG. 4 shows the transition of the automatic steering device of the own vehicle.

The operation of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 will be described below with reference to FIGS. First, it is assumed that the flowchart of FIG. 2 is started at a predetermined time interval, and only the part related to the control of the control device is described, but the initial processing at the time of hardware startup of the CPU 12 and the like are omitted. In addition, all positions used in this flow chart are expressed by setting the vehicle right-left center line (lane width center position) to 0, the vehicle right side to +, and the vehicle left side to-.

The lane line K shown in FIG. 4 is a line that divides the traveling lane of the vehicle, and the lane width center position P1 indicates the center position of the lane line K. Now, my vehicle is at the center position P of this lane width
The vehicle is in automatic steering along 1 and in this state, the target adjustment amount A1 is set by the occupant performing an offset operation on the adjustment amount setting device 2, and the movement to the final target lane position P5 after setting is instructed. An example of this is described below.

First, the CPU 12 reads an input signal via the input unit 11. The input signal to be read is the vehicle speed detection unit 1
Is information K (or P1) regarding the relative position of the lane detected with reference to the vehicle detected by the vehicle speed information v, the output signal A1 of the adjustment amount setter 2, and the lane detection unit 3 (step S1).

The information on the relative position of the lane is the position of the lane marking K when the lane detector 3 is the lane marking, as described above, and the lane detector 3 is the marker row detector. In the case, it is the position of the marker row (for example, the lane width center position P1). Next, the CPU 12 constantly calculates the lane width center position P1 based on the detection signal from the lane detector 3.
The calculated lane width center position P1 is stored in the RAM 13 (at step S2).

Next, the CPU 12 detects the target adjustment amount A1 from the signal of the adjustment amount setting device 2 read in step S1 (step S1).
3). This target adjustment amount A1 is a fixed value stored in advance in the ROM 14 as shown in the graph of step S3 (when turning right> 0, when turning left <0), and the output signal of the adjustment setter 2 is Determined as a parameter.

Next, the CPU 12 determines the current adjustment amount A3 based on the target adjustment amount A1 and the lane width center position P1 (S
Four). Details of this subroutine will be described below with reference to FIG. First, from the vehicle speed v detected by the vehicle speed detection unit 1,
The limit value L that is the maximum change amount of the adjustment amount is determined. This limit value L has a characteristic that it decreases as the vehicle speed v increases in order to reduce the occupant's anxiety associated with the increase of the vehicle speed.
Read v as a parameter (S5).

The previous adjustment amount A2 is compared with the target adjustment amount A1 obtained in step S3 (at step S6). When the calculation unit 4 is started, the previous adjustment amount is set to "0" in the initialization process, so if the adjustment amount setter 2 is not operated, the previous adjustment amount A2 = target adjustment amount A1 and it is already calculated. Since the power adjustment amount has reached the target value, the subroutine processing of step S4 ends. At this time, the vehicle automatically travels on the basis of the lane width center position P1.

On the other hand, as described above, when the occupant makes the right steering adjustment by the adjustment amount setting device 2, the target adjustment amount A1> 0 is obtained from the graph of step S3. Therefore, in step S6, the previous adjustment amount A2 (start When it is “0”) <target adjustment amount A1, the process for increasing the previous adjustment amount A2 is performed.

Therefore, the CPU 12 subtracts the previous adjustment amount A2 from the target adjustment amount A1 and calculates the deviation D (S7). C
The PU12 calculates the deviation D and the limit value L calculated in step S5.
And (S8). As a result, when the deviation D ≦ the limit value L, it can be determined that the deviation D is small, and thus the value obtained by adding the deviation D to the previous adjustment amount A2 is set as the current adjustment amount A3, and the subroutine process of step S4 ends. (Same as S9).

If the deviation D> the limit value L, it can be judged that the deviation D is large, so the value obtained by adding the limit value L to the previous adjustment amount A2 is set as the current adjustment amount A3, and the subroutine processing of step S4 is ended. Yes (S10). That is, instead of using the deviation D itself, the limit value L corresponding to the vehicle speed is used to set a variable limit on the adjustment amount.

In step S6, when the previous adjustment amount A2> the target adjustment amount A1, that is, when the occupant makes left steering adjustment by the adjustment amount setting device 2, this time, conversely, the previous adjustment amount is reversed.
Take action to reduce A2. Therefore, CPU12
Is the difference between the target adjustment amount A1 and the previous adjustment amount A2.
Calculate D (S11 of the same). The CPU 12 compares the calculated deviation D with the limit value L calculated in step S5 (step S12).

As a result, when the deviation D ≦ the limit value L, it can be judged that the deviation D is small.
The value obtained by subtracting is set as the current adjustment amount A3, and the subroutine processing of step S4 is ended (at step S13). If the deviation D> the limit value L, it can be determined that the deviation D is large. Therefore, the value obtained by subtracting the limit value L from the previous adjustment amount A2 is set as the current adjustment amount A3, and the subroutine processing of step S4 ends (same as above). S14).

Returning to FIG. 2, the CPU 12 obtains the current target lane position P4 of the automatic steering control (at step S15). In this example,
The current position in the target lane is the sum of the lane width center position P1 obtained in step S2 and the current adjustment amount A3 calculated in step S4.
P4. Current target lane position P obtained in step S15
Since 4 is based on the lane width center position P1, it is as follows. (A) Current target lane position P4 = 0: The current target lane position P4 is at the lane width center position P1. (B) Current target lane position P4 <0: The current target lane position P4 is on the left side of the lane width center position P1. (C) Current target lane position P4> 0: The current target lane position P4 is on the right side of the lane width center position P1. It should be noted that the previous adjustment amount A2 was calculated in the previous processing cycle of the flowcharts of FIGS. 2 and 3, and the own vehicle is the current lane position.
It means that the vehicle is traveling from P2 to the previous target lane position P3 along the previous traveling direction R1.

It is judged which of the above-mentioned current target in-lane position P4 determined in this way corresponds to the above (S1
6). That is, when the current target lane position P4 = 0 (a)
At the current target lane position P4 on the centerline of the vehicle in the left-right direction.
Is present, the steering actuator 5 is controlled so as to be held in the neutral position (at step S17).

When the current target lane position P4 <0
In (b), since the current target lane position P4 is on the left side of the center line in the vehicle left-right direction, the steering actuator 5 is controlled to turn left (S18). Furthermore, the current target lane position P4> 0
In case (c), since the current target lane position P4 is on the right side of the center line in the vehicle left-right direction, the steering actuator 5 is controlled to turn to the right (at step S19).

As a result, the vehicle travels while changing the traveling direction of the host vehicle to the current traveling direction R2 from the current in-lane position P2 to the current target in-lane position P4. In this way, the lane position is changed from the initial position P1 to the current position P2 as shown in FIG.
→ Previous target position P3 (previous adjustment amount A2) → Current target position P4 (current adjustment amount A3) is reached to reach the final target position P5 corresponding to the target adjustment amount A1.

In the above embodiment, the lane width center position P1 is used as an example of the in-lane position, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a predetermined distance distance from the lane marking K or It can also be calculated using a ratio or the like.

[0037]

As described above, according to the automatic steering apparatus of the present invention, when the occupant sets the target adjustment amount (offset adjustment) by the adjustment amount setting device, the calculation unit corresponds to the vehicle speed in advance. Since the limit value is stored, the limit value corresponding to the vehicle speed detected by the vehicle speed detector is read out,
The current adjustment amount is calculated based on this limit value and the target adjustment amount, the target in-lane position of the vehicle is determined based on the current adjustment amount, and the actuator performs steering control based on the target in-lane position. Since it is configured as described above, for example, when the vehicle speed is fast and slow, even when the anxiety given to the occupant increases in the movement of the target lane position of the own vehicle when the offset is adjusted by the adjustment amount setter, By moving the vehicle at an appropriate speed based on the limit value and the target adjustment amount, it is possible to reduce anxiety given to the occupant.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an automatic steering device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a control program in a calculation unit used in the embodiment of the automatic steering device according to the present invention shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing calculation of an adjustment amount used in the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the embodiment of the automatic steering device according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols] 1 Vehicle speed detector 2 Adjustment amount setter 3-lane detector 4 arithmetic unit 5 Steering actuator In the drawings, the same reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) B62D 137: 00 B62D 137: 00 F term (reference) 3D032 CC08 CC20 DA23 DA84 DA88 DC09 DC34 DD02 EB04 EB08 EC22 GG01 5H180 AA01 CC04 CC24 LL01 LL02 LL09 5H301 AA01 BB20 CC03 CC06 DD16 EE08 EE12 FF06 FF15 FF23 HH01

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A vehicle speed detection unit, an adjustment amount setter for setting a target adjustment amount, a lane detection unit, and a vehicle speed pre-stored together with a relative position between the lane detected by the lane detection unit and the vehicle. A calculation unit that calculates a current adjustment amount based on the limit value corresponding to the target adjustment amount and the target adjustment amount, and a calculation unit that determines the target in-lane position of the vehicle based on the current adjustment amount, and the steering based on the target in-lane position. An automatic steering device comprising: an actuator for controlling. 2. The calculation unit according to claim 1, wherein the calculation unit calculates a deviation between the target adjustment amount and a past adjustment amount, and when the deviation exceeds the limit value, the limit value is adjusted in the past. An automatic steering device, wherein a correction amount corresponding to an amount is calculated, and if the deviation is equal to or less than the limit value, the deviation is used as the correction amount to calculate the current adjustment amount. 3. The automatic steering apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the limit value is a value that decreases as the vehicle speed increases. 4. The automatic steering apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the lane is a lane marking or a marker line.