JP2003205808A - Parking support device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a parking support device capable of releasing or continuing control meeting the intention of a driver. <P>SOLUTION: Even in case a present position is deviated from the vicinity of a target park position (NO decision at a step S2), when it is decided based on a car speed V and a master cylinder oil pressure Pmc that a drive has a will to end parking support (YES decision at either of steps S4 and S7), a process (steps S8 and S9) to release parking support is carried out. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a parking assistance device that assists a parking operation of a vehicle at a target position.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In order to assist a driver's parking operation, there are known a device for guiding a steering operation so that the driver can move in an appropriate course during a parking operation, and a device for automatic steering.

The technique disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 10-114272 is an example of such a technique, and the steering is controlled by an automatic steering device so that the movement locus is set toward a target parking position. The vehicle speed is controlled according to the driver's brake operation.

[0004]

With this technique, there are the following problems (1):
In addition to when the target position is reached, for example, the automatic control is set to be released when (2) the brake operation is stopped, (3) the parking position is changed, and (4) the vehicle is stopped by the brake operation. Of these, it can be said that the driver's willingness to park at that position is clear in (3), but in (1) the parking at the position expected by the driver is made if the determination of reaching the target position is loose. On the other hand, if the arrival determination is made strictly, the automatic control will continue even at the position where the driver can tolerate the parking.In any case, the driver feels uncomfortable with the automatic control. You will feel it. Further, in (2), in the case of a driver who is not familiar with the operation at the time of automatic control, there is a possibility that the automatic control may be canceled regardless of the intention. Also in the case of (4), when the vehicle is temporarily stopped due to the presence of a pedestrian or the like, the automatic control may be canceled against the driver's intention, and the control according to the intention is not performed. There's a problem.

[0005] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a parking assist device capable of canceling and continuing control in accordance with the driver's intention.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a parking assist system according to the present invention comprises a parking intention estimating means for estimating a parking operation intention of the driver from the state of the vehicle according to the driving operation of the driver. , Even if the current position is outside the parking assistance end range, the parking intention estimation means automatically cancels the parking assistance operation if it is estimated that the driver has the intention to complete or interrupt the parking operation. It is characterized by

According to the present invention, the parking intention estimating means estimates the parking operation intention of the driver from the state of the vehicle, so that the driver can carry out the parking assist operation according to the intention without special operation. Since the parking assist operation can be canceled, the suspension, cancellation, and continuation of the parking assist operation can be ensured, and the driver does not feel uncomfortable in the operation.

The vehicle may further include an automatic steering device that controls steering according to the current position and the target position of the vehicle. With this configuration, the automatic steering device can be moved to the target parking position by a simple operation.

Torque increasing means for increasing the engine generated torque when the accelerator is off may be further provided. In this way, the control range of the vehicle speed only by the brake operation is expanded, and the driver's operation becomes easy.

The parking intention estimating means preferably makes an estimation based on the stopped state of the vehicle or a braking state. For example, the driver has the intention to complete or interrupt the parking operation when the stopped state continues for a predetermined time or more, or when the braking force of a predetermined amount or more is continuously applied for a predetermined time or more. It can be estimated that By performing the estimation based on the stopped state and the braking state, the estimation according to the driver's intention can be performed. In particular, by performing the estimation in consideration of the positional relationship between the current position of the vehicle and the target position, it is possible to accurately determine whether the parking is completed or the parking operation is interrupted.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In order to facilitate understanding of the description, the same reference numerals are given to the same constituent elements in each drawing as much as possible in the drawings, and redundant description will be omitted.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a parking assistance device 100 according to the present invention. The parking assistance device 100 according to the present embodiment includes a travel control device 110 and an automatic steering device 120, and is controlled by a parking assistance ECU 1 that is a control device. The parking assist ECU 1 includes a CPU, a ROM, a RAM,
A travel control unit 10 configured by an input signal circuit, an output signal circuit, a power supply circuit, and the like, for controlling the travel control device 110.
And a steering control section 11 for controlling the automatic steering device. Further, the parking intention estimating means according to the present invention is included. The travel control unit 10 and the steering control unit 11 may be hardware-separated in the parking assist ECU 1, but
In terms of hardware, the same CPU, ROM, RAM, etc. are used,
It may be softly divided.

The traveling control device 110 comprises the traveling control unit 10 described above, a braking system and a drive system. The braking system is an electronically controlled brake (ECB) system that electronically controls the braking force applied to each wheel by the brake ECU 31, and controls the brake hydraulic pressure applied to the wheel cylinder 38 of the hydraulic brake arranged on each wheel by the actuator 34. Adjust the braking force by adjusting. Brake ECU3
1, a wheel speed sensor 32 arranged on each wheel to detect the wheel speed thereof, and an acceleration sensor 3 to detect the acceleration of the vehicle.
3. A master cylinder 3 arranged inside the actuator 34 and connected between the brake pedal 37 and the actuator 34, a hydraulic pressure sensor group (not shown) for detecting the hydraulic pressure applied to the inside and the wheel cylinder 38.
Output signals of the master cylinder (M / C) oil pressure sensor 36 for detecting the oil pressure of No. 5 are input.

The engine 22 constituting the drive system is controlled by the engine ECU 21, and the engine ECU 21 and the brake ECU 31 communicate information with the travel control unit 10 to perform cooperative control. Here, the output of the shift sensor 12 that detects the shift state of the transmission is input to the engine ECU 21.

The automatic steering device 120 is provided with a drive motor 42 which is arranged between the steering wheel 40 and the steering gear 41 and which also functions as a power steering device, and a displacement sensor 43 which detects the amount of displacement of the steering.
The steering control unit 11 controls the drive of the drive motor 42 and receives the output signal of the displacement sensor 43.

The parking assist ECU 1 including the traveling control unit 10 and the steering control unit 20 accepts an image signal acquired by the rear camera 15 for acquiring an image of the rear of the vehicle and a driver's operation input for parking assist. An output signal of the input means 16 is input, and a monitor 13 for displaying information to the driver in the form of an image and a speaker 14 for presenting information by voice are connected.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the outline of parking assist control using this device. An example will be described in which the vehicle 5 moves from the position shown in the figure to the position 5a and performs so-called parallel parking between the vehicles 61 and 62 parked along the road shoulder 63.

First, after moving the vehicle 5 to the position shown in the figure, the driver operates the input means 16 while watching the image captured by the rear camera 15 displayed on the monitor 13 to display on the screen. The parking frame displayed in
The target parking position is set by moving it to the position a. Hereinafter, the position of the center of gravity of the vehicle is represented by P (x, y), and the position of the center of gravity of the target parking position 5a is represented by Pt (x _t , y _t ).

The parking assist ECU 1 obtains Pt (x _t , y _t ) by image recognition processing. Pt (x _t , y _t ) may be obtained as relative coordinates with the current vehicle position P (x, y) as the origin. Next, the parking assist ECU 1 uses P (x,
The optimum vehicle center of gravity path 51 from y) to Pt (x _t , y _t ) is obtained, and the steering angle change corresponding to the steering operation and the center of gravity position required to take this path 51 is calculated.

When the driver depresses the brake pedal 37 and operates the shift lever to set it to reverse, the traveling control unit 10 of the parking assist ECU 1 causes the engine ECU 21 to operate.
To instruct the engine 22 to torque up. As a result, the engine 22 rotates at a higher rotation speed than during normal idling, and a transition is made to a torque-up state in which the driving force is high. Therefore, the vehicle speed range that can be adjusted only by the brake pedal 37 is expanded without performing the accelerator operation, and the controllability of the vehicle is improved.

When the driver returns the brake pedal 37, the wheel cylinder hydraulic pressure (brake hydraulic pressure) applied to the wheel cylinder 38 by the actuator 34 is adjusted according to the pedal opening, and the control applied to each wheel is controlled. Adjust the vehicle speed by adjusting the power. At this time, the actuator 34 adjusts the brake hydraulic pressure applied to each wheel cylinder 38 so that the vehicle speed detected by the wheel speed sensor 32 does not exceed the upper limit vehicle speed, thereby applying a braking force to guard the upper limit vehicle speed.

The steering control unit 11 controls the drive motor 42 and operates the steering gear 41 while monitoring the output of the displacement sensor 43 so that the steering angle matches the steering angle displacement obtained by the parking assist ECU 1. To do. Since the vehicle travels along the route thus set, the driver can concentrate on checking the safety of the route and adjusting the vehicle speed. When there is an obstacle, a pedestrian, etc. on the path, when the driver depresses the brake pedal 37, the braking force corresponding thereto is applied to the brake E.
Since it is applied to the wheel cylinder 38 via the actuator 34 by the control of the CU 31, it can be safely decelerated and stopped.

The termination determination and processing of this parking assistance control are performed as follows. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing this end determination / processing. This processing is repeatedly executed at a predetermined timing during the parking assistance control by the parking assistance ECU 1 in parallel with the above-described automatic steering control and traveling control, and the flag Xend is set to 0 at the start of the parking assistance and set to 1. When it becomes, the parking assist control is terminated and the automatic steering control and the traveling control are also canceled.

In step S1, the current position is detected. This current position can be calculated based on the time change of the vehicle speed obtained from the wheel speed sensor 32, the time change of the steering angle obtained from the displacement sensor 43, and the time change of the vehicle acceleration obtained from the acceleration sensor 33.

In step S2, it is determined whether or not the target parking position 5a has been reached. This determination is made by the vehicle 5 as shown in FIG.
The determination is made based on whether or not it is located within the area 50 indicated by. The area 50 is set larger than the vehicle 5 based on the determination accuracy of the current position determination, the target parking position determination, and the like. However, if the area 50 is too large than the vehicle 5, the system may determine that the target parking position has been reached at a stage where the actual parking target position is largely deviated, which may cause the driver to distrust the system. It is not appropriate to make it too wide.

When it is determined that the vehicle is in the vicinity of the target parking position, the process proceeds to step S3 and the ending process is performed. Here, the arrival of the target arrival position is displayed on the monitor 13 and the driver is informed of the arrival of the target position by voice or the like through the speaker 14, and in the case of an AT vehicle, the shift lever is moved to the parking position. afterwards,
The process proceeds to step S9, 1 is set in the flag Xend, and the process is ended. When Xend is set to 1, the travel control unit 10 of the parking assist ECU 1 operates in the engine ECU 2
Instruct 1 to end the torque-up state of the engine 22. Then, the automatic steering control by the steering control unit 11 is also ended.

When it is determined in step S2 that the vehicle has not reached the target parking position, the process proceeds to step S4, the vehicle speed V is less than the threshold value Vth, and the master cylinder pressure Pmc exceeds the threshold value Pth. Determine if there is.
Here, the threshold value Vth is a vehicle speed that is almost close to a stopped state (for example, 0.5 km / h), and the threshold value Pth is a cylinder pressure equivalent to generate a braking force required to stop the vehicle on a flat road. Is set as. Vehicle speed V is Vth
If the above is true or if Pmc is less than or equal to Pth, it means that the vehicle 5 is moving or the driver is not fully depressing the brake pedal 37, and therefore the process is terminated without performing the termination / interruption process. However, before the end, the process proceeds to step S5, and variables for interruption determination processing described later are set. Specifically, the sum of the time steps Δt at the current time t is set as the variable t_start, and the threshold value t_th is set based on the positional relationship between the current position and the target arrival position. These variables t_
The meanings of start and threshold t_th will be described later. In this way, the parking assistance process is continued when the vehicle is not moving to the target parking position and the operation amount of the brake pedal 37 is less than or equal to a predetermined amount.

On the other hand, if the condition is satisfied in step S4, the process proceeds to step S6. Then, the value of the variable t_con is obtained by subtracting the value of the variable t_start from the current time t. This variable t_con corresponds to the duration time after the condition is satisfied in step S4. In step S7, the t_con thus obtained is compared with the previously set threshold t_th. When t_con is t_th or less, it means that the driver has fully depressed the brake pedal 37 and almost stopped, and in this case, it is determined that the vehicle is temporarily stopped, The parking assist process is continued by skipping the process without performing the subsequent end process. On the other hand, when t_con exceeds t_th, it is determined that the driver has the intention of completing or interrupting the parking operation, the process proceeds to step S8, and the end notification process is performed. In this case, the monitor 13 and the speaker 14 notify the driver that the ending condition is satisfied by images, characters, sounds, etc., and in case of an AT vehicle, notify the driver to move the shift lever to the parking position. After that, similarly to the case where the target parking position is reached, the processing is ended through step S9.

Here, the threshold value t_th is preferably set longer as the current position is farther from the target parking position and shorter as the current position is closer to the target arrival position. In the case of parallel parking as shown in FIG. 2, there are cases where the vehicle 5 stops until it enters the line formed by the other vehicles 61 and 62 due to the situation of vehicles running side by side, the presence of passersby, etc. This is because there are many cases, but it is considered that once the vehicle enters the line, it often moves to the target parking position without stopping. On the other hand,
Since it is considered that the driver moves at a slower vehicle speed V as the position is closer to the target parking position, it is preferable to set the vehicle speed threshold for stop determination to be slower as the position is closer to the target parking position.

In this way, for example, when the vehicle is stopped at a position close to the target parking position for a predetermined time but for a short time, it is determined that the driver permits parking at that position, and parking assistance is provided. By canceling and terminating the parking assistance, the driver can cancel the parking assistance without any special operation. Further, even when the parking position is far from the target parking position, if the stop time is long, the parking assist control is canceled once and the traveling control and the automatic steering control are canceled, so that a safe parking operation can be performed.

In the above description, the vehicle speed and the brake pedal 3
Although the case where the driver's intention is estimated from the operation amount of 7 is explained, only the vehicle speed or the brake operation amount, the vehicle acceleration,
The determination may be made from the actual braking force or the braking hydraulic pressure. For example, the vehicle is stopped for a predetermined time or longer (the vehicle speed is less than Vth)
The parking assistance control may be canceled when the above continues. Also, the braking force or the amount of braking operation by the driver (for example,
The parking assist control may be released when the state where the brake pedal force) is equal to or more than a predetermined value continues for a predetermined time or more.

Further, in the above description, the case where the automatic steering control and the traveling control are performed has been described as an example, but the driver is notified to the driver by the monitor 13 or the speaker 14 when the traveling control is not performed or the automatic steering is not performed. The same effect can be obtained in the driving assistance device that indicates the steering direction.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention, even when the vehicle is outside the parking assistance end range during the parking assistance, the driver has the intention to complete or interrupt the parking operation from the state of the vehicle. If it is determined that the parking assistance operation is performed, the parking assistance operation is automatically canceled, and thus the driver can end the parking assistance operation without performing any special operation.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a parking assistance device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an outline of parking assistance control in the device of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing termination determination / processing of parking assistance control according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Parking assist ECU, 10 ... Running control part, 11 ... Steering control part, 12 ... Shift sensor, 13 ... Monitor, 14 ... Speaker, 15 ... Rear camera, 16 ... Input means, 21 ... Engine ECU, 22 ... Engine, 31 ... Brake EC
U, 32 ... Wheel speed sensor, 33 ... Acceleration sensor, 34 ...
Actuator, 35 ... Master cylinder, 36 ... Oil pressure sensor, 37 ... Brake pedal, 38 ... Wheel cylinder,
40 ... Steering wheel, 41 ... Steering gear, 42 ... Drive motor, 43 ... Displacement sensor, 5 ... Vehicle,
61, 62 ... Other vehicle, 100 ... Parking assist device, 110 ... Travel control device, 120 ... Automatic steering device.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) B62D 6/00 B62D 6/00 F02D 29/00 F02D 29/00 Z F term (reference) 3D032 CC20 DA24 DA25 DA88 DA91 DB20 DC40 DD02 DE20 EB04 EC22 FF01 FF07 GG01 3D041 AA00 AA71 AA79 AB01 AC00 AC01 AC26 AC30 AD41 AD51 AE03 AE41 AE45 AF01 3G093 AA01 BA00 BA04 BA14 BA22 CA04 CA06 FA03 FB02 DA06 DB05 EA02 EB03 FA03 FA03 FA03

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A parking assistance device for assisting parking of a host vehicle at a target position, comprising: a parking intention estimating means for estimating a driver's intention to perform a parking operation from the state of the vehicle due to a driver's driving operation. Even when the vehicle is outside the parking support end range, the parking support operation is automatically canceled when the parking intention estimating unit estimates that the driver has the intention to complete or interrupt the parking operation. Parking assistance device. 2. The parking assistance device according to claim 1, further comprising an automatic steering device that controls steering according to a current position and a target position of the vehicle. 3. The parking assist apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a torque increasing means for increasing a predetermined amount of engine generated torque when the accelerator is off. 4. The parking intention estimating means makes an estimation based on a stopped state of a vehicle.
The parking assistance device according to any one of 1. 5. The parking intention estimating means estimates that the driver has the intention to complete or interrupt the parking operation when the stopped state continues for a predetermined time or longer. 4. The parking assistance device described in 4. 6. The parking assistance apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the parking intention estimating means makes an estimation based on a braking state. 7. The parking intention estimating means estimates that the driver has the intention to complete or interrupt the parking operation when a braking force of a predetermined amount or more for a predetermined time or more is applied. The parking assistance device according to claim 6. 8. The parking assistance apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the parking intention estimating means makes an estimation in consideration of a positional relationship between a current position of the vehicle and a target position.