JP2008059458A - Intervehicular communication system, on-vehicle device, and drive support device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a drive support device enhancing precision of peripheral vehicle position displayed on a screen, and an intervehicular communication system and an on-vehicle device used together with the drive support device. <P>SOLUTION: (1) Information on the current position of a position detecting means detected by the position detecting means equipped in one vehicle, and (2) information on a top view outermost border line of a transmitter vehicle defined based on an installation position of the position detecting means in the one vehicle, are transmitted from the one vehicle to the other vehicle, in this intervehicular communication system transceiving the prescribed information between the vehicles, using communication. The other vehicle receiving the information determines an area in the top view of a road occupied by the one vehicle, based on the received information, to be displayed on the screen with map information superposed thereon. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention generally relates to a driving support device that is mounted on a vehicle and transmits the position of another vehicle existing around the host vehicle to the host vehicle driver by a screen display, and in particular, the accuracy of the surrounding vehicle position displayed on the screen is improved. The present invention relates to an improved driving support apparatus, an inter-vehicle communication system and an in-vehicle apparatus used together with the driving support apparatus.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an apparatus / system that transmits the position of another vehicle existing around the host vehicle to a vehicle driver by screen display is known (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2).

  In Patent Document 1, information on the position, shape, and size of the other vehicle is acquired from other vehicles around the host vehicle using inter-vehicle communication, and the transmission source vehicle is determined as map information based on the acquired information. A system for displaying the image superimposed on the screen is disclosed.

In Patent Document 2, information on the position and size of the other vehicle is acquired from other vehicles around the host vehicle using inter-vehicle communication, and the transmission source vehicle is superimposed on map information using the acquired information. A display device is disclosed.
JP 2005-005978 A JP 2005-141515 A

  Patent Document 1 describes that an RTK (Real Time Kinetic) -GPS (Global Positioning System) is used as highly accurate position detecting means for improving vehicle position accuracy.

  However, Patent Document 1 does not pay any attention to the relative positional relationship between the installation position of the RTK-GPS antenna on the vehicle and the shape / size of the vehicle.

  According to Patent Document 1, the relative positional relationship between the installation position of the RTK-GPS antenna on the vehicle and the shape and size of the vehicle is not transmitted to surrounding vehicles. Therefore, a vehicle that has acquired information on the position and the size of the vehicle from the surrounding vehicle by inter-vehicle communication can grasp the position of the RTK-GPS antenna of the transmission source vehicle with relatively high accuracy. It is impossible to accurately grasp in what range / region around the vehicle body of the transmission source vehicle physically exists.

  This will be described with reference to FIG. The own vehicle position detected in the surrounding vehicle V is the position A of the RTK-GPS receiving antenna mounted on the vehicle V. At this time, if there is no information regarding the installation position of the RTK-GPS reception antenna in the vehicle V, it is determined what area in the lane W the vehicle V occupies with respect to the antenna position A in the road top view. I can't figure it out. In FIG. 1, V1 indicates the case where the antenna position A is present at the lower right of the vehicle V in a top view, and similarly, V2 is present at the lower left, V3 is located at the upper left, V4 is located at the upper right, and V5 is located at the center. ing. Thus, the area where the surrounding vehicle V occupies the road in top view cannot be accurately grasped only by detecting the antenna position A with high accuracy. That is, the exact position where the surrounding vehicle V exists cannot be presented to the driver.

  In addition, the device described in Patent Document 2 does not display the surrounding vehicle detected by a radar device or a camera mounted on the vehicle and the surrounding vehicle from which position information is acquired by inter-vehicle communication on the screen. Thus, identity is determined.

  Similarly to Patent Document 1, the Patent Document 2 does not pay attention to the relative positional relationship between the GPS antenna installation position on the vehicle and the shape and size of the vehicle.

  According to Patent Document 2, the vehicle type and approximate vehicle size (small car, large size, minivan, etc.) of the position information transmission source vehicle are transmitted to the surrounding vehicles together with the position information.

  As described above, the conventional apparatuses / systems described in Patent Documents 1 and 2 cannot accurately grasp the area occupied by the surrounding vehicle in the road top view.

  The present invention is for solving such problems, and provides a driving support device that improves the accuracy of surrounding vehicle positions displayed on the screen, an inter-vehicle communication system and an in-vehicle device used together with the driving support device. The main purpose.

  A first aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object is a vehicle-to-vehicle communication system in which predetermined information is transmitted and received between vehicles using communication, and the predetermined information includes 1) the predetermined Information on the current position of the position detection means detected by the position detection means provided in the vehicle of the transmission source of the information, and 2) defined with reference to the installation position of the position detection means in the transmission source vehicle, This is a vehicle-to-vehicle communication system that includes information on the outermost outline in top view of the transmission source vehicle.

  In the first aspect, the position detecting means is, for example, a GPS receiver. In that case, the installation position is the position of the GPS receiving antenna of the GPS receiver.

  According to the first aspect, the vehicle that has received the predetermined information from the surrounding vehicle is located in any area around the installation position of the transmission source vehicle with reference to the installation position of the position detection means in the transmission source vehicle. Since it is possible to grasp whether the vehicle body physically exists, it is possible to accurately grasp the position of the transmission source vehicle in the road top view.

  A second aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object is an in-vehicle device that is mounted on a vehicle and transmits predetermined information to surrounding vehicles using communication, and includes a position detection means for detecting a current position. The predetermined information is defined based on 1) information on the current position of the position detection means detected by the position detection means, and 2) an installation position of the position detection means in the host vehicle. It is an in-vehicle device including information on the outermost contour line in the top view of the host vehicle.

  In the second aspect, the position detecting means is, for example, a GPS receiver. In that case, the installation position is the position of the GPS receiving antenna of the GPS receiver.

  According to the second aspect, the surrounding vehicle that has received the predetermined information is located in any area around the installation position with respect to the installation position of the position detection means in the own vehicle (source vehicle). It is possible to grasp whether the vehicle body is physically present, so that the surrounding vehicle can accurately grasp the existence position of the own vehicle in the road top view.

  A third aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object is a driving support device that is mounted on a vehicle and transmits a position of another vehicle existing around the host vehicle to the driver of the host vehicle by screen display. 1) information on the current position of the position detection means detected by the position detection means provided in the vehicle that is the transmission source of the predetermined information, and 2) the information on the transmission source vehicle. It is determined based on the information acquired by the information acquisition means, the information acquisition means for acquiring the information on the outermost contour line in top view of the transmission source vehicle, which is defined with reference to the installation position of the position detection means. In addition, the driving support apparatus includes a display unit that displays a screen in which a region in which the vehicle that transmits the information occupies a road in a top view is superimposed on the map information.

  In the third aspect, the position detecting means is, for example, a GPS receiver. In that case, the installation position is the position of the GPS receiving antenna of the GPS receiver.

  According to the third aspect, when the above information is received from the surrounding vehicle, the vehicle body of the transmission source vehicle is located in any region around the installation position on the basis of the installation position of the position detection means in the transmission source vehicle. Since it can be ascertained whether it is physically present, it is possible to accurately grasp the position of the transmission source vehicle in the road top view and present it to the driver of the vehicle through a screen display.

  In the third aspect, it is preferable that the display means displays the screen by superimposing the area on the scale of the map information and superimposing the area on the map information.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the driving assistance apparatus which improved the precision of the surrounding vehicle position displayed on a screen, the inter-vehicle communication system used with this driving assistance apparatus, and a vehicle-mounted apparatus can be provided.

  Hereinafter, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. The basic concept of inter-vehicle communication, the main hardware configuration, the operating principle, the basic control method, and the like are known to those skilled in the art and will not be described in detail.

  Hereinafter, with reference to FIGS. 2-6, the vehicle-to-vehicle communication system which concerns on one Example of this invention, and the driving assistance apparatus mounted in each vehicle in the said system are demonstrated.

  FIG. 2 schematically shows an overview of the inter-vehicle communication system 200 according to the present embodiment.

  In the inter-vehicle communication system 200 according to the present embodiment, the driving support device 201 is mounted on each of the system participating vehicles V1, V2, and V3, and the driving support devices 201 of the vehicles V1 to V3 perform the inter-vehicle communication T1. Shall be configured to do.

  Further, each of the driving support devices 201 mounted on the vehicles V1 to V3 performs road-to-vehicle communication T2 with a fixed communication station on the infrastructure side (not shown), and the installation position of the traffic light S, the currently displayed color, or the temporary The infrastructure information related to the vehicle traffic such as the position of the stop line L is assumed to be acquired.

  In FIG. 2, for convenience, only three vehicles V (vehicles V1, V2, and V3) on which the driving support apparatus 201 according to the present embodiment is mounted and performing inter-vehicle communication are illustrated. Obviously, the number of vehicles V participating in the inter-vehicle communication system 200 according to the present embodiment is not limited to three.

  FIG. 3 schematically illustrates the configuration of a driving support device 201 that is mounted on each vehicle that performs vehicle-to-vehicle communication in the vehicle-to-vehicle communication system 200 according to the present embodiment and supports the driving operation of the driver.

  The driving support apparatus 201 includes a vehicle-to-vehicle communication unit 301 that establishes a wireless communication connection with the driving support apparatus 201 (the vehicle-to-vehicle communication unit 301) mounted on another system participating vehicle V to transmit and receive information. Have.

  In the inter-vehicle communication in the present embodiment, the detailed specifications of the wireless communication such as the employed wireless communication method and the frequency band to be used may be arbitrary. Further, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art, the vehicle-to-vehicle communication in the present embodiment is not limited to the form in which the vehicle is directly connected to the wireless communication, and the vehicle is communicated via road-to-vehicle communication or satellite communication. A form in which the vehicle and the vehicle are indirectly connected by communication can also be included.

  The driving support device 201 further establishes a wireless communication connection with a fixed communication station installed on the infrastructure side (for example, at each intersection), and receives the infrastructure information as described above from the infrastructure side communication station. A road-vehicle communication unit 302 is included.

  In the road-to-vehicle communication in this embodiment, the detailed specifications of the wireless communication such as the adopted wireless communication method and the frequency band to be used may be arbitrary. Further, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art, the road-to-vehicle communication in the present embodiment is not limited to the form in which the vehicle and the roadside are directly connected to each other by wireless communication, A mode of indirectly connecting the roadside and the roadside may also be included.

  In addition, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art, the vehicle-to-vehicle communication unit 301 and the road-to-vehicle communication unit 302 may be an integrated communication unit having both functions.

  The driving support apparatus 201 further includes a GPS receiver 303 that receives signals transmitted from a plurality of GPS satellites and calculates a current position from the plurality of received GPS signals. Strictly speaking, the current position calculated here is the position of a GPS receiving antenna (not shown) used by the GPS receiver 303 to receive GPS signals. Here, it is preferable to use a high-accuracy GPS such as RTK-GPS for accurate position detection.

  The driving support apparatus 201 further includes a radar device (for example, a laser radar, a millimeter wave radar, etc.), an image recognition camera (for example, a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) camera, a CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) camera, or the like). An obstacle detection unit 304 for detecting a parked vehicle, a traveling vehicle, a pedestrian, a bicycle (a person on a bicycle), a wheelchair (a person on a vehicle), and other moving / stationary objects using the Have. When an obstacle such as that described above is detected in the vicinity of the host vehicle, the obstacle detection unit 304 determines the distance and direction from the host vehicle to the detected obstacle, and the size and shape of the detected obstacle. Shall be detected and estimated. Various methods for detecting such an obstacle have already been proposed and are known to those skilled in the art, and thus further detailed description is omitted.

  The driving support device 201 further relates to at least the outermost contour line of the host vehicle defined on the basis of the installation position of at least a) the map information and b) the GPS receiving antenna of the GPS receiver 303 in the host vehicle. It has a storage unit 305 that stores information in advance.

  In the present embodiment, the storage unit 305 may be an arbitrary storage medium. Moreover, it is preferable that a) map information is suitably updated with the newest information, for example using communication.

  b) The vehicle top view outermost contour line defined with reference to the GPS receiving antenna installation position is the top view shape and size of the vehicle located on the outermost side in the two-dimensional plane when the vehicle is viewed from above. A contour line (outline line) to be defined, which is composed of a curve and / or a straight line consisting of a point group defined by the distance and direction from the GPS receiving antenna installation position, which is also represented as a point on the top view plane of the host vehicle. .

  A simple example is shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a top view of the vehicle V, and a symbol A indicates a GPS receiving antenna position. Here, in order to simplify the description, it is assumed that the top view shape of the vehicle V is a rectangle. Then, b) The outermost contour line representing the vehicle top view shape / size can be represented by a distance D from the GPS receiving antenna installation position A in the four directions of front, rear, left and right.

That is, the location of the right contour of the vehicle V may be defined by the right distance D _R from the GPS receiving antenna position A, hereinafter, similarly, the left side contour by left distance D _L, front contour The line can be defined by the front distance D _F and the back contour can be defined by the rear distance D _B.

  Therefore, the current position of the GPS receiving antenna detected by the GPS receiver 303 is illuminated with a) the map information stored and held in advance in the storage unit 305, and b) the host vehicle defined with reference to the GPS receiving antenna installation position. By illuminating the outermost contour line in the top view, the two-dimensional area on the road or lane where the vehicle body of the vehicle is physically located in the top view (what range occupies) Can be accurately grasped.

  Returning to FIG. The driving support device 201 further includes a display unit 306 that displays a part of the map information stored in the storage unit 305 that represents the periphery of the vehicle position detected by the GPS receiver 303 on the display screen.

  The display unit 306 further superimposes and displays the position, shape, and size of objects such as the host vehicle, surrounding vehicles, and surrounding obstacles on the partial map according to the scale of the map, and the position of the traffic light. In addition, infrastructure information such as the display color, the pause line, the center line, or the position of the median strip is also displayed in a superimposed manner.

  In the present embodiment, the display unit 306 is, for example, an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) installed at a position that is easy for the driver to see in the passenger compartment. It may also be used as a display of another in-vehicle system such as a car navigation system or a multimedia system. Alternatively, as another embodiment, the display unit 306 may be a head-up display (HUD) that projects and displays a screen image on the windshield in front of the driver.

  The driving support apparatus 201 further performs various calculations as will be described in detail later, arranges information to be displayed on the screen of the display unit 306, and instructs the information to be finally displayed on the display unit 306. Have In the present embodiment, the arithmetic control unit 307 is, for example, an ECU (Electronic Control Unit) or a CPU (Central Processing Unit).

  In the driving support device 201 having such a schematic configuration, the arithmetic control unit 307 is stored in advance and stored in advance in the storage unit 305, for example, periodically, and the current position of the GPS reception antenna of the vehicle detected by the GPS receiver 303. The vehicle top view outermost contour line defined with reference to the GPS receiving antenna installation position as a reference is configured to cause the inter-vehicle communication unit 301 to transmit it to surrounding vehicles, for example, by broadcast communication.

  In addition, when the current position of the GPS receiving antenna is detected by the GPS receiver 303, the driving support device 201 determines the GPS receiving antenna position in accordance with the map information stored and held in advance in the storage unit 305. The vehicle's top-view outermost contour defined with reference to the GPS receiving antenna installation position, in which the current position of the receiving antenna on the map is obtained and the detected GPS receiving antenna position is stored and stored in the storage unit 305 in advance. In view of the above, calculate the range around the current position of the GPS receiving antenna on the map above and the vehicle body is physically present. The two-dimensional area occupied by the host vehicle is configured to be superimposed on the display unit 306 in accordance with the scale of the map information.

  Further, the driving support device 201 uses the inter-vehicle communication unit 301 to reference information on the current position of the GPS reception antenna of the transmission source vehicle and the GPS reception antenna installation position of the transmission source vehicle from other vehicles around the host vehicle. When the information regarding the defined top view outermost contour line is received, the GPS reception antenna position of the received transmission source vehicle is compared with the map information stored and held in the storage unit 305 in advance, In addition to obtaining the current position of the GPS, the GPS reception antenna position of the received transmission source vehicle is also viewed in light of the GPS reception antenna installation position of the transmission source vehicle, which is defined on the basis of the outermost outline viewed from above. Above, calculate the range around the current position of the GPS receiving antenna of the source vehicle where the body of the source vehicle physically exists. And, in this way it is superposed on the display unit 306 to fit a two-dimensional area source vehicle is occupied by the road viewed from the obtained scale of the map information, as configured.

  In addition, when the infrastructure information such as the position and display color of the traffic light, the position of the temporary stop line, the center line, or the median strip is acquired from the road side by the road-to-vehicle communication unit 302, the driving support apparatus 201 acquires these infrastructures. Information is superimposed on the map displayed by the display unit 306.

  Further, when the obstacle detection unit 304 detects an obstacle as described above around the host vehicle, the driving support apparatus 201 displays the position, top view shape, and size of the detected obstacle on the display unit 306. Is superimposed on the displayed map.

  In this way, the display unit 306 displays other vehicles and obstacles and infrastructure information that exist around the host vehicle. For example, even if the field of view ahead of the host vehicle is poor, It becomes possible to grasp the positional relationship and infrastructure information between the host vehicle and surrounding objects.

  An example of the screen displayed by the display unit 306 is shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the vehicle V will be described as the own vehicle.

  FIG. 5 is an example of a screen display in a case where the driver knows in detail the distance between the own vehicle and the surrounding vehicle. For the surrounding vehicle, the preceding vehicle and the parallel running vehicle that are closest to the own vehicle are shown. This is a screen display example when only one oncoming vehicle is displayed.

  As described above, the driving support apparatus 201 according to the present embodiment includes the vehicle GPS top antenna outermost contour defined with reference to the current GPS reception antenna current position and the GPS reception antenna position of the host vehicle and the surrounding vehicles. Therefore, by mapping information on the area that these vehicles occupy on the road in top view and mapping them on map information, the top view shape and size of the host vehicle and surrounding vehicles, and It is possible to accurately grasp the exact position in the road or lane, for example, the distance between the rightmost (left) end of each vehicle in top view and the right (left) boundary line of the traveling road or lane.

  That is, the screen display as shown in FIG. 5 indicates that the driver is in a position in the traveling lane of the own vehicle (whether the vehicle is running near one of the left and right), for example, when the front view of the own vehicle is poor. It is useful for accurately grasping the distance (whether sufficient distance is ensured) from the preceding vehicle, the parallel running vehicle, or the oncoming vehicle.

  FIG. 6 is an example of a screen display when all other vehicles around the host vehicle are displayed within the displayed map.

  As shown in FIG. 6, when the position, shape, and size of other vehicles around the host vehicle are displayed on the screen as compared to the screen display example of FIG. 5, the driving support device 201 makes the driver More detailed traffic jam information can be provided.

  The screen display examples shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 are preferably configured to be switchable by manual selection by the user, for example.

  Thus, according to this embodiment, for example, when the driver cannot visually recognize the situation around the host vehicle, such as when the forward visibility is poor, Since obstacles and infrastructure information can be transmitted through the screen display, the safety of the driving operation of the driver can be improved.

  In addition, according to the present embodiment, the current position grasped using a high-accuracy GPS receiver capable of specifying a position in units of several centimeters is strictly the current position of the GPS receiving antenna. In addition to the GPS position information exchanged by inter-vehicle communication between vehicles, information on the vehicle top view outermost contour line defined with reference to the installation position of the GPS receiving antenna in each vehicle is also exchanged. Therefore, each vehicle can accurately grasp what area the own vehicle and the surrounding vehicles occupy in the road top view plane, and the range where these own vehicles and the surrounding vehicles physically exist can be determined. It is possible to overlay and draw accurately on the road top view screen.

  INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can be used for a vehicle-to-vehicle communication system that transmits and receives vehicle position information and a driving support device that presents the positions of surrounding vehicles to the driver. The power source type, fuel type, appearance design, weight, size, running performance, etc. of the target vehicle are all unquestioned.

It is a figure which shows the error range of the surrounding vehicle position estimated by the conventional apparatus / system. 1 is a schematic diagram of an entire inter-vehicle communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a driving support apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The figure which shows an example of the GPS receiving antenna installation position transmitted / received in the vehicle-to-vehicle communication system which concerns on one Example of this invention, and the vehicle upper surface view outermost outline (top view shape / size) defined on the basis of this antenna position. It is. It is a figure which shows an example of the periphery condition displayed by the driving assistance apparatus which concerns on one Example of this invention. It is a figure which shows another example of the peripheral condition displayed by the driving assistance device which concerns on one Example of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 200 Inter-vehicle communication system 201 Driving assistance device 301 Inter-vehicle communication part 302 Road-to-vehicle communication part 303 GPS receiver 304 Obstacle detection part 305 Memory | storage part 306 Display part 307 Calculation control part V Vehicle W Lane L Temporary stop line S Traffic light T1 Car Inter-vehicle communication T2 Road-to-vehicle communication A GPS receiving antenna installation position

Claims (7)

A vehicle-to-vehicle communication system in which predetermined information is transmitted and received between vehicles using communication,
The predetermined information includes
Information on the current position of the position detection means detected by the position detection means provided in the vehicle of the transmission source of the predetermined information;
And a vehicle-to-vehicle communication system characterized by including information on an outermost outline of the transmission source vehicle defined on the basis of an installation position of the position detection means in the transmission source vehicle. A vehicle-to-vehicle communication system according to claim 1,
The position detecting means is a GPS receiver;
The inter-vehicle communication system, wherein the installation position is a position of a GPS receiving antenna of the GPS receiver. An in-vehicle device that is mounted on a vehicle and transmits predetermined information to surrounding vehicles using communication,
Having position detection means for detecting the current position;
The predetermined information includes
Information on the current position of the position detection means detected by the position detection means;
The vehicle-mounted apparatus characterized by including the information regarding the outermost outline of top view of the own vehicle defined on the basis of the installation position of the said position detection means in the own vehicle. The in-vehicle device according to claim 3,
The position detecting means is a GPS receiver;
The in-vehicle device, wherein the installation position is a position of a GPS receiving antenna of the GPS receiver. A driving support device that is mounted on a vehicle and transmits the position of another vehicle existing around the host vehicle to the host vehicle driver by a screen display,
Using communication, from surrounding vehicles,
Information on the current position of the position detection means detected by the position detection means provided in the vehicle of the transmission source of the predetermined information;
Information related to the outermost outline of the transmission source vehicle defined on the basis of the installation position of the position detection unit in the transmission source vehicle, and information acquisition means for acquiring
Display means for displaying on a screen a region in which a vehicle occupying a road in a top view is superimposed on map information determined based on information acquired by the information acquisition unit; Driving assistance device. The driving support device according to claim 5,
The position detecting means is a GPS receiver;
The installation position is a position of a GPS receiving antenna of the GPS receiver. The driving support device according to claim 5 or 6,
The said display means adjusts the said area | region to the scale of the said map information, Then, it superimposes on this map information, and displays on a screen, The driving assistance apparatus characterized by the above-mentioned.

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