JP2008207706A - Rear lamp controller of vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a rear lamp controller of a vehicle arousing a driver of a following vehicle to take caution even if the vehicle is stopped or advances slowly. <P>SOLUTION: The rear lamp controller of the vehicle comprises a rear lamp control unit 20. The rear lamp control unit 20 comprises a control section 21, a processing section 22, and pulse drive control sections 23R, 23L. A vehicle speed sensor 31 and a following vehicle detector 33 are connected to the control section 21. Stop lamps 11R, 11L are connected to the pulse drive control sections 23R, 23L, respectively. The control section 21 flashes the stop lamps 11R, 11L when the stopped state or the slow speed state of the vehicle is detected. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicular rear lighting device control device, and more particularly to a vehicular rear lighting device control device that can change and control the lighting state of a rear lighting device.

As a vehicle rear lighting control device of this type, for example, as described in Patent Document 1 below, a stop lamp (rear lighting device) is provided at the initial stage of automatic braking with an automatic brake and a small vehicle deceleration. ) Is known to blink.
JP 2002-52977 A

  However, in the vehicle rear lighting control device described in the above-mentioned Patent Document 1, although it is possible to call attention to the following vehicle at the time of deceleration of the vehicle when the automatic brake is operated, the vehicle is stopped due to, for example, traffic jam, Since it has not been possible to cope with a traveling state in which the vehicle is traveling slowly (intermittently moving forward), it has been desired that the vehicle can sufficiently cope with such a daily traveling state.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a vehicular rear lighting control device that can call attention to a following vehicle even when the vehicle is stopped or slowing down.

Means for Solving the Problems and Effects of the Invention

  A vehicle rear lighting control device according to the present invention includes a rear lighting provided at the rear of a vehicle, a traveling state detecting means for detecting a stopped state and a slowing state of the vehicle, and a stopped state of the vehicle by the traveling state detecting means. Or it is provided with the lighting control means which blinks the said back lighting device on the condition that the slow running state was detected. Here, the stop state of the vehicle means a state where the brake pedal is depressed and the vehicle speed is almost zero, and the slow state means that the vehicle is operated at a predetermined small vehicle speed while intermittently depressing the brake pedal. In the following, it means a state where the vehicle is moving forward intermittently.

  In this vehicular rear lighting control device, the lighting control means blinks the rear lighting on the condition that the running state detection means detects a stop state or a slow running state of the vehicle. For this reason, it is possible to notify the following vehicle that the vehicle is in a stopped state or a slowing state, which is effective in preventing a rear-end collision.

  In carrying out the present invention, the vehicular rear lighting device control device further includes a following vehicle detecting means for detecting a following vehicle, and the lighting control means is arranged so that the host vehicle lasts according to a detection result by the following vehicle detecting means. It is also possible to provide tail determining means for determining the tail. In this case, the lighting control means is set so as to cause the rear lighting device to blink with a blinking pattern different from the first blinking pattern and the second blinking pattern, for example, according to the determination result by the tail determining means. Good.

  For example, when there is a traffic jam on a highway, the subsequent vehicle often approaches at a relatively high speed, so that the risk of a rear-end collision is higher than when the vehicle is between trains. Therefore, it is possible to provide tail determining means, and depending on the determination result by the tail determining means, the lighting control of the rear lighting device may be different depending on whether the host vehicle is at the tail or between the columns. It becomes possible, and the alerting condition for the following vehicle can be made appropriate according to the situation.

  Further, in the implementation of the present invention, the lighting control means, on the condition that the following vehicle is approaching when the host vehicle is determined to be the tail tail according to the determination result by the tail determining means, It is also possible to set the rear lighting device to blink in the first blinking pattern. According to this, attention to the following vehicle can be alerted reliably, and the rear-end collision preventing effect by the following vehicle can be further enhanced.

  In carrying out the present invention, the vehicular rear lighting control device further includes a timing unit, and the lighting control unit determines that the host vehicle is not the last tail according to a determination result by the last tail determining unit. It is also possible to set the time lighting means to start the time counting and to cause the rear lighting device to blink with the second blinking pattern on condition that the time measured has passed a set time. It is.

  For example, when the traffic jam continues for a long period of time, the driver's attention will not be greatly reduced. preferable. Therefore, in this case, it is possible to call attention to the following vehicle by causing the rear lighting device to blink after a set time has elapsed since it was determined that the host vehicle is not the last vehicle.

  In this case, the first blink pattern may be set so that the number of blinks is larger than that of the second blink pattern, for example. According to this, when the own vehicle is at the end, the rear lighting device is controlled to be lit with the first blinking pattern, and when the own vehicle is between the rows, the number of times of blinking is larger than the first blinking pattern. The lighting of the rear lighting device is controlled with a small second blinking pattern. For this reason, taking into consideration the inter-vehicle distance with the following vehicle, the visibility of the following vehicle with respect to the host vehicle can be improved.

  In implementing the present invention, the rear lighting device may include at least one of a stop lamp and a tail lamp. According to this, the variation of the blinking pattern can be increased.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of an embodiment of a vehicle rear lighting device control apparatus according to the present invention. The vehicle rear lighting device control apparatus includes stop lamps 11R and 11L and tail lamps 12R as rear lighting devices. 12L.

  The stop lamps 11R and 11L are made up of light emitting elements such as LEDs, for example, and are respectively provided on the right and left of the rear part of the body, and light up in response to an operation of depressing a brake pedal (not shown). The tail lamps 12R and 12L are composed of light emitting elements such as LEDs, for example, and are respectively provided on the right and left of the rear part of the body, and light up in response to an ON operation of a light control switch 35 described later. The stop lamps 11R and 11L and the tail lamps 12R and 12L are connected to the rear lighting device controller 20.

  The rear lighting device control device 20 includes a control unit 21, a processing unit 22, and pulse drive control units 23R and 23L that function as lighting control means. The control unit 21 includes a microcomputer including an interface unit, a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, a timer 21a (timer), and the like as main components, and repeats the lighting control program shown in FIG. 2 every predetermined time after turning on the ignition switch. Execute. The processing unit 22 outputs a signal indicating lighting to the pulse drive control units 23R and 23L according to the control command of the control unit 21.

  The pulse drive control unit 23R is connected to the stop lamp 11R and the tail lamp 12R, and the pulse drive control unit 23L is connected to the stop lamp 11L and the tail lamp 12L. The pulse drive control units 23R and 23L turn on the stop lamps 11R and 11L and the tail lamps 12R and 12L in such a manner that a high level voltage signal or a low level voltage signal is output in accordance with a signal indicating lighting by the processing unit 22. Alternatively, in addition to turning off the light, the stop lamps 11R and 11L are blinked in such a manner that a voltage signal having a pulse waveform that alternately repeats a high-level and low-level voltage signal at a predetermined cycle is output.

  A vehicle speed sensor 31, a brake switch 32, and a subsequent vehicle detector 33 are connected to the control unit 21. The vehicle speed sensor 31 (running state detection means) includes a rotation detection unit such as a known rotary encoder, and is installed near the wheel mounting unit, for example, to detect the rotation of the wheel. The detected number of rotations of the wheel is output to the control unit 21 as a pulse signal, and is converted into a vehicle speed by the control unit 21. The brake switch 32 is turned on in response to the depression operation of the brake pedal and turned off in response to the depression operation of the brake pedal.

  The following vehicle detector 33 (following vehicle detection means) detects the following vehicle and its approach, and is provided at the rear of the vehicle. For example, a millimeter wave radar is used as the subsequent vehicle detector 33 to detect the inter-vehicle distance. The detected inter-vehicle distance is output to the control unit 21. The following vehicle detector 33 is not limited to the millimeter wave radar, and may be an ultrasonic sonar or a CCD camera, for example. When the ultrasonic sonar is used, the succeeding vehicle and its approach are detected based on the time until the sound wave is reflected back to the succeeding vehicle. When a CCD camera is used, as indicated by a broken line in FIG. 1, a detector control device 34 is provided for calculating the inter-vehicle distance from the subsequent vehicle based on the image data of the subsequent vehicle by the CCD camera. .

  Next, the operation of the embodiment configured as described above will be described. When the occupant operates the ignition key to turn on the ignition switch, the control unit 21 repeatedly executes the lighting control program of FIG. 2 every predetermined short time.

  The lighting control program is executed in step S10, and in step S11, the vehicle speed is monitored, that is, the vehicle speed detected by the vehicle speed sensor 31 is input. Next, in step S12, it is determined whether or not the vehicle is in a stopped state or in a slow state by determining whether or not the detected vehicle speed is equal to or less than a predetermined small vehicle speed. When the vehicle is traveling at a high vehicle speed, “No” is determined in step S12, and the processes in steps S11 and S12 are repeatedly executed.

  A case will be described in which, for example, the vehicle is caught in a traffic jam and is stopped from the state in which the processes of steps S11 and S12 are repeatedly executed. In this case, in step S13, the following vehicle confirmation, that is, the inter-vehicle distance detected by the following vehicle detector 33 is input. Next, in step S14, it is determined whether the inter-vehicle distance detected by the following vehicle detector 33 is within a predetermined small distance range. If the detected inter-vehicle distance is not within the range of the predetermined small distance, it is determined that the host vehicle is at the end (“Yes” in step S14), and the subsequent vehicle approach monitoring, that is, the predetermined vehicle is determined in step S15. The inter-vehicle distance detected by the following vehicle detector 33 is sequentially input within a short time range.

  In step S16, the difference between the latest inter-vehicle distance after the predetermined short time and the inter-vehicle distance input slightly before the elapsed time is calculated, and when the difference is equal to or greater than the predetermined distance, It determines with the following vehicle approaching, and performs the process of step S17.

  In step S17, the stop lamps 11R and 11L, which are in the lighting state (the brake switch 32 is turned on) by the depression operation of the brake pedal, blink with the blinking pattern A (first blinking pattern) shown in FIG. The stop lamps 11R and 11L are driven and controlled via the pulse drive controllers 23R and 23.

  Next, a case will be described in which the vehicle is stopped due to a traffic jam and is at the end, but the following vehicle is not approaching. In this case, it determines with "No" in step S16, and performs the process after step S18. In step S18, the timer 21a starts counting. In step S19, as in step S11, the vehicle speed detected by the vehicle speed sensor 31 is input.

  In step S20, it is determined whether or not the count value of the timer 21a has passed a specified time. This specified time is a predetermined time that takes into account the time when the following vehicle is estimated to approach, and the time when the driver's attention of each vehicle starts to decrease when the vehicle described later is in the line. It is set to length. At the stage of executing the process of step S20 for the first time, since the specified time has not yet elapsed, “No” is determined in step S20, and the process proceeds to step S23.

  If the vehicle is traveling at a high vehicle speed in the state shifted to step S23, “No” is determined in step S23, the timer count is canceled in step S22, and the lighting control is performed in step S30. End the program execution. On the other hand, when the traveling state below the low vehicle speed continues, the processes of steps S19, S20, and S23 are repeatedly executed, and the process of step S21 is executed after the specified time has elapsed.

  In step S21, the pulse drive control units 23R, 11R, 11L, 11L, 11L, which are turned on by depressing the brake pedal, blink in a blinking pattern B (second blinking pattern) shown in FIG. The stop lamps 11R and 11L are driven and controlled via 23. Here, the blinking pattern B is set so that the number of blinks is smaller than that of the blinking pattern A, and the turn-off time after the blinking operation is set to be somewhat longer. After execution of the process of step S21, the timer count is canceled in step S22, and the execution of this lighting control program is ended in step S30.

  Next, a case will be described in which the vehicle is stopped due to a traffic jam, but not between the tail but between the rows. In this case, “No” is determined in Step S14, and thereafter, the processing after Step S18 is executed in the same manner as described above. Then, when the traveling state below the low vehicle speed continues for a specified time, the stop lamps 11R and 11L are blinked in the blinking pattern B shown in FIG. As described above, the specified time in step S20 is determined in consideration of the time when the driver's attention of each vehicle starts to decrease when the host vehicle is in a line during a traffic jam. Therefore, an effect of calling attention to the following vehicle is obtained by the blinking operation of the stop lamps 11R and 11L in a predetermined manner.

  Even when the vehicle is slowing down due to traffic congestion, the same processing as that when the vehicle is stopped is executed. That is, when the vehicle is in a slow state and is at the end, the process of step S17 is executed on condition that the following vehicle is approaching ("Yes" in step S16). In addition, when the vehicle is slowing down and is at the end but the following vehicle is not approaching, or when the vehicle is in the slowing state but is not at the end but between the rows, the timer 21a counts. The process of step S21 is executed on condition that the value has passed the specified time (“Yes” in step S20).

  In addition to traffic jams, for example, when the vehicle is in a stopped state due to a signal wait, the same processing is executed as in the case where the vehicle is in a stopped state or a slow-down state due to traffic jams.

  As is clear from the above description, in the present embodiment, on the condition that the stop state or the slow state of the vehicle is detected by the processing of steps S11 and S12 based on the vehicle speed detected by the vehicle speed sensor 31. The stop lamps 11R and 11L are blinked by the control unit 21, the processing unit 22, and the pulse drive control units 23R and 23L. For this reason, it is possible to notify the following vehicle that the vehicle is in a stopped state or a slowing state, which is effective in preventing a rear-end collision.

  Further, in this embodiment, when it is determined that the host vehicle is the last one by the processing of steps S13 and S14 based on the inter-vehicle distance detected by the subsequent vehicle detector 33, the subsequent vehicle is determined by the processing of steps S15 and S16. The stop lamps 11R and 11L are caused to blink with a blinking pattern A on the condition that they are approaching. Further, when it is determined that the host vehicle is not the last in the processes of steps S13 and S14, the timer 21a is started to count by the process of step S18, and the count value has passed the specified time by the process of step S20. The stop lamps 11R and 11L are caused to blink with the blinking pattern B.

  As a result, when the host vehicle is at the tail, attention to the following vehicle can be alerted, and the rear-end collision prevention effect by the following vehicle can be enhanced. Further, when the host vehicle is between the rows, it is possible to suppress a decrease in the attention of the driver of the following vehicle.

  Further, in the present embodiment, the blink pattern A is set to have a larger number of blinks than the blink pattern B. Thereby, the visibility with respect to the own vehicle of a following vehicle becomes favorable.

(First modified embodiment)
In the above embodiment, when the succeeding vehicle is not approaching, it is determined to be “No” in step S16, and the processing after step S18 is executed. Instead, for example, FIG. As shown in FIG. 6, when it is determined as “No” in step S16, the processing after step S11 may be executed again. According to this, when the state where the host vehicle is at the end continues, the stop lamps 11R and 11L are blinked with the blinking pattern A when the following vehicle approaches, so be careful about the following vehicle. It can be surely evoked and the rear-end collision prevention effect by the following vehicle can be further enhanced. Since other configurations are the same as those in the above embodiment, the same members or the same step processes as those in the above embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted.

(Second modified embodiment)
In the above embodiment, the stop lamps 11R and 11L are controlled to be lit with the blinking pattern B by the process of step S21 after the count value of the timer 21a has passed the specified time. For example, as shown in FIG. The processing of step S21 may be omitted, and the stop lamps 11R and 11L may be controlled to be lit with the blinking pattern A by the processing of step S17 after the count value of the timer 21a has passed the specified time. . In this case, the flashing pattern B may be adopted instead of the flashing pattern A. Also in this second modified embodiment, attention can be drawn to the following vehicle as in the above embodiment. Since other configurations are the same as those in the above embodiment, the same members or the same step processes as those in the above embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted.

  In the above-described embodiment and the like, only the stop lamps 11R and 11L of the rear lighting devices are blinked. However, as indicated by a broken line in FIG. In addition to or instead of the stop lamps 11R and 11L, the tail lamps 12R and 12L may be blinked. Further, in addition to or instead of these lamps 11R, 11L, 12R, and 12L, a high mount stop lamp may be blinked.

  Moreover, it is also possible to carry out by changing the blinking pattern between when the vehicle is in a stopped state and when the vehicle is in a slowing state.

  Further, the blinking pattern is not limited to a mode in which the number of blinks is changed, and can be implemented by appropriately changing the pulse width during the blinking operation by PWM control, for example.

The functional block diagram which shows one Embodiment of the vehicle back lighting control device by this invention. The flowchart which shows the lighting control program performed by the control part of FIG. (A) is a time chart which shows the blinking pattern A of a back lighting device. (B) is a time chart showing the blinking pattern B of the rear lighting device. The flowchart which shows the lighting control program which concerns on 1st deformation | transformation embodiment of this invention and is performed by the control part of FIG. The flowchart which shows the lighting control program which concerns on 2nd modification embodiment of this invention and is performed by the control part of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

11R, 11L Stop lamp (rear lighting)
12R, 12L tail lamp (rear lighting)
20 rear lighting device control device 21 control unit (lighting control means, running state detection means, following vehicle detection means)
21a Timer (time measuring means)
22 Processing unit (lighting control means)
23R, 23L Pulse drive controller (lighting control means)
31 Vehicle speed sensor (running state detection means)
32 Brake switch 33 Subsequent vehicle detector (following vehicle detection means)
34. Detector control device (following vehicle detection means)
35 Light control switch

Claims (7)

A rear lighting device provided at the rear of the vehicle;
Traveling state detecting means for detecting a stop state and a slowing state of the vehicle;
A vehicle rear lighting control device, comprising: a lighting control unit that causes the rear lighting device to blink on the condition that the running state detection unit detects a stop state or a slow running state of the vehicle.   The rear lighting control device for a vehicle further includes a subsequent vehicle detection unit that detects a subsequent vehicle, and the lighting control unit determines that the host vehicle is the tail in accordance with a detection result by the subsequent vehicle detection unit. The vehicle rear lighting device control device according to claim 1, further comprising tail determining means for performing the operation.   The lighting control means is set to cause the rear lighting device to blink with a blinking pattern different from the first blinking pattern and the second blinking pattern according to the determination result by the tail determining means. The vehicle rear lighting device control apparatus as described.   When the lighting control unit determines that the host vehicle is the last tail according to the determination result by the tail determining unit, the lighting control unit uses the first blinking pattern on the condition that the following vehicle approaches the host vehicle. The vehicle rear lighting control device according to claim 3, wherein the rear lighting device is set to blink.   The vehicular rear lighting device control device further includes timing means, and when the lighting control means determines that the host vehicle is not the last tail according to the determination result by the last tail determining means, the time counting means counts time. 5. The vehicle rear according to claim 3, wherein the rear lighting device is set to blink with the second blinking pattern on condition that the set time has elapsed after the time is started. Lighting device control device.   The vehicular rear lighting device control device according to any one of claims 3 to 5, wherein the first blinking pattern is set so that the number of blinks is larger than that of the second blinking pattern.   The vehicle rear lighting device control device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the rear lighting device includes at least one of a stop lamp and a tail lamp.

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