JP2009187413A - Onboard device and vehicle travel support system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an onboard device for highly reliably determining whether an object exists around. <P>SOLUTION: The onboard device comprises an inter-vehicle communication part for communicating with other vehicles; an information acquiring part 110 acquiring state information of the vehicle and surrounding information of the vehicle; and a control part 140 controlling the operation of the onboard device. The inter-vehicle communication part acquires the state information of the other vehicle, the surrounding information of the other vehicle and area information showing a service area of the surrounding information from the other vehicle, and outputs the information to the control part 140. The information acquiring part 110 acquires the area information showing the service area of the surrounding information of the vehicle and outputs the area information together with the state information and surrounding information of the vehicle to the control part 140. The control part 140 determines the surrounding state of the vehicle based on the information received from the inter-vehicle communication part and the information received from the information acquiring part, and assists the vehicle using the determined result. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an in-vehicle device that performs an auxiliary operation of a vehicle by exchanging information through inter-vehicle communication, and a vehicle travel support system including the in-vehicle device.

  Conventionally, regarding road traffic systems, “Under the traffic situation where vehicles with or without bi-directional transmission / reception means between vehicles are mixed, it is possible to grasp the position and running state of other vehicles centering on the own vehicle equipped with this means. Provide a road traffic system that can do. As a technology for the purpose of the above, "the distance measurement means 18 for the distance and direction from the own vehicle to the other vehicle is provided in each mounted vehicle on which the transmission / reception means for bidirectional communication between vehicles is mounted, and each transmission means 16 performs PN code modulation on vehicle information including at least vehicle position information, and wirelessly outputs a transmission signal from the own vehicle. Each receiving means 17 receives transmission signals from other mounted vehicles and demodulates them by a correlation circuit. Vehicle position information of each of the other mounted vehicles is acquired, and each mounted vehicle acquires the vehicle position information of the non-mounted vehicle in which the transmission / reception means for inter-vehicle bidirectional communication is not mounted by the distance measuring means 18, The mounted vehicle is provided with processing means 15 for creating the position of the other vehicle as a vehicle travel map based on the vehicle position information. Is proposed (Patent Document 1).

  In addition, regarding the inter-vehicle communication system, “It is possible for all vehicles to recognize in advance the occurrence of traffic conditions / abnormal events on roads where high-cost infrastructure facilities are not installed. As a technology for this purpose, “a vehicle-to-vehicle communication system 1 capable of communicating information between a plurality of vehicles 2 traveling on a road where an infrastructure facility having a sensor and a computer for control and communication processing is not installed. Each vehicle 2 is mounted on the host vehicle 2 for driving support, and the host vehicle 2 is based on the driving support camera 10 (11, 12) that captures an image around the host vehicle 2 and the captured surrounding image. A controller 15 and a communication unit 19 are provided for performing processing for detecting travel-related information including at least one of surrounding traffic conditions and abnormal events, and processing for wirelessly transmitting the detected travel-related information to other vehicles. Yes. Is proposed (Patent Document 2).

  The present invention also relates to a vehicular travel support apparatus, which provides “a vehicular travel support apparatus capable of appropriately grasping object information around the host vehicle and performing stable travel support control. As a technology for the purpose of the above, “the communication device 16 uses the communication device 16 to detect the position information of a vehicle equipped with a communication device other than the own vehicle and the information of the vehicle equipped with no communication device detected by the external sensor of the vehicle equipped with the communication device. And the vehicle support control of the host vehicle is performed based on the information and the host vehicle running state. At this time, the reliability of the detected information of the vehicle without the communication device is calculated according to the type of the external sensor, the driving environment, and the like, and the response characteristic of the driving support control is changed according to the reliability. Is proposed (Patent Document 3).

  Further, regarding a vehicle information providing apparatus, “a higher level of driving assistance is performed even in a complicated traffic environment such as an intersection or a T-shaped road. As a technology for the purpose of the above, “it is detected on the traveling road by the front obstacle data detected by the obstacle sensor 3 and the road-to-vehicle radio 4 while detecting the running state of the host vehicle (steps S1 and S2). Vehicle information acquired from the infrastructure equipment, vehicle travel information acquired by the vehicle-to-vehicle wireless device 5 (step S3 to step S5), obstacle sensor 3, road-to-vehicle wireless device 4, vehicle-to-vehicle wireless For each detection means of the machine 5, a multiplex level indicating the number of detection means when the same object is detected by different detection means, and a sum of reliability set for the detection means detecting the object The total reliability is determined based on these (step S6), and the higher level of driving assistance is performed when the total reliability is predicted to be high (step S6). 7). ] Has been proposed (Patent Document 4).

JP 11-265497 A (summary) JP 2001-283181 A (summary) JP 2006-172053 A (summary) JP 2006-195641 A (summary)

In the technologies described in Patent Documents 1 to 4, it is unclear to the host vehicle how far the other vehicle can grasp the surrounding situation.
In this case, when the information about the surrounding situation cannot be obtained from the other vehicle, there is no object to which information should be transmitted in the vicinity of the other vehicle, or whether the object exists but could not be detected, Cannot be distinguished.

  Therefore, an in-vehicle device and a vehicle travel support system that can determine with high reliability whether or not an object exists in the vicinity have been desired.

  An in-vehicle device according to the present invention is an in-vehicle device that obtains vehicle periphery information and performs auxiliary operation of the vehicle, and includes an inter-vehicle communication unit that communicates with other vehicles, state information of the vehicle, and surroundings of the vehicle An information acquisition unit that acquires information, and a control unit that controls the operation of the in-vehicle device, wherein the inter-vehicle communication unit is configured to provide state information of the other vehicle and peripheral information of the other vehicle from the other vehicle of the communication partner. And the area information describing the target area of the surrounding information is output to the control unit, and the information acquiring unit acquires the area information describing the target area of the surrounding information of the vehicle, The state information and its peripheral information are output to the control unit, and the control unit determines the peripheral state of the vehicle based on the information received from the inter-vehicle communication unit and the information received from the information acquisition unit. And performs a supplementary operation of the vehicle using the determination result.

  According to the vehicle-mounted device according to the present invention, it is possible to distinguish whether there is no information about other objects within the detection target area of the peripheral information or whether there is no information about other objects outside the detection target area. Even when information about other objects cannot be obtained, it is possible to provide information with higher reliability in consideration of the possibility that other objects exist in the vicinity of the host vehicle.

Embodiment 1 FIG.
FIG. 1 illustrates an inter-vehicle communication environment according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.
In FIG. 1, the host vehicle 10 is equipped with an in-vehicle device 100 described later with reference to FIG. 2, and means for acquiring information related to the state of the host vehicle (for example, speed and traveling direction) and surrounding information of the host vehicle. It has.
The peripheral information here is information related to the physical environment around the host vehicle 10 such as obstacles such as the objects 30a to 30b, pedestrians, and the like.

  The own vehicle 10 communicates with other surrounding vehicles 20a to 20c by inter-vehicle communication, and transmits information related to the state of the own vehicle and surrounding information of the own vehicle to the other vehicles, or similar information is transmitted to the other vehicles 20a to 20c. Receive from.

  Information on the presence of other vehicles may be included in the surrounding information of the own vehicle, but information on other vehicles can be obtained directly from other vehicles by inter-vehicle communication. And information about other vehicles.

  The in-vehicle device 100 includes a configuration for the host vehicle 10 to perform the processing as described above. A specific configuration will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the in-vehicle device 100 according to the first embodiment.
The in-vehicle device 100 is mounted on a vehicle, acquires information from another vehicle, and performs an auxiliary operation of the vehicle.
Here, the auxiliary operation refers to, for example, driving support for safe driving. The operation of the vehicle itself may be controlled, or only auxiliary information that contributes to the control of the vehicle or the driving operation of the driver may be output. In the following description, an operation that only outputs auxiliary information is taken as an example.

  The in-vehicle device 100 includes an information acquisition unit 110, an inter-vehicle transmission unit 120, an inter-vehicle reception unit 130, a control unit 140, and a storage unit 150.

The information acquisition unit 110 includes means for acquiring information related to the state of the host vehicle 10 and surrounding information of the host vehicle 10, and outputs the acquired information to the control unit 140.
As a means for acquiring information related to the state of the host vehicle 10, for example, a sensor that acquires the physical state of the host vehicle 10 such as a speed sensor or an acceleration sensor may be considered.
As a means for acquiring the surrounding information of the host vehicle 10, a sensor corresponding to the information to be acquired, for example, a means for recognizing and detecting an obstacle or a pedestrian by capturing an image is considered. When performing advanced image recognition processing, only that processing may be delegated to the control unit 140.

The inter-vehicle transmission unit 120 transmits information to other vehicles using inter-vehicle communication based on an instruction from the control unit 140.
The inter-vehicle receiving unit 130 receives information transmitted from other vehicles using inter-vehicle communication and outputs the information to the control unit 140.
The contents of information transmitted and received by each of these units will be described later with reference to FIG.

The control unit 140 acquires the information acquired by the information acquisition unit 110 and the information received by the inter-vehicle reception unit 130 from another vehicle, and makes a determination as described in FIG.
In addition, the inter-vehicle transmission unit 120 is instructed to deliver information to be transmitted to another vehicle and transmit the information using inter-vehicle communication.

  The storage unit 150 stores information output from the control unit 140 and outputs the stored information to the control unit 140. The contents of the information to be stored will be described later with reference to FIG.

The information acquisition unit 110, the vehicle-to-vehicle transmission unit 120, and the vehicle-to-vehicle reception unit 130 include necessary interfaces according to the information to be acquired and the format of information to be transmitted and received.
The control unit 140 can be configured by hardware such as a circuit device that realizes the function, or is configured by an arithmetic device such as a microcomputer or a CPU (Central Processing Unit), and software that defines the operation thereof. You can also.
The storage unit 150 can be configured by a writable storage device such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive).

The “vehicle-to-vehicle communication unit” in the first embodiment corresponds to the vehicle-to-vehicle transmitter 120 and the vehicle-to-vehicle receiver 130.
The “other objects” correspond to various objects existing in the vicinity of the host vehicle 10 such as the other vehicles 20a to 20c, the objects 30a to 30c, and the pedestrian 40.

  FIG. 3 shows a configuration of information stored in the storage unit 150 by the control unit 140 (hereinafter referred to as integrated information). The integrated information construction procedure will be described later with reference to FIG. 3, and only the configuration of the integrated information will be described here.

FIG. 3A illustrates the configuration of the integrated information.
The integrated information includes area definition information (“area definition 1” and “area definition 2” in FIG. 3A) defining a certain geographical range in the real environment, and other vehicles and objects existing in the area. And surrounding information.
There is one or more area definition information, and there are zero or more peripheral information subordinate to one area definition information.

The area definition information can be expressed by using, for example, the latitude and longitude of each vertex obtained by dividing a certain section of the real environment by a polygon.
The peripheral information represents information related to other vehicles, objects, and the like that exist in the area defined by the subordinate area definition information. Specifically, it is information such as the coordinates of other vehicles and objects, the speed and traveling direction of other vehicles, the position and traveling direction of pedestrians, and peripheral information acquired by other vehicles. The expression format is appropriately determined according to the content of the information to be expressed.

  In addition, from the viewpoint of convenience in information expression, information related to the state of the host vehicle 10 and surrounding information of the host vehicle 10 are collectively described as “peripheral information”. Each of these pieces of information may be explicitly distinguished, but in the following description, “peripheral information” is used.

FIG. 3B is a diagram illustrating the correspondence between the integrated information illustrated in FIG. 3A and the real environment.
In FIG. 3B, “Area 1” is a geographical section corresponding to “Area Definition 1” in FIG. The other vehicle 20a, the object 30a, and the other vehicle 20c exist in this section, and each corresponds to “peripheral information 1-1” to “peripheral information 1-3”.
“Area 2” is the same as “Area 1”.

  The “target area” in the first embodiment refers to the target range of the information defined by the area definition information in the integrated information.

The configuration of the in-vehicle device 100 and the integrated information has been described above.
Next, the operation of the in-vehicle device 100 will be described from the viewpoint of a procedure for constructing integrated information. First, information acquired by the information acquisition unit 110 will be described, and then information acquired by the inter-vehicle receiving unit 130 will be described.

(1) Acquisition of information related to own vehicle 10 The information acquisition unit 110 acquires information related to the state of the own vehicle 10 and surrounding information of the own vehicle 10 using a sensor or the like provided.
When acquiring each piece of information, the range from which the information is acquired is grasped by specifying a geographical range to be acquired or by holding a sensing range such as a sensor as a predetermined value in advance.
The information acquisition unit 110 itself may grasp the information acquisition range, or the process may be delegated to the control unit 140.

(2) Output of Acquired Information The information acquisition unit 110 outputs the information acquired in step (1) to the control unit 140. At this time, the information is output to the control unit 140 together with the information acquisition range so that the control unit 140 can grasp which range the information is for.
When the control unit 140 itself grasps the information acquisition range, the information received by the control unit 140 is associated with the target range as appropriate.

As a result of sensing or the like, if there is no information to be acquired within the information acquisition target range, empty information describing only the information acquisition target range is output to indicate the fact.
If the format of the information representing the information acquisition range is matched with the format of the area definition information described with reference to FIG. 3, it is convenient for processing. In the following description, the information acquired by the information acquisition unit 110 is handled as a set such as (area definition information, acquisition information).

(3) Construction of integrated information When the control unit 140 receives a set of (area definition information, acquisition information) from the information acquisition unit 110, the control unit 140 depends on the area definition information in the integrated information format described with reference to FIG. The information is stored in the storage unit 150 as peripheral information.
If the existing integrated information previously stored in the storage unit 150 matches the area definition information, the peripheral information subordinate to the area definition information may be added and stored in the storage unit 150.

  In addition, when the information acquisition range of the information acquisition unit 110 partially overlaps with the area definition information of the existing integrated information, the information is divided and stored so as to match the area definition of the existing integrated information. Alternatively, the area definition of the existing integrated information and the area definition to be newly stored may be integrated and reconstructed as a new area definition (the area becomes wider).

(4) Transmission of integrated information The control part 140 outputs the integrated information constructed | assembled at step (3) to the vehicle-to-vehicle transmission part 120, and instruct | indicates to transmit by vehicle-to-vehicle communication.
The inter-vehicle transmission unit 120 transmits the integrated information through inter-vehicle communication at a separately determined timing.

The handling of information acquired by the information acquisition unit 110 has been described in steps (1) to (4). Similar processing is also executed by another vehicle having a device having the same function as the in-vehicle device 100.
Next, handling of information acquired by the inter-vehicle receiving unit 130 will be described in steps (5) to (6).

(5) Receiving information transmitted by other vehicles The inter-vehicle receiving unit 130 waits for communication from other vehicles at a separately determined timing, and when receiving communication from other vehicles, information transmitted by other vehicles in the communication process. Is output to the control unit 140.
The information received here is integrated information as described in FIG. That is, the own vehicle 10 and the other vehicle can obtain peripheral information of a wider area by exchanging the integrated information held by themselves.

(6) Combining integrated information When the control unit 140 receives a set of (area definition information, acquisition information) from the inter-vehicle receiving unit 130, the control unit 140 depends on the area definition information in the integrated information format described with reference to FIG. The information is stored in the storage unit 150 as peripheral information.
If the existing integrated information previously stored in the storage unit 150 matches the area definition information, the peripheral information subordinate to the area definition information may be added and stored in the storage unit 150.

  If the area definition information included in the integrated information acquired by the inter-vehicle receiving unit 130 partially overlaps the area definition information of the existing integrated information, the information as described in step (3). May be stored separately, or may be integrated with the area definition of the existing integrated information and reconstructed as a new area definition (the area becomes wider).

  The handling of information acquired by the inter-vehicle receiving unit 130 has been described in steps (5) to (6). Similar processing is also executed by another vehicle having a device having the same function as the in-vehicle device 100.

According to the above procedure, information on other vehicles, objects, pedestrians, etc. in the area defined by each area definition information is collected as integrated information in the own vehicle 10 including information on other vehicles existing in the vicinity. Is done.
Next, how to use the acquired or constructed integrated information will be described with an example.

FIG. 4 explains how to use integrated information from the viewpoint of area definition information.
FIG. 4A is a diagram schematically showing the surrounding information of the host vehicle 10 when there is no area definition information, and FIG. 4B is an area definition of the surrounding information of the host vehicle 10 when there is area definition information. FIG.

In FIG. 4A, other vehicles 20 a to 20 c, objects 30 a to 30 c, and a pedestrian 40 exist around the host vehicle 10.
Although the object 30c exists relatively far from the host vehicle 10, it exists within the detection range of the other vehicle 20c, and therefore the host vehicle 10 may recognize its presence by exchanging integrated information through inter-vehicle communication. it can.
Since the pedestrian 40 exists in the blind spot of the own vehicle 10, the own vehicle 10 cannot detect the presence.

In the surrounding situation of FIG. 4A, the object 30c is far from the own vehicle 10, so there is not much danger for the own vehicle 10, but the pedestrian 40 exists within the detection range of the own vehicle 10, so that a collision or the like occurs. There is a danger of.
In this way, objects that recognize existence but have low risk, and objects that have high risk even though they do not recognize existence exist in an actual environment. If these danger levels can be clearly distinguished, effective assistance can be performed in the operation of the host vehicle 10.
Therefore, it is considered that the area definition information described with reference to FIG. 3 is provided together with the peripheral information to be useful for the recognition of the danger.

FIG. 4B schematically shows a recognition result of peripheral information when area definition information is also provided in the same peripheral environment as FIG.
In FIG. 4B, the host vehicle 10 exists in the area 2, and it can be said that other vehicles, objects, etc. existing in the same area or nearby areas have a relatively high risk of collision. Further, since it is clearly understood from the area definition information that the object 30c is present in the area 3 that is not close to the area 2, it can be determined that the risk is low.

If the area definition information does not exist, only the existence of an object or the like is recognized, and it is not clear how much danger there is in relation to the host vehicle 10, so We have to pay attention to everything uniformly, and we cannot deny the possibility that attention to nearby dangerous objects will be neglected.
By providing the area definition information and the peripheral information together, such inconvenience is eliminated, and thus more appropriate auxiliary operation can be performed.

On the other hand, the presence of the pedestrian 40 existing in the area 2 is not confirmed in the environment shown in FIG.
In order to avoid such an unknown danger, the control unit 140 indicates a possibility that an unknown danger exists for a portion where no surrounding information exists in the proximity area of the host vehicle 10, and information indicating that fact. Is output.

For example, with respect to a part that is clearly known to exist near the host vehicle 10 such as the other vehicle 20b or the object 30b, the control unit 140 warns the risk level of the part to the highest level. A method is conceivable in which information is output and for other parts, alert information with a lowered risk level is output.
The other system or the like in the host vehicle 10 that has received the information executes an operation corresponding to the risk level and appropriately controls the operation of the host vehicle 10.

As described above, in the in-vehicle device 100 according to the first embodiment, the control unit 140 includes the peripheral information obtained by the information acquisition unit 110 and the inter-vehicle communication, and the area definition information indicating the acquisition target area of the peripheral information. The integrated information combined is constructed, and the auxiliary operation of the host vehicle 10 is performed using the integrated information.
As a result, it is possible to clearly grasp the existence position of an object or the like that the host vehicle 10 can recognize the presence of, so that it is possible to more appropriately grasp the surrounding situation as compared with the case where only the presence is recognized. The auxiliary operation of the host vehicle 10 can be performed in more detail.

In addition, in in-vehicle device 100 according to the first embodiment, control unit 140 uses a set of area definition information and surrounding information when determining that there is no object or the like in the vicinity of host vehicle 10 based on the integrated information. Thus, it is possible to distinguish whether an object or the like exists in a distant area of the own vehicle 10 or whether or not the object or the like is recognized in the neighboring area.
This makes it possible to clearly understand the degree of danger compared to simply recognizing the presence or absence of an object, etc. After grasping it, it is possible to perform an auxiliary operation in consideration of the existence of an unknown dangerous object or the like.

Embodiment 2. FIG.
In the second embodiment of the present invention, each operation when a peripheral object of the host vehicle 10 moves will be described. In addition, since the structure of the vehicle-mounted apparatus 100 is the same as that of what was demonstrated in FIG. 2 of Embodiment 1, description is abbreviate | omitted.

  FIG. 5 schematically shows a case where the presence of the object cannot be detected as a result of the movement of the object existing around the host vehicle 10. Here, the case where the other vehicle 20c existing in the area 1 moves will be described as an example.

FIG. 5A shows an example in which the other vehicle 20 c has moved out of the inter-vehicle communication range of the host vehicle 10 due to the movement from the area 1 to the area 3.
The inter-vehicle receiver 130 of the in-vehicle device 100 mounted on the host vehicle 10 determines the traveling direction and speed of the other vehicle 20c while the other vehicle 20c is present in the area 1, and the inter-vehicle communication with the other vehicle 20c. To obtain as peripheral information. In the example of FIG. 5A, it can be seen that the process proceeds from area 1 to area 3.

Thereafter, when the inter-vehicle communication with the other vehicle 20c is interrupted, the control unit 140 determines that the other vehicle 20c has moved out of the area 1 based on the traveling direction and speed of the other vehicle 20c that has been acquired previously. It is presumed that communication was lost due to the above.
In this case, since it can be estimated that the other vehicle 20c exists at a position far from the host vehicle 10, the risk of collision with the other vehicle 20c is considered to be low, and the control unit 140 outputs information to that effect. .

FIG. 5B shows an example in which the own vehicle 10 can no longer detect the presence of the other vehicle 20 c moving from the area 1 to the blind spot in the area 2.
The inter-vehicle receiver 130 of the in-vehicle device 100 mounted on the host vehicle 10 acquires the traveling direction and speed of the other vehicle 20c as the peripheral information through the inter-vehicle communication with the other vehicle 20c, as in FIG. . In the example of FIG. 5B, it can be seen that the process proceeds from area 1 toward the right end of area 2.

Thereafter, when the inter-vehicle communication with the other vehicle 20c is interrupted, the control unit 140 determines that the other vehicle 20c is present in the vicinity of the right end of the area 2 based on the traveling direction and speed of the other vehicle 20c acquired previously. It is estimated that
If the other vehicle 20c exists at the right end of the area 2, when the presence of the other vehicle 20c should be detected by the inter-vehicle communication but cannot be recognized due to the communication disconnection, the control unit 140 It is presumed that the vehicle cannot be detected even though the other vehicle 20c exists.

  In this case, since it can be estimated that the other vehicle 20c is present at a position close to the own vehicle 10, it is considered that there is a high risk of collision with the other vehicle 20c, and the control unit 140 outputs information to that effect. .

FIG. 6 shows an example in which the integrated information of the part where the other vehicle 20c is supposed to exist in the case of FIG. 5B is updated.
In the case of FIG. 5B, the control unit 140 not only outputs information for notifying the degree of risk, but also creates area definition information that identifies a portion where the other vehicle 20c is supposed to exist, After marking as an undetected area, it may be additionally stored in the storage unit 150 as part of the integrated information.

  The mark destination may be a header portion in the integrated information, or may be a header portion of area definition information or peripheral information. In any case, it is only necessary that information indicating that is provided in the integrated information in such a format that an undetected area can be identified.

  Since the information in the undetected area described with reference to FIGS. 5B to 6 is indefinite information, when the control unit 140 outputs information such as the degree of risk related to the area, information with low reliability. It may be output after adding a flag or the like indicating that.

In addition, in FIG.5 (b) of this Embodiment 2, although the example which the own vehicle 10 became unable to detect presence of the other vehicle 20c by the communication disconnection from the other vehicle 20c was shown, in addition to this, other vehicles Although vehicle-to-vehicle communication with 20c is possible, when the detection target disappears from the detection range of the other vehicle 20c, the host vehicle 10 can also obtain information regarding the detection target through vehicle-to-vehicle communication with the other vehicle 20c. It may disappear.
For example, regarding the case where the presence of the object 30a cannot be detected, examples such as the flow shown in the following (1) to (4) are conceivable.

(1) The host vehicle 10 has obtained information on the object 30a captured by the other vehicle 20c with the radar by inter-vehicle communication.
(2) Due to the movement of the other vehicle 20c or the object 30a itself, the object 30a enters the blind spot of the radar of the other vehicle 20c, and the other vehicle 20c cannot recognize the object 30a.
(3) As a result, the host vehicle 10 can no longer obtain information on the object 30a even though the host vehicle 10 receives information from the other vehicle 20c through inter-vehicle communication.
(4) Conventionally, the information of the object 30a is simply lost and cannot be obtained. However, according to the method of tracking the position of the object 30a as in the second embodiment, Since it can be seen that the place where the object 30a was immediately before is a blind spot, it is possible to perform advanced control and information provision along with related information.

As described above, in the in-vehicle device 100 according to the second embodiment, the control unit 140, when information such as an object that previously existed around the host vehicle 10 disappears from the detection target area, It is possible to distinguish whether the object or the like has moved out of the detection target area far away from the own vehicle 10 or whether it has been detected in spite of being present in the detection target area near the own vehicle 10. it can.
Thereby, compared with the case where only the presence / absence of an object is recognized, the danger level of the object can be grasped in relation to the area definition information, and the auxiliary operation of the host vehicle 10 can be performed in more detail.

In the in-vehicle device 100 according to the second embodiment, the control unit 140 identifies a part where an object whose presence cannot be detected is supposed to exist, and has not yet provided area definition information for the part. After marking as a detection area, it is additionally stored in the storage unit 150.
As a result, not only the area where there is a possibility of unknown danger to the host vehicle 10 is clarified, but the same information as that of the host vehicle 10 can be obtained for the other vehicle by exchanging the undetected area information with the other vehicle. Detailed auxiliary operations can be performed.

This is an effect obtained by storing the undetected area information in the storage unit 150.
That is, since the in-vehicle device 100 transmits the integrated information stored in the storage unit 150 to another vehicle, it is clarified that the undetected area information is to be exchanged by constructing the undetected area information as part of the integrated information. It is.
On the other hand, if the undetected area information is used only by the host vehicle 10, a flag indicating that may be stored in the storage unit 150 together with the undetected area information, or the undetected area information is stored in the storage unit 150. Instead of storing, it may be configured to temporarily hold it in a memory area or the like.

Embodiment 3 FIG.
FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram of a vehicle travel support system 200 according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention. The vehicle travel support system 200 is a device that is mounted on a vehicle and that assists the driver of the vehicle.

The vehicle travel support system 200 includes a travel support unit 210 in addition to the same configuration as the in-vehicle device 100 described in the first and second embodiments.
The driving support unit 210 has a function of receiving integrated information or a determination result such as a degree of risk based on the integrated information from the control unit 140, and presenting the information to the driver to support safe driving. .

As a configuration example of the driving support unit 210, for example, a map around the host vehicle 10 is displayed on the screen display unit, and integrated information received from the control unit 140 is reflected on the screen, so that objects existing around the host vehicle 10 are present. An application that superimposes and the like is displayed on the screen can be considered.
Furthermore, according to the risk level of each object, the risk level may be displayed together on the screen.

The operation of the above-described travel support unit 210 is an example, and the configuration of the in-vehicle device 100 can be applied to those that perform other travel support operations.
The physical configuration of the driving support unit 210 is appropriately determined according to the content of the driving support operation.
For example, most of the processing may be delegated to the control unit 140, and the screen display unit may be the central configuration, or an arithmetic device such as a CPU and software that defines the operation thereof may be provided to perform advanced support operations themselves. May be. Further, the danger avoiding operation may be automatically performed in conjunction with the control system of the host vehicle 10.

  7 shows an example in which the configuration of the in-vehicle device 100 and the travel support unit 210 are integrally configured in the vehicle travel support system 200. However, the travel support unit 210 is separated from the configuration of the in-vehicle device 100. It may be configured externally and information may be transmitted and received by communication.

Embodiment 4 FIG.
In the first to third embodiments described above, the information acquired by the information acquisition unit 110 and the information acquired by the inter-vehicle reception unit 130 are both connected to the storage unit 150 as integrated information. An explicit distinction may be made.
In this case, the control unit 140 needs to take measures such as dividing the storage area and adding a flag indicating the information type and header information.

An inter-vehicle communication environment in the first embodiment will be described. 3 is a functional block diagram of the in-vehicle device 100 according to Embodiment 1. FIG. The configuration of information stored in the storage unit 150 by the control unit 140 is shown. How to use the integrated information will be described from the viewpoint of area definition information. The case where the presence of the object cannot be detected as a result of the movement of the object existing around the host vehicle 10 is schematically shown. The example which updated the integrated information of the part considered that the other vehicle 20c exists is shown. It is a functional block diagram of the vehicle travel assistance system 200 which concerns on Embodiment 3. FIG.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Own vehicle, 20a-20c Other vehicle, 30a-30c Object, 40 Pedestrian, 100 In-vehicle apparatus, 110 Information acquisition part, 120 Car-to-car transmission part, 130 Car-to-car receiving part, 140 Control part, 150 Memory | storage part, 200 Vehicle travel support System, 210 travel support section.

Claims (5)

An in-vehicle device that acquires peripheral information of a vehicle and performs auxiliary operation of the vehicle,
An inter-vehicle communication unit that communicates with other vehicles;
An information acquisition unit for acquiring state information of the vehicle and surrounding information of the vehicle;
A control unit that receives the information acquired by the inter-vehicle communication unit and the information acquisition unit;
With
The inter-vehicle communication unit
From the other vehicle of the communication partner, obtain state definition information of the other vehicle, surrounding information of the other vehicle, and area definition information that defines a target area of the surrounding information, and output to the control unit,
The information acquisition unit
Obtain area definition information that defines the target area of the surrounding information of the vehicle, and output to the control unit together with the state information of the vehicle and its surrounding information,
The controller is
Based on the information received from the inter-vehicle communication unit and the information received from the information acquisition unit, determine the surrounding state of the vehicle,
An in-vehicle device that performs an auxiliary operation of the vehicle using the determination result. The controller is
Based on the information acquired by the inter-vehicle communication unit and the information acquired by the information acquisition unit,
Determine whether there are other objects around the vehicle,
When judging that it does not exist,
further,
The target area of the peripheral information of the other vehicle acquired by the inter-vehicle communication unit,
The target area of the surrounding information of the vehicle acquired by the information acquisition unit,
Based on
There are no other objects
Determine whether it is outside or within the target area of the surrounding information,
The in-vehicle device according to claim 1, wherein the content of the auxiliary operation of the vehicle is varied based on the determination result. The controller is
After determining that there are other objects around the vehicle,
Based on the information acquired by the inter-vehicle communication unit and the information acquired by the information acquisition unit,
If you determine that no other objects are around the vehicle,
further,
The target area of the peripheral information of the other vehicle acquired by the inter-vehicle communication unit,
The target area of the surrounding information of the vehicle acquired by the information acquisition unit,
Based on
Whether other objects exist outside the target area of the surrounding information,
Or is it in the target area but can no longer be detected?
Judging
The in-vehicle device according to claim 2, wherein the content of the auxiliary operation of the vehicle is varied based on the determination result. The controller is
If it is determined that the other object is present in the target area but cannot be detected,
An identifier for identifying the target area as an undetected area is given to the peripheral information,
The in-vehicle device according to claim 3, wherein the content of the auxiliary operation of the vehicle is varied depending on whether or not the identifier is given. The in-vehicle device according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
A driving support unit that performs driving support of the vehicle using the determination result of the control unit;
A vehicle travel support system comprising:

Images