JP2009199328A - Operation recording and evaluating apparatus for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an operation recording and evaluating apparatus for vehicles that allows a manager or the like other than a driver to objectively and easily recognize the state of dangerous driving when each driver is driving, thus reducing the effort required to evaluate driving. <P>SOLUTION: Driving situation information obtained through monitoring by a driving condition evaluation unit 27 during driving is stored by a digital tachograph 30 in time series, and if the driving condition evaluation unit 27 recognizes the state of dangerous driving based on the driving situation information, a trigger signal SG 5 is output. Then based on the trigger signal SG 5, the digital tachograph 30 adds and records a mark (flag) to the driving situation information at the time when the state of dangerous driving occurs. Thus by confirming the driving situation information along with the flat, a manager or the like other than drivers can objectively and easily judge if the corresponding driver is driving safely. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicular operation record evaluation apparatus that is used to record information related to the driving situation of a vehicle while traveling and to evaluate this information.

  For example, in the case of a transport company that uses a vehicle such as a taxi, bus, truck, etc., it is important to promote safe driving for each in-house driver and prevent accidents in advance. .

Therefore, for example, an operation recording device called a “digital tachograph” is installed so that an administrator arranged in the company of the carrier can always check whether each driver actually performs safe driving on a daily basis. It has been put into practical use.
This digital tachograph is installed in each vehicle such as taxi, bus, truck, etc., and information such as speed and engine speed acquired every fixed time (for example 0.5 seconds) is automatically stored in a storage device such as a memory card. To record.

  Therefore, the administrator reads the data collected by the digital tachograph from the memory card using, for example, an analysis program installed in a personal computer installed in the sales office, and examines this data in detail to Travel time, travel distance, maximum speed, average speed, speed over time, speed over frequency, engine speed over time and speed over frequency, sudden start, rapid acceleration, rapid deceleration, idling time, etc. for each driver It is possible to grasp, and based on the grasped result, it becomes possible to promote safe driving and economical driving for each driver.

As a conventional technique of such a digital tachograph, for example, techniques disclosed in Patent Documents 1 to 3 are known.
In Patent Document 1, not only information indicating the running state such as speed, engine speed, and position is collected and recorded, but also information on the heart rate is collected, and when a drowsy driving is detected, the driver is notified in real time. It has been proposed to give warnings.
Moreover, in the prior art disclosed by patent document 2, when detecting the presence or absence of a dozing driving | operation, referring to the presence or absence of a driver | operator's brake operation is proposed.
Moreover, in the prior art disclosed in Patent Document 3, although it is a simple alarm device, the positional relationship in the horizontal direction between the white line and the host vehicle is detected based on the image photographed by the imaging means, and this positional relationship It is proposed to give a warning to the driver in real time when detecting meandering and lane departure.

  By using the techniques disclosed in Patent Document 1, Patent Document 2, and Patent Document 3 described above, a warning is given to the driver when a dangerous situation such as a snooze driving occurs during driving. Giving some control over the occurrence of accidents.

JP 2004-74948 A JP 2004-34938 A JP 2000-276697 A

  However, even when such an in-vehicle device is used, a state that may lead to a vehicle accident in the safe driving of the vehicle (hereinafter, this state is also referred to as “dangerous driving state”) is managed. Since the third party such as the driver cannot be grasped, the administrator cannot call attention to the corresponding driver. For this reason, the supplier (company) to which the corresponding driver belongs. In itself, there is a possibility that measures for reducing the frequency of occurrence of the dangerous driving state cannot be taken.

  For example, in the case of a driver who is exposed to an environment where the transportation business is busy and cannot take a break, the driver must continue to drive the vehicle even if the physical condition is poor due to lack of sleep or a cold feeling. As a result, there is a risk of falling into a dangerous driving state such as a drowsy driving and causing an accident.

  Therefore, if the information during driving is collected by using the digital tachograph as described above, after the driver finishes the driving work, the administrator collects the data collected during driving from a storage device such as a memory card. It can be read and analyzed to make an objective assessment of whether each driver is driving safely.

  However, it is very difficult to determine whether the vehicle is in a safe driving state from information such as speed, engine speed, and position collected by a conventional digital tachograph. For example, it is necessary to change a calculation formula or a determination criterion for each vehicle. It is inevitable that it takes time and effort. Moreover, since the amount of information to be analyzed is enormous, the burden placed on the administrator is very large, and it is extremely difficult to make a correct evaluation.

  The present invention is an invention made in view of the above-described problems, and its purpose is that an administrator other than the driver objectively and easily grasps the dangerous driving state while each driver is driving, An object of the present invention is to provide a vehicular operation record evaluation apparatus capable of reducing labor during evaluation.

The above object of the present invention is achieved by the following configuration.
(1) Grasping at least one of the meandering situation while the vehicle is running, the speed situation while the vehicle is running, and the inter-vehicle distance situation between the vehicle and the forward vehicle located in front of the vehicle , Driving status monitoring unit that outputs driving status information indicating these situations,
A data recording control unit for repeatedly collecting at least the driving situation information output by the driving situation monitoring unit and storing the driving situation information in time series;
Based on the driving situation information output by the driving situation monitoring unit, it is determined whether or not a dangerous driving state that may lead to a vehicle accident occurs in the safe driving of the vehicle, and the dangerous driving state has occurred. A trigger signal generator that outputs a predetermined trigger signal when judged;
Based on the predetermined trigger signal output by the trigger signal generation unit, a flag, which is a mark for notifying the dangerous driving state, is associated with the driving situation information collected when the trigger signal is generated. A flag recording control unit for recording the flag;
A vehicle operation record evaluation apparatus comprising:
(2) Grasping at least one of the meandering situation while the vehicle is running, the speed situation while the vehicle is running, and the inter-vehicle distance situation between the vehicle and the forward vehicle located in front of the vehicle , Driving status monitoring unit that outputs driving status information indicating these situations,
A data recording control unit that repeatedly collects at least the driving status information output by the driving status monitoring unit and stores the driving status information in a predetermined recording unit in a time series; and
The driving status information stored by the data recording control unit is read from the predetermined recording unit, and whether or not a dangerous driving state that may lead to a vehicle accident occurs in the safe driving of the vehicle based on the driving status state. When the determination is made and it is determined that the dangerous driving state has occurred, a flag that is a mark for notifying the dangerous driving state is added to the driving state information collected when the dangerous driving state has occurred. A flag recording control unit for recording the flag in association with each other;
A vehicle operation record evaluation apparatus comprising:
(3) an imaging unit that is mounted on the vehicle and that captures a situation around the vehicle in the traveling direction and outputs image information;
A separation line detection unit that processes the image information output by the imaging unit and detects a pair of separation lines located on both sides of the vehicle's own lane included in the image information;
Further comprising
The driving condition monitoring unit recognizes a relative positional relationship between the pair of dividing lines and the vehicle based on the pair of dividing lines detected by the dividing line detection unit, and the relative positional relationship The vehicle operation record evaluation apparatus according to (1) or (2), wherein the meandering state is grasped based on a change.
(4) An imaging unit that is mounted on at least one of the vehicles and that captures a situation around the vehicle in the traveling direction and outputs image information;
A forward vehicle detection unit that processes the image information output by the imaging means and detects a forward vehicle that is included in the image information and exists in front of the traveling direction of the vehicle;
Vehicle speed detection means for detecting the traveling speed of the vehicle;
Further comprising
The driving condition monitoring unit recognizes the position of the front vehicle from the front vehicle detected by the front vehicle detection unit, detects the inter-vehicle distance between the front vehicle and the vehicle, and detects the inter-vehicle distance. The vehicle operation record evaluation apparatus according to (1) or (2), wherein the inter-vehicle distance situation is grasped based on the traveling speed detected by the vehicle speed detecting means.

According to the configuration of (1) above, the driving status information obtained by the monitoring of the driving status monitoring unit during driving is stored in time series by the data recording control unit, and the trigger signal generating unit is based on the driving status information. A predetermined trigger signal is output when it is determined that the vehicle is in a dangerous driving state. Based on this trigger signal, the flag recording control unit records and records the driving situation information at the time when the dangerous driving state occurs. Therefore, an administrator other than the driver can objectively and easily determine whether the corresponding driver is driving safely by checking the driving status information together with this flag. That is, an administrator or the like who confirms the collected driving situation information can quickly find a place where there is a problem in safe driving by searching for a flag from a large amount of driving situation information arranged in time series. For this reason, even if the amount of data to be analyzed is enormous, it is possible to greatly reduce the burden of time and the like required for analysis by an administrator or the like. For example, when the driver is asleep driving, the distance between the host vehicle and the vehicle ahead is likely to be smaller than usual, so a flag is used from the collected time series information of the distance between the vehicles. By finding an abnormal value (for example, the distance between vehicles is equal to or less than a threshold value), the administrator can easily and quickly recognize the possibility of drowsy driving. In this configuration, it is assumed that the flag is recorded substantially in real time during traveling by the in-vehicle device.
According to the configuration of (2) above, the driving status information obtained by the monitoring of the driving status monitoring unit during driving is chronologically recorded by the data recording control unit by a predetermined recording unit (for example, a floppy, a memory card, etc.). Stored in a recording medium). Then, the driving status information is read by the flag recording control unit through the recording unit, and the flag recording control unit determines whether or not a dangerous driving state has occurred based on the driving status information. A mark (flag) is added and recorded in the driving situation information at the time when the dangerous driving state occurs. For this reason, the same effect as the configuration of (1) above can be obtained, that is, when the manager other than the driver confirms the driving situation information together with the flag, the corresponding driver can drive safely. Can be objectively and easily determined. In this configuration, for example, driving status information is collectively analyzed after traveling by an analysis device (for example, a personal computer) installed at a predetermined location (for example, a sales office) outside the vehicle, and a flag is recorded. Things are assumed.
According to the configuration of (3) above, for example, it is possible to easily and objectively recognize whether or not the situation is meandering driving that occurs due to snoozing driving or the like, and there is information useful for determining whether or not it is a dangerous driving state. Obtained automatically.
According to the configuration of (4) above, for example, it is easily and objectively recognized whether or not there is an abnormality (an abnormal approach or the like) in the inter-vehicle distance between the own vehicle and the preceding vehicle that occurs due to a drowsy driving or the like Information is automatically obtained to help determine if the vehicle is in a dangerous driving condition. Moreover, since this recognition is also performed using the traveling speed, it is possible to more accurately recognize whether or not there is an abnormality in the inter-vehicle distance between the own vehicle and the preceding vehicle. In other words, as the traveling speed increases, the distance between vehicles that can maintain safety tends to increase, but according to this configuration, the criterion for identifying whether or not there is an abnormality is based on both the distance between the vehicles and the traveling speed. Therefore, it is possible to more accurately recognize the dangerous driving state related to the vehicle distance between the own vehicle and the preceding vehicle.

  According to the present invention, a vehicle operation record that enables managers other than the driver to objectively and easily grasp the dangerous driving state during driving of each driver and reduce the labor for driving evaluation. An evaluation device can be provided. In particular, by recording a flag mark indicating a dangerous driving state, it is possible to greatly reduce the labor for evaluation.

  About the operation record evaluation apparatus for vehicles concerning the present invention, a plurality of suitable embodiments are described, referring to drawings.

(First embodiment)
First, the vehicle operation record evaluation apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a system main part in the first embodiment. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an outline of the operation of the QOD control apparatus shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the digital tachograph shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a front view illustrating a specific example of an image obtained by imaging with a camera. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the content of information obtained by processing the image shown in FIG.

A vehicle driving record evaluation apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 is an in-vehicle apparatus, and is used by being mounted on a business vehicle such as a truck, a bus, and a taxi.
In the example shown in FIG. 1, a camera (imaging means) 10 mounted on its own vehicle, a QOD (Quality Of Driving) control device 20 that operates independently of each other, and a digital tachograph (data recording control unit, flag recording). The control system 30) is mainly combined to constitute the entire system of the vehicle peripheral recording evaluation apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment.

  The camera 10 is an imaging device that can continuously image a subject in a short cycle and output it as two-dimensional image information. This camera 10 is disposed in the vicinity of the front window glass of its own vehicle, and the range of a predetermined angle of view including the front of the vehicle in the traveling direction (traveling direction) and the side of the traveling direction as its periphery is used as a subject. It is fixed in its own vehicle so that it can be imaged. For this reason, a situation outside the vehicle equivalent to the range visible to the eyes of the driver driving the vehicle is imaged by the camera 10.

The QOD control device 20 has a function for detecting information (driving condition information) related to the driving condition of the driver. As shown in FIG. 1, the front vehicle detecting unit 21 and the white line detecting unit ( A delimiter line detection unit) 22, a traveling speed detection unit 23, a storage device 24, a memory card 26, an operation state evaluation unit (operation state monitoring unit, trigger signal generation unit) 27, and a clock circuit 28. ing.
The main control elements (control functions) in the QOD control device 20 are constituted by microcomputer hardware (not shown) and a program prepared in advance to be executed by the microcomputer.

  And the front vehicle detection part 21 processes the image information output by the camera 10, and detects the other vehicle (front vehicle) which exists ahead of the traveling direction of the own vehicle contained in this image information. .

  The white line detection unit 22 processes the image information output by the camera 10 and includes a pair of white lines (separation lines: lane separations) located on both sides of the own lane of the own vehicle included in the image information. ) Is detected.

  The traveling speed detection unit 23 detects the traveling speed of its own vehicle based on a vehicle speed signal SG11 output from a vehicle speed sensor 11 mounted on its own vehicle (a signal that appears every time the vehicle moves a certain amount) SG11. To do.

The storage device 24 can store and hold image information and the like output from the camera 10.
The recording device 24 may include a plurality of recording media, and at least one recording medium may be configured to be detachable from the QOD control device 20. With this configuration, the data recorded in the recording device 24 can be carried out of the vehicle via this detachable recording medium. It is possible to perform analysis and the like.

  The clock circuit 28 outputs current time and date information and provides a timer function.

The driving state evaluating unit 27 recognizes the position of the preceding vehicle based on the preceding vehicle detected by the preceding vehicle detecting unit 21 and detects the inter-vehicle distance state between the preceding vehicle and the own vehicle, or the white line detecting unit 22. Recognizes the relative positional relationship between the pair of white lines and the vehicle of its own, and detects the meandering situation such as meandering and lane departure based on the change in the relative positional relationship. Or the speed situation is detected based on the running speed detected by the running speed detection unit 23 to grasp the driving situation information.
In addition, the driving state evaluation unit 27 monitors the signals SG12 and SG13 output by the turn signal switch 12 for notifying other vehicles of the lane change of the own vehicle (signals indicating ON / OFF of blinking of the right and left turn signal lamps). Thus, it is discriminated whether the lane has been changed according to the driver's self-will, or whether the vehicle has deviated from the lane unconsciously such as dozing.

The inter-vehicle distance status, meandering status (including lane departure), and speed status detected by the driving status evaluation unit 27 are output from the QOD control device 20 and driving status information relating to these statuses. Are automatically stored in the digital tachograph 30 in time series. Moreover, the driving | running state evaluation part 27 will output trigger signal SG5, if dangerous driving | running states, such as dozing driving, are detected based on the above-mentioned driving condition information. Then, this trigger signal SG5 is also output to the digital tachograph 30 together with the above-described operation status information. As a result, the digital tachograph 30 associates the flag, which is a mark for notifying the dangerous driving state, with the driving information collected when the trigger signal SG5 is generated based on the trigger signal SG5. Can be recorded.
The trigger signal SG5 is also output to the recording device 24. Based on the trigger signal SG, the storage device 24 stores the image information obtained by the camera 10 as a moving image on a recording medium (not shown) or the like separately provided in the time zone before and after the time when the trigger signal is generated. save.

Here, the digital tachograph 30 is a device that constantly collects various types of information representing the driving situation and automatically records data that can be used for analysis by an administrator or the like.
Specifically, the traveling speed detected by the vehicle speed signal SG11 output from the vehicle speed sensor 11 described above, the engine speed detected by the signal SG14 output from the engine rotation sensor 13, and the position of the vehicle detected by the GPS receiver 14 Information, map information, and the like are periodically collected by the digital tachograph 30 and recorded in the memory card 31 as time series information.

  In the system shown in FIG. 1, the digital tachograph 30 also records the above-described driving state information detected by the driving state evaluation unit 27 of the QOD control device 20. Thus, when the driving state evaluation unit 27 detects a dangerous driving state such as a snoozing driving, the digital tachograph 30 is positioned at a position corresponding to the information collected at that time by an instruction (trigger signal SG5) from the driving state evaluation unit 27. The aforementioned flag is recorded.

FIG. 3 shows a specific example of the configuration of the digital tachograph 30.
As shown in FIG. 3, the digital tachograph 30 has a configuration similar to that disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-34938, and includes a CPU 41, a ROM 42, an EEPROM 43, a RAM 44, an operation unit 45, a display unit 46, A warning unit 47, an interface unit 48, and a card insertion unit 49 are provided.

  Moreover, as for the technique for the QOD control device 20 shown in FIG. 1 to grasp the meandering situation such as meandering operation and lane departure, for example, the conventional technique disclosed in Patent Document 2 can be used. That is, processing as described below is performed.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 4, the image information output by the camera 10 includes a pair of white lines 101 and 102 on both the left and right sides, a scenery outside the vehicle such as the forward vehicle 103, and the like. Therefore, a pair of white lines 101 and 102 are detected in order to grasp the change in the position of the own vehicle in the left and right direction relative to the traveling direction, and the positional relationship in the left and right direction between these white lines 101 and 102 and the position of the own vehicle is determined. Detected.

  That is, in order to facilitate the detection of feature points related to edges (or contours) in image information, the differential image as shown in FIG. Generated. That is, the original image information as shown in FIG. 4 is sequentially scanned in the horizontal direction, and pixels at positions where the brightness of adjacent pixels has changed by a predetermined value or more are extracted as feature points.

  Next, a reference line is assigned near the horizontal center of the image information shown in FIG. And in order to detect each feature point which comprises a pair of white lines 101 and 102, the search of a feature point is implemented toward the left and right from the said reference line. A feature point is searched for in each line from the lowest line of the image information upward. Thus, white lines 101 and 102 linearly extending toward one point FOE (Focus Of Expansion) representing the infinity point are detected.

  Then, an optical flow is acquired using two images captured at different points in time by a predetermined time Δt. That is, when attention is paid to the same point in two pieces of image information captured at different times, a change caused by the movement of the vehicle is obtained as a velocity vector. This optical flow appears in a radial direction from one point of FOE.

  By using the optical flow information, for example, the image information as shown in FIG. 5A is corrected to the image shown in FIG. 5B, and unnecessary information other than the pair of white lines 101 and 102 is used. Will be removed.

  Next, angles θL and θR (see FIG. 4) between the extending direction and the horizontal direction of the pair of white lines 101 and 102 are detected. Since the position of the camera 10 is fixed in the vehicle and the angle of view representing the range captured by the camera 10 is also constant, the relative position in the lateral direction between the position in the lane of the own vehicle and the pair of white lines 101 and 102 The angles [theta] L and [theta] R change according to the actual positional relationship. Therefore, using this characteristic, that is, using the detected white line angles θL and θR, the meandering situation and the presence or absence of a lane departure are identified.

As for lane departure, that is, whether or not the own vehicle protrudes from the left or right white lines 101, 102 to other lanes outside, the left threshold value and the right threshold value, which are the differences between the angles θL, θR, are compared. Is determined.
However, if it is detected by the signals SG12 and SG13 from the turn signal switch 12 that the turn signal is on, the lane departure state is high because there is a high possibility of a lane change or a right or left turn according to the driver's will. Will be excluded.

As for the meandering situation other than lane departure, the temporal transition of the relative positional relationship between the vehicle and the pair of white lines 101 and 102 obtained from the angles θL and θR is quantified as the degree of meandering. For example, the sizes of the intervals L and R shown in the image of FIG. 4 can be obtained from the following equation.
L = 1 / (tan θL)
R = 1 / (tan θR)
The ratio between the distances L and R (L / R) can be used as a value representing the position in the left-right direction of the vehicle between the pair of white lines 101 and 102.
In addition, meandering is a state in which the left-right direction position has changed significantly compared to the average left-right direction position so far. More specifically, the smoothing value related to the horizontal position is obtained by averaging the value (L / R) of the horizontal position between a certain point in time and the past predetermined time (T1). Then, the mean value of the square of the difference between the current position (latest L / R) of the own vehicle and the smoothing value over the past predetermined time (T2) is obtained as a meandering amount. The meandering situation will be grasped.

  On the other hand, grasping of the inter-vehicle distance situation between the own vehicle and the preceding vehicle can be calculated by the method described below.

  For example, as in the image information shown in FIG. 5A, information on the lane in which the vehicle is traveling (the area between the white lines 101 and 102) is extracted, and the horizontal direction and the vertical direction are respectively extracted from the information. Information on the edge component of the image (the vehicle ahead, etc.) is extracted. Then, in order to emphasize the edge of the image, a histogram representing pixel brightness distribution for each row in the vertical direction and a histogram representing pixel brightness distribution for each column in the horizontal direction are created. Identified.

For example, in the histogram representing the brightness distribution of the pixels for each row in the vertical direction, the area of the preceding vehicle 103 and the area of the road surface display character displayed on the road surface are highlighted, so A vertical position is specified.
In addition, since the road surface display characters displayed on the road surface do not move, the road surface display characters are removed as noise components by using the optical flow information, and image information as shown in FIG. 5B is acquired. .

  At this time, as shown in FIG. 5B, the height H from the lower end of the image area (corresponding to the head position of the own vehicle) to the lower end of the area of the forward vehicle 103 is information related to the inter-vehicle distance. To be acquired. Since the camera 10 is fixed in its own vehicle and the imaging direction and angle of view are constant, the vertical distance (dimension) on the captured image is the distance in the traveling direction from the actual own vehicle to the preceding vehicle. Can be converted into an inter-vehicle distance.

  As for grasping the speed condition of the own vehicle, the traveling speed is obtained from the signal SG11 output from the vehicle speed sensor 11, and this traveling speed is averaged over a period within the past predetermined time from the present time. Based on this averaged value, the speed situation of the own vehicle is grasped.

Next, a specific operation of the QOD control device 20 shown in FIG. 1 will be described.
The operation performed by the operating state evaluation unit 27 in the QOD control device 20 is shown in FIG.

  The driving state evaluation unit 27 instructs acquisition of image information and start of storage in step S11 illustrated in FIG. Specifically, the driving state evaluation unit 27 gives an operation start instruction to the storage device 24 using a signal different from the trigger signal SG5 described above. The storage device 24 stores the image information output from the camera 10 in response to this instruction.

  In step S12, the driving state evaluation unit 27 detects and evaluates the meandering state. That is, as described above, the angles θL and θR representing the relative positional relationship between the pair of white lines detected by the white line detection unit 22 based on the image information output from the camera 10 and the own vehicle are used. The amount of meandering and lane departure are detected, and the dangerous driving state such as snoozing driving is evaluated for the result.

  In step S <b> 13, the driving state evaluation unit 27 takes in the information on the traveling speed of the vehicle detected by the traveling speed detection unit 23 and detects and evaluates the speed situation. That is, the presence or absence of an unstable speed change that occurs in a dangerous driving state such as a snooze driving is examined.

In step S14, the driving state evaluation unit 27 detects the inter-vehicle distance as described above based on the position of the front vehicle detected by the front vehicle detection unit 21 and the position of its own vehicle from the image information output from the camera 10. Detect and evaluate the distance between vehicles.
However, since the safe inter-vehicle distance varies greatly depending on the traveling speed, a value of (vehicle speed / inter-vehicle distance) is used as a parameter to be evaluated in this embodiment. Actually, a cumulative value or an average value within a predetermined time is an evaluation target, that is, when the value of (vehicle speed / inter-vehicle distance) exceeds a predetermined threshold value, it is evaluated as a dangerous driving state.

  In step S15, the meandering situation detected in step S12, the speed situation detected in step S13, and the inter-vehicle distance situation detected in step S14 are output to the digital tachograph 30 as a set of driving situation information. These pieces of information are recorded on the memory card 31 as information arranged in time series by the digital tachograph 30.

  Next, in step S16, the driving state evaluation unit 27 determines whether or not the dangerous driving state is detected based on the meandering state (for example, the amount of meandering is equal to or greater than the threshold value or there is a lane departure). The process proceeds to S19, and if not detected, the process proceeds to Step S17.

  In step S17, the driving state evaluation unit 27 determines whether or not a dangerous driving state is detected based on the speed condition (for example, the traveling speed is unstable), and when the dangerous driving state is detected, the process proceeds to step S19 to detect it. If not, the process proceeds to step S18.

  In step S18, the driving state evaluation unit 27 determines whether or not a dangerous driving state has been detected based on the inter-vehicle distance situation (for example, the average value of the vehicle speed / inter-vehicle distance is equal to or greater than a threshold value). If not detected, the process returns to step S12 to repeat the process.

  In step S <b> 19, the driving state evaluation unit 27 determines that the traveling vehicle is in a dangerous driving state, and outputs a trigger signal SG <b> 5 to the digital tachograph 30 and the storage device 24.

  In step S20, the digital tachograph 30 displays a flag, which is a mark for notifying a dangerous driving state, based on the input trigger signal SG5, and driving status information collected at the time when the trigger signal is generated. And recorded in the memory card 31.

  When the operation state evaluation unit 27 detects in step S21 that the digital tachograph 30 has completed storing the flag in the memory card 31, the operation state evaluation unit 27 returns to step S11 and repeats the above processing.

  Thus, every time the driving state evaluation unit 27 detects a dangerous driving state, the trigger signal SG5 is output, and based on the trigger signal SG, the digital tachograph 30 sets a flag indicating that the dangerous driving state has occurred. The driving status information output by the driving status evaluation unit 27 can be recorded in the memory card 31 in a time-series manner.

  In addition, the digital tachograph 30 is similar to a general operation recorder, the traveling speed detected by the vehicle speed signal SG11 output from the vehicle speed sensor 11, the engine speed detected by the signal SG14 output from the engine rotation sensor 13, The vehicle position information and map information detected by the GPS receiver 14 are also automatically recorded on the memory card 31 periodically as time series information. For this reason, the digital tachograph 30 can be recorded in the memory card 31 in association with the traveling speed, the engine speed, the vehicle position information, the map information, and the like in time series.

  Here, when the digital tachograph 30 executes step S20 shown in FIG. 2, for example, a mark (flag) as shown in FIG. 8 is associated with a problem (abnormality occurrence) location in the data, that is, in time series. It is possible to write and notify an administrator or the like of an important part of the data so that it can be understood.

  For example, in the example illustrated in FIG. 8, it is assumed that a sudden start mark, a sudden acceleration mark, a sudden deceleration mark, a meandering abnormality mark, a lane departure mark, and an inter-vehicle abnormality mark are recorded in a corresponding problem location. The meandering abnormality marks M11 and M12 and the lane departure mark M21 shown in FIG. 8 correspond to the flags recorded in step S20 as a result of the abnormality in the meandering situation and the lane departure detected in step S16 of FIG. Further, the inter-vehicle abnormality mark M31 shown in FIG. 8 corresponds to the flag recorded in step S20 with respect to the abnormal inter-vehicle distance detected in step S18 of FIG.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the driving status information obtained by the monitoring of the driving status evaluation unit 27 during driving is saved in time series by the digital tachograph 30, and the driving is performed based on the driving status information. When the state evaluation unit 27 determines that the vehicle is in a dangerous driving state, the trigger signal SG5 is output. Based on the trigger signal SG5, the digital tachograph 30 adds a mark (flag) to the driving status information at the time when the dangerous driving state occurs and records it. For this reason, an administrator other than the driver can objectively and easily determine whether the corresponding driver is driving safely by checking the driving status information together with the flag. That is, an administrator or the like who confirms the collected driving situation information can quickly find a place where there is a problem in safe driving by searching for a flag from a large amount of driving situation information arranged in time series. For this reason, even if the amount of data to be analyzed is enormous, it is possible to greatly reduce the burden of time and the like required for analysis by an administrator or the like. For example, when the driver is asleep driving, the distance between the host vehicle and the vehicle ahead is likely to be smaller than usual, so a flag is used from the collected time series information of the distance between the vehicles. By finding an abnormal value (for example, the distance between vehicles is equal to or less than a threshold value), the administrator can easily and quickly recognize the possibility of drowsy driving.

  In addition, information related to the meandering situation, the inter-vehicle distance situation, etc. is recorded in the memory card 31 as an operation record, and this memory card 31 can be removed and taken out of the vehicle. For this reason, after the driver's driving is completed, the administrator or the like receives the memory card 31 removed from the vehicle, and reads the data from the memory card 31 using a predetermined analysis system (for example, a personal computer). Therefore, it is possible to improve the handleability of the evaluation of the dangerous driving state.

(Second Embodiment)
Next, a second embodiment according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an analyzer according to the second embodiment. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the analyzer.

In the present embodiment, the driving state evaluation unit 27 does not generate the trigger signal SG5 based on the dangerous driving state (that is, does not function as the trigger signal generation unit), and the digital tachograph 30 does not record the flag ( That is, it does not function as a flag recording control unit). Instead, it uses other devices to relate to the meandering situation included in the data recorded in the memory card 31, the inter-vehicle distance situation, etc. Based on the information to be performed, an evaluation process similar to that of the driving state evaluation unit 27 is performed as a post-process, and is performed after the operation ends, and a flag is recorded and added to the data.
That is, in the case of this embodiment, unlike the above-described first embodiment, it is configured by a personal computer or the like that is provided separately from the QOD control device 20 and the digital tachograph 30, for example, equipped with a predetermined analysis program. The analysis device (flag recording control unit) 60 is used after the operation is completed.
In the present embodiment, the analysis device 60 is used to perform an evaluation process similar to that of the driving state evaluation unit 27 based on information related to the meandering situation, the inter-vehicle distance situation, and the like as a post-process after the operation ends. Since the configuration is substantially the same as that of the first embodiment except that a flag is recorded and added to the data, description of common parts is simplified or omitted.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the analyzer 60 includes an analyzer main body 60c to which an input operation unit (keyboard or mouse) 60b and a display unit (display) 60a are connected, such as a personal computer, and the inside of the analyzer main body 60c. And an analysis program (not shown). In addition, a card reader / writer (not shown) is built in the analyzer main body 60c to read data from the memory card 31.

  The main operation of the analyzer 60 is shown in FIG. That is, when an administrator or the like activates a predetermined analysis program on the computer of the analysis device 60 and the memory card 31 is mounted on this computer, the operation shown in FIG. 9 is executed. The operation shown in FIG. 9 will be described below.

  In step S41, the computer of the analyzer 60 reads data (data recorded by the digital tachograph 30) stored in the memory card 31 attached by an administrator or the like.

In step S42, it is checked whether or not a flag is already recorded in the data read from the memory card 31.
That is, when the digital tachograph 30 operates to automatically record a flag when the QOD control device 20 detects a dangerous driving state as in the system shown in FIG. Although it is not necessary to generate a flag, since the digital tachograph 30 and the QOD control device 20 may not have a function for recording a flag, whether or not a flag needs to be generated is identified in step S42. Actually, it may be controlled so as to be automatically identified from the contents of the data recorded in the memory card 31, or the presence / absence of necessity of flag generation is identified according to the input operation of the user (administrator etc.). May be. If the flag has been recorded, the process proceeds to step S49, and if the flag needs to be generated, the process proceeds to step S43.

  In step S43, the analysis device 60 sequentially evaluates the meandering situation, the speed situation, and the inter-vehicle distance situation included in the data read from the memory card 31, and checks whether there is an abnormality.

  In step S44, it is checked whether evaluation of all data read from the memory card 31 is completed. If not completed, the process proceeds to step S45. If completed, the process proceeds to step S49.

  In step S45, the analysis device 60 checks whether there is an abnormality relating to meandering (including lane departure) as a result of the evaluation of each data read from the memory card 31, and if there is no abnormality, proceeds to step S46. Advances to step S48.

  In step S46, the analysis device 60 checks whether or not there is an abnormality related to the traveling speed as a result of the evaluation of each data read from the memory card 31, and proceeds to step S47 if there is no abnormality, and proceeds to step S48 if there is an abnormality. .

  In step S47, the analysis device 60 checks whether or not there is an abnormality related to the inter-vehicle distance as a result of the evaluation of each data read from the memory card 31, and proceeds to step S43 if there is no abnormality and proceeds to step S48 if there is an abnormality. .

  In step S48, the computer of the analysis device 60 records a flag, which is a mark for notifying the dangerous driving state, in association with the location where the abnormality is detected in the data read from the memory card 31. This flag is written in the memory card 31.

  In step S <b> 49, the analysis device 60 detects, from the data read from the memory card 31, the locations with the aforementioned flags in order from the top of the data.

  In step S50, the analysis device 60 extracts the location detected in step S49 and the data before and after that, and uses these data (vehicle speed, engine speed, position, time, meandering amount, inter-vehicle distance, etc.) as dangerous driving conditions. It is displayed on the screen as easy-to-read time-series data such as a graph together with marks for notification (corresponding to M11, M12, M21, and M31 in FIG. 8).

  In step S51, it is checked whether or not the processing has been completed to the end of the time series data to be analyzed. If not completed, the process proceeds to step S52.

  In step S52, an instruction (input operation) from the user (administrator) for displaying the next screen is awaited. If an instruction is detected, the process returns to step S49 and the above-described processing is repeated.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the driving status information obtained by the monitoring of the driving status evaluation unit 27 during driving is stored in the memory card 31 by the digital tachograph 30 in time series. Then, the driving status information is read by the analysis device 60 via the memory card 31, and the analysis device 60 determines whether or not a dangerous driving state has occurred based on the driving status information. A mark (flag) is added and recorded in the driving status information at the time when the driving state occurs. For this reason, the same effect as that of the first embodiment described above can be obtained. That is, when the manager other than the driver confirms the driving state information together with the flag, the corresponding driver can perform the safe driving. Can be objectively and easily determined.

  As described above, the vehicle operation record evaluation apparatus according to the present invention can be assumed to be mounted and used mainly in business vehicles such as taxis, buses, trucks, etc. A manager or the like can objectively and quickly grasp a dangerous driving state that may be connected, and can be used to promote safe driving for each driver and prevent an accident in advance.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to embodiment mentioned above, A deformation | transformation, improvement, etc. are possible suitably. In addition, the aspect, function, and the like of each component in the above-described embodiment are arbitrary and are not limited as long as the present invention can be achieved.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the system principal part in 1st Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the outline of operation | movement of the QOD control apparatus shown in FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of the digital tachograph shown in FIG. It is a front view showing the specific example of the image obtained by imaging with a camera. It is a schematic diagram which shows the content of the information obtained by processing the image shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the analyzer which concerns on 2nd Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of an analyzer. It is a schematic diagram which shows the specific example of the mark utilized when analyzing operation record data.

Explanation of symbols

10 Camera (imaging means)
11 Vehicle speed sensor (vehicle speed detection means)
12 turn signal switch 13 engine rotation sensor 14 GPS receiver 20 QOD control device 21 forward vehicle detection unit 22 white line detection unit (separation line detection unit)
23 Traveling speed detection unit 24 Recording device 27 Driving state evaluation unit (driving condition monitoring unit, trigger signal generation unit)
28 Clock circuit 30 Digital tachograph (flag control recording unit)
31 Memory card (recording part)
41 CPU
42 ROM
43 EEPROM
44 RAM
45 Operation section 46 Display section 47 Warning section 48 Interface section 49 Card insertion section 60 Analyzer (flag control recording section)

Claims (4)

Grasping at least one of the meandering situation while the vehicle is running, the speed situation while the vehicle is running, and the inter-vehicle distance situation between the vehicle and the preceding vehicle located in front of the vehicle A driving status monitoring unit that outputs driving status information indicating
A data recording control unit for repeatedly collecting at least the driving situation information output by the driving situation monitoring unit and storing the driving situation information in time series;
Based on the driving situation information output by the driving situation monitoring unit, it is determined whether or not a dangerous driving state that may lead to a vehicle accident occurs in the safe driving of the vehicle, and the dangerous driving state has occurred. A trigger signal generator that outputs a predetermined trigger signal when judged;
Based on the predetermined trigger signal output by the trigger signal generation unit, a flag, which is a mark for notifying the dangerous driving state, is associated with the driving situation information collected when the trigger signal is generated. A flag recording control unit for recording the flag;
A vehicle operation record evaluation apparatus comprising: Grasping at least one of the meandering situation while the vehicle is running, the speed situation while the vehicle is running, and the inter-vehicle distance situation between the vehicle and the preceding vehicle located in front of the vehicle A driving status monitoring unit that outputs driving status information indicating
A data recording control unit that repeatedly collects at least the driving status information output by the driving status monitoring unit and stores the driving status information in a predetermined recording unit in a time series; and
The driving status information stored by the data recording control unit is read from the predetermined recording unit, and whether or not a dangerous driving state that may lead to a vehicle accident occurs in the safe driving of the vehicle based on the driving status state. When the determination is made and it is determined that the dangerous driving state has occurred, a flag that is a mark for notifying the dangerous driving state is added to the driving state information collected when the dangerous driving state has occurred. A flag recording control unit for recording the flag in association with each other;
A vehicle operation record evaluation apparatus comprising: Imaging means mounted on at least one of the vehicles, and imaging the surrounding situation ahead of the vehicle in the traveling direction, and outputting image information;
A separation line detection unit that processes the image information output by the imaging unit and detects a pair of separation lines located on both sides of the vehicle's own lane included in the image information;
Further comprising
The driving condition monitoring unit recognizes a relative positional relationship between the pair of dividing lines and the vehicle based on the pair of dividing lines detected by the dividing line detection unit, and the relative positional relationship The vehicle operation record evaluation apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the meandering situation is grasped based on a change. Imaging means mounted on at least one of the vehicles, and imaging the surrounding situation ahead of the vehicle in the traveling direction, and outputting image information;
A forward vehicle detection unit that processes the image information output by the imaging means and detects a forward vehicle that is included in the image information and exists in front of the traveling direction of the vehicle;
Vehicle speed detection means for detecting the traveling speed of the vehicle;
Further comprising
The driving condition monitoring unit recognizes the position of the front vehicle from the front vehicle detected by the front vehicle detection unit, detects the inter-vehicle distance between the front vehicle and the vehicle, and detects the inter-vehicle distance. The vehicle operation record evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the inter-vehicle distance situation is grasped based on a traveling speed detected by the vehicle speed detecting means.

Images