JP2010221874A - Vehicle-mounted lamp control device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To utilize lamps of a vehicle in a new situation of use which is different from conventional usage. <P>SOLUTION: A vehicle-mounted lamp control device blinks the right and left width indicator lamps of the vehicle with non-conventional timing according to the reception of the command of traveling contents from the outside of the vehicle such as route direction traveling, vehicle group traveling or the like. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an in-vehicle lamp control device.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a technique for using a lighting device mounted on a vehicle for a purpose different from a normal purpose of use is known. For example, Patent Literature 1 describes a technology for notifying an emergency situation outside a vehicle by blinking a brake light and a direction indicator light. Patent Document 2 describes a technique for blinking a brake lamp when a vehicle is extremely slow.

  In addition, when a light fixture mounted on a vehicle is used for a purpose that is different from the normal purpose of use, a technology that effectively conveys the abnormality to the following vehicle by blinking in a form that cannot be realized by the normal operation of the driver. It has been known. For example, Patent Literature 3 describes a technique for changing the blinking cycle and blinking pattern of a hazard lamp during a traffic jam.

JP 2008-037218 A JP 2005-238886 A JP 2005-148998 A

Koji Nishimura, Analysis of traffic phenomenon in highway sag, Master's thesis, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Nihon University, March 2000

  However, in the above technique, the usage scene of the lighting device is limited. Then, this invention aims at utilizing the lighting device of a vehicle in the new use scene different from the past.

  In order to achieve the above object, an invention according to claim 1 is a lighting device control device for controlling blinking of a lighting device mounted on a vehicle, and is a wireless device for wirelessly communicating with a communication device outside the vehicle. A communication device (22) and a control unit (21, 30) are provided, and the control unit (21, 30) instructs the traveling content of the vehicle from the outside of the vehicle via the wireless communication device (22). Based on the reception of the command, the lamp is caused to blink at a predetermined blinking timing.

  In this way, by flashing the lighting device at a predetermined blinking timing based on the reception of the instruction that instructs the traveling content of the vehicle, it is possible to confirm that the vehicle is traveling in response to the instruction from outside the vehicle. It can be easily grasped from the periphery.

  Further, as described in claim 2, the control unit (21, 30) reverses the on / off pattern of the flashing timing of the lighting device in accordance with the driving operation of the vehicle or the operation of the switch by the vehicle occupant. It may be.

  In this way, when the driving operation or the switch operation is an operation for using the lighting device for a normal purpose, a purpose other than the normal purpose (that is, from the outside of the vehicle). Even when using a lighting device in order to notify the driver of other vehicles in the vicinity that the vehicle is receiving a command instructing the driving details of the vehicle) You can use a light fixture while realizing both.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, the lighting device includes a vehicle width light on the left side and a vehicle width light on the right side of the vehicle, and the control units (21, 30) are connected to the vehicle via the wireless communication device (22). The left width lamp and the right width lamp are caused to blink at different blinking timings based on the fact that a command for instructing the traveling content of the vehicle is received from the outside.

  Such an operation in which the left and right width lights blink at different timings cannot be realized by conventional vehicle operation. Therefore, a driver of another vehicle traveling around the vehicle can easily grasp from the periphery of the vehicle that the vehicle is traveling in response to an instruction from outside the vehicle.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the lighting device includes a backward light of the vehicle, and the control unit (21, 30) instructs the traveling content of the vehicle from the outside of the vehicle via the wireless communication device (22). On the basis of the reception of the instruction to perform, the backward light may be blinked at a predetermined blinking timing for the backward light.

  Such an operation in which the reverse lamp blinks in spite of the fact that the vehicle is not moving backward cannot be realized by conventional vehicle operation. Therefore, a driver of another vehicle traveling around the vehicle can easily grasp from the periphery of the vehicle that the vehicle is traveling in response to an instruction from outside the vehicle.

  Further, as described in claim 5, the control unit (21, 30) requests to form a vehicle group as a command for instructing the traveling content of the vehicle from the outside of the vehicle via the wireless communication device (22). Alternatively, when a permission signal is received, information on the blinking timing of the lamps in the vehicle group is shared by communicating with other vehicles forming the vehicle group via the wireless communication device (22). The flashing timing of the lighting devices may be synchronized in the entire vehicle group by flashing the lighting devices at the shared flashing timing.

  In this way, from the outside of the vehicle group, the vehicles forming one vehicle group can be clearly distinguished from other vehicles.

  In addition, as described in claim 6, the control unit (21, 30) receives and receives the blink timing information of other vehicle groups other than the vehicle group to which the host vehicle belongs via the wireless communication device (22). On the basis of the information on the blinking timing of the other vehicle group, the blinking timing of the vehicle group to which the host vehicle belongs may be different from the blinking timing of the other vehicle group.

  In this way, a driver of a general vehicle that does not constitute a vehicle group can easily recognize the difference in the vehicle group due to a difference in lighting timing of the lighting devices.

  Further, as described in claim 7, when the control unit (21, 30) blinks the lighting device at a predetermined blinking timing on the basis of receiving a command for instructing the traveling content of the vehicle, When the user performs a predetermined operation or when the vehicle enters the highway service area, the flashing of the lighting device may be terminated.

  In this way, it is possible to automatically stop the flashing by detecting that the flashing of the lighting device is no longer necessary based on the intention of the user or the traveling content of the vehicle.

  In addition, the code | symbol in the bracket | parenthesis in the said and the claim shows the correspondence of the term described in the claim, and the concrete thing etc. which illustrate the said term described in embodiment mentioned later. .

It is a figure which shows the vehicle groups 2-4 on the highway 1 It is a figure which shows the structure of the roadside machine 8, the prior roadside machine 9, and the center 12. FIG. It is a figure which shows arrangement | positioning of the roadside machine 8 and the prior roadside machine 9 in the highway 1. FIG. It is a figure which shows the structure of the vehicle equipment. It is a flowchart of the process which the center side performs. It is a flowchart of the process which the vehicle equipment side performs. It is a flowchart of the process for controlling the lighting device of the own vehicle. It is a flowchart of a road instruction travel process. It is a figure which shows the pattern of the blink timing of the vehicle width light by a road instruction | indication driving | running | working process, and a reverse light. 2 is a diagram schematically illustrating an example of vehicle group traveling on the highway 1. FIG. It is a flowchart of a vehicle group traveling process. It is a flowchart of a vehicle group formation request transmission process. It is a flowchart of a vehicle group formation request reception process. It is a flowchart of a vehicle group traveling participation process. It is a flowchart of a vehicle group traveling process. It is a flowchart of a vehicle group leaving process. It is a flowchart of a 1st vehicle group travel process. It is a flowchart of the 2nd vehicle group travel processing. It is a figure which shows the pattern of the blink timing of the vehicle width lamp by the 1st vehicle group driving | running | working process. It is a figure which shows the example of a light blink. It is a figure which shows the example of a light blink. It is a figure which shows the example of a light blink. It is a figure which shows the example of a light blink. It is a figure which shows the example of installation of a roadside infrastructure. It is a figure which shows the structural example of a vehicle group. It is a figure which shows the structural example of a vehicle group. It is a figure which shows the structural example of a vehicle group. It is a figure which shows the structural example of a vehicle group. It is a figure which shows the structural example of a vehicle group. It is a figure which shows the structural example of a vehicle group. It is a figure which shows an accelerator pedal. It is a figure which shows a highway junction part. It is a figure which shows the usage example of a communication channel. It is a figure which shows the imaging | photography direction of a vehicle group. It is a figure which shows the example of an image display. It is a figure which shows the structural example of a vehicle group. It is a figure which shows an intersection. It is a figure which shows an intersection. It is a figure which shows the structural example of a vehicle equipment. It is a figure which shows the structural example of a vehicle equipment. It is a figure which shows the structural example of a roadside infrastructure. It is a flowchart of a notification control block. It is a figure which shows the detail of a road instruction | indication travel process. It is a figure which shows the detail of a vehicle group driving | running | working process. It is a figure which shows the detail of a vehicle group driving | running | working process. It is a flowchart of the process in which the main control block transmits the traveling state of the own vehicle through the road-vehicle / vehicle-to-vehicle communication device. It is a flowchart of the process in which the main control block transmits the traveling state of the own vehicle through the road-vehicle / vehicle-to-vehicle communication device. It is a figure which shows the expressway traffic jam prevention travel processing. It is a flowchart which shows the detail of deceleration calculation. It is a flowchart of F deceleration function. It is a flowchart of normal deceleration calculation. It is a flowchart of acceleration calculation. It is a figure which shows the expressway traffic jam prevention travel processing. It is a figure which shows the request presentation in a vehicle speed and distance group between planes. It is a figure which shows the transition when the own vehicle is earlier than the front vehicle group. It is a figure which shows the transition when the front vehicle group is drive | working slower than the instruction | indication speed from a road, and the own vehicle is earlier than the front vehicle group. It is a figure which shows the process of a roadside infrastructure. It is a figure which shows the process which selects a regulation travel vehicle. It is a figure which shows a process when performing vehicle group driving | running | working using vehicle-to-vehicle communication. It is a figure which shows the detail of a vehicle group driving | running | working process. It is a figure which shows the detail of a vehicle group leaving inspection process. It is a figure which shows the detail of a vehicle group leaving process. It is a figure which shows the detail of a process at the time of vehicle group formation request reception. It is a figure which shows the detail of a vehicle group driving | running | working participation process. It is a figure which shows the detail of a vehicle group formation request transmission process. It is a figure which shows a process when the driving condition transmission of the own vehicle group vehicle and other vehicle group vehicle is received. It is a figure which shows a process when a vehicle group driving | running | working instruction | indication is received. It is a figure which shows a process when signal information is received. It is a figure which shows a process when a prior alignment instruction | indication is received.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described.
(1) Road Instruction Traveling The vehicle travel control system according to the present embodiment is applied to a sag portion of an expressway as shown in FIG. The cause of the natural traffic jam in the sag portion of the highway 1 is that the inter-vehicle distance is too small and the traffic is excessive. When the traffic volume increases, the vehicle group becomes enormous and the inter-vehicle distance decreases, and as a result, the vehicle speed cannot be stabilized. When the size of the vehicle group increases and the vehicle speed becomes unstable, the deceleration wave spreads along the highway, resulting in traffic jams. According to Non-Patent Document 1, the allowable traffic volume is greater by 30% or more when traveling at about 80 km / H than when traveling at 50 km / H or less. At low speeds, the number of vehicles that can run on the road decreases. This causes a naturally occurring traffic jam.

  Such traffic congestion can be reduced by optimizing the vehicle group size, the vehicle speed, and the inter-vehicle distance. For this reason, it is conceivable to control the traffic flow by transmitting an infrastructure coordination command (corresponding to an example of a command for instructing the traveling content of the vehicle) to the vehicle on the highway 1. However, since there are few vehicles equipped with the function corresponding to the infrastructure coordination command, it is necessary to deal with non-equipped vehicles.

  Therefore, in this embodiment, in order to avoid the occurrence of traffic congestion by dividing the vehicles on the highway 1 into a plurality of vehicle groups 2, 3, and 4 at the sag portion where traffic congestion is likely to occur on the highway 1, infrastructure cooperation A plurality of vehicles 5 to 7 equipped with a function corresponding to the command are selected from the highway 1 and the selected vehicles 5 to 7 are driven on an overtaking lane at an appropriate speed.

  Therefore, the vehicles 5 to 7 are arranged in the overtaking lane of the highway 1 as the leading vehicles of the vehicle groups 2 to 4. Then, by using a plurality of roadside machines 8 arranged along the highway 1, an indication of an inter-vehicle distance between the traveling speed and the immediately preceding head vehicle for these vehicles 5 to 7 (corresponding to an infrastructure cooperation command) Send. On the side of the vehicle 5-7 that has received this instruction, it automatically or manually travels in the overtaking lane according to the instruction content. Accordingly, the succeeding vehicles in each of the vehicle groups 2 to 4 travel on the leading vehicles 5 to 7 because the overtaking lanes are blocked by the leading vehicles 5 to 7. As a result, a plurality of vehicle groups 2, 3, 4 with vehicles 5 to 7 at the head are formed. Such traveling is called road instruction traveling (or regulated traveling).

  And in this embodiment, in order to alert | report subsequent vehicles that the vehicles 5-7 are drive | working according to the instruction | indication from the roadside machine 8, the lighting device of the vehicles 5-7 cannot be implement | achieved by normal operation. Flash in the form. By doing in this way, possibility that a following vehicle will drive following the leading vehicles 5-7 will become high.

  Hereinafter, the operation of such a vehicle travel control system will be described in detail. In FIG. 2, the roadside machine 8, the prior roadside machine 9, and the center 12 which the vehicle travel control system of this embodiment has are shown.

  The roadside machine 8 and the preliminary roadside machine 9 transmit the signal for transmission output from the center 12 to the vehicles in the respective communication areas, and receive the signals transmitted from the vehicles in the respective communication areas, It is a device that outputs a received signal to the center 12.

  Each of the roadside machine 8 and the preliminary roadside machine 9 has a camera that repeatedly shoots a measurement point in the vicinity of the own machine on the highway 1 (for example, 30 times per second). By extracting the vehicle from the image, the time at which each vehicle passes the measurement point, the traveling speed of the vehicle, and the size of the vehicle are specified, and the measurement position, the passage time, and the traveling specified for each vehicle The speed and size information is output to the center 12 as measurement data. A passing vehicle directly under the roadside machine may be measured using ultrasonic waves or infrared rays. The vehicle speed may be measured using radio waves.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the plurality of roadside machines 8 are arranged along the expressway 1 at a predetermined interval (specifically, about 500 m). The control section 10 on the highway 1 in which these roadside machines 8 are disposed is a range including the entire section 11 where traffic congestion is likely to occur.

  In addition, the preliminary roadside machine 9 has a control section 10 that is closer to the front side than the control section 10 (that is, the side opposite to the traveling direction of the vehicle) by an interval (specifically, about 2 km) that is larger than the predetermined interval. It is arranged away from.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the center 12 includes an interface unit (referred to as an I / F unit in the drawing) 12a, a storage medium 12b, and a control unit 12c. The interface unit 12a is a well-known interface for mediating exchange of information between the roadside unit 8 and the pre-roadside unit 9 and the control unit 12c. The storage medium 12b stores various programs to be executed by the control unit 12c, and has a storage area for recording information received from the roadside unit 8 and the preliminary roadside unit 9.

  The control unit 12c is a device (for example, a microcomputer) that exchanges signals between the roadside machine 8 and the preliminary roadside machine 9 and executes various processes by executing a program in the storage medium 12b. More specifically, the control unit 12c determines the traffic control content based on the measurement data received from the roadside machine 8 and the preliminary roadside machine 9, and instructs the target vehicle speed and the like via the roadside machine 8 and the preliminary roadside machine 9. To the vehicle.

  Vehicles traveling on the highway 1 include general vehicles and infrastructure cooperative vehicles. The infrastructure cooperative vehicle supports the function of communicating with the center 12 via the roadside machine 8 and the pre-roadside machine 9, the function of communicating with other vehicles, and the traveling at the speed according to the instruction received from the center 12. This is a vehicle equipped with an in-vehicle device having the above functions. Moreover, a general vehicle is a vehicle which is not equipped with such an in-vehicle device.

  FIG. 4 shows the configuration of such an in-vehicle device 20. The in-vehicle device 20 includes a notification control unit 21, a road-vehicle / vehicle-to-vehicle communication device 22, a host vehicle position measurement unit 23, a vehicle speed measurement unit 24, a front inter-vehicle distance measurement unit 25, a switch input unit 26 (in the figure, an SW input unit and A driver display unit 27, an automatic speed control unit 28, an automatic traveling direction control unit 29, and a main control unit 30.

  The notification control unit 21 is a microcomputer including a CPU, a RAM, and a ROM (not shown), and realizes various operations by causing the CPU to execute a program in the ROM. More specifically, based on the control instruction data from the main control unit 30, the notification control unit 21 turns on and off the lighting device mounted on the vehicle on which the in-vehicle device 20 is mounted (hereinafter referred to as the host vehicle). To control. There are a headlamp, a left width lamp, a right width lamp, a reverse lamp, and the like as the lighting equipment to be controlled. The notification control unit 21 controls on / off of each of the controlled lighting devices independently of the other controlled lighting devices.

  The road-vehicle / vehicle-to-vehicle communication device 22 is a well-known wireless communication device for communicating with the center 12 via the road-side device 8 and the preliminary road-side device 9. The road-vehicle / vehicle-to-vehicle communication device 22 also functions as a well-known wireless communication device for communicating with the vehicle-mounted device of another vehicle. That is, the road-to-vehicle / vehicle-to-vehicle communication device 22 receives communication from the center 12 and other vehicles and transmits the communication to the main control unit 30, and transmits information from the main control unit 30 to the center 12 and other vehicles.

  The own vehicle position measuring unit 23 has a GPS receiver, specifies the current position and time of the own vehicle based on the data received by the GPS receiver, and determines the specified current position and time from the main control unit 30 and The notification control unit 21 is notified. Note that the time specified based on the GPS data, that is, the GPS time is very accurate, and there is almost no error from the GPS time specified in the other in-vehicle device 20.

  The vehicle speed measuring unit 24 is a device that detects the traveling speed of the host vehicle and outputs the detected traveling speed to the main control unit 30 and the notification control unit 21. The front inter-vehicle distance measuring unit 25 measures the inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle and the vehicle ahead of the host vehicle, such as a sonar and a laser sensor, and outputs the measured inter-vehicle distance to the main control unit 30 and the notification control unit 21. Device.

  The switch input unit 26 is a device that accepts various operations by the user and outputs signals corresponding to the accepted operations to the main control unit 30 and the notification control unit 21. The switch input unit 26 includes, for example, a switch for accepting on / off switching of a headlamp and a vehicle width lamp. The driver display unit 27 is an image display device and an audio output device for displaying various types of information to the driver of the host vehicle.

  The automatic speed control unit 28 includes a haptic accelerator that can apply a depressing force and a pulling back force to the accelerator pedal. By controlling, the host vehicle is driven at the target vehicle speed. In addition, the automatic speed control unit 28 notifies the main control unit 30 and the notification control unit 21 of the contents of the accelerator operation by the driver (specifically, the accelerator depression amount).

  The automatic traveling direction control unit 29 includes haptic steering capable of applying a rotational force to the steering handle, and controls the rotational force applied to the haptic steering in accordance with the target traveling direction received from the main control unit 30. Then, the host vehicle is caused to travel toward the target traveling direction. Further, the automatic traveling direction control unit 29 notifies the main control unit 30 and the notification control unit 21 of the content of the steering operation of the driver (specifically, the amount of rotation of the steering wheel).

  The main control unit 30 is a microcomputer including a CPU, a RAM, and a ROM (not shown), and implements various processes using the devices 21 to 29 by causing the CPU to execute programs in the ROM.

  The in-vehicle device 20 may not necessarily include the front inter-vehicle distance measurement unit 25, the automatic speed control unit 28, and the automatic traveling direction control unit 29. The in-vehicle device 20 having the front inter-vehicle distance measuring unit 25, the automatic speed control unit 28, and the automatic traveling direction control unit 29 is an in-vehicle device with an inter-vehicle distance measurement and automatic speed control function. A function for supporting traveling at a speed according to an instruction received from the center 12 includes a front inter-vehicle distance measuring unit 25, a driver display unit 27, an automatic speed control unit 28, and an automatic traveling direction control unit 29. Realize.

  The in-vehicle device 20 that does not have the front inter-vehicle distance measuring unit 25, the automatic speed control unit 28, and the automatic traveling direction control unit 29 is an in-vehicle device without inter-vehicle distance measurement and automatic speed control function. The display unit 27 for the driver realizes a function for supporting traveling at a speed according to an instruction received from the center 12.

  Next, the operation of the vehicle travel control system having such a configuration will be described. First, the main control unit 30 of the in-vehicle device 20 mounted on the infrastructure cooperative vehicle repeatedly transmits information on the traveling state of the host vehicle wirelessly using the road-vehicle / vehicle-to-vehicle communication device 22. The repetition cycle of wireless transmission follows a predetermined wireless transmission schedule and is about 0.1 seconds.

  The traveling state information transmitted by radio includes information on the vehicle ID, position, and vehicle speed of the host vehicle. The main control unit 30 acquires the vehicle ID of the host vehicle by reading the information of the vehicle ID recorded in its own ROM, acquires the position of the host vehicle from the host vehicle position measurement unit 23, The vehicle speed of the host vehicle is acquired from the vehicle speed measurement unit 24.

  Information on the traveling state wirelessly transmitted from the vehicle-mounted device 20 of the vehicle is received by the roadside device 8 (or the preliminary roadside device 9) existing in the vicinity of the vehicle and reaches the center 12.

  Next, the operation of the center 12 will be described. When the traffic volume in the control section 10 (specifically, the number of passing vehicles per hour) is large, the center 12 selects and selects a plurality of infrastructure cooperative vehicles in the control section 10 as regulated travel vehicles. An attempt is made to prevent traffic jam in the control section 10 by transmitting a signal indicating the target vehicle speed and the distance between the immediately preceding head vehicle to the regulated traveling vehicle.

  In order to realize the operation of the center 12, the control unit 12c of the center 12 repeatedly executes the process shown in FIG. 5 (specifically, at a cycle of 0.1 second). First, in step 110, the control unit 12c determines whether or not there is a regulated traveling vehicle. Specifically, it is determined whether or not at least one vehicle ID is included in the restricted traveling vehicle list in the storage medium 12b.

  If there is no regulated traveling vehicle at present, then in step 120, based on the measurement data received from the advance roadside device 9, the current traffic volume per lane of the expressway 1 at the measurement point of the advance roadside device 9 is calculated. Then, it is determined whether or not it is larger than the reference value α. Specifically, the reference value α is 2000 units per hour.

  If the current traffic volume is less than or equal to the reference value α, then in step 180, a signal indicating that there is no traffic jam prevention travel is transmitted to all infrastructure cooperative vehicles in the control zone 10. However, if the current traffic volume exceeds the reference value α, then in step 130, a regulated traveling vehicle is selected from the infrastructure cooperative vehicles in the control zone 10, and the ID of the selected regulated traveling vehicle is set to the regulated traveling vehicle. Add to vehicle list.

  Here, a method for selecting a regulated traveling vehicle will be described. The center 12 estimates the positions and speeds of all the vehicles currently traveling in the control section 10 based on the measurement data acquired from the pre-roadside machine 9 and the roadside machine 8. At this time, for a vehicle that has passed the measurement point last t seconds ago, if the speed at the time of passing the measurement point is v meters per second, the current position is the expressway 1 from the measurement point. It is estimated that the vehicle travels v × t meters along the road, and the current vehicle speed is estimated to be v.

  And an infrastructure cooperation vehicle is specified from all the vehicles in the control area 10. FIG. Specifically, the current positions, vehicle speeds, and vehicle IDs of all the infrastructure-coordinated vehicles in the control section 10 are specified based on the travel status information received from the infrastructure-coordinated vehicles via the roadside device 8. .

  When no restricted travel vehicle is recorded in the restricted travel vehicle list, that is, when a traffic jam prevention travel is newly started, the infrastructure cooperative vehicles are extracted in order from the end point of the control section 10 to the start point. Go. Then, the infrastructure cooperative vehicle extracted first is selected as a regulated traveling vehicle, and the ID of the infrastructure cooperative vehicle is added to the regulated traveling vehicle list. Furthermore, for each of the second and subsequent infrastructure-coordinated vehicles, if there are more than the number of lanes × predetermined number (for example, 20 vehicles) between the one regulated traveling vehicle and the infrastructure-coordinated vehicle, the infrastructure The cooperative vehicle is selected as a restricted travel vehicle, and the ID of the infrastructure cooperative vehicle is added to the restricted travel vehicle list. By doing in this way, when no restricted travel vehicle is recorded in the restricted travel vehicle list, a plurality of infrastructure cooperative vehicles are newly selected as controlled travel vehicles with appropriate intervals.

  When the restricted travel vehicle is recorded in the restricted travel vehicle list, that is, when the traffic jam prevention travel has already been executed, the restricted travel vehicle can no longer become the restricted travel vehicle due to the control section 10 exiting or the like. The ID of the infrastructure cooperative vehicle is deleted from the restricted traveling vehicle list. Further, it is determined whether or not each infrastructure cooperative vehicle that is not a regulated traveling vehicle in the control section 10 is additionally selected as a regulated traveling vehicle. Specifically, among infrastructure cooperative vehicles that are not regulated traveling vehicles, there are more than the number of lanes × predetermined number (for example, 20) up to the previous regulated traveling vehicle, and up to the next regulated traveling vehicle. The infrastructure cooperative vehicle in which there are more than the number of lanes × predetermined number (for example, 20 vehicles) is newly selected as the regulated traveling vehicle, and the ID of the infrastructure cooperative vehicle is added to the regulated traveling vehicle list.

  Subsequently, in step 140, a traffic jam prevention travel execution request (corresponding to an example of an infrastructure coordination command) is transmitted to each of the regulated traveling vehicles in the regulated traveling vehicle list via the roadside device 8. The traffic jam prevention travel execution request includes information on the designated vehicle speed, the ID of a regulated traveling vehicle (that is, a leading vehicle) that leads the preceding vehicle group, and the designated distance to the leading vehicle. For example, the command vehicle speed may be 83 km / h. Further, the indicated distance from the front vehicle group to the leading vehicle may be, for example, 37.7 m × vehicle group size / number of lanes. In addition, for the instructed vehicle speed and the instructed distance, the traffic control content is determined based on the measurement data acquired from the roadside machine 8 and the prior roadside machine 9, and the instructed vehicle speed and the instructed distance according to the traffic control content are determined. It may be.

  Subsequently, in step 150, a signal indicating that there is no traffic jam prevention traveling is transmitted to the infrastructure cooperative vehicle in the control section 10 other than the regulated traveling vehicle via the roadside device 8. After step 150, a predetermined execution timing is waited, and step 110 is executed again at the execution timing.

  If it is determined in step 110 that the regulated traveling vehicle list includes the ID of the regulated traveling vehicle, then in step 160, the roadside machine is based on the measurement data received from the roadside machine 8 and the preliminary roadside machine 9. 8. The current traffic volume per lane of the highway 1 at the measurement point of the advance roadside machine 9 is calculated, and it is determined whether or not all the traffic volumes are below the reference value β. The reference value β is a value smaller than the reference value α, specifically, 1800 units per hour.

  If the current traffic volume exceeds the reference value β in either the roadside machine 8 or the preliminary roadside machine 9, then in step 130, a regulated traveling vehicle is selected, and in step 140, the regulated traveling vehicle is selected. In step 150, a signal indicating that there is no traffic jam prevention travel is transmitted to another infrastructure cooperative vehicle.

  In all of the roadside machine 8 and the preliminary roadside machine 9, when the current traffic volume becomes equal to or less than the reference value β, subsequently, in step 170, the restricted traveling vehicle list is cleared. That is, all vehicle IDs in the restricted traveling vehicle list are deleted.

  Subsequently, in step 180, a signal indicating that there is no traffic jam prevention traveling is transmitted to all infrastructure cooperative vehicles in the control section 10. After step 180, a predetermined execution timing is waited, and step 110 is executed again at the execution timing.

  As described above, the control unit 12c of the center 12 does not select a regulated traveling vehicle while the traffic volume in the control section 10 is small (see step 110 → 120 → NO), and the traffic volume in the control section 10 is large. Then (see step 110 → 120 → YES), a regulated traveling vehicle is selected from infrastructure cooperative vehicles (see step 130).

  While the traffic volume in the control section 10 is large (see step 110 → 160 → NO), the list of restricted travel vehicles is updated (see step 130), and a traffic jam prevention travel execution request is transmitted to the restricted travel vehicles ( However, when the traffic volume in the control section 10 decreases (see Step 110 → 160 → YES), the restricted travel vehicle list is cleared by clearing the restricted travel vehicle list (see Step 170).

  Then, when there is a restricted travel vehicle recorded in the restricted travel vehicle list, the control unit 12c transmits a traffic jam prevention travel execution request (corresponding to an example of an infrastructure coordination command) to the restricted travel vehicle ( (See step 140). Then, a signal indicating that there is no traffic jam prevention traveling is transmitted to the infrastructure cooperative vehicle in the control section 10 other than the regulated traveling vehicle (see steps 150 and 180).

  Next, the operation of the main controller 30 in the in-vehicle device 20 on the side that receives the signal transmitted from the center 12 will be described. In order to receive the infrastructure cooperation command transmitted from the center 12, the main control unit 30 repeatedly executes the process shown in the flowchart in FIG. 6 (for example, once every 0.1 seconds).

  In this process, the main control unit 30 first waits at step 210 until it receives an infrastructure coordination command from the center (roadside) 12 via the roadside machine 8 and the preliminary roadside machine 9, and if received, subsequently received at step 220. It is determined whether the infrastructure coordination command is a traffic jam prevention travel execution request or a signal indicating that there is no traffic jam prevention travel.

  If the received signal indicates that there is no traffic jam prevention travel, the control instruction data is output to the notification control unit 21 at step 230. This control instruction data includes control type, instruction phase, presence / absence of flashing backward lamp, and presence / absence of flashing headlamp. The control type data is data that takes one of the values of “road instruction traveling”, “vehicle group traveling”, and “none”. The instruction phase is data indicating a phase shift amount (unit is 0.1 second) of a blinking timing pattern, which will be described later, and its value is any one of 0.1 values from 0.0 to 0.9. Become.

  For the control instruction data output in step 230, the value of the control type data is “none”, and the value of the instruction phase data is “0.0”. Further, the value of the data indicating whether or not the backward lamp is blinking and the value of the data indicating whether or not the headlight is blinking may be predetermined values, or a user's setting operation using the switch input unit 26 may be performed. The value determined by the main control unit 30 according to the content may be used.

  If the received traffic jam prevention travel execution request is received, in step 240, the instruction vehicle speed recorded in the traffic jam prevention travel execution request, the ID of the leading vehicle in the preceding vehicle group, the position of the leading vehicle And the support process for the own vehicle to drive | work according to the instruction | indication distance to the leading vehicle is performed.

  Specifically, when the in-vehicle device 20 is an in-vehicle device without inter-vehicle distance measurement and automatic speed control function, for example, in order to realize the instructed vehicle speed by comparing the instructed vehicle speed with the traveling speed of the host vehicle. It is determined whether the host vehicle should be accelerated or decelerated, and according to the determination, an acceleration or deceleration request message is displayed to the driver using the driver display unit 27. Then, the driver drives the vehicle according to the request message.

  Further, when the in-vehicle device 20 is an in-vehicle device having an inter-vehicle distance measurement and automatic speed control function, for example, the automatic speed control unit 28 is controlled so as to realize the indicated vehicle speed, and the urging force in the depression direction of the accelerator pedal is controlled. Add However, even if the instructed vehicle speed is realized, the inter-vehicle distance between the two is calculated based on the information on the own vehicle position and the position of the leading vehicle in the preceding vehicle group, and the inter-vehicle distance is shorter than the instructed distance. In this case, the vehicle is decelerated by applying an urging force in a direction opposite to the depression direction to the accelerator pedal.

  Following step 240, in step 250, control instruction data is output to the notification control unit 21, and then in step 210, reception is awaited again.

  For the control instruction data output in step 250, the value of the control type data is “road instruction travel”, and the value of the instruction phase data is “0.0”. Further, the value of the data indicating whether or not the backward lamp is blinking and the value of the data indicating whether or not the headlight is blinking may be predetermined values, or a user's setting operation using the switch input unit 26 may be performed. The value determined by the main control unit 30 according to the content may be used.

  The notification control unit 21 that acquires control instruction data from the main control unit 30 repeats the process shown in the flowchart in FIG. 7 in order to control the lamp based on the content of the control instruction data received most recently ( Specifically, it is executed with a period of 0.1 second). In this process, the notification control unit 21 first substitutes a variable T for a portion of the current GPS time or less calculated by the GPS receiver of the vehicle position measurement unit 23 in step 255.

  Subsequently, at step 260, the control instruction data received from the main control unit 30 at last is read, and if the value of the control type indicates “none”, then step 265 is executed to indicate “road instruction traveling”. If so, step 270 is subsequently executed, and if “vehicle group traveling” is indicated, step 275 is subsequently executed.

  In step 265, the values of the variables IR, IL, IK and IF are set to zero. These variables IR, IL, IK, and IF are variables for controlling the turning on and off of the right vehicle width light, the left vehicle width light, the reverse light, and the headlight, respectively. Also in the road instruction travel processing in step 270 and the vehicle group travel distance in step 275, values of 0 or 1 are appropriately substituted for each of these variables IR, IL, IK, and IF. The road instruction travel process and the vehicle group travel distance will be described later.

  In step 280 following step 265, 270, or 275, based on the variables IR, IL, IK, and IF, the notification control unit 21 is controlled to control the lamp of the host vehicle.

  Specifically, for the right width lamp, an exclusive OR (XOR) of the width lamp control flag and the variable IR is calculated, and if the calculation result is 1, the right width lamp is turned on, or If it is already lit, the lighting is continued. If the calculation result is 0, the right width lamp is turned off, or if it is already turned off, the turn-off is continued.

  For the left width lamp, the exclusive OR (XOR) of the width width control flag and the variable IL is calculated. If the calculation result is 1, the left width lamp is turned on or already turned on. If so, keep it on. If the calculation result is 0, the left width lamp is turned off, or if it is already turned off, the turn-off is continued.

  Here, the vehicle width lamp control flag is a flag indicating whether or not the vehicle width lamp is currently used for a normal use purpose. Specifically, when an operation to start use of the vehicle width lamp is performed on the vehicle width light control switch of the vehicle, the notification control unit 21 turns on the vehicle width light control flag, and the vehicle width light control switch On the other hand, when an operation to end the use of the vehicle width lamp is performed, the notification control unit 21 turns off the vehicle width lamp control flag.

  Therefore, when the vehicle width lamp is not used for normal purposes, when the IR value is 1, the right vehicle width light is in the on state, and when the IR value is 0, the right vehicle width lamp is in the off state. In addition, when the value of IL is 1, the left width lamp is in the lighting state, and when the value of IL is 0, the left width lamp is in the off state. That is, in both the variables IR and IL, a value of 1 corresponds to a lighting state, and a value of 0 corresponds to a lighting state. However, when the vehicle width lamp is used for a normal purpose, the relationship between the values of the variables IR and IL and the on / off state is reversed. That is, in both the variables IR and IL, a value of 0 corresponds to a lighting state, and a value of 1 corresponds to a light-off state.

  In addition, for the reverse light, the logical sum (OR) of the reverse light control flag and the variable IK is calculated. If the calculation result is 1, the reverse light is turned on, or if it is already turned on, the light is turned on. Let it continue. If the calculation result is 0, the backward width lamp is turned off, or if it is already turned off, the turn-off is continued.

  Here, the reverse light control flag is a flag indicating whether the reverse light is currently used for normal use purposes. Specifically, when the position of the shift lever of the vehicle is changed to the reverse position by the driver's operation of the vehicle, the notification control unit 21 turns on the reverse light control flag, and the position of the shift lever of the vehicle is determined by the driver's operation. If the position changes from the reverse position to another position, the notification control unit 21 turns off the reverse lamp control flag.

  Accordingly, when the backward light is not used for normal purposes, the backward width lamp is in the on state when the value of IK is 1, and the backward light is in the off state when the value of IK is 0. That is, a value of 1 in the variable IK corresponds to a lighting state, and a value of 0 corresponds to a lighting state. However, when the reverse light is used for normal purposes, the reverse light is in the lit state regardless of the value of the variable IK.

  For the headlamp, the exclusive OR (XOR) of the headlamp control flag and the variable IF is calculated. If the calculation result is 1, the headlamp is turned on or already turned on. If so, the lighting is continued. If the calculation result is 0, the headlamp is turned off, or if it is already turned off, the turn-off is continued.

  Here, the headlamp control flag is a flag indicating whether or not the headlamp is currently used for a normal use purpose. Specifically, when an operation to start using the headlamp is performed on the headlamp control switch of the vehicle, the notification control unit 21 turns on the headlamp control flag, and the headlamp control switch On the other hand, when the operation for ending the use of the headlamp is performed, the notification control unit 21 turns off the headlamp control flag.

  Therefore, if the headlamp is not used for normal purposes, the headlamp is in the on state when the IF value is 1, and the headlamp is off when the IF value is 0. is there. That is, the value 1 of the variable IF corresponds to the lighting state, and the value 0 corresponds to the lighting state. However, when the headlamp is used for normal purposes, the relationship between the value of the variable IF and the on / off state is reversed. That is, the value 0 of the variable IF corresponds to the lighting state, and the value 1 corresponds to the lighting state.

  If the control instruction parameter indicates “None”, the values of IR, IL, IK, and IF are set to zero in step 265. Therefore, all of the vehicle width lamp, the reverse lamp, and the headlamp are used for normal purposes. In the state not used (hereinafter referred to as the basic state), all of the vehicle width light, the reverse light, and the headlight are turned off.

  Here, the details of the road instruction traveling process in step 270 will be described. The notification control unit 21 executes a process as shown in the flowchart in FIG. 8 as the road instruction traveling process. By executing this process, the notification control unit 21 blinks the right width lamp, the left width lamp, and the reverse lamp at the timing of the pattern as shown in FIG. 9 in the basic state.

In the road instruction running process of FIG. 8, first, in step 305, the GPS time is expressed in seconds, and the fractional part is rounded off by rounding off or rounding by a method such as rounding, and the rounded value is set as a variable T. The remainder C1 modulo 40 of the integer resulting from multiplying the variable T by 10 is calculated. Further, a remainder C2 modulo 20 of the remainder C1 is calculated.
Therefore, the remainder C1 is a value indicating which time slot the current time is when the time period of 4 seconds is equally divided into 40 time slots.

  When the remainder C2 is 0 or 1 (see step 310), that is, when the current time belongs to any of the first, second, twenty-first, and twenty-second time slots, the notification control unit 21 performs step 315. Then, values of 1, 0, 0, and 0 are substituted into IR, IL, IK, and IF, respectively.

  In addition, when the remainder C2 is 2 (see step 320), that is, when the current time belongs to any of the third and 23rd time slots, the notification control unit 21 performs IR, IL, IK, The values 1, 1, 0, and 0 are assigned to IF.

  In addition, the notification control unit 21 has a remainder C2 of 3 to 6 (see step 330), that is, the current time belongs to any of the fourth to seventh and 24th to 27th time slots. In step 335, the values 0, 1, 0, and 0 are assigned to IR, IL, IK, and IF, respectively.

  In addition, when the remainder C2 is 7 (see step 340), that is, when the current time belongs to any of the eighth and 28th time slots, the notification control unit 21 performs IR, IL, IK, The values 1, 1, 0, and 0 are assigned to IF.

  Further, when the remainder C2 is 8 or 9 (see step 350), that is, when the current time belongs to any of the ninth, tenth, 29th, and thirty time slots, the notification control unit 21 performs step 355. Then, values of 1, 0, 0, and 0 are substituted into IR, IL, IK, and IF, respectively.

  Further, the notification control unit 21 has a remainder C2 of 10 to 13 (see step 360), that is, the current time belongs to any of the 11th to 14th and 31st to 34th time slots. In step 365, values of 0, 0, 0, and 0 are assigned to IR, IL, IK, and IF, respectively.

  Further, when the remainder C2 is 14 or 15 (see Step 370), that is, when the current time belongs to any of the 15th, 16th, 35th, and 36th time slots, the notification control unit 21 performs Step 375. Then, values of 0, 0, 1, and 0 are substituted into IR, IL, IK, and IF, respectively.

  In addition, the notification control unit 21, when the remainder C2 is any one of 16 to 19 (see step 370 → NO), that is, the current time is one of the 17th to 20th and the 37th to 40th time slots. If so, in step 385, values of 0, 0, 0, and 0 are assigned to IR, IL, IK, and IF, respectively.

  Subsequently, in step 388, it is determined whether or not the remainder C1 and the remainder C2 are the same. That is, it is determined whether the current time slot is 1 to 20 or 21 to 40. If the current time slot is 1st to 20th, step 390 is bypassed and step 393 is executed. If the current time slot is 21st to 40th, in step 390, the value of variable IL and the value of variable IR are exchanged. That is, the on / off states of the left and right width lights are exchanged. Following step 390, step 393 is executed.

  In step 393, it is determined whether or not the backward light is blinked depending on whether the value of the presence or absence of the backward light blinking in the control instruction data received from the main control unit 30 is “present” or “absent”. To do. The reverse lamp blinking setting flag may be switchable based on a user operation on the switch input unit 26.

  When the reverse lamp is blinked, step 395 is bypassed, and the road instruction traveling process is terminated. If the reverse lamp is not blinked, then, in step 395, zero is substituted for the variable IK, and then the road instruction traveling process is terminated.

  Since the notification control unit 21 executes the processes shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 at a cycle of 0.1 second, as a result, the notification control unit 21 performs the left and right width lights and The reverse light is blinked in a pattern as shown in FIG. That is, for the vehicle width lamp, during the first 2 seconds, the right width lamp is lit twice for 0.3 seconds and the left width lamp is lit once for 0.6 seconds, During the second half of the second half, the left width lamp is lit twice for 0.3 seconds and the right width lamp is lit once for 0.6 seconds. That is, in 4 seconds, the lighting is alternately performed twice for 0.3 seconds and once for 0.6 seconds. Further, when the backward light is blinked, the backward light is lit for 0.2 seconds at a cycle of 2 seconds. At this time, a brake light (not shown) may be blinked together with the backward light. Such a period of 4 seconds is started when the second value of the GPS time is 0, 4, 8, or the like.

  Such an operation in which the left and right width lights blink at different timings cannot be realized by conventional vehicle operation. In addition, the operation in which the reverse light blinks even though the vehicle is not moving backward cannot be realized by the conventional vehicle operation. In addition, unlike conventional brake lights and turn indicators, the lighting state of conventional vehicle width lights and reverse lights does not change frequently due to driving. Therefore, a driver of a general vehicle traveling behind the regulated traveling vehicle can easily grasp that the regulated traveling vehicle is traveling according to the instruction of the center 12.

  Further, when the width lights are used for normal purposes in the evening, at night, etc., the timing of turning on and off the left and right width lights is opposite to that in FIG. That is, the on / off pattern of the blink timing of the left and right vehicle width lights is reversed.

  This makes it possible to notify other drivers around the vehicle that the vehicle is traveling in the direction by receiving a command for instructing the content of the vehicle from outside the vehicle (ie, from outside the vehicle). Even when using light fixtures in (Yes), use the lights while realizing both the purpose other than the normal purpose and the normal purpose (emphasize the vehicle width when the surroundings are dark) can do.

  When the driver of the host vehicle performs an operation to end the traffic jam prevention travel using the switch input unit 26, the traffic jam prevention travel end is executed to end the traffic jam prevention travel. In addition, when the host vehicle travels into the highway service area, a traffic jam prevention travel end process is executed to end the traffic jam prevention travel. Whether or not the own vehicle has entered the service area is specified based on a comparison between the own vehicle position specified based on the output from the own vehicle position measuring unit 23 and information on the geographical range where the service area exists. . For this purpose, the in-vehicle device 20 may include a storage medium that stores map data, and the map data may include information on a geographical range where the service area exists.

In the traffic jam prevention driving end process, the main control unit 30 displays a message indicating that the traffic jam prevention driving has ended on the display unit 27 for the driver, stops the operation of the automatic speed control unit 28 and the automatic traveling direction control unit 29, and The control instruction data having any value of “None” as the control type is output to the notification control unit 21. Thereby, the notification control unit 21 ends the blinking of the vehicle width lamp, the blinking of the reverse lamp, and the blinking of the headlamp.
(2) Vehicle group traveling In addition to performing traveling according to instructions from the center 12, the vehicle-mounted device 20 of the plurality of infrastructure cooperative vehicles of the present embodiment performs vehicle-to-vehicle communication between these vehicle-mounted devices 20, Using the inter-vehicle communication, processing is performed to realize traveling (hereinafter referred to as vehicle group traveling) in which a cluster is formed by these infrastructure cooperative vehicles. FIG. 10 illustrates vehicle groups 51 to 53 each performing vehicle group traveling on the highway 1. The vehicles constituting each of the vehicle groups 51 to 53 are all infrastructure cooperative vehicles and vehicles having a function of performing inter-vehicle communication. Hereinafter, an infrastructure cooperative vehicle having a function of performing inter-vehicle communication is referred to as an inter-vehicle consultation vehicle. The in-vehicle device 20 of this embodiment includes a road-vehicle / vehicle-to-vehicle communication device 22 for performing vehicle-to-vehicle communication. Therefore, the infrastructure cooperative vehicle equipped with the in-vehicle device 20 is an inter-vehicle consultation vehicle.

  FIGS. 11 to 15 show flowcharts of processing executed by the main control unit 30 of the in-vehicle device 20 mounted on each of the plurality of inter-vehicle consultation vehicles for the vehicle group traveling. The operation of the main control unit 30 for traveling the vehicle group will be described according to these flowcharts.

  First, each main control unit 30 repeatedly transmits not only the center 12 but also the surrounding vehicles of the own vehicle, and information on the vehicle ID, position, and vehicle speed of the own vehicle is included in the traveling state. In addition, information on the vehicle group to which the host vehicle belongs, information on whether or not the host vehicle participates in road instruction driving (regulated driving), and the like are included. The information regarding the vehicle group to which the host vehicle belongs includes the ID of the vehicle group to which the host vehicle belongs, the vehicle group list of the vehicle group, and the information on the instruction phase assigned to the vehicle group. The vehicle group list will be described later.

  Next, the formation process of the vehicle group will be described. The main control unit 30 of the in-vehicle device 20 repeatedly executes the vehicle group traveling process shown in FIG. 11 at a cycle of 0.1 second. However, if the current vehicle group traveling process is not completed even after 0.1 seconds have elapsed from the start, a new number of vehicle group traveling processes are executed after the completion.

  By executing the processing of FIG. 11, the main control unit 30 mounted on one inter-vehicle discussion vehicle X traveling on the highway 1 does not receive a traffic jam prevention travel request from the road (ie, the center 12) ( 11 (see step 405 → NO in FIG. 11), the host vehicle X is not currently traveling in the vehicle group (see step 415 → NO), and a vehicle group formation request (corresponding to an example of a command for instructing the traveling content of the vehicle) Is not received (see step 425 → NO), and there is no vehicle group in which the host vehicle X can participate within 100 m before and after in the highway 1 (see step 435 → NO). It is determined whether or not there is a vehicle-to-vehicle consultation vehicle Y that can travel in the vehicle group within 100 m before and after the host vehicle X (see step 445), and if there is such a vehicle-to-vehicle consultation vehicle Y, Then in step 450 the car To run the formation request transmission processing.

  The position of the other inter-vehicle consultation vehicle is specified based on the position information included in the travel status information transmitted from the inter-vehicle consultation vehicle. Whether other vehicle-to-vehicle consultation vehicles can travel in the vehicle group is determined based on the information on the driving situation transmitted from the vehicle-to-vehicle consultation vehicle. If it does not participate in the road instruction traveling, it is determined that the vehicle group traveling is possible. Whether another vehicle-to-vehicle consultation vehicle is traveling in the vehicle group is determined based on the travel status information transmitted from the vehicle-to-vehicle consultation vehicle. Judgment is made based on whether or not the group ID is included in the travel status information.

  In the vehicle group formation request transmission process, as shown in FIG. 12, it is determined in step 510 based on the driver's selection operation on the switch input unit 26 whether or not the host vehicle X can travel in the vehicle group.

  The driver's selection operation may be accepted in step 510. In that case, the main control unit 30 performs a display for prompting selection of whether or not the vehicle group travel is possible in step 510 using the display unit 27 for the driver, and then waits for a selection operation on the switch input unit 26. The driver's selection operation may be received in advance before the stage of step 510 and stored as the state of the main control unit 30.

  Further, when the driver performs the vehicle group running refusal operation, for 10 minutes, in step 510, it is automatically determined that the vehicle group running is refused (that is, without waiting for the driver's operation). It may be. By doing so, the driver is not frequently required to select whether or not to travel in the vehicle group. However, the driver can also set the automatic rejection function to be disabled.

  If the host vehicle X is not capable of traveling in the vehicle group, the vehicle group formation request transmission process is terminated without transmitting the vehicle group formation request data to the inter-vehicle consultation vehicle Y. That is, it does not call for other vehicle-to-vehicle consultation vehicles to form a vehicle group. If the host vehicle X is capable of traveling in the vehicle group, then in step 520, the road-to-vehicle / vehicle-to-vehicle communication device 22 is used to transmit predetermined vehicle group formation request data to the vehicle-to-vehicle consultation vehicle Y. In step 530, a response from the inter-vehicle consultation vehicle Y is awaited. The vehicle group formation request data includes the ID of the host vehicle X.

  In the in-vehicle device 20 of the inter-vehicle consultation vehicle Y that has received such a vehicle group formation request data, the main control unit 30 included in the vehicle-mounted device 20 receives the vehicle group formation request in step 425 of FIG. Subsequently, in step 430, a vehicle group formation request reception process is executed.

  In the vehicle group formation request reception process, the main control unit 30 first determines whether or not the host vehicle Y can travel in the vehicle group in step 550, as shown in FIG. Judge with.

  If the host vehicle Y is not capable of traveling in the vehicle group, then in step 560, predetermined vehicle group formation rejection data is transmitted to the inter-vehicle consultation vehicle X, and then the vehicle group formation request reception process is terminated. When the vehicle group formation rejection data is transmitted to the inter-vehicle consultation vehicle X, the main control unit 30 of the inter-vehicle consultation vehicle X receives the vehicle group formation rejection data in step 530 of FIG. The vehicle group formation request transmission process is terminated without forming a vehicle group with the inter-vehicle discussion vehicle Y. In step 530, even if there is no response from the inter-vehicle discussion vehicle Y for a predetermined time or longer, it is considered that the time-out has occurred, and the vehicle group formation request transmission process is terminated without forming the vehicle group.

  If it is determined in step 550 of FIG. 13 that the host vehicle Y is capable of traveling in the vehicle group, then in step 570, a predetermined vehicle group formation permission (corresponding to an example of a command for instructing the vehicle travel contents) is obtained. Data) is transmitted to the inter-vehicle consultation vehicle X. Subsequently, in step 580, a process for forming a vehicle group is performed, and then the process for receiving a vehicle group formation request is terminated.

  When the vehicle group formation permission data is transmitted to the inter-vehicle consultation vehicle X, the main control unit 30 of the inter-vehicle consultation vehicle X receives the vehicle group formation permission data in step 530 of FIG. Subsequently, in step 540, a process for forming a vehicle group is performed, and then the vehicle group formation request transmission process is terminated.

  Here, the contents of the vehicle group formation process in step 540 in FIG. 12 and step 580 in FIG. 13 will be described. In this vehicle group formation process, the main control unit 30 of the inter-vehicle consultation vehicle X or the inter-vehicle consultation vehicle Y performs creation of a vehicle group list, surrounding notification setting, and in-vehicle notification.

  In creating the vehicle group list, the main control unit 30 creates a vehicle group list including the vehicle IDs of the inter-vehicle consultation vehicle X and the inter-vehicle consultation vehicle Y constituting the vehicle group in its own RAM. That is, a vehicle group composed of the inter-vehicle consultation vehicle X and the inter-vehicle consultation vehicle Y is formed.

  When forming the vehicle group list, one of the vehicles included in the vehicle group list is selected as the vehicle group representative vehicle. Specifically, the vehicle-to-vehicle consultation vehicle X (that is, the vehicle-to-vehicle consultation vehicle X that called for the vehicle group formation) that is the transmission source of the vehicle group formation request that caused the vehicle group formation is selected as the vehicle group representative vehicle. To do. And the flag which shows that it is a vehicle group representative vehicle is linked | related and recorded on vehicle ID of the said vehicle contained in a vehicle group list | wrist. The vehicle ID of the vehicle group representative vehicle of the vehicle group is also used as the vehicle group ID of the vehicle group.

  Further, in the surrounding notification setting, the main control unit 30 notifies the control instruction data described in steps 230 and 250 of FIG. 6 in order to realize notification to other surrounding vehicles that do not belong to the formed vehicle group. Output to the control unit 21. However, the value of the control type data in the control instruction data output here is “car group traveling”.

  In addition, the value of the instruction phase data in the control instruction data to be output is shared as the same value in one vehicle group, and is different from the vehicle group that is one forward or one rear in the highway 1. To do. By doing in this way, the lamps of all the vehicles belonging to one vehicle group blink in synchronization, and the phase of the blinking timing of the lamps is different between different vehicle groups.

  In order to realize such an instruction phase, the main control unit 30 mounted on the vehicle group representative vehicle X uses vehicle-to-vehicle communication, and information on the driving situation transmitted from the vehicle belonging to the previous vehicle group The command phase in the vehicle and the command phase in the information on the traveling state transmitted from the vehicle belonging to the next vehicle group are acquired, and a command phase different from these is selected as the command phase of the host vehicle X. And the data of the selected instruction | indication phase are transmitted to the other vehicle Y in a vehicle group list | wrist. The main control unit 30 of the vehicle Y that has received the command phase data employs the command phase data as command phase data included in the control command data to the notification control unit 21. In this way, the value of the command phase of each vehicle belonging to the same vehicle group becomes the same. Which vehicle group is the previous vehicle group and which vehicle group is the next vehicle group is determined based on the vehicle group ID and position information in the travel status information transmitted from each vehicle. To do.

  In addition, the value of the presence or absence of reverse lamp flashing in the output control instruction data is “with flashing reverse light” if the host vehicle is the last in the formed vehicle group, and in the formed vehicle group If the host vehicle is not at the end, “No flashing of backward light” is set.

  In addition, the value of presence / absence of flashing of the headlight in the control instruction data to be output is “the headlight is flashing” if the host vehicle is the first in the formed vehicle group. If the vehicle is not at the top, “No headlight flashing” is assumed.

  Whether or not the host vehicle is at the head or tail in the vehicle group is determined based on the position information in the travel status information transmitted from the vehicles forming the same vehicle group.

  Further, in the in-vehicle notification, the main control unit 30 notifies the driver in the host vehicle that the vehicle group traveling is started using the display unit 27 for the driver.

  Here, the contents of the vehicle group traveling support process of each vehicle-mounted device 20 in the case where one vehicle group is composed of only the vehicle-to-vehicle consultation vehicle having the vehicle-mounted device 20 without the inter-vehicle distance measurement and automatic speed control function will be described.

  In this case, the main control unit 30 of each vehicle-mounted device 20 is for the driver to travel in the left lane in a line at a predetermined first speed (for example, 80 km / h) and a predetermined first inter-vehicle distance (for example, 30 m). The display unit 27 is used to give an instruction to the driver. For example, a display that prompts the vehicle to travel at the first speed, a display that prompts the vehicle to travel at a distance of the first vehicle from the previous vehicle, and a display that prompts the vehicle to travel in the left lane. I do. Further, even if the position information of the vehicle group forming the same vehicle group is acquired by inter-vehicle communication, and a road map representing the positional relationship between the host vehicle and the other vehicle is displayed based on the position information. Good. In addition, when the own vehicle forming the same vehicle group approaches another vehicle ahead at a predetermined distance or less at a relative speed of a predetermined value or more, it is determined that the own vehicle may pass the other vehicle, and the overtaking is performed. A display prompting to quit may be performed.

  It is assumed that there are two types of vehicle groups, one consisting only of vehicles without inter-vehicle distance measurement and automatic speed control function and one consisting only of vehicles with inter-vehicle distance measurement and automatic speed control function. The contents of the vehicle group travel support processing of each on-vehicle device 20 in the case where one vehicle group is composed of a vehicle-to-vehicle consultation vehicle having the on-vehicle device 20 with inter-vehicle distance measurement and automatic speed control function will be described.

  In this case, the main control unit 30 of each in-vehicle device 20 controls the automatic speed control unit 28 and the automatic traveling direction control unit 29 so that the host vehicle has a predetermined second speed (for example, faster than the first speed). The left lane is run in a line with other vehicles in the same group at a second inter-vehicle distance (for example, 15 m) shorter than the first inter-vehicle distance at a speed of 100 km / h.

  Whether or not the vehicle-mounted device 20 of another vehicle has an inter-vehicle distance measurement and automatic speed control function is specified by communication with the vehicle. For example, when the value of a predetermined part of the vehicle ID is determined by whether or not the vehicle-mounted device 20 with an inter-vehicle distance measurement and automatic speed control function is included, Based on the value of the predetermined portion, it is determined whether or not the vehicle-mounted device 20 of the vehicle has an inter-vehicle distance measurement and automatic speed control function.

  Next, the operation in the case where the inter-vehicle discussion vehicle Z participates in an existing vehicle group (vehicle X and vehicle Y belong) will be described. The main control unit 30 mounted on the inter-vehicle consultation vehicle Z traveling on the highway 1 does not receive a traffic jam prevention travel execution request from the road (see step 405 → NO in FIG. 11), and the current vehicle X is currently traveling in the vehicle group. If the vehicle group formation request has not been received (see step 425 → NO) and there is a vehicle group in which the host vehicle X can participate within 100 meters before and after the expressway 1 (See step 435), and if there is such a vehicle group, subsequently, vehicle group travel participation processing is executed in step 440.

  Note that the distance from the host vehicle Z to the vehicle group is determined based on the position information in the data of the traveling situation transmitted from the vehicle belonging to the vehicle group. Further, whether or not the own vehicle Z can participate in a certain vehicle group is determined as follows. When the in-vehicle device 20 mounted on the host vehicle Z is an in-vehicle device 20 without inter-vehicle distance measurement and automatic speed control function, the main control unit 30 has a vehicle group with inter-vehicle distance measurement and automatic speed control function. When it consists of the vehicle equipment 20, it determines with the own vehicle Z not participating in the vehicle group. When the in-vehicle device 20 mounted on the host vehicle Z is the in-vehicle device 20 without the inter-vehicle distance measurement and automatic speed control function, the main control unit 30 has a certain vehicle group that measures the inter-vehicle distance and the automatic speed control function. When the vehicle is configured with no vehicle, it is determined that the host vehicle Z cannot participate in the vehicle group.

  In the vehicle group traveling participation process, as shown in FIG. 14, the main control unit 30 of the vehicle Z first determines whether or not the host vehicle Z can travel in the vehicle group in step 610 in the same manner as in step 510 in FIG. Judge with.

  If the host vehicle Z is not capable of traveling in the vehicle group, the vehicle group traveling participation process is terminated without participating in the vehicle group. If the host vehicle Z can travel in the vehicle group, then in step 620, the vehicle group participation request data is transmitted to the vehicle group representative vehicle X of the vehicle group (or another vehicle Y belonging to the vehicle group). . This vehicle group participation request data includes the vehicle group ID of the target vehicle group to which participation is desired and the vehicle ID of the host vehicle Z. The ID of the vehicle group representative vehicle X is specified based on the vehicle group list in the traveling state data transmitted from the vehicles X and Y belonging to the vehicle group.

  The main control unit 30 of the vehicle group representative vehicle X that has received the vehicle group participation request data, if the number of vehicles whose ID is described in the vehicle group list is greater than or equal to a predetermined upper limit value, When the vehicle group participation refusal data is transmitted and the vehicle group participation refusal is less than the upper limit value, the vehicle group participation permission (corresponding to an example of a command for instructing the traveling content of the vehicle) is transmitted to the transmitting vehicle Z The ID of the host vehicle Z that is the transmission source of the group participation request data is added to the vehicle group list.

  The upper limit value may be a fixed value (for example, 10) or may be changed according to the type of vehicle group to which the host vehicle X belongs. For example, if the vehicle group to which the host vehicle X belongs consists only of vehicles having the in-vehicle device 20 with inter-vehicle distance measurement and automatic speed control function, the upper limit value may be set higher than in other cases. Good.

  The main control unit 30 of the vehicle Z waits for a response in step 630 after transmitting the vehicle group participation request data in step 620, or receives the vehicle group participation refusal data. If there is no response even after the waiting time elapses, the vehicle group traveling participation process is terminated without participating in the vehicle group.

  If the vehicle group participation permission data is received at step 630, then the vehicle group participation process is performed at step 640, and then the vehicle group traveling participation process is terminated. In the vehicle group participation process, the main control unit 30 of the inter-vehicle consultation vehicle Z performs creation of a vehicle group list, surrounding notification setting, and in-vehicle notification.

  In creating the vehicle group list, the main control unit 30 adds the ID of the own vehicle to the vehicle group list transmitted from the vehicle belonging to the vehicle group that will participate, and records it in its own RAM. This realizes participation in the vehicle group.

  Further, in the surrounding notification setting, the main control unit 30 controls the control instructions described in step 540 in FIG. 12 and step 580 in FIG. 13 in order to realize notification to other surrounding vehicles that do not belong to the participating vehicle group. Data is output to the notification control unit 21. The value of the control type data in the control instruction data output here is “car group traveling”. Further, the value of the instruction phase data received from the vehicle group representative vehicle X of the participating vehicle group is adopted as the value of the instruction phase data in the control instruction data to be output. By doing so, the value of the command phase of each vehicle belonging to the same vehicle group becomes the same (that is, is shared). In this way, from the outside of the vehicle group, the vehicles forming one vehicle group can be clearly distinguished from other vehicles.

  In addition, the value of presence / absence of flashing of the reverse lamp in the control instruction data to be output is “the flashing of the reverse lamp is flashing” if the host vehicle Z is the last in the participating vehicle group. If the host vehicle Z is not at the end, “No flashing of backward light” is set.

  In addition, the value of presence / absence of flashing of the headlamp in the control instruction data to be output is “the flashing of the headlamp” if the host vehicle Z is the head in the participating vehicle group. If the host vehicle Z is not the head, “no flashing of the headlamp” is set.

  In addition, the main control unit 30 of the other vehicles X and Y in the vehicle group in which the vehicle Z participates also updates the positional relationship of the own vehicle sequentially, and as described above, the blinking of the reverse lamp in the output control instruction data The presence / absence value and the headlamp presence / absence value are updated, and the updated control instruction data is output to the notification control unit 21.

  Next, the operation of the vehicles X, Y, and Z that form a single vehicle group and are traveling in the vehicle group will be described. If the main control unit 30 of the vehicles X, Y, and Z that are traveling in the vehicle group determines that the host vehicle is traveling in the vehicle group in step 415 of FIG. Execute.

  In the vehicle group running process, as shown in FIG. 15, the main control unit 30 first determines in step 710 whether or not a predetermined vehicle group representative vehicle change data has been received. In step 720, the vehicle group representative vehicle is changed, and then the vehicle group traveling process is terminated. The vehicle group representative vehicle change data is transmitted from the vehicle group representative vehicle X when the vehicle group representative vehicle X leaves the vehicle group, as will be described later.

  The vehicle group representative vehicle is changed in step 720 as follows. That is, a vehicle having a vehicle ID larger than the vehicle ID of the current vehicle group representative vehicle and closest to the vehicle ID in the current vehicle group is set as the next vehicle group representative vehicle. The size of the ID is compared with the cyclic. That is, the next largest vehicle ID after the largest vehicle ID is regarded as the smallest vehicle ID.

  If the predetermined vehicle group representative vehicle change data has not been received, it is subsequently determined in step 730 whether or not the predetermined vehicle group departure data has been received. If not received, the process proceeds to step 770. The vehicle group representative vehicle change data is transmitted from the vehicle when the vehicle belonging to the vehicle group leaves the vehicle group, as will be described later.

  In step 740, a number obtained by subtracting 1 from the number of vehicle IDs recorded in the current vehicle group list, that is, a vehicle belonging to the vehicle group when the vehicle that has transmitted the vehicle group departure data leaves the vehicle group. It is determined whether the number of is greater than or equal to two. If it is two or more, then in step 750, the ID of the vehicle that is the transmission source of the vehicle group departure data is deleted from the vehicle group list. If it is less than 2 (that is, 1), the vehicle group traveling is terminated. That is, the vehicle group list is deleted, the control type of the control instruction data is changed to “none”, and the changed control instruction data is output to the notification control unit 21. After steps 750 and 760, the vehicle group traveling process is terminated.

  In step 770, a vehicle group departure inspection process is executed. In the vehicle group departure inspection process, the main control unit 30 executes the vehicle group separation process to leave the vehicle group when the host vehicle approaches another vehicle group within 100 m. Further, the vehicle group is canceled when communication between vehicles in the vehicle group becomes difficult. That is, as in step 760, the vehicle group traveling is terminated. Further, when the vehicle is separated from the other vehicle in the same vehicle group by 200 m or more, the vehicle group leaving process is executed in order to leave the vehicle group. Further, when the driver of the host vehicle performs an operation to leave the vehicle group using the switch input unit 26, a vehicle group leaving process is executed in order to leave the vehicle group. Further, when the host vehicle travels into the highway service area, a vehicle group leaving process is executed in order to leave the vehicle group. Whether or not the own vehicle has entered the service area is specified based on a comparison between the own vehicle position specified based on the output from the own vehicle position measuring unit 23 and information on the geographical range where the service area exists. . For this purpose, the in-vehicle device 20 may include a storage medium that stores map data, and the map data may include information on a geographical range where the service area exists.

  In the vehicle group leaving process, as shown in FIG. 16, the main control unit 30 first determines in step 860 whether or not the host vehicle is a vehicle group representative vehicle. The vehicle group leaving data is transmitted to other vehicles belonging to the same vehicle group. If it is a vehicle group representative vehicle, then in step 880, the vehicle group representative vehicle change data and the vehicle group departure data are transmitted to other vehicles belonging to the same vehicle group. The transmitted vehicle group departure data and vehicle group representative vehicle change data include the ID of the host vehicle. Subsequent to Steps 870 and 880, as in Step 760 of FIG. 15, the vehicle group traveling is terminated, and then the vehicle group leaving process is terminated.

  Further, when it is determined in step 410 of FIG. 11 that the main control unit 30 has received an instruction such as a traffic jam prevention travel execution request from the road (center 12), as in step 760 of FIG. (Consulted vehicle group driving) is finished.

  Note that, when the vehicle group leaving process is performed and when the vehicle group traveling is ended, the main control unit 30 transmits control instruction data for which the control type has any value of “none” to the notification control unit 21. Output to. Thereby, the notification control unit 21 ends the blinking of the vehicle width lamp, the blinking of the reverse lamp, and the blinking of the headlamp.

  In the above example, the vehicle group is generated by vehicle-to-vehicle communication, but the vehicle group may be formed by road-to-vehicle communication. For example, the control unit 12c of the center 12 extracts a plurality of vehicles forming one vehicle group from the infrastructure cooperative vehicles based on the position of the infrastructure cooperative vehicles on the highway 1, and includes the extracted vehicle IDs. A vehicle group list may be generated, and the vehicle group list may be transmitted to each extracted vehicle. At this time, the control unit 12c selects a vehicle group representative vehicle from the extracted vehicles, and records a flag indicating that the vehicle group representative vehicle is associated with the vehicle ID of the vehicle group representative vehicle in the vehicle group list. Further, the control unit 12c may transmit control instruction data together with the vehicle group list. The value of the control type data in the transmitted control instruction data is “car group traveling”.

  The main control unit 30 of each vehicle that has received such a vehicle group list and control instruction data outputs the received control instruction data to the notification control unit 21, and records the received vehicle group list in its own RAM. The vehicle group is formed, and thereafter, the process of FIG. 11 is repeatedly executed as in the case where the vehicle group is formed by inter-vehicle communication.

  In addition, as described above, the notification control unit 21 repeatedly executes the processing as shown in the flowchart in FIG. 7 (specifically, in a cycle of 0.1 second), and the notification control unit 21 While the host vehicle is traveling in the vehicle group, control instruction data in which the value of the control type data is “vehicle group traveling” is received from the main control unit 30. Therefore, the notification control unit 21 determines that the value of the control type data in the control instruction data is “car group travel” in step 260 of FIG. 7, and subsequently performs the car group travel process in step 275. Execute.

  Note that the vehicle group instruction phase may change during vehicle group traveling. Specifically, the main control unit 30 mounted on the vehicle group representative vehicle of a certain vehicle group repeatedly receives the data of the traveling situation transmitted from each of the vehicle belonging to the own vehicle group and the vehicle belonging to the other vehicle group. To do. And based on the data of the driving | running | working condition transmitted from the vehicle which belongs to another vehicle group, the newest information of the position and instruction | indication phase of each vehicle group is acquired and recorded.

  The main control unit 30 of the vehicle group representative vehicle corrects the previous instruction phase each time it receives data on the traveling state transmitted from either a vehicle belonging to the vehicle group or a vehicle belonging to another vehicle group. It is determined whether or not 1 second or more has elapsed from the time. If it has elapsed, the instruction phases A and B of the two vehicle groups closest to the host vehicle group are extracted. Then, the command phase of the host vehicle group is set to 0.1 (that is, 0.1 second) in such a direction that the phase difference between the command phase C of the host vehicle group and the command phases A and B of the two vehicle groups increases. Only) change.

  Here, as a specific example of the phase difference between the command phase C of the host vehicle group and the command phases A and B of the two vehicle groups, for example, “difference between the command phase C of the host vehicle group and the command phase A”, and You may use the sum total of "the difference of the instruction | indication phase C of the own vehicle group, and the instruction | indication phase B".

  The indicated phase value is treated as a cyclic number that circulates as 0.0, 0.1, 0.2,..., 0.9, 0.0, 0.1. Therefore, when the value of the command phase is 0.9, if the command phase is changed to a larger value by 0.1, the value of the command phase after the change is 0.0. Further, the difference between the instruction phase M and the instruction phase N is that the number of repetitions when the instruction phase M is repeatedly reached to the instruction phase N by repeating the process of changing the instruction phase M by 0.1 is set to K, and the instruction phase M is smaller. If the number of repetitions when reaching the indicated phase N is repeated by repeating the process of changing by 0.1, the smaller of K and L is assumed.

  Then, the main controller 30 of the vehicle group representative vehicle outputs control instruction data including the instruction phase updated in this way to the notification controller 21. In addition, the main control unit 30 repeatedly transmits the instruction phase updated in this way as desired phase data included in the traveling situation data. Then, the main control unit 30 of the vehicle belonging to the same vehicle group as the vehicle group representative vehicle receives the travel situation data, and extracts and extracts the indicated phase (desired phase) included in the received travel situation data. Control instruction data including the instruction phase is output to the notification control unit 21. In this way, in one vehicle group, the vehicle group representative vehicle changes the command phase, and vehicles other than the vehicle group representative vehicle receive and employ the changed command phase, thereby belonging to the vehicle group. The command phase changes in accordance with the entire vehicle.

  Details of the vehicle group traveling process will be described below. The notification control unit 21 executes one of two types of vehicle group configuration processing according to the configuration of the vehicle group to which the host vehicle belongs (hereinafter referred to as the host vehicle group). Specifically, when the host vehicle group is composed only of an in-vehicle device without inter-vehicle distance measurement and automatic speed control function, the first vehicle group traveling process as shown in the flowchart in FIG. 17 is executed, and When the host vehicle group is composed only of an in-vehicle device with an inter-vehicle distance measurement and automatic speed control function, the second vehicle group traveling process as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 18 is executed.

  In the first vehicle group traveling process, the notification control unit 21 first expresses the GPS time in seconds, rounds off less than one digit after the decimal point, sets the rounded value as a variable T, and uses the variable T as a phase variable. PH is subtracted and multiplied by 10, and the remainder C1 modulo the resulting integer 10 is calculated. Therefore, the remainder C1 is a value indicating which time slot the value obtained by subtracting PH from the current time is when the time period of 1 second is equally divided into 10 time slots.

  When the remainder C1 is 0 or 1 (see YES at Step 910), that is, when the current time belongs to one of the first and second time slots, the notification control unit 21 performs IR, The values 1, 1, 0, and 0 are assigned to IL, IK, and IF, respectively.

  In addition, when the remainder C1 is any one of 2 to 9 (see Step 910 → NO), that is, when the current time belongs to any one of the 3rd to 10th time slots, the notification control unit 21 in Step 920, The values 0, 0, 0, and 0 are assigned to IR, IL, IK, and IF, respectively.

  Since the notification control unit 21 executes the processes shown in FIGS. 7 and 17 at a cycle of 0.1 second, as a result, the notification control unit 21 turns the left and right width lights at a cycle of 1 second in the basic state. It blinks in an on / off pattern (hereinafter simply referred to as a pattern) as shown in FIG. That is, the left and right vehicle width lights are lit for 0.2 seconds at a cycle of 1 second. A variable T representing the current time is inserted when it becomes equal to the phase variable PH. As described above, the notification control unit 21 sets a period of a predetermined length as one cycle, and blinks the lamp with a blinking pattern at a predetermined timing within the one cycle. The start timing of each cycle is determined by the phase variable PH. Determined.

  Here, the phase variable PH will be described. The phase variable PH is a variable for reflecting the instruction phase received from the main control unit 30. This phase variable PH is initialized by the main control unit 30 only when step 905 is executed for the first time after the host vehicle starts traveling in the vehicle group. In this initialization, the phase variable PH is matched with the indicated phase.

  And as above-mentioned, when the instruction | indication phase changes, the alerting | reporting control part 21 adjusts phase variable PH in step 920, when remainder C1 is three. This “when the remainder C1 is 3 in step 920” means that the vehicle group traveling process of FIG. 17 is executed a plurality of times, and three times (0.3 seconds in terms of time) or more of the plurality of times. If there is a period in which the lighting / extinguishing state of the lamp does not change continuously, this corresponds to the first round of the period. By selecting such a time and adjusting the phase variable PH, it appears that the change of the blinking pattern of the lighting device is realized without any disturbance of the blinking pattern when viewed from the outside of the vehicle.

  In the adjustment of the phase variable PH, the notification control unit 21 changes the phase variable PH so as to approach the instruction phase by 0.1. Here, the value of the phase variable PH is also treated as a cyclic number that circulates as 0.0, 0.1, 0.2,..., 0.9, 0.0, 0.1. . Therefore, when the value of the phase variable PH is 0.9, if the indicated phase is changed by 0.1 in the larger direction, the indicated phase value after the change is 0.0.

  “To change the phase variable PH so as to approach the instruction phase by 0.1” specifically, the process of changing the phase variable PH by 0.1 to the larger one is repeated to reach the instruction phase. If the number of repetitions is set to K and the number of repetitions for reaching the indicated phase by repeating the process of changing the phase variable PH by 0.1 to the smaller one is L, if K is L or less, the phase variable PH Is increased by 0.1, and if L is less than K, the phase variable PH is decreased by 0.1.

  Such adjustment of the phase variable PH continues until the phase variable PH matches the indicated phase. Therefore, when the vehicle group representative vehicle of a certain vehicle group changes the command phase, the flashing pattern phase of the lighting device gradually changes to the command phase in each vehicle belonging to the vehicle group, and the flashing pattern is It changes without being greatly disturbed.

  Next, the second vehicle group traveling process will be described with reference to FIG. Note that the steps denoted by the same reference numerals in FIG. 18 and FIG. 8 perform the same processing, and detailed description thereof will be omitted here.

  In the second vehicle group traveling process, the notification control unit 21 first expresses the GPS time in seconds, rounds off less than one digit after the decimal point, sets the rounded value as a variable T, and uses the variable T as a phase variable. The PH is subtracted and multiplied by 10, and the remainder C1 modulo the resulting integer 40 is calculated. Further, a remainder C2 modulo 20 of the remainder C1 is calculated. Therefore, the remainder C1 is a value indicating in which time slot the value obtained by subtracting the phase PH from the current time when the time period of 4 seconds is equally divided into 40 time slots.

  In step 1035 executed when the remainder C2 is any one of 3 to 6, the values 0, 1, 0, and 0 are assigned to IR, IL, IK, and IF, respectively, as in step 335 of FIG. . However, the time when the surplus C2 is 3 is a period in which the lighting / extinguishing state of the lamp does not change continuously while the vehicle group traveling process of FIG. It corresponds to the first time. Therefore, when the remainder C2 is 3, the notification control unit 21 changes the phase variable PH in step 1035 so as to approach the instruction phase by 0.1 as in step 920 of FIG.

  In step 1065 executed when the remainder C2 is any one of 10 to 13, the values 0, 0, 0, and 0 are assigned to IR, IL, IK, and IF, respectively, as in step 365 of FIG. . However, the time when the surplus C2 is 10 is a period in which the lighting / extinguishing state of the lamp does not change continuously while the vehicle group traveling process of FIG. It corresponds to the first time. Therefore, when the remainder C2 is 10, the notification control unit 21 changes the phase variable PH in step 1065 so as to approach the instruction phase by 0.1 as in step 920 of FIG.

  In Step 1075 that is executed when the remainder C2 is 14 or 15, the values 0, 0, and 1 are assigned to IR, IL, and IK, respectively, as in Step 375 of FIG. However, in step 1075, a value of 1 is substituted for IF. This is a setting for blinking the headlamp on the first vehicle in the vehicle group.

  In step 1085 executed when the remainder C2 is any one of 16 to 19, the values 0, 0, 0, and 0 are assigned to IR, IL, IK, and IF, respectively, as in step 385 of FIG. . However, the time when the remainder C2 is 16 is a period in which the lighting / extinguishing state of the lamp does not change continuously while the vehicle group traveling process of FIG. It corresponds to the first time. Therefore, when the remainder C2 is 16, the notification control unit 21 changes the phase variable PH in step 1085 so as to approach the indicated phase by 0.1 as in step 920 of FIG.

  After affirmative determination is made in step 388 and after step 390 is executed, in step 1091, whether or not the headlamp is to be blinked is determined in the control instruction data last received from the main control unit 30. It is determined by whether the value of presence / absence of flashing of the headlight is “present” or “absent”. As described above, in the notification control unit 21 mounted on the leading vehicle in the vehicle group, the value of presence / absence of the flashing of the headlamp is “present”, and in the other notification control units 21, the flashing of the headlamp is performed. The presence / absence value is “none”.

  If the backward light is blinking, step 393 is subsequently bypassed and step 393 is executed. If the backward light is not blinked, then in step 1092 zero is substituted for the variable IF and then step 395 is executed.

  In step 393, it is determined whether or not the backward light is blinked depending on whether the value of the presence or absence of the backward light blinking in the control instruction data received from the main control unit 30 is “present” or “absent”. To do. As described above, in the notification control unit 21 mounted on the last vehicle in the vehicle group, the value of presence / absence of the backward light blinking is “present”, and in the other notification control units 21, the backward light blinks. The presence / absence value is “none”.

  When the reverse lamp is blinked, step 395 is bypassed, and the road instruction traveling process is terminated. If the reverse lamp is not blinked, then, in step 395, zero is substituted for the variable IK, and then the road instruction traveling process is terminated.

  Since the notification control unit 21 executes the processes shown in FIGS. 7 and 18 at a cycle of 0.1 second, as a result, the notification control unit 21 has the left and right width lights and The reverse light is blinked in a pattern as shown in FIG. If the host vehicle is the last vehicle in the vehicle group, the backward light is lit for 0.2 seconds at a cycle of 2 seconds. Although not shown in FIG. 9, if the host vehicle is the first vehicle in the vehicle group, the headlamp is lit for 0.2 seconds in a cycle of 2 seconds in synchronization with the backward light.

  At this time, the start time of such a 4-second period is determined by the phase variable PH reflecting the indicated phase. As described above, the instruction phase and the phase variable PH are the same in the same vehicle group, and are different between different vehicle groups. That is, in the notification display using the lamps in one vehicle group, all the vehicles in the vehicle group flash in synchronization, and the phase of the flashing cycle is different in the other vehicle groups.

  In addition, in each vehicle group, the command phase changes so that the command phase is greatly separated from a nearby vehicle group. Therefore, it becomes easy for a driver of a general vehicle that does not constitute a vehicle group to distinguish between the vehicle groups due to a difference in lighting timing of the lamps. Thereby, for example, for a driver of a general vehicle, there are two vehicle groups that are ahead, and if a vehicle group that is closer is overtaken, it is easy to determine which one can enter the left lane.

  Such an operation in which the left and right width lights blink at different timings cannot be realized by conventional vehicle operation. In addition, the operation in which the reverse light blinks even though the vehicle is not moving backward cannot be realized by the conventional vehicle operation. In addition, unlike conventional braking lights, turn indicators, etc., the lighting state of conventional vehicle width lights, headlights, and reverse lights does not change frequently due to driving. Therefore, a driver of a general vehicle traveling behind the regulated traveling vehicle can easily grasp that the regulated traveling vehicle is traveling according to the instruction of the center 12.

  In addition, when vehicle width lights and headlights are used for normal purposes in the evening, at night, etc., the timing of turning on and off the left and right width lights and headlights is opposite to that in the basic state. That is, the on / off pattern of the blinking timing of the left and right vehicle width lights and the headlights is reversed.

  This makes it possible to notify other drivers around the vehicle that the vehicle is traveling in the direction by receiving a command for instructing the content of the vehicle from outside the vehicle (ie, from outside the vehicle). Even when using light fixtures in (Yes), use the lights while realizing both the purpose other than the normal purpose and the normal purpose (emphasize the vehicle width when the surroundings are dark) can do.

(Modification)
Here, the modification of the said embodiment is demonstrated. In the above-described embodiment, the vehicle light, the headlight, and the backward light are shown as the lighting device in which the notification control unit 21 controls the phase of the periodic blinking pattern and the blinking pattern. You may come to control the phase of the periodic blink pattern and blink pattern of a number light or a brake light.

Moreover, in the said embodiment, it controls so that the phase of the periodic blink pattern of a lighting device may differ between vehicle groups at the time of vehicle group driving | running | working. However, the phase of the periodic flashing pattern of the lighting device may be controlled so as to be different among the regulated traveling vehicles even during the road instruction traveling.
(Supplementary explanation of the embodiment)
Hereinafter, the above embodiment will be described supplementarily.
<< Issues to be solved >>
1. Expressway traffic congestion: Degradation of vehicle group size and inter-vehicle distance Natural traffic jams in highway sag, etc. are affected by under-inter-vehicle distance and over-vehicle group.
As the traffic flow increases, the size of the vehicle group increases and the inter-vehicle distance cannot be stabilized. If the size of the vehicle group is large and the inter-vehicle distance becomes unstable, the deceleration wave spreads and causes traffic congestion. According to the document “Koji Nishimura: Analysis of traffic phenomena in the highway sag, Master's thesis, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Nihon University, March 2000.” When traveling at about 80 km / H, 50 km / H or less More than 30% more traffic than when driving. At low speeds, the number of vehicles that can run on the road decreases. This causes a naturally occurring traffic jam. This congestion can be reduced by optimizing the vehicle group size, vehicle speed, and inter-vehicle distance. For this reason, it is conceivable to control traffic flow using infrastructure cooperation. However, since there are few vehicles equipped with the infrastructure cooperation function and there are many non-mounted vehicles, it is necessary to deal with non-mounted vehicles.

2. Infrastructure-coordinated vehicle traffic flow control When a vehicle equipped with a display infrastructure-coordinated function while driving reduces the vehicle speed and increases the inter-vehicle distance to control the traffic flow, the vehicle without the infrastructure-coordinated function is distrusted and overtaken There is a risk of occurrence. In order to prevent this, it is advisable to inform surrounding vehicles that the infrastructure cooperative vehicle is performing traffic flow control traveling. If a dedicated display device is mounted on a vehicle for the above-described purpose, the cost is increased and the design is lowered.
<< Solution >>
1. Highway congestion prevention: Optimization of vehicle group size and distance between vehicles Measure vehicle density, vehicle speed, and distance between vehicles using roadside infrastructure. In addition, the number, location, destination and capacity of infrastructure-coordinated vehicles (whether or not there are inter-vehicle distance measuring functions, automatic speed control functions, and automatic traveling direction control functions) are collected. When the traffic volume is low and the possibility of traffic congestion is low, traffic control is not performed. When there is a lot of traffic and there is a high possibility of traffic congestion, the infrastructure cooperative vehicle is controlled to set the vehicle group size to an appropriate value. By optimizing the size of the vehicle group, the vehicle will be removed from the vehicle group before the deceleration wave expands enough to cause a traffic jam.

  The distance between vehicle groups and the vehicle speed are determined by roadside infrastructure. Due to the distance between the vehicle groups, the deceleration wave amplified and emitted from the previous vehicle group is attenuated within the distance between the vehicle groups. When the vehicle group size is large, the distance between the vehicle groups is increased.

  The vehicle speed is about 80 km / H. This is because the appropriate value varies depending on the characteristics of the driver and the road environment, so past data is accumulated, and the command value is determined from the data. The roadside infrastructure uses communication means to issue this command to the infrastructure coordination vehicle. The infrastructure cooperative vehicle controls traffic according to this command. At this time, the roadside infrastructure displays on the roadside bulletin board or the like that “traffic control due to increased traffic volume”.

2. Infrastructure-coordinated vehicle traffic flow control When the infrastructure-coordinated vehicle is running to control traffic, the width lights flash alternately on the left and right, or multiple vehicles are synchronized and the vehicle lights are turned on. Or blink. Thereby, it is possible to notify and display on the surrounding vehicles that the vehicle is traveling according to the instructions of the infrastructure without mounting a new display lamp.

<< Display example >>
1. FIG. 20 shows an example of blinking a lamp for informing and displaying on the surrounding vehicle that the vehicle is traveling in accordance with an instruction from the road instruction road. The left and right width lights are turned on every 4 seconds. The lighting of 0.3 seconds is performed twice in 2 seconds, and the lighting of 0.6 seconds is alternately turned on in left and right for 2 seconds. Flashes in sync with GPS time. The 4-second period starts from the time 0, 4, 8,. The blinking of the left and right width lights other than at the same time cannot be realized by vehicle operation. Unlike the brake lights and direction indicators, the vehicle width lights do not change frequently in lighting. When the vehicle is turned on in the evening, turn on / off above in reverse.

2. FIG. 21 shows an example of flashing lights during traveling for the purpose of regulation to surrounding vehicles during traveling according to instructions from the regulated traveling path. Add blinking of the reverse lamp (lights for 0.2 seconds at a cycle of 2 seconds) to the “Road instruction” display. The brake light may blink along with the reverse light. The blinking of the vehicle width light when the vehicle width light is lit reverses on / off from FIG. The reverse light is as shown in FIG.

3. FIG. 22 shows an example of flashing lights when a vehicle that includes inter-vehicle communication means and does not have an inter-vehicle distance measuring function and an automatic speed control function travels in the normal vehicle group traveling highway. Lights for 0.2 seconds at 1 second intervals. Blinks at the time delayed by the time determined by the phase instruction from the GPS time. If the phase is 0.5 seconds, blinking starts from GPS time 0.5, 1.5, 2.5. In the same vehicle group, it blinks at the same phase. The blinking of the vehicle width light when the vehicle width light is on reverses on / off from FIG.

4). FIG. 23 shows an example of flashing lights when a vehicle equipped with inter-vehicle communication means and equipped with an inter-vehicle distance measuring device function and an automatic speed control function performs vehicle group traveling in an automatic vehicle group traveling highway. A pattern similar to “Regulatory Regulation”. Blinks at the time delayed by the time determined by the phase instruction from the GPS time. If the phase is 1 second, blinking starts from GPS time 1, 5, 9. In the same vehicle group, it blinks at the same phase. The head vehicle also flashes the headlight. The rear vehicle also flashes the reverse light. Except for the headlight of the first vehicle and the rearlight of the last vehicle, the headlight and the backward light are extinguished. The blinking of the vehicle width light when the vehicle width light is lit reverses on / off from FIG. The blinking of the headlamp when the headlamp is lit reverses on / off from FIG.

<< Example: System using the present invention >>
1. Prevention of highway traffic congestion: Optimization of vehicle group size, vehicle speed, and inter-vehicle distance As shown in FIG. 24, roadside infrastructure is installed in a high-congestion area such as a highway sag, and vehicle density, vehicle speed, and inter-vehicle distance are measured. Furthermore, the number, position, destination and capability of infrastructure-coordinated vehicles (the presence or absence of an inter-vehicle distance measuring function, an automatic speed control function, and an automatic traveling direction control function) are detected.

  The pre-measurement unit measures the traffic volume and the location of infrastructure-coordinated vehicles. Installed approximately 2km before the control section. In the control section, roadside equipment is installed at intervals of about 500 m, and communication with infrastructure cooperative vehicles and measurement of traffic conditions are performed. The roadside infrastructure obtains an instruction to the infrastructure cooperative vehicle with information based on the latest state obtained from the roadside machine, and sends the instruction to the vehicle. Furthermore, traffic information such as traffic volume and vehicle speed is recorded to prepare for future control optimization. Roadside units will be installed at high density in places where traffic conditions change drastically depending on location, and where control must be performed with high accuracy.

  When the traffic volume is small (2000 Kotori / lane, calculated from the data of “Koji Nishimura: Analysis of traffic phenomena in highway sag, Master's thesis, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Nihon University, March 2000.”) H or less) Traffic flow control is not performed. If the roadside infrastructure is expected to have more traffic, an infrastructure-coordinated vehicle that leads the vehicle group is selected. On the vehicle side, permission / rejection of vehicle group leading travel is set when the communication device for infrastructure cooperation is installed, when the vehicle is started, or before entering the expressway, and the road side infrastructure is notified from the vehicle side. The selection of the infrastructure cooperative vehicle leading the vehicle group takes into account whether the route to the destination of the setting and the vehicle is a traffic control target road. The size of the vehicle group is more than the number of lanes x 20 and is made as small as possible.

  The roadside infrastructure repeatedly executes the process shown in FIG. If the traffic volume per lane exceeds 2,000 units as measured by the roadside aircraft in advance, the infrastructure-coordinated vehicle will perform regulated travel to reduce the size of the vehicle group. The regulated traveling vehicle may leave the regulated traveling, for example, when entering the service area on the way. The size of the vehicle group changes from moment to moment as vehicles in the vehicle group overtake the regulated vehicle from the left side, and low-speed vehicles drop out of the current vehicle group and move to the rear vehicle group. . For this reason, it is necessary to repeatedly collect the latest data from all the roadside machines and determine a vehicle that performs regulated travel. Through this process, the roadside infrastructure issues a command to the infrastructure cooperative vehicle to perform regulated travel.

  At present, the inter-vehicle distance in the control according to the communication instruction and the automatic control is larger than the inter-vehicle distance controlled without an instruction by a human. For this reason, as the number of regulated traveling vehicles increases, the average inter-vehicle distance increases. The lower limit of the vehicle group size is provided to prevent the traffic volume from decreasing due to the increase in the average inter-vehicle distance.

An infrastructure-coordinated vehicle that bans overtaking from the left side due to traffic rules or advertisements and that regulates travels in the rightmost lane. The vehicle speed is basically 83 km / H. At the same time, the roadside infrastructure notifies all vehicles “Traffic control due to increased traffic” via the roadside indicator.
As a result, as shown in FIG. 25, the vehicle group is divided and the inter-vehicle distance is ensured. As a result, the deceleration wave generated and propagated in the previous vehicle group is absorbed in the large inter-vehicle distance created by the infrastructure cooperative vehicle and is not transmitted to the next vehicle group. If there are many vehicles in the vehicle group that are operating abnormally, such as securing an excessive distance between vehicles, and the vehicle group length is greater than the planned vehicle head spacing, the deceleration wave generated in the previous vehicle group will be the next vehicle group. Usually, it is absorbed between the next vehicle group.

  Here, a two-lane highway is assumed, the maximum traffic volume is 2700 vehicles / H / lane (83 km / H), and the traffic volume during heavy traffic is 2000 vehicles / H / lane (33.3 km / H). To do. Control target is 2200 vehicles / H / lane (83km / H), vehicle group size is 40 vehicles 590m, vehicle group head distance is 754m (distance between the last vehicle in the previous vehicle group and the first vehicle in the next vehicle group 164m). By this control, it is possible to avoid traffic jams, travel at a speed more than twice that of traffic jams, with less acceleration and deceleration, and with low fuel consumption.

The vehicle head distance is obtained from the difference in position with the host vehicle by using the inter-vehicle communication to obtain the position of the infrastructure cooperative vehicle leading the previous vehicle group. The vehicle head distance is controlled to be constant. Thereby, the speed change of the vehicle group is transmitted to the subsequent vehicle group with a low delay time, and the speed control of the vehicle group and the vehicle can be stabilized. Return from traffic jams due to accidents can be achieved in a short time, over a wide area, and smoothly.
Since the infrastructure-coordinated vehicle may enter an area where communication from the roadside infrastructure is impossible in the future, the effective time / distance of the instruction given to the infrastructure-coordinated vehicle is also notified.

  It is also possible to adjust the mutual position before the infrastructure cooperative vehicle starts the vehicle group regulation traveling. The reason is that the infrastructure cooperative vehicle is arranged at an appropriate position and the size of the regulated vehicle group is made appropriate.

A vehicle having an inter-vehicle distance measurement function and an automatic speed control function receives an instruction vehicle speed, an ID of the preceding vehicle group leading infrastructure cooperative vehicle and an instruction distance information to the leading vehicle from the roadside infrastructure, and from the preceding vehicle group leading infrastructure cooperative vehicle. Get vehicle position and speed. Infrastructure-coordinated vehicles travel automatically, and in principle, run at the indicated vehicle speed. However, if the inter-vehicle distance decreases or the distance between the front vehicle group leading infrastructure cooperative vehicle decreases, the vehicle decelerates. Vehicles traveling in the left lane below the indicated vehicle speed will pass.
A vehicle without an automatic speed control function also receives an instruction vehicle speed, a front vehicle group leading infrastructure cooperative vehicle ID and instruction distance information to the leading vehicle from the roadside infrastructure, and obtains a vehicle position and speed from the preceding vehicle group leading infrastructure cooperative vehicle. Obtain. The vehicle processes the information and displays a request for acceleration or deceleration to the driver. The driver will drive accordingly. However, neither the in-vehicle device nor the roadside infrastructure can provide assistance that prevents the rear end of the front car group from colliding. For this reason, the driver performs rear-end collision prevention.

  When the valid travel / distance is exceeded or the restricted travel is terminated due to an instruction from the roadside infrastructure, the vehicle notifies the driver with a sound and display, and the driver starts normal travel accordingly. As a result, the vehicle ends the notification display for the surrounding vehicles, and automatic speed control and the like end the control from the roadside infrastructure. Regulated travel also ends when traveling in a service area or other ways different from the roadside infrastructure declaration. When taking an action different from the declaration to the roadside infrastructure, it is preferable to notify the roadside infrastructure early by pressing the SW so that the roadside infrastructure can give a smooth transition instruction to other infrastructure cooperative vehicles.

  When infrastructure-coordinated vehicles are running in a regulated manner, suspicious movements of infrastructure-coordinated vehicles that do not increase the vehicle speed even though the inter-vehicle distance from the preceding vehicle is vacant, and attempt reckless overtaking etc. The possibility increases. In order to remove this suspicious feeling, it is necessary to display a notification that the vehicle is traveling in infrastructure cooperation while traveling according to an instruction from the road. At this time, as shown in FIG. 21, a vehicle width lamp or the like is blinked in a pattern that does not occur at normal times, and this is informed.

  The processing flow (flowchart; the same applies hereinafter) of the highway traffic jam prevention travel of these infrastructure cooperative vehicles is shown in FIGS. 47 to 58 described later.

  When the left overtaking prohibition is not thoroughly enforced, it is preferable that the infrastructure cooperative vehicle travels across two lanes as shown in FIG. On roads with two or more lanes, it is necessary to carry out regulated travel with a plurality of infrastructure-coordinated vehicle quantities in a horizontal row.

  When reckless passing frequently occurs while the infrastructure cooperative vehicle travels across two lanes, as shown in FIG. 27, the infrastructure cooperative vehicle may be placed in a horizontal line in all lanes for regulated travel.

At this time, since overtaking by the following vehicle becomes difficult, the display informing the surrounding vehicles that the infrastructure cooperative vehicle is in the regulated travel may be as shown in FIG.
When the vehicle group led by the horizontal line-infrastructure cooperative vehicle overtakes the abnormal low-speed vehicle, as shown in FIG. 28, the infrastructure-coordinated vehicle cooperates, overtakes the low-speed vehicle prior to the general vehicle, and again in the horizontal line. And lead the general vehicle. The last vehicle on the left side of the vehicle group is moved to the right side, and the right-side traveling vehicle is moved to the left side when the left side is vacant so that the abnormally low-speed vehicle is passed.

  When traffic is concentrated on a one-lane road, as shown in FIG.

  At this time, the vehicle speed is set to about 60 km, and overtaking is prohibited, so that the vehicle can travel in two rows without danger. It is good to indicate that a two-row running instruction is being given on a roadside electronic bulletin board or the like. Since the vehicle group is divided by the infrastructure cooperative vehicle, the instructions for the first row traveling and the second row traveling do not change in the middle of the vehicle group. At this time, as shown in FIG. 20, a vehicle width lamp or the like is blinked in a pattern that does not occur at normal times, and this is notified and displayed.

  Even if a general vehicle is traveling in two rows, a large vehicle travels in one row using the width of two vehicles. In principle, overtaking is prohibited, but if there is an abnormally low speed vehicle while traveling in two rows, as shown in FIG. 30, the rearmost vehicle on the left side of the vehicle group will move to the right side, and the right side traveling vehicle will have Allow / recommend to move to the left, and make it known that you will miss an unusually slow vehicle.

  When an abnormally low speed vehicle is present in front of the vehicle group, the vehicle is overtaken by the method shown in FIG. 28, or the vehicle is followed without being overtaken and overtaken in a two-lane section such as an uphill lane.

  If there is an uphill lane or an overtaking lane in the middle of one lane section, the roadside infrastructure control function selects either one-row driving or two-row driving with that as a break. Two-row driving is not performed in the section where the broken vehicle is parked on the shoulder. As a result, it is possible to safely prevent traffic jams on one-lane highways using infrastructure cooperative vehicles.

  When the number of infrastructure cooperative vehicles is small, it becomes difficult to subdivide the vehicle group, but it is possible to prevent traffic congestion than when there is no infrastructure cooperative vehicle. It is also possible to prevent traffic jams by driving a police car with an infrastructure coordination function.

The infrastructure-coordinated vehicle is mainly decelerated because the instructions from the roadside infrastructure are safe. For this reason, there is a high possibility that the vehicle can run only later than a normal vehicle. This has little motive to purchase and use. Therefore, it is better to increase the number of infrastructure-coordinated vehicles by discounting the highway usage fee of infrastructure-coordinated vehicles, discounting vehicle tax, granting subsidies or points to the account specified by the vehicle, etc.
Points / subsidies are: ・ Number of times of regulated driving, number of times of driving in the control section that is being regulated with distance / regulated driving participation, number of times of driving in the control section during the expected traffic jam with distance / regulated driving participation, distance / regulation It may be determined by the number of times the control section has been traveled with travel participation, the distance traveled with distance / regulated travel participation, or the like. It is also good to give a subsidy for installing an infrastructure-cooperated vehicle restart.

  An infrastructure cooperative vehicle with an automatic speed control function and an automatic traveling direction control function may be equipped with a haptic accelerator pedal. Acceleration / deceleration is performed with the accelerator amount determined by the vehicle unless the pedal is stepped on or returned with a force greater than the specified value. When the automatic speed control is disabled by applying a force exceeding the specified value, the driver recognizes that he / she wanted to travel different from the instruction from the road, and informs the driver and surrounding vehicles that the vehicle is not traveling in infrastructure coordination. When leaving the travel reported to the roadside infrastructure such as entering a service area, it is preferable to communicate the intention to the vehicle and the roadside infrastructure in advance by SW operation or the like. As a result, the roadside infrastructure controls the handover to the infrastructure cooperative vehicle other than the infrastructure cooperative traveling and the departure of the host vehicle, thereby realizing a smooth departure. When exiting from infrastructure-coordinated driving and other automatic speed control (such as constant-speed driving) is not performed, the force for inducing the accelerator operation amount from the haptic accelerator pedal disappears, and a normal accelerator pedal is used. As shown in FIG. 31, this accelerator pedal can be depressed as well as depressed.

2. Congestion prevention at highway junctions This is a method to prevent traffic jams at highway junctions using infrastructure coordination.
As shown in FIG. 32, the infrastructure lane vehicle is used to control the merging lane and the main fleet, create an empty space in the main lane, and synchronize and insert the lane from the merging lane. Realize a good merging.

  At this time, as shown in FIG. 20, a vehicle width lamp or the like is blinked in a pattern that does not occur at normal times, and this is notified and displayed.

  When there are few vehicles that support infrastructure cooperation, it is better to make a signal on the merging lane side and control the lane on the merging lane side. It is advisable to secure a space in which a vehicle coming from the merging lane can be surely inserted by prohibiting the lane change to the left upstream from the merging point on the main line side.

  When there is heavy traffic, increase the size of the vehicle group to reduce the effect of the empty space between the main line vehicle group and the merged vehicle group. When the traffic volume is low, both vehicle groups are made smaller to reduce the feeling of traffic congestion when forming a vehicle group. This control itself is not performed when the traffic flow is so small that control is not required.

3. Normal vehicle group traveling on an expressway When a vehicle having inter-vehicle communication means and having no inter-vehicle distance measuring function or automatic speed control function performs vehicle group traveling, information such as a brake operation may be shared. As a result, safer and smoother driving is possible than when driving with a vehicle that cannot share information through communication.

  As a standard vehicle group, 7 cars are considered to run at 80 km / H at 30 m intervals (over 180 m in total length). It is possible to communicate with any vehicle in the vehicle group. At this time, as shown in FIG. 22, a vehicle width lamp or the like is blinked in a pattern that does not occur at normal times, and a notification is displayed indicating that the vehicle is traveling in the surrounding vehicle. As a result, the surrounding vehicles can see the traveling of the individual vehicles in the vehicle group as the vehicle group, can understand the traveling that seems to be abnormal by itself, and avoids interruption between the vehicle groups.

  When vehicles equipped with inter-vehicle communication means and without inter-vehicle distance measuring function and automatic speed control function approach each other, the vehicle asks the driver for consent to form a vehicle group. Both vehicle drivers communicate consent / non-consent to the formation of the vehicle group to the vehicle by an operation such as SW. It is also possible for the vehicle driver to set consent or non-consent for vehicle group formation in advance in the vehicle. When both vehicles agree to form a vehicle group, the vehicle recognizes that the vehicle is in a vehicle group running state, the vehicle starts displaying a normal vehicle group running notification, and the vehicle notifies the driver to that effect by a display or the like. At this time, the positional relationship between the host vehicle and the other vehicle is also displayed. The driver of the following vehicle drives to follow the front companion vehicle and follow the vehicle. It is desirable that the vehicle group travels on the leftmost lane at a slightly slower speed than a general vehicle.

  When equipped with a vehicle-to-vehicle communication means that does not belong to a vehicle group, a vehicle without an inter-vehicle distance measuring function and an automatic speed control function has an inter-vehicle communication means, and approaches a vehicle group without an inter-vehicle distance measuring function and an automatic speed control function, The vehicle asks the driver for consent to form a vehicle group. The vehicle driver communicates consent / non-consent to the vehicle group formation to the vehicle by an operation such as SW. It is also possible for the vehicle driver to set consent or non-consent for vehicle group formation in advance in the vehicle. When the vehicle group formation agreement is reached, the vehicle recognizes that it has participated in the vehicle group, the vehicle starts displaying the normal vehicle group traveling to other vehicles and the like, and the vehicle notifies the driver of the fact by display.

  The size of the vehicle group is not too large. 10 or less is desirable. The addition of new vehicles to the vehicle group is not allowed so that the size of the vehicle group does not exceed the set value.

  Vehicles that do not have the inter-vehicle distance measuring function and automatic speed control function are not overtaken, and the vehicle presents a warning to the driver so that the vehicle group is not complicated. A vehicle that needs to pass the previous vehicle group or a vehicle that wants to stop following the current vehicle group leaves the current vehicle group.

  The vehicle group notification display blinks in synchronism with all vehicles. Separate vehicle groups shift the phase of the blinking cycle. This also uses inter-vehicle communication and selects a phase difference that makes it easy to recognize that a general vehicle is a separate vehicle group. As a result, the general vehicle has two vehicle groups in front of the vehicle. If the vehicle is overtaken by the closer vehicle group, it is possible to determine which vehicle can enter the left lane.

  If the vehicle catches up with an abnormally low speed vehicle while traveling in the driving lane, the leading vehicle blinks the right direction indicator. This is received by inter-vehicle communication, and the driver understands the abnormal low-speed vehicle overtaking of the vehicle group. At this time, the last vehicle first moves to the right lane to assist in changing the lane of the previous vehicle. At this time, the following vehicle may have an uncomfortable feeling that the vehicle moved to the right lane does not accelerate. However, if there is a notification display during traveling of the vehicle group as shown in FIG. 22, the situation can be understood and it is useful for resolving discomfort. The vehicle in front of the tail will run in the left lane for a while, allowing the fleet to abandon overtaking low-speed cars and return to the left lane. These are performed at the discretion of the driver of each vehicle.

  When traffic concentration occurs or approaching an interchange and the road determines that traffic congestion prevention is necessary, the road is informed to the infrastructure-coordinated vehicle, and the vehicle group operation is stopped and divided to prevent traffic congestion Move on to the run.

  Inter-vehicle communication within the vehicle group is performed using 400 channels in a time division manner with a period of 0.1 second. Each wireless terminal (vehicle) uses an empty channel as a result of reception by itself. The number of channels used is secured about 20% more than the number of vehicles in the vehicle group, and the channels used are rotated in turn for each vehicle. As an example, FIG. 33 shows a case where three units use four channels.

  Here, four channels a, b, c, and d are used in three vehicles (terminals) 1, 2, and 3, and communication is performed four times in 0.3 seconds. A flag indicating whether data from another terminal has been normally received is included in the notification data from each terminal (in this example, 2 bits). As a result, when a channel that cannot be normally communicated by all terminals appears, the use of the channel is stopped, another empty channel is searched, and the channel is moved there. Each terminal receives data except for the transmission timing, and reliably receives data regardless of which channel the other terminal moves to. This establishes highly reliable and high-speed data communication.

4). Automatic speed control vehicle group traveling on highways When vehicles equipped with inter-vehicle communication means, inter-vehicle distance measuring function, and automatic speed control function perform vehicle group traveling, safe and high-density traveling is possible at short inter-vehicle distances. Become. Information such as brakes of all vehicles in the vehicle group will be shared by inter-vehicle communication to make driving safer.

  It is better to realize high-density driving by reducing the inter-vehicle distance than when driving by humans due to technological improvements and changes in the driver's senses.

Here, 11 luxury ordinary vehicles are considered to run at a speed of 100 km / H at a head interval of 15 m (overall length of over 150 m) (a density that is twice as high as usual). It is possible to communicate with any vehicle in the vehicle group.
The automatic speed control vehicle group should be allowed to pass the normal vehicle group. Passing between auto-speed-controlled vehicles is prohibited.

  A vehicle with an automatic traveling direction control function travels so as to trace the trajectory of the preceding vehicle while there is no lane change of the vehicle group. It is desirable that the automatic traveling direction control uses haptic steering so that the vehicle travels in a desired direction unless a force exceeding a specified value is applied. While the automatic traveling direction control function is required, a force for pulling the steering in the direction desired by the vehicle is generated. If the automatic traveling direction control function is not required, for example, the vehicle is removed from the vehicle group and another automatic traveling direction control is used, the force for guiding the traveling direction is eliminated. When it is not possible to continue automatic traveling direction control, such as when the lane changes, the warning is given to the driver in advance, and the driver informs the driver that the automatic traveling direction control has been canceled by pushing the steering wheel. Is released.

  In automatic driving, there is a risk that the driver's arousal level decreases. Regularly replace all vehicles in the vehicle group with the first vehicle to improve driver awareness. When it is difficult to replace the vehicle group, it may be possible to run another lane alone without automatic control. The vehicle group basically travels in the left lane in a line.

When approaching the interchange exit, use multiple lanes to shorten the fleet so that ordinary vehicles do not interfere with the exit. If the fleet is too large and the length cannot be shortened sufficiently even if multiple lanes are used, use all lanes to prevent ordinary vehicles from running to the right of the fleet.
Since the automatic speed control vehicle group is dense, avoid release of the vehicle group. This is because the release of a group of vehicles has the same effect as an increase in traffic flow and can induce traffic congestion. For this reason, it is the minimum division. The traffic jam prevention operation is also performed by the vehicle group, not by a single vehicle.

  When the vehicle group occupies a plurality of lanes, the first vehicle in each lane displays a notification of the first vehicle, and the last vehicle displays a notification of the last vehicle. This starts from the beginning of the lane shift. When an ordinary vehicle is interrupted and the vehicle group is divided, the same information is displayed at the head and tail of the divided vehicle group.

  In the lane change of the fleet, the last vehicle changes the lane first, the destination lane is secured, the last vehicle secures the original lane, and the lane is changed. If a problem occurs in the lane change, return to the original lane.

  When a general vehicle traveling in the right lane blinks the left direction indicator, the distance between the front and rear vehicles of the general vehicle is widened so that the general vehicle can move to the left lane / exit. The same applies when the vehicle traveling on the uphill lane blinks the right direction indication.

  When approaching a junction such as an interchange, the left lane is cleared in conjunction with the road, and traffic jam prevention is performed at the junction.

  When leaving the vehicle group, such as going from the interchange to the exit, automatic speed control is continued until the vehicle moves to another lane. This is because the inter-vehicle distance is short and the inter-vehicle distance control is prevented from being disturbed by the interference from the driver.

  In the automatic speed control vehicle group traveling, the inter-vehicle distance is short and the driver's visibility is poor. Therefore, it is preferable to take an image around the vehicle group using a camera, share the image by communication, and display it to the driver. It is more effective to display the radar information superimposed. As shown in FIG. 34, the first vehicle takes a front image, the intermediate vehicle takes a side image, and the last vehicle takes a rear image.

  The road image including the part where the vehicle is running is obtained from the current and past forward images of each vehicle, and the road image is also shared. At this time, the currently visible portion is displayed in color, and the portion generated from the past image is displayed in black and white. As shown in FIG. 35, the position of each vehicle is also displayed in a diagram in which the outline of the vehicle is projected onto the road.

  In this example, the picture looking back is displayed on the top, the picture in the lower middle is the picture in the front, and the pictures on the left and right are displayed on the left and right. Fellow vehicles running in the fleet are shown as squares attached to the road. In this example, three fellow vehicles are traveling as a vehicle group in front of the host vehicle and two behind. By this display, the surrounding situation of the entire vehicle group can be understood, and driving in a vehicle group with poor visibility becomes easy.

  When vehicles with and without cameras are mixed in the vehicle group, the number of effective images is increased by adding intermediate vehicles to the first vehicle, the last vehicle, and evenly spaced cameras.

  The configuration of the vehicle group is not based on the presence or absence of a camera, but in order of vehicle size (small car, medium car, large car). This is to prevent the small car from running between the short cars in the middle of the large car.

  A vehicle having a function of recognizing the distance and size of surrounding obstacles with a radar may reduce communication data by approximating the surrounding obstacles with a square and sending them to other vehicles.

5). Smooth running at signalized intersections The signal color change time can be obtained from the roadside through road-to-vehicle communication, and the vehicle can pass through the signalized intersection with minimal deceleration, stoppage and acceleration. Also at this time, there is an increased possibility that the following general vehicle will be suspicious of the movement of the infrastructure-coordinated vehicle that does not increase the vehicle speed even though the inter-vehicle distance from the preceding vehicle is large, and attempt reckless overtaking. In order to remove this suspicious feeling, a notification is displayed to another vehicle that the vehicle is traveling in an infrastructure-coordinated state that is traveling in accordance with an instruction from the road.

  The vehicle speed may be controlled by presentation to the driver, or may be automatically performed in a vehicle with vehicle speed control.

  This control is not performed when the traveling speed to the intersection differs between straight and left / right turns. This prevents the right turn vehicle from traveling at a low speed and obstructing the traveling of a straight vehicle. When there is a low possibility of obstructing a vehicle going in the other direction on a road with multiple lanes on one side, display the speed at which the vehicle can travel smoothly and not display the information during infrastructure-coordinated driving for the other vehicle. . When entering the lane according to the direction of travel, control of the vehicle speed is started and notification display is also started. When it is impossible to travel as desired due to traffic jams, the road instructs to stop this operation.

6). Pre-aligned intersection smooth running A right turn vehicle may block the intersection and create a traffic jam. It is possible to efficiently make traffic by collecting right and left turn vehicles by road and vehicle communication and entering the intersection. For this purpose, as shown in FIG. 36, a lane dedicated to infrastructure-coordinated vehicles is provided in a portion where road expansion before the intersection is easy, and right and left turn vehicles having the infrastructure coordination function are collected. Infrastructure coordinated vehicles that have not been set for destinations cannot be the target of this control, so when receiving this service, it is necessary to set the destination and run as directed.

  When there are many right turn vehicles and the capacity of the evacuation lane is small, left turn vehicles are collected only partially or not at all. This depends on the shape of the intersection. When the shape of an intersection approaching road as shown in FIG. 28 is capable of simultaneously turning right and left vehicles and simultaneously turning right and left, it is preferable to collect both right and left vehicles.

  However, it is better to collect only the right turn vehicles at the intersection where the number of vehicles that can flow through the intersection does not change even if both right and left turn vehicles are collected as shown in FIG.

  This vehicle group is started to enter the intersection in response to an instruction from the road, and the signal color is changed to prohibit to go straight in synchronism with the arrival of the vehicle group at the intersection, thereby efficiently flowing the vehicle. During rush hours such as morning and evening, turn right is prohibited at intersections that become a traffic bottleneck, and right turn is allowed only for vehicles arranged in infrastructure cooperation. Prior alignment may be performed in only one direction or in both directions, depending on road conditions, vehicle flow, and the like. It is difficult to fully synchronize the signal color and the infrastructure-coordinated vehicle entering the intersection. In particular, pre-alignment is performed in both directions, and errors are likely to occur when the distance from the pre-alignment location to the signalized intersection is long. Such a situation can be resolved by having the infrastructure-cooperative vehicle that has come too early wait for a right turn at the signalized intersection. When the traffic light cannot go straight or turn left, the right-turn infrastructure-coordinated car will start moving. Thereby, an infrastructure cooperation vehicle can pass an intersection efficiently. It is recommended to add infrastructure coordination function to the bus and develop the infrastructure on the bus route to control this.

6). Smooth start of intersection When an infrastructure-coordinated vehicle stops at a red traffic light, it stops at an appropriate inter-vehicle distance, and when it changes to a green light, it starts with a close-up distance at an appropriate timing to prevent delays in the start of subsequent vehicles. Increase the number of vehicles passing during the green light, without sudden acceleration.

  If the target is 10m / S (36km / H) head-to-head distance of 10m and traffic volume of 3600 / H, the stop position is "the number of vehicles in front x 10m" and the start timing is green. 10 m / S. The change to the intersection signal blue is notified by road and vehicle communication so that a good start can be made even when the line of sight is bad. The maximum safe traffic volume varies depending on the region, time of day, weather, etc., so it is better to perform control that adapts to them.

<< Function >>
1. Drive on roads with high efficiency, smoothness, peace of mind, and safety using road-to-vehicle and inter-vehicle communication.
2. In order to guide traffic with high efficiency, smoothness, peace of mind, and safety, lights are flashed so that surrounding vehicles can understand the driving conditions.
3. The road efficiency will be returned to vehicles with road-to-vehicle / vehicle-to-vehicle communication functions, such as by giving points.

<< Effect >>
1. Improve road value at low cost by eliminating traffic congestion and smooth traffic.
2. By eliminating the traffic jam, the vehicle driver can arrive at the destination for a short time with smooth fuel consumption without sudden acceleration or deceleration.
3. The owner of a vehicle with a road-to-vehicle / vehicle-to-vehicle communication function will benefit from the return of the profits gained by improving the traffic on the road.

The drawings will be described below. A configuration example of the in-vehicle device is shown in FIG. The function of each block is as follows.
・ Receive communications from road-to-vehicle / vehicle-to-car communication routes and other vehicles and send them to the main control.
Information from the main control is transmitted to the road and other vehicles.
・ Vehicle position measurement Measure the vehicle position and notify the main control.
・ Vehicle speed measurement Measures the vehicle speed and notifies the main control.
-SW input The driver's SW operation is notified to the main control.
-Display for driver Display information from the main control and inform the driver.
・ Main control Performs basic control of this equipment.
-In accordance with instructions from the notification control main control, control the lighting of the reverse light, etc., taking into account the reverse light control input.
・ Reverse light control Reverse light lighting signal when this device is not available.
・ Vehicle width light control Vehicle width light lighting signal when this device is not available.
-Headlight control Headlight lighting signal when this device is not available.

FIG. 40 shows a configuration example of an in-vehicle device with an inter-vehicle distance measurement and automatic speed control function. In FIG. 39, forward inter-vehicle distance measurement, automatic speed control and automatic traveling direction control are added. A description of blocks not shown in FIG. 39 is given below.
・ Measure the distance between the vehicle ahead and measure the distance between the vehicle ahead and notify the main control.
-Built-in automatic speed control haptic accelerator.
The accelerator is controlled in accordance with the target vehicle speed sent from the main control.
Notifies the main control of the driver's accelerator operation.
-Built-in haptic steering with automatic traveling direction control.
The steering is controlled in accordance with the target traveling direction sent from the main control.
The driver's steering operation is notified to the main control.

An example of a roadside infrastructure configuration is shown in FIG.
The function of each block is as follows.
・ Communication with the infrastructure-coordinated vehicle quantity near the measurement of speed, size, and passage time of vehicles traveling on measurement points on roadside roads ・ Determine traffic control contents based on measurement data of center roadside machine, roadside machine To send instructions to infrastructure-coordinated vehicles.

  The flow of the notification control block of FIGS. 39 and 40 is shown in FIG. Step 2010 is performed in the notification control block. Here, the instruction data from the main control to the notification control is IR, IL, IK, and IF.

  "GPS time" when GPS is received, and when GPS cannot be received, the "100mS period that is activated when the time obtained by adding the elapsed time with the internal clock from the last GPS reception time" is divisible by 100mS processing. Controls blinking of vehicle width lights.

  Details of the road instruction traveling process of FIG. 42 are shown in FIG. This is a process for determining lighting of a vehicle width lamp or the like when traveling according to an instruction from the road. Although it blinks at a cycle of 4 seconds, it is only necessary to switch the left and right of the vehicle width light in the first half 2 seconds and the second half 2 seconds. Next, at the second half of the second, the left and right of the vehicle width lights are switched.

  Details of the vehicle group traveling process in FIG. 42 are shown in FIG. This is a flow of a notification control block for a vehicle having no inter-vehicle distance measuring device function and automatic speed control function. It is also the detail of the vehicle group traveling process in FIG. The current phase is PH. Aim to blink at the indicated phase. When the indicated phase is different from the PH, the PH is changed to match the indicated phase. PH is changed by 0.1 when lighting / extinguishing continues three times or more (that is, 0.3 seconds or more). That is, adjustment is performed by extending / shortening the lighting / extinguishing by 0.1 second. PH approaches the indicated phase cyclically. When PH is 0.1 and the indicated phase is 0.9, 0.1 → 0.0 → 0.9.

  In FIG. 44, the phase initialization is a process for changing the PH value to the indicated phase value when the vehicle group starts traveling. This is the same for both normal vehicle group traveling and automatic speed control vehicle group traveling. Further, in the phase adjustment, the initial PH (when C1 is 2 in the normal group traveling process) when the same notification display is performed three or more times in succession is brought closer to the indicated phase value by 0.1. However, close to cyclic. That is, if PH is 0.1 and the command phase value is 0.9 in the normal vehicle group traveling process, PH is set to 0.0. The same applies to the vehicle speed control vehicle group traveling process.

  The details of the vehicle group traveling process in FIG. 42 are shown in FIG. This is a flow of a notification control block for a vehicle with an inter-vehicle distance measuring function and an automatic speed control function. The flashing control process of the vehicle width lamp at the time of vehicle group driving | running | working of the vehicle with a vehicle distance measuring device function and an automatic speed control function is shown. It is also the detail of the vehicle group traveling process in FIG. A blinking pattern such as a vehicle width light with a period of 4 seconds is generated.

  FIG. 46 shows a flow of processing in which the main control block of FIGS. 39 and 40 transmits the traveling state of the own vehicle through the road-vehicle / vehicle-to-vehicle communication device. This is a process of transmitting the traveling state of the vehicle. It is activated with a period of about 0.1 seconds according to the wireless transmission schedule. The traveling situation includes a traveling road ID and a lane. The vehicle group representative vehicle ID is a vehicle group ID. The vehicle group phase is indicated by the delay from the GPS reception time (the time when the value divided by the period is 0) until the notification display starts.

  FIG. 47 shows a processing flow when the main control block in FIGS. 39 and 40 receives a traffic jam prevention instruction from the road through the road-vehicle-to-vehicle communication device on the highway. This is a process that is started when a “highway congestion prevention instruction” is received by the wireless device. Continue the process until the highway traffic jam prevention instruction becomes invalid. FIG. 47 is a process when the main control block of FIGS. 39 and 40 travels according to the traffic jam prevention instruction on the highway and the driver wants to enter SA and presses the traffic jam prevention travel departure SW. It is also a flow.

The variables used in FIGS. 48 to 57 are shown below.
・ V trailing speed: Speed of the last vehicle in the front group: m / S
This is a value obtained by calculation from inter-vehicle distance measurement and own vehicle speed. When it cannot be detected, the V-indicated vehicle speed is set.
・ V tail acceleration: acceleration of the last vehicle in the front vehicle group: m / S ²
This is the value obtained from the calculation based on the V trailing speed.-V front vehicle group speed: previous vehicle group leading vehicle speed: m / S
This is a value obtained by inter-vehicle communication.
・ V vehicle speed: Vehicle speed of this vehicle: m / S
・ V command vehicle speed: m / S
This is a value specified by the roadside infrastructure.
・ V target acceleration: m / S ²
This is the target acceleration sent to automatic speed control.
・ V-vehicle distance: Distance to the last vehicle in the front car group: m
This is a value obtained by measuring distance between vehicles or by notification from roadside infrastructure. 200m when not detectable.
・ V car group head distance: Distance with the preceding car group leading car: m
This is a value obtained from the front vehicle group leading vehicle position obtained by the own vehicle position and inter-vehicle communication.
・ V-indicating vehicle head spacing: m
This is a value specified by the roadside infrastructure.
・ V decelerating: A flag that memorizes decelerating and the initial value is 0
This is an internal memory of the in-vehicle device.
・ V front acceleration: Previous target acceleration (0.1 seconds before): m / S ²
FIG. 48 shows a highway traffic jam prevention travel process for a vehicle with an inter-vehicle distance measuring function and an automatic speed control function. This process is performed at a period of 0.1 second. First, calculate the target deceleration, and calculate the target acceleration when deceleration is not required. This target acceleration / deceleration is notified to automatic speed control. Deceleration is determined based on “Do not rear-end at the end of the front car group”, “Make the distance from the front car group leading vehicle match the instruction from the road” and “Do not exceed the instruction speed from the road”. The acceleration is calculated when “the distance between the vehicle and the rear of the front vehicle group is sufficient”, “the distance from the front vehicle group leading vehicle is sufficient”, and “the current speed is equal to or less than the indicated speed from the road”.

A detailed flow of the deceleration calculation in the flow diagram 48 is shown in FIG. Investigate whether a deceleration of 1 m / S ² or more is necessary to make the distance from the rear end of the front vehicle group 45 m or more. If a deceleration of 1 m / S ² or more is not required, perform normal deceleration calculation and calculate 1 m / S ² When the above deceleration is required, the deceleration to make the distance from the rear end of the front vehicle group 5 m or more (however, when the calculation result is 1 m / S ² or less, 1 m / S ² : This means that the inter-vehicle distance is 45 m to 5 m To occur).

  The flow of the “F deceleration” function in the flow diagram 49 is shown in FIG. This is a function flow for calculating the deceleration from the distance and speed difference. This is also the details of the F deceleration (Ps, Pl) function in FIG. This function is a function for obtaining the necessary deceleration in the case of the vehicle speed difference Ps and the deceleration zone Pl.

  FIG. 51 shows a flow of normal deceleration calculation in the flow diagram 49. This is a flow of deceleration calculation processing when it is not sudden deceleration.

Here, details of the normal deceleration calculation in FIG. The following processing is performed: 1: Deceleration calculation for securing the inter-vehicle distance from the rear end of the front vehicle group Deceleration for securing the inter-vehicle distance of 50 m from the speed difference from the rear vehicle of the front car group and the inter-vehicle distance ( V50). When the vehicle is decelerating, V50 is set as the target deceleration while V50 is positive. When not decelerating, deceleration is not started when V50 is 0.2 m / S ² or less. V50 is limited so as to be within a range of 0.2 to 1.0 m / S ² .
2: Calculate the deceleration to secure the distance from the front car group leading vehicle The speed difference (Vc) to secure the distance from the front car group leading vehicle and the distance from the front car group leading vehicle to ensure the “instructions from the road – 50m” Ask. Whether the vehicle is currently decelerating or not and whether Vc should be decelerated by 0.2 m / S2 is determined from this Vc, and the result is entered in Vc.
3: The larger one of V50 and Vc for obtaining the target acceleration from the aforementioned inter-vehicle distance and vehicle group distance securing deceleration is defined as the deceleration here. When this value is positive, a value obtained by multiplying this value by -1 is set as the target acceleration, and the vehicle is decelerating. When this value is negative, it is assumed that the vehicle is not decelerating.

FIG. 52 shows a flow of acceleration calculation in the flow diagram 48. This is an acceleration calculation process and shows details of the acceleration calculation in FIG. When the current vehicle speed is lower than the commanded vehicle speed from the road, “the distance between the front vehicle group and the last vehicle group is sufficient” and “the distance from the front vehicle group leading vehicle is sufficient” Accelerate to become. The upper limit of acceleration is 0.2 m / S ² and the change in acceleration is 1.0 m / S ² per ^second .

FIG. 53 shows the highway traffic jam prevention travel processing of the vehicle without the inter-vehicle distance measuring function and the automatic speed control function. This is a highway traffic jam prevention travel process for a vehicle without an inter-vehicle distance measuring function and an automatic speed control function, and is executed at a cycle of 0.1 second. Only the vehicle group spacing and vehicle group speed control are the targets, and it is up to the driver to ensure the distance between the vehicle and the rear of the front vehicle group. An acceleration / deceleration request for the driver is presented so that the target is ± 50 m with an acceleration / deceleration of 0.1 m / S ² .

  FIG. 54 shows the request presentation on the vehicle speed / vehicle group distance plane. Considering the vehicle speed / inter-group distance transition when performing acceleration / deceleration of 0.1 m / S2 in accordance with this instruction. FIG. 55 shows a transition when the front vehicle group is traveling faster than the instruction speed from the road and the host vehicle is earlier than the front vehicle group.

Because the host vehicle is faster, the distance between the vehicle groups gradually decreases, and a deceleration request is issued. When this deceleration request is issued or disappears, it settles down at the same time as the previous vehicle group speed.
FIG. 56 shows a transition when the front vehicle group travels slower than the instruction speed from the road and the host vehicle is earlier than the front vehicle group.

Because the host vehicle is faster, the distance between the vehicle groups gradually decreases, and a deceleration request is issued. Even if the vehicle is decelerated by 0.1 m / S ² according to this instruction, the front vehicle group speed is low, so that the vehicle bites into the deceleration area and is decelerated, overshoots and exits from the deceleration area. There is no display when exiting the deceleration area, so acceleration / deceleration is not performed. In this state, since the vehicle is decelerated too much, the vehicle group interval gradually increases. And enter the acceleration area. At this point, the acceleration request is issued or disappears, and then settles down at the same time as the previous vehicle group speed.

  FIG. 57 shows a process in which the roadside infrastructure of the expressway issues a traffic jam prevention driving instruction. This is a process in which the roadside infrastructure of the expressway issues a traffic jam prevention travel instruction, which is performed at a cycle of 0.1 second. The traffic jam prevention operation is started when the traffic volume of 2000 units / h or more is reached with the advance roadside machine, and the traffic jam prevention operation is terminated when the traffic volume is 1800 cars / h or less with all roadside machines.

  Details of selecting the regulated traveling vehicle in FIG. 57 are shown in FIG. FIG. 58 shows the process of selecting a regulated traveling vehicle, and is also details of the regulated traveling vehicle selection of FIG.

  FIG. 59 shows processing when the main control block of FIGS. 39 and 40 performs vehicle group traveling using inter-vehicle communication on the highway. This is done with a period of 0.1 seconds. However, it is not implemented when the previous vehicle group traveling process is not completed. Also, it will be conducted only when driving on the expressway. When the vehicle receives instructions from the road to prevent traffic jams, the inter-vehicle consultation vehicle group travel is stopped.

  If there is a group of cars within 100m, you can participate. A vehicle group can be formed if there is a single traveling vehicle within 100 m. Participation in the vehicle group is at the driver's request. This is set as a mode in advance, or is selected by SW or the like when an opportunity to participate in the vehicle group occurs. When the vehicle group traveling rejection is instructed by SW or the like, the vehicle group traveling rejection is automatically made for 10 minutes and the vehicle group traveling permission / inhibition selection is not frequently requested. However, if the driver performs an operation to invalidate the rejection for 10 minutes, this is followed.

  Details of the vehicle group running process in FIG. 59 are shown in FIG. The ID of the vehicle group representative vehicle is used as the vehicle group ID. This is represented by the vehicle that first called for the formation of a vehicle group. When this vehicle leaves the vehicle group, the vehicle in which the vehicle ID is larger and closer to the representative vehicle in the vehicle group is set as the next vehicle group representative vehicle. The size of ID is compared with cyclic. That is, the largest ID is the smallest ID.

  Details of the vehicle group departure inspection process in FIG. 60 are shown in FIG. To avoid confusion between vehicles, remove vehicles that are 100 meters or more from other vehicles from the vehicle group. When communication between vehicles in the vehicle group becomes difficult, the vehicle group is eliminated. If you are more than 200m away from other vehicles in the vehicle group, you will exit the vehicle group. When the driver presses the SW that leaves the vehicle group, the vehicle group is removed.

  Details of the vehicle group leaving process in FIG. 61 are shown in FIG. Details of the vehicle group formation request reception process in FIG. 59 are shown in FIG. Details of the vehicle group traveling participation processing in FIG. 59 are shown in FIG. Details of the vehicle group formation request transmission process in FIG. 59 are shown in FIG.

  FIG. 66 shows processing when the main control block of FIGS. 39 and 40 receives the traveling status transmission of the own vehicle group vehicle and the other vehicle group vehicle using inter-vehicle communication on the highway. This is a process when the traveling status transmission of the own vehicle group vehicle and the other vehicle group vehicle is received, and is performed when the traveling status transmission of the target vehicle is received. When the other vehicle group approaches within 200 m, a warning is displayed to the driver. The vehicle group phase is determined by the vehicle group representative vehicle. Each vehicle receives this phase, and uses it as a desired phase to follow the notification display phase of each vehicle.

  FIG. 67 shows a process when the main control block of FIG. 40 receives a vehicle group travel instruction using road-to-vehicle communication on the highway. This is processing when a vehicle group travel instruction is received from the road, and starts when the vehicle group travel instruction is received from the road, and ends when the vehicle group travel instruction is canceled from the road. When a vehicle group traveling instruction from the road cannot be received and a reception time-out occurs, the validity of the instruction is inspected based on the valid time and distance of the latest road instruction, and when invalid, the process ends.

  FIG. 68 shows processing when the main control block of FIGS. 39 and 40 receives signal information using road-to-vehicle communication on a general road. This is processing when signal information is received from the road. Display of speed at which fuel-saving driving without brake operation is performed based on the signal information When the vehicle following the lane in which the vehicle is traveling also travels at the above speed, a brake operation is not displayed. When the vehicle is turning right at the intersection and the right turn lane has not started, a warning indication is not displayed when a speed instruction for turning right is issued. Note that the driver performs non-braking as long as it does not interfere with other vehicles. In addition, it is recommended to follow the following vehicle during the regulation display.

  FIG. 69 shows processing when the main control block of FIGS. 39 and 40 receives a pre-alignment instruction using road-to-vehicle communication on a general road. This is a process when a pre-alignment instruction is received from the road, and a display to the driver and a notification display to surrounding vehicles are performed according to the instruction from the road. The approach to the evacuation lane, the departure from the evacuation lane, and the right turn are performed in accordance with instructions from the road.

  As described above, in the infrastructure cooperation system, it is possible to display a notification that the vehicle is traveling in accordance with an instruction from the infrastructure. For example, a display that does not occur in normal vehicle operation, such as blinking a backlight, is performed. When controlling traffic flow, etc. with an infrastructure coordination system, appeal that the vehicle is traveling with infrastructure coordination so that it does not cause unnecessary anxiety in the following vehicles even if the distance between low speeds and long cars is low.

  The following can be considered as features.

(1) A roadside machine having a function of detecting a traffic situation and a function of communicating with a vehicle, and a vehicle having a function of communicating with a roadside machine and a function of communicating with another vehicle. Traffic control by issuing an instruction to travel of a vehicle having a communication function (2) Traffic control by a vehicle having a function of communicating with another vehicle traveling with another vehicle (3) A business model that gives a profit to a vehicle when the vehicle travels for traffic control in (1). (4) When a group of vehicles periodically communicate in (1) and (2) above, An in-vehicle device that secures more channels than the number and each vehicle transmits in turn on a channel different from the previous one. (5) In the vehicle equipped with the automatic speed control function in (1) and (2) above, the accelerator pedal is depressed and pulled back. And automatic speed control On-vehicle machine with a function that can cancel the automatic speed control by depressing or pulling the accelerator pedal above or below the threshold value. (6) Vehicles equipped with automatic direction control in (1) and (2) above. In-vehicle device with a function to cancel the automatic direction control by rotating the steering wheel with a force exceeding the threshold value during control. (7) Obtaining the surrounding conditions of other vehicles via communication by running (1) and (2) above. In-vehicle device with display function (8) In-vehicle device that blinks the lighting of the vehicle in a pattern that is difficult for normal operation when traveling for traffic control in (1) and (2) Information display, which is difficult with normal operation, reverse lights, brake lights alternately, blinking vehicle width lights, headlights, number lights blinking (9) Run for traffic control in (1), (2) When the vehicle lights are put in sync with other vehicles Flashing in-vehicle device Synchronized flashing Flashing that represents the flow by shifting the phase of the flashing according to the vehicle position

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Expressway 2-4, 51-53 Vehicle group 8 Roadside machine 9 Prior roadside machine 10 Control section 12 Center 20 Car-mounted machine 21 Information control part 30 Main control part

Claims (7)

A lighting device control device for controlling blinking of a lighting device mounted on a vehicle,
A wireless communication device (22) for wireless communication with a communication device outside the vehicle;
A control unit (21, 30),
The control unit (21, 30) controls the lighting device at a predetermined blinking timing based on receiving a command for instructing the traveling content of the vehicle from the outside of the vehicle via the wireless communication device (22). A lamp control device characterized by flashing with   The said control part (21, 30) reverses the on-off pattern of the flashing timing of the said lighting device according to the driving operation of the said vehicle by the said vehicle passenger | crew, or operation of a switch. The lighting device control apparatus described. The lighting device includes a left side width light and a right side width light of the vehicle,
The control unit (21, 30) receives the command for instructing the traveling content of the vehicle from the outside of the vehicle via the wireless communication device (22). The lamp control device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the right width lamps are blinked at different blinking timings. The lighting device includes a reverse light of the vehicle,
The control unit (21, 30) is configured to change the reverse light to a predetermined reverse light based on receiving a command for instructing the traveling content of the vehicle from the outside of the vehicle via the wireless communication device (22). The lighting device control device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the lighting device is blinked at a blinking timing.   The control unit (21, 30) has received a request or permission signal for forming a vehicle group from the outside of the vehicle via the wireless communication device (22) as a command for instructing the traveling content of the vehicle. In this case, by communicating with the other vehicles forming the vehicle group via the wireless communication device (22), information on the flashing timing of the lamps in the vehicle group is shared, and at the shared flashing timing. 5. The lighting device control device according to claim 1, wherein blinking timing of the lighting devices is synchronized in the entire vehicle group by blinking the lighting devices. 6.   The control unit (21, 30) receives blinking timing information of a vehicle group other than the vehicle group to which the host vehicle belongs via the wireless communication device (22), and blinks the received other vehicle group. 6. The lamp control device according to claim 5, wherein the flashing timing of the vehicle group to which the host vehicle belongs is made different from the flashing timing of the other vehicle group based on timing information.   The control unit (21, 30) has a predetermined operation by the user when the lamp is blinking at a predetermined blinking timing on the basis of receiving a command for instructing the traveling content of the vehicle. The lighting device control device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein when the vehicle enters a highway service area, the blinking of the lighting device is terminated.

Images