JP2013252854A - Vehicle with automatic operation - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow a vehicle to respond to a status change therearound when leaving a garage in the vehicle including an automatic operation means for receiving an instruction signal from a transmitter outside the vehicle for remote operation and making the vehicle automatically move.SOLUTION: An automatic operation part 15 confirming a status of an obstacle around a vehicle (especially around a door) acquired by a surrounding object sensor 21 when receiving an instruction from a transmitter 50 and automatically making the vehicle leave a garage, determines whether a sufficient space for a passenger to get in/out of the vehicle through door operation is secured and makes the vehicle automatically move to a place for the passenger to readily get in/out of the vehicle.

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle provided with an automatic control means for operating the vehicle remotely.

  2. Description of the Related Art A driving support device that supports a parking operation by setting an appropriate route during parking is known. The technology disclosed in Patent Document 1 is one of such driving support devices, and stores a route when entering or leaving, and enables automatic traveling along the route. During this automatic driving, the driver does not need to get on, so it is possible to separate the boarding position of the occupant and the parking position, and it is also possible to park in a place where a space where the occupant can get on and off comfortably cannot be secured. It is described that there is an advantage.

JP 2008-536734 A

  Since this technique travels along a route that has already traveled, it is indispensable for the driver to enter and exit the vehicle. There is a problem that appropriate support cannot be performed when the route is stored and when there are surrounding conditions such as obstacles around the vehicle, changes in the position of other vehicles, and the like.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle including an automatic piloting means that can cope with a change in surrounding conditions in a vehicle remote control device that enables entry / exit by remote control.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, a vehicle including an autopilot device according to the present invention includes an autopilot device that receives a remote control instruction signal from a transmitter outside the vehicle and automatically moves the vehicle. 1) Receiving means for receiving a delivery command from a transmitter outside the vehicle, (2) Grasping means for grasping the obstacle situation around the vehicle, (3) Based on the obstacle situation grasped by the grasping means, A determination means for determining the difficulty of getting on and off from the vehicle, (4) a storage means for storing a trajectory at the time of entry, a preset reference trajectory, or a straight trajectory as a travel trajectory, and (5) an exit instruction according to Control means for running the vehicle based on the running trajectory stored in the storage unit and performing the delivery, and the control means continues running until the judging means determines that getting on and off is easy. To do.

  Further, the control means may continue running until it is determined that getting on and off is easy, and then the door lock may be released to notify that the boarding is possible.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to grasp the obstacle situation (position, distance from the vehicle, etc.) around the vehicle, and determine the difficulty of getting on and off from the vehicle door based on the grasped obstacle situation, before leaving the warehouse. Even when the situation around the vehicle changes during this period, when leaving the vehicle, it is possible to move to a place where it is easy to get on and off by determining whether or not the boarding space can be secured according to the change.

  By automatically moving the vehicle based on the determined difficulty level, the operator can appropriately move the vehicle by remote control to a place where the operator can secure a boarding / alighting space. This improves convenience.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the vehicle remote control apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the remote operation operation | movement in the apparatus of FIG. It is a figure explaining the vehicle movement at the time of remote operation. It is a figure which shows the vehicle and the surrounding condition before leaving by remote control. It is a figure which shows the vehicle after leaving by remote control, and the surrounding condition. It is a flowchart which shows another operation | movement of the remote control in the apparatus of FIG.

  DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In order to facilitate the understanding of the description, the same reference numerals are given to the same components in the drawings as much as possible, and duplicate descriptions are omitted.

  FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a vehicle remote control device according to the present invention. This remote operation device is mainly configured by a remote operation ECU (Electric Control Unit) 1 serving as a control unit. The remote control ECU 1 is constituted by a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, and the like. Inside, an obstacle detection unit 11, a vehicle city detection unit 12, a track generation unit 13, a track storage unit 14, and an autopilot unit 15 are provided. Each part in the remote control ECU 1 may be divided by hardware. In this case, a part of the hardware may be shared. When the hardware is not divided or a part of the software is shared, the software may be divided or a part of the software may be shared. Furthermore, a plurality of functions may be realized in the same software.

  The remote operation ECU 1 receives outputs from a peripheral sensor 21 for detecting obstacle positions in the vicinity, a wheel speed sensor 22 for detecting wheel rotation, and a steering angle sensor 23 for detecting a steering amount. Read. The remote control ECU 1 also receives an output signal of the receiver 24. The receiver 24 communicates with a transmitter 50 that can be taken out by a passenger such as a driver to the outside of the vehicle. It has a function of receiving an operation instruction signal. The transmitter 50 may be integrated with, for example, an ignition key of the vehicle. As the peripheral object sensor 21, an ultrasonic sensor, a laser radar, an infrared sensor, or the like can be used. The peripheral object sensors 21 are disposed at a plurality of locations of the vehicle including at least the vicinity of the driver's door. For example, in the case of an outward-opening type driver's seat door, sensors may be arranged in front of and behind the door.

  The remote control ECU 1 also controls a steering actuator 31 that performs steering, an engine 32 that drives the vehicle, a transmission 33, and a brake 34 that performs braking. As the steering actuator 31, for example, an actuator of an electric power steering device may be used.

  Hereinafter, a case where entry / exit is performed so as to facilitate boarding / exiting using the driver's door will be described. Initially, the operation | movement at the time of entering / exiting by this vehicle remote control apparatus is demonstrated with reference to the flowchart of FIG. This process may be started when the parking state is set by a switch or the like (not shown) or when the remote operation is turned on. Alternatively, the operation may be performed when the driver stops the vehicle and sets the state of the transmission to the reverse state.

  In the first step S 1, the vehicle position at the start of warehousing detected by the vehicle position detector 12 and the door margin at that time detected by the obstacle detector 11 are stored. The position at the start of warehousing may be based on the vehicle position determined by a navigation device such as GPS (Global Positioning System) not shown. Or you may make it memorize | store the steering angle change accompanying a subsequent travel distance from the warehousing start position as a starting point. The obstacle detection unit 11 grasps the obstacle situation around the vehicle based on the distance, positional relationship with the obstacle around the vehicle detected by the surrounding object sensor 21, and changes thereof, and determines the door margin based on this. Is.

  As a parameter of the door margin, for example, the distance between the door on the driver side and an obstacle facing the door (in other words, an obstacle present in an area that interferes with the door opening / closing operation), or on the driver side In addition to the area of the area used for getting on and off around the door as a boarding space when using the door, the shortest distance between the obstacle and the car body within a predetermined range in the car body length direction including the door, possible door opening, etc. Can be used. In addition, the case of determining whether the door can be opened or closed is also included. For example, the door opening / closing distance or the opening / closing opening degree is compared with a reference threshold value. .

  Thereafter, the movement trajectory during travel and the door margin fluctuation are detected and stored (step S2). The detection of the movement trajectory is performed by the vehicle position detection unit 12 and the detection of the door margin variation is performed by the obstacle detection unit 11 in the same manner as in step S1. This trajectory is stored in the trajectory storage unit 14 in association with the door margin variation. This is performed until the parking position is reached, and the parking position detected by the vehicle position detection unit 12 is stored (step S3).

  The parking operation so far may be performed exclusively by the operation of the driver, but parking may be performed by guidance or automatic piloting so that an appropriate warehousing route can be calculated and movement along the route can be performed.

  When the parking position is reached, it is determined whether the door opening / closing distance is sufficient based on the door margin at that time, in other words, whether the driver's boarding space is sufficiently secured (step S4). When the door margin is sufficient, it is easy for passengers to get on and off using the door, and when it is insufficient, it is difficult for passengers to get on and off. Function as. When the boarding / alighting space is sufficiently secured, the driver can get on and off at the parking position, so that the subsequent process is skipped as the parking is completed. On the other hand, when it is determined that the boarding / alighting space is not sufficiently secured and the driver gets in and out of the parking position, the process proceeds to step S5.

  In step S5, the movement process to the boarding / alighting possible position is performed. Here, on the basis of the trajectory at the time of warehousing stored in the trajectory storage unit 14 and the door margin fluctuation, the trajectory generating unit 13 secures a driver's boarding / exiting space between the warehousing start position and the current position. In addition, a point closest to the parking position is searched, and a locus from the parking position is generated using the point as the destination. Here, even if it returns to the warehousing start position, when it is determined that the driver's boarding / exiting space is not more than a predetermined predetermined margin, it is possible to secure the most boarding / exiting space between the warehousing start position and the parking position ( For example, a locus from the parking position is generated with the destination (the position where the driver's seat door can be opened most widely) as the destination. This locus is set, for example, as a change in steering angle with respect to the travel distance.

  The autopilot 15 controls the steering angle by the steering actuator 31 and operates the engine 32, the transmission 33, and the brake 34 to control the vehicle speed, thereby performing traveling according to the generated trajectory and setting the vehicle. Move to the destination.

  After reaching the destination, the vehicle waits until the passenger gets on and off (step S6). The determination of the end of boarding / exiting may be made by transmitting to the receiver 24 of the vehicle that the driver has finished boarding / exiting using the transmitter 50 and notifying the autopilot 15. This notification may be a notification that prompts the continuation of the migration process in addition to the end of boarding / exiting. If the door opening / closing state, seat belt, seated state, presence / absence of a person in the passenger compartment, etc. are detected and it is determined that the passenger is getting on and off, the vehicle should be kept stationary and the vehicle stopped.

  If it is determined that the driver's boarding / exit has been completed, the process proceeds to step S7, and a route that reverses the route from the previously set parking position to the current position is generated, and by performing autopilot along this route, Automatically move to the parking position.

  Here, a destination that is easy to get on and off is set up to the warehousing start position, but if there is no destination that satisfies the condition that it is easy to get on and off more than a predetermined margin even after going back to the warehousing start position, A route that further extends the route to the start position may be set, and the vehicle may stop at a point where boarding / exiting has reached a predetermined margin or more.

  FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a trajectory at the time of warehousing when moving in a straight line, and once retracted from the warehousing start position to the parking position by the driver's operation, the remote operation ECU 1 moves forward to the door opening / closing position. Then, after the driver goes down, the vehicle moves backward to the parking position again to complete the warehousing.

  Next, the operation at the time of delivery will be described with reference to FIGS. Here, as shown in FIG. 4, a case is considered in which the vehicle 100 that the driver 200 wants to get on is parked at the parking position 300 and another vehicle 101 is parked at the adjacent parking position 301. Here, it is assumed that the vehicle 100 has a driver seat on the right side.

  Since the lateral distance C between the vehicle 100 and the vehicle 101 is narrow and the driver's seat side door of the vehicle 100 cannot be opened sufficiently, the driver 200 gets on the vehicle 100 in the current positional relationship of the vehicle. Suppose that it is expected to cause difficulties. In this case, if the vehicle 100 is moved forward by a distance A as shown in FIG. 5, the driver's seat side door of the vehicle 100 can be sufficiently opened, and the driver 200 can easily get on and off.

  FIG. 6 is a processing flow of this shipping operation. First, the delivery command transmitted by the driver using the transmitter 50 is received by the receiver 24 (step S11). Next, the obstacle detection unit 11 grasps the obstacle position around the vehicle and determines the door opening / closing allowance based on the obstacle position (step S12). When it is determined that there is sufficient door opening / closing allowance at the current position and the driver can easily get on and off, the process proceeds to step S14, the door lock is released, and the driver is notified that the vehicle can be boarded.

  On the other hand, if it is determined that there is not enough door opening / closing margin at the current position, the process proceeds to step S13, and the steering actuator 31, the engine 32, the transmission 33, and the brake 34 are controlled according to an instruction from the autopilot unit 15. By doing so, it moves to the boarding / exiting position.

  Judgment as to whether or not the boarding / exiting position has been reached is made by determining the door opening / closing allowance by the same processing as in step S12, and running until it is determined that there is sufficient door opening / closing allowance and the driver can easily get on and off. It is good to do by continuing. At this time, the trajectory formed by the trajectory generation unit 13 can be a trajectory at the time of warehousing stored in the trajectory storage unit 14, a preset reference trajectory, a straight trajectory, or the like. A trajectory that can maintain a sufficient distance from the obstacle based on the result is adopted. After reaching the boarding / exiting position, the process proceeds to step S14, the door lock is released, and the driver is notified that the boarding is possible. Instead of the boarding / alighting position, the initial destination may be the vicinity of the current position of the driver acquired from the transmitter 50, and the vehicle may move to a point where the boarding / alighting near the driver's current position is easiest.

  In the above description, the case of determining whether to get on and off the door on the driver's seat has been described as an example, but other doors including a cargo door may be used. Further, the present invention is not limited to a door that opens outward, and the present invention can be suitably applied to a door that opens upward and a sliding door. An operator can designate a target door by sending a command from the transmitter 50 to the receiver 24.

  The present invention is suitable for a remotely operable vehicle.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Remote operation ECU, 11 ... Obstacle detection part, 12 ... Vehicle city detection part, 12 ... Vehicle position detection part, 13 ... Trajectory generation part, 14 ... Trajectory storage part, 15 ... Automatic control part, 21 ... Peripheral object sensor , 22 ... wheel speed sensor, 23 ... rudder angle sensor, 24 ... receiver, 31 ... steering actuator, 32 ... engine, 33 ... transmission, 34 ... brake, 50 ... transmitter, 100, 101 ... vehicle, 200 ... driving Person, 300, 301 ... parking position.

Claims (2)

In a vehicle provided with an automatic control means for receiving a remote operation instruction signal from a transmitter outside the vehicle and automatically moving the vehicle,
Receiving means for receiving a delivery command from a transmitter outside the vehicle;
Grasping means for grasping an obstacle situation around the vehicle;
Determination means for determining the difficulty level of getting on and off from the vehicle based on the condition of the obstacle grasped by the grasping means;
Storage means for storing a trajectory at the time of warehousing, a preset reference trajectory, or a straight traveling trajectory as a travel trajectory;
Control means for running the vehicle based on the running trajectory stored in the storage unit and carrying out the shipping according to the leaving command,
The vehicle characterized in that the control means continues running until the determination means determines that getting on and off is easy. 2. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein after the vehicle continues to travel until it is determined that it is easy to get on and off, the door is unlocked and the vehicle is informed that it can be boarded.

Images