JP2014160419A - Peripheral vehicle identification system, feature quantity transmitter and peripheral vehicle identification device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily allow accurate determination of whether a peripheral vehicle performing an inter-vehicle communication with an own vehicle coincides with a peripheral vehicle detected by an autonomous sensor of the own vehicle.SOLUTION: An ECU 1b for peripheral vehicle identification has a second feature quantity coincidence determination section 19 which determines whether a prescribed feature quantity of other vehicle transmitted from an ECU 1b for peripheral vehicle identification of the other vehicle via an inter-vehicle communication coincides with a prescribed feature quantity of the own vehicle, and a first transmission type change section 20 which changes the type of the prescribed feature quantity to be transmitted by a vehicle information transmission section 11 when the second feature quantity coincidence determination section 19 determines that the prescribed feature quantities of the two vehicles coincide with each other.

Description

  The present invention relates to a surrounding vehicle identification system, and a feature amount transmission device and a surrounding vehicle identification device included in the surrounding vehicle identification system.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a technique for determining a match between a surrounding vehicle that performs inter-vehicle communication with a host vehicle and a preceding vehicle that is detected by an autonomous sensor of the host vehicle is known (for example, Patent Document 1).

  In the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, the relative position and relative speed of the surrounding vehicle with respect to the host vehicle are calculated from the data of the position and speed of the surrounding vehicle acquired by inter-vehicle communication. Further, the relative position and the relative speed of the preceding vehicle of the own vehicle are measured by the radar device of the own vehicle. And the surrounding vehicle in which both a relative position and a relative speed correspond is specified as a preceding vehicle.

  Further, the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 discloses that a request for acceleration / deceleration is issued from the own vehicle when the distance between surrounding vehicles calculated using data acquired by inter-vehicle communication is equal to or less than a predetermined value. ing. In other words, when it is difficult to determine the coincidence between the surrounding vehicle communicating with the vehicle and the preceding vehicle detected by the vehicle's autonomous sensor, the vehicle may request acceleration / deceleration. It is disclosed. Then, by requesting acceleration / deceleration from the own vehicle, the positional relationship between the neighboring vehicles that are close to each other is actively changed, and the surrounding vehicle that is communicating between the own vehicle and the vehicle, and the autonomous sensor of the own vehicle Attempts to make it possible to determine the coincidence with the preceding vehicle detected at.

JP 2011-213294 A

  In the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, acceleration / deceleration is requested from the own vehicle. However, the surrounding vehicle that has received the acceleration / deceleration request cannot perform acceleration / deceleration unless the distance between the front and rear vehicles is sufficient. . Therefore, in the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, it is easy to accurately determine the coincidence between the surrounding vehicle that performs inter-vehicle communication with the own vehicle and the surrounding vehicle that is detected by the autonomous sensor of the own vehicle. There was a problem that was not possible.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described conventional problems, and its purpose is to provide a vehicle that communicates with the own vehicle and a surrounding vehicle that is detected by an autonomous sensor of the own vehicle. It is an object of the present invention to provide a surrounding vehicle identification system, a feature amount transmission device, and a surrounding vehicle identification device that make it possible to more easily determine matching.

  The surrounding vehicle identification system according to the present invention is used in a vehicle, and transmits a predetermined feature amount, which is a predetermined feature amount among feature amounts of at least one of the traveling state and appearance of the host vehicle, by inter-vehicle communication ( 11) and the other vehicle detected by using the autonomous sensor (7, 8) for detecting the presence of the other vehicle and the feature amount including the predetermined feature amount. And a sensor-detected vehicle, which is another vehicle detected using an autonomous sensor, from the feature amount transmission device of the other vehicle and the predetermined feature amount of the other vehicle transmitted from the feature amount transmission device of the other vehicle by inter-vehicle communication. A first feature value match determination unit (17) that determines whether or not the specified feature values match each other with an inter-vehicle communication vehicle that is another vehicle that has acquired the specified feature value; and a first feature value match determination unit From the judgment result in A surrounding vehicle identification system including a surrounding vehicle identification device (1a) including a vehicle coincidence determination unit (18) for determining coincidence / inconsistency with an inter-vehicle communication vehicle, wherein the feature amount transmission device transmits feature amounts of other vehicles. A second feature amount matching determination unit (19) for determining whether or not the predetermined feature amount of the other vehicle transmitted from the apparatus by inter-vehicle communication matches the predetermined feature amount of the own vehicle; And a first transmission type changing unit (20) that changes a type of the predetermined feature amount transmitted by the transmission unit when the match determination unit determines that the other predetermined feature amount matches. .

  According to this, when the feature amount transmitting apparatus determines that the second and other predetermined feature amounts match with each other, the type of the predetermined feature amount transmitted by the transmitting unit is changed, so that vehicle-to-vehicle communication is possible. When another vehicle having the same predetermined feature amount as that of the own vehicle is present in such a range, the type of the predetermined feature amount to be transmitted can be changed. When the type of the predetermined feature amount transmitted from each vehicle having the same predetermined feature amount transmitted until then is changed, there is a possibility that the predetermined feature amounts transmitted from each vehicle do not match each other. Therefore, according to the above configuration, it is possible to reduce the possibility that the same predetermined feature amount is transmitted from a plurality of vehicles, and the vehicle coincidence determination unit of the surrounding vehicle identification device detects coincidence mismatch between the sensor detection vehicle and the inter-vehicle communication vehicle. Opportunities for accurate determination can be increased.

  Further, according to the above configuration, since the type of the predetermined feature amount is only changed, there is no difficulty in changing the behavior of the vehicle in order to change the predetermined feature amount. As a result, it becomes easier to accurately determine the coincidence between the surrounding vehicle that is communicating with the vehicle and the surrounding vehicle that is detected by the autonomous sensor of the vehicle.

  Another peripheral vehicle identification system of the present invention is used in a vehicle, and transmits a predetermined feature amount that is a predetermined feature amount among feature amounts of at least one of the traveling state and appearance of the host vehicle by inter-vehicle communication. Detected by using a feature quantity transmission device (1b) having a transmission section (11) that performs the detection, and an autonomous sensor (7, 8) that is used in a vehicle and detects the presence of another vehicle and a feature quantity including a predetermined feature quantity A sensor detection vehicle that is an other vehicle detected using an autonomous sensor from the feature amount of the other vehicle and the predetermined feature amount of the other vehicle transmitted from the feature amount transmission device of the other vehicle by inter-vehicle communication; A first feature amount matching determination unit (17) that determines whether or not the predetermined feature amounts match each other with another vehicle that has acquired the predetermined feature amount by inter-vehicle communication; From the judgment result in the quantity match judgment part, A peripheral vehicle identification system including a peripheral vehicle identification device (1a) including a vehicle coincidence determination unit (18) for determining coincidence / non-coincidence between a detected vehicle and an inter-vehicle communication vehicle. A third feature value match determination unit (23) for determining whether or not predetermined feature values of a plurality of other vehicles transmitted from the other vehicle feature value transmission device by inter-vehicle communication match; and a third feature value Change that transmits a change request for changing the type of the predetermined feature amount transmitted from the feature amount transmitting device by inter-vehicle communication when the match determination unit determines that the predetermined feature amounts of a plurality of other vehicles match. A request transmission unit (24), and when the feature amount transmission device receives a change request transmitted by inter-vehicle communication from a surrounding vehicle identification device of another vehicle, the feature amount transmission device transmits the request by the transmission unit according to the transmission request. Feature seed It is characterized in that it comprises a second transmission type changing unit for changing (25).

  In the above configuration, when the surrounding vehicle identification device determines that the predetermined feature amounts of a plurality of other vehicles match in the third match determination unit, the type of the predetermined feature amount transmitted from the feature amount transmission device is changed. Send the requested change request. Then, the feature amount transmitting apparatus that has received the change request changes the type of the predetermined feature amount to be transmitted. Therefore, when there are a plurality of other vehicles having the same predetermined feature amount within the range in which vehicle-to-vehicle communication is possible, the type of the predetermined feature amount to be transmitted is changed. When the type of the predetermined feature amount transmitted from each vehicle having the same predetermined feature amount transmitted until then is changed, there is a possibility that the predetermined feature amounts transmitted from each vehicle do not match each other. Therefore, according to the above configuration, it is possible to reduce the possibility that the same predetermined feature amount is transmitted from a plurality of vehicles, and the vehicle coincidence determination unit of the surrounding vehicle identification device detects coincidence mismatch between the sensor detection vehicle and the inter-vehicle communication vehicle. Opportunities for accurate determination can be increased.

  Further, according to the above configuration, since the type of the predetermined feature amount is only changed, there is no difficulty in changing the behavior of the vehicle in order to change the predetermined feature amount. As a result, it becomes easier to accurately determine the coincidence between the surrounding vehicle that is communicating with the vehicle and the surrounding vehicle that is detected by the autonomous sensor of the vehicle.

  Further, since the feature value transmission device and the surrounding vehicle identification device of the present invention are used in the surrounding vehicle identification system described above, according to these, the surrounding vehicle performing communication between the vehicle and the vehicle, It becomes easier to accurately determine the coincidence with the surrounding vehicle detected by the autonomous sensor of the own vehicle.

1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a schematic configuration of a surrounding vehicle identification system 100. FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of a schematic structure of ECU1 for surrounding vehicle identification. FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating an example of a schematic configuration of a surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 according to the first embodiment. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a flow of integration-related processing in a surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1a according to the first embodiment. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a flow of a transmission feature amount change-related process in a surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1b according to the first embodiment. FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 in Modification 1; 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a flow of a transmission feature amount change-related process in a surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1b in Modification 1; FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram illustrating an example of a schematic configuration of a surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 in Modification 2. FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram illustrating an example of a schematic configuration of a surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 according to a second embodiment. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a flow of a change request related process in a surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1a according to a second embodiment. 12 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a flow of a transmission feature amount change-related process in the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1b according to the second embodiment. FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 in Modification 3. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a flow of a change request related process in a surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1a according to Modification 3.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a surrounding vehicle identification system 100 to which the present invention is applied. A surrounding vehicle identification system 100 shown in FIG. 1 includes a surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 mounted on each of a plurality of vehicles (vehicles A to D). Hereinafter, the vehicle A will be described as the own vehicle, and the vehicles B to D will be described as vehicles around the vehicle A.

  For convenience, the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 mounted on the host vehicle A is referred to as a surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1a, and the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 mounted on the surrounding vehicles B to D is referred to as a surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1b as necessary. . The surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1a corresponds to the surrounding vehicle identification device in the claims, and the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1b corresponds to the feature amount transmission device in the claims.

  Here, a schematic configuration of the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a schematic configuration of the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1. As shown in FIG. 2, the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 exchanges electronic information with the vehicle speed sensor 2, the position detector 3, the blinker switch 4, the hazard switch 5, the brake switch 6, the camera 7, the radar 8, and the wireless communication device 9. Connected as possible.

  For example, in the present embodiment, the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1, the vehicle speed sensor 2, the position detector 3, the winker switch 4, the hazard switch 5, the brake switch 6, and the wireless communication device 9 conform to a communication protocol such as CAN (controller area network). It is assumed that each is connected via a compliant in-vehicle LAN.

  The vehicle speed sensor 2 detects a vehicle speed pulse proportional to the vehicle speed, and outputs the vehicle speed pulse or a vehicle speed signal determined from the vehicle speed pulse to the in-vehicle LAN as information on the speed of the vehicle. In addition, it is good also as a structure using the wheel speed sensor which detects the speed of the own vehicle from the rotational speed of each rolling wheel instead of a vehicle speed sensor.

  The position detector 3 is a geomagnetic sensor that detects geomagnetism, a gyroscope that detects an angular velocity around the vertical direction of the host vehicle, a distance sensor that detects a moving distance of the host vehicle, and a current position of the vehicle based on radio waves from an artificial satellite. Based on information obtained from each sensor such as a GPS receiver for GPS (global positioning system) that detects the vehicle, the current vehicle position of the host vehicle is sequentially detected.

  Since these sensors have errors of different properties, they are configured to be used while complementing each other by a plurality of sensors. However, depending on the accuracy of each sensor, it is configured by a part of the above. Alternatively, a configuration using a sensor other than those described above may be used. In addition, the vehicle position is expressed by latitude and longitude, for example.

  The winker switch 4 is a switch for detecting a lamp lighting operation of the direction indicator by the driver (that is, a winker lamp lighting operation), and is provided so as to detect the lighting operation of the left and right winker lamps. . Hereinafter, the turn signal switch 4 for detecting the lighting operation of the left turn signal lamp is referred to as a left turn signal switch 4a, and the turn signal switch 4 for detecting the lighting operation of the right turn signal lamp is referred to as a right turn signal switch 4b.

  For example, when the left turn signal lamp is turned on, that is, when the left turn signal switch 4a is turned on, a signal indicating that the left turn signal switch 4a is turned on is output to the in-vehicle LAN. When the lighting operation of the right turn signal lamp is performed, that is, when the right turn signal switch 3b is turned on, a signal indicating that the right turn signal switch 4b is turned on is output to the in-vehicle LAN.

  The hazard switch 5 is a switch for detecting the lighting operation of the hazard lamp by the driver. The lighting operation of the hazard lamps indicates the lighting operation of all turn signal lamps of the vehicle. For example, when a hazard lamp lighting operation is performed, that is, when the hazard switch 5 is turned on, a signal indicating that the hazard switch 5 is on is output to the in-vehicle LAN.

  The brake switch 6 is turned on when the brake pedal of the vehicle is depressed. For example, when the brake switch 6 is turned on, a signal indicating that the brake switch 6 is turned on is provided on the vehicle. Output to LAN.

  The camera 7 is a color camera that is attached to, for example, the vicinity of a rearview mirror or a front portion of a vehicle, and sequentially captures a predetermined range (for example, a region surrounded by a broken line in FIG. 1) in front of the host vehicle. The camera 7 corresponds to the imaging device and the autonomous sensor in the claims. The camera 7 may be configured to capture images at the same cycle (for example, every 100 msec) as the transmission cycle of vehicle-to-vehicle communication, which will be described later, and sequentially output captured image data to the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1. The camera 7 may be configured to use a CCD camera, for example.

  Further, in this embodiment, all pixels of the captured image are represented by RGB values in which each of the R value (red degree), G value (green degree), and B value (blue degree) is a digital value of 0 to 255. An explanation will be given by taking the case of the case as an example.

  In the present embodiment, the following description will be given by taking as an example a configuration in which the imaging range of the camera 7 is a predetermined range in front of the host vehicle, but is not necessarily limited thereto. For example, the imaging range of the camera 7 may be a predetermined range behind or on the side of the host vehicle. Moreover, it is good also as a structure which uses the predetermined range of several azimuth | direction as an imaging range by using the several camera 7. FIG.

  The radar 8 is, for example, a well-known laser radar, which irradiates a predetermined range (that is, a detection range) in front of the own vehicle and receives the reflected light to detect the presence of the surrounding vehicle in front of the own vehicle or the own vehicle. The relative speed and relative position of the surrounding vehicle with respect to the vehicle are detected and output to the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1. The radar 8 corresponds to the autonomous sensor in the claims. For example, it is assumed that the imaging range of the camera 7 and the detection range of the radar 8 are set so that the lateral range of the host vehicle roughly matches.

  The detection of the presence of the surrounding vehicle, the relative speed, and the relative position may be performed by the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1. In the present embodiment, the following description will be continued on the assumption that the presence of the surrounding vehicle and the detection of the relative speed are performed by the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 based on the signal from the radar 8.

  In addition, what is necessary is just to set it as the structure detected by the known method of detecting the relative speed of the own vehicle and a target object based on the Doppler shift of transmission / reception of a laser beam about the relative speed of a surrounding vehicle. The relative position of surrounding vehicles may be detected by using, for example, a phase monopulse radar device as the radar 8. Specifically, the configuration may be such that the azimuth of the front object is detected based on the phase difference between the transmission and reception waves of the laser light, and the relative position of the front object is detected from this azimuth and the distance to the front object. The radar 8 may be configured to use another sensor such as a millimeter wave radar that can be used to detect the relative speed or relative position of the object.

  For example, the wireless communication device 9 transmits the vehicle information of the own vehicle at a constant transmission cycle (for example, every 100 msec). Further, the wireless communication device 9 sequentially receives the vehicle information of the surrounding vehicles transmitted from the wireless communication device 9 mounted on the surrounding vehicles of the own vehicle. The wireless communication device 9 sequentially outputs the received vehicle information to the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1.

  Vehicle information to be transmitted by inter-vehicle communication includes feature values relating to the running state of the vehicle (hereinafter referred to as a running state feature amount) obtained from various sensor groups and ECUs of the vehicle and feature amounts relating to the appearance of the vehicle (hereinafter referred to as appearance feature amounts). This is identification information for specifying the vehicle position detected by the position detector 2 and the vehicle from which the vehicle information is transmitted.

  The running state feature amount includes a vehicle speed obtained from the vehicle speed sensor 1 (hereinafter, vehicle speed). In addition, the vehicle acceleration / deceleration obtained from an acceleration sensor (not shown) may be included. As the identification information, a vehicle ID for specifying the vehicle and a device ID for specifying the wireless communication device 9 of the vehicle can be used.

  Appearance features include the vehicle body color, the number of the license plate, the vehicle type, the vehicle width, the vehicle height, the blinker lamp and the brake lamp lighting state. As an example, the blinker lamp lighting operation information obtained from the blinker switch 3 and the hazard lamp lighting operation information obtained from the hazard switch 5 are information indicating the blinking lamp lighting state, and are transmitted by inter-vehicle communication. Used as the lighting state of the blinker lamp.

  Moreover, since the information on the presence or absence of depression of the brake pedal obtained from the brake switch 6 is information indicating the lighting state of the brake lamp, it is used as the lighting state of the brake lamp transmitted by inter-vehicle communication. The vehicle body color, number, vehicle type, vehicle width, and vehicle height may be configured to use those stored in advance in the nonvolatile memory of the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1.

  The peripheral vehicle identification ECU 1 is mainly configured as a microcomputer, and each includes a known CPU, a memory such as a ROM, a RAM, and an EEPROM, an I / O, and a bus connecting them. In the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1, the CPU stores memory based on various information input from the vehicle speed sensor 2, position detector 3, turn signal switch 4, hazard switch 5, brake switch 6, camera 7, radar 8, and wireless communication device 9. Various functions are realized by executing a program stored in advance.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 includes a vehicle information transmission unit 11, a vehicle information reception unit 12, a reception information storage unit 13, an image recognition unit 14, a radar detection unit 15, and autonomous sensor information storage as functional blocks. 16, a first feature amount match determination unit 17, an integration processing unit 18, a second feature amount match determination unit 19, and a first transmission type change unit 20. The reception information storage unit 13 and the autonomous sensor information storage unit 16 are configured in an electrically rewritable memory such as a RAM or an EEPROM.

  The vehicle information transmission unit 11 sequentially acquires the vehicle information from various sensor groups and ECUs of the vehicle (for example, every 100 msec) and outputs the vehicle information to the wireless communication device 9. The wireless communication device 9 transmits the vehicle information at a constant transmission cycle by transmitting the vehicle information that is sequentially input, for example.

  The vehicle information transmission unit 11 outputs vehicle information including a predetermined feature amount set in advance (hereinafter referred to as a predetermined feature amount) out of the above-described traveling state feature amount and appearance feature amount to the wireless communication device 9. Vehicle information including the predetermined feature amount is transmitted by inter-vehicle communication. Therefore, this vehicle information transmission part 11 is equivalent to the transmission part of a claim. The following description will be made assuming that the predetermined feature amount is, for example, a vehicle body color by default.

  The vehicle information receiving unit 12 stores the vehicle information of surrounding vehicles sequentially input from the wireless communication device 9 in the reception information storage unit 13. Specifically, the vehicle information is accumulated for each vehicle of the communication partner of the inter-vehicle communication based on the identification information included in the vehicle information. Hereinafter, the case where the identification information included in the vehicle information is the above-described device ID will be described as an example. The reception information storage unit 13 manages information input from the wireless communication device 9 in a time series for a predetermined time.

  The image recognition unit 14 recognizes surrounding vehicles in the captured image input from the camera 7. The recognition of surrounding vehicles in the captured image may be performed by well-known image recognition that recognizes an object in the image using a dictionary for image recognition, for example. In this case, imaging is performed using a dictionary (for example, a cascade of boosted class discriminator with a haar-like feature characterized by a rectangular luminance difference) that is machine-learned with respect to an image of the vehicle viewed from the front or an image viewed from the rear. What is necessary is just to recognize the surrounding vehicle in an image.

  In the present embodiment, by using a dictionary that is machine-learned with respect to an image of the vehicle viewed from the front and an image viewed from the rear, the peripheral vehicle in the captured image is an image of the peripheral vehicle viewed from the front (hereinafter referred to as the vehicle forward image). ) Or an image of a surrounding vehicle viewed from the rear (hereinafter referred to as a vehicle rear image). Moreover, it is good also as a structure which detects even a vehicle type by using the dictionary learned by machine about the image of the vehicle of various vehicle types.

  Moreover, the image recognition part 14 detects the lighting state of the turn signal lamp of the said surrounding vehicle, and the lighting state of a brake lamp based on the image of the recognized surrounding vehicle. As an example, with respect to the lighting state of the blinker lamp, each of the left and right areas obtained by dividing the image of the surrounding vehicle from the center of the vehicle body in the left-right direction has orange portions (hereinafter referred to as orange light-emitting portions) whose brightness is equal to or greater than a threshold value Detect by whether or not it exists.

  For example, if the orange light emission part exists only in the left area of the vehicle front image, it is detected as lighting of the right turn signal lamp only, and if it exists only in the right area of the vehicle front image, only the left turn signal lamp is detected. Detect as lit. In addition, when the orange light emitting portion is present in either of the left and right areas of the vehicle front image, it is detected as lighting of the left and right turn signal lamps, and when it is not present in either of the left and right areas of the vehicle front image, It is detected that the blinker lamp is turned off.

  On the other hand, if the orange light emission part exists only in the left area of the vehicle rear image, it is detected as lighting of the left turn signal lamp only, and if it exists only in the right area of the vehicle rear image, only the right turn signal lamp is detected. Detect as lit. In addition, when the orange light emitting portion is present in either of the left and right areas of the vehicle rear image, it is detected as lighting of the left and right turn signal lamps, and when it is not present in either of the left and right areas of the vehicle rear image, It is detected that the blinker lamp is turned off.

  The lightness threshold value determined to be the orange light emission part is set in advance based on the lightness of the turn signal lamp in an image obtained by capturing a vehicle in which the turn signal lamp is actually lit in various light environments. In addition, the range of orange RGB values determined as the orange light emitting part is set in advance based on the RGB values of the blinker lamps in images obtained by capturing images of the vehicle in which the blinker lamps are actually lit in various light environments. Shall be.

  Subsequently, the lighting state of the brake lamp is detected based on whether or not there is a red portion (hereinafter referred to as a red light emitting portion) whose brightness is equal to or greater than a threshold value in the image area of the surrounding vehicle. In order not to falsely detect the lighting of the red light installed on the roof of the emergency vehicle as the lighting of the brake lamp, it is detected whether or not there is a red light emitting portion only in the area below the roof of the surrounding vehicle. It is preferable to adopt a configuration to perform.

  It is assumed that the lightness threshold value determined as the red light emitting portion is set in advance based on the lightness of the brake lamp in an image obtained by capturing a vehicle in which the brake lamp is actually lit under various light environments. Also, the range of red RGB values that are determined to be red light emitting portions is set in advance based on the RGB values of the brake lamps in images obtained by imaging vehicles in which the brake lamps are actually lit under various light environments. Shall be.

  In addition, as the threshold value of the lightness to be determined as the orange light emitting part and the threshold value of the lightness to be determined as the red light emitting part, a threshold value for daytime and fine weather and a threshold value for nighttime, cloudy and rainy weather are set in advance. It is good also as a structure which switches and uses a threshold value. In this case, the distinction between daytime, fine weather, nighttime, cloudy weather, and rainy weather is based on the time detected by a timing means (not shown), the illuminance detected by an illuminance sensor (not shown), the rain detected by a rain sensor or wiper switch (not shown), etc. It may be configured to discriminate between.

  As described above, the image recognizing unit 14 detects the appearance feature amount such as the lighting state of the blinker lamp and the brake lamp and the vehicle type. In addition, the image recognition unit 14 recognizes the vehicle body color, number, vehicle height, and vehicle width of the surrounding vehicle by a known image recognition process based on the recognized image of the surrounding vehicle, so that the vehicle body color and number are recognized. Appearance features such as vehicle height, vehicle height, and vehicle width are also detected. The image recognition unit 14 corresponds to the image recognition processing unit in the claims.

  The radar detection unit 15 detects the relative speed and the relative position of the front object of the vehicle at regular intervals (for example, every 100 msec) based on the signal from the radar 8 as described above. Further, the radar detection unit 115 acquires information on the speed of the host vehicle from the vehicle speed sensor 1 at substantially the same timing as the detection of the relative speed, and based on the detected relative speed of the front object and the acquired speed of the host vehicle, By calculating the speed of the object, the vehicle speed of the front object as the running state feature amount is detected.

  In addition, the lighting state of the blinker lamp, the lighting state of the brake lamp, the vehicle type, the body color, the number, the vehicle height, and the vehicle width of the surrounding vehicle can be detected based on the captured image of the camera 7, and the signal of the radar 8 can be detected. Since the vehicle speed of the front object can be detected based on the original, it can be said that the camera 7 and the radar 8 are autonomous sensors.

  The detection results such as the appearance feature amount and the running state feature amount detected by the autonomous sensor temporarily set and associate information for individually identifying the surrounding vehicle that has detected the appearance feature amount, and the autonomous sensor information storage unit 16 accumulate. The autonomous sensor information storage unit 16 manages the detection results detected using the autonomous sensor in a time series for a certain period of time.

  In addition, the accumulation of vehicle information in the reception information accumulation unit 13 and the accumulation of detection results in the autonomous sensor in the autonomous sensor information accumulation unit 16 include the vehicle information received and detected at the closest timing and the autonomous information. The detection result using the sensor is accumulated so as to be accumulated at substantially the same timing.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 1, when there are three surrounding vehicles B to D that can communicate with the own vehicle A around the own vehicle A, the surrounding vehicles B to D received at approximate timings. Are collectively stored in the reception information storage unit 13. Further, the detection results for the surrounding vehicles B to D detected using the autonomous sensor at the timing closest to the reception timing are also collectively stored in the autonomous sensor information storage unit 16.

  The first feature amount match determination unit 17, the integration processing unit 18, the second feature amount match determination unit 19, and the first transmission type change unit 20 will be described in detail later. Here, with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 4, processing related to integration of information between the surrounding vehicle detected by the autonomous sensor and the surrounding vehicle performing inter-vehicle communication in the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1a (hereinafter, integration-related processing). Will be described. The flowchart in FIG. 4 may be configured to start when the power of the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1a is turned on, for example, when the ignition power of the own vehicle is turned on.

  First, in step S1, when the vehicle information transmission part 12 received the vehicle information transmitted from the surrounding vehicle via the radio | wireless communication apparatus 9 (it is YES at step S1), it moves to step S2. On the other hand, when the vehicle information receiving unit 12 has not received the vehicle information transmitted from the surrounding vehicle (NO in step S1), the process proceeds to step S6.

  In addition, when the vehicle information receiving unit 12 receives the vehicle information transmitted from the surrounding vehicle, as described above, the vehicle information is accumulated in the received information accumulating unit 13 and is detected at the most approximate timing. The detection result of the autonomous sensor performed is stored in the autonomous sensor information storage unit 16.

  In step S2, the first feature quantity match determination unit 17 performs a first feature quantity match determination process, and proceeds to step S3. In the first feature amount matching determination process, a predetermined feature amount of each surrounding vehicle received by inter-vehicle communication is compared with a feature amount such as a running state feature amount or an appearance feature amount of each surrounding vehicle detected using an autonomous sensor. . Then, a predetermined feature amount of a surrounding vehicle (hereinafter referred to as an inter-vehicle communication vehicle) performing inter-vehicle communication and a predetermined feature amount of the feature amount of a surrounding vehicle (hereinafter referred to as a sensor detected vehicle) detected by an autonomous sensor are It is determined whether or not they match each other.

  About the predetermined feature-value of a vehicle-to-vehicle communication vehicle, what is necessary is just to set it as the structure using the vehicle information nearest to the vehicle-to-vehicle communication vehicle accumulate | stored in the reception information storage part 13. FIG. Moreover, what is necessary is just to set it as the structure which uses the latest detection result of the sensor detection vehicle accumulate | stored in the autonomous sensor information storage part 16 about the driving | running | working state feature-value and external appearance feature-value of a sensor detection vehicle.

  In the example of this embodiment, the vehicle body color of the inter-vehicle communication vehicle and the vehicle body color of the sensor detection vehicle are compared to determine whether or not they match each other. In addition, when the predetermined feature amount is the turn-on state of the blinker lamp or the brake lamp, the turn feature lamp and hazard lamp lighting operation received from the inter-vehicle communication vehicle, and information on whether or not the brake pedal is depressed are the first feature amount. The coincidence determination unit 17 performs the determination by replacing the blinker lamp and the brake lamp with the lighting state.

  In addition, when it is set as the structure which gives the time information (namely, time stamp) when a feature-value is detected using an autonomous sensor to the detected feature-value, it is substantially the same based on this time stamp. It is good also as a structure which reads and compares the feature-value received and detected at timing (that is, the time approximated most) from the reception information storage part 13 and the autonomous sensor information storage part 16, respectively.

  Further, in the case where the process of determining a specific vehicle among the sensor detected cars is already performed as a preceding vehicle, the first feature amount matching determination process is performed by narrowing down the target to the preceding vehicle. It is good.

  In step S3, in the first feature amount matching determination process, if there is a one-to-one correspondence between the predetermined feature amounts in the inter-vehicle communication vehicle and the sensor detection vehicle (YES in step S3), the process proceeds to step S4. Move. On the other hand, in the first feature amount match determination process, when there is no one-to-one correspondence between the predetermined feature amounts in the inter-vehicle communication vehicle and the sensor detection vehicle (NO in step S3), the process proceeds to step S5. As an example, if there is only one inter-vehicle communication vehicle with a body color of “red”, and there is only one sensor detection vehicle with a body color of “red” However, this corresponds to the case where there is a one-to-one correspondence between the predetermined feature amounts.

  In the example of the present embodiment, the configuration in which comparison is performed in the first feature amount matching determination process for only one type of predetermined feature amount is shown, but the configuration is not necessarily limited thereto. For example, a configuration may be used in which comparison is performed in the first feature amount matching determination process for a plurality of predetermined feature amounts, such as a vehicle speed and a body color as predetermined feature amounts. Moreover, it is good also as a structure which compares by the 1st feature-value matching determination process by making into the object the relative position with respect to the own vehicle other than predetermined feature-value. The same applies to the following.

  When the configuration using the relative position with respect to the own vehicle, the relative position of the inter-vehicle communication vehicle with respect to the own vehicle is calculated from the vehicle position in the vehicle information of the inter-vehicle communication vehicle and the vehicle position of the own vehicle. do it. The method for obtaining the relative position of the sensor detection vehicle with respect to the vehicle is as described above.

  In step S4, the integration processing unit 18 performs integration processing, and proceeds to step S5. In the integration process, it is determined that the vehicle-to-vehicle communication vehicle and the sensor-detected vehicle that are determined to correspond to the predetermined feature amount in the first feature-value matching determination process are in a one-to-one correspondence. Integrate detection results from information and autonomous sensors. Therefore, the integrated processing unit 18 corresponds to the vehicle coincidence determination unit in the claims.

  The integrated processing unit 18 determines that the vehicle-to-vehicle communication vehicle and the sensor-detected vehicle determined that the predetermined feature amounts do not correspond one-to-one in the first feature amount matching determination process, and the vehicle-to-vehicle communication vehicle The vehicle information with the sensor detection vehicle and the detection result with the autonomous sensor are not integrated.

  After integrating the vehicle information and detection results of the vehicle-to-vehicle communication vehicle and the sensor detection vehicle, for example, using the integrated information, the following traveling control to the preceding vehicle of the own vehicle capable of vehicle-to-vehicle communication is performed. do it.

  In step S5, if it is the end timing of the integration-related process (YES in step S5), the flow ends. On the other hand, if it is not the end timing of the integration related process (NO in step S5), the process returns to step S1 and the flow is repeated. An example of the end timing of the integration related process is when the ignition power of the own vehicle is turned off.

  Next, the processing related to the change of the type of the predetermined feature value transmitted by the vehicle-to-vehicle communication (hereinafter referred to as transmission feature value change related process) in the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1b will be described using the flowchart of FIG. The flowchart in FIG. 5 may be configured to start when the power of the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1b is turned on, for example, when the ignition power of the own vehicle is turned on.

  First, in step S11, when the vehicle information receiving unit 12 receives vehicle information transmitted from surrounding vehicles within a predetermined time via the wireless communication device 9 (YES in step S11), the process proceeds to step S12. . On the other hand, when the vehicle information receiving unit 12 does not receive the vehicle information within the predetermined time (NO in step S11), the process proceeds to step S15. The predetermined time here may be a time from the previous vehicle information transmission timing to the next vehicle information transmission timing.

  In step S12, the second feature amount match determination unit 19 performs a second feature amount match determination process, and proceeds to step S13. In the second feature amount matching determination process, the predetermined feature amount of the inter-vehicle communication vehicle is compared with a predetermined feature amount of the feature amount of the own vehicle, and the predetermined feature amount of the inter-vehicle communication vehicle and the predetermined feature of the own vehicle are compared. Determine whether the quantities match each other. In the example of this embodiment, the vehicle body color of the inter-vehicle communication vehicle is compared with the vehicle body color of the host vehicle, and it is determined whether or not they match each other.

  About the predetermined feature-value of a vehicle-to-vehicle communication vehicle, what is necessary is just to set it as the structure using the vehicle information nearest to the vehicle-to-vehicle communication vehicle accumulate | stored in the reception information storage part 13. FIG. As for the predetermined feature amount of the own vehicle, in the case of the appearance feature amount such as the running state feature amount or the turn-on state of the blinker lamp or the brake lamp, the latest information acquired from the sensor or ECU of the own vehicle may be used. . In addition, in the case of appearance feature amounts such as vehicle type, vehicle body color, number, vehicle height, and vehicle width, a configuration that is stored in advance in the nonvolatile memory of the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1b may be used.

  In step S13, in the second feature amount matching determination process, when the predetermined feature amount matches between the own vehicle and at least one inter-vehicle communication vehicle (YES in step S13), the process proceeds to step S14. On the other hand, in the second feature amount matching determination process, if the predetermined feature amount does not match for the own vehicle and any inter-vehicle communication vehicle (NO in step S13), the process proceeds to step S15.

  In step S14, the first transmission type changing unit 20 performs a first transmission type changing process, and proceeds to step S15. In the first transmission type change process, a traveling state feature quantity and an appearance feature quantity of a type different from the predetermined feature quantity set as the predetermined feature quantity to be transmitted by inter-vehicle communication are set as the predetermined feature quantity to be transmitted by inter-vehicle communication. Try again. For example, when the vehicle body color is already set by default, the lighting speed of the vehicle speed, number, vehicle type, vehicle width, vehicle height, turn signal lamp and brake lamp, which is different from the vehicle body color, is reset to the predetermined feature amount. .

  In step S15, the vehicle information transmission part 11 performs a transmission process, and moves to step S16. In the transmission process, vehicle information including a predetermined feature amount that has been set as a predetermined feature amount to be transmitted by inter-vehicle communication is transmitted by inter-vehicle communication via the wireless communication device 9. When the setting of the predetermined feature amount has been changed in the first transmission type change process, the vehicle information including the changed predetermined feature amount is transmitted by inter-vehicle communication via the wireless communication device 9. The vehicle information is transmitted according to the transmission cycle.

  In step S16, when it is the end timing of the transmission feature amount change related process (YES in step S16), the flow is ended. On the other hand, if it is not the end timing of the transmission feature amount change related process (NO in step S16), the process returns to step S11 and the flow is repeated. An example of the end timing of the transmission feature amount change related process is when the ignition power of the vehicle is turned off.

  According to the above configuration, the type of the predetermined feature amount to be transmitted can be changed when another vehicle having the same predetermined feature amount as that of the own vehicle exists in a range in which vehicle-to-vehicle communication is possible. When the type of the predetermined feature amount transmitted from each vehicle having the same predetermined feature amount transmitted until then is changed, there is a possibility that the predetermined feature amounts transmitted from each vehicle do not match each other. Therefore, according to the above configuration, the possibility that the same predetermined feature amount is transmitted from a plurality of vehicles is reduced, and an opportunity for accurately determining the coincidence / mismatch between the sensor detection vehicle and the inter-vehicle communication vehicle by the integration-related processing. Can be increased.

  Further, according to the above configuration, since the type of the predetermined feature amount is only changed, there is no difficulty in changing the behavior of the vehicle in order to change the predetermined feature amount. As a result, it becomes easier to accurately determine the coincidence between the surrounding vehicle that is communicating with the vehicle and the surrounding vehicle that is detected by the autonomous sensor of the vehicle.

  By default, it is preferable to reduce the load of image recognition processing by setting a predetermined feature amount that can be easily detected by image recognition, such as a vehicle body color. On the other hand, feature quantities that make it easier to identify individual vehicles, such as turn-on lights and brake lamp lighting conditions and numbers, but that increase the load of image recognition processing, should be set as predetermined feature quantities when reset from the default. Is preferred.

  In addition, in the transmission feature amount change related process, when the predetermined feature amount is reset in the first transmission type change processing, based on the running state feature amount and the appearance feature amount of the surrounding vehicle detected by the autonomous sensor of the own vehicle. A configuration may be adopted in which a feature amount of a type that does not match between the own vehicle and the surrounding vehicle is selected, and the selected feature amount is reset as a predetermined feature amount (hereinafter, modified example 1).

  Here, the structure of the modification 1 is demonstrated using FIG.6 and FIG.7. For convenience of explanation, members having the same functions as those shown in the drawings used in the description of the above-described embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 includes, as functional blocks, a vehicle information transmission unit 11, a vehicle information reception unit 12, a reception information storage unit 13, an image recognition unit 14, a radar detection unit 15, and autonomous sensor information storage. 16, a first feature amount match determination unit 17, an integration processing unit 18, a second feature amount match determination unit 19, a first transmission type change unit 20, and a first mismatch feature amount selection unit 21. Except for the point that the first mismatch feature quantity selection unit 21 is provided, the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 of the first modification is the same as the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 of the first embodiment.

  Further, the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 of the modification 1 is the same as the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 of the first embodiment with respect to the integration-related processing, and a part of the transmission feature amount change-related processing is the surrounding vehicle identification of the first embodiment. It differs from the ECU 1 for use.

  Here, with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 7, a transmission feature amount change related process in the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 b of the first modification will be described. The flowchart of FIG. 7 may also be configured to start when the power of the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1b is turned on, for example, by turning on the ignition power of the own vehicle. First, the process of step S31-step S33 is the same as the process of step S11-step S13.

  In step S34, the first mismatch feature quantity selection unit 21 performs a first mismatch feature quantity selection process, and proceeds to step S35. In the first mismatch feature amount selection process, the feature amount such as the running state feature amount and the appearance feature amount of the sensor-detected vehicle is compared with the feature amount of the own vehicle for each type of feature amount. If there is a feature quantity that does not match between the vehicle and any of the sensor-detected cars, the feature quantity is selected. As an example, when the vehicle body colors match but the vehicle types do not match, the vehicle type is selected as a feature quantity that does not match between the vehicle and any sensor-detected vehicle.

  When there are a plurality of types of corresponding feature amounts, one type of feature amount may be selected at random, or the highest priority based on the preset priority of various feature amounts. It is good also as a structure which selects the feature-value of a kind. About the driving | running | working state feature-value and external appearance feature-value of a sensor detection vehicle, what is necessary is just to set it as the structure using the latest detection result of the sensor detection vehicle accumulate | stored in the autonomous sensor information storage part 16. FIG.

  In step S35, the first transmission type changing unit 20 performs a first transmission type changing process, and proceeds to step S36. In the first transmission type change process, when the feature quantity is selected in the first mismatch feature quantity selection process, the predetermined feature quantity transmitted by the inter-vehicle communication is reset to the selected feature quantity.

  The process from step S36 to step S37 is the same as the process from step S15 to step S16.

  According to the configuration of the first modification, the predetermined feature amount transmitted by the own vehicle is changed to the feature amount of the type that is determined not to match the own vehicle using the autonomous sensor. Feature quantities can be transmitted quickly. Therefore, in the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1a on the receiving side of the predetermined feature amount, it becomes possible to more quickly and reliably determine the coincidence / mismatch between the sensor detection vehicle and the inter-vehicle communication vehicle by the integration related processing.

  When the image recognition unit 14 performs image recognition processing of surrounding vehicles, the image recognition processing is limited to an image area corresponding to the location of the vehicle-to-vehicle communication vehicle based on the vehicle information of the vehicle-to-vehicle communication vehicle. It is good also as a structure to perform (henceforth modification 2). Here, the configuration of Modification 2 will be described with reference to FIG. For convenience of explanation, members having the same functions as those shown in the drawings used in the description of the above-described embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted.

  As shown in FIG. 8, the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 includes a vehicle information transmission unit 11, a vehicle information reception unit 12, a reception information storage unit 13, an image recognition unit 14, a radar detection unit 15, and autonomous sensor information storage as functional blocks. 16, a first feature amount match determination unit 17, an integration processing unit 18, a second feature amount match determination unit 19, a first transmission type change unit 20, and an other vehicle position specifying unit 22. Except for the point that the other vehicle position specifying unit 22 is provided, the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 of the second modification is the same as the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 of the first embodiment.

  The other vehicle position specifying unit 22 determines the presence position of the inter-vehicle communication vehicle with respect to the own vehicle (hereinafter referred to as the other vehicle presence position) from the vehicle position included in the vehicle information received from the inter-vehicle communication vehicle and the vehicle position of the own vehicle. ). As an example, the coordinates of the vehicle position of the inter-vehicle communication vehicle when the vehicle position of the own vehicle is used as the origin are specified.

  The image recognition unit 14 performs image recognition processing by narrowing down to an image region corresponding to the position where the other vehicle is present. As an example, the image recognition processing may be performed by selecting a predetermined rectangular range centered on the other vehicle presence position in the captured image. In addition, the captured image may be divided into several parts, and the image recognition process may be performed by narrowing down the area corresponding to the position where the other vehicle is present in the divided area.

  The association of the position of the other vehicle with the position in the captured image indicates that the position in the captured image can be converted into the actual position relative to the own vehicle when the mounting position and the imaging direction of the camera 7 are fixed. What is necessary is just to make it the structure performed using.

  Further, a configuration in which a rough direction is specified by the other vehicle position specifying unit 22 as an existing position of the inter-vehicle communication vehicle with respect to the own vehicle, and the image recognition unit 14 performs image recognition processing by narrowing down to an image region corresponding to the specified direction. It is good. As an example, when specifying the direction such as left, front, and right as the position of the inter-vehicle communication vehicle with respect to the own vehicle, the image corresponding to the specified direction among the image regions divided into left, front, and right What is necessary is just to set it as the structure which performs an image recognition process focusing on an area | region. Note that the configuration of Modification 2 may be combined with the configuration of Modification 1.

(Embodiment 2)
The present invention is not limited to the above-described first embodiment, and the following second embodiment is also included in the technical scope of the present invention. Hereinafter, the second embodiment will be described. For convenience of explanation, members having the same functions as those shown in the drawings used in the description of the above-described embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted.

  The surrounding vehicle identification system 100 according to the second embodiment determines whether or not there is a change in the predetermined feature amount on the transmission side, and makes a change request on the reception side of the predetermined feature amount, not on the transmission side of the predetermined feature amount. Except for the points, it is the same as the surrounding vehicle identification system 100 of the first embodiment. That is, it is the same as the surrounding vehicle identification system 100 of Embodiment 1 except that the processing in the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 is partially different.

  Here, a schematic configuration of the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 according to the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 9. As shown in FIG. 9, the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 of the second embodiment includes, as functional blocks, a vehicle information transmission unit 11, a vehicle information reception unit 12, a reception information storage unit 13, an image recognition unit 14, a radar detection unit 15, An autonomous sensor information storage unit 16, a first feature quantity match determination unit 17, an integration processing unit 18, a third feature quantity match determination unit 23, and a change request transmission unit 24 are provided.

  Also in the second embodiment, as in the first embodiment, the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1a performs the integration-related processing. On the other hand, in the second embodiment, unlike the first embodiment, the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1a performs a change request related process described later.

  Here, the change request related process in the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1a of the second embodiment will be described using the flowchart of FIG. The flowchart of FIG. 10 may be configured to start when the power of the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1a is turned on, for example, when the ignition power of the own vehicle is turned on.

  First, in step S51, when the vehicle information receiving unit 12 receives vehicle information transmitted from a plurality of surrounding vehicles within a predetermined time (YES in step S51), the process proceeds to step S52. Move. On the other hand, when the vehicle information receiving unit 12 receives vehicle information from only one surrounding vehicle within a predetermined time, or when the vehicle information receiving unit 12 does not receive vehicle information within a predetermined time (step S51). If NO, the process proceeds to step S55. The predetermined time here may be a time from the previous vehicle information transmission timing to the next vehicle information transmission timing.

  In step S52, the third feature amount match determination unit 23 performs a third feature amount match determination process, and proceeds to step S53. In the third feature amount matching determination process, predetermined feature amounts of a plurality of inter-vehicle communication vehicles are compared with each other, and it is determined whether or not the predetermined feature amounts coincide with each other between the plurality of inter-vehicle communication vehicles. In the example of this embodiment, the vehicle body colors of the inter-vehicle communication vehicles are compared to determine whether or not they match each other. About the predetermined feature-value of a vehicle-to-vehicle communication vehicle, what is necessary is just to set it as the structure using the vehicle information nearest to the vehicle-to-vehicle communication vehicle accumulate | stored in the reception information storage part 13. FIG.

  In step S53, in the third feature amount matching determination process, when the predetermined feature amount matches between at least one set of the inter-vehicle communication vehicles of the plurality of inter-vehicle communication vehicles (YES in step S53), the process proceeds to step S54. On the other hand, in the third feature amount matching determination process, when none of the plurality of inter-vehicle communication vehicles match the predetermined feature amount (NO in step S53), the process proceeds to step S55.

  In step S54, the change request transmission unit 24 performs a change request transmission process, and proceeds to step S55. In the change request transmission process, the wireless communication device 9 sends a change request for requesting transmission of a travel state feature amount or an appearance feature amount of a type different from the predetermined feature amount set as the predetermined feature amount to be transmitted by inter-vehicle communication. Is transmitted to the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1b of the surrounding vehicle by vehicle-to-vehicle communication. The change request transmission unit 24 may be configured to transmit the change request by including the change request in the vehicle information output from the vehicle information transmission unit 11 to the wireless communication device 9.

  If it is time to end the change request related process in step S55 (YES in step S55), the flow ends. On the other hand, if it is not the end timing of the change request related process (NO in step S55), the process returns to step S51 to repeat the flow. An example of the end timing of the change request related process is when the ignition power of the own vehicle is turned off.

  Next, the transmission feature amount change-related processing in the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1b will be described using the flowchart of FIG. The flowchart of FIG. 11 may be configured to start when the power of the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1b is turned on, for example, when the ignition power of the own vehicle is turned on.

  First, in step S61, when the vehicle information receiving unit 12 receives the change request described above within a predetermined time via the wireless communication device 9 (YES in step S61), the process proceeds to step S62. On the other hand, when the vehicle information receiving unit 12 does not receive the change request within the predetermined time (NO in step S61), the process proceeds to step S63. The predetermined time here may be a time from the previous vehicle information transmission timing to the next vehicle information transmission timing.

  In step S62, the second transmission type changing unit 25 performs a second transmission type changing process, and proceeds to step S63. In the second transmission type change process, in accordance with the change request, a predetermined traveling state feature amount and appearance feature amount different from the predetermined feature amount set as the predetermined feature amount to be transmitted by inter-vehicle communication are transmitted by the vehicle-to-vehicle communication. Reset to feature value.

  In step S63, the vehicle information transmission part 11 performs a transmission process, and moves to step S64. In the transmission process, vehicle information including a predetermined feature amount that has been set as a predetermined feature amount to be transmitted by inter-vehicle communication is transmitted by inter-vehicle communication via the wireless communication device 9. When the setting of the predetermined feature amount has been changed in the second transmission type change process, the vehicle information including the changed predetermined feature amount is transmitted by inter-vehicle communication via the wireless communication device 9. The vehicle information is transmitted according to the transmission cycle.

  In step S64, when it is the end timing of the transmission feature amount change related process (YES in step S64), the flow is ended. On the other hand, if it is not the end timing of the transmission feature amount change related process (NO in step S64), the process returns to step S61 to repeat the flow. An example of the end timing of the transmission feature amount change related process is when the ignition power of the vehicle is turned off.

  Similarly to the first embodiment, the configuration of the second embodiment can also change the type of the predetermined feature amount to be transmitted when another vehicle having the same predetermined feature amount as that of the own vehicle exists in a range where inter-vehicle communication is possible. Therefore, even with the configuration of the second embodiment, it is easier to accurately determine the coincidence between the surrounding vehicle performing inter-vehicle communication with the own vehicle and the surrounding vehicle detected by the autonomous sensor of the own vehicle. become.

  In addition, in the change request related process, a feature quantity of a type that does not match between the surrounding vehicles is selected based on the running state feature quantity and appearance feature quantity of the surrounding vehicle detected by the autonomous sensor of the own vehicle. A configuration for transmitting a change request for requesting transmission of a feature quantity of the same type as the feature quantity (hereinafter, modified example 3) may be employed.

  Here, the configuration of Modification 3 will be described with reference to FIGS. 12 and 13. For convenience of explanation, members having the same functions as those shown in the drawings used in the description of the above-described embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted.

  As shown in FIG. 12, the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 includes, as functional blocks, a vehicle information transmission unit 11, a vehicle information reception unit 12, a reception information storage unit 13, an image recognition unit 14, a radar detection unit 15, and autonomous sensor information storage. Unit 16, first feature amount match determination unit 17, integration processing unit 18, third feature amount match determination unit 23, change request transmission unit 24, second transmission type change unit 25, and second mismatch feature amount selection unit 26. I have. Except for the point that the second mismatching feature amount selection unit 26 is provided, the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 of the third modification is the same as the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 of the second embodiment.

  Further, the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 of the modified example 3 is the same as the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1 of the second embodiment with respect to the integration related process, and a part of the change request related process and the transmission feature amount change related process is the embodiment. 2 and different from the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1.

  Here, the change request related process in the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1a of the third modification will be described using the flowchart of FIG. The flowchart in FIG. 13 may also be configured to start when the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1a is turned on, for example, when the ignition power of the host vehicle is turned on. First, the process of step S71-step S73 is the same as the process of step S51-step S53.

  In step S74, the second mismatch feature quantity selection unit 26 performs a second mismatch feature quantity selection process, and proceeds to step S75. In the second mismatch feature quantity selection process, feature quantities such as running state feature quantities and appearance feature quantities of a plurality of sensor-detected vehicles are compared for each type of feature quantity. If there is a feature quantity that does not match between the plurality of sensor-detected vehicles, the feature quantity is selected.

  When there are a plurality of types of corresponding feature amounts, one type of feature amount may be selected at random, or the highest priority based on the preset priority of various feature amounts. It is good also as a structure which selects the feature-value of a kind. About the driving | running | working state feature-value and external appearance feature-value of a sensor detection vehicle, what is necessary is just to set it as the structure using the latest detection result of the sensor detection vehicle accumulate | stored in the autonomous sensor information storage part 16. FIG.

  In step S75, the change request transmission unit 24 performs a change request transmission process, and proceeds to step S76. In the change request transmission process, if a feature quantity has been selected in the second mismatch feature quantity selection process, a change request requesting transmission of a feature quantity of the same type as the selected feature quantity is transmitted via wireless communication. The information is transmitted to the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1b of the surrounding vehicle by inter-vehicle communication via the device 9. The process of step S76 is the same as the process of step S55.

  According to the configuration of the third modification, the feature amount requested to be changed to the surrounding vehicle is the type of feature amount determined by the autonomous sensor that does not match between the surrounding vehicles. A predetermined feature amount of a type that does not match can be quickly transmitted from each surrounding vehicle. Therefore, in the surrounding vehicle identification ECU 1a on the receiving side of the predetermined feature amount, it becomes possible to more quickly and reliably determine the coincidence / mismatch between the sensor detection vehicle and the inter-vehicle communication vehicle by the integration related processing.

  Note that the configurations of the second embodiment and the third modification may be combined with the configuration of the second modification described above.

  In the above-described embodiment, the configuration using the camera 7 and the radar 8 has been described. However, the configuration is not necessarily limited thereto. For example, a configuration not using the camera 7 or a configuration not using the radar 8 may be used. When the camera 7 is not used, the predetermined feature quantity candidates may be the vehicle speed and acceleration / deceleration. And when changing the kind of predetermined feature-value, what is necessary is just to set it as the structure which resets a predetermined feature-value to either one from a vehicle speed or acceleration / deceleration.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the claims, and the technical means disclosed in different embodiments can be appropriately combined. Such embodiments are also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Peripheral vehicle identification ECU, 1a Peripheral vehicle identification ECU (peripheral vehicle identification device), 1b Feature value transmission device, 7 Camera (autonomous sensor), 8 Radar (autonomous sensor), 11 Vehicle information transmission part (transmission part), 17 first feature quantity match determination unit, 19 second feature quantity match determination unit, 20 first transmission type change unit, 100 surrounding vehicle identification system

Claims (8)

Used in vehicles,
A feature quantity transmission device (1b) comprising a transmission section (11) for transmitting a predetermined feature quantity, which is a predetermined feature quantity, among the feature quantities of at least one of the traveling state and appearance of the host vehicle;
Used in vehicles,
The feature amount of the other vehicle detected using the autonomous sensor (7, 8) for detecting the feature amount including the presence of the other vehicle and the predetermined feature amount, and the feature amount transmitting device of the other vehicle A sensor-detected vehicle that is another vehicle detected using an autonomous sensor from the predetermined feature amount of the other vehicle transmitted by inter-vehicle communication, and a vehicle that is the other vehicle that has acquired the predetermined feature amount by inter-vehicle communication A first feature value match determination unit (17) for determining whether or not the predetermined feature values match each other with an inter-vehicle communication vehicle;
A surrounding vehicle identification device (1a) including a vehicle coincidence determination unit (18) for determining a coincidence mismatch between the sensor detection vehicle and the inter-vehicle communication vehicle from a determination result in the first feature amount coincidence determination unit. A surrounding vehicle identification system including:
The feature amount transmitting apparatus includes:
Second feature amount matching determination for determining whether or not the predetermined feature amount of the other vehicle transmitted from the feature amount transmitting device of the other vehicle by the inter-vehicle communication matches the predetermined feature amount of the own vehicle. Part (19),
A first transmission type changing unit (20) for changing a type of the predetermined feature value transmitted by the transmitting unit when the second feature value match determining unit determines that the other predetermined feature value matches; A surrounding vehicle identification system comprising: In claim 1,
The feature amount transmitting apparatus includes:
Of the feature quantity of the other vehicle detected using an autonomous sensor for detecting the feature quantity of the other vehicle and the feature quantity of the own vehicle, the mismatch feature quantity that is the feature quantity that does not match between the two vehicles A first mismatch feature quantity selection unit (21) for selecting
The first transmission type changing unit is a case where the second feature amount match determining unit determines that the other feature amount is identical, and the first mismatch feature amount selecting unit is the mismatch feature amount. When the vehicle can be selected, the predetermined feature amount transmitted by the transmission unit is changed to the mismatch feature amount selected by the first mismatch feature amount selection unit. Used in vehicles,
A feature quantity transmission device (1b) comprising a transmission section (11) for transmitting a predetermined feature quantity, which is a predetermined feature quantity, among the feature quantities of at least one of the traveling state and appearance of the host vehicle;
Used in vehicles,
The feature amount of the other vehicle detected using the autonomous sensor (7, 8) for detecting the feature amount including the presence of the other vehicle and the predetermined feature amount, and the feature amount transmitting device of the other vehicle A sensor-detected vehicle that is another vehicle detected using an autonomous sensor from the predetermined feature amount of the other vehicle transmitted by inter-vehicle communication, and a vehicle that is the other vehicle that has acquired the predetermined feature amount by inter-vehicle communication A first feature value match determination unit (17) for determining whether or not the predetermined feature values match each other with an inter-vehicle communication vehicle;
A surrounding vehicle identification device (1a) including a vehicle coincidence determination unit (18) for determining a coincidence mismatch between the sensor detection vehicle and the inter-vehicle communication vehicle from a determination result in the first feature amount coincidence determination unit. A surrounding vehicle identification system including:
The surrounding vehicle identification device is
A third feature amount matching determination unit (23) for determining whether or not the predetermined feature amounts of a plurality of other vehicles transmitted from the feature amount transmitting devices of a plurality of other vehicles match each other by inter-vehicle communication; ,
A change request for requesting to change the type of the predetermined feature amount transmitted from the feature amount transmitting device when the third feature amount match determining unit determines that the predetermined feature amounts of a plurality of other vehicles match. A change request transmission unit (24) for transmitting the vehicle by inter-vehicle communication,
The feature amount transmitting apparatus includes:
A second transmission type for changing the type of the predetermined feature amount transmitted by the transmission unit according to the transmission request when the change request transmitted by the inter-vehicle communication is received from the surrounding vehicle identification device of another vehicle The surrounding vehicle identification system characterized by including the change part (25). In claim 3,
The surrounding vehicle identification device is
A second non-matching feature quantity selection unit (26) that selects a mismatching feature quantity that is the feature quantity that does not match among a plurality of other cars among the feature quantities of the plurality of other cars detected using the autonomous sensor;
The change request transmission unit is a case where the third feature amount matching determination unit determines that the predetermined feature amounts of a plurality of other vehicles match, and the second mismatch feature amount selection unit selects the mismatch feature. Change requesting that the predetermined feature amount transmitted from the feature amount transmitting apparatus is changed to the mismatch feature amount selected by the second mismatch feature amount selection unit as the change request when an amount can be selected A surrounding vehicle identification system, wherein a request is transmitted by inter-vehicle communication. In any one of Claims 1-4,
The feature amount is a feature amount regarding the appearance of the vehicle,
The autonomous sensor is an imaging device (7),
At least the surrounding vehicle identification device of the surrounding vehicle identification device and the feature amount transmission device is:
A peripheral vehicle identification system comprising an image recognition processing unit (14) for detecting the feature amount by performing image recognition processing of an image captured by the imaging device. In claim 5,
The transmission unit also transmits a vehicle position of a vehicle using the feature amount transmission device,
At least the surrounding vehicle identification device of the surrounding vehicle identification device and the feature amount transmission device is:
Other vehicle position specification for specifying the position of the other vehicle relative to the own vehicle from the vehicle position of the other vehicle and the vehicle position of the own vehicle transmitted from the feature amount transmission device of the other vehicle by the inter-vehicle communication. Part (22),
When the image recognition processing unit performs image recognition processing of an image captured by the imaging device, the image recognition processing unit performs image recognition processing by narrowing down to an image region corresponding to the position of the other vehicle specified by the other vehicle position specifying unit. The surrounding vehicle identification system characterized by performing.   A feature amount transmitting apparatus used in the surrounding vehicle identification system according to claim 1.   A surrounding vehicle identification device used in the surrounding vehicle identification system according to claim 1.

Images