JP2019067058A - Convoy travel apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a convoy travel apparatus, when finishing to overtake a preceding vehicle, capable of preventing break of order of the convoy by preventing another vehicle from breaking therein.SOLUTION: When a vehicle group A traveling by convoy travel catches up another preceding vehicle B traveling at a slower speed than a setup vehicle speed of the vehicle group A by a prescribed speed or more, a travel control unit for controlling convoy travel causes the vehicles of the vehicle group A to sequentially overtake the other vehicle in order of a rearmost vehicle A5 thereof and, after overtaking the other vehicle B, to cause the vehicles thereof to travel ahead of the vehicle that have overtaken the other vehicle prior thereto.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

  TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a row running device that causes a plurality of vehicles to run in a row.

  Conventionally, by exchanging vehicle control information using inter-vehicle communication etc., it is attributed to the improvement of the flow of the traveling vehicle and the reduction of the air resistance by the group running by which the inter-vehicle distance with the preceding vehicle can be kept short. Fuel consumption is expected to improve.

  In cruise control that causes the host vehicle to travel at a fixed vehicle speed (set vehicle speed) in advance, it is known that the vehicle driving support device performs overtaking control to overtake the preceding vehicle when the inter-vehicle distance to the preceding vehicle becomes short. (See Patent Document 1).

JP, 2016-2894, A

  However, the technology described in Patent Document 1 relates to overtaking control in a single vehicle. There is also a situation where you have to catch up with and overtake the leading vehicle even when you are traveling in formation, but when you finish passing the preceding vehicle, in order not to break the formation order without causing other vehicles to break into the train of the formation traveling. Needs some ingenuity.

  The present invention has been made to solve such problems, and the purpose of the present invention is to take the order of formation without interrupting other vehicles in the formation of a line when the passing vehicle is overtaken. An object of the present invention is to provide a row running device which can be prevented from breaking down.

  In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, in the row traveling device according to the present invention, a vehicle state acquisition means for acquiring the state of the own vehicle, an inter-vehicle communication means for exchanging the vehicle state with another vehicle, and The vehicle running control means controls the vehicle to perform the group running with the other vehicle based on the vehicle state of the vehicle and the other vehicle, and the vehicle running control means is a group of vehicles running in the group running, When it catches up with the preceding vehicle traveling at a speed slower than the set speed of the vehicle group, it overtakes the preceding vehicle sequentially from the last vehicle of the vehicle group and overtakes the first vehicle after overtaking the preceding vehicle It is characterized by traveling in front of a vehicle.

  In other words, when a group of vehicles in a row travel overtakes a slow preceding vehicle, it will overtake the preceding vehicle sequentially from the rearmost vehicle of the group, and after overtaking, it will return to the front of the first overtaking vehicle. The acceleration of the vehicle overtaking and the distance overtaking can be made almost even without breaking the turn of the formation.

  As a result, when overtaking the preceding vehicle, it is possible to keep the formation order without breaking other vehicles in the formation of the formation.

It is a block diagram showing composition of a row running device concerning one embodiment of the present invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the flow (a)-(f) which the vehicle group in row running overtakes a preceding vehicle.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration diagram of a row traveling device according to the present invention.

  The row travel device 1 shown in FIG. 1 is for performing travel control of the vehicle, and is mounted on the vehicle. The row running device 1 includes a navigation device 2, a radar device 3, a vehicle state acquisition unit 4 (vehicle state acquisition means), a communication device 5 (inter-vehicle communication means), and a travel control unit 6 (vehicle travel control means) There is.

  The navigation device 2 has a function of detecting the position of the host vehicle, and may have, for example, GPS data and a map database including road information.

  The radar device 3 detects an object such as another vehicle around the host vehicle, and is a device using, for example, a millimeter wave radar or a laser radar. Specifically, it is possible to detect the inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle and the preceding vehicle and the following vehicle by the radar device 3 or to detect a vehicle traveling on the side of the host vehicle.

  The vehicle state acquisition unit 4 can acquire vehicle information (vehicle state) such as the performance of the host vehicle, the traveling ability, the own weight, the loading weight, the traveling route, and the current vehicle speed. More specifically, the performance of the host vehicle corresponds to, for example, power performance such as acceleration, output, maximum speed, and deceleration performance.

  The traveling ability is determined in consideration of, for example, climbing information and traffic congestion information of the traveling route, and when the host vehicle travels along the traveling route, what kind of speed, acceleration, and deceleration are Is an indicator that In other words, the traveling ability changes in accordance with the conditions and the environment of the traveling route.

  The communication device 5 is a portion that acquires the vehicle state and the like of another vehicle existing around the host vehicle by so-called inter-vehicle communication, and transmits information of the host vehicle. The information on the own vehicle that can be transmitted by the communication device 5 is vehicle information that can be acquired by the vehicle state acquisition unit 4, and the vehicle states of other vehicles that can be acquired are also the same. The communication that can be performed by the communication device 5 is not limited to the inter-vehicle communication, as long as the vehicle state of the nearby vehicle can be acquired by communication. For example, road-vehicle communication may be performed.

  The navigation device 2, the radar device 3, the vehicle state acquisition unit 4, and the communication device 5 are electrically connected to the travel control unit 6. The travel control unit 6 is also electrically connected to the drive unit 7, the braking unit 8 and the steering unit 9 of the vehicle, and controls these units to control the behavior of the vehicle.

  The drive unit 7 is a part that drives the vehicle to travel, and is, for example, an engine, an electric motor, or both in the case of a hybrid vehicle.

  The braking unit 8 is a portion that brakes the vehicle, and includes, for example, a mechanical brake that generates a braking force by friction, an exhaust brake that generates a braking force other than friction, a retarder, a regenerative brake, and the like.

  The steering unit 9 is a part that steers the vehicle, and is, for example, a steering.

  The traveling control unit 6 is configured by an ECU (Electronic Control Unit), and controls the whole of the row traveling device 1, and is mainly configured of a computer including, for example, a central processing unit (CPU) and a random access memory (RAM). It is done.

  The travel control unit 6 receives and transmits desired formation of a row travel with another vehicle via the communication device 5, and executes a travel (group travel) in which a row is formed with another vehicle that meets the conditions. For example, the destination is the same, the set vehicle speed is within the allowable range of the host vehicle, and there is no difference between the host vehicle and the vehicle state.

  The traveling control unit 6 according to the present embodiment is configured such that a plurality of vehicles including the host vehicle are traveling in a row, and when a group of vehicles in the row traveling overtakes another vehicle while traveling on a highway or the like, Perform overtaking control to overtake without breaking the order of rows.

  Here, FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing a flow (a) to (f) in which a group of vehicles in a row traveling overtakes the preceding vehicle according to the present embodiment. The overtaking control of the formation running which the part 6 performs is demonstrated.

  In FIG. 2A, a group of vehicles A in which five vehicles A1, A2, A3, A4 and A5 (vehicles A1 to A5) are traveling in a row are traveling on a traveling lane R1 of a highway, Another car B (preceding car) is traveling ahead. Each of the vehicles A1 to A5 is equipped with a row traveling device 1 and performs row control while exchanging various information by inter-vehicle communication.

  When one of the vehicles in the vehicle group A detects the preceding other vehicle B by the radar device 3 or the communication device 5, it calculates the distance between the other vehicle B and the vehicle speed. Then, the traveling control unit 6 compares the set vehicle speed of the vehicle group A with the vehicle speed of the other vehicle B, and the vehicle speed of the other vehicle B is slower than the set vehicle speed of the vehicle group A by a specified speed or more. When the inter-vehicle distance with another vehicle B catches up to a predetermined distance, each of the vehicles A1 to A5 starts overtaking control for passing the other vehicle B.

  The traveling control unit 6 of each vehicle A1 to A5 of the vehicle group A performs inter-vehicle communication with the vehicles A1 to A5 and the other vehicle B in the vehicle group A via the communication device 5 to execute overtaking control. After sharing the other vehicle states and the vehicle speed information of the other vehicle B, the respective vehicles A1 to A5 are controlled so as to overtake the other vehicle B in the following procedure.

  Then, as shown in FIG. 2B, first, the rearmost vehicle A5 of the vehicle group A changes lanes to the overtaking lane R2 and accelerates to a vehicle speed faster than that of the other vehicle B.

  Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 2C, the vehicle A4 on the rear side of the vehicle group A is similarly changed to the overtaking lane R2 and accelerated so as to follow the vehicle A5.

  Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 2D, the vehicles are changed to the passing lane R2 and accelerated in the order of the vehicles on the rear side of the vehicle group A to the vehicles on the front side (in the order of A3, A2 and A1). On the other hand, after confirming that the vehicle A5 traveling on the passing lane R2 comes ahead of the other vehicle B and that the distance between the other vehicle B and the other vehicle B is sufficiently open that the lane change can be made safely. , Change the lane to return to the driving lane R1.

  Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 2E, the vehicles A4 to A1 following the vehicle A5 similarly change lanes to the traveling lane R1 in the order (A4, A3, A2, and A1 in this order) that came out before. .

  Finally, as shown in FIG. 2F, when all the vehicles A1 to A5 change lanes to the traveling lane R1, the inter-vehicle distances are adjusted to reconfigure the vehicle group A.

  As described above, when the vehicle speed of the preceding other vehicle B is lower than the set vehicle speed of the vehicle group A including the own vehicle, the vehicle running on the front side from the rearmost vehicle A5 of the vehicle group A By executing the overtaking control so as to overtake the other vehicle B in the order of A4 to A1, the acceleration of the vehicle to be overtaken and the distance required for overtaking can be made substantially equal without breaking the order of the row traveling.

  In the overtaking control, first, the last vehicle A5 overtakes the other vehicle B and comes out in front of the other vehicle B, thereby preventing the other vehicle B from accelerating rapidly and interrupting the formation. it can.

  From the above, according to the row traveling device 1 according to the present embodiment, it is possible to prevent the row order from being broken without letting another vehicle into the row of row running when the leading vehicle is overtaken.

  This completes the description of the embodiments of the present invention, but the aspects of the present invention are not limited to this embodiment.

  For example, in the above embodiment, the vehicle group A is configured of five vehicles, but the number of vehicles that form a row traveling is not limited to this.

1 formation traveling device 2 navigation device 3 radar device 4 vehicle state acquisition unit (vehicle state acquisition means)
5 Communication device (inter-vehicle communication means)
6 Traveling control unit (vehicle traveling control means)
7 drive unit 8 control unit 9 steering unit A vehicle group A1 to A5 vehicle B other vehicle R1 traveling lane R2 overtaking lane

Claims (1)

Vehicle state acquisition means for acquiring the state of the host vehicle;
Inter-vehicle communication means for exchanging vehicle status with other vehicles;
And vehicle running control means for controlling the vehicle so as to perform row running with other vehicles based on the vehicle states of the own vehicle and the other vehicles.
The vehicle travel control means is configured to start from the rearmost vehicle of the vehicle group when the vehicle group traveling in row travel catches up with the preceding vehicle traveling at a speed slower than the set vehicle speed of the vehicle group by a specified speed or more. A formation traveling device characterized in that after passing over the preceding vehicle and overtaking the preceding vehicle, the vehicle travels in front of the vehicle which has previously passed.

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