JP2019125185A - Passage-of-vehicle propriety determination method - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a passage propriety determination method that is implemented in a vehicle controller mounted on a vehicle and that has higher safety for a road restricting a height.SOLUTION: A passage-of-vehicle propriety determination method is implemented by a control unit of a vehicle controller that is mounted on a vehicle and includes an information acquisition unit which acquires information on a road around a vehicle, and includes a step of detecting a road restricting a height, in a traveling direction of the vehicle, a step of comparing the height of the vehicle with the restricted height of the road in the event that the road restricting a height is detected, a step of detecting the water level of the road restricting a height, in the event that the height of the vehicle falls below the restricted height, a step of measuring a vertical difference between a top of a passable space of the road restricting a height and the water level in the event that the water level is detected, a step of estimating a water-covered depth on the basis of the restricted height of the road restricting a height and the vertical difference, and a step of providing a predetermined output which indicates that passage is disabled, in the event that the water-covered depth is equal to or larger than a predetermined value.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for determining whether or not a vehicle can pass, which is executed by a vehicle control device mounted on a vehicle or the like.

  Some roads, such as underpasses, have height restrictions for vehicles that can pass because there is an obstacle at the top. In an automatic driving device mounted on a vehicle, it is preferable to determine whether or not the vehicle can pass a road having a height restriction on a route, and when it can not pass, it is preferable to stop or detour. Patent Document 1 discloses a vehicle approach determination device that determines passability based on the height of the host vehicle and the height restriction of the road.

  On the other hand, in order to avoid a situation where a vehicle enters a road flooded by rainwater or the like and get out of control, an in-vehicle apparatus that acquires the flood depth of the surrounding road and warns the user is disclosed in Patent Document 2, 3 discloses.

International Publication No. 2017/72878 JP, 2016-149015, A JP 2004-341795 A

  Conventionally, for roads with height restrictions, as in Patent Document 1, passability is determined based on only the restriction height. An object of the present invention is to provide a safer passage determination method for a road having a height limitation, which is executed by a vehicle control device mounted on a vehicle.

  In order to solve the above problems, according to one aspect of the present invention, a vehicle controllability of a vehicle control unit including a control unit and an information acquisition unit including a control unit and an information acquisition unit mounted on the vehicle and acquiring information on roads around the vehicle It is a determination method, and the step of detecting a road having a height restriction in the traveling direction of the vehicle based on the information acquired by the information acquisition unit, and the height of the vehicle when a road having a height restriction is detected The step of comparing the height limit of the road having the height limit, and the water surface on the road having the height limit based on the information acquired by the information acquisition unit when the height of the vehicle is less than the limit height. Detecting the height of the road, measuring the height difference between the top of the passable space of the road having the height restriction when the water surface is detected, and the height difference between the height of the road having the height restriction and the height difference And based on the flood depth Comprising the steps of constant, if flood depth is greater than a predetermined value, and performing a predetermined output indicating that it is an impassable.

  As a result, for roads with height restrictions, even if the height restrictions are satisfied, it is possible to determine that the road is impassable, based on the flood depth.

  According to the present invention, as described above, a vehicle whose reliability and safety have been improved can be determined based on not only the height limit but also the flood depth for a road with a height limit. It is possible to provide a passability decision method of

A functional block diagram of a vehicle control device according to an embodiment of the present invention and its periphery The flowchart which shows the processing which the vehicle control control which relates to one execution form of this invention does The figure which shows typically the vehicle which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention, the road with height restrictions, and a flood situation.

(Overview)
In the passability determination method of a vehicle according to the present invention, for a road with a height restriction, even if the height of the vehicle is less than the restriction height, it is not possible to pass if the flood depth is equal to or more than a predetermined value. It is determined that As a result, the reliability and safety of the passability judgment for the road with height restriction can be improved.

(Embodiment)
Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

<Configuration>
FIG. 1 shows a functional block diagram of a vehicle control device 10 and its periphery in the present embodiment. The vehicle control device 10 is mounted on a vehicle and includes an information acquisition unit 11 and a control unit 12. The vehicle control device 10 is included in, for example, an automatic control ECU (Electronic Control Unit) that performs various driving support. The information acquisition unit 11 represents various conditions of the road around the vehicle from the captured image of the camera 21 mounted on the vehicle, the map information stored in the map information storage unit 22 and the infrastructure such as the server of the traffic information sharing service. Information is acquired, and the control unit 12 executes various processing for driving support based on this. The vehicle control device 10 may further include a memory and an arithmetic unit as appropriate to execute the process. The notification unit 30 is an HMI (Human Machine Interface) that performs various notifications to the user who is the driver. The notification unit 30 may include a communication device that transmits various information to surrounding vehicles or servers outside the vehicles. The control unit 12 also communicates with other devices (not shown) mounted on the vehicle to acquire various states of the vehicle, and appropriately control various operation units such as driving of the vehicle, steering, brake, etc. Provide support.

<Processing>
Hereinafter, a method of determining whether or not a vehicle can pass will be described, which is executed by the control unit 12 of the vehicle control device 10. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the passability determination process. FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically showing a vehicle, a road with a height limit, and a flood situation.

  (Step S101): Based on one or both of the photographed image of the camera 21 acquired by the information acquisition unit 11 and the map information stored in the map information storage unit 22, the traveling direction of the vehicle (forward of the route) To detect that there is a road with a height limit and the limit height H. Alternatively, the control unit 12 may detect these by receiving information from a server or the like outside the vehicle. The subsequent flow is started upon such detection.

  (Step S102): The control unit 12 compares the limit height H with the height of the host vehicle. If the limit height H is larger than the height of the host vehicle, the process proceeds to step S104. If not, the process proceeds to step S103.

  (Step S103): In this step, since the height of the own vehicle is equal to or more than the restriction height H, it can be determined that the own vehicle can not pass through this road, and the control unit 12 indicates this. Output is performed to the notification unit 30. The notification unit 30 notifies the user of this by displaying a warning or the like. This is the end of the flow.

  (Step S104): The control unit 12 determines whether or not there is a water surface on a road having a height restriction. This determination can be made based on, for example, the difference in luminance based on the difference in light reflectance between the road surface without water and the water surface in the captured image of the camera 21 acquired by the information acquisition unit 11. Alternatively, the determination may be made by receiving information from a server or the like outside the vehicle. If it is determined that there is no water surface on the road, the height of the vehicle is less than the limit height H, and there is no flooding, so it can be determined that the vehicle can pass through the road. This is the end of the flow. If it is determined that there is a water surface on the road, the process proceeds to step S105.

  (Step S105): The control unit 12 measures the height difference h between the top of the passable space of the road with height restriction and the water surface. This measurement can be performed, for example, using various methods such as performing coordinate calculation by performing three-dimensional modeling based on the captured image of the camera 21 acquired by the information acquisition unit 11. Note that the top of the passable section is a part that is the basis of the height restriction, and for example, a ceiling surface of the underpass, a marker indicating the restriction height position provided at the entrance, or the like can be adopted.

  Further, the control unit 12 estimates the submersion depth d by calculation of (limit height H)-(height difference h). Alternatively, in the case where the photographed image includes an image of a scale indicating the flood amount previously installed on the road, the control unit 12 may calculate the flood depth d based on this. Alternatively, instead of the measurement, the submersion depth d may be obtained by receiving information from an external server or the like. When the submersion depth d is estimated by calculation of (restriction height H)-(height difference h), the current submersion depth can be obtained even when no marker or the like is installed, and Also, the present flood depth can be obtained more reliably than in the case of obtaining the information updated last from a server outside the vehicle or the like.

  (Step S106): The control unit 12 compares the flood depth d with a predetermined value. The predetermined value is determined, for example, by an endurance water level which is a flood depth at which the host vehicle or a general vehicle can travel safely. If the submersion depth d is equal to or less than the predetermined value, the height of the host vehicle is less than the limit height H as determined in step S102, and the submersion amount is less than the endurance water level of the host vehicle. Can pass this road. This is the end of the flow. If the submersion depth d is larger than the predetermined value, the process proceeds to step S107.

  (Step S107): In this step, although the height of the host vehicle is less than the limit height H, the host vehicle can not pass this road because the flood amount exceeds the endurance water level of the host vehicle. It can be determined that The control unit 12 provides the notification unit 30 with an output indicating this. The notification unit 30 notifies the user of this. This notification can be performed by a warning sound, a warning display, or movement of a seat belt, a handle, vibration of a seat, or a combination of these. Alternatively, information including the submersion depth d may be notified to servers outside the vehicle and vehicles in the vicinity. In addition to or in place of the information notification, the surrounding vehicles may be alerted by lighting the hazard lamp of the vehicle. Further, the control unit 12 may control a brake or the like to automatically decelerate or stop the vehicle regardless of the user operation. Further, the degree of deceleration may be variably controlled according to the submersion depth d. In this case, when a user's brake operation is detected within a predetermined time after displaying a warning to the user, the control unit 12 may not perform control such as automatic deceleration. In steps S106 and S107, a plurality of values are provided as predetermined values to be compared with the submersion depth d, and a plurality of degrees of danger are associated according to the comparison result with each value, and the processing content in the warning It may be different. This is the end of the flow.

  According to the above flow, it is judged whether the road with height restriction is passable or not. The control unit 12 repeatedly executes the above flow each time a road having a height restriction is newly detected.

<Effect>
As described above, according to the present invention, for roads with height restrictions, passability is determined based on both the restriction height and the flood depth. In particular, even when the height restriction is satisfied, if the flood depth is equal to or more than the predetermined value, it can be determined that the passage is not possible, so it is possible to provide a more reliable and safe passage determination method.

  The present invention can be understood not only as a passability determination method, but also as a program that describes the processing or a vehicle control device that executes the program.

  The present invention is useful for vehicle control devices and the like.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 vehicle control apparatus 11 information acquisition part 12 control part 21 camera 22 map information storage part 30 notification part

Claims (1)

An information acquisition unit mounted on a vehicle and acquiring information on roads around the vehicle, and a control unit of a vehicle control apparatus including a control unit execute the vehicle passability determination method,
Detecting a road having a height restriction in the traveling direction of the vehicle based on the information acquired by the information acquisition unit;
Comparing the height of the vehicle with the limit height of the road having the height limit when a road having the height limit is detected;
Detecting the water surface on the road having the height restriction based on the information acquired by the information acquisition unit when the height of the vehicle is less than the restriction height;
Measuring a height difference between the top of the passable space of the road having the height restriction and the water surface when the water surface is detected;
Estimating the submersion depth based on the restriction height of the road having the height restriction and the height difference;
And a step of performing a predetermined output indicating impassability when the submersion depth is equal to or more than a predetermined value.

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