JP2022002921A - Vehicle control device - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a vehicle control device capable of ensuring an opportunity to stop an engine while a vehicle is in automatic operation.SOLUTION: A control device 2 comprises: a demand calculation section 21 which calculates demand power for an engine 3 on the basis of power required for travel of a vehicle 1, power required for charging and discharging of a battery 5 and power consumed with an automatic operation control device 6; and a power supply control section 24 which supplies the automatic operation control device 6 with the power either generated through the engine 3 or charged in the battery 5. The power supply control section 24 does not supply the automatic operation control device 6 with the power generated through the engine 3 when the vehicle is stopped.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

The present disclosure relates to a vehicle control device.

Patent Document 1 discloses a hybrid vehicle that prohibits idle stop during auto-cruise in order to secure electric power for controlling an auto-cruise traveling at a target vehicle speed set by a user by power generation of an engine.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-133682

In the method of Patent Document 1, since idle stop is prohibited during auto-cruise, the chance of stopping the engine is reduced, and the engine is operated in a stop scene where people are relatively likely to feel NV (noise, vibration). There is a risk of deterioration of NV performance.

It is an object of the present disclosure to provide a vehicle control device capable of ensuring an opportunity to stop an engine during automatic driving.

The vehicle control device according to one aspect of the embodiment of the present invention is a vehicle control device including an engine, a motor generator, a battery, and an automatic driving control device for automatically controlling a driving operation to drive the vehicle. A request amount calculation unit that calculates the required amount of power required for the engine based on the power required for driving the vehicle, the power required for charging / discharging the battery, and the power consumed by the automatic operation control device. The power supply control unit includes a power supply control unit that supplies power to the automatic operation control device by either power generation by the engine or power supply from the battery, and the power supply control unit is generated by the engine when the vehicle is stopped. Power is not supplied to the automatic operation control device.

According to the present disclosure, it is possible to provide a vehicle control device that can secure an opportunity to stop the engine during automatic driving.

Block diagram of the part related to engine driving force control in the vehicle according to the embodiment The figure explaining the concept of the correction process of this embodiment Flowchart of correction processing of automatic driving power consumption The figure explaining the switching process of the traveling flag of steps S1 to S4 of the flowchart of FIG. The figure explaining the annealing process of step S8 of the flowchart of FIG.

Hereinafter, embodiments will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In order to facilitate understanding of the description, the same components are designated by the same reference numerals as possible in the drawings, and duplicate description is omitted.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a portion of the vehicle 1 according to the embodiment related to engine driving force control. As shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle 1 includes a control device 2 (vehicle control device), an engine 3, a motor generator 4, a battery 5, and an automatic driving control device 6.

The engine 3 and the motor generator 4 are power sources for the vehicle 1. The vehicle 1 of the present embodiment is a hybrid vehicle including an engine 3 and a motor generator 4 as a power source. The motor generator 4 also has a power generation function. It is electrically connected to the battery 5 and inputs and outputs electric power to and from the battery 5. The electric power generated by the motor generator 4 can be stored in the battery 5, and the motor generator 4 can be driven by the electric power supplied from the battery 5.

The vehicle 1 to be controlled in the present embodiment can be automatically driven by automatically controlling the driving operation of the vehicle 1. The automatic driving defined in this embodiment is a control system for the vehicle 1 that recognizes the driving environment, monitors the surrounding conditions, and performs all driving operations such as starting / accelerating, steering, and braking / stopping. Includes automatic driving performed by the vehicle 1, and also includes those performed by the control system of the vehicle 1 as part of the above driving operation. Further, the vehicle 1 to be controlled in the present embodiment can be driven by automatic driving even in a situation where there are no passengers (driver, passenger, passenger, etc.) in the vehicle. That is, the vehicle 1 can be operated by manned automatic driving in a state where a passenger is present in the vehicle and unmanned automatic driving in which the vehicle is driven by automatic driving in a state where no passenger is present in the vehicle. The vehicle 1 has an automated driving mode in which the vehicle is driven by automatic driving and a driver who operates the vehicle 1 as defined by "level 4" in the automation level of SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) in the United States. It may be configured so that the manual operation mode performed by the user can be selected.

The automatic driving control device 6 is a general term including various sensors, actuators, and auxiliary devices provided in the vehicle 1 in order to realize the above-mentioned automatic driving.

“Sensors” include external sensors (for example, in-vehicle cameras, RADAR (Radio Detection and Ranging), LIDAR (Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging), ultrasonic sensors) that detect the driving environment and surrounding conditions outside the vehicle 1. GPS (Global Positioning System) GPS receiver that receives radio waves from satellites, internal sensors that detect the running state of vehicle 1 and the operating state and behavior of each part (for example, vehicle speed sensor, engine rotation speed sensor, motor rotation speed) Sensor (or resolver), throttle opening sensor, accelerator sensor, brake sensor (or brake switch), steering angle sensor, front-rear acceleration sensor, lateral acceleration sensor, yaw rate sensor, battery sensor, seating sensor, seat belt wearing sensor, biosensor , Motion detection sensor, etc.)

The "actuator" is involved in driving operations such as starting / accelerating, steering, and braking / stopping of the vehicle 1 when the vehicle 1 is automatically driven, and is involved in driving operations such as starting / accelerating, steering, braking / stopping, and the engine 3, the motor generator 4, the braking device, and the vehicle 1. , Includes actuating devices for controlling steering devices and the like. As the main actuator, for example, a throttle actuator, a brake actuator, a steering actuator and the like are provided. As described above, the vehicle 1 includes an engine 3 and a motor generator 4 as power sources. Therefore, this actuator includes an actuator for controlling the engine 3 and the motor generator 4, an operating device, and the like. Auxiliary equipment also includes equipment / devices that are not directly involved in the driving operation of the vehicle 1, such as wipers, headlights, turn signals, air conditioners, and audio devices.

The control device 2 controls the operation of various elements such as the drive source of the vehicle 1 based on the input information from various sensors and the like in the vehicle 1. The control device 2 has a required amount calculation unit 21, a vehicle stop determination unit 22, a required amount correction unit 23, and a power supply control unit 24, as functions related to driving force control of the engine 3, in particular.

Regarding engine driving force control, the input information to the control device 2 includes, for example, peripheral information, SOC (battery state), vehicle speed, battery input / output restriction Win, Wout, and automatic operation power consumption. The "peripheral information" includes, for example, information such as the number and position of pedestrians around the vehicle 1 and a traveling time zone. "Automated driving power consumption" is the amount of power consumed by the automated driving control device. Peripheral information and information on automatic driving power consumption can be acquired from the automatic driving control device 6, the ECU that manages the operation of the automatic driving control device 6, and the like. Information on the SOC of the battery 5 and input / output restrictions can be obtained from, for example, a battery ECU that manages the operation of the battery 5. The vehicle speed information can be obtained from, for example, a vehicle speed sensor mounted on the vehicle 1.

The required amount calculation unit 21 calculates the required amount of power (engine required power) required for the engine 3 based on various conditions such as the running state of the vehicle 1. The required amount calculation unit 21 is, for example, the power required for traveling of the vehicle 1 (traveling power), the power required for charging / discharging the battery 5 (battery required power), and the power consumed by the automatic driving control device 6 (driving power). The sum of the power consumed by automatic driving can be calculated as the required power of the engine. That is, the required engine power can be calculated by the following equation (1).

Engine required power = Driving power + Battery required power
＋ Automated driving power consumption ・ ・ ・ (1)

The automatic driving consumption power is, for example, the required power of the automatic driving control device 6 estimated from the information of the vehicle 1 related to the automatic driving acquired by various sensors of the vehicle 1. This required power may be configured to be estimated in the vehicle while the vehicle 1 is traveling, or may be configured to relate the acquisition status and the required power in advance and set a correction value from the acquired information in the vehicle. Further, as the automatic operation power consumption, as shown in FIG. 1, the information of the automatic operation power consumption input to the control device 2 may be used.

Since the power consumption of the automatic driving control device 6 is large, it is necessary to manage the power of the entire vehicle 1. In order to prevent the SOC of the battery 5 from being exhausted, the power consumption of the automatic operation control device 6 is mainly generated by the engine 3. Therefore, in the vehicle 1 provided with the automatic driving control device 6 as in the present embodiment, it is necessary to include the automatic driving consumption power in the engine required power.

The stop determination unit 22 determines whether or not the vehicle 1 is in the stopped state. The vehicle stop determination unit 22 determines whether or not the vehicle is stopped based on the vehicle speed information acquired from, for example, the vehicle speed sensor.

When the vehicle 1 is determined to be stopped by the stop determination unit 22, the required amount correction unit 23 corrects the automatic driving consumption power to be 0 kW among the engine required power calculated by the required amount calculation unit 21. .. That is, the required amount correction unit 23 corrects the engine required power so that the automatic driving consumption power is not covered by the power generation of the engine 3 but is covered by the power supply of the battery 5 while the vehicle is stopped. It should be noted that the required amount correction unit 23 may be configured to determine whether or not the vehicle 1 is stopped, without making it a separate element from the vehicle stop determination unit 22.

The power supply control unit 24 controls to switch between power generation by the engine 3 and power supply from the battery 5 to supply power to the automatic operation control device 6. In particular, in the present embodiment, when the vehicle 1 is stopped, the power supply control unit 24 feeds power to the automatic driving control device 6 by the engine 3 when the vehicle is stopped, in conjunction with the processing of the required amount correction unit 23. Is not performed, and control is performed so that power is supplied from the battery 5 to the automatic operation control device 6.

Each function of the control device 2 can be realized by a single or a plurality of ECUs (Electronic Control Units) mounted on the hybrid vehicle 1 and controlling the drive of each part of the vehicle. The ECU is physically an electronic circuit mainly composed of a well-known microcomputer including a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a RAM (Random Access Memory), a ROM (Read Only Memory), and an interface. Each function of the above-mentioned control device 2 is to operate various devices in the vehicle 1 under the control of the CPU by loading the application program stored in the ROM into the RAM and executing the application program in the CPU in the ECU. , It is realized by reading and writing data in RAM and ROM.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the concept of the correction process of the present embodiment.

The power consumption of the automatic driving control device 6 is relatively large as compared with other elements in the vehicle 1. Therefore, in order to prevent the electric energy (SOC) of the battery 5 from being exhausted, the power consumption of the automatic operation control device 6 is conventionally covered by the power of the engine 3 (for example, the motor using the driving force of the engine 3). The power generated by the generator 4 is used). That is, in the case of the vehicle 1 provided with the automatic driving control device 6 as in the present embodiment, as shown in the above equation (1) and as shown in FIG. 2, the engine required power includes the automatic driving consumption power. included.

Further, the power consumption of the automatic driving control device 6 changes depending on the surrounding environment such as the distance and the number of approaching vehicles and pedestrians, and the range of change is large (for example, maximum 5 kW). In particular, when the distance to approaching vehicles, pedestrians, etc. is short or the number is large (for example, when waiting for a signal in an urban area or when there is a traffic jam on a highway), the power consumption of the automatic driving control device 6 increases, so that automatic driving is performed. The power consumption also increases, and the required power of the engine also increases. Therefore, from the viewpoint of energy management, it is appropriate to stop the engine 3 and switch to running with the power of the battery 5 while the vehicle is stopped, such as waiting for a signal in an urban area or in a traffic jam on a highway. However, in the conventional method in which the power consumption of the automatic operation control device 6 is always generated by the engine 3, the engine 3 cannot be stopped even when the vehicle is stopped during the automatic operation.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, the required amount correction unit 23 corrects the automatic driving consumption power, and while the vehicle is stopped, corrects the automatic driving consumption power to 0 kW to request an engine. Make sure that the power does not include the power consumed by autonomous driving. That is, the required engine power can be calculated by the following equation (2).

Engine required power = Driving power + Battery required power
+ Corrected automatic driving power consumption (0 kW when the vehicle is stopped) ・ ・ ・ (2)

As a result, the power supply to the automatic driving control device 6 by the power generation of the engine 3 can be stopped while the vehicle is stopped without depending on the amount of power consumption of the automatic driving control device 6, so that the engine 3 can be stopped during the automatic driving. You can secure the opportunity to stop.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the automatic operation power consumption correction process. The flowchart shown in FIG. 3 is executed, for example, at predetermined intervals during automatic operation by the control device 2.

In step S1, the stop determination unit 22 determines whether or not the vehicle speed of the vehicle 1 is 0 km / h. The vehicle stop determination unit 22 determines whether the vehicle is stopped based on the vehicle speed information acquired from, for example, the vehicle speed sensor. Even if the vehicle 1 is not completely stationary, for example, if the vehicle speed is as low as walking speed, it is determined that the vehicle speed is 0 km / h in the determination of this step (vehicle speed ≈ 0 km / h).

When it is determined in step S1 that "vehicle speed ≈ 0 km / h" (Yes in S1), the process proceeds to step S2, the vehicle stop determination unit 22 determines that the vehicle is stopped, the running flag is set to OFF, and step S5. Proceed to.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S1 that "vehicle speed ≈ 0 km / h" (No in S1), the process proceeds to step S3, and it is determined whether the vehicle speed is higher than 20 km / h. When the vehicle speed is higher than 20 km / h (Yes in S3), the process proceeds to step S4, the stop determination unit 22 determines that the vehicle 1 is not stopped, the running flag is set to ON, and the process proceeds to step S5.

If the vehicle speed is 20 km / h or less in step S3 (No in S3), the traveling flag keeps the previous value and proceeds to step S5 without performing step S4.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the switching process of the traveling flag in steps S1 to S4 of the flowchart of FIG. The horizontal axis of FIG. 4 indicates the vehicle speed, and the vertical axis indicates the traveling flag (ON, OFF). As shown in FIG. 4, in the transition from the traveling state to the stopped state, the flag is switched from ON to OFF when the vehicle speed reaches 0 km / h. On the other hand, in the transition from the stopped state to the running state, the flag does not switch from OFF to ON only when the vehicle speed becomes 0 km or more, but switches when the vehicle reaches 20 km / h.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the vehicle speed is used for determining the stop and the running, and the threshold value for switching the flag in the transition from the stop to the run and the transition from the run to the stop is provided with a dead zone. As a result, it is possible to suppress a sense of discomfort in drivability due to hunting, fluctuations in the number of revolutions, etc. at the time of transition between operation and stop of the engine 3.

The vehicle speed of 20 km / h used as a determination criterion in step S3 can be appropriately changed according to the setting range of the dead zone shown in FIG.

Returning to FIG. 3, in step S5, the demand amount correction unit 23 determines whether or not the traveling flag is ON. When the traveling flag is OFF (No in S5), the process proceeds to step S6, and since the vehicle 1 is stopped, a correction for changing the corrected automatic driving consumption power to 0 kW is performed, and the process proceeds to step S8.

On the other hand, when the traveling flag is ON (Yes in S5), the process proceeds to step S7, and since the vehicle 1 is traveling, the corrected automatic driving consumption power is set as it is before the correction, and the step. Proceed to S8.

In step S8, the corrected automatic operation power consumption power smoothing process calculated in step S7 is performed. When the process of step S8 is completed, the process flow ends.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the annealing process in step S8 of the flowchart of FIG. The horizontal axis of FIG. 5 indicates time, and the vertical axis indicates corrected power consumption (corrected automatic driving power consumption). As shown in FIG. 5, with respect to the corrected automatic driving consumption power, when the power fluctuates due to switching between the stopped state and the running state, that is, when the value of the automatic driving consumption power before correction changes to 0 kW, or vice versa. At the time of transition, a slow change process is performed to moderate the fluctuation of the power consumed by automatic operation. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the automatic driving consumption power fluctuates at a rate of change of a predetermined value or less due to a smoothing process using a predetermined time constant or a change limiting process using a predetermined rate value (rate of change). Correct as follows. As a result, the fluctuation of the engine required power can be moderated, and the discomfort of drivability due to the fluctuation of the rotation speed of the engine 3 can be suppressed.

As described above, the control device 2 according to the present embodiment requests the engine 3 based on the power required for the vehicle 1 to travel, the power required for charging / discharging the battery 5, and the power consumed by the automatic driving control device 6. A request amount calculation unit 21 for calculating the required amount of power to be generated, and a power supply control unit 24 for supplying power to the automatic operation control device 6 by either power generation by the engine 3 or power supply from the battery 5. , And the power supply control unit 24 does not supply power to the automatic driving control device 6 by the engine 3 when the vehicle is stopped. With this configuration, when the vehicle 1 is stopped, the engine 3 can be prevented from being driven to supply power to the automatic driving control device 6, so that an opportunity to stop the engine 3 can be secured, and as a result, (a person is NV). Deterioration of NV performance (due to engine operation in a stopped scene where noise and vibration) are relatively easy to feel can also be suppressed.

In the above configuration, when the vehicle speed is low and the required driving force is small, a configuration may be added to correct the power consumption (automated driving power consumption) of the automatic driving control device 6 generated by the engine 3 to 0 kW. As a result, in a situation where the battery 5 can cover the running power such as when the vehicle speed is low and the required driving force is small, the engine 3 can be stopped by setting the automatic driving consumption power required for the engine 3 to 0 kW. It is possible to suppress the NV (noise, vibration) of the engine 3 and the deterioration of the NV performance. Further, when the vehicle speed is low and the required driving force is large, such as when climbing a hill, by not correcting the above-mentioned automatic driving consumption power, it is possible to prevent the driving force from being insufficient, and it is possible to achieve both drivability.

The present embodiment has been described above with reference to specific examples. However, the present disclosure is not limited to these specific examples. These specific examples with appropriate design changes by those skilled in the art are also included in the scope of the present disclosure as long as they have the features of the present disclosure. Each element included in each of the above-mentioned specific examples, its arrangement, conditions, a shape, and the like are not limited to those exemplified, and can be appropriately changed. The combinations of the elements included in each of the above-mentioned specific examples can be appropriately changed as long as there is no technical contradiction.

1 Vehicle 2 Control device (Vehicle control device)
21 Request amount calculation unit 22 Stop judgment unit 23 Request amount correction unit 24 Power supply control unit 3 Engine 4 Motor generator 5 Battery 6 Automatic operation control device

Claims (1)

A vehicle control device including an engine, a motor generator, a battery, and an automatic driving control device that automatically controls driving operations to drive the vehicle.
A request amount calculation unit that calculates a required amount of power required for the engine based on the power required for driving the vehicle, the power required for charging / discharging the battery, and the power consumed by the automatic driving control device. ,
A power supply control unit that supplies power to the automatic operation control device by either power generation by the engine or power supply from the battery.
Equipped with
The power supply control unit does not supply power to the automatic driving control device by the engine when the vehicle is stopped.
Vehicle control device.

Images