JP2022045160A - Vehicle control device - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a vehicle control device that can suppress fuel consumption and electricity consumption from deteriorating when accelerating a vehicle.SOLUTION: A vehicle control device 100 comprises: a road-shape information obtaining part 112 that obtains road-shape information about a route on which a vehicle is travelling; an air resistance predicting part 114 that predicts air resistance in a predetermined distance range from a current position of the vehicle, on the route on which the vehicle is running, on the basis of the road-shape information; and a speed control part 116a that controls a vehicle speed so that a target speed can be maintained without depending on operation by a driver in the vehicle. The speed control part 116a includes a speed recovery control part 116b that accelerates the vehicle in a section in which the air resistance is predicted to be smaller in the predetermined distance range, when accelerating the speed of the vehicle, which is lower than a target speed, to the target vehicle speed.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

The present invention relates to a vehicle control device.

Conventionally, regarding an auto-cruise control device for a vehicle, a technique of calculating a road gradient based on atmospheric pressure and GPS data and controlling a driving force adjusting means based on the road gradient to perform a constant speed cruise is known (for example). , Patent Document 1).

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2006-226178

The running resistance generated when the vehicle is running is classified into acceleration resistance, gradient resistance, rolling resistance, and air resistance. Of these running resistances, air resistance is easily affected by the surrounding environment, terrain, weather conditions, etc. of the route on which the vehicle travels.

On the other hand, recently, vehicles equipped with driving support systems such as adaptive cruise control have appeared. In these driving support systems, for example, when the following preceding vehicle no longer exists in front due to a lane change or the like, the speed may be restored to the target speed. In such a situation where speed recovery is performed, if the vehicle accelerates while traveling in a section where air resistance is large, fuel consumption or electricity cost may decrease.

However, the technique described in Patent Document 1 focuses only on the gradient resistance among the traveling resistances and does not consider the air resistance at all, so that there is a problem that the fuel consumption or the electric cost is lowered when the vehicle is accelerated.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle control device capable of suppressing a decrease in fuel consumption or electricity cost when the vehicle is accelerated.

The gist of this disclosure is as follows.

(1) The road terrain information acquisition unit that acquires the road terrain information of the route on which the vehicle travels,
An air resistance prediction unit that predicts the air resistance from the current position of the vehicle to a predetermined distance on the route on which the vehicle travels based on the road topography information.
It is equipped with a speed control unit that controls the vehicle speed so as to maintain the target speed regardless of the operation of the driver of the vehicle.
The speed control unit
A vehicle control device including a speed recovery control unit that accelerates a vehicle in a section where the vehicle speed is lower than the target speed and the air resistance is predicted to be smaller within a predetermined distance when the vehicle is accelerated to the target speed.

According to the present invention, it is possible to suppress a decrease in fuel consumption or electricity cost when the vehicle is accelerated.

It is a schematic block diagram of the vehicle control system in which the vehicle control device according to one Embodiment of this invention is mounted. It is a schematic diagram which shows the functional block of the processor of a control device. It is a characteristic diagram which shows how the vehicle speed and power consumption change in time series while the vehicle is controlled by ACC when the vehicle uses a motor as a drive source. It is a flowchart which shows the process which the processor of a control apparatus performs at a predetermined control cycle. It is a characteristic diagram which shows how the vehicle speed, the power consumption, and the predicted value of air resistance change in time series while controlling a vehicle by ACC. It is a schematic diagram which shows the specific example that speed recovery is performed based on the road topography information ahead of the current position of a vehicle. It is a schematic diagram which shows the specific example that speed recovery is performed based on the road topography information ahead of the current position of a vehicle. It is a schematic diagram which shows the specific example that speed recovery is performed based on the road topography information ahead of the current position of a vehicle. It is a schematic diagram which shows the specific example that speed recovery is performed based on the meteorological information ahead of the current position of a vehicle.

Hereinafter, some embodiments according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. However, these descriptions are intended merely to illustrate preferred embodiments of the invention and are not intended to limit the invention to such particular embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a vehicle control system 200 in which a vehicle control device according to an embodiment of the present invention is mounted. The vehicle control system 200 is mounted on a vehicle traveling by using, for example, a motor or an engine as a drive source, and improves electricity cost or fuel consumption by controlling the vehicle speed in consideration of the air resistance of the route on which the vehicle travels. The vehicle control system 200 includes an in-vehicle camera 10, a display device 20, a navigation device 30, a positioning information receiver 40, a wireless terminal 50, one or more sensors 60, an operation switch 70, and a vehicle control device 80. , And a control device (Electronic Control Unit (ECU)) 100. Each of the in-vehicle camera 10, display device 20, navigation device 30, positioning information receiver 40, wireless terminal 50, one or more sensors 60, operation switch 70, vehicle control device 80, and control device 100 is a controller area network (Controller Area). It is connected so that it can communicate via an in-vehicle network that complies with standards such as Network (CAN)) and Ethernet (registered trademark) (Ethernet (registered trademark)).

The in-vehicle camera 10 forms an image of a two-dimensional detector composed of an array of photoelectric conversion elements having sensitivity to visible light such as a CCD or C-MOS, and an image of a region to be imaged on the two-dimensional detector. It has an imaging optical system. The in-vehicle camera 10 is provided on the dashboard inside the vehicle, near the windshield, or the like, and looks around the vehicle (for example, in front of the vehicle) at predetermined shooting cycles (for example, 1/30 second to 1/10 second). Take a picture and generate an image showing the environment around the vehicle. The image obtained by the vehicle-mounted camera 10 is preferably a color image. Further, the vehicle-mounted camera 10 may be composed of a stereo camera. Each time the in-vehicle camera 10 generates an image, the generated image is output to the control device 100 via the in-vehicle network.

The display device 20 is composed of, for example, a liquid crystal display (LCD) or the like, and is provided in a place where the driver can easily see, such as near a meter panel or a dashboard.

The navigation device 30 obtains a traveling route from the current position of the vehicle to the moving destination according to a predetermined route search method such as Dijkstra's algorithm. The navigation device 30 includes a memory for storing map information. The map information may be stored in the memory 120 of the control device 100. The map information includes road topography information described later.

The positioning information receiver 40 acquires positioning information representing the current position and posture of the vehicle. For example, the positioning information receiver 40 can be a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver. Each time the positioning information receiver 40 receives the positioning information, the positioning information receiver 40 outputs the acquired positioning information to the control device 100 via the in-vehicle network.

The wireless terminal 50 includes, for example, an antenna and a signal processing circuit that executes various processes related to wireless communication such as modulation and demodulation of wireless signals. The wireless terminal 50 receives a downlink radio signal from a radio base station or the like, and a signal transmitted from the downlink radio signal from an external server, another vehicle, or the like to the vehicle (for example, road topography information and weather, which will be described later). Information etc.) is taken out and output to the control device 100.

The sensor 60 is a sensor that acquires various information related to the driving state of the vehicle, and detects an accelerator opening sensor that detects the accelerator opening, a sensor that detects the braking amount of the brake (brake oil pressure sensor), and a steering angle of the steering wheel. Includes steering angle sensor, vehicle speed sensor that detects vehicle speed, acceleration sensor, gyro sensor, LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), and the like.

The operation switch 70 is provided on or around the steering wheel, and the driver's operation is input. The operation switch 70 has an operation for setting on / off of the adaptive cruise control (ACC: Adaptive Cruise Control, hereinafter referred to as ACC), an operation for setting the target speed of the ACC, and an operation for setting the movement destination of the navigation device 30. Etc. are entered. The operation switch 70 outputs signals corresponding to these operations to the control device 100.

The vehicle control device 80 is various devices related to vehicle control, and is a drive device such as an electric motor or an engine as a drive source for driving the vehicle, a transmission for transmitting the driving force of the drive device to the wheels, and braking for braking the vehicle. Includes devices, steering devices that turn the vehicle, and the like.

The control device 100 is a component that controls the entire vehicle control system 200, and is an aspect of the vehicle control device. The control device 100 includes a processor 110, a memory 120, and a communication interface 130. The processor 110 includes one or a plurality of CPUs (Central Processing Units) and peripheral circuits thereof. The processor 110 may further include other arithmetic circuits such as a logical operation unit, a numerical operation unit, or a graphic processing unit. The memory 120 has, for example, a volatile semiconductor memory and a non-volatile semiconductor memory, and stores data related to the processing according to the present embodiment as necessary. The communication interface 130 has an interface circuit for connecting the control device 100 to the in-vehicle network.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a functional block of the processor 110 of the control device 100. The processor 110 of the control device 100 includes an operating state acquisition unit 111, a road terrain information acquisition unit 112, a weather information acquisition unit 113, an air resistance prediction unit 114, an object detection unit 115, and a vehicle control unit 116. ing. Each of these parts of the processor 110 is, for example, a functional module realized by a computer program running on the processor 110. That is, the functional block of the processor 110 is composed of the processor 110 and a program (software) for operating the processor 110. Further, the program may be recorded in the memory 120 included in the control device 100 or a recording medium connected from the outside. Alternatively, each of these parts of the processor 110 may be a dedicated arithmetic circuit provided in the processor 110.

The vehicle control system 200 configured as described above can control the vehicle by ACC. The control by the ACC is performed when the operation for setting the ACC on is input from the operation switch 70, and is stopped when the operation for setting the ACC is input from the operation switch 70. Further, in the control by the ACC, the vehicle speed is controlled according to the target speed input from the operation switch 70.

In the control by ACC, the vehicle control system 200 controls so that the vehicle runs at the target speed input from the operation switch 70 when the preceding vehicle does not exist, and the preceding vehicle having a speed lower than the target speed exists. In this case, the vehicle is made to follow the preceding vehicle by controlling the vehicle so that the distance between the preceding vehicle and the preceding vehicle is constant with the vehicle speed of the preceding vehicle as the target speed. When the vehicle speed of the following preceding vehicle exceeds the target speed input from the operation switch 70, control is performed so that the vehicle travels at the target speed input from the operation switch 70.

While the vehicle is being controlled by the ACC, when the preceding vehicle that was following changes lanes or the preceding vehicle accelerates, and as a result, the preceding vehicle no longer exists in front, it is input from the operation switch 70. Speed recovery (acceleration) is performed up to the target speed. At that time, since the vehicle is temporarily driven with a high load, the motor or engine is operated in an inefficient region, and the electricity cost or the fuel consumption is reduced.

FIG. 3 is a characteristic diagram showing how the vehicle speed and the power consumption change in time series while the vehicle is controlled by the ACC when the vehicle uses a motor as a drive source. At time t0, the vehicle is traveling at the target speed v set based on the input from the operation switch 70. When the vehicle approaches the preceding vehicle having a low vehicle speed at time t1, the vehicle is decelerated to the vehicle speed of the preceding vehicle, and control is performed to follow the preceding vehicle from time t2. After that, when the preceding vehicle no longer exists in front of the vehicle due to a lane change or the like at time t3, speed recovery is performed between time t3 and time t4. After the speed is restored, the vehicle runs at the target speed v again after the time t4. In such a case, since the vehicle is temporarily driven with a high load between the time t3 and the time t4, the efficiency of the motor is lowered and the power consumption is increased.

Therefore, the control device 100 pre-reads the information of the place where the air resistance is low such as a tunnel from the information of the route where the vehicle is going to be obtained from the navigation device 30, and recovers the speed while traveling in the place where the air resistance is low. Control the timing of speed recovery to do.

Hereinafter, the processing performed by the processor 110 of the control device 100 will be described in detail. Based on the information detected by the sensor 60, the operating state acquisition unit 111 of the processor 110 acquires various information such as the vehicle speed and the steering angle as information indicating the current operating state of the vehicle.

The road terrain information acquisition unit 112 of the processor 110 acquires road information and terrain information of the route on which the vehicle is about to travel from the navigation device 30. The route on which the vehicle is going to be traveled is searched by the navigation device 30 by sending the information of the moving destination input from the operation switch 70 and the positioning information received by the positioning information receiver 40 to the navigation device 30. To. The road topography information acquisition unit 112 acquires road information and topography information related to the searched route from the map information possessed by the navigation device 30. Road information includes information on noise barriers, windbreaks, fences, etc. installed along the road. In addition, the topographical information includes information such as cuts and tunnels through which roads pass. In the following, road information and topographical information are collectively referred to as road topographical information. The road terrain information acquisition unit 112 acquires road terrain information from the current position of the vehicle obtained from the positioning information receiver 40 to x [m] ahead.

The road terrain information acquisition unit 112 may acquire the road terrain information of the route on which the vehicle is going to travel, based on the information obtained from other than the navigation device 30. For example, the road terrain information acquisition unit 112 may acquire road terrain information from a radio signal received by the wireless terminal 50 from an external server. Further, the road terrain information acquisition unit 112 may acquire road terrain information by vehicle-to-vehicle communication from a radio signal received by the radio terminal 50 from another vehicle. Further, the road terrain information acquisition unit 112 may acquire road terrain information from the radio signal received by the radio terminal 50 from the roadside unit by road-to-vehicle communication.

Further, the road terrain information acquisition unit 112 may acquire road terrain information by analyzing an image representing the front of the vehicle generated by the vehicle-mounted camera 10. For example, when a tunnel exists in front of the vehicle, by analyzing the image of the vehicle-mounted camera 10, information indicating that the tunnel exists in front of the vehicle is acquired, and the distance to the tunnel is acquired. In this case, the road terrain information acquisition unit 112 acquires the road terrain information by performing the same processing as the object detection unit 115 described later.

The weather information acquisition unit 113 of the processor 110 acquires the weather information received by the wireless terminal 50 from an external server or the like. In particular, the meteorological information acquisition unit 113 acquires information on the wind direction and the wind force on the route on which the vehicle is going to travel as meteorological information. The weather information acquisition unit 113 acquires weather information from the current position of the vehicle obtained from the positioning information receiver 40 to x [m] ahead.

The air resistance prediction unit 114 of the processor 110 predicts the air resistance from the current position of the vehicle to x [m] ahead on the route on which the vehicle is about to travel, based on the road terrain information acquired by the road terrain information acquisition unit 112. do. For example, if the tunnel exists from the current position of the vehicle to x [m] ahead, the air resistance prediction unit 114 follows the flow of the vehicle in the tunnel based on the road topography information acquired by the road topography information acquisition unit 112. It is predicted that the air resistance in the section of the tunnel is "low" because the tailwind is generated due to this and if there is a ventilation device in the tunnel, the tailwind is generated by the ventilation. In particular, when the inside of the tunnel is not two-way, such as a tunnel on a highway, the vehicle travels in one direction, so that the vehicle is easily affected by the tailwind. In addition, in a tunnel on a highway, a ventilation device generates wind due to ventilation in the direction of vehicle flow. Therefore, the air resistance prediction unit 114 may predict that the air resistance of the tunnel on the highway is lower than that of the tunnel on the general road.

Further, the air resistance prediction unit 114 has a soundproof wall (fence, etc.) or a windbreak on the side of the road from the current position of the vehicle to x [m] ahead based on the road terrain information acquired by the road terrain information acquisition unit 112. If there is, it is predicted that the air resistance of the section is "medium" because the vehicle is not easily affected by the crosswind in the section where these exist.

Further, if the air resistance prediction unit 114 has a cut from the current position of the vehicle to x [m] ahead based on the road terrain information acquired by the road terrain information acquisition unit 112, the vehicle will crosswind in the cut section. It is predicted that the air resistance in the cut section is "medium" because it is not easily affected by.

Further, the air resistance prediction unit 114 was opened based on the road terrain information acquired by the road terrain information acquisition unit 112, with no tunnel, noise barrier, or cut through from the current position of the vehicle to x [m] ahead. If there is a section, or if there is a section above the bridge, the section is expected to have "high" air resistance because it receives wind from various directions.

Further, the air resistance prediction unit 114 predicts the air resistance of the route on which the vehicle will travel based on the weather information acquired by the weather information acquisition unit 113. For example, the air resistance prediction unit 114 determines that if there is a section that serves as a tailwind from the current position of the vehicle to x [m] ahead, the air resistance in that section is "low" or "medium" depending on the wind power. Predict. For example, the air resistance prediction unit 114 has a section that serves as a tailwind from the current position of the vehicle to x [m] ahead, and if the wind speed is 10 [m / s] or more, the air resistance in that section is "low". If the wind speed is less than 10 [m / s], the air resistance in that section is predicted to be "medium".

As described above, the air resistance prediction unit 114 predicts the section having the smallest air resistance in the route from the current position to x [m] ahead based on the road topography information or the meteorological information. Since the air resistance prediction unit 114 predicts the air resistance based on the road topography information or the weather information, the air resistance of the route on which the vehicle is going to travel can be accurately predicted for each section.

The object detection unit 115 of the processor 110 detects structures around the vehicle (for example, a preceding vehicle, a lane marking on a road, a road boundary line, etc.) from an image generated by the vehicle-mounted camera 10. For example, the object detection unit 115 detects the structure represented by the image by inputting the image into the classifier. As a classifier, the object detection unit 115, for example, from an input image, for each pixel of the image, the object is represented in the pixel for each type of object that may be represented in the pixel. It is possible to use a segmentation classifier that has been trained in advance to output the certainty and identify that the object with the maximum certainty is represented. As such a classifier, the object detection unit 115 can use a deep neural network (DNN) having a convolutional neural network type (CNN) architecture for segmentation, for example, a Fully Convolutional Network (FCN). .. Alternatively, the object detection unit 115 may utilize a classifier for segmentation according to another machine learning method such as a random forest or a support vector machine. The object detection unit 115 may detect the structure represented by the image by using a classifier using a method other than instance segmentation. Further, the object detection unit 115 may detect a structure existing around the vehicle by processing the information obtained by scanning by LiDAR.

Further, when the vehicle-mounted camera 10 is composed of a stereo camera, the object detection unit 115 detects the distance from the parallax of the left and right images to each structure on the image. Further, the object detection unit 115 detects the relative speed between the own vehicle and the preceding vehicle based on the distance to the preceding vehicle detected at predetermined time intervals, and the preceding vehicle is based on the detected relative speed and the vehicle speed of the own vehicle. Detects the vehicle speed.

The vehicle control unit 116 of the processor 110 is information indicating the driving state acquired by the driving state acquisition unit 111, the air resistance from the current position of the vehicle predicted by the air resistance prediction unit 114 to x [m] ahead, and the object detection unit 115. Controls the vehicle based on the structures surrounding the vehicle detected by. The vehicle control unit 116 includes a drive device, a transmission, and a transmission unit included in the vehicle control device 80 based on information such as a target speed, a vehicle speed of a preceding vehicle, a vehicle speed of the own vehicle, and a lane marking line for dividing a lane provided on the road. It controls the braking device and steering device to make the vehicle follow the preceding vehicle.

The vehicle control unit 116 has a speed control unit 116a that controls the vehicle speed so as to maintain the target speed regardless of the operation of the driver of the vehicle as a functional block for controlling the vehicle speed. The speed control unit 116a controls the vehicle speed by controlling the vehicle control device 80 so as to maintain the target speed set based on the input from the operation switch 70 when the preceding vehicle does not exist in front of the vehicle. .. Further, when a preceding vehicle having a vehicle speed lower than the target speed exists in front of the vehicle, the speed control unit 116a sets the vehicle speed of the preceding vehicle as the target speed, and the distance between the vehicle and the preceding vehicle becomes constant, so that the vehicle becomes the preceding vehicle. The vehicle speed is controlled by controlling the vehicle control device 80 so as to follow.

Further, the speed control unit 116a has a speed recovery control unit 116b. When the vehicle speed is lower than the target speed and the vehicle is accelerated to the target speed, that is, when acceleration to the target speed is required, the speed recovery control unit 116b has an air resistance in the range from the current position of the vehicle to x [m] ahead. Accelerate the vehicle in the section predicted to be the lowest and recover the speed to the target speed. Specifically, the speed recovery control unit 116b follows the preceding vehicle at a speed lower than the target speed set based on the input from the operation switch 70, and the preceding vehicle is the vehicle by the object detection unit 115. When it is detected that the vehicle no longer exists in front, the speed is restored to the target speed in the section where the air resistance is predicted to be the lowest in the range from the current position of the vehicle to x [m] ahead.

Further, the speed recovery control unit 116b sets the speed of the following preceding vehicle as the target speed, and when accelerating the vehicle to this target speed, the air resistance is increased in the range from the current position of the vehicle to x [m] ahead. Accelerate the vehicle in the section predicted to be the lowest. For example, when the preceding vehicle accelerates while the speed recovery control unit 116b is controlling to follow the preceding vehicle, the speed of the preceding vehicle after acceleration is set as the target speed, and the speed is x [m] ahead of the current position of the vehicle. Accelerate the vehicle in the section where the air resistance is predicted to be the lowest in the range up to.

As a result, acceleration to the target speed is performed in the section where the air resistance is predicted to be the lowest, so that the load on the motor or engine due to acceleration during speed recovery is reduced, and the motor or engine operates in an inefficient region. Since it is suppressed, the electricity cost or the fuel consumption is improved.

If there is no section from the current position of the vehicle to x [m] ahead where the air resistance is predicted to be lower than the current position of the vehicle, the speed recovery control unit 116b will perform the normal speed at the current position of the vehicle. The speed is recovered at a slower acceleration than the acceleration at the time of recovery. Alternatively, the speed recovery control unit 116b accelerates for speed recovery when there is no section from the current position of the vehicle to x [m] ahead where the air resistance is predicted to be lower than the current position of the vehicle. It does not have to be. As a result, even when there is no section from the current position of the vehicle to x [m] ahead where the air resistance is predicted to be lower than the current position of the vehicle, the decrease in electricity cost or fuel consumption is suppressed.

When acceleration to the target speed is required, the vehicle is accelerated in the section where the air resistance is predicted to be the lowest in the range from the current position of the vehicle to x [m] ahead, so acceleration to the target speed is achieved. There is a possibility that the driver may feel uncomfortable because the acceleration is not performed immediately after the need for. For this reason, it is preferable that the display device 20 displays "waiting for speed return" or the like until the vehicle is accelerated after the acceleration to the target speed is required. As a result, it is possible to prevent the driver from feeling uncomfortable.

The value of the distance x [m] from the current position of the vehicle, which is applied when the road terrain information acquisition unit 112 or the weather information acquisition unit 113 acquires the road terrain information and the weather information, is changed according to the vehicle speed and the like. May be good. For example, if the maximum value T of the waiting time until the vehicle reaches the section where the air resistance is predicted to be the lowest after the need for speed recovery is set as a fixed value in advance, the value of the distance x [m] is set. Can be obtained from the maximum value T and the vehicle speed. From the viewpoint of suppressing the above-mentioned discomfort of the driver, the maximum value T is preferably set to, for example, about several minutes.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a process performed by the processor 110 of the control device 100 at predetermined control cycles. Note that FIG. 4 shows a case where the air resistance is predicted based on the road topography information and the speed is recovered based on the predicted air resistance. First, it is determined whether or not the vehicle is controlled by the ACC (step S10). When the vehicle is controlled by the ACC in step S10, it is determined whether or not acceleration to the target speed is necessary (step S12). On the other hand, if the vehicle is not controlled by the ACC in step S10, the process in this control cycle ends.

When acceleration to the target speed is required in step S12, the road terrain information acquisition unit 112 acquires road terrain information from the current position to x [m] ahead on the route on which the vehicle is about to travel from the navigation device 30 (. Step S14). On the other hand, if acceleration to the target speed is not required in step S12, the process in this control cycle ends.

Next, the air resistance prediction unit 114 predicts the section with the smallest air resistance in the route from the current position to x [m] ahead based on the road topography information, and the speed recovery control unit 116b reaches the target speed in that section. Acceleration is carried out (step S16). After step S16, the processing in this control cycle ends.

In the process of FIG. 4, when the air resistance prediction unit 114 predicts the air resistance based on the weather information acquired by the weather information acquisition unit 113, the weather information acquisition unit 113 determines the current position of the vehicle in step S14. The weather information from x [m] to the destination is acquired. Then, in step S16, the air resistance prediction unit 114 predicts the section having the smallest air resistance in the route from the current position to x [m] ahead based on the weather information.

FIG. 5 is a characteristic diagram showing how the vehicle speed, power consumption, and the predicted air resistance value of the current position of the vehicle change in time series while the vehicle is controlled by the ACC, and the speed recovery is performed in the same manner as in FIG. It shows that the power consumption is lower than that in FIG. 3 as a result of speed recovery in the section where the air resistance is small.

In FIG. 5, from time t0 to time t5, the vehicle travels on an open road where there are no tunnels, noise barriers, windbreaks, cuts, or the like. Further, after the time t5, the vehicle travels in the tunnel. Similar to FIG. 3, at time t0, the vehicle is traveling at the target speed v set based on the input from the operation switch 70, and when the vehicle approaches the preceding vehicle having a low vehicle speed at time t1, the vehicle becomes the preceding vehicle. It is decelerated to the vehicle speed, and control is performed to follow the preceding vehicle from time t2.

After that, at time t3, the preceding vehicle will no longer exist in front of the vehicle due to a lane change, etc., but since there is a tunnel in the range from the current position of the vehicle to x [m] ahead, the speed recovery will not occur at time t3 unlike FIG. Not done. After that, when the vehicle enters the tunnel at time t5 and the air resistance received by the vehicle becomes small, speed recovery is performed between time t5 and time t6. The characteristics of the vehicle speed and the power consumption shown by the broken line in FIG. 5 show the case where the speed is recovered between the time t3 and the time t4 as in FIG. 3 for comparison. Since the speed recovery is performed inside the tunnel, the high load operation of the motor is avoided, so that the power consumption is reduced by ΔE as compared with the case where the speed recovery is performed outside the tunnel (dashed line). Therefore, according to the present embodiment, since the speed recovery is performed in the section where the air resistance is smaller, the decrease in the efficiency of the motor is suppressed, and the electricity cost at the time of speed recovery is improved.

6 to 8 are schematic views showing a specific example in which speed recovery is performed based on road topography information ahead of the current position of the vehicle. The example shown in FIG. 6 shows a case where the tunnel 700 exists L1 [m] ahead of the current position of the vehicle 500 on the route 600 on which the vehicle 500 is about to travel. When acceleration to the target speed is required at the current position of the vehicle 500, if L1 ≤ x, the air resistance of the tunnel 700 is lower than that of the current position of the vehicle 500, so that the vehicle 500 becomes the tunnel 700. After entering, speed recovery is performed. On the other hand, if L1> x, the tunnel 700 is located farther than x [m] from the current position of the vehicle 500, so that the speed recovery is performed at the current position of the vehicle 500 with an acceleration smaller than the normal speed recovery acceleration. Will be. Alternatively, if L1> x, acceleration for speed recovery may not be performed at the current position of the vehicle.

Further, in the example shown in FIG. 7, in the route 600 on which the vehicle 500 is about to travel, the tunnel 700 exists L1 [m] ahead of the current position of the vehicle 500, and is L2 [m] ahead of the tunnel from the current position. The case where the soundproof wall 800 is present is shown. If acceleration to the target speed is required at the current position of the vehicle 500, if L1 ≤ x, both the tunnel 700 and the noise barrier 800 have lower air resistance than the current position of the vehicle 500, but the tunnel 700 Since the air resistance of the noise barrier is lower than that of the noise barrier 800, the speed is restored after the vehicle 500 enters the tunnel 700. On the other hand, when L1> x and L2 ≦ x, the tunnel 700 is located farther than x [m] from the current position of the vehicle 500, so that the tunnel 700 is excluded from the target as a section for speed recovery. Since the air resistance of the soundproof wall 800 is lower than that of the current position of the vehicle 500, the speed is recovered after the vehicle 500 enters the section of the soundproof wall 800.

Further, the example shown in FIG. 8 shows a case where the vehicle 500 travels in the section where the soundproof wall 800 is installed at the current position, and the tunnel 700 exists L3 [m] ahead of the current position. If acceleration to the target speed is required at the current position of the vehicle 500, the air resistance of the tunnel 700 is lower in the tunnel 700 than in the section of the noise barrier 800 in which the vehicle 500 is currently traveling if L3 ≦ x. Therefore, the speed is restored after the vehicle 500 enters the tunnel 700. On the other hand, if L3> x, the tunnel 700 is located farther than x [m] from the current position of the vehicle 500, so that the tunnel 700 is excluded from the target as a section for speed recovery. On the other hand, the section with the smallest air resistance on the route from the current position of the vehicle to x [m] ahead is the section of the noise barrier 800 in which the vehicle is currently traveling. Therefore, speed recovery is performed at the current position of the vehicle 500. In the case of L3> x, since the vehicle 500 is traveling in the section of the soundproof wall 800 having a relatively low air resistance, it is not necessary to perform speed recovery at an acceleration smaller than the acceleration of normal speed recovery.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing a specific example in which speed recovery is performed based on weather information ahead of the current position of the vehicle. The example shown in FIG. 9 shows a case where there is a region 900 in which the vehicle receives a tailwind L4 [m] ahead of the current position of the vehicle 500 on the route 600 on which the vehicle 500 is about to travel. In FIG. 9, the direction of the tail wind is indicated by an arrow. When acceleration to the target speed is required at the current position of the vehicle 500, if L4 ≤ x, the air resistance is lower in the region 900 receiving the tailwind than the current position of the vehicle 500, so that the vehicle 500 has a lower air resistance. Speed recovery is performed after entering the area 900. On the other hand, if L4> x, the tailwind region 900 is located farther than x [m] from the current position of the vehicle 500, so that the speed is recovered at the current position of the vehicle 500 with an acceleration smaller than the normal speed recovery acceleration. Is done. Alternatively, if L4> x, acceleration for speed recovery may not be performed at the current position of the vehicle.

In the above-described embodiment, speed recovery during control by ACC has been described as an example, but the present embodiment is not limited to this. For example, this embodiment is also applicable to speed recovery performed by the driver performing an operation of returning to the control by the ACC after the control by the ACC is automatically released by the driver stepping on the brake pedal. It is possible. Further, the present embodiment can also be applied to speed recovery in CACC (Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control), which controls the inter-vehicle distance between the preceding vehicle and the preceding vehicle by communicating with the preceding vehicle. As described above, the present embodiment can be widely applied to various aspects of speed recovery.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, when acceleration to the target speed is required while controlling the vehicle by the ACC, the speed is recovered in the section where the air resistance is smaller, so that the motor or the engine High load operation is suppressed. As a result, energy management is performed in consideration of air resistance, so that further improvement in fuel consumption or electricity cost is realized.

10 In-vehicle camera 20 Display device 30 Navigation device 40 Positioning information receiver 50 Wireless terminal 60 Sensor 70 Operation switch 80 Vehicle control device 100 Control device 110 Processor 111 Driving status acquisition unit 112 Road topography information acquisition unit 113 Weather information acquisition unit 114 Air resistance Prediction unit 115 Object detection unit 116 Vehicle control unit 116a Speed control unit 116b Speed recovery control unit 120 Memory 130 Communication interface 200 Vehicle control system 500 Vehicle 600 Route 700 Tunnel 800 Soundproof wall 900 area

Claims (1)

The road terrain information acquisition unit that acquires the road terrain information of the route on which the vehicle travels,
An air resistance prediction unit that predicts the air resistance from the current position of the vehicle to a predetermined distance on the route on which the vehicle travels based on the road topography information.
It is equipped with a speed control unit that controls the vehicle speed so as to maintain the target speed regardless of the operation of the driver of the vehicle.
The speed control unit is a speed recovery control unit that accelerates the vehicle in a section where the vehicle speed is lower than the target speed and the air resistance is predicted to be smaller within the predetermined distance when accelerating the vehicle to the target speed. Vehicle control devices, including.

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