JP2581329B2 - Vehicle cruise control system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle cruising control device for controlling a vehicle speed so as to follow a preceding vehicle while maintaining a safe inter-vehicle distance. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle following travel control device that can reliably detect an inter-vehicle distance from a preceding vehicle by performing tracking.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional vehicle follow-up cruise control device of this type, a radar device using light or radio waves is provided at the front of the body of an automobile to monitor the front of the vehicle and detect a preceding vehicle. An apparatus that calculates a relative distance to a preceding vehicle and controls the speed of the own vehicle so that the inter-vehicle distance between the own vehicle and the preceding vehicle becomes a safe inter-vehicle distance is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 55-86.
No. 000 or JP-A-60-239900.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional device, the preceding vehicle is detected by the radar device provided in the front part of the vehicle body, and therefore, for example, as shown in FIG. When the preceding vehicle 32 on the overtaking lane is faster than the vehicle on the own lane, the preceding vehicle 32 on the overtaking lane may enter the detection area of the radar device mounted on the own lane. Preceding car 3
3 suddenly approaching, and when it is late, the following vehicle 3 on its own lane
There is an inconvenience of being approached quickly. In addition, since the preceding vehicle detecting the inter-vehicle distance that the own vehicle is following is not specified, when a plurality of preceding vehicles are traveling,
There were problems such as giving anxiety to the driver without knowing which vehicle was following.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and enables a driver to reliably follow a preceding vehicle even when a plurality of preceding vehicles are traveling. When another vehicle intervenes between the vehicle and the host vehicle, the control of following the preceding vehicle is stopped so that the vehicle does not collide with the interrupted vehicle, and an image of the preceding vehicle that the host vehicle is following is displayed. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle following travel control device that allows a driver to check a preceding vehicle that the own vehicle is following at any time.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided a vehicle follow-up running control apparatus comprising: an image sensor for capturing an image of a preceding vehicle; a display screen for displaying an image captured by the image sensor; An image tracking window that can be set at a position, an image tracking instruction switch that can be operated by a driver, and image tracking means that performs image tracking of the preceding vehicle image by operating the instruction switch when a preceding vehicle image enters the window. An inter-vehicle distance detecting means for detecting an inter-vehicle distance to a preceding vehicle displayed in the window, and an output signal of the inter-vehicle distance detecting means being input so that the inter-vehicle distance to the preceding vehicle becomes a predetermined safe inter-vehicle distance. Speed adjusting means for adjusting the speed of the own vehicle, brake operation detecting means for detecting a brake operation, and a distance between the vehicle and the preceding vehicle being greater than or equal to the safe inter-vehicle distance. Sometimes the brake is being operated, characterized in that an image tracking stop means to stop the image tracking of the preceding vehicle image.

[0006]

According to the present invention, when the driver specifies the preceding vehicle to be followed by the image tracking means in the image tracking window, the tracking operation of the preceding vehicle image by this window is started, and at the same time, the preceding vehicle specified by the window is started. An inter-vehicle distance to the own vehicle is detected. The speed adjusting means receives the inter-vehicle distance detection signal and adjusts the speed of the own vehicle so that the inter-vehicle distance from the preceding vehicle becomes a predetermined safe inter-vehicle distance.
Also, when another vehicle interrupts between the preceding vehicle and the own vehicle, if the driver feels danger and depresses the brake , the image tracking stop means stops the image tracking of the preceding vehicle image, and Stops the follow-up running control of the car to prevent the rear-end collision with the interrupted car.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1, reference numerals 1 and 2 denote lenses constituting upper and lower optical systems for capturing an image of a preceding vehicle ahead of the host vehicle, and reference numerals 3 and 4 denote two-dimensional image sensors disposed corresponding to the lenses 1 and 2, respectively. Reference numeral 5 denotes a preceding vehicle to be followed. Reference numerals 6 and 7 are analog / digital converters, reference numerals 8 and 9 are memories, reference numeral 10 is a microcomputer, and reference numeral 11 is a display device for displaying an image captured by the upper image sensor 4, and is controlled by the microcomputer 10. 12 is a window forming device for forming an image tracking window, 13 is an image tracking instruction switch operated by a driver, 14 is a brake switch for detecting brake operation, 15 is a vehicle speed sensor for detecting vehicle speed, 16 Is a follow-up running switch operated by the driver, 17 is a speed adjusting device of the own vehicle, 18 is a throttle valve of the engine 19,
The motor 20 is driven to open and close.

Next, the operation will be described. For example, assuming that an image 5a of a preceding vehicle desired to follow the image of the upper image sensor 4 enters and is displayed on the display device 11 as shown in FIG. An image tracking window 21 surrounding the vehicle image 5a is set. When the image tracking instruction switch 13 is subsequently operated, the preceding vehicle image 5 is displayed on the screen of the display device 11 thereafter.
No matter how a moves, the window 21 moves accompanyingly, and the image tracking action of the preceding vehicle image 5a by the window 21 is automatically performed. This image tracking action is described, for example, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 60-33352 or Japanese Patent Publication No. 1-3530.
This is the same as the conventional device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5 (1993) -205.

Next, a method for detecting an inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle and the preceding vehicle will be described. First, the microcomputer 10 reads out a pixel signal in the window 21 that tracks the preceding vehicle image 5a from the memory 9 and uses the pixel signal as a reference image signal for calculating the following distance. The window 21 is stored in the memory 8 in which the image signal of the lower image sensor 3 is stored.
Is selected by the microcomputer 10 and the image signal of the memory 8 is compared with the reference image signal by one.
The total sum of the absolute values of the differences between the signals of the upper and lower pixels is calculated while sequentially shifting each pixel. That is, the window 21
The position of the image that most closely matches the image in the image is obtained by sequentially shifting it one pixel at a time. At this time, as shown in FIG. 3, the region M 22 in the memory 8 corresponds to the reference image signal in the window 21 of the image M 9 in the memory 9.

As described above, the upper and lower pixels are compared, the amount of pixel shift when the sum of the absolute values of the difference signals is minimized is n pixels, the pixel pitch is P, and the base line length of the optical system is L. Assuming that the focal length of the lenses 1 and 2 is f and the distance to the preceding vehicle 5 is R, R is obtained by the following equation.

R = f × L / n × P

In this manner, even if the preceding vehicle 5 moves left and right with respect to the once set preceding vehicle, the preceding vehicle can be tracked and the inter-vehicle distance to the own vehicle can be continuously detected.

When the following operation switch 16 is operated by the driver after the image tracking of the preceding vehicle 5 is started as described above, the speed adjusting device 17 causes the microcomputer 10 to operate.
The vehicle-to-vehicle distance detection signal is input from a vehicle speed sensor 15 and is compared with a predetermined safety vehicle-to-vehicle distance corresponding to the vehicle speed input from the vehicle speed sensor 15. Turns the electric motor 20 to drive the throttle valve 18 to the closed side.
8, the speed of the host vehicle is adjusted.

As a result, the inter-vehicle distance R is controlled to be equal to the safe inter-vehicle distance, and the own vehicle follows the preceding vehicle 5 while maintaining the safe inter-vehicle distance. As described above, when the vehicle is following the preceding vehicle 5 while maintaining the safe inter-vehicle distance, if another vehicle interrupts between the preceding vehicle 5 and the own vehicle, the inter-vehicle distance between the interrupting vehicle and the own vehicle becomes short. Danger of rear-end collision occurs. When the driver feels such a danger and operates the brake, the inter-vehicle distance to the preceding vehicle 5 becomes longer than the safe inter-vehicle distance.

As described above, even if the inter-vehicle distance to the preceding vehicle 5 is longer than the safe inter-vehicle distance, if the brake operation is continuously performed, it is dangerous to continue following the preceding vehicle 5. The microcomputer 10 immediately stops the image tracking of the preceding vehicle 5 and, at the same time,
In step 7, the throttle valve 18 is fully closed to stop the following running control. When the image tracking is stopped, the image tracking window 21 is immediately moved to the center of the display screen 11 by the window forming device 12 and substantially captures the image of the center in front of the host vehicle. In other words, the interrupted vehicle running immediately before the host vehicle is captured, the inter-vehicle distance to the interrupted vehicle is monitored, and at the same time, preparations are made for following the interrupted vehicle. An alarm device such as a buzzer may be provided to notify the driver that the inter-vehicle distance from the interrupting vehicle is very short.

As described above, if there is an interrupted vehicle ahead of the own vehicle following the preceding vehicle 5 while maintaining a predetermined safe inter-vehicle distance, the own vehicle is maintained by continuing the following running control. This prevents a rear-end collision with an interrupting car.

[0017]

As described above, the present invention provides a display screen for displaying an image captured by an image sensor for capturing a preceding vehicle, a window for tracking the image of the preceding vehicle in the display screen, And an inter-vehicle distance detecting means for detecting an inter-vehicle distance to the preceding vehicle displayed on the vehicle, and an output signal of the inter-vehicle distance detecting means, and an input signal of the inter-vehicle distance detecting means. Speed adjusting means for adjusting the speed, and image tracking stopping means for stopping the image tracking of the preceding vehicle image when the brake is operated when the inter-vehicle distance to the preceding vehicle is equal to or greater than the safe inter-vehicle distance. Therefore, even when a plurality of preceding vehicles are traveling, it is possible to reliably specify the preceding vehicle that the user wants to follow, and there is no fear that the user does not know which preceding vehicle is following, unlike the conventional device. I was able to. In addition, when there is an interrupted vehicle, it is possible to prevent a collision with the interrupted vehicle.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a vehicle follow-up running control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which a preceding vehicle image enters the display device and an image tracking window is set.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an image area to be compared with a reference image in a window.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a traveling state of a vehicle equipped with a conventional vehicle following traveling control device.

[Explanation of symbols]

Second lenses (an optical system) 3,4 image sensor 5 preceding vehicle 10 microcomputer 11 displays (display screen) 12 window formed equipment 13 image tracking instruction switch 14 brake switch 15 vehicle speed sensor 16 following cruise switch 17 speed adjustment device (Speed adjustment means) 18 Throttle valve 20 Motor 21 Image tracking window

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An image sensor for capturing an image of a preceding vehicle, a display screen for displaying an image captured by the image sensor, an image tracking window that can be set at a predetermined position on the display screen, and a driver operable. An image tracking instruction switch, an image tracking means for image-tracking the preceding vehicle image by operating the instruction switch when the preceding vehicle image enters the window, and an inter-vehicle distance to the preceding vehicle displayed in the window. Inter-vehicle distance detecting means for detecting, inputting an output signal of the inter-vehicle distance detecting means, speed adjusting means for adjusting the speed of the own vehicle so that the inter-vehicle distance with the preceding vehicle becomes a predetermined safe inter-vehicle distance, and braking operation. Brake operation detecting means for detecting the image of the preceding vehicle image when the brake is operated when the inter-vehicle distance to the preceding vehicle is equal to or longer than the safe inter-vehicle distance. A vehicle follow-up running control device, comprising: an image tracking stop means for stopping.