JP3233122B2 - Constant-speed cruise control device with inter-vehicle distance adjustment function - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention performs inter-vehicle distance control to match the current inter-vehicle distance to a set inter-vehicle distance when a vehicle is present ahead, and reduces the current vehicle speed when no vehicle is present in front of the own vehicle. The present invention relates to a constant speed traveling control device for a vehicle having an inter-vehicle distance adjustment function for performing constant speed traveling control to match a set vehicle speed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a constant-speed traveling device having an inter-vehicle distance adjusting function has been known (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. Hei 3-220028 and 1-1114550).

[0003] This device executes a constant-speed running control so as to match a preset vehicle speed when a vehicle is not present in front of the own vehicle, and when a vehicle slower than the set vehicle speed appears in front of the own vehicle. In order to prevent the inter-vehicle distance with this vehicle from shortening, the current inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle and the preceding vehicle is measured, and the current inter-vehicle distance is set to a predetermined set inter-vehicle distance. The distance between the vehicles is controlled so as to match the vehicle distance. Further, in this inter-vehicle distance control state, when there is no preceding vehicle due to, for example, a lane change or the like, the host vehicle is accelerated so that the current vehicle speed matches the set vehicle speed.

[0004]

However, as described above, the degree of acceleration / deceleration of the own vehicle for matching the current inter-vehicle distance with the set inter-vehicle distance or the self-adjustment for matching the current vehicle speed with the set vehicle speed is as described above. The degree of acceleration of the vehicle is different depending on the individual differences of the driver. In other words, some drivers prefer to control their own vehicle slowly, while others prefer to control their own vehicle swiftly.

[0005]

Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and has an inter-vehicle distance adjusting function capable of adapting to individual differences of drivers and achieving a good ride quality. It is an object to provide a constant speed traveling control device.

[0007]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when a vehicle is present in front of a host vehicle, the current distance between the host vehicle and the host vehicle is determined. A vehicle-to-vehicle distance adjustment function that performs vehicle-to-vehicle distance control that matches the vehicle-to-vehicle distance with the set vehicle-to-vehicle distance, and performs constant-speed running control that matches the current vehicle speed of the vehicle to the set vehicle speed when there is no vehicle in front of the vehicle. A constant-speed traveling control device comprising: measurement means for determining a current inter-vehicle distance and a relative speed between the vehicle in front of the host vehicle and the host vehicle; and determining whether a vehicle exists in front of the host vehicle. The vehicle determining means for determining and adding the own vehicle so as to change according to the deviation between the current inter-vehicle distance and the set inter-vehicle distance and the relative speed, and to make the current inter-vehicle distance coincide with the set inter-vehicle distance. Control to slow down An inter-vehicle control-time control amount calculating means for storing an amount, and a control amount obtained by the inter-vehicle control-time control amount calculating means when the vehicle determining means determines that a vehicle exists in front of the own vehicle. Control means for automatically controlling acceleration and deceleration of the own vehicle so that the current inter-vehicle distance becomes the set inter-vehicle distance, and control by the driver according to the set state. The control amount stored in the amount calculating means is the set inter-vehicle distance.
Setting means for changing the acceleration of the host vehicle until the current inter-vehicle distance matches the set inter-vehicle distance by changing the inter-vehicle distance independently .

[0008]

[0009]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the inter-vehicle control controlled variable calculating means changes according to the deviation between the current inter-vehicle distance and the set inter-vehicle distance and the relative speed,
A control amount for accelerating and decelerating the own vehicle such that the current inter-vehicle distance matches the set inter-vehicle distance is stored (inter-vehicle control-time control amount calculation means). When the vehicle determining means determines that the vehicle is present ahead of the own vehicle, the current inter-vehicle distance becomes the set inter-vehicle distance based on the control amount obtained by the inter-vehicle control time control amount calculating means. The vehicle is automatically controlled to accelerate or decelerate as described above (control means). Here, the control amount stored in the vehicle-to-vehicle control-time control amount calculating means in accordance with the setting state of the setting means set by the driver is determined by the set vehicle distance.
The acceleration of the own vehicle until the current inter-vehicle distance matches the set inter-vehicle distance is changed by making the change independently of the vehicle.

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the host vehicle is set so that the current inter-vehicle distance becomes the set inter-vehicle distance.
The acceleration when automatically accelerating or decelerating the vehicle depends on the driver's preference.
Flip can be changed, it is possible to realize a comfortable distance control.

[0011]

[0012]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the configuration, in which a driving force from an engine 13 is transmitted to a rear wheel 12 which is a driving wheel of a vehicle 11 via a transmission 14 and a drive shaft, and the rotational speed of the engine 13 and the transmission 14
Rear wheel 12 is driven to rotate at a speed corresponding to the set shift range. A traveling speed corresponding to the rotation speed of the rear wheel 12 is set, and the traveling speed of the vehicle 11 is detected by a vehicle speed sensor 15 that detects the rotation speed of the rear wheel 12.

A steering sensor 16 is provided for the steering set on the vehicle 11, and a steering angle signal is detected from the steering sensor 16.
Further, in front of the vehicle 11, an inter-vehicle distance sensor 17 for measuring a distance to a vehicle or the like existing in front of the vehicle 11 is provided, and a detection signal from the inter-vehicle distance sensor 17 and a detection signal from the steering sensor 16 are provided. Is an input interface 181 of the control circuit 18 constituted by a computer.
Is input to

The control circuit 18 includes an input interface 18
The CPU 182 is provided with a CPU 182 to which the information input from 1 is supplied, a ROM 183 for storing programs and other data, a RAM 184 for storing operation data and the like, and an output interface 185.
A throttle actuator 19 that controls the engine 13 is controlled by the output from the controller 11 and a transmission controller 20 is further controlled so that the rotational drive speed of the rear wheels 12, that is, the traveling speed of the vehicle 11 is controlled. The input interface 181 of the control circuit 18 further receives, for example, acceleration setting information from the setting switch (SW) 21.

FIG. 2 shows a vehicle 11 corresponding to such an inter-vehicle distance.
This shows the flow of the processing for executing the constant speed traveling control of FIG.
, The relative speed with respect to the preceding vehicle is obtained, and the vehicle is determined whether or not there is a vehicle ahead in step 103 based on the inter-vehicle distance and the degree of variation in the relative speed.

In step 104, it is determined whether or not a vehicle is present ahead based on the determination result in step 103. In step 105, it is determined whether or not the driver has performed an acceleration operation with the setting switch 21. If it is determined in step 104 that there is no preceding vehicle, and if it is determined in step 105 that an acceleration operation has been performed, a larger acceleration is set in step 106.
For example, the driver can recognize the feeling of acceleration sufficiently.
m / h / sec "acceleration.

Even if it is determined in step 104 that there is no vehicle ahead, if the driver does not perform the acceleration operation,
In order to cope with a case where a vehicle is present ahead, a small acceleration, for example, “0.6 km / h” is determined in step 107.
/ Sec "to ensure safety.

When setting the acceleration in steps 106 and 107, the acceleration can be set in accordance with various driving situations. For example, the acceleration may be varied according to values such as a vehicle speed and a steering angle. For example, in step 107, the acceleration is varied by the steering angle data obtained from the steering sensor 16. For example, the acceleration / deceleration rate DVSTR obtained based on the map data as shown in FIG. 3 is limited to 0.5 km / h / sec. To increase the acceleration.

Here, the acceleration / deceleration rate DVST set on the map
The reason why R is not directly set as the acceleration is to suppress acceleration when the vehicle ahead is lost for a moment during deceleration in the inter-vehicle control, or to suppress slowdown of deceleration.

By setting the acceleration according to the steering angle using the detection signal from the steering sensor 16 as described above, for example, when the vehicle is traveling on a curved road, the acceleration is reduced or decelerated so that the safety is improved. become.

If it is confirmed in step 104 that a vehicle ahead is present, in step 108, the acceleration for controlling the headway is calculated according to various factors such as the headway distance and the relative speed.

That is, in calculating the inter-vehicle control acceleration, a basic acceleration / deceleration rate is calculated based on an acceleration / deceleration rate map as shown in Table 1. In this map, the horizontal axis shows the value obtained by subtracting the target vehicle distance from the current vehicle distance (whether the preceding vehicle is far or near), and the vertical axis shows the relative speed with respect to the preceding vehicle (whether approaching or distant). , And the respective acceleration / deceleration rate at each time is indicated at each grid point.

[0023]

[Table 1]

In such a map table, a minus (-) sign indicates deceleration and a plus (+) sign indicates acceleration, and the data actually used is obtained by interpolating the data of each grid point. To ask.

By using such map data, although the inter-vehicle distance to the preceding vehicle is small, the deceleration control is not performed unnecessarily for the vehicle that is moving away from the preceding vehicle. In addition, when there is a sufficient inter-vehicle distance to the vehicle in front but the vehicle is approaching the vehicle in front at a large relative speed, the deceleration control is started earlier. Inter-vehicle control is performed. Since the acceleration / deceleration rate is continuously obtained from the map of the acceleration / deceleration rate, the acceleration / deceleration rate control without a sense of discontinuity is realized.

In this inter-vehicle distance control, the acceleration is calculated on the basis of the map data in this way, and the acceleration / deceleration rate is further corrected, and a correction coefficient for this correction is obtained. This correction coefficient is stored as map data as shown in FIG. 4 in relation to the inter-vehicle distance, and a correction coefficient corresponding to the current inter-vehicle distance is obtained. That is, in a state where the inter-vehicle distance is large, rough inter-vehicle control is sufficient, so that the acceleration / deceleration rate is reduced so that loose control is performed to improve the riding comfort. The basic acceleration / deceleration rate is multiplied by the coefficient to calculate an actual control acceleration / deceleration rate.

In step 109, steps 106 to 106
The target vehicle speed when the vehicle is accelerated under the acceleration setting condition 108 is calculated. The current target vehicle speed is calculated by adding the target vehicle speed one control cycle ago. When the target vehicle speed is obtained in this manner, a deviation between the target vehicle speed and the current vehicle speed is obtained, and the throttle is controlled in step 110 based on the deviation, and the transmission is controlled in step 111, whereby the vehicle speed is reduced. It is made to be variable toward the target vehicle speed.

In such an inter-vehicle distance control, acceleration control up to a set vehicle speed is quickly performed in a state where safety is assured that no vehicle is present in front of the vehicle. Is realized.

Here, the target acceleration is set by a switch.
The setting may be set to 21 parts, and the target acceleration may be corrected based on the set value. FIG. 5 shows a flow of processing for explaining this embodiment.
The processing of steps 104 to 104 is the same as that of the embodiment shown in FIG.

When it is determined in step 104 that there is no preceding vehicle, in step 205, the acceleration when the preceding vehicle is not detected is set. Specifically, the same processing as step 107 in FIG. 2 is performed. And step
If it is determined in 104 that there is a vehicle ahead,
In step 206, the acceleration for the headway control is calculated so that the vehicle follows the preceding vehicle.
The same processing as in step 108 is performed.

After the acceleration has been calculated in steps 205 and 206 in this way, the acceleration is corrected in step 207. In this acceleration correction step, the acceleration is corrected by the following equation. In the equation for calculating the correction coefficient, the correction coefficient k is set by a driver using a volume or the like in a setting section (setting switch 21) as shown in FIG. 6, for example.

.DELTA.Vt '= k.multidot..DELTA.Vt where .DELTA.Vt': acceleration after correction .DELTA.Vt: acceleration before correction. The correction coefficient set here can be set according to the driver's preference. A correction coefficient suitable for the lane can be set. Therefore, it is possible to set an acceleration suitable for the driving lane or to the driver's preference, and to realize safer and more comfortable inter-vehicle control.
9 The same processing as after is performed to control the traveling speed.

Here, regarding the correction at the time of deceleration, the correction corresponding to the value of the inter-vehicle distance or the relative speed is not performed or relaxed for safety. This is because, even if the driver desires gradual control, if the vehicle traveling ahead suddenly decelerates, it is necessary to rapidly brake the own vehicle.

Instead of correcting the acceleration as described above, the parameter or map of the acceleration may be switched and selected by the setting unit. FIG. 7 shows the flow of the processing, and the steps 101 to 101 are performed in the same manner as in the previous embodiments.
After the processing in step 104 is performed, the acceleration is calculated in step 305 or 306. These steps 305 and 30
When the acceleration is calculated in step 6, a basic acceleration parameter or map is stored in the ROM 18 of the control circuit 18 in advance.
The driver operates the setting switch 21 to select one of the data stored in 3.

Specifically, Table 1 is a basic map for performing headway control, and a basic map as shown in Table 2 is stored and set in the ROM 183. Here, the map shown in Table 1 has a smaller acceleration, and the map in Table 2 has a larger acceleration. By selecting one of the maps in Table 1 or 2, Either slow running or crisp running will be selected.

[0036]

[Table 2]

The advantage of the apparatus for switching the acceleration map in this way is that the acceleration is corrected uniformly using the correction coefficient, whereas the acceleration map itself is switched, so that the distance between vehicles is changed. It has a feature that the correction factor can be changed according to the values of map elements such as the speed and the relative speed, that is, various situations.

In a system in which no acceleration calculating means is present and the target vehicle speed or the throttle opening is immediately determined, the correction or switching may be performed at the target vehicle speed or the throttle opening.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram for explaining a constant speed traveling control device for a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating the flow of a process of constant-speed traveling control.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a relationship with a steering angle for explaining an acceleration / deceleration rate.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a map of an acceleration / deceleration rate correction corresponding to an inter-vehicle distance.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a correction coefficient according to the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

11… vehicle, 12… rear wheel, 13… engine, 14… transmission, 15… vehicle speed sensor, 16… steering sensor, 17
... interval distance sensor, 18 ... control circuit, 181 ... input interface, 182 ... CPU, 183 ... ROM, 184 ... RA
M, 185 ... output interface, 19 ... throttle actuator, 20 ... transmission controller, 21
... Setting switch.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-61-6031 (JP, A) JP-A-60-4428 (JP, A) JP-A-60-261736 (JP, A) 39636 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B60K 31/00 F02D 29/02 301

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] When a vehicle is present in front of a host vehicle, inter-vehicle distance control is performed to match a current inter-vehicle distance between the vehicle and the host vehicle with a set inter-vehicle distance. A constant speed traveling control device having an inter-vehicle distance adjustment function for performing a constant speed traveling control for matching a current vehicle speed of the own vehicle to a set vehicle speed, wherein a current speed between the vehicle ahead of the own vehicle and the own vehicle is Measurement means for determining the inter-vehicle distance and relative speed of the vehicle, vehicle determination means for determining whether or not a vehicle is present ahead of the host vehicle, and a deviation between the current inter-vehicle distance and the set inter-vehicle distance and the relative speed A control amount calculating means for storing a control amount for accelerating and decelerating the own vehicle so that the current inter-vehicle distance coincides with the set inter-vehicle distance; and Ahead of own vehicle When it is determined that a vehicle is present, the host vehicle is automatically controlled based on the control amount calculated by the control amount calculation means during headway control so that the current headway distance becomes the set headway distance. and control means for acceleration and deceleration control, the set by the driver, the control amount stored in the vehicle control when the control amount calculation means in accordance with the setting state, the setting
Setting means for changing the acceleration of the own vehicle until the current inter-vehicle distance matches the set inter-vehicle distance by changing the inter-vehicle distance independently of the fixed inter- vehicle distance. A cruise control device with functions.