JP3880290B2 - In-vehicle mirror control device - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an in-vehicle mirror control device that automatically controls an electric mirror of an automobile in accordance with a driving operation and a surrounding environment during traveling.
[0002]
[Prior art]
For example, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-291242, a conventional control device for an electric mirror for automobiles is always optimal for the driver by detecting the driving operation and the running situation of the automobile which change every moment. There has been proposed an apparatus for adjusting a mirror angle to be a proper one.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
Since the conventional mirror control device as described above performs mirror control using a driving operation or a traveling condition that directly affects the driving operation as a determination condition, for example, a normal operation such as an R gear operation during reverse travel is performed. If it is a characteristic driving operation compared to the operation, it can be used as a judgment means for adjusting the mirror, but it can be used as a normal driving operation such as running on narrow roads or passing oncoming vehicles. As compared with, when the characteristic operation is not performed, there is a problem that the mirror control cannot be performed because it cannot be a determination means for performing the mirror adjustment.
[0004]
The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and requires not only a driving operation and a running state but also a recognition of the surrounding environment, and requires a special operation of the driver even in a situation that cannot be determined only by the driving operation. Instead, it is intended to provide a device that can automatically control the mirror angle according to the situation.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The on-vehicle mirror control device according to the present invention includes an electronic control device, a travel environment detection unit that includes an obstacle sensor and a vehicle speed sensor that are attached to the vehicle and detect a distance and an angle to the obstacle on the travel path; A mirror angle adjustment unit having an angle sensor that detects a mirror angle and outputs a mirror angle signal, an actuator that changes the mirror angle, a manual operation switch for manually operating the mirror angle, and a mirror angle automatically An automatic / manual mode switching switch for switching to one of the manual modes, and a mirror angle operation unit having a mirror angle storage command switch for instructing the electronic control device to store the mirror angle adjusted by manual operation,
The electronic control device is operated during manual operation by a vehicle driver by a manual operation switch of the mirror angle operation unit, an output signal from an automatic / manual mode changeover switch, and an output signal of a vehicle speed sensor of the traveling environment detection unit. The mirror angle is changed to the mirror angle, and when the vehicle is not in the automatic mode or is in the automatic mode or higher than the predetermined vehicle speed, the mirror angle retains the previous value, and in the automatic mode and lower than the predetermined vehicle speed, The obstacle sensor of the traveling environment detection unit scans the range from 0 degrees in the vertical direction of the road surface to 90 degrees in the lateral direction of the vehicle and determines whether the traveling path is a normal road or a narrow road from the detected output signal. thereby selecting one of the normal path for the mirror angle or narrow road mirror angle storing the determination result in the electronic control unit, braking the driving circuit Driven command current signal is output to an actuator of the mirror angle adjustment unit, in which the mirror angle is adjusted.
[0006]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Embodiment 1 FIG.
1 is a block diagram of an in-vehicle mirror control apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. As shown in the figure, this apparatus includes a vehicle speed sensor 201, an obstacle sensor 202, a manual operation switch 203, a mirror angle storage command switch 204, an automatic / manual changeover switch 205, an angle sensor 206, an actuator 207, a mirror 208, an electronic control device. 209 etc.
[0007]
In FIG.
(1) The obstacle sensor 202 and the vehicle speed sensor 201 constitute a traveling environment detection unit. The obstacle sensor 202 is installed in the vehicle, and outputs a signal corresponding to the distance and angle to the object existing in the side direction of the vehicle to the electronic control unit 209 in order to perform the recognition processing of the surrounding environment. The vehicle speed sensor 201 detects the traveling speed of the vehicle and outputs a vehicle speed signal. In this way, the traveling environment detection unit detects the distance and angle from a predetermined position of the vehicle to the obstacle while taking the vehicle speed into consideration.
(2) The mirror 208 is attached to the door part or fender part of the vehicle.
(3) The actuator 207 and the angle sensor 206 constitute a mirror angle adjustment unit. The actuator 207 is driven by a control command current output from the electronic control unit 209, and changes the mirror angle. The angle sensor 206 is provided to control the angle of the mirror 208, detects the mirror angle, and outputs a mirror angle signal. As described above, the mirror angle adjustment unit performs the change and control of the angle of the mirror 208.
(4) The mirror angle storage unit stores a plurality of mirror angles by means of an EEPROM 217 provided in the electronic control unit 209.
(5) The manual operation switch 203, the mirror angle storage command switch 204, and the automatic / manual mode switching switch 205 constitute a mirror angle operation unit. The manual operation switch 203 is a switch for manually operating the mirror angle by the driver of the vehicle. The switch output is sent to the electronic control unit 209 to control the mirror angle.
The automatic / manual mode switch 205 is a manual mode in which the mirror angle is adjusted by the manual operation switch 203, or an automatic mode in which the traveling environment detecting unit in (1) recognizes the surrounding environment and automatically adjusts the mirror angle. It is for switching to one of the modes.
The mirror angle storage command switch 204 is used to store and instruct a mirror angle that has been adjusted in advance by a manual operation by a vehicle driver. When driving on a narrow road with the automatic mode selected, the mirror angle automatically instructed to be stored is adjusted.
(6) The electronic control unit 209 calculates a mirror angle by a predetermined process in response to input from each sensor and each switch, and outputs a control command current for controlling the mirror to have the mirror angle obtained by the calculation. In addition, an optimum mirror angle determination unit is provided.
[0008]
In the on-vehicle mirror control device according to the first embodiment having such a configuration, it is set in advance according to a detection signal from a traveling environment detection unit that detects a shoulder width during traveling, an obstacle on the road side, an oncoming vehicle, and the like. In addition to being able to change the angle of the electric mirror according to the control pattern, it is possible to achieve the effect that priority is given to manual operation by the driver, thus solving the conventional problems.
Next, a detailed description will be given regarding each of the above components.
[0009]
The electronic control device includes a drive circuit 210 and a microcomputer 211. A control command current signal calculated by the microcomputer 211 is input to the drive circuit 210, and a control command current is output to the actuator 207. The microcomputer 211 includes an input port device 212, an output port device 213, a CPU 214, a RAM 215, a ROM 216, and an EEPROM 217, which are connected by a bidirectional common bus 218.
The input port device 212 includes a signal indicating the vehicle speed detected by the vehicle speed sensor 201, a signal indicating the angle and distance of the obstacle detected by the obstacle sensor 202, and the mirror angle detected by the angle sensor 206. , A mirror angle adjustment signal by the manual operation switch 203, a mirror angle storage command signal by the mirror angle storage command switch 204, and a mode signal by the automatic / manual mode changeover switch 205 are input.
The input port device 212 appropriately processes a signal input thereto, and outputs the processed signal to the CPU 214 and the RAM 215 in accordance with an instruction from the CPU 214 based on a control program stored in the ROM 216.
The output port device 213 outputs a control command current to the actuator 207 via the drive circuit 210 in accordance with an instruction from the CPU 214.
The CPU 214 performs various calculations and signal processing based on the control program shown in FIG. The ROM 216 stores the control program shown in FIG. The RAM 215 temporarily stores variables and the like during energization based on the control program shown in FIG. The EEPROM 217 stores the normal-path mirror angle and the narrow-path mirror angle that are adjusted and stored by the driver even when the electronic control device is in a non-energized state.
[0010]
Next, the flow of control in the present invention achieved by the microcomputer 211 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
In step 301, the normal road mirror angle m1 and the narrow road mirror angle m2 previously stored in the EEPROM 217 are read into the CPU 214 in order to recognize the traveling environment and switch the mirror angle.
In step 302, the angle sensor 206, the vehicle speed sensor 201, the obstacle sensor 202, the manual operation switch 203, the automatic / manual mode switch 205, the mirror angle storage command switch 204, which are connected to the electronic control unit 209 through the input port device 212. These output signals are input to the CPU 214.
In step 303, mirror angle calculation processing is performed based on each signal input in step 302.
In Step 304, the control command current value for driving the actuator 207 is converted based on the signal from the angle sensor 206 so that the mirror angle calculated in Step 303 is obtained.
In step 305, the control command current value is output to the drive circuit 210 through the output port 213, and the process returns to step 302 to continue the processing.
[0011]
Next, the mirror angle calculation process in step 303 shown in FIG. 2 will be described with reference to FIG.
In step 401, in order to give the highest priority to mirror angle adjustment by the driver's manual operation switch 203, it is determined whether or not a manual operation has been performed by the driver. If a manual operation is performed by the driver, the process proceeds to step 402 to set the manual mode regardless of the current mode state. Proceeding to step 403, the mirror angle adjusted by manual operation is set as the mirror angle calculation processing result. Proceeding to step 404, mirror angle storage processing is performed and the subroutine is terminated. Detailed description of the mirror angle storing process will be described later.
Next, in step 401, when a manual operation is not performed by the driver, the process proceeds to step 405 to determine whether the mode is the automatic mode or the manual mode. If it is the manual mode, the process proceeds to step 407, and the mirror angle calculation processing result holds the previous value. Proceeding to step 404, mirror angle storage processing is performed and the subroutine is terminated.
If the automatic mode is selected in step 405, the process proceeds to step 406, where it is determined whether the vehicle speed detected by the vehicle speed sensor 201 is equal to or higher than a predetermined value. If the vehicle speed is equal to or higher than the predetermined value, the process proceeds to step 407, the mirror angle calculation result holds the previous value, and the process proceeds to step 404, where the mirror angle storage process is performed and the subroutine is terminated.
In step 406, if the vehicle speed is not equal to or greater than the predetermined value, the process proceeds to step 408, where the mirror angle selection process is executed and the subroutine is terminated.
[0012]
Next, the mirror angle selection process in step 408 shown in FIG. 3 will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the mirror angle selection process. The obstacle sensor 202 (hereinafter referred to as an obstacle sensor) is installed at a predetermined position of the vehicle, and the height from the road and the angle with the road are always constant. The direction of the sensor 202 is defined as 0 degrees for the road direction and 90 degrees for the horizontal wall direction from the sensor 202.
The detection method by the sensor 202 may be any technique that can detect the distance R and the angle θ from a predetermined position in the vehicle to an object that is an obstacle by a commonly used technique. Here, the object is a road surface or a wall.
The sensor 202 scans from a sensor angle of 0 degrees to 90 degrees at a predetermined step angle.
[0013]
Using the distance R and angle θ detected by the sensor 202, the vertical distance from the sensor installation position in the vehicle to the point (road surface) detected by the sensor 202 is represented by R * cos θ.
Similarly, the horizontal distance from the sensor installation position (vehicle) in the vehicle to the point (wall surface) detected by the sensor 202, that is, the shoulder width, is represented by R * sin θ.
Based on the sensor height R * cos θ from the detection point of the object by the sensor 202, the threshold value at which the detection point is recognized as a wall surface is α1.
Similarly, from the sensor height R * cos θ from the sensor detection point, a threshold value for recognizing the detection point as a depression on the road surface, that is, a side groove, is α2.
Based on the shoulder width R * sin θ, a threshold value for recognizing that the traveling road is a narrow road is β.
[0014]
Next, the process will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
In step 601, the maximum value that X_min can take is substituted as an initial value for variable X_min that stores the shortest distance between the wall surface and the vehicle. The maximum value may be any value as long as it is larger than β.
In step 602, it is determined whether the point detected by the sensor 202 is a wall surface or a place lower than the road surface. Specifically, the distance in the vertical direction from the sensor position of the vehicle to the road surface, that is, the sensor height, is calculated from R * cos θ from the distance R detected by the sensor 202 and the angle θ. Since the mounting position of the sensor 202 is always constant from the precondition, if the sensor height R * cos θ is smaller than a predetermined amount α1 considering some errors, the point detected by the sensor 202 is from the road surface. It is judged as a high place, that is, a wall surface.
If it is determined that the point detected by the sensor 202 is a wall surface, the process proceeds to step 604. If it is determined in step 602 that it is not a wall surface, the process proceeds to step 603.
In step 603, it is determined whether or not the point detected by the sensor 202 is a depression with respect to the road surface, that is, a gutter or the like. Specifically, as in step 602, the sensor height is calculated by R * cos θ. Since the mounting position of the sensor 202 is always constant from the precondition, the point detected by the sensor 202 is lower than the road surface if the sensor height R * cos θ is larger than a predetermined amount α2 considering some errors. However, it is determined as a side groove or the like.
If the point detected by the sensor 202 is a gutter or the like, the process proceeds to step 604. If it is not a side groove or the like, the point detected by the sensor 202 is determined to be a road surface that is neither a wall surface nor a side groove, and the process proceeds to step 606.
[0015]
Next, the shortest distance X_min between the wall surface and the vehicle is derived. From the distance R detected by the sensor 202 and the angle θ, the horizontal distance R * sin θ between the vehicle and the wall surface at the detection point of the sensor 202 is calculated.
Steps 604 and 605 are not performed when the detection point by the sensor 202 is on the road surface of the normal road by the processing of step 602 and step 603. Accordingly, if the horizontal distance R * sin θ at the detection point of the sensor 202 is smaller than the stored shortest distance X_min between the wall surface and the vehicle, the horizontal distance R * sin θ is set to the shortest distance between the wall surface and the vehicle. If the process stored as X_min is performed from 0 degree to 90 degrees of the sensor angle θ, the shortest distance X_min between the wall surface and the vehicle can be calculated.
[0016]
Specifically, in step 604, if the horizontal distance R * sin θ at the detection point of the sensor 202 is smaller than the shortest distance X_min between the stored wall surface and the vehicle, the process proceeds to step 605, where R * sin θ. Is stored as X_min, and the process proceeds to Step 606. If it is determined in step 604 that the horizontal distance R * sin θ at the detection point of the sensor 202 is not smaller than the shortest distance X_min between the stored wall surface and the vehicle, the process proceeds to step 606.
In step 606, it is determined by the sensor 202 whether or not scanning has been completed from 0 degrees to 90 degrees. Specifically, if the angle θ is greater than 90 degrees, the process proceeds to step 607.
If it is determined in step 606 that the angle θ is smaller than 90 degrees, the process proceeds to step 602.
[0017]
Next, in step 607, it is determined whether the shortest distance X_min between the wall surface and the vehicle is smaller than a threshold value β for determining a narrow road.
If X_min is smaller than the threshold value β, the process proceeds to step 609 to set the narrow-path mirror angle m2 as the mirror angle calculation processing result, and the subroutine is terminated.
If it is determined in step 607 that X_min is larger than the threshold value β, the process proceeds to step 608, where the normal path mirror angle m1 is set as the mirror angle calculation processing result, and the subroutine is terminated.
Although the illustrated embodiment has been described above, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the angle control pattern of the mirror 208 according to the detection signal from the traveling environment detection unit can be arbitrarily set.
[0018]
Next, the mirror angle storing process in step 404 shown in FIG. 3 will be described with reference to FIG.
In step 701, it is determined whether the driver has operated the mirror angle storage command switch 204 in order to set the current mirror angle to the narrow-path mirror angle.
If the storage command switch 204 has been operated, the process proceeds to step 702, where it is stored as the narrow path mirror angle m2, and the subroutine is terminated.
If it is determined in step 701 that the storage command switch 204 has not been operated, the process proceeds to step 703, where it is determined whether the current mirror angle has changed with respect to the currently stored normal mirror angle m1.
If the current mirror angle has changed with respect to the stored normal mirror angle m1, the process proceeds to step 704, where the current mirror angle is stored as the normal mirror angle m1, and the subroutine ends.
If it is determined in step 703 that the current mirror angle has not changed with respect to the stored normal mirror angle m1, the subroutine is terminated as it is.
[0019]
【The invention's effect】
Since the present invention is configured as described above, the following effects can be obtained.
Since it is possible to detect the surrounding environment where the vehicle is traveling and change the angle of the electric mirror according to the control pattern set in advance according to the detection signal, there is a gutter on the side of the road from the normal road during driving When the mirror angle in a state of traveling on a narrow road is to be changed, the mirror angle is automatically changed to a preset mirror angle. When the vehicle travels again on the normal road, it automatically returns to the original mirror angle. Mirror angle control includes recognition of the surrounding environment, so fine mirror control can be performed even in situations where it cannot be determined only by driving operations. And since a driver | operator does not require special operation and mirror angle control is automatically performed according to a condition, a driver | operator can always ensure a safe view. Even in a mode in which mirror control is performed automatically, priority is given to manual operation by the driver, so an in-vehicle mirror control device that respects the driver's will can be provided.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a control procedure of the first embodiment shown in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing details of mirror angle calculation processing shown in FIG. 2;
4 is an explanatory diagram of a mirror angle selection process shown in FIG. 3. FIG.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing details of mirror angle selection processing shown in FIG. 3;
6 is a flowchart showing details of mirror angle storage processing shown in FIG. 3; FIG.
[Explanation of symbols]
201 vehicle speed sensor, 202 obstacle sensor,
203 manual operation switch, 204 mirror angle storage command switch,
205 automatic / manual mode switch, 206 angle sensor,
207 Actuator, 208 Mirror, 209 Electronic control unit.

Claims (1)

An in-vehicle mirror control device, the in-vehicle mirror control device includes an electronic control device, an obstacle sensor that is attached to the vehicle and detects a distance and an angle to an obstacle on the traveling road, and a vehicle speed sensor. Mirror environment adjustment unit having a traveling environment detection unit, an angle sensor that detects a mirror angle and outputs a mirror angle signal, an actuator that changes the mirror angle, and a manual operation switch for manually operating the mirror angle And an automatic / manual mode switching switch for switching the mirror angle to either the automatic / manual mode, and a mirror angle storage command switch for instructing the electronic control device to store the mirror angle adjusted by manual operation. And
The electronic control device is operated during manual operation by a vehicle driver by a manual operation switch of the mirror angle operation unit, an output signal from an automatic / manual mode changeover switch, and an output signal of a vehicle speed sensor of the traveling environment detection unit. The mirror angle is changed to the mirror angle, and when the vehicle is not in the automatic mode or is in the automatic mode or higher than the predetermined vehicle speed, the mirror angle retains the previous value, and in the automatic mode and lower than the predetermined vehicle speed, The obstacle sensor of the traveling environment detection unit scans the range from 0 degrees in the vertical direction of the road surface to 90 degrees in the lateral direction of the vehicle and determines whether the traveling path is a normal road or a narrow road from the detected output signal. thereby selecting one of the normal path for the mirror angle or narrow road mirror angle storing the determination result in the electronic control unit, braking the driving circuit Command current signal is driven is output to the actuator of the mirror angle adjustment unit, the control unit of the vehicle mirror, wherein the mirror angle is adjusted.

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