JP4984244B2 - Intersection safe driving support device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an intersection safe driving support device that notifies the timing of changing the traveling direction across an opposite lane at an intersection.

  As the vehicle travels, the current position is detected by GPS (Global Positioning System), etc., and the current position is displayed on a display device together with a road map, and an appropriate route from the starting point to the destination The vehicle navigation device that guides the vehicle using a display device, a voice output device, or the like contributes to efficient and safe driving for the user.

  The GPS function is also used for in-vehicle devices other than the vehicle navigation device. For example, it is possible to accurately determine whether it is possible to make a right turn at an intersection even if it is difficult to grasp the oncoming straight vehicle due to the shape of the road or the shadow of the oncoming vehicle, or even if the speed of the oncoming vehicle is faster than the speed determined by the driver. In order to prevent the occurrence of a collision when turning right, the GPS function is also used in a right-turn collision prevention system that can stop the vehicle (see Patent Document 1).

JP 2001-126199 A

  In the configuration of Patent Document 1, the right turn permission is not issued even if the oncoming lane is congested and the vehicle stops before the intersection, and the right turn ahead is not considered (the right turn permission is permitted even if the right turn is congested) There is a problem that pedestrians are not considered (right turns are permitted even if there are crossers on the right pedestrian crossing).

  Against the background of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide an intersection safe driving support device in which consideration is given to traffic conditions and pedestrians at the right turn destination.

Means for Solving the Problems and Effects of the Invention

An intersection safe driving support apparatus for solving the above problem is a position detection means for detecting the current position of the host vehicle, and a process for determining whether the host vehicle is going to change the direction of travel across the opposite lane at the intersection. Direction change determination means, oncoming vehicle running status information acquisition means for acquiring oncoming vehicle running status information including identification information for identifying the running status of the oncoming vehicle and the type of the oncoming vehicle in the oncoming lane, and the traveling direction change destination of the host vehicle The traffic state reflection information acquisition means for acquiring the traffic state reflection information reflecting the traffic state of the vehicle, and the determination result of the acquired oncoming vehicle traveling state information, traffic state reflection information, the current position of the own vehicle, and the traveling direction change determination means Travel direction change timing arrival determination means for determining whether or not the travel direction change timing of the host vehicle has arrived, and a direction change timing There comprising a traveling direction change timing arrives information indicating that the incoming, characterized in that it and a traveling direction changing support information generating output means for generating and outputting a traveling direction changing support information of the own vehicle.

Although the right turn of the left-hand traffic road can be mentioned as the direction change, the right turn may not be possible even if there is no oncoming vehicle depending on the traffic condition of the right turn destination. In the prior art, there is no disclosure or suggestion about dealing with the traffic conditions at the right turn. On the other hand, the configuration described above makes it possible to generate and output travel direction change support information that is more useful to the driver. Further, it is possible to output an appropriate traveling direction change timing to the driver.

  Further, the oncoming vehicle travel status information in the intersection safe driving support device of the present invention includes the presence / absence of an oncoming vehicle traveling on the oncoming lane, the speed of the oncoming vehicle, the travel interval of the oncoming vehicle, the predicted course and predicted position of the oncoming vehicle, It can also be configured to include at least one of vehicle identification information and image information obtained by photographing the oncoming lane.

  With the above configuration, it is possible to grasp the traveling state of the oncoming vehicle traveling in the oncoming lane.

  Further, the traffic state reflection information in the intersection safe driving support device of the present invention includes traffic congestion status information indicating the traffic congestion status of the traveling direction change destination of the own vehicle, or traffic regulation indicating the traffic regulation status of the traveling direction change destination of the own vehicle. It can also be configured to include status information.

  For example, when turning right, if the road on the right turn is congested due to traffic concentration or construction due to lane restrictions, etc., if you turn right, you will get stuck in the intersection and a signal will appear before you pass the intersection. It may change and block the traffic of intersecting lanes. However, with the above configuration, the direction change support information is generated and output based on the traffic congestion status information on the right turn or the traffic regulation status information, so that a situation where the vehicle is stuck in the intersection does not occur.

  Moreover, the traffic state reflecting information in the intersection safe driving support device of the present invention can also be configured to include pedestrian arrival state information indicating the arrival state of the pedestrian at the traveling direction change destination of the own vehicle.

  For example, if a pedestrian is crossing the pedestrian crossing at the right turn when turning right, the vehicle will be left behind in the intersection depending on the number of pedestrians and the timing of the crossing, and the signal will change before passing the intersection, It may also obstruct the passage of vehicles in intersecting lanes. In addition, passing a pedestrian crossing without considering pedestrians crossing is a violation of laws and regulations (corresponding to “disturbances such as crossing pedestrians” in the Road Traffic Act). With the above configuration, there is no situation where the vehicle is stuck in the intersection or threatens the pedestrian who is crossing.

  The intersection safe driving support device according to the present invention further includes a traveling direction change timing condition setting means for setting a condition for determining whether or not the traveling direction change timing of the host vehicle has arrived based on a driver's setting operation input. It can also be configured to include.

  The driving skill varies depending on the driver, and in particular, there are many drivers who are not good at turning right. With the above-described configuration, it is possible to output the traveling direction change timing according to the driving skill of the driver.

  In addition, the traveling direction change timing arrival judging means in the intersection safe driving support device of the present invention, when the oncoming vehicle running status information includes a situation where the oncoming lane is congested and the oncoming vehicle is stopped, It can also be configured to determine that the traveling direction change timing has arrived.

  When the oncoming lane is congested and the oncoming vehicle is stopped, it may be possible to make a right turn. However, the prior art does not disclose or suggest that the oncoming lane is congested. With the above configuration, the traveling direction change timing can be output to the driver without missing an opportunity.

  Hereinafter, a configuration example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. First, the configuration of the intersection safe driving support apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. The intersection safe driving support device includes an onboard device (vehicle navigation device, see FIG. 2), road devices 111 to 115, and a pedestrian detector 116 mounted on a vehicle (101, etc.).

  The road machine is determined in advance from the pedestrian crossing at the approximate center of the intersection or on the travel route of the right turn vehicle (111), immediately before the intersection (112), a position separated by a predetermined distance before the intersection (113), and a crosswalk. It is installed using a column (not shown) at a position (114) separated by a distance and immediately after passing through the intersection (115). In addition, the pedestrian detector 116 is installed at a position near the pedestrian crossing where a crossing and a pedestrian predicted to cross can be photographed.

  The structure of the vehicle navigation apparatus 100 used as an onboard device will be described with reference to FIG. The vehicle-mounted device may be configured independently, or may be configured as a part of other vehicle-mounted devices.

  A vehicle navigation device (hereinafter abbreviated as a navigation device) 100 includes a position detector 1, a map data input device 6, an operation switch group 7, a remote control (hereinafter referred to as a remote control) sensor 11, a voice synthesis circuit for performing voice guidance, and the like. 24, speaker 15, memory 9, display 10, transmitter / receiver 13, hard disk device (HDD) 21, LAN (Local Area Network) I / F (interface) 26, control circuit 8 connected to these, remote control terminal 12, etc. It has.

  The position detector 1 includes a known geomagnetic sensor 2, a gyroscope 3 that detects the rotational angular velocity of the vehicle 101, a distance sensor 4 that detects the travel distance of the vehicle 101, and the position of the vehicle 101 based on radio waves from the GPS satellite 104. GPS receiver 5 is detected. Since these sensors 2, 3, 4, and 5 have errors of different properties, they are configured to be used while being complemented by a plurality of sensors. Depending on the accuracy, some of the sensors described above may be used, and further, a steering rotation sensor (not shown), a wheel sensor of each rolling wheel, for example, a vehicle speed sensor 23 or the like may be used. The position detector 1 corresponds to the position detection means of the present invention.

  As the operation switch group 7, for example, a known touch panel 22 integrated with the display 10 or a mechanical switch is used. In addition to the mechanical switch, a pointing device such as a mouse or a cursor may be used.

  It is also possible to input various instructions using the microphone 31 and the voice recognition unit 30. In this method, a voice signal input from the microphone 31 is processed by a voice recognition technique such as a well-known hidden Markov model in the voice recognition unit 30, and converted into an operation command corresponding to the result. Various instructions can be input by the operation switch group 7, the remote control terminal 12, the touch panel 22, and the microphone 31 corresponding to the traveling direction change timing condition setting means of the present invention.

  The control circuit 8 is configured as a normal computer, and connects a well-known CPU 81, ROM 82, RAM 83, I / O 84 as an input / output circuit, A / D conversion unit 86, drawing unit 87, clock IC 88, and these components. A bus line 85 is provided. The CPU 81 controls the navigation program 21p and data stored in the HDD 21. In addition, a program for performing a minimum necessary operation as the navigation device 100 may be stored in the ROM 82 in a case where the data read / write control from the CPU 81 to the HDD 21 becomes impossible. The control circuit 8 corresponds to the traveling direction change determination means, the traveling direction change support information generation output means, and the traveling direction change timing arrival determination means of the present invention.

  The A / D conversion unit 86 includes a well-known A / D (analog / digital) conversion circuit, and converts analog data input from the position detector 1 or the like to the control circuit 8 into digital data that can be calculated by the CPU 81, for example. It is.

  The drawing unit 87 generates display screen data to be displayed on the display 10 from road map data 21m (described later), display data, and display color data stored in the HDD 21 or the like.

  The clock IC 88 is also called a real-time clock IC, and sends or sets clock / calendar data in response to a request from the CPU 81. The CPU 81 acquires date / time information from the clock IC 88. Further, date and time information included in the GPS signal received by the GPS receiver 5 may be used. The date information may be generated based on a real-time counter included in the CPU 81. The acquired date / time information is used, for example, for travel history management.

  In addition to the navigation program 21p, the HDD 21 stores so-called map matching data for improving the accuracy of position detection, and road map data 21m, which is a road map database including road data representing road connections. The road map data 21m stores predetermined map image information for display and road network information including link information and node information. The link information is predetermined section information constituting each road, and includes position coordinates, distance, required time, width, number of lanes, speed limit, and the like in the link attributes. The node information is information defining an intersection (branch road) or the like, and is composed of position coordinates, the number of right / left turn lanes, a connecting road link, a distance cost, and the like. In addition, data indicating whether or not traffic is possible is set in the inter-link connection information.

  In the HDD 21, auxiliary information for route guidance, entertainment information, and other data can be written independently by the user and stored as user data 21u. Data and various information necessary for the operation of the navigation device 100 are also stored as the database 21d.

  The navigation program 21p, road map data 21m, user data 21u, and database 21d can be added / updated from the storage medium 20 via the map data input device 6. The storage medium 20 is generally a CD-ROM or DVD based on the amount of data, but may be another medium such as a memory card. Moreover, you may use the structure which downloads data via an external network.

  The memory 9 is composed of a rewritable device such as an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable & Programmable Read Only Memory) or a flash memory, and stores information and data necessary for the operation of the navigation apparatus 100. Has been. The memory 9 holds the stored contents even when the navigation device 100 is turned off. Further, instead of the memory 9, information and data necessary for the operation of the navigation device 100 may be stored in the HDD 21. Further, information and data necessary for the operation of the navigation device 100 may be stored separately in the memory 9 and the HDD 21.

  The display 10 is composed of a known color liquid crystal display, and includes a dot matrix LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) and a driver circuit (not shown) for performing LCD display control. The driver circuit uses, for example, a well-known active matrix driving method, and performs display based on a display command and display screen data sent from the control circuit 8 (drawing unit 87). Further, an organic EL (ElectroLuminescence) display or a plasma display may be used as the display 10. The display device 10 corresponds to the traveling direction change support information generation / output unit of the present invention.

  The transceiver 13 is, for example, a VICS (Vehicle Information and Communication System: registered trademark) center 14 by an optical beacon or a radio beacon output from a transmitter (not shown) provided along the road. It is a device for receiving road traffic information from or receiving FM multiplex broadcasting. Moreover, it is good also as a structure which can be connected to external networks, such as the internet, using the transmitter / receiver 13. FIG.

  The speaker 15 is connected to a well-known voice synthesis circuit 24, and the digital voice data stored in the memory 9 or the HDD 21 in accordance with a command from the navigation program 21p is converted into analog voice by the voice synthesis circuit 24 and sent out. Note that speech synthesis methods include a recording / editing method in which speech waveforms are stored as they are or after being encoded and connected as necessary, and a text synthesis method in which corresponding speech is synthesized from character input information. The speaker corresponds to 15 advancing direction change support information generating / outputting means of the present invention.

  The vehicle speed sensor 23 includes a rotation detection unit such as a known rotary encoder. For example, the vehicle speed sensor 23 is installed in the vicinity of the wheel mounting unit to detect the rotation of the wheel and send it to the control circuit 8 as a pulse signal. In the control circuit 8, the number of rotations of the wheel is converted into the speed of the vehicle 101 to calculate an expected arrival time from the current position of the vehicle 101 to a predetermined place, or an average vehicle speed for each travel section of the vehicle 101. To do.

  The communication unit 25 is configured as a well-known wireless communication device (including an antenna), and is used for communication with road devices (111 to 115). For the communication between the communication unit 25 and the roadside machine, for example, a well-known DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communication) technique used in a non-stop automatic payment system (ETC) is used. In DSRC, 5.8 GHz band radio waves are used, and bidirectional communication can be performed at a maximum transfer rate of 4 Mbps at a limited spot of several m to 30 m. By using DSRC, the communication target can be limited to vehicles in the vicinity of the road unit, and interference with vehicles traveling in adjacent lanes can be prevented. Note that the communication unit 25 corresponds to an oncoming vehicle traveling state information acquisition unit and a traffic state reflection information acquisition unit of the present invention.

  The LAN I / F 26 is an interface circuit for exchanging data with other in-vehicle devices and sensors via the in-vehicle LAN 27. Further, data may be taken from the vehicle speed sensor 23 via the LAN I / F 26.

  With this configuration, the navigation device 100 allows the user to operate the operation switch group 7, the touch panel 22, the remote control terminal 12, or from the microphone 31 when the navigation program 21 p is activated by the CPU 81 of the control circuit 8. When a route guidance process for displaying a destination route on the display 10 is selected from a menu (not shown) displayed on the display 10 by voice input, the following process is performed.

  That is, first, the user searches for a destination. The destination search method is, for example, a method of specifying an arbitrary point on the map, a method of searching from the area where the destination is located, a method of searching from the telephone number of the destination, or the name of the destination from the Japanese alphabet. There are a method of searching by inputting the number of characters stored in the memory 9 as a facility frequently used by the user. When the destination is set, the current position of the vehicle is obtained by the position detector 1, and a process for obtaining an optimum guide route to the destination from the current position is performed. Then, the guidance route is superimposed on the road map on the screen of the display 10 to display an appropriate route for the user. As a method for automatically setting an optimum guide route, a method such as the Dijkstra method is known. In addition, at least one of the display 10 and the speaker 15 performs notification of a message according to an operation guidance or an operation state.

  The brake sensor 33 detects the amount of depression of a brake pedal (not shown), and includes a known potentiometer. When the brake pedal is depressed, the resistance value of the potentiometer changes depending on the position of the brake pedal, and a voltage value generated according to the resistance value is sent to the control circuit 8. The control circuit 8 detects the operating state of the brake based on the voltage value.

  The G sensor 34 detects acceleration in the front-rear direction of the vehicle (101, etc.), and includes, for example, a piezoelectric acceleration sensor including a piezoelectric element that generates an electric charge when it receives an inertial force. The piezoelectric acceleration sensor has a structure in which a piezoelectric element is sandwiched between bases having a constant mass. The relationship between the generated acceleration and the inertial force applied to the piezoelectric element is expressed by Newton's second law, and the generated charge is linearly proportional to the acceleration. Therefore, if the generated charge is acquired as a voltage value and the voltage value is A / D converted, the acceleration can be calculated.

  The direction indicator switch 35 is a switch for operating a known direction indicator for informing surrounding vehicles / pedestrians when the vehicle (101 or the like) changes the traveling direction. The direction indicator switch 35 is also called a winker lever, and is attached to a steering column of a vehicle, for example.

  FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the road machine 111. The configuration of the other road machines (112 to 115) is the same. The roadside device 111 includes a road-to-vehicle communication device 111a, a road condition acquisition device 111b, and an information processing device 111c.

  The road-to-vehicle communication device 111a is a known wireless communication device that communicates with the communication unit 25 of the navigation device 100, and acquires information (details will be described later) from the vehicle and transmits information to the vehicle.

  The road condition acquisition device 111b includes a known radar, camera, and the like, and acquires the oncoming vehicle traveling condition and traffic condition reflecting information. When a camera is used, a known image processing circuit is included. The image processing circuit performs general binarization processing on the video signal photographed by the camera, thereby converting it into digital multi-valued image data for each pixel. Then, a desired image portion such as a vehicle is extracted from the obtained multi-value image data using a general image processing method.

  The information processing apparatus 111c has, for example, the same configuration as the information processing apparatus 141 (described later) that controls the control circuit 8 of the navigation apparatus 100 or the road device. In addition, a communication I / F for performing data communication with the information processing apparatus 141 is also provided. The information processing device 111c sends the oncoming vehicle travel status and traffic state reflection information acquired from the road-to-vehicle communication device 111a and the road status acquisition device 111b to the information processing device 141, or receives information acquired from the information processing device 141 as road information. It transmits to a vehicle (navigation apparatus 100) via the inter-vehicle communication device 111a.

  The pedestrian detector 116 includes a pedestrian detector 116a and an information processing device 116b. The pedestrian detection unit 116a includes a camera and a human sensor for detecting a pedestrian. As the human sensor, a radar (radio wave, ultrasonic wave, etc.), an infrared sensor, a temperature sensor (thermography, etc.), a photoelectric sensor, or the like is used. Since detection of a person (pedestrian) by a human sensor is well known, a detailed description is omitted.

  The information processing device 116 b has the same configuration as the information processing device 111 c of the roadside device 111, acquires pedestrian arrival status information based on the detection result of the pedestrian detection unit 116 a, and sends it to the information processing device 141.

  FIG. 4 shows the configuration of the information processing apparatus 141. The information processing apparatus 141 is configured as a well-known personal computer or workstation, and includes an HDD 143, a communication I / F (Interface) 144, a display unit 145, an operation unit 146, and a control circuit 142 to which these are connected.

  The HDD 143 includes an OS program 143S that functions as an operating system (OS) that operates the information processing apparatus 141, an application program 143P that functions as an application running on the OS, a database (also referred to as DB) 143D, and the like. It is remembered.

  The communication I / F 144 includes a network adapter having an interface function for performing data communication with each of the road devices (111 to 115), the pedestrian detector 116, and the traffic signal controller 150 via a communication network. Is done.

  The display unit 145 includes a display device such as a liquid crystal display or a CRT display. The operation unit 146 includes a pointing device such as a mouse and operation means such as a keyboard.

  The control circuit 142 includes a CPU 142a, a ROM 142b, a RAM 142c, an input / output interface (I / O) 142d, a clock IC 142f having the same configuration as the clock IC 88 of the navigation device 100, and a bus line 142e that connects these configurations. . The CPU 142a performs control based on the OS program 143S stored in the HDD 143. The OS program 143S is executed on the RAM 142c with the OS work memory 142S as a work area. In addition, the application program 143P is executed in the form in which the application work memory 142P is used as a work area on the RAM 142c.

  In addition, the information processing apparatus 141 acquires traffic signal information from traffic signals (151, 152, etc.) installed at intersections from the traffic signal control device 150. At least one traffic signal is controlled by a known traffic signal control device 150 installed at the intersection.

  With the above configuration, the information processing apparatus 141 has the oncoming vehicle traveling state and traffic state reflection information from the roadside devices (111 to 115) installed at the intersection and its surroundings, and the pedestrian arrival state information from the pedestrian detector 116. , And the traffic signal information from the traffic signal controller 150, and after analyzing the information, the information is sent to the roadside machine according to the content of the information. Details of each information will be described later.

  Information analysis processing in the information processing apparatus 141 will be described with reference to FIG. This process is included in the application program 143P and is repeatedly executed together with other processes of the application program 143P. First, signal information is acquired from the signal controller 150 (S11).

  Next, on the basis of the acquired traffic signal information, a road device that acquires oncoming vehicle travel status information and traffic state reflection information, a road device that outputs travel direction change support information, and pedestrian detection that acquires pedestrian arrival status information A machine is selected (S12). When the vehicle 101 makes a right turn in the example of FIG. 1, the road unit 111 installed in the approximate center of the intersection, the road units 112, 113, 115 installed on the opposite lane of the road on which the vehicle 101 has traveled, A road machine 114 installed on the right turn road and a pedestrian detector 116 installed near the pedestrian crossing of the right turn road of the vehicle 101 are selected. Even if the same symbol is given, the road machine indicated by ○ (white circle) is not selected. That is, only the road vehicles on the green signal display route and the road vehicles on the right turn of the green signal display route (hatched and ◎ (double circle)) are selected. Thereby, since the road machine of a process target is limited, the processing load of the information processing apparatus 141 can be reduced. Hereinafter, the description will be made on a right-turn vehicle (which may be abbreviated as a vehicle) 101, and therefore, the on-road machine indicates a hatched one.

Each on-road machine receives the following data from the traveling vehicle.
-Road machine 111: Vehicle type (large car / normal car / small car / two-wheeled vehicle, etc.), presence / absence of right turn display by direction indicator.
Roadside machine 112: Vehicle type (large vehicle / normal vehicle / small vehicle / two-wheeled vehicle, etc.), vehicle unique code (vehicle number, etc.), vehicle speed.
Further, the road machine 112 captures the road situation with a camera included in the road situation acquisition device.
Road machine 113: vehicle type (large vehicle / normal vehicle / small vehicle / two-wheeled vehicle, etc.), vehicle unique code (vehicle number, etc.), vehicle speed.
Road machine 114: vehicle type (large vehicle / normal vehicle / small vehicle / two-wheeled vehicle, etc.), vehicle unique code (vehicle number, etc.), vehicle speed.
Further, the road machine 114 captures the road situation with a camera included in the road situation acquisition device.
Roadside 115: Vehicle type (large car / normal car / small car / two-wheeled vehicle, etc.), vehicle speed.
The road units 114 and 115 have the same installation location at the intersection, but their roles change depending on the state of the traffic light (151), so the signs are changed for easy understanding.
Pedestrian detector 116: Presence / absence of pedestrians on and near the pedestrian crossing.

  The vehicle type and the unique code (vehicle number, etc.) of the vehicle are stored in advance in the memory 9 or database for each vehicle. Further, the vehicle speed detected by the vehicle speed sensor 23 is used. These data are transmitted from the vehicle in response to a transmission request from the roadside machine.

  Next, data necessary for generating the traveling direction change support information is acquired from the road devices (111 to 115) and the pedestrian detector 116 selected above (S13). For example, all data acquired by a roadside device is acquired. The presence or absence of a right turn vehicle can be specified by data acquired from the roadside device 111.

By using the data acquired from the road machines 112, 113, and 115, the following on-vehicle traveling status information can be acquired.
Presence / absence of oncoming vehicle: When information from the vehicle cannot be obtained on the road machine, or when the vehicle is not shown in the image information of the oncoming lane, the vehicle is not driving on the oncoming lane and the right turn vehicle 101 turns right It can be determined that it is possible.

  Oncoming vehicle speed: Since it is possible to estimate and calculate the time until the oncoming vehicle enters the intersection based on the speed of the oncoming vehicle and the distance from the intersection of the road unit 113, whether or not the right turn vehicle 101 can turn right Can be determined. Further, if acceleration information and brake information can be acquired from the oncoming vehicle, it can be determined whether the oncoming vehicle is accelerating or decelerating, so the accuracy of the estimation calculation is improved.

  -Oncoming vehicle travel interval: The oncoming vehicle travel interval can be determined based on the image information obtained by capturing the oncoming lane, or the information acquisition interval and vehicle speed from the oncoming vehicle, and the right turn vehicle 101 is within the travel interval. It can be determined whether a right turn is possible.

  -Predicted course and predicted position of oncoming vehicle: When a vehicle is shown in the image information obtained by photographing the oncoming lane, the predicted course can be estimated by specifying the blinking state of the direction indicator of the vehicle. For example, in FIG. 1, if the direction indicator on the left side of the traveling direction of the vehicle 105 is blinking in the image of the vehicle 105 taken by the road machine 112, it can be understood that the vehicle 105 is about to turn left at the intersection. It can be determined that the right turn vehicle (101) cannot turn right at the intersection depending on the traveling direction of the vehicles 103 and 104. Further, in the image of the vehicle 102 photographed by the road machine 112, if the direction indicator on the right side of the traveling direction of the vehicle 102 is blinking, it can be understood that the vehicle 102 is about to turn right at the intersection. ) Can determine that the vehicle 105 can turn right after the left turn.

  In FIG. 1, if the direction indicator on the right side of the traveling direction of the vehicle 106 is blinking in the image of the vehicle 106 photographed by the road machine 113, it can be understood that the vehicle 106 is changing the lane. Therefore, the course of the vehicle 106 can be predicted.

  -Oncoming vehicle identification information: The vehicle type can also be specified from identification information (for example, a license plate). Running characteristics such as acceleration / deceleration vary depending on the vehicle type. Also, even though the two-wheeled vehicle looks small, it is often close to the intersection, and the large vehicle appears large even though it is far away. However, by considering the vehicle type, it is possible to improve the accuracy of estimating and calculating the time until the oncoming vehicle enters the intersection. In addition, it is possible to accurately determine whether or not a right turn is possible regardless of how the vehicle turns from the right turn vehicle 101.

  Moreover, the traffic congestion status information or traffic regulation status of the right turn destination can be acquired from the data acquired from the roadside device 114.

And based on the data acquired above, the transmission data (travel direction change support information or the basis thereof) to be output to the roadside device 111 are generated (S14). The transmission data includes at least one of the following.
• If the vehicle is approaching from the oncoming lane, the vehicle's unique code, speed, and distance from the preceding vehicle.
-The state of the oncoming lane viewed from the intersection (camera image or data processed image).
・ Whether people are passing the pedestrian crossing after turning right or there are pedestrians entering the pedestrian crossing.
-State of lane congestion after a right turn (camera image or data processed image).
-The speed and expected position of the vehicle traveling straight in the oncoming lane.

  Finally, data (travel direction change support information or the basis thereof) is transmitted to the roadside device 111 (S15).

  In addition, to the road machine 113, data including the presence / absence of a right turn vehicle and the vehicle type (large car / normal car / small car / two-wheeled vehicle, etc.) when there is a right turn car is transmitted. These data are transmitted to the vehicle (106). The driver of the vehicle that has received this data can know in advance that there is a right turn vehicle at the intersection ahead, and can drive accordingly.

  The road unit 111 transmits the received data to the vehicle 111.

  The intersections are classified according to the number of lanes, the speed limit of the road, and the like, and these pieces of information are stored as intersection information in the database 143D of the information processing apparatus 141. And the intersection information is transmitted with respect to vehicles (101 grade | etc.,) From each roadside machine.

  The traveling direction change support process based on the data received from the roadside device 111 in the navigation device 100 will be described with reference to FIG. This process is included in the navigation program 21p and is repeatedly executed together with other processes of the navigation program 21p. First, the current position information of the vehicle 101 is acquired (S31). Then, with reference to the road map data 21m, it is determined whether or not the current position of the vehicle is within the intersection.

  When the current position of the vehicle is within the intersection (S32: Yes), the direction indicator information is acquired from the direction indicator switch 35 (S33). When the state of the direction indicator indicates a right turn (S34: Yes), it is determined whether data can be received from the roadside device 111 (S35). If the radio wave from the roadside device 111 cannot be received within a predetermined time, it is determined that the data cannot be received.

  When the data can be received from the roadside device 111 (S36: Yes), based on the data, the direction change support information creation / output process for creating / outputting the direction change support information is executed (S37, described later).

  With reference to FIG. 7, a description will be given of the direction change support information creation / output process corresponding to step S37 in FIG. This process is premised on that the vehicle 101 is waiting for a right turn at an intersection (S51). It is determined whether or not the data (hereinafter, referred to as received data) received from the road unit 111 includes information indicating that the oncoming vehicle is present before the road unit 113 (intersection side).

  When there are oncoming vehicles such as 103 and 104 in FIG. 1 (S52: No), an estimated time for the oncoming vehicle existing in front of the road unit 113 to reach the intersection is calculated, and the expected time is predetermined. It is determined whether or not the estimated time threshold is exceeded.

  The expected time can be calculated from the vehicle speed of the oncoming vehicle and the distance from the intersection of the road unit 113. The estimated time may be calculated by the information processing apparatus 141 and transmitted to the roadside device 111. If the road machine 113 or the information processing apparatus 141 can acquire the current position information of the oncoming vehicle or the passing time of the road machine 113, the accuracy of the predicted time is improved.

  When there is no oncoming vehicle (S52: Yes), or when the predicted time is greater than a predetermined predicted time threshold value (S53: Yes), traffic congestion status information or traffic regulation status information of the right turn included in the received data ( Referring to (obtained by the road machine 114), it is determined whether there is a margin ahead of the road machine 114, that is, whether the right turn is not congested.

  Further, if the time when the oncoming vehicle passes the road unit 113 is transmitted to the vehicle 101 via the information processing device 141 and the road unit 111, depending on the vehicle speed of the oncoming vehicle and the distance from the intersection of the road unit 113, The expected arrival time at the intersection of the oncoming vehicle can be calculated. In the determination in step S53, when the predicted arrival time is later than, for example, the current time plus the time required for a right turn, the process in step S54 may be executed.

  When it is determined that the right turn destination is congested (S54: No), it is determined whether there is no vehicle (for example, 107) in front of the road unit 114, that is, whether a right turn room is generated. Since the road unit 114 acquires vehicle speed information of the passing vehicle, the vehicle speed information is used. If the passing vehicle repeats starting and stopping, the average vehicle speed is used. Then, the expected time until the vehicle detected by the road unit 114 by the camera or the radar is not detected is calculated from the length of the vehicle or the train and the vehicle speed or the average vehicle speed.

  And when it is determined that the right turn destination is not congested (S54: Yes), or the estimated time is determined in advance, for example, as the right turn time of the traffic light (the remaining time of the green light and the right turn signal display time). If it is less than the predetermined time (S55: Yes), the presence or absence of a pedestrian on the pedestrian crossing and in the vicinity thereof is determined with reference to the pedestrian arrival status information.

  The information processing device 141 acquires the traffic light green signal display time and the right turn signal display time from the traffic signal control device 150 as traffic signal information, and transmits the traffic signal information to each roadside device. The traffic signal information includes the display time of each signal, the current traffic signal state, the time at which the traffic signal display transitions, and the current time information of the traffic signal controller 150.

  If there is a pedestrian on or near the pedestrian crossing (S56: No), if the pedestrian is crossing (S57: No), the process returns to step S51 and continues to wait for a right turn. If there is a pedestrian in the vicinity of the pedestrian crossing, the estimated pedestrian arrival time, which is the expected time for the pedestrian to reach the pedestrian crossing, is calculated on the assumption that the pedestrian crosses the pedestrian crossing. Since the installation position of the pedestrian detector 116 is known, the distance between the pedestrian and the pedestrian crossing can be calculated in either the information processing apparatus 141 or the vehicle 101. Although the standard value of the walking speed of a pedestrian is said to be 4 km / h, it may be 2 km / h in consideration of so-called traffic weak persons such as elderly people and children.

  When there is no pedestrian on or in the vicinity of the pedestrian crossing (S56: Yes), or when the estimated time for reaching the pedestrian crossing is, for example, the time required for the vehicle to turn right and pass the pedestrian crossing. When it is larger than the expected sidewalk arrival time threshold (S57: Yes), it is determined whether or not there is a straight vehicle in the vicinity of the road unit 112 with reference to the received data.

  When there is a straight vehicle in the vicinity of the road machine 112 (S58: No), it is determined whether or not the opposing straight lane is congested. That is, when vehicles exist in the vicinity of the road machine 112 and the road machine 115 and the vehicle speed of these vehicles is 0 km / h, it is determined that the opposing straight lane is congested.

  When there is no straight vehicle in the vicinity of the road machine 112 (S58: Yes), or when the opposite straight lane is congested (S59: Yes), it is determined that the vehicle 101 can turn right, that is, the turn direction has arrived. Then, a message to that effect (travel direction change support information) such as “Please turn right while paying attention to the surroundings” is output to the display 10 or the speaker 15 (S60).

  The outline of the actual operation in FIG. 1 will be described below. When the vehicle 101 is about to turn right and is standing by at the intersection, the type and shape of the intersection, the presence or absence of an oncoming vehicle, the type of vehicle on the opposite lane, the vehicle speed, the distance from the preceding vehicle, and the intersection image , Presence / absence of pedestrians, lane status after turning right (opposite vehicle running status information, traffic status reflecting information) is sent. Based on this data, the right turn timing (travel direction change support information) is determined and output to the driver.

  Since the right turn timing varies depending on the type of intersection and the skill of the driver, the timing is notified under the conditions set by the user. The setting operation is performed by operating the operation switch group 7, the touch panel 22, the remote control terminal 12, or by voice input from the microphone 31. The setting content is, for example, earlier / slower than the reference timing. It is stored in the database 21d or the memory 9 in association with information specifying the user, such as a setting number and user ID. Further, the association based on the type of intersection is performed using, for example, the size (size) of the intersection as a parameter.

  Specifically, assuming that the time required for making a right turn to make a right turn at the intersection, that is, the time required between the road unit 111 to the road unit 114 is T1, and the expected time for the oncoming vehicle to enter the intersection is T2, first, the size of the intersection T1 is corrected accordingly. For example, the correction coefficient K1 stored in the database 21d or the memory 9 is multiplied by T1. The value of K1 increases as the size of the intersection increases. Then, a difference Td between K1 × T1 and T2 is obtained. For example, when Td = 2 (seconds) is set as the standard timing, it is added to Td in increments of 0.5 (seconds) according to the skill of the driver. The value of Td is stored in the database 21d or the memory 9.

  In addition, when there are multiple lanes, some vehicles change lanes after passing the road unit 113, so the image taken by the road unit 112 is transmitted from the road unit 111 in real time via the information processing device 141 and received. Displayed on the indicator 10 of the right turn vehicle. Alternatively, image processing is performed to determine whether there is a vehicle that changes lanes, and the data is used to notify the right turn timing.

  In addition, the display 10 of the right turn vehicle 101 can display the images or schematic diagrams of the straight-ahead vehicles (102 to 106) in the oncoming lane in a moving image or at regular time intervals, so that the position of the straight-ahead vehicle can be confirmed.

  As for the straight lane vehicles (102 to 106) in the oncoming lane, the fact that the right turn vehicle 101 is present when passing through the road unit 113 is received, so that the right turn vehicle 101 is present on the display of these vehicles.

  The above description is given by taking a right turn in left-hand traffic as an example, but can also be applied to a left turn in right-hand traffic.

  Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, these are merely examples, and the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and the knowledge of those skilled in the art can be used without departing from the spirit of the claims. Various modifications based on this are possible.

The figure which shows the structure of an intersection safe driving assistance apparatus. The figure which shows the structure of the navigation apparatus for vehicles. The figure which shows the structure of a roadside machine. The figure which shows the structure of information processing apparatus. The flowchart explaining the information analysis process in a roadside machine. The flowchart explaining the advancing direction change assistance process. The flowchart explaining the advancing direction change assistance information creation output process.

Explanation of symbols

1 Position detector (position detection means)
7 Operation switches (travel direction change timing condition setting means)
8. Control circuit (travel direction change determination means, travel direction change support information generation output means, travel direction change timing arrival determination means)
9 memory 10 display (travel direction change support information generation output means)
15 Speaker (travel direction change support information generation and output means)
21 Hard disk drive (HDD)
21d database 21m road map data 22 touch panel (travel direction change timing condition setting means)
25 Communication unit (opposite vehicle running status information acquisition means, traffic state reflection information acquisition means)
30 Speech recognition unit 31 Microphone (travel direction change timing condition setting means)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Vehicle navigation apparatus 101 (Right turn) Vehicle 102-107 Vehicle 111-115 Roadside device 111c Information processing apparatus 116 Pedestrian detector 141 Information processing apparatus 150 Traffic signal control apparatus

Claims (6)

Position detecting means for detecting the current position of the host vehicle;
A traveling direction change judging means for judging whether or not the own vehicle is going to change a traveling direction across an opposite lane at an intersection;
Oncoming vehicle running status information acquisition means for acquiring oncoming vehicle running status information including identification information identifying the running status of the oncoming vehicle and the type of the oncoming vehicle in the oncoming lane;
Traffic state reflection information acquisition means for acquiring traffic state reflection information reflecting the traffic state of the traveling direction change destination of the host vehicle;
Whether or not the traveling direction change timing of the own vehicle has arrived based on the acquired oncoming vehicle traveling status information, the traffic state reflection information, the current position of the own vehicle, and the determination result of the traveling direction change determining means A direction change timing arrival judging means for judging
A traveling direction change support information generating / outputting unit for generating and outputting the traveling direction change support information of the host vehicle, including traveling direction change timing arrival information indicating that the traveling direction change timing has arrived;
An intersection safe driving support device comprising: The oncoming vehicle travel status information includes the presence / absence of an oncoming vehicle traveling in the oncoming lane, the speed of the oncoming vehicle, the travel interval of the oncoming vehicle, the predicted course and predicted position of the oncoming vehicle, and an image of the oncoming lane. The intersection safe driving support device according to claim 1, comprising at least one of the information .   The traffic state reflecting information includes traffic congestion status information indicating a traffic congestion status of a travel direction change destination of the host vehicle or traffic regulation status information indicating a traffic control status of a travel direction change destination of the host vehicle. The intersection safe driving support device according to claim 2.   The intersection safe driving support device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the traffic state reflection information includes pedestrian arrival state information indicating an arrival state of a pedestrian at a destination of the traveling direction of the host vehicle. . 5. The vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising a traveling direction change timing condition setting unit configured to set a condition for determining whether or not the traveling direction change timing of the host vehicle has arrived based on a driver's setting operation input. The intersection safe driving support apparatus according to Item 1 . The advancing direction change timing arrival judging means arrives at the advancing direction change timing of the host vehicle when the oncoming vehicle running status information includes a situation where the oncoming lane is congested and the oncoming vehicle is stopped. The intersection safe driving support device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the intersection safe driving support device is determined as having been performed.

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