JP5370687B2 - Control system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a control system.

  Vehicle smart key systems are widespread. In the current smart key system, communication starts when the smart key is in the communication area, and enters a standby state when collation is obtained. Thereafter, when the user performs an operation such as touching the door handle, the door is unlocked.

  For example, in the following Patent Document 1, in a smart system, a means for determining whether or not an occupant has an intention to continue driving is equipped, and the portable device is separated from the vehicle, and the unoccupied person of the portable device continues driving. A system is disclosed that permits the restart of the internal combustion engine when there is an intention to prevent the vehicle from being stolen more reliably.

JP 2007-153190 A

  In the current smart key system based on the polling method, the LF radio wave of the wake signal is intermittently transmitted. However, since the power consumption during LF radio wave transmission is large, the transmission of the LF radio wave after a certain period (for example, one week). To stop the battery from running out. For this reason, the convenience of the polling smart system is reduced.

  If a system that transmits only when LF radio waves need to be transmitted can be constructed, power consumption can be suppressed. Therefore, it is possible to avoid stopping the transmission of LF radio waves and avoid reducing the convenience of the smart system. However, no such proposal has been made in the prior art.

  Therefore, in view of the above problems, the problem to be solved by the present invention is that there is no need to constantly transmit LF radio waves in a polling smart system, and therefore the possibility of battery exhaustion caused by the smart system is reduced. It is to provide a control system capable of

Means for Solving the Problems and Effects of the Invention

In order to achieve the above object, a control system according to the present invention is provided in a vehicle , operates by being supplied with electric power, and can be carried by a user and detection means for detecting the presence of a living body around the vehicle. A portable device having a wireless communication function; and a transmission unit that is provided in the vehicle and operates by being supplied with electric power, and transmits a command signal that commands a response of the identification signal of the portable device around the vehicle. A response means provided in the portable device for returning an identification signal unique to the portable device upon receipt of the command signal; and an identification signal provided in the vehicle and returned by the return means; Is collated with the identification signal unique to the portable device, and if it coincides, the vehicle is provided with collation means for permitting the unlocking of the door of the vehicle, and the vehicle door is locked. And said Period detecting means does not detect the presence of a living body without operating the transmitting means, said detecting means is controlled so as to operate the transmission means by stopping the operation of said detecting means upon detecting the presence of biological Control means for controlling to stop transmission of the command signal from the transmission means and operate the detection means if the identification signal is not received within a predetermined period from the start of transmission of the command signal ; And the power consumption of the detection means is less than the power consumption of the transmission means .

  Accordingly, the control system according to the present invention includes a transmission unit that transmits a signal for instructing a reply of the identification signal to the portable device, and is carried on the vehicle side by the identification signal returned from the portable device in response to the command. In a so-called smart (entry) system that performs machine verification and unlocks the door of the vehicle if the verification is successful, it has means for detecting the presence of a living body in the vicinity of the vehicle, and the living body cannot be detected using it. During the period, the transmission means for transmitting the signal for instructing the reply of the identification signal to the portable device is not activated, and when the living body can be detected, the transmission means is activated. Therefore, unlike the prior art, the transmission means is not operated at all times, so that the energy consumed by the transmission means can be reduced, which can contribute to energy saving in the vehicle.

  Further, both the detection unit and the transmission unit may be operated by being supplied with power, and the detection unit may consume less power than the transmission unit.

  Accordingly, in the smart system in which the transmission unit that transmits the command signal for instructing the reply of the identification signal to the portable device is not operated at all times and the detection unit detects the living body around the vehicle, the detection unit transmits the detection unit. Since the power consumption is less than that of the means, the power consumption by the smart system can be reduced in the present invention compared to the case where the transmission means is always operated as in the prior art. Therefore, power consumption in the vehicle can be reduced, and battery exhaustion can be avoided.

  Further, the detectable range of the presence of the living body by the detecting means may be wider than the reachable range of the command signal transmitted from the transmitting means.

  As a result, it is possible to detect the presence of a user who is farther than the reach range of the command signal that commands the reply of the identification signal to the portable device, so the presence of the user who is within the reach range of the command signal by the transmission means Can be detected. Therefore, when the user enters the reach range of the command signal, the command signal transmission can be started. Then, it is possible to detect a relatively distant user, start transmission of a signal for instructing a reply of the identification signal, and execute the verification process in the smart system with a margin.

  Moreover, the said control means is good also as operating the said detection means intermittently in the state in which the door of the said vehicle was locked.

  Accordingly, the detection means for detecting the living body around the vehicle is operated intermittently without always operating. Therefore, as described above, the transmission means for transmitting the command signal for instructing the portable device to return the identification signal is always provided. In addition to reducing power consumption by not operating, it can further reduce power consumption by smart systems. Therefore, the energy saving by the vehicle can be further improved, and the possibility of battery exhaustion can be further reduced.

  The detecting means may be an infrared sensor that is provided on an outer surface of a vehicle body in the vehicle and detects infrared rays around the vehicle.

  As a result, the detection means is configured by an infrared sensor that is mounted on the outer surface of the vehicle and detects infrared rays around the vehicle, so that a living body around the vehicle can be reliably detected by using a widely used infrared sensor. Furthermore, it is known that an infrared sensor consumes less power than a transmission unit that transmits a signal for instructing a reply of an identification signal to a portable device. Therefore, by turning off the transmission means until the living body around the vehicle is detected by the infrared sensor, the power consumption by the smart system can be effectively reduced, and the battery can be prevented from running out.

The block diagram of the Example of the control system in this invention. The flowchart which shows the process sequence in the smart system of this invention. The figure which shows the example of a communication range and a detection range.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a device configuration of a vehicle control system 1 (system, control device) according to the present invention. A system 1 shown in FIG. 1 includes a collation control unit (ECU: Electronic Control Unit) 4, a door 5, and a key 3 (smart key, portable device, communication device) that can be carried by a user. Prepare. The vehicle 2 is not limited at all, and may be, for example, a gasoline engine vehicle, a diesel engine vehicle, an electric vehicle, or a hybrid vehicle.

  The verification ECU 4 includes an infrared sensor 40, an LF transmitter 41, and an RF receiver 42. The infrared sensor 40 is a sensor that detects (senses) infrared rays, and can detect an object having heat (hereinafter, a heat-generating object). Naturally, the heat generating object includes a living body (living body), and the living body includes a human body, particularly a user of the vehicle 2. For example, the infrared sensor 40 may be a known pyroelectric infrared sensor, quantum infrared detection element (photoconductive type, photovoltaic type), or the like.

  For example, the infrared sensor 40 may be provided on a door handle (door knob). The infrared sensor 40 detects a heat generating object around the vehicle 2, particularly around the door of the vehicle 2. A polling signal is transmitted from the LF transmission unit 41 within a predetermined distance around the vehicle 2 by electromagnetic waves in the LF (long wave) band. The RF receiver 42 receives an electromagnetic wave returned from the periphery of the vehicle 2 in response to the polling signal.

  The verification ECU 4 has a normal computer structure, and includes a CPU that controls various calculations and information processing, a RAM that is a temporary storage unit as a work area of the CPU, and a nonvolatile memory 43 that stores various information. . It is assumed that a master ID 44 described later is stored in the memory 43.

  The vehicle door 5 includes a touch sensor 50 that senses contact and a door lock 50 that locks (locks) the door. The touch sensor 50 may be provided on the door handle. The door 5 may be any of a driver's seat door, a passenger seat door, and a rear seat door of the vehicle 2, and may be a trunk of the vehicle 2. Assume that the verification ECU 4, the infrared sensor 40, the LF transmitter 41, and the RF receiver 42 operate with power supplied from a battery (not shown) mounted on the vehicle 2. For example, the LF transmitter 41 and the RF receiver 42 may be provided on a door handle (door knob).

  The key 3 is an electronic key related to the smart system, and can be carried by the user. The key 3 includes an LF receiver 30, an RF transmitter 31, a controller 32, and a memory 33. The memory 33 stores an identification signal 34 (ID code, ID) unique to the key 3. The LF receiving unit 30 receives the above-described polling signal. The RF transmission unit 31 receives the polling signal and transmits the ID code 36 unique to the key 3. The control unit 32 has the same structure as a normal computer, and includes a CPU for various information processing, a RAM of a temporary storage unit as a work area of the CPU, and the like. The control unit 32 controls the RF transmission unit 31, the control unit 32, and the memory 33.

  Based on the above configuration, the system 1 executes processing related to smart entry in the vehicle 2, that is, key 3 verification processing and door 5 unlocking processing. The processing procedure is shown in FIG. The processing procedure of FIG. 2 may be programmed in advance and stored in, for example, the memory 43 or the memory 33 and called by the verification ECU 4 or the control unit 32 and automatically executed.

  In the process of FIG. 2, first, in step S10, the verification ECU 4 determines whether or not the door 5 of the vehicle 2 is locked. If it is locked (S10: YES), the process proceeds to S20, and if it is not locked (S10: NO), it waits until it is locked.

  In S20, the verification ECU 4 activates the infrared sensor 40 (starts the operation of the infrared sensor 40). The infrared sensor 40 may be always operated after S20, but it is not necessarily required to always operate, and may be operated intermittently. In the case of intermittent operation, the time interval (period) between the operations is shorter than the time that can be reached from the detection range of the infrared sensor 40 to the door of the vehicle 2 at a normal operation speed possible for humans. (For example, about one tenth of that). By doing so, power consumption by the infrared sensor 40 can be suppressed, and at the same time, failure of the user to supplement the infrared sensor 40 approaching the vehicle 2 can be avoided.

  Next, the verification ECU 4 determines whether or not a heating object has been detected around the vehicle by the infrared sensor 40 in S30. When a heat generating object is detected (S30: YES), the process proceeds to S31, and when a heat generating object is not detected (S30: NO), S30 is repeated until it is detected. After proceeding to S31, the verification ECU 4 determines whether or not the detected value of the infrared intensity has increased. If the infrared intensity has increased (S31: YES), the process proceeds to S35, and if it has not increased, the process returns to S30 and the above process is repeated. Here, the increase may be, for example, an increase from the detected value of the immediately previous intensity, an increase from the average value of the intensity in the past predetermined period (an increase over a predetermined width), or the like.

  If it progresses to S35, collation ECU4 will judge that the passenger | crew of the vehicle 2 which has approached the vehicle 2 may be detected. And it transfers to the collation process which concerns on the smart system demonstrated below. The operation of the infrared sensor 40 is stopped in S35 before activating the LF transmitter and the RF receiver in S40. Thereby, power saving of the infrared sensor 40 can be achieved.

  Subsequently, in S40, the verification ECU 4 activates the LF transmission unit 41 and the RF reception unit 42 (starts operation). In step S50, the verification ECU 4 transmits an LF signal (polling signal). This signal is a signal for requesting a reply of ID 34 toward the key 3.

  When the key 3 receives the polling signal in S200, it receives it and returns a response signal (RF signal) including the ID code 34 in S210. The response signal may be an RF signal obtained by modulating a carrier wave signal based on an RF wave with a baseband signal reflecting the contents of the ID code 34.

  In S60, the verification ECU 4 determines whether or not the response signal (RF signal) transmitted in S210 has been received. When the RF signal is received (S60: YES), the process proceeds to S70, and when the RF signal is not received (S60: NO), the process proceeds to S65.

  In S65, it is determined whether or not a predetermined time has elapsed from the start of transmission of the LF signal. If the predetermined time has already elapsed (S65: YES), the process returns to S20, the infrared sensor 40 is activated again, and the above processing is repeated. If the predetermined time has not yet elapsed (S65: NO), the process returns to S60 and waits for reception of the RF signal. As described above, when the RF signal is not received even after a predetermined time has elapsed from the start of transmission of the LF signal, the process returns to S20. For example, when the heating object detected by the infrared sensor 40 in S30 is other than the user of the vehicle 2 Of course, since no RF signal is received even after a predetermined time has elapsed, the process returns to infrared detection again.

  After proceeding to S70, the collation ECU 4 collates the received RF signal with the master ID 44. If the verification is successful, that is, if the received RF signal contains the same identification signal as the master ID (S70: YES), the process proceeds to S80, and if the verification is unsuccessful (S70: NO), the process returns to S20. The infrared sensor 40 is activated again and the above process is repeated.

  After proceeding to S80, the verification ECU 4 determines whether or not the touch sensor 50 mounted on the door handle (door knob) of the vehicle 2 has detected contact. When contact is detected (S80: YES), the process proceeds to S90, and when contact is not detected (S80: NO), S80 is repeated until contact is detected.

  After proceeding to S90, the verification ECU 4 determines that the request is for the door opening by the user, and unlocks the door lock 51. In S100, the operations of the LF transmitter 41 and the RF receiver 42 are stopped. This suppresses the power consumption of the LF transmitter 41 and the RF receiver 42 as much as possible. The above is the processing procedure of FIG.

  In the process of FIG. 2, the LF transmitter 41 and the RF receiver 42 are activated in S40 only after the detection of infrared rays in S30 and the determination of the increase in infrared intensity in S31. Before that, the LF transmitter 41 and the RF receiver 42 are in the off state. In general, the power consumption of the infrared sensor 40 is smaller than the power consumption of the LF transmitter 41 and the RF receiver 42. Therefore, compared with the prior art which always operates the LF transmission part 41, the power consumption in a smart system is suppressed and the battery run-up of the vehicle 2 can be suppressed. And since the necessity of stopping the transmission of a polling signal in order to avoid running out of the battery as in the prior art is reduced, the convenience of the smart system is not lowered.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the detection range of the infrared sensor 40 is wider than the communication range of the LF transmission unit 41 (the reach range of the signal transmitted from the LF transmission unit 41), so that it is relatively far from the vehicle 2. Detect users who are in Therefore, when the user enters the communication range of the LF transmitter 41, the polling signal transmission can be started. Then, the matching process can be performed with a margin.

  In the above embodiment, the infrared sensor 40 is used for the purpose of detecting users around the vehicle. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and any human sensor having a function of sensing the presence of a human body (living body) may be used. That's fine. In that case, the infrared sensor 40 may be changed to, for example, an ultrasonic sensor (a detection principle is known) that detects a moving object.

  The above embodiment may include a smart start system in addition to the smart entry system. That is, when the user gets on the vehicle 2 following the above processing, the verification ECU 4 performs the vehicle interior verification with the portable device 3 by the same processing as the above-described vehicle interior verification, and if the verification is successful, The engine is started (ignition on) by pressing, for example, a push button provided in the passenger compartment.

  In the above embodiment, the infrared sensor 40 constitutes a detection means. Key 3 constitutes a portable device. The LF transmission unit 41 constitutes a transmission unit. The RF transmitter 31 constitutes a reply means. The verification ECU 4 constitutes a verification unit. The procedure from S30 to S45 and the verification ECU 4 constitute a control means.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Control system 2 Vehicle 3 Portable machine 4 Verification ECU
40 Infrared sensor

Claims (4)

A detection means that is provided in the vehicle and operates by being supplied with electric power, and detects the presence of a living body around the vehicle;
A portable device that can be carried by the user and has a wireless communication function;
Transmitting means that is provided in the vehicle , operates by being supplied with electric power, and transmits a command signal instructing a reply of the identification signal of the portable device around the vehicle;
Reply means provided in the portable device for returning an identification signal unique to the portable device upon receipt of the command signal;
The vehicle is equipped with an identification signal sent back by the reply means, and collates whether or not it matches the identification signal unique to the portable device. Matching means to
When the vehicle is equipped with the door of the vehicle being locked and the detection means does not detect the presence of a living body, the transmission means is not operated and the detection means detects the presence of a living body. Control is performed so that the operation of the detection means is stopped and the transmission means is operated. If the identification signal is not received within a predetermined period from the start of transmission of the command signal, transmission of the command signal from the transmission means is performed. Control means for controlling the detection means to operate by stopping the detection ,
The control system is characterized in that the power consumption of the detection means is less than the power consumption of the transmission means . The detectable range of the presence of biological by detecting means, the control system according to a wide claim 1 than reachable range of the command signal transmitted from said transmitting means. The control means, the control system according to claim 1 or 2 wherein in the state in which the door is locked in a vehicle, is intermittently operating said detecting means. The control system according to any one of claims 1 to 3 , wherein the detection means is an infrared sensor that is mounted on an outer surface of a vehicle body in the vehicle and detects infrared rays around the vehicle.

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