JP6314721B2 - Vehicle control apparatus and vehicle control program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle control device that is mounted on a host vehicle and controls the host vehicle, and a vehicle control program.

  As the above-described vehicle control device, one that controls the speed of the own vehicle in accordance with the speed difference between the preceding vehicle that runs ahead of the host vehicle and the preceding vehicle that runs further ahead of the preceding vehicle is known. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1).

JP 2013-067365 A

  However, in the above vehicle control device, the host vehicle is controlled so as to follow the acceleration or deceleration of the preceding vehicle or the preceding vehicle, so that it is necessary to decelerate immediately after acceleration or to accelerate immediately after deceleration. In addition, there is a problem that unnecessary acceleration / deceleration is likely to occur.

  Therefore, in view of such problems, it is an object of the present invention to suppress useless acceleration / deceleration in a vehicle control apparatus that controls the host vehicle.

  In the vehicle control apparatus of the present invention, the preceding vehicle inter-vehicle distance acquisition means acquires the inter-vehicle distance from the own vehicle to the first preceding vehicle that travels immediately before the own vehicle ahead of the own vehicle, and the acceleration difference acquisition means includes the first An acceleration difference representing a difference between the acceleration of the preceding vehicle and the acceleration of the second preceding vehicle traveling ahead of the first preceding vehicle is acquired. The target inter-vehicle distance setting means sets a target inter-vehicle distance that represents a target value of the inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle and the first preceding vehicle so that the speed of the host vehicle is less likely to change according to the acceleration difference. The vehicle control means performs an output for controlling the host vehicle so that the inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle and the first preceding vehicle becomes the target inter-vehicle distance.

  According to such a vehicle control device, the target inter-vehicle distance is set so that the speed of the host vehicle is unlikely to change according to the difference (acceleration difference) between the acceleration of the first preceding vehicle and the acceleration of the second preceding vehicle. The useless acceleration / deceleration of the host vehicle can be suppressed.

  In addition, description of each claim can be arbitrarily combined as much as possible. At this time, a part of the configuration may be excluded.

1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a vehicle control device 1 to which the present invention is applied. It is a top view which shows the information acquired from a preceding vehicle and a preceding preceding vehicle. It is a graph which shows an example of the change of the running speed of the own vehicle, a preceding vehicle, and a preceding preceding vehicle, and the inter-vehicle distance. It is a flowchart which shows the driving assistance process which CPU11 of the process part 10 performs. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a target value setting process in the driving support process in the embodiment. In a modification, it is a flow chart which shows target value setting processing among driving support processing. It is explanatory drawing which shows the pattern list of the traveling speed of the own vehicle, a preceding vehicle, and a preceding preceding vehicle, or acceleration.

Embodiments according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
[Configuration of this embodiment]
The vehicle control device 1 to which the present invention is applied is mounted on a vehicle (own vehicle) such as a passenger car, for example. The vehicle control device 1 predicts that the speed of a preceding vehicle that travels in the same lane as the host vehicle changes immediately before the host vehicle, and supports driving of the host vehicle according to the change in the speed. The function to perform.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle control device 1 includes a processing unit 10, a navigation device 21, another vehicle information acquisition unit 22, an inter-vehicle distance detection unit 23, a behavior control unit 26, and a notification unit 27. ing. The navigation device 21 includes map information and a current location detection function, and executes a function of guiding the host vehicle to a destination based on the map information.

  The other vehicle information acquisition unit 22 acquires information obtained from other vehicles located around the host vehicle by inter-vehicle communication or the like. In the present embodiment, the other vehicle includes information on a preceding vehicle that travels ahead of the preceding vehicle.

  The information obtained from the other vehicle includes information such as the position, traveling speed, acceleration, etc. of the other vehicle that transmits this information. The other vehicle information acquisition unit 22 sends information obtained from the other vehicle to the processing unit 10.

  The inter-vehicle distance detection unit 23 has a function of measuring the inter-vehicle distance between the preceding vehicle and the own vehicle located immediately before the own vehicle, and the relative speed between the preceding vehicle. The inter-vehicle distance detection unit 23 may be configured as, for example, a configuration for processing an image captured by a stereo camera or a radar. The inter-vehicle distance detection unit 23 sends information on the inter-vehicle distance to the preceding vehicle to the processing unit 10.

  The behavior control unit 26 is configured, for example, as an actuator that controls throttle opening and braking of the host vehicle. The behavior control unit 26 controls the traveling speed and the inter-vehicle distance of the host vehicle according to the command from the processing unit 10 by appropriately changing the throttle opening and braking according to the command from the processing unit 10. The behavior control unit 26 may include an actuator that controls the steering angle of the host vehicle in accordance with a command from the processing unit 10.

  The notification unit 27 is configured as a speaker or a display that notifies the driver of the host vehicle in accordance with a command from the processing unit 10. In addition, the mode of notification by the notification unit 27 can take any form.

  The processing unit 10 is configured as a computer including a CPU 11 and a memory 12 such as a ROM and a RAM. The CPU 11 performs various processes based on a program (including a driving support program) stored in the memory 12. In the present embodiment, the processing unit 10 calculates the acceleration of the other vehicle (the preceding vehicle or the preceding preceding vehicle) based on the position or relative speed of the preceding vehicle.

  Further, the processing unit 10 performs ACC (Adaptive Cruise Control) that causes the host vehicle to travel at the target vehicle speed as much as possible while maintaining the inter-vehicle distance with the preceding vehicle to be equal to or greater than the set target inter-vehicle distance. In addition to the ACC, automatic steering may be performed in which steering is performed automatically. In this embodiment, an example of the operation of the ACC will be described below.

[Process of this embodiment]
In the vehicle control device 1 configured as described above, the processing unit 10 performs a driving support process. As shown in FIG. 2, the driving support process acquires the speed of the preceding vehicle and the inter-vehicle distance to the preceding vehicle using the inter-vehicle distance detection unit 23, as shown in FIG. Is a process of controlling the host vehicle so that it can travel following the preceding vehicle without acceleration / deceleration as much as possible.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 3, when the speed of the host vehicle is made to follow the speed of the preceding vehicle, the speed of the host vehicle becomes a speed change (thick broken line) similar to that of the preceding vehicle. As shown by, the speed change of the own vehicle is suppressed by setting the inter-vehicle distance between the own vehicle and the preceding vehicle and the acceleration of the own vehicle based on the difference in acceleration between the preceding vehicle and the preceding preceding vehicle. At this time, by allowing the inter-vehicle distance to have an allowable range, changes in the speed and acceleration of the host vehicle are further reduced.

  Specifically, the processing unit 10 performs the driving support process shown in FIG. The driving support process is, for example, a process that starts when a preceding vehicle is detected by the inter-vehicle distance detection unit 23 during the operation of the ACC, and is a process that is repeatedly performed as long as the preceding vehicle is detected thereafter. .

  In the driving support process, as shown in FIG. 4, first, own vehicle information is acquired (S110). In this process, information on the traveling speed of the host vehicle, information on acceleration, and the like obtained by a vehicle speed sensor (not shown) is acquired.

  Subsequently, other vehicle information is acquired (S120). In this process, the inter-vehicle distance from the own vehicle obtained by the inter-vehicle distance detection unit 23 to the preceding vehicle is obtained, or the traveling position and speed of the preceding vehicle and the preceding preceding vehicle obtained by the other vehicle information obtaining unit 22 are obtained. Or get it. And the acceleration of these other vehicles (each vehicle including a preceding vehicle and a preceding vehicle) is calculated using the information on the position and speed of other vehicles (S130).

  Subsequently, a target value setting process is performed (S140). The target value setting process is a process of setting a target acceleration based on the target inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle and the preceding vehicle, and the target inter-vehicle distance and the actual inter-vehicle distance.

The target value setting process, as shown in FIG. 5, first, compared to the difference between the acceleration A _p and the previous preceding vehicle acceleration A _c of the preceding vehicle (absolute value), the acceleration threshold value K which is set in advance (S210 ). If the difference of the acceleration is greater than the acceleration threshold K (S210: YES), the minimum value _{D min} of the target following distance and sets the _{K d1,} it sets the maximum value _{D max} of the target inter-vehicle distance _{K d2} (S220 ).

Further, if the following difference is the acceleration threshold value K of the acceleration (S210: NO), the minimum value _{D min} of the target following distance and sets the _{K d3,} sets the maximum value _{D max} of the target inter-vehicle distance _{K d4} (S230). Here, each value set as the target inter-vehicle distance is set such that K _d1 <K _d2 , K _d1 <K _d3 , K _d2 <K _d4 , K _d3 <K _d4 .

That is, when the difference of the acceleration A _p and the previous preceding vehicle acceleration A _c of the preceding vehicle is larger than the threshold, the broad tolerance of relatively target inter-vehicle distance, to follow to decelerate the preceding vehicle In addition, the speed of the host vehicle is kept as constant as possible to make it less susceptible to changes in the speed of the preceding vehicle. If the acceleration difference is smaller than the threshold, it is considered unlikely that the preceding vehicle repeats acceleration / deceleration. Therefore, the behavior of the preceding vehicle can be reduced by relatively narrowing the allowable range of the target inter-vehicle distance. The host vehicle is driven according to the situation.

Subsequently, the current inter-vehicle distance D ′ between the host vehicle and the preceding vehicle is compared with the maximum value D _max of the target inter-vehicle distance, and the inter-vehicle distance D ′ is compared with the minimum value D _min of the target inter-vehicle distance (S260). ). If the inter-vehicle distance D ′ is within the allowable range of the target inter-vehicle distance (D _max > D ′> D _min ) (S260: YES), the target acceleration A of the own vehicle is set to the current acceleration A ′ of the own vehicle ( S270), the target value setting process is terminated.

That is, when the process of S270 is performed, the host vehicle is controlled so that the acceleration is not changed. If the inter-vehicle distance D ′ is not within the allowable range of the target inter-vehicle distance (D _max > D ′> D _min ) (S260: NO), the inter-vehicle distance D ′ is compared with the maximum value D _max of the target inter-vehicle distance. (S280).

If the inter-vehicle distance D ′ is larger than the maximum value D _max of the target inter-vehicle distance (S280: YES), the difference between the inter-vehicle distance D ′ and the maximum value D _max of the target inter-vehicle distance will be larger than the current acceleration A ′ of the host vehicle. A value obtained by adding the predetermined acceleration K _a1 (> 0) set accordingly is set as the target acceleration A of the host vehicle (S290), and the target value setting process is terminated.

Further, if the inter-vehicle distance D ′ is equal to or less than the maximum value D _max of the target inter-vehicle distance (S280: NO), the difference between the inter-vehicle distance D ′ and the maximum value D _min of the target inter-vehicle distance is the current acceleration A ′ of the host vehicle. A value obtained by subtracting the predetermined acceleration K _a2 (> 0) set according to the magnitude of the vehicle is set as the target acceleration A of the host vehicle (S300), and the target value setting process is terminated.

When setting the target acceleration obtained by adding or subtracting K _a1 or K _a2 in this way, the _host vehicle is set so that the inter-vehicle distance is the closest to the current inter-vehicle distance among the values included in the allowable range. Accelerate and decelerate.

  When such a target value setting process is completed, an output corresponding to the target value is output to the behavior control unit 26. Specifically, an instruction is sent to the behavior control unit 26 to accelerate and decelerate the host vehicle according to the set target acceleration. When such processing ends, the driving support processing ends.

[Effects of this embodiment]
In the vehicle control apparatus 1 described above, the processing unit 10 acquires the inter-vehicle distance from the own vehicle to the first preceding vehicle (preceding vehicle) that travels immediately before the own vehicle ahead of the own vehicle. An acceleration difference representing a difference between the acceleration and the acceleration of the second preceding vehicle (the preceding preceding vehicle) traveling ahead of the first preceding vehicle is acquired. Then, a target inter-vehicle distance representing a target value of the inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle and the first preceding vehicle is set so that the speed or acceleration of the host vehicle is less likely to change according to the acceleration difference. Output for controlling the host vehicle so that the inter-vehicle distance with the preceding vehicle becomes the target inter-vehicle distance.

  According to such a vehicle control device, the target inter-vehicle distance is set so that the speed of the host vehicle is unlikely to change according to the difference (acceleration difference) between the acceleration of the first preceding vehicle and the acceleration of the second preceding vehicle. The useless acceleration / deceleration of the host vehicle can be suppressed.

  Moreover, in said vehicle control apparatus 1, the process part 10 sets a target inter-vehicle distance to a different value from the case where an acceleration difference is less than a difference threshold value, when an acceleration difference is more than the preset difference threshold value.

  Here, for example, if the distance between the host vehicle and the preceding vehicle is too long or too short, the driver feels uncomfortable. That is, the driving feeling (comfort) of the driver is deteriorated. For this reason, in the above-described embodiment, the target inter-vehicle distance is set to a different value (for example, a large value) only when the acceleration difference is equal to or greater than the difference threshold, instead of always increasing the inter-vehicle distance. By doing in this way, it can suppress that the driving | operation feeling of a driver deteriorates continuously.

  Specifically, when the preceding preceding vehicle decelerates and the preceding vehicle is traveling at a constant speed, it is highly likely that the preceding preceding vehicle will also decelerate in the future and the inter-vehicle distance will be shortened. To spread. In this case, it is possible to decelerate the host vehicle with a smaller deceleration than when the preceding vehicle starts decelerating and decelerates after the inter-vehicle distance becomes short, and fuel efficiency is improved.

  However, such a control temporarily increases the inter-vehicle distance, so that the driving feeling temporarily deteriorates. However, the situation in which the acceleration difference is equal to or greater than the difference threshold tends to not last long, and it is possible to shift to an appropriate inter-vehicle distance in terms of driving feeling within a short time.

In addition, when always permitting a long inter-vehicle distance, the inter-vehicle distance may be always long. In this case, driving feeling is continuously deteriorated. That is, the driver feels uncomfortable.
For this reason, in the configuration of the present embodiment, the allowable range of the inter-vehicle distance is set wide only when the acceleration / deceleration (acceleration) of the preceding vehicle is different from the acceleration of the preceding vehicle.

  On the other hand, when the preceding preceding vehicle is accelerated and the preceding vehicle is at a constant speed, conversely, in anticipation of the possibility that the preceding vehicle will accelerate in the future, the host vehicle is also accelerated, and the inter-vehicle distance is made shorter than usual. Therefore, the driving feeling temporarily deteriorates.

Eventually, however, the preceding vehicle also accelerates, and it becomes possible to shift to an appropriate inter-vehicle distance in terms of driving feeling within a short time.
According to such a vehicle control device 1, when the acceleration difference is greater than or equal to the difference threshold, the target inter-vehicle distance can be changed so that the speed of the host vehicle is less likely to change.

In the vehicle control device 1 described above, the processing unit 10 sets an allowable range of the target inter-vehicle distance, and controls the host vehicle so that the inter-vehicle distance is within the allowable range.
According to such a vehicle control device 1, since the target inter-vehicle distance is given a width, acceleration / deceleration of the host vehicle can be further suppressed.

  Further, in the vehicle control device 1 described above, the processing unit 10 determines whether the current inter-vehicle distance is within the allowable range when the current inter-vehicle distance that represents the current inter-vehicle distance to the first preceding vehicle is outside the allowable range. The host vehicle is accelerated or decelerated so that the closest value is obtained from the inter-vehicle distance.

  According to such a vehicle control device 1, when the current inter-vehicle distance is outside the allowable range, the own vehicle is added so that the inter-vehicle distance is closest to the current inter-vehicle distance among the values included in the allowable range. Since the vehicle is decelerated, the vehicle can be controlled without accelerating or decelerating as much as possible.

  Further, in the vehicle control device 1 described above, the processing unit 10 causes the host vehicle to travel at the current vehicle speed or acceleration when the current inter-vehicle distance representing the current inter-vehicle distance to the first preceding vehicle is within an allowable range.

According to such a vehicle control device 1, when the current inter-vehicle distance is within the allowable range, the host vehicle can be controlled without accelerating or decelerating.
[Other Embodiments]
The present invention is not construed as being limited by the above embodiment. Further, the reference numerals used in the description of the above embodiments are also used in the claims as appropriate, but they are used for the purpose of facilitating the understanding of the invention according to each claim, and the invention according to each claim. It is not intended to limit the technical scope of The functions of one component in the above embodiment may be distributed as a plurality of components, or the functions of a plurality of components may be integrated into one component. Further, at least a part of the configuration of the above embodiment may be replaced with a known configuration having the same function. Moreover, you may abbreviate | omit a part of structure of the said embodiment. In addition, at least a part of the configuration of the above embodiment may be added to or replaced with the configuration of the other embodiment. In addition, all the aspects included in the technical idea specified only by the wording described in the claim are embodiment of this invention.

  In addition to the vehicle control apparatus 1 described above, various forms such as a system including the vehicle control apparatus 1 as a constituent element, a program for causing a computer to function as the vehicle control apparatus 1, a medium storing the program, a vehicle control method, etc. Thus, the present invention can be realized.

  For example, in the above embodiment, when the acceleration of the preceding vehicle is smaller than the acceleration of the preceding vehicle, the processing unit 10 may cause the host vehicle to travel below the current vehicle speed regardless of the target inter-vehicle distance. In other words, when the acceleration of the preceding vehicle is smaller than the acceleration of the preceding vehicle, it is estimated that the acceleration of the preceding vehicle is reduced. Therefore, the host vehicle may be driven at the current speed or less than the acceleration. .

  In this case, instead of the target value setting process in the above-described embodiment, for example, the target value setting process in the modification shown in FIG. 6 may be performed. That is, in the target value setting process in the modified example, as shown in FIG. 6, when an affirmative determination is made in the process of S280, an acceleration difference obtained by subtracting the acceleration (Ac) of the preceding vehicle from the acceleration (Ap) of the preceding vehicle. And the threshold value K2 (K2> 0) are compared (S410).

  If this acceleration difference is larger than the threshold value K2 (S410: YES), the target acceleration A of the host vehicle is set to the current acceleration A 'of the host vehicle (S420), and the target value setting process is terminated. If the acceleration difference is equal to or smaller than the threshold value K2 (S410: NO), the process proceeds to S290.

According to the vehicle control device of such a modification, when it is estimated that the preceding vehicle decelerates, useless acceleration of the host vehicle can be suppressed.
In the above embodiment, the uniform inter-vehicle distance and acceleration are set according to the difference in acceleration between the preceding vehicle and the preceding vehicle. However, as shown in the above modification, the host vehicle and the preceding vehicle A different inter-vehicle distance or acceleration may be set depending on the speed relationship of the preceding vehicle or the acceleration relationship. As shown in FIG. 7, various patterns can be considered for the magnitude relationship between the speed and acceleration of the host vehicle, the preceding vehicle, and the preceding preceding vehicle. For each of these patterns, an inter-vehicle distance and an acceleration may be set so that the traveling speed of the host vehicle is less likely to change without colliding with the preceding vehicle.

  In the above embodiment, the configuration for setting the target acceleration has been described. However, the target speed may be set instead of the target acceleration. In this case, a process for making the speed constant may be performed instead of the acceleration.

Even if it does in this way, the effect similar to the said embodiment can be enjoyed.
[Correspondence between Configuration of Embodiment and Means of Present Invention]
Of the processes executed by the processing unit 10 in the above embodiment, the processes of S110 and S120 correspond to the preceding vehicle inter-vehicle distance acquisition means in the present invention, and the process of S130 in the above embodiment corresponds to the acceleration difference acquisition means in the present invention. It corresponds to. Further, the process of S140 in the above embodiment corresponds to the target inter-vehicle distance setting means in the present invention, and the processes of S140 and S150 in the above embodiment correspond to the vehicle control means in the present invention.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Vehicle control apparatus, 10 ... Processing part, 11 ... CPU, 12 ... Memory, 21 ... Navigation apparatus, 22 ... Other vehicle information acquisition part, 23 ... Inter-vehicle distance detection part, 26 ... Behavior control part, 27 ... Notification part.

Claims (6)

A vehicle control device (1) that is mounted on a host vehicle and controls the host vehicle,
Preceding vehicle inter-vehicle distance acquisition means (S110, S120) for acquiring an inter-vehicle distance from the own vehicle to the first preceding vehicle that travels immediately before the own vehicle ahead of the own vehicle;
Acceleration difference acquisition means (S130) for acquiring an acceleration difference representing a difference between the acceleration of the first preceding vehicle and the acceleration of the second preceding vehicle traveling ahead of the first preceding vehicle;
Target inter-vehicle distance setting means for setting a target inter-vehicle distance representing a target value of the inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle and the first preceding vehicle so that the speed or acceleration of the host vehicle is less likely to change according to the acceleration difference. S140)
Vehicle control means (S140, S150) for performing output for controlling the host vehicle so that the inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle and the first preceding vehicle becomes the target inter-vehicle distance;
Equipped with a,
The target inter-vehicle distance setting means sets the target inter-vehicle distance to a value different from that when the acceleration difference is less than the difference threshold when the acceleration difference is equal to or greater than a preset difference threshold.
Vehicle control device according to claim. The vehicle control device according to claim 1 ,
The target inter-vehicle distance setting means sets an allowable range of the target inter-vehicle distance as the target inter-vehicle distance,
The vehicle control device, wherein the vehicle control means controls the host vehicle so that the inter-vehicle distance is within the allowable range. The vehicle control device according to claim 2 ,
When the current inter-vehicle distance representing the current inter-vehicle distance to the first preceding vehicle is outside the permissible range, the vehicle control means is configured so that the inter-vehicle distance is a value included in the permissible range. The vehicle control device characterized in that the host vehicle is accelerated or decelerated so as to be a value closest to the vehicle. In the vehicle control device according to claim 2 or 3 ,
The vehicle control means causes the host vehicle to travel at a current vehicle speed or acceleration when a current inter-vehicle distance representing a current inter-vehicle distance to the first preceding vehicle is within the allowable range. Control device. In the vehicle control device according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
The vehicle control means when the acceleration of the second preceding vehicle is smaller than the acceleration of the first preceding vehicle, regardless of the target following distance, the pre-Symbol vehicle current speed below or following the current acceleration A vehicle control device characterized by running. The vehicle control program for functioning a computer as each means which comprises the vehicle control apparatus of any one of Claims 1-5 .