JP6428392B2 - Engine idling stop control device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an engine idling stop control device.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an idling stop control device is known that automatically stops an engine when a predetermined automatic stop condition is satisfied, and then restarts the engine when a predetermined restart condition is satisfied (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  Further, as this kind of idling stop control device, there is known a technology that prohibits automatic engine stop when an engine hood sensor that detects opening and closing of the engine hood detects that the engine hood is open. ing. As a result, for example, the situation in which the engine restarts unintentionally while the engine hood is opened and the work in the engine room (for example, inspection work) is being performed is avoided.

JP 2011-196339 A

  By the way, when the engine hood is closed from the open state, if the engine hood is not sufficiently closed, the vehicle runs with the engine hood half open. In this case, since the engine hood sensor detects that the engine hood is open, at first glance, the engine is not automatically stopped despite the engine hood being closed. If it does so, it will drive without knowing why an automatic stop of an engine is not performed at the timing which intended, and there is a possibility of making a driver doubt.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides an engine idling stop control device that can avoid causing a driver to have doubts by causing the engine to automatically stop at a timing intended. is there.

  Hereinafter, means for solving the above-described problems and the effects thereof will be described.

  The engine idling stop control device (15) of the present invention automatically stops the engine (10) when a predetermined automatic stop condition is satisfied while the vehicle is running, and then when the predetermined automatic start condition is satisfied. The engine is restarted. The idling stop control device (15) includes hood opening / closing determination means for determining whether the engine hood is open based on a detection signal of a hood sensor (19) provided in an opening / closing portion of the engine hood (21). An automatic stop prohibiting means for prohibiting the automatic stop of the engine when the hood open / close determining means determines that the engine hood is open; and a speed of the vehicle exceeds a predetermined value, and the hood open / close determining means When the engine hood is determined to be open by the half-open determination means for determining that the engine hood is in a half-open state, and when the engine hood is determined to be in a half-open state by the half-open determination means An automatic stop permission that allows automatic stop of the engine regardless of the determination result that the engine hood is open Characterized in that it comprises a means.

  Usually, when it is detected that the engine hood is opened by the hood opening / closing detection means while the vehicle is running, it is considered that the engine hood is in a half-open state because the engine hood is not sufficiently closed. Therefore, in the above configuration, paying attention to this point, if it is detected that the speed of the vehicle exceeds a predetermined value and the engine hood is open, it is determined that the engine hood is in a half-open state, and as such If it is determined, the engine is allowed to stop automatically even if the engine hood is open. In this case, even if the engine hood is in a half-open state, the engine can be automatically stopped at a timing intended, so that it is possible to avoid making the driver questionable.

The figure which shows the whole structure of an engine system. The flowchart which shows a half open determination process. The flowchart which shows an idling stop control process. The time chart explaining an effect | action in case idling stop control is performed.

  DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The present embodiment embodies a vehicle equipped with an engine, and performs engine idling stop control using an electronic control unit (hereinafter referred to as ECU). FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of the engine system in the present embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the engine 10 includes an injector 11 as fuel injection means, and an ignition device 12 (ignition coil, spark plug, etc.) as ignition means. In addition, the engine 10 is provided with a starter 13 as a starting device that applies initial rotation (cranking rotation) to the engine 10 when the engine is started.

  The ECU 15 is an electronic control unit including a known microcomputer. The ECU 15 performs various engine controls such as fuel injection amount control by the injector 11, ignition control by the ignition device 12, and drive control of the starter 13 based on detection results of various sensors provided in the system.

  The ECU 15 includes a vehicle speed sensor 16 that detects the vehicle speed, an accelerator sensor 17 that detects the amount of depression of the accelerator pedal, a brake sensor 18 that detects the amount of depression of the brake pedal, and an engine that detects the opening and closing of the engine hood 21. A hood sensor 19 is connected. The detection results are sequentially input from the various sensors 16 to 19 to the ECU 15. The engine hood sensor 19 is provided in an opening / closing section that opens and closes the engine hood 21 and outputs a binary signal according to whether the hood is open or closed.

  The ECU 15 performs idling stop control of the engine 10 based on information such as the vehicle speed, the accelerator pedal depression amount, and the brake pedal depression amount. The idling stop control automatically stops the engine 10 when a predetermined automatic stop condition is satisfied, and restarts the engine 10 when a predetermined restart condition is satisfied. In this case, the automatic stop condition includes, for example, that the vehicle speed is in the engine automatic stop speed range (for example, vehicle speed ≦ 10 km / h) and the accelerator operation is released. In addition, the restart condition includes, for example, that an accelerator operation is started and a brake operation is released.

  It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which the engine control function and the idling stop control function are implemented by separate ECUs.

  In the present embodiment, the open / close state of the engine hood 21 is included in the automatic stop condition. When the engine hood sensor 19 detects that the engine hood 21 is open by the engine hood sensor 19, the ECU 15 Even if an automatic stop condition such as the accelerator opening degree is established, the automatic stop of the engine 10 is prohibited. This avoids a situation in which the engine 10 is unintentionally restarted while the engine hood 21 is opened and work (inspection work or the like) in the engine room is being performed.

  In addition, the ECU 15 is connected to operation buttons 22a and 22b for performing an operation related to idling stop control and a notification unit 23 for performing a notification regarding idling stop control. The operation buttons 22a and 22b are provided, for example, on the front part of the driver's seat. When the operation buttons 22a and 22b are pushed, operation signals are output to the ECU 15 from the operation buttons 22a and 22b. The alerting | reporting part 23 consists of a speaker provided in the vehicle, and alert | reports by outputting an audio | voice. The notification unit 23 performs a notification process based on a notification signal input from the ECU 15.

  Here, when the engine hood 21 is closed from the opened state, if the method of closing the engine hood 21 is insufficient, the vehicle runs while the engine hood 21 remains half open. In this case, since the engine hood sensor 19 detects that the engine hood 21 is open, the engine 10 is not automatically stopped. If it does so, it will drive | operate without knowing why the automatic stop of the engine 10 is not performed at the intended timing, and there exists a possibility of making a driver doubt.

  Therefore, in the present embodiment, in view of this point, when the engine hood sensor 19 detects that the engine hood 21 is open while the vehicle is traveling, it is determined that the engine hood 21 is in a half-open state. The engine hood sensor 19 performs control to allow the engine 10 to be automatically stopped even if the engine hood 21 is detected to be open.

  Hereinafter, the contents of the control process executed by the ECU 15 will be described in detail. The control process includes a half-open determination process that determines whether or not the engine hood 21 is in a half-open state, and an idling stop control process that is performed based on the result of the half-open determination process. First of all, the half open determination process will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the half-open determination process. The half-open determination process is repeatedly executed by the ECU 15 at a predetermined cycle.

  As shown in FIG. 2, first, in step S11, it is determined whether or not the half-open flag is ON. The half-open flag is turned ON when it is determined in steps S13 and S14 described later that the engine hood 21 is in the half-open state. If the half-open flag is OFF, the process proceeds to step S12.

  In step S12, based on the detection result from the vehicle speed sensor 16, it is determined whether or not the vehicle speed is equal to or higher than a predetermined speed α (see also FIG. 4). In this case, the predetermined speed α is set to a speed at which the vehicle can be regarded as traveling, and is set to, for example, 5 km / h. Therefore, in other words, this step is a process for determining whether or not the vehicle is traveling. If the vehicle speed is lower than the predetermined speed α, the process is terminated. If the vehicle speed is equal to or higher than the predetermined speed α, the process proceeds to step S13.

  In step S13, it is determined based on the detection result from the engine hood sensor 19 whether the engine hood 21 is open. When it is determined that the engine hood 21 is closed, this process is terminated. If it is determined that the engine hood 21 is open, it can be considered that the vehicle is running with the engine hood 21 half open, so the routine proceeds to step S14, where the half open flag is set to ON.

  Note that the processing of steps S12 to S14 corresponds to “half-open determination means”.

  In step S15, it is determined whether an automatic stop condition of the engine 10 (here, a condition other than the hood opening / closing) is satisfied. When the automatic stop condition of the engine 10 is satisfied, the process proceeds to step S16. If the automatic stop condition for the engine 10 is not satisfied, the determination in step S15 is repeated until the automatic stop condition is satisfied.

  In step S16, an automatic stop prohibition notification process is performed. In this notification process, a notification signal is output to the notification unit 23 to notify the notification unit 23 that the engine hood 21 is in a half-open state and thus the automatic stop of the engine 10 is prohibited. As a result, the driver can know the fact. This process corresponds to “first notification means”.

  Further, in the notification process, a notification unit that the engine 10 can be automatically stopped (allowed) even if the engine hood 21 is in a half-open state by pressing the operation button 22a. 23 is informed. In this case, the operation button 22 a is an automatic stop allowing operation unit that is operated to allow the engine 10 to be automatically stopped when the engine hood 21 is half open.

  In step S17, based on the notification process in step S16, it is determined whether or not the operation button 22a has been operated by the driver. If the operation button 22a has not been operated, this process ends. When the operation button 22a is operated, the process proceeds to step S18, and the operation flag is turned ON. Thereafter, this process is terminated.

  If the half-open flag is turned on in the previous step S11, in other words, if the automatic stop prohibition notification process in step S16 has already been performed, the process proceeds to step S19 to check whether the operation flag is turned on. judge. If the operation flag is OFF, that is, if the operation button 22a has not been operated yet, the process proceeds to step S17. On the other hand, if the operation flag is ON, that is, if the operation button 22a has already been operated, this process is terminated.

  Next, the idling stop control process will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an idling stop control process. The idling stop control process is repeatedly executed by the ECU 15 at a predetermined cycle.

  As shown in FIG. 3, first, in step S21, it is determined whether or not the engine 10 is automatically stopped. If the engine 10 is not automatically stopped, that is, if the engine 10 is operating, the process proceeds to step S22. In step S22, it is determined whether an automatic stop condition (conditions other than the hood opening / closing) of the engine 10 is satisfied. If the automatic stop condition for the engine 10 is not satisfied, the present process is terminated. On the other hand, when the automatic stop condition of the engine 10 is satisfied, the process proceeds to step S23.

  In step S23, it is determined based on the detection signal from the engine hood sensor 19 whether the engine hood 21 is open. If the engine hood 21 is closed, the process proceeds to step S26 and the engine 10 is automatically stopped. If the engine hood 21 is open, the process proceeds to step S24.

  In step S24, it is determined whether or not the half-open flag is ON. That is, it is determined whether or not the engine hood 21 is in a half-open state. When the engine hood 21 is not in the half-open state, that is, when the engine hood 21 is in the fully-open state, the process proceeds to step S27, and the automatic stop of the engine 10 is prohibited. As a result, it is possible to avoid a situation in which the engine 10 is unintentionally restarted while the engine hood 21 is opened (fully opened) and the work in the engine room is being performed. On the other hand, when the engine hood 21 is in the half-open state, the process proceeds to step S25.

  In step S25, it is determined whether or not the operation flag is ON. When the operation flag is ON, that is, when the operation button 22a is operated by the driver after the automatic stop prohibition notification process (step S16 in FIG. 2), the process proceeds to step S26 and the engine 10 is automatically stopped. In this case, automatic stop of the engine 10 is permitted even though the engine hood 21 is open (specifically, in a half-open state). This process corresponds to “automatic stop permission means”.

  On the other hand, when the operation flag is not ON, that is, when the operation button 22a is not operated by the driver, the process proceeds to step S27, and the automatic stop of the engine 10 is prohibited. After the process of step S26 or step S27, this process ends.

  If the engine 10 is automatically stopped in the previous step S21, the process proceeds to step S31. In step S31, it is determined whether a restart condition for the engine 10 is satisfied. If the restart condition of the engine 10 is not satisfied, this process is terminated as it is. On the other hand, when the restart condition of the engine 10 is satisfied, the process proceeds to step S32.

  In step S32, it is determined whether or not the operation flag is ON. That is, it is determined whether or not the operation button 22a is operated by the driver. This determination basically determines whether or not the current automatic stop state of the engine 10 is based on the operation of the operation button 22a (based on an affirmative determination in step S25). Based on the operation of the button 22a, it is determined whether or not the automatic stop of the engine 10 is permitted.

  When the operation flag is OFF in step S32, that is, when the engine 10 is automatically stopped without being based on the operation of the operation button 22a, the result of the automatic stop condition being satisfied with the engine hood 21 closed. (In other words, as a result of an affirmative determination in step S23), it can be considered that the engine 10 is automatically stopped. In this case, the process proceeds to step S35 and the engine 10 is restarted.

  On the other hand, when the operation flag is ON, that is, when the engine 10 is automatically stopped based on the operation of the operation button 22a, the engine 10 is automatically stopped despite the engine hood 21 being in the half-open state. The permitted result (the result of affirmative determination in step S25) can be regarded as a state in which the engine 10 is automatically stopped. In this case, it progresses to step S33 and a restart alerting | reporting process is implemented. In this process, by outputting a notification signal to the notification unit 23, the notification unit 23 is notified that the operation button 22b needs to be pressed when the engine 10 is restarted. This process corresponds to “second notification means”.

  Here, in the present control process, when the engine 10 is automatically stopped when the engine hood 21 is allowed to open halfway when the engine hood 21 is half-opened, In addition to the establishment, the pressing operation of the operation button 22b is required. Therefore, in the notification process, the driver is prompted to perform such an operation by notification. In this case, the operation of the operation button 22b corresponds to “a predetermined restart operation different from the normal restart operation”.

  In a succeeding step S34, it is determined whether or not the operation button 22b is operated by the driver in accordance with the notification process in the step S33. If the operation button 22b is not operated, the process proceeds to step S36, and restart of the engine 10 is prohibited. In this case, even if the restart condition of the engine 10 is satisfied, the restart of the engine 10 is prohibited. This process corresponds to “restart prohibiting means”.

  As described above, when the engine 10 is automatically stopped when the engine hood 21 is half-opened, when the engine 10 is automatically stopped, the restart of the engine 10 is prohibited. It can be avoided that the engine 10 is restarted when the engine 21 is erroneously determined to be in a half-open state even though the engine 21 is in the fully-open state, thereby allowing the automatic stop of the engine 10. As a result, it is possible to reliably avoid the above-described situation in which the engine 10 restarts unintentionally while the engine hood 21 is opened and the work in the engine room is being performed.

  On the other hand, when the operation button 22b is operated in step S34, the process proceeds to step S35 and the engine 10 is restarted. Accordingly, even when the engine 10 is automatically stopped due to the permission of the automatic stop of the engine 10, the engine 10 is restarted by operating the operation button 22b (allowing restart of the engine 10). be able to. Such processing corresponds to “restart permission means”. In this case, the operation button 22b is a restart permitting operation unit that is operated to allow the engine 10 to restart. After the process of step S35 or step S36, this process ends.

  Next, a series of actions when the above-described control by the ECU 15 (specifically, a half-open determination process (FIG. 2) and an idling stop control process (FIG. 3)) is performed will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a time chart for explaining such an operation. In the following, it is assumed that the vehicle is running with the engine hood 21 in a half-open state.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the vehicle is in a stop state before the timing t1. Since the engine hood 21 is not completely closed, the engine hood sensor 19 detects that the engine hood 21 is open.

  When the engine 10 is started at the timing t1 and the accelerator operation is performed by the driver, the vehicle speed increases and the half-open flag is turned on at the timing t2 when the vehicle speed reaches the predetermined speed α.

  Thereafter, when the accelerator operation by the driver is released at timing t3, the vehicle speed decreases with the passage of time. At the timing t4 when the vehicle speed reaches the predetermined speed β, the automatic stop condition of the engine 10 is established, and the automatic stop prohibition notification process (step S16 in FIG. 2) by the notification unit 23 is performed.

  Thereafter, at timing t5, when the operation button 22a is operated by the driver according to the notification process, the operation flag is turned ON. Thereby, the automatic stop of the engine 10 is permitted, and as a result, the engine 10 automatically stops.

  Thereafter, at timing t6, when the accelerator operation is performed by the driver and the restart condition is satisfied, the restart notification process (step S33 in FIG. 3) by the notification unit 23 is performed. Then, at timing t7, when the operation button 22b is operated by the driver according to the notification process, the engine 10 is allowed to restart, and as a result, the engine 10 restarts.

  As mentioned above, according to the structure of this embodiment explained in full detail, the following outstanding effects are acquired.

  When it is detected that the vehicle speed is equal to or higher than the predetermined speed α and the engine hood 21 is open, it is determined that the engine hood 21 is in a half-open state. The automatic stop of the engine 10 is allowed regardless of the determination result that it is open. In this case, since the automatic stop of the engine 10 can be performed even when the engine hood 21 is in the half-open state, it is possible to avoid making the driver doubt.

  When it is determined that the engine hood 21 is in the half-open state, the notification unit 23 notifies the driver that the engine hood 21 is in the half-open state and the automatic stop of the engine 10 is prohibited. Accordingly, the automatic stop of the engine 10 is allowed when the operation button 22a is operated by the driver. In this case, it is possible to allow the engine 10 to be automatically stopped after notifying the driver that the engine hood 21 is in the half-open state. Therefore, for example, the driver can re-close the engine hood 21 so that the engine 10 is automatically stopped as usual.

  In addition, the above-described notification (automatic stop prohibition notification processing in step S16) by the notification unit 23 is performed when the automatic stop condition of the engine 10 is satisfied, that is, when the engine 10 is automatically stopped if normal. It is possible to notify the driver at an optimal timing.

  By the way, when it is erroneously determined that the engine hood 21 is in the half-open state even though the engine hood 21 is in the fully open state, there is a situation in which the automatic stop of the engine 10 is permitted even though the engine hood 21 is in the fully open state. Can occur. In that case, the above-described situation in which the engine 10 is unintentionally restarted while the engine hood 21 is opened (fully opened) and working in the engine room may still occur. In addition, even when the engine 10 is automatically stopped (permitted) based on the operation of the operation button 22a by the driver after the half-open determination of the engine hood 21 is correctly performed, if the engine hood 21 is fully opened after that, the above operation is performed. A similar situation can occur. Therefore, in the above embodiment, in view of these points, when the engine 10 is automatically stopped as a result of the automatic stop of the engine 10 being permitted even though the engine hood 21 is in the half-open state, the engine Even if 10 restart conditions are satisfied, restart of the engine 10 is prohibited. Thereby, it is possible to reliably avoid the occurrence of the above-described situation.

  As a result of the automatic stop of the engine 10 being permitted even though the engine hood 21 is in the half-open state, when the engine 10 is automatically stopped, if the restart condition of the engine 10 is met, The notification unit 23 notifies the user of a restart operation (specifically, operation of the operation button 22b) different from the start operation. Then, when the operation button 22b is operated by the driver in response to the notification, the restart of the engine 10 is allowed. In this case, the engine 10 can be restarted by performing an operation different from the normal restart operation. Therefore, when the engine 10 is restarted, the driver gets off the vehicle and closes the engine hood 21 again. There is no need to work.

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and may be implemented as follows, for example.

  (1) In FIG. 3, when the operation flag is turned off in step S32, the engine 10 is restarted (step S35), and when the operation flag is turned on (in other words, the engine 10 is automatically stopped). If the engine 10 has been automatically stopped due to being permitted), restart of the engine 10 may be prohibited (step S36). In such a process, since the restart of the engine 10 is unconditionally prohibited when the operation flag is set to ON, a key start (push start) is required when the engine 10 is restarted. It is necessary to carry out.

  In FIG. 3, when the restart condition is satisfied in step S31, the engine 10 is restarted (step S35), and when the restart condition is not satisfied, the present process is terminated. May be. In this case, the engine 10 is restarted if the restart condition is satisfied regardless of whether the operation flag is ON or OFF.

  (2) In the above embodiment, the automatic stop prohibition notification process (step S16) is performed when the automatic stop condition of the engine 10 is satisfied, but the automatic stop prohibition notification process is not necessarily performed at such timing. For example, the notification process may be performed when the process in step S16 is deleted and the half-open flag is turned ON (at the timing).

  Moreover, it is good also as a structure which does not implement an automatic stop prohibition alerting | reporting process. In this case, the operation button 22a operated in accordance with the notification process can be made unnecessary, so that the configuration can be simplified accordingly. In such a case, when the engine hood 21 is determined to be in the half-open state, the automatic stop of the engine 10 may be allowed uniformly.

  (3) In the said embodiment, although the alerting | reporting part 23 was comprised by the speaker (audio | voice output part), it may replace with this and you may comprise the alerting | reporting part 23 by display parts, such as a display. In this case, the notification content is displayed on the display unit in characters or the like and notified.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Engine, 15 ... ECU, 19 ... Engine hood sensor, 21 ... Engine hood, 23 ... Notification part.

Claims (5)

An engine idling stop control device (15) that automatically stops the engine (10) when a predetermined automatic stop condition is satisfied while the vehicle is running, and then restarts the engine when a predetermined restart condition is satisfied. In
A hood open / close determining means for determining whether or not the engine hood is open based on a detection signal of a hood sensor (19) provided in an open / close section of the engine hood (21);
Automatic stop prohibiting means for prohibiting automatic stop of the engine when the hood open / close determination means determines that the engine hood is open;
A half-open determination means for determining that the engine hood is in a half-open state when the speed of the vehicle is greater than or equal to a predetermined value and the hood opening / closing determination means determines that the engine hood is open;
Automatic stop permission means for allowing automatic stop of the engine regardless of the determination result that the engine hood is open when the half-open determination means determines that the engine hood is in a half-open state;
An engine idling stop control device comprising: When the half-open determination means determines that the engine hood is in a half-open state, a first notification means for notifying the driver that the automatic stop of the engine is prohibited because the engine hood is in an open state. ,
2. The engine according to claim 1, wherein the automatic stop permission unit allows the automatic stop of the engine when a predetermined operation is performed by the driver in response to the notification by the first notification unit. Idling stop control device. The first notification unit performs the notification process based on the fact that the automatic stop condition is satisfied when the half-open determination unit determines that the engine hood is in a half-open state. The engine idling stop control device according to claim 2.   Restart prohibiting means for prohibiting restarting of the engine even if the restart condition is satisfied when the engine is automatically stopped in response to the automatic stop of the engine being permitted by the automatic stop permitting means. The engine idling stop control device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising: When the automatic stop of the engine is permitted by the automatic stop permission means and the engine is automatically stopped, if the restart condition is satisfied, the driver is allowed to perform a predetermined re-operation different from the normal restart operation. A second notification means for performing a notification prompting a start operation;
Restart permitting means for allowing restart of the engine when the predetermined restart operation is performed by the driver in response to the notification by the second notification means;
The engine idling stop control device according to claim 4, further comprising:

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