JP6654907B2 - Vehicle travel control device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle travel control device that recognizes a travel environment, detects travel information of a host vehicle, and performs automatic driving control.

  In recent years, various technologies have been proposed and put into practical use for vehicles, which recognize the driving environment, detect driving information of the host vehicle, execute steering control and acceleration / deceleration control in a coordinated manner, and can perform automatic driving. ing. For example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2015-24746 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1), acceleration / deceleration control of an accelerator or a brake takes precedence over steering control on a rampway route from a general road to a junction of a main line of an expressway. Thus, there has been disclosed a technology of an automatic operation control device that switches from a manual operation mode to an automatic operation mode and suppresses a driver from feeling uncomfortable.

JP 2015-24746 A

  By the way, in the technology of the automatic driving control device as disclosed in Patent Document 1, when it is determined that continuation of the automatic driving is difficult, it is necessary to take over the driving to the driver as quickly and safely as possible. . However, since the driver is released from the driving operation during the automatic driving, there is a possibility that the driver cannot appropriately cope with a sudden takeover of the driving. In addition, even when it is determined that continuation of the automatic driving is difficult, there are various cases depending on the driving environment and the driving information of the own vehicle, and all the driving controls are necessarily released to shift the automatic driving to the manual driving. It may not be necessary.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and according to the driving environment and the driving information of the own vehicle, all driving controls are canceled in consideration of various cases, and the automatic driving is not shifted to the manual driving. To provide a vehicle travel control device capable of reducing the load of a driver's handover operation and improving the reliability and safety of automatic driving by taking over only the functions that are determined to be difficult to continue to the driver to the driver. With the goal.

One aspect of the traveling control device for a vehicle of the present invention is a traveling environment information acquiring unit that acquires traveling environment information on which the own vehicle travels, a traveling information detecting unit that detects traveling information of the own vehicle, and the traveling environment information. A driving control device for a vehicle that performs automatic driving control by performing a plurality of driving controls in cooperation with each other based on the driving information of the own vehicle. Takeover operation determining means for determining control, notifying means for notifying the driver that the takeover operation control determined by the takeover operation determining means is to be taken over, and the drive control until the handover of the driver to the takeover operation control is detected. maintained, if the driver takes over the takeover operation control, automatic operation portion for releasing only taken over the operation control of the automatic operation control And removal means, with a.

  According to the traveling control device for a vehicle according to the present invention, according to the traveling environment and traveling information of the own vehicle, all driving controls are canceled in consideration of various cases, and automatic driving is not shifted to manual driving. Only the functions determined to be difficult to continue are handed over to the driver, the load of the driver's handover operation can be reduced, and the reliability and safety of automatic driving can be improved.

1 is an overall configuration diagram of a traveling control device for a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention. 4 is a flowchart of an automatic operation control program according to an embodiment of the present invention. 5 is a flowchart of a partial handover determination processing routine according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a curve risk characteristic according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a failure risk characteristic according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6A is a diagram illustrating a situation in which automatic driving is transferred to manual driving according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6A illustrates a case where a sharp curve exists in front of a traveling road, and FIG. This shows the case where there is a construction area or obstacle in front. It is explanatory drawing of calculation of a target fixation point.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a traveling control device of a vehicle. The traveling control device 1 includes a traveling control unit 10, a surrounding environment recognition device 11, a driver state detection device 12, a traveling parameter detection device 13, and a host vehicle. Each input device of the position information detecting device 14, the inter-vehicle communication device 15, the road traffic information communication device 16, the switch group 17, the engine control device 21, the brake control device 22, the steering control device 23, the display device 24, the speaker / buzzer Twenty-five output devices are connected.

  The surrounding environment recognition device 11 includes a camera device (a stereo camera, a monocular camera, a color camera, or the like) including a solid-state imaging device or the like provided in a vehicle compartment for capturing image information by capturing an external environment of the vehicle; And a sonar (not shown) for receiving a reflected wave from a three-dimensional object existing in the system.

  The surrounding environment recognition device 11 performs, for example, a known grouping process on the distance information based on the image information captured by the camera device, and sets the three-dimensional road shape in which the grouped distance information is set in advance. By comparing with data and three-dimensional object data, three-dimensional objects such as lane marking data, guardrails along the road, side wall data such as curbs, vehicles (preceding vehicles, oncoming vehicles, parallel vehicles, parked vehicles), etc. Data and the like, relative position (distance, angle) from the own vehicle are extracted together with speed.

  In addition, the surrounding environment recognition device 11 detects the position (distance, angle) where the reflected three-dimensional object exists, together with the speed, based on the reflected wave information acquired by the radar device. Thus, the surrounding environment recognition device 11 is provided as driving environment information acquisition means.

  The driver state detection device 12 includes, for example, a heart rate sensor provided in a driver's seat or a steering wheel as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-219979, and detects a heart rate from a heart rate detection signal detected by the heart rate sensor. Is measured, and the arousal level of the driver is detected based on the heart rate. As described above, in the present embodiment, the driver state detection device 12 is provided as a wakefulness detection unit.

  The traveling parameter detecting device 13 performs traveling information of the own vehicle, specifically, a vehicle speed, a steering torque, a steering wheel angle, a yaw rate, an accelerator opening, a throttle opening, a road surface gradient of a running road surface, a road surface friction coefficient estimated value, and the like. Is detected. As described above, the traveling parameter detecting device 13 is provided with the function of the traveling information detecting means.

  The vehicle position information detecting device 14 is, for example, a known navigation system, for example, receives a radio wave transmitted from a GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite, and determines the current position based on the radio wave information. Detected and stored on map data stored in advance in flash memory, CD (Compact Disc), DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), Blu-ray (Blu-ray: registered trademark) disk, HDD (Hard disk drive), etc. Identify your vehicle position.

  The pre-stored map data includes road data and facility data. The road data includes link position information, type information, node position information, type information, curve curvature (or curve radius) at the node, and information on the connection relationship between the node and the link, that is, road branching and merging. The information includes point information, maximum vehicle speed information at a branch road, and the like. The facility data has a plurality of records for each facility, and each record includes the name information, the location information, and the facility type (department store, store, restaurant, parking lot, park, park, vehicle failure, etc.) of the target facility. It has data indicating (repair base) information. Then, the vehicle position on the map position is displayed, and when the destination is input by the operator, the route from the departure point to the destination is calculated in a predetermined manner and displayed on the display device 24 such as a display or a monitor. In addition, voice guidance is provided by a speaker / buzzer 25 so as to be guided freely. As described above, the vehicle position information detecting device 14 is provided as traveling environment information acquiring means.

  The vehicle-to-vehicle communication device 15 is, for example, a short-range wireless communication device having a communication area of about 100 [m] such as a wireless LAN, and directly communicates with other vehicles without a server or the like to transmit and receive information. It is possible to do. Then, the vehicle information, traveling information, traffic environment information, and the like are exchanged by mutual communication with other vehicles. The vehicle information includes unique information indicating a vehicle type (in this embodiment, a type of a passenger car, a truck, a two-wheeled vehicle, or the like). The traveling information includes vehicle speed, position information, brake lamp lighting information, blinking information of a direction indicator transmitted when turning right and left, and blinking information of a hazard lamp blinking during an emergency stop. Further, the traffic environment information includes information that changes depending on the situation, such as traffic jam information on roads and construction information. As described above, the inter-vehicle communication device 15 is provided as traveling environment information acquisition means.

  The road traffic information communication device 16 is a so-called VICS (Vehicle Information and Communication System: registered trademark), and transmits traffic jams, accidents, construction work, required time, parking from FM multiplex broadcasting or a transmitter on the road. This device receives road traffic information of a parking lot in real time and displays the received traffic information on the previously stored map data. As described above, the road traffic information communication device 16 is provided as driving environment information acquisition means.

  The switch group 17 is a group of switches related to the driver's driving support control. For example, a switch for controlling the traveling at a constant speed in which the speed is set in advance, or an inter-vehicle distance to the preceding vehicle and an inter-vehicle time are previously set. A switch for keeping track of the lane keeping control at a set value, a switch for lane keeping control for controlling traveling while maintaining the traveling lane in a set lane, a switch for lane departure preventing control for performing control for preventing departure from the traveling lane, An overtaking control execution permission switch for executing overtaking control of a vehicle (vehicle to be overtaken), and an automatic driving control for executing all of these controls (operating controls classified into steering control and acceleration / deceleration control in general) in coordination Switches for setting vehicle speed, inter-vehicle distance, inter-vehicle time, speed limit, etc. necessary for these controls, or canceling these controls And a like switch.

  The engine control device 21 may, for example, control the fuel for the engine (not shown) of the vehicle based on the intake air amount, throttle opening, engine water temperature, intake air temperature, oxygen concentration, crank angle, accelerator opening, and other vehicle information. This is a known control unit that performs main control such as injection control, ignition timing control, and control of an electronic control throttle valve.

  The brake control device 22 controls the four-wheel brake device (not shown) independently of the driver's brake operation based on, for example, a brake switch, four-wheel speed, steering wheel angle, yaw rate, and other vehicle information. This is a known control unit that performs a known yaw moment control (yaw brake control) for adding a yaw moment to a vehicle, such as a known antilock brake system or a side slip prevention control. Then, when the braking force of each wheel is input from the traveling control unit 10, the brake control device 22 calculates the brake fluid pressure of each wheel based on the braking force, and a brake driving unit (not shown) ) Is activated.

  The steering control device 23 controls an assist torque by an electric power steering motor (not shown) provided in a steering system of the vehicle based on, for example, a vehicle speed, a steering torque, a steering wheel angle, a yaw rate, and other vehicle information. It is a control device. In addition, the steering control device 23 can perform lane keeping control for controlling traveling while maintaining the traveling lane in the set lane, lane departure prevention control for performing departure prevention control from the traveling lane, and obstacle avoidance steering control. The steering angle or the steering torque required for the steering control is calculated by the traveling control unit 10 and input to the steering control device 23, and the electric power steering motor is driven and controlled according to the input control amount. Is done.

  The display device 24 is a device that visually alerts and informs a driver such as a monitor, a display, and an alarm lamp. The speaker / buzzer 25 is a device that gives an audible warning and notification to the driver. That is, the display device 24 and the speaker / buzzer 25 are provided as notification means.

  Then, the traveling control unit 10 performs a collision prevention control with an obstacle or the like, a constant speed traveling control, a following traveling control, a lane keep control, a lane departure prevention control based on each input signal from each of the devices 11 to 17 described above. In addition, steering control such as overtaking control and obstacle avoidance steering control and acceleration / deceleration control are performed in cooperation to execute automatic driving control and the like. At the time of this automatic driving control, the display device 24 determines the driving control to be taken over by the driver based on the traveling environment information and the traveling information of the own vehicle, and the driver takes over the passing operation control determined by the passing operation determining means. When the notification is performed by the speaker / buzzer 25 and the takeover operation control determined by the driver is taken over, only the taken over operation control is released from the automatic operation control. As described above, the traveling control unit 10 is configured to have functions of a takeover operation determination unit, a notification unit, and a partial automatic operation release unit.

  Next, automatic driving control executed by the traveling control unit 10 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In the present embodiment, a case where the control taken over by the driver is steering control will be described as an example.

  First, in step (hereinafter abbreviated as "S") 101, it is determined whether or not the automatic driving state is in the automatic driving control. If the automatic driving state is present, the process proceeds to S102, and a partial handover determination process described later is performed. After executing the routine, the process proceeds to S103.

  In S103, as a result of the partial handover determination processing, it is determined whether or not there is operation control to be taken over by the driver. If there is operation control to be taken over by the driver, the process proceeds to S104, a handover alarm is turned on, the display device 24 is lit, or It blinks and generates an audio alarm by the speaker / buzzer 25 to urge the driver to take over the relevant driving control (steering control in the present embodiment).

  If it is determined in S101 that the vehicle is not in the automatic driving state, or if it is determined in S103 that there is no driving control to be taken over by the driver, the process proceeds to S110, where the handover alarm is turned off, and the display device 24 and the speaker -Leave the buzzer 25 in the OFF state, or switch it to OFF, and exit the program.

  After turning on the handover alarm in S104, the process proceeds to S105, and the detection of the handover operation of the driver is performed. In the present embodiment, the detection of the driver's handover operation is performed by, for example, steering control. For example, the driver's handover operation is detected by input of a steering torque or a touch sensor of a steering wheel. When the handover operation to the driver is acceleration / deceleration control, the driver's handover operation can be detected by an accelerator pedal sensor, a brake switch, or the like.

  After detecting the driver's takeover operation in S105, the process proceeds to S106, in which only a part of the automatic driving (that is, the steering control in the present embodiment) is released, and another automatic driving function (that is, in the present embodiment, Acceleration / deceleration control) is maintained.

  In addition, the display device 24 and the speaker / buzzer 25 notify that only a part of the automatic driving (that is, the steering control in the present embodiment) is released.

  If it is determined in S105 that the driver's takeover operation cannot be detected, the processing from S101 is repeated.

  When the process proceeds from S106 to S107, it is determined whether or not the driver has turned on the automatic operation switch.

  If the result of this determination is that the driver has determined that the automatic operation switch has been turned on, the flow proceeds to S108, where it is determined whether or not automatic operation is possible. If automatic operation is possible, the flow proceeds to S109 to return to automatic operation. And exit the program.

  When it is determined that the automatic driving is impossible as a result of the determination in S108, the processing from S102 is repeated.

  On the other hand, if the automatic driving switch has not been turned on by the driver in S107 described above, the process proceeds to S110, where it is determined whether or not the driving by the driver has been executed. , And if the driving by the driver is not performed, the processing from S102 is repeated.

  Next, the partial handover determination processing routine executed in S102 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  First, in S201, it is determined whether or not a sharp curve having a curve curvature equal to or larger than a preset curve curvature (or smaller than a curve radius) is present ahead of the traveling road (see FIG. 6A). Note that the curve curvature (or curve radius) may be obtained by, for example, quadratic approximation of the traveling path from image data captured by the camera device from the surrounding environment recognition device 11, or It may be obtained from the map data of the vehicle position information detecting device 14.

  As a result of the determination in S201, when it is determined that there is a sharp curve ahead, the process proceeds to S202, and when it is determined that there is no sharp curve, the process jumps to S204.

  As a result of the determination in S201, when it is determined that there is a sharp curve ahead and the process proceeds to S202, the curve risk Rcur for the detected sharp curve is determined by referring to a map / table or the like set in advance through experiments and calculations. Is set.

  As shown in the characteristic diagram of FIG. 4, this curve risk Rcur is set lower as the distance Lcur (see FIG. 6A) from the vehicle position to the entrance of the curve is longer, and is larger as the curve curvature κ is larger. It is to be set.

  After setting the curve risk Rcur in S202, the process proceeds to S203, where the set curve risk Rcur is compared with a preset threshold Rcd.

  As a result of this comparison, when the curve risk Rcur is equal to or greater than the threshold value Rcd (when Rcur ≧ Rcd), the process jumps to S207 to execute a part of the operation control (steering control in the present embodiment), If the curve risk Rcur is less than the threshold value Rcd (if Rcur <Rcd), the process proceeds to S204.

  When the process proceeds from S201 or S203 to S204, it is determined whether there is a traffic obstacle ahead. Here, the traffic obstacle is an obstacle recognized by the surrounding environment recognition device 11, the vehicle-to-vehicle communication device 15, the road traffic information communication device 16, and the area under construction.

  As a result of this determination, when it is determined that there is no traffic obstacle (that is, when there is no sharp curve and no traffic obstacle ahead, or even when there is a sharp curve ahead, the curve risk Rcur is low. If it is less than the threshold value Rcd and there is no traffic obstacle), the process proceeds to S210, where it is determined not to execute a part of the operation control (steering control in the present embodiment) by the driver, and the process exits.

  Also, as a result of the determination in S204, when it is determined that there is a traffic obstacle (that is, there is no sharp curve ahead but there is a traffic obstacle, or even if there is a sharp curve ahead, the curve risk Rcur is equal to the threshold. If the traffic obstacle is less than Rcd and there is a traffic obstacle), the process proceeds to S205, and a fault risk Robj for the detected traffic obstacle is set by referring to a map table or the like set in advance by experiments, calculations, and the like.

  As shown in the characteristic diagram of FIG. 5, the obstacle risk Robj is set lower as the distance Lobj (see FIG. 6B) from the vehicle position to the obstacle is greater, and the speed Vf of the obstacle is greater. It is set to be smaller. The characteristic diagram of FIG. 5 shows that, when the speed of the obstacle is “0” (for example, in the case of “construction area or stopped vehicle”), the speed area where the obstacle is “+” travels in the same direction as the own vehicle. An obstacle is indicated, and a speed region indicated by “−” indicates a traffic obstacle traveling toward the own vehicle.

  After setting the failure risk Robj in S205, the process proceeds to S206, where the set failure risk Robj is compared with a preset threshold Rod.

  As a result of this comparison, if the failure risk Robj is equal to or greater than the threshold value Rod (if Robj ≧ Rod), the process proceeds to S207 to execute a part of the operation control (steering control in the present embodiment). If the risk Robj is less than the threshold value Rod (if Robj <Rod), the process proceeds to S210, where it is determined that a part of the driving control (in this embodiment, the steering control) is not to be taken over by the driver, and the routine is executed. Exit.

  If it is determined in S203 that the curve risk Rcur is equal to or greater than the threshold Rcd (Rcur ≧ Rcd), or if the failure risk Robj is determined in S206 to be equal to or greater than the threshold Rod (Robj ≧ Rod) and the process proceeds to S207, the heart rate sensor of the driver state detection device 12 It is determined whether or not the awakening degree of the driver detected is low.

  If it is determined in step S207 that the arousal level is low, the process proceeds to step S208, in which it is determined that partial takeover (steering control in the present embodiment) is to be executed at an early timing (an early takeover warning is generated). Through.

  If it is determined that the arousal level is not low, the process proceeds to S209, where it is determined that a partial takeover (steering control in the present embodiment) is to be executed at the normal timing, and the routine exits.

  In the example of FIG. 3, only one of the curve risk Rcur and the obstacle risk Robj is calculated, but an actual road may have an obstacle before the curve. Therefore, both the curve risk Rcur and the failure risk Robj may be calculated.

  As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, at the time of the automatic driving control, the driving control to be taken over by the driver is determined based on the driving environment information and the driving information of the own vehicle, and the driving control is determined by the transfer operation determining means. The driver is notified that the takeover operation control is to be taken over, and when the takeover operation control determined by the driver is taken over, only the taken over operation control is released from the automatic operation control. For this reason, a function that determines that continuation of automatic driving is difficult without canceling all driving controls and shifting from automatic driving to manual driving in consideration of various cases based on the driving environment and the driving information of the own vehicle Only the driver takes over, the load of the driver's takeover operation can be reduced, and the reliability and safety of automatic driving can be improved.

  In the present embodiment, an example in which only the steering control of the automatic driving is taken over by the driver has been described. However, the situation in which only the acceleration / deceleration control (the steering control is operated by the automatic driving function) is taken over by the driver is the same. Such situations where only the acceleration / deceleration control is taken over by the driver include the following cases.

  For example, based on image information from the surrounding environment recognition device 11 and information from the vehicle-to-vehicle communication device 15, when there is a vehicle waiting to turn right in an oncoming lane such as an intersection, the host vehicle is accelerated and turns right behind the host vehicle. There are situations in which it is difficult to determine the timing of accelerating or decelerating the self-vehicle with the automatic driving function, such as turning the vehicle right or decelerating the self-vehicle and turning the right-turn vehicle right ahead of the self-vehicle. In such a situation, the driver is notified and only the acceleration / deceleration control is taken over by the driver.

  Further, for example, when there is a vehicle that is going to join the traveling lane of the own vehicle based on the image information from the surrounding environment recognition device 11 and the information from the inter-vehicle communication device 15, the own vehicle is accelerated to be behind the own vehicle. There are situations in which it is difficult to determine the timing of accelerating or decelerating the self-vehicle with the automatic driving function, whether to merge the merged vehicle or to decelerate the own vehicle and merge the merged vehicle in front of the own vehicle. In such a situation, the driver is notified and only the acceleration / deceleration control is taken over by the driver.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Driving control apparatus 10 Driving control part (takeover operation determination means, notification means, partial automatic operation cancellation means)
11 Peripheral environment recognition device (driving environment information acquisition means)
12 Driver state detection device (arousal level detection means)
13 Travel parameter detection device (travel information detection means)
14 Own vehicle position information detection device (driving environment information acquisition means)
15 Vehicle-to-vehicle communication device (driving environment information acquisition means)
16 Road traffic information communication device (driving environment information acquisition means)
17 switch group 21 engine control device 22 brake control device 23 steering control device 24 display device (notification means)
25 Speakers and buzzers (reporting means)

Claims (4)

Traveling environment information acquiring means for acquiring traveling environment information on which the own vehicle travels, traveling information detecting means for detecting traveling information of the own vehicle, and a plurality of driving controls based on the traveling environment information and the traveling information of the own vehicle. In a cruise control device for a vehicle that performs automatic driving control by performing
Handover operation determining means for determining a drive control to be taken over by a driver based on the running environment information and the running information of the host vehicle;
Notifying means for notifying the driver that the handover operation control determined by the handover operation determining means is to be taken over,
Partial automatic operation in which the operation control is maintained until the driver takes over the takeover operation control, and only the taken over operation control is released from the automatic operation control when the driver takes over the takeover operation control. Release means,
A travel control device for a vehicle, comprising:   2. The vehicle running control according to claim 1, wherein the handover operation determining means determines the steering control to be a driving control that allows a driver to take over the steering control when a sharp curve exceeding a predetermined curve curvature is detected ahead. apparatus.   3. The vehicle travel control device according to claim 1, wherein the handover operation determination unit determines the steering control to be a drive control that can be taken over by a driver when there is a traffic obstacle ahead. Having an arousal level detecting means for detecting the arousal level of the driver,
The travel control device for a vehicle according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the handover operation determining unit changes the timing of notification by the notification unit according to a degree of awakening of the driver. .

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