JP6690591B2 - Driving support device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a driving support device for appropriately delegating the right to switch the driving of a vehicle from automatic driving to manual driving by a driver.

  In an automatic driving vehicle using an automatic driving system, switching between automatic driving and manual driving, that is, delegation of driving right between a vehicle control system and a driver may be performed. As a conventional technique related to delegation of rights in such automatic driving, for example, in Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2015-185088), in an automatic traveling vehicle in which automatic driving control and manual driving control can be switched, a driver is in a forward traffic environment. There is disclosed an invention in which it is determined whether a necessary safety confirmation action (visual confirmation action) is taken and the switching to the manual driving is not performed without the situation recognition. Further, in Patent Document 2 (JP-A-2016-38768), in a vehicle control device, it is determined whether or not switching from automatic driving to manual driving is possible from a driving operation state of a driver, and when switching is not possible, a notification is given, An invention is disclosed that controls a vehicle speed reduction, an automatic stop on a road shoulder, and the like.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2015-185088 JP, 2016-38768, A

  As described above, even in the conventional technology, there is a technology that does not switch to the manual driving (transfer of the right) when the driver's situation is not recognized with respect to the driving environment. However, there are various levels of driver's situation recognition to the driving environment, and there has been no technology for appropriately delegating the right in consideration of such difference in situation recognition level.

  That is, in the prior art, even the situational awareness level is not considered, so even if the situational awareness itself exists, the situational awareness level may not be sufficient for the specific situation at the time of delegation of rights. obtain. Further, since only the driver's situation recognition at the timing of delegation of rights is a problem, there is a possibility that the driver's behavior may be erroneously determined as if the driver's behavior is situationally recognized. is there. In such a case, in the case of delegation of rights, a driver with insufficient situational awareness cannot appropriately deal with various risks.

  On the contrary, when the situation recognition level of the driver is high, the same delegation control as in the case where the situation recognition level is low, the operation of the driver is bothered.

  The present invention has been made in consideration of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a driving support device capable of appropriately controlling delegation of rights for switching between automatic driving and manual driving according to a situation recognition level of a driver. Is to provide.

In order to achieve the above object, the following solution is adopted in the present invention. That is, as described in claim 1, a driver state detection unit that detects the driver state of the vehicle, and a situation recognition level setting that sets the situation recognition level of the driver based on the driver state detected by the driver state detection unit. Means and a right delegation control means for controlling the delegation of driving right to the driver according to the driver's situation recognition level set by the driver situation recognition level determination means, and the driver state detection means is a situation by the driver. The detection of the presence or absence of recognition is repeatedly executed at a predetermined cycle, and the situation recognition level setting means is based on the length of the elapsed time from the previous situation recognition of the driver detected by the driver state detection means, and set the situational awareness level, the rights transfer control means, in response to the situational awareness level, the transition time Only to perform a gradual rights delegation to continue to change the rights delegation degree.

According to the above solution method, the delegation of rights to the driver (switching from automatic driving to manual driving) is controlled according to the situation recognition level, so when the situation recognition level is sufficiently high, smooth delegation of rights is required. On the other hand, when the situation recognition level is low, it is possible to perform careful delegation of rights while urging the driver to recognize the situation, and safe and appropriate delegation of rights can be achieved. Moreover, since the present situation recognition level is set in consideration of the calculated value of the past situation recognition level, it is possible to appropriately set the situation recognition level having a safer margin. In addition, the degree of right transfer (for example, the amount of operation assist) is gradually changed over the transition time (right transfer time), and the driver's situation recognition level increases during that time, so that the driver after the right transfer is The state can have a sufficient situational awareness level.

A preferred mode on the premise of the solution method is as described in claims 2 and below in the claims. That is, the transition time is set shorter as the situation recognition level is higher (corresponding to claim 2 ). In this case, even if the situation recognition level is low, the situation recognition level can be increased during the delegation of rights over a long transition time.

Further, as described in claim 4, a driver state detecting means for detecting a driver state of the vehicle, and a situation recognition level setting for setting a situation recognition level of the driver based on the driver state detected by the driver state detecting means. Means and a right delegation control means for controlling the delegation of driving right to the driver according to the driver's situation recognition level set by the driver situation recognition level determination means, and the driver state detection means is a situation by the driver. The detection of the presence or absence of recognition is repeatedly executed at a predetermined cycle, and the situation recognition level setting means is based on the length of the elapsed time from the previous situation recognition of the driver detected by the driver state detection means, and set the situational awareness level, the rights transfer control means, when the condition recognition level is a predetermined level or less When it is fixed without performing rights delegation to driver, the is pulled over the vehicle automatic operation. According to the above solution method, it is possible to reliably ensure safety when the situation recognition level is extremely low.

Further, as set forth in claim 5, a driver state detection means for detecting the driver state of the vehicle, and a situation recognition level setting for setting the situation recognition level of the driver based on the driver state detected by the driver state detection means. Means and a right delegation control means for controlling the delegation of driving right to the driver according to the driver's situation recognition level set by the driver situation recognition level determination means, and the driver state detection means is a situation by the driver. The detection of the presence or absence of recognition is repeatedly executed at a predetermined cycle, and the situation recognition level setting means is based on the length of the elapsed time from the previous situation recognition of the driver detected by the driver state detection means, and set the situational awareness level, the situation recognition level setting means is calculated from the current state of the driver Even if the situation recognition level calculated value is higher than the situation recognition level set last time, the calculated value of the situation recognition level calculated by the average value of the elapsed times of the past predetermined number of times is when not higher than the set situational awareness level, the current situation recognition level, that maintain the situational awareness level set for the last time. According to the above solution method, even if the situation recognition level of the driver is calculated to be high from the current driver state, the situation recognition level is not immediately increased, but is maintained at the past situation recognition level as necessary. The situational awareness level can be set on the safety side.

  According to the present invention, safe and appropriate delegation of rights can be performed according to the situation recognition level.

The block block diagram which shows an example of the control system of this invention. The graph which shows the experimental result about the relationship between a driver's situation recognition level and the number of times a rearview mirror is viewed. It is a graph which shows the relationship between a driver's situation recognition level and a driver's visual recognition range, and a figure showing an experimental result when a driver's situation recognition level is small. It is a graph which shows the relationship between a driver's situation recognition level and a driver's visual recognition range, and a figure showing an experimental result when a driver's situation recognition level is large. The figure which shows the image of the right transfer in this invention. The flowchart which shows the control procedure of an example of the driving assistance control of this invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a state in which an in-vehicle speaker and a display device are arranged in a vehicle compartment as driver notification means. The figure which shows the example of a display on a display device. The flowchart which shows the control procedure of an example of the situation recognition level setting process of this invention.

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

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a vehicle (for example, an automobile) control system equipped with the driving assistance device of the present invention. As illustrated, the control system includes a controller (control unit) U configured by using a microcomputer. The detection data signal from the driver state detecting means 1 is input to the controller U. Here, the driver state detection means 1 is a device that detects the state of the driver of the vehicle (for example, the movement of the driver's line of sight), and is composed of, for example, an in-vehicle camera capable of photographing the state of the driver.

  The controller U includes a situation recognition level setting means 2, a right transfer control means 3, and a vehicle control means 4. The situation recognition level setting means 2 indicates the situation recognition level of the driver (how much the driver can recognize the situation around the vehicle based on the detection data of the current driver state from the driver state detection means 1). Level).

The detection of the driver state and the setting of the situation recognition level are repeatedly executed at a predetermined cycle,
The situation recognition level is set in consideration of the time series data of the situation recognition level set up to that point in addition to the state of the driver at that time. That is, when setting the situation recognition level, the estimated value of the situation recognition level is calculated based on the movement of the line of sight of the driver (how often and how often the driver performs confirmation work on the surrounding situation). However, the final setting of the situation recognition level is performed by also considering the time-series data of the situation recognition level (the set value of the past situation recognition level). This prevents the situation recognition level of the driver from being erroneously estimated to be high due to the behavior indicating temporary or accidental situation recognition by the driver.

  In the present embodiment, the situation recognition level is set to five levels from level 0 to level 4 in order from the state of low situation recognition. A specific setting example of the situation recognition level will be described later with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  2 to 4 show experimental results that are the basis for being able to determine the situation recognition level based on the movement of the driver's line of sight (specifically, the number of times the rearview mirror is viewed). FIG. 2 is a graph showing the experimental results on the relationship between the situation recognition level of the driver and the number of times the rearview mirror is visually recognized. As can be seen from the graph of FIG. 2, the higher the situation recognition level (the larger the situation recognition level value), the greater the number of times the rearview mirror is viewed during driving for 5 minutes. This is because the higher the situational awareness level, the larger the driver's margin, so that the driver can look away from the front, and as a result, the driver's visual range becomes wider and the rearview mirror located farther from the front of the driver can see. It is thought that the number of times of visual recognition will increase.

  3 and 4 show experimental results on the relationship between the situation recognition level of the driver and the expansion of the visible range. In each figure, the visual recognition position data by the driver is shown by dots, and the visual recognition range of the driver is shown by a broken line as a range in which these visual recognition position data are distributed. As shown in FIG. 3, when the driver's situation recognition level is small, the driver's visual recognition range A1 remains within the small range in front of the driver, and the room mirror 10 is not visually recognized (visible on the room mirror 10). There is no dot to indicate the position). On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4, when the driver's situation recognition level is large, the driver's visual recognition range A2 extends to a position outside the driver's front including the visual recognition position on the room mirror 10. It can be seen that the number of times the room mirror 10 is visually recognized (indicated by dots on the room mirror 10) is increasing.

  The right transfer control means 3 determines whether or not to transfer the right (switching of the vehicle from the automatic driving mode to the manual driving mode) and the method according to the situation recognition level set by the situation recognition level setting means 2, and determines the situation recognition level. The right transfer control according to is executed.

  For example, the right transfer control unit 3 executes the stepwise transfer of rights according to the situation recognition level. In the stepwise delegation of rights, the degree of delegation of rights (for example, the operation assist amount) is gradually changed over the transition time (rights delegation time) set according to the situation recognition level.

  FIG. 5 is a graph showing an image of such stepwise delegation of rights. As shown, the driver's situational awareness level, which did not reach a sufficient height in the autonomous driving mode, increased during the gradual delegation that took place over the transition time, and when the driver switched to manual driving. Reach a high enough level. As described above, by performing the stepwise delegation of rights, it is possible to prevent the situation from shifting to the automatic driving mode while the situation recognition level is low, and it is possible to perform the smooth and safe delegation of rights.

  At the time of delegating the right, the right delegation control means 3 also operates the driver notification means 5 and various vehicle equipments 6 (for example, a power window and an air conditioner) to execute processing for prompting the driver to recognize the situation. Here, the driver notifying means 5 is means for notifying the driver mainly by voice, and is composed of, for example, a speaker. A specific example of the right transfer control according to the situation recognition level will be described later with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  The vehicle control means 5 controls the vehicle mechanism 7 to execute automatic driving of the vehicle, and at the time of delegation of rights, controls the vehicle mechanism 7 in accordance with the right delegation method determined by the right delegation control means 3. The switching from the automatic operation mode to the manual operation mode is executed.

  Next, the processing procedure of the right transfer control of this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  In the right transfer control, first, in step S1, the driver state detection means 1 is used to detect the driver state. In the subsequent step S2, the situation recognition level setting process is executed to set the situation recognition level of the driver (any one of the five levels of level 0, level 1, level 2, level 3 and level 4). . Details of the situation recognition level setting process will be described later with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  In the following step S3, it is determined whether or not the situation recognition level is level 0, and if the situation recognition level is level 0, the process proceeds to step S4, and processing in the case where the situation recognition level is level 0 To execute. Specifically, the driver notifying unit 5 (speaker) is used to directly notify the driver of the fact that the automatic driving cannot be continued (the need to switch to the manual driving mode). When not responding to the notification, the automatic driving mode is released, and the vehicle is automatically stopped on the shoulder of the road (or shifts to a degenerate mode such as ACC).

  When it is determined in step S3 that the situation recognition level is not level 0, the process proceeds to step S5, it is determined whether the situation recognition level is level 1, and when the situation recognition level is level 1, Advances to step S6 to execute the processing when the situation recognition level is level 1. Specifically, the driver informing means 5 (speaker) points out the situation to the driver to give the vehicle surrounding information (for example, the presence or absence of a preceding vehicle, the distance between the preceding vehicle and the like), and the transition is sufficiently long. The gradual transfer of rights is executed at time T1.

  FIG. 7 shows an example of the driver notification means 5 provided in the driver's seat of the vehicle. As shown in the figure, an in-vehicle speaker 12 and a display device 13 are provided as driver notification means 5 on a dashboard 11 in front of the driver's seat of the vehicle. As a specific example of the notification to the driver when the situation recognition level is level 1 (relatively low level), for example, when notifying the driver of information about the preceding vehicle, the in-vehicle speaker 12 indicates “there is a preceding vehicle. The inter-vehicle distance is 100 meters. "And a display as shown in FIG. 8 is displayed on the display device 13 (a display that makes it possible to see at a glance that the distance from the vehicle ahead is 100 meters). Be done.

  If it is determined in step S5 that the situation recognition level is not level 1, it proceeds to step S7, it is determined whether the situation recognition level is level 2, and if the situation recognition level is level 2 Advances to step S8, and executes the processing when the situation recognition level is level 2. Specifically, the driver's attention is evoked by a stimulus using a tactile sensation to the driver to promote the driver's situational awareness, and stepwise delegation of rights is executed at a transition time T2 shorter than the transition time T1. Here, as a method of calling attention by means other than the notification to the driver, for example, a process of operating the power window to apply wind to the driver to make it easier to recognize the surrounding environment, or the amount of air blown from the air conditioner Is set to an extremely large value and a process of applying a strong wind to the driver is executed.

  When it is determined in step S7 that the situation recognition level is not level 2, it is determined in step S9 whether the situation recognition level is level 3, and when the situation recognition level is level 3, Advances to step S8 to execute the processing when the situation recognition level is level 3. Specifically, while using the environmental sound generated during traveling to give the driver attention by giving a stimulus to the extent that the driver is not annoyed, the transition time T3 that is shorter than the transition time T2 Perform delegation of rights. Here, as the use of the environmental sound, for example, processing such as collecting the environmental sound from the own vehicle or surrounding vehicles generated by traveling with a microphone and playing it with a speaker is performed. Specifically, a sound imitating the engine sound is generated as the environmental sound from the in-vehicle speaker 12 shown in FIG.

  If it is determined in step S9 that the situation recognition level is not level 3, the process proceeds to step S11, it is determined that the situation recognition level is level 4, and no special processing is performed, and the right is recognized. Perform delegation. Even when the situation recognition level is level 4, the stepwise delegation of rights may be performed at a transition time T4 that is shorter than the transition time T3.

  Next, the situation recognition level setting process will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  In the situation recognition level setting process, first, in step S21, the elapsed time from the previous situation recognition by the driver is calculated. That is, whether or not the driver is aware of the situation (calculation based on the detection by the driver state detecting means 1) is executed at a predetermined cycle. Calculates how many seconds have passed since it was calculated that the situation was recognized for the environment.

  In step S22, based on the detection by the driver state detection means 1, it is determined whether or not the driver is currently aware of the situation. If it is determined by this determination that the driver does not recognize the situation, the process proceeds to step S23, and it is determined whether the elapsed time from the previous situation recognition is 180 seconds or more. If 180 seconds or more have passed as a result of this determination, the situation recognition level is set to level 0 in step S24, and the processing for one cycle is ended. That is, when the situation is not recognized for 180 seconds or longer, the situation recognition level is set to the lowest level.

  If it is determined in step S23 that the elapsed time from the previous situation recognition is not 180 seconds or more, the process proceeds to step S25, and it is determined whether the elapsed time from the previous situation recognition is 90 seconds or more. If 90 seconds or more have elapsed, it is determined in step S26 whether or not the previously set situation recognition level is level 2 or higher. If level 2 or higher, in step S27. , The situation recognition level is set to level 1, and the process for one cycle is completed. On the other hand, if the previous situation recognition level is not level 2 or higher (level 0 or level 1), the process proceeds to step S34, and the previous situation recognition level is maintained (set to the same level as the previous time). One cycle of processing ends.

  If it is determined in step S25 that the elapsed time from the previous situation recognition is not 90 seconds or more, the process proceeds to step S28, and it is determined whether the elapsed time from the previous situation recognition is 60 seconds or more. If 60 seconds or more have elapsed, it is determined in step S29 whether or not the previously set situation recognition level is level 3 or higher. If level 3 or higher, in step S30. , The situation recognition level is set to level 2, and the process for one cycle is completed. On the other hand, when the previous situation recognition level is not equal to or higher than level 3 (level 0 to level 2), the process proceeds to step 34, the previous situation recognition level is maintained, and one cycle of processing is terminated.

  If it is determined in step S28 that the elapsed time from the previous situation recognition is not 60 seconds or more, the process proceeds to step S31, and it is determined whether the elapsed time from the previous situation recognition is 30 seconds or more. If 30 seconds or more have elapsed, it is determined in step S32 whether or not the previously set situation recognition level is level 4, and if it is level 4, in step S33. , The situation recognition level is set to level 3, and the process for one cycle ends. On the other hand, when the previous situation recognition level is not level 4 (level 0 to level 3), the process proceeds to step 34, the previous situation recognition level is maintained, and the one-cycle processing ends.

  When it is determined in step S31 that the elapsed time from the previous situation recognition is shorter than 30 seconds, the process directly proceeds to step S34, the previous situation recognition level is maintained, and the one cycle process is ended.

  As in the above flow (the flow from step S23 to step S34), when the driver does not recognize the situation, the situation recognition level is immediately changed to a low level. In this case, the elapsed time from the previous situation recognition is also considered, and the longer the elapsed time, the lower the situation recognition level is set. As a result, the situation recognition level is set to a safer side (lower).

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S22 that the situation has been recognized, the process proceeds to step S40, and it is determined whether the driver's situation has been recognized since the previous calculation. When the situation recognition is continued by this determination, the process proceeds to step S41, the situation recognition level is maintained at the situation recognition level set at the time of the previous calculation, and the one cycle process is ended.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S40 that the situation recognition has not continued from the last time, the process proceeds to step S42, and the average of the past three times of the elapsed time from the last situation recognition (time interval between situation recognitions) is calculated. It is determined whether the time is 90 seconds or longer. If the time is 90 seconds or longer, the process proceeds to step S27, the situation recognition level is set to level 1, and the process for one cycle is ended.

  If it is determined in step S42 that the average of the past three times since the last situation recognition is not 90 seconds or more, the process proceeds to step S43, and the average of the past three times since the previous situation recognition is averaged. Is determined to be 60 seconds or more, and if it is 60 seconds or more, the process proceeds to step S30, the situation recognition level is set to level 2, and the process of one cycle ends.

  If it is determined in step S43 that the average of the past three times of the elapsed time from the previous situation recognition is not 60 seconds or more, the process proceeds to step S44, and the average of the past three times of the elapsed time from the previous situation recognition. Is determined to be 30 seconds or more, and if it is 30 seconds or more, the process proceeds to step S33, the situation recognition level is set to level 3, and the process of one cycle ends.

  When it is determined in step S44 that the average of the past three times of elapsed time from the previous situation recognition is not 30 seconds or more, the process proceeds to step S45, the situation recognition level is set to level 4, and one cycle of The process ends.

  Even when the situation is recognized as in the above flow (flow from step S40 to step S45), the situation recognition level is not immediately increased, but the elapsed time between the situation recognitions in the past is also considered. Then, the situational awareness level is set with stricter standards. As a result, even when the situation is recognized, the situation recognition level is set to a safer side (not to be raised immediately).

  Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and appropriate modifications can be made within the scope of the claims. For example, the right transfer control shown in the flowchart of FIG. 6 and the situation recognition setting process shown in the flowchart of FIG. 8 are examples, and the contents of the control can be changed as appropriate.

  INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can be used to perform appropriate delegation of rights (switching from automatic driving mode to manual driving mode) in an autonomous driving vehicle.

U controller 1 driver state detection means 2 situation recognition level setting means 3 delegation control means 4 vehicle control means 5 driver notification means 6 various vehicle equipment 7 vehicle mechanism A1 visible range A2 when situation recognition level is small when situation recognition level is large View range 10 Rearview mirror 11 Dashboard 12 In-vehicle speaker 13 Display device

Claims (4)

A driver status detecting means for detecting a driver status of the vehicle;
Situation recognition level setting means for setting a situation recognition level of the driver based on the driver state detected by the driver state detecting means,
A right transfer control means for controlling the transfer of driving right to the driver according to the driver's status recognition level set by the driver status recognition level determination means,
The driver state detection means repeatedly detects the presence or absence of situation recognition by the driver at a predetermined cycle,
The situation recognition level setting means sets the current situation recognition level based on the length of time elapsed from the previous situation recognition of the driver detected by the driver state detection means ,
The said right delegation control means is a driving assistance device which performs a stepwise right delegation which changes a right delegation degree over transition time according to a situation recognition level . The driving support device according to claim 1 ,
The driving assistance device in which the transition time is set shorter as the situation recognition level is higher. A driver status detecting means for detecting a driver status of the vehicle;
Situation recognition level setting means for setting a situation recognition level of the driver based on the driver state detected by the driver state detecting means,
A rights transfer control means for controlling the transfer of driving rights to the driver according to the driver's status recognition level set by the driver status recognition level determination means;
Equipped with
The driver state detection means repeatedly detects the presence or absence of situation recognition by the driver at a predetermined cycle,
The situation recognition level setting means sets the current situation recognition level based on the length of time elapsed from the previous situation recognition of the driver detected by the driver state detection means,
The right delegation control means, when it is determined that the situation recognition level is equal to or lower than a predetermined level, does not devolve the right to the driver and automatically stops the vehicle to stop at the road shoulder. A driver status detecting means for detecting a driver status of the vehicle;
Situation recognition level setting means for setting a situation recognition level of the driver based on the driver state detected by the driver state detecting means,
A right transfer control means for controlling the transfer of driving right to the driver according to the driver's status recognition level set by the driver status recognition level determination means;
Equipped with
The driver state detection means repeatedly detects the presence or absence of situation recognition by the driver at a predetermined cycle,
The situation recognition level setting means sets the current situation recognition level based on the length of time elapsed from the previous situation recognition of the driver detected by the driver state detection means,
Even if the situation recognition level calculation value calculated from the current driver's state is higher than the situation recognition level set last time, the situation recognition level setting means sets the past predetermined number of times of the elapsed time. When the calculated value of the situation recognition level calculated by the average value is not higher than the situation recognition level previously set, the current situation recognition level is maintained at the situation recognition level previously set. Driving support device.

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