JP7067722B2 - Road-to-vehicle communication device, road-to-vehicle communication method and road-to-vehicle communication system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a road-to-vehicle communication device, a road-to-vehicle communication method, and a road-to-vehicle communication system that support the traveling of an autonomous vehicle traveling on a road having a narrow section.

When driving on a road such as a mountainous area with a narrow road width, if it is a non-autonomous driving vehicle, you can check the presence of oncoming vehicles with a curve mirror etc., and if there is a waiting area where the road width is partially expanded By utilizing this, it is possible to smoothly pass each other with an oncoming vehicle. In addition, when it is difficult to pass each other in a narrow section, one of the vehicles retreats to a nearby waiting area, so that the vehicle can pass through the narrow section.

On the other hand, in the case of a non-autonomous driving vehicle, it is difficult to check the oncoming vehicle using a curved mirror and to retreat to the evacuation space. It is necessary to switch from automatic operation to non-automatic operation.

On the other hand, as a conventional technique of this kind, for example, in Patent Document 1, a narrow section that detects an oncoming vehicle in front of the path of the own vehicle and requires deceleration to pass the own vehicle and the oncoming vehicle is in front of the path of the own vehicle. The first driving support that determines whether or not the vehicle exists and makes the vehicle stand by in the waiting area in front of the narrow section until the oncoming vehicle finishes passing through the narrow section, and the oncoming vehicle finishes passing through the narrow section. Disclosed is a technique for determining which of the second driving supports for the vehicle to enter the narrow section is to be executed according to the time required for the vehicle and the oncoming vehicle to pass each other.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2019-21968

However, the technique described in Patent Document 1 is a driving support device for in-vehicle use, and is premised on vehicle control based on an output from a sensor that detects surrounding environment information of the own vehicle. Therefore, in a mountainous area where the visibility of the road condition ahead is poor and there are many blind corners, the existence of an oncoming vehicle cannot be properly recognized, and it is difficult to smoothly pass the oncoming vehicle in a narrow section.

In view of the above circumstances, an object of the present invention is a road-to-vehicle communication device, a road-to-vehicle communication method, and a road-to-vehicle communication that can smoothly pass through a mountainous area having a narrow section and can support an autonomous driving vehicle. It is to provide the system.

The road-to-vehicle communication device according to one embodiment of the present invention includes a first receiving unit, a second receiving unit, a determination unit, and an output unit.
The first receiving unit receives first vehicle information including the position and speed of the first vehicle traveling toward the narrow section from a detection device installed on a road having a narrow section.
The second receiving unit includes the position and speed of the second vehicle from the second vehicle, which is an autonomous driving vehicle traveling toward a narrow section so as to face the first vehicle. Receive the vehicle information of 2.
The determination unit determines, based on the first vehicle information and the second vehicle information, whether or not the first vehicle and the second vehicle pass each other in the narrow section. To execute.
When it is determined that the first vehicle and the second vehicle pass each other in the narrow section, the output unit outputs a control command for prohibiting the second vehicle from entering the narrow section.

The output unit may be configured to output a control command to the second vehicle to stop before the narrow section.

The first vehicle information may further include information regarding the size of the first vehicle. The determination unit executes the first determination process only when the size of the first vehicle is a predetermined size or more.

The output unit is configured to further output a notification to notify the first vehicle of the existence of an oncoming vehicle when it is determined that the first vehicle and the second vehicle pass each other in the narrow section. You may.

When the first vehicle is an autonomous driving vehicle, the determination unit determines that the first vehicle and the second vehicle that reach the narrow section first after the first determination process. The second determination process for determining the above may be further executed. In this case, the output unit outputs a notification notifying the existence of an oncoming vehicle to one of the first vehicle and the second vehicle that first reaches the narrow section, and the other. A control command for stopping the vehicle before the narrow section is output to the vehicle.

The road-to-vehicle communication method according to one embodiment of the present invention is
From the detection device installed on the road having the narrow section, the first vehicle information including the position and speed of the first vehicle traveling toward the narrow section is received, and the first vehicle information is received.
The second vehicle information including the position and speed of the second vehicle is received from the second vehicle, which is an autonomous driving vehicle traveling toward the narrow section so as to face the first vehicle.
Based on the first vehicle information and the second vehicle information, it is determined whether or not the first vehicle and the second vehicle pass each other in the narrow section.
When it is determined that the first vehicle and the second vehicle pass each other in the narrow section, a control command for prohibiting the second vehicle from entering the narrow section is output.

The road-to-vehicle communication system according to one embodiment of the present invention is
It includes a detection device and an information processing device.
The detection device is installed on a road having a narrow section, and detects first vehicle information including the position and speed of the first vehicle traveling toward the narrow section.
The information processing device is an information processing device installed on a road having the narrow section, and has a first receiving unit, a second receiving unit, a determination unit, and an output unit.
The first receiving unit receives the first vehicle information from the detection device.
The second receiving unit receives the second vehicle information including the position and speed of the second vehicle, which is an autonomous driving vehicle traveling toward the narrow section so as to face the first vehicle. ..
The determination unit determines whether or not the first vehicle and the second vehicle pass each other in the narrow section based on the first vehicle information and the second vehicle information.
When it is determined that the first vehicle and the second vehicle pass each other in the narrow section, the output unit outputs a control command for prohibiting the second vehicle from entering the narrow section.

According to the present invention, it is possible to support an autonomous driving vehicle so that it can smoothly pass through a mountainous area having a narrow section.

It is a schematic block diagram of the road-to-vehicle communication system which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a schematic plan view of the road to which the said road-to-vehicle communication system is applied. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the road-to-vehicle communication device which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the processing procedure executed in the said road-to-vehicle communication apparatus. It is a schematic diagram which shows an example of the determination method of the passing place of a vehicle in a narrow section. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the processing procedure executed in the road-to-vehicle communication apparatus which concerns on other embodiment of this invention.

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

<First Embodiment>
FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a road-to-vehicle communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The road-to-vehicle communication system 100 according to the present embodiment includes a detection device 10 and an information processing device 20. As shown in FIG. 2, the detection device 10 and the information processing device 20 are each installed on the road side of a road 30 such as a mountainous area having a narrow section 30N.
The narrow section 30N is a region where the road width is so narrow that it is difficult or impossible to pass by an oncoming vehicle.

As shown in FIG. 2, the detection device 10 has a sensor that detects the position and speed of the vehicle V1 (first vehicle) traveling in the direction of the arrow A1 toward the narrow section 30N. The vehicle V1 is a non-automated driving vehicle in this embodiment.

The sensor is typically composed of an image sensor such as a camera, a distance measuring sensor such as a millimeter wave sensor, or LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) in which an image sensor and a distance measuring sensor are combined. A plurality of detection devices 10 may be installed at a predetermined distance.

The detection device 10 is installed, for example, on the upper part of the pole 11. The installation location of the detection device 10 is not particularly limited as long as it can detect the presence of a vehicle entering the narrow section 30N. The detection device 10 monitors the presence of the vehicle V1 entering the narrow section 30N, and generates vehicle information (hereinafter, also referred to as first vehicle information) regarding the presence or absence of the vehicle V1. The first vehicle information includes information related to the position and speed of the vehicle V1. The first vehicle information is typically generated only in the presence of vehicle V1.

The first vehicle information may include information related to the size of the vehicle V1. The size of the vehicle V1 is typically the vehicle width, and it is preferable to be able to distinguish between a large vehicle, an ordinary vehicle, a motorcycle, and the like. The method for determining the size of the vehicle V1 is not particularly limited, and any information obtained by analyzing the output of the sensor may be used. For example, when the sensor includes a camera, the size of the vehicle may be determined by reading the license plate of the vehicle V1 or performing image processing on the output of the camera.

The detection device 10 transmits the generated first vehicle information to the information processing device 20 at predetermined time intervals (for example, 1 second intervals). The transmission method is not particularly limited, and may be wired communication or wireless communication.

The first vehicle information typically includes information about one vehicle. For example, when there is a vehicle following the vehicle V1, the detection device 10 generates vehicle information regarding the vehicle V1 and vehicle information regarding the vehicle following the vehicle V1 as separate first vehicle information, and also provides information individually. It is transmitted to the processing device 20.

As shown in FIG. 2, the information processing device 20 is configured as a road-to-vehicle communication device capable of communicating with a vehicle V2 (second vehicle) traveling in the direction of arrow A2 toward the narrow section 30N. The vehicle V2 has an on-board unit capable of communicating with the information processing device 20. In the present embodiment, the vehicle V2 is an autonomous driving vehicle, and the vehicle V1 is an oncoming vehicle when viewed from the vehicle V2.

The autonomous driving vehicle is a vehicle that can autonomously control the vehicle based on the surrounding environment information and GPS (Global Positioning System) information acquired by the in-vehicle sensor without the involvement of the driver. ..

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the information processing apparatus 20.
The information processing device 20 includes a first receiving unit 21, a second receiving unit 22, a control unit 23, and a storage unit 24. The information processing device 20 is installed at a position where communication with the detection device 10 is possible.

The first receiving unit 21 receives the first vehicle information regarding the vehicle V1 from the detection device 10.
The second receiving unit 22 receives vehicle information (hereinafter, also referred to as second vehicle information) including information related to the position and speed of the vehicle V2 from the vehicle V2.

The second receiving unit 22 receives the vehicle information transmitted from the vehicle V2 via an optical beacon (not shown) or the like. Instead of this, as shown in FIG. 1, the second receiving unit 22 may be configured to receive the vehicle information transmitted from the vehicle V2 via the base station 50.

For information related to the position and speed of the vehicle V2, for example, GPS information regarding the vehicle V2 can be referred to. The second vehicle information may include information regarding the size (vehicle width, etc.) of the vehicle V2. The second receiving unit 22 acquires vehicle information transmitted from the vehicle V2 traveling in the direction of the arrow A2 toward the narrow section 30N as the second vehicle information. Therefore, the vehicle information transmitted from the vehicle V2 that has passed through the narrow section 30N is not treated as the second vehicle information here.

The control unit 23 is a computer including a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and the like, and executes various functions described later by executing a program stored in the storage unit 24. The control unit 23 has a determination unit 231 and an output unit 232 as its functional block.

As will be described later, the determination unit 231 determines whether or not the vehicle V1 and the vehicle V2 pass each other in the narrow section 30N based on the first vehicle information regarding the vehicle V1 and the second vehicle information regarding the vehicle V2. (First determination process) is executed.

As will be described later, the output unit 232 outputs a control command for prohibiting the vehicle V2 from entering the narrow section 30N when the determination unit 232 determines that the vehicle V1 and the vehicle V2 pass each other in the narrow section 30N.
At this time, the output unit 232 may be configured to output a notification to the display unit 40 notifying the vehicle V1 of the existence of the oncoming vehicle (vehicle V2). The display unit 40 may be, for example, a display board or a line-of-sight guide light (Cat's Eye) installed on the road R, or if communication with the vehicle V1 is possible, the car navigation system installed on the vehicle V1. It may be a display surface of a system or the like.

The storage unit 24 is a storage device such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), an SSD (Solid State Drive), or a semiconductor memory. In the storage unit 24, in addition to the program for causing the control unit 23 to function as the determination unit 231 and the output unit 232, information regarding the road 30, for example, information including the position of the narrow section 30N, the distance and the road width, the position of the evacuation space 30E, and the like. Is stored.

Subsequently, the details of the information processing apparatus 20 will be described together with the operation of the information processing apparatus 20. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of a processing procedure executed by the control unit 23 of the information processing apparatus 20.

The information processing device 20 determines whether or not the vehicle information (first vehicle information) regarding the vehicle V1 has been acquired from the detection device 10 via the first receiving unit 21 (step 101a), and when the information processing device 20 has acquired the vehicle information, the information processing device 20 determines whether or not the vehicle information (first vehicle information) regarding the vehicle V1 has been acquired. It is determined whether or not there is a vehicle V2 which is an oncoming vehicle (step 102a).
Further, the information processing device 20 determines whether or not the vehicle information (second vehicle information) has been acquired from the vehicle V2 via the second receiving unit 22 (step 101b), and when the information processing device 20 has acquired the information, the oncoming vehicle. It is determined whether or not the vehicle V1 is present (step 102a).

These processes may be performed simultaneously or serially. When the vehicle information is acquired from any of the vehicles V1 and V2, both steps 102a and 102b are set to Yes, and the process proceeds to step 103.

When the information processing device 20 confirms the existence of the vehicles V1 and V2, it calculates the speeds of both vehicles and determines whether or not the passing occurs (steps 103 and 104). Subsequently, when the information processing apparatus 20 determines that the vehicles V1 and V2 pass each other (“Yes” in step 104), the information processing apparatus 20 determines whether or not the passing place is the narrow section 30N (step 105 (first step 105). Judgment processing)). When it is determined that there is no passing in the narrow section 30N (“No” in step 105), the information processing apparatus 20 ends the process and returns to steps 101a and 101b.
In addition, step 104 and step 105 may be composed of common steps.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a method for determining a passing location of vehicles V1 and V2 in a narrow section 30N. In the figure, the vertical axis represents the distance, the horizontal axis represents the time, and the straight lines L1 and L2 represent the time change of the positions of the vehicles V1 and V2, respectively. When the intersection (time T) of the two straight lines L1 and L2 belongs to the narrow range, the information processing apparatus 20 determines that the vehicles V1 and V2 pass each other in the narrow section 30N.

The above-mentioned determination process is performed only when the information processing device 20 determines that the size of the vehicle V1 is equal to or larger than a predetermined value based on the vehicle information (first vehicle information) of the vehicle V1 transmitted from the detection device 10. (First determination process) may be configured to be executed. The above-mentioned predetermined size or more may be a size corresponding to the width of, for example, a light vehicle. For example, in the case where the vehicle V1 is a motorcycle having a relatively small vehicle width, it may be determined that the vehicle can pass each other in the narrow section 30N.

When it is determined that the vehicles V1 and V2 pass each other in the narrow section 30N, the information processing apparatus 20 outputs a control command (avoidance command) for prohibiting the vehicle V2 from entering the narrow section 30N (step 106). This control command is not particularly limited as long as it prohibits entry into the narrow section 30N, and in the present embodiment, the control command includes an instruction to stop the vehicle V2 in the evacuation space 30E provided in front of the narrow section 30N.

The stop time of the vehicle V2 in the evacuation space 30E is the time required for the vehicle V1 to pass through the narrow section 30N and the two vehicles V1 and V2 pass each other in the evacuation space 30E (see FIG. 5). As a result, it is possible to prevent the vehicles V1 and V2 from passing each other in the narrow section 30N, so that the vehicles V1 and V2 can smoothly pass through the narrow section 30N.
The control command for prohibiting entry into the narrow section 30N is not limited to the above example, and may be, for example, a deceleration command for the vehicle V2.

The information processing device 20 further outputs a notification notifying the existence of the vehicle V2 to the oncoming vehicle V1 (step 107). This notification is for calling attention to the driver of the vehicle V1.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to support the driving of the vehicle V2, which is an autonomous driving vehicle, so that the vehicle can smoothly pass through a mountainous area having a narrow section. This makes it possible for the driver of the vehicle V2 to reduce the need for switching from automatic driving to non-automatic driving.

Further, since the non-autonomous driving vehicle (V1) can preferentially pass through the narrow section 30N over the self-driving vehicle (V2), the driver of the vehicle V1 which is a non-autonomous driving vehicle can smoothly pass through the narrow section 30N. It becomes possible to do.

<Second embodiment>
Subsequently, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. Hereinafter, configurations different from those of the first embodiment will be mainly described, and the same configurations as those of the first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted or simplified.

In the present embodiment, the case where both the vehicle V1 and the vehicle V2 are self-driving vehicles will be described as an example. In this case, since the information processing device 20 can acquire the vehicle information (first vehicle information) from the vehicle V1 by communication with the vehicle V1, the installation of the detection device 10 can be omitted.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of the processing procedure of the information processing apparatus 20 in the present embodiment.

The information processing device 20 determines whether or not vehicle information (first vehicle information) has been acquired from the vehicle V1 via the first receiving unit 21 (step 201a), and when acquired, it is an oncoming vehicle. It is determined whether or not the vehicle V2 is present (step 202a).
Further, the information processing device 20 determines whether or not vehicle information (second vehicle information) has been acquired from the vehicle V2 via the second receiving unit 22 (step 201b), and when acquired, the oncoming vehicle. It is determined whether or not the vehicle V1 is present (step 202a).

These processes may be performed simultaneously or serially. When the vehicle information is acquired from any of the vehicles V1 and V2, both steps 202a and 202b are set to Yes, and the process proceeds to step 203.

When the information processing device 20 confirms the existence of the vehicles V1 and V2, it calculates the speeds of both vehicles and determines whether or not the passing occurs (steps 203 and 204). Subsequently, when the information processing apparatus 20 determines that the vehicles V1 and V2 pass each other (“Yes” in step 204), the information processing apparatus 20 determines whether or not the passing place is the narrow section 30N (step 205 (first step 205). Judgment processing)). When it is determined that there is no passing in the narrow section 30N (“No” in step 205), the information processing apparatus 20 ends the process and returns to steps 201a and 201b.
Note that step 204 and step 205 may be configured by a common step.

When the information processing apparatus 20 determines that the vehicles V1 and V2 pass each other in the narrow section 30N, the information processing apparatus 20 determines whether or not the vehicle V1 reaches the narrow section 30N first based on the position and speed of the vehicles V1 and V2 (. Step 206, second determination process). As a result of the determination, when the vehicle V1 reaches the narrow section 30N first (“Yes” in step 206), an avoidance command is output to the vehicle V2 (step 207), and the vehicle V2 is output to the vehicle V1. Output a notification notifying the existence of (step 208).

On the other hand, when the other vehicle V2 reaches the narrow section 30N first (“No” in step 206), an avoidance command is output to the vehicle V1 (step 209) and the vehicle V2 is reached. Outputs a notification notifying the existence of the vehicle V1 (step 210).

Also in this embodiment, the same effect as that of the first embodiment can be obtained. According to the present embodiment, since the vehicle that reaches the narrow section 30N first is given priority to pass through the narrow section 30N, an excessive restriction is given to the vehicle that reaches the narrow section 30N first. It is possible to smoothly pass through the narrow section 30N.

<Modification example>
In each of the above embodiments, the case where there is one oncoming vehicle is described as an example, but when there is a following vehicle in one of the traveling directions, the position and speed of the following vehicle and the following vehicle are automatic. It can be adjusted arbitrarily depending on whether it is a driving vehicle or a non-automatic driving vehicle.
For example, when the following vehicle has a predetermined distance or more from the preceding vehicle, the autonomous driving vehicle may be entered into the narrow section 30N first.
Further, when the speed of the following vehicle is above a certain level, the autonomous driving vehicle may be continuously stopped in the evacuation space.

Further, in the above embodiment, the technique has been described as a driving support technique for a vehicle traveling on a road having a relatively narrow road width such as a mountainous area, but the technique is not limited to this. For example, the present invention can be applied as a running support for an automatic guided vehicle used in a factory or a warehouse. In this case, the narrow section can be arbitrarily set, such as an area where luggage is placed so as to protrude from a preset traveling area.

10 ... Detection device 20 ... Information processing device (road-to-vehicle communication device)
21 ... 1st receiving unit 22 ... 2nd receiving unit 23 ... Control unit 24 ... Storage unit 30 ... Road 30N ... Narrow section 100 ... Road-to-vehicle communication system 231 ... Judgment unit 232 ... Output unit V1, V2 ... Vehicle

Claims (7)

A first receiving unit that receives first vehicle information including the position and speed of the first vehicle traveling toward the narrow section from a detection device installed on a road having a narrow section.
A second vehicle information including the position and speed of the second vehicle is received from the second vehicle, which is an autonomous driving vehicle traveling toward the narrow section so as to face the first vehicle. 2 receivers and
A determination unit that executes a first determination process for determining whether or not the first vehicle and the second vehicle pass each other in the narrow section based on the first vehicle information and the second vehicle information. When,
It is provided with an output unit that outputs a control command for prohibiting the second vehicle from entering the narrow section when it is determined that the first vehicle and the second vehicle pass each other in the narrow section. Road-to-vehicle communication device. The road-to-vehicle communication system according to claim 1.
The output unit is a road-to-vehicle communication device that outputs a control command to the second vehicle to stop before the narrow section. The road-to-vehicle communication device according to claim 1 or 2.
The first vehicle information further includes information on the size of the first vehicle.
The determination unit is a road-to-vehicle communication device that executes the first determination process only when the size of the first vehicle is a predetermined size or larger. The road-to-vehicle communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 3.
When it is determined that the first vehicle and the second vehicle pass each other in the narrow section, the output unit further outputs a notification to notify the first vehicle of the existence of an oncoming vehicle. .. The road-to-vehicle communication device according to claim 1.
When the first vehicle is an autonomous driving vehicle, the determination unit determines that the first vehicle and the second vehicle that reach the narrow section first after the first determination process. The second determination process for determining is further executed,
The output unit outputs a notification notifying the existence of an oncoming vehicle to one of the first vehicle and the second vehicle that reaches the narrow section first, and to the other vehicle. A road-to-vehicle communication device that outputs a control command to stop the vehicle just before the narrow section. From the detection device installed on the road having the narrow section, the first vehicle information including the position and speed of the first vehicle traveling toward the narrow section is received, and the first vehicle information is received.
The second vehicle information including the position and speed of the second vehicle is received from the second vehicle, which is an autonomous driving vehicle traveling toward the narrow section so as to face the first vehicle.
Based on the first vehicle information and the second vehicle information, it is determined whether or not the first vehicle and the second vehicle pass each other in the narrow section.
A road-to-vehicle communication method that outputs a control command for prohibiting the second vehicle from entering the narrow section when it is determined that the first vehicle and the second vehicle pass each other in the narrow section. A detection device installed on a road having a narrow section and detecting first vehicle information including the position and speed of the first vehicle traveling toward the narrow section.
An information processing device installed on a road having the narrow section.
A first receiving unit that receives the first vehicle information from the detection device, and
A second receiving unit that receives second vehicle information including the position and speed of the second vehicle, which is an autonomous driving vehicle traveling toward a narrow section so as to face the first vehicle.
A determination unit that determines whether or not the first vehicle and the second vehicle pass each other in the narrow section based on the first vehicle information and the second vehicle information.
A road having an output unit that outputs a control command for prohibiting the second vehicle from entering the narrow section when it is determined that the first vehicle and the second vehicle pass each other in the narrow section. Inter-vehicle communication system.

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