JP7151064B2 - Vehicle travel control device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a vehicle cruise control device, and more particularly to a vehicle cruise control device having an automatic lane change function.

Various technologies, such as ACC (adaptive cruise control) and LKA (lane keeping assist), are used to reduce the burden on the driver by allowing the vehicle to partially perform the recognition, judgment, and operation previously performed by the driver. etc., have been put to practical use. Furthermore, a technique has been developed to change lanes by autopilot when the speed of the preceding vehicle is lower than the set speed of the own vehicle during follow-up running by ACC.

For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a technique for detecting an overtaking target vehicle in front of the own vehicle's driving lane based on surrounding environment information and driving information, and detecting a following vehicle behind the own vehicle's driving lane based on the surrounding environment information. It is described that a vehicle is detected as a following vehicle in the original lane, the vehicle to be overtaken and the following vehicle in the original lane are monitored, and based on the monitoring results, the overtaking movement of the vehicle to be overtaken is variably controlled.

JP 2016-4443 A

By the way, when judging whether or not it is appropriate to change lanes, it is natural that requirements such as the distance between the vehicle and the vehicle to be overtaken (intervehicle time) and speed should be taken into account. , large vehicles and two-wheeled vehicles differ in size and behavior. Patent Literature 1 describes obtaining vehicle information through inter-vehicle communication, but does not suggest use for situation determination.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the actual situation as described above, and its object is to provide a vehicle cruise control apparatus capable of changing lanes in consideration of the class of a preceding vehicle to be overtaken. be.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention
Forward recognition means for recognizing a driving lane of the own vehicle and other preceding vehicles traveling in the driving lane;
side recognition means for recognizing other preceding and following vehicles traveling in adjacent lanes;
A vehicle travel control device comprising:
When the preceding other vehicle is not recognized by the forward recognition means, the vehicle is driven at a constant speed according to the target vehicle speed. A vehicle that has a function of changing lanes to an adjacent lane when there is neither a preceding vehicle nor a following vehicle within a predetermined inter-vehicle distance,
The predetermined inter-vehicle distance is set according to the running speed of the own vehicle,
having a function of determining the vehicle class of the preceding other vehicle recognized by the forward recognition means, and a function of changing the start condition of the lane change according to the vehicle class ,
The function of determining the vehicle class of the preceding other vehicle includes a function of determining whether the vehicle class is a standard-sized vehicle or a large-sized vehicle,
The function of changing the condition for starting the lane change according to the vehicle class is such that, when the other preceding vehicle is a large-sized vehicle, the predetermined inter-vehicle distance as the condition for starting the lane change is set to that of a standard-size vehicle. It is characterized by being made larger than the case .

According to the vehicle running control device according to the present invention, the function of determining the class of other preceding vehicles and the function of changing the conditions for starting a lane change according to the class of the vehicle (large-sized vehicle, standard-sized vehicle, motorcycle, etc.). By having this, it is possible to avoid the influence of the behavior of other preceding vehicles, which is advantageous in implementing automatic lane changes with a high preventive safety effect.

1 is a block diagram showing a travel control device according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. FIG. 10 is a schematic plan view showing a lane change when another preceding vehicle is a standard-sized vehicle; FIG. 4 is a schematic plan view showing a lane change when the preceding other vehicle is a two-wheeled vehicle; FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view showing a lateral position (vehicle width direction position) of the two-wheeled vehicle; FIG. 4 is a schematic plan view showing a lane change when another preceding vehicle is a large vehicle; It is a flow chart which shows traveling control concerning an embodiment of the present invention.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
In FIG. 1, the vehicle travel control system according to the present invention includes forward recognition means 20 for recognizing the own vehicle's travel lane and other preceding vehicles traveling in the travel lane, other preceding vehicles traveling in adjacent lanes, and other following vehicles. , a sensor group 40 for acquiring vehicle information, and a control controller 10 .

The forward recognition means 20 includes a front camera 21 that captures an image of the front of the vehicle, a forward distance sensor 22 that detects the distance and position from a preceding vehicle running ahead of the vehicle, and the like. The front camera 21 has image processing means for detecting the position of the own vehicle's lane (left and right lane markings), the presence or absence of adjacent right and left lanes, and the shape (vehicle class) of the preceding vehicle from the imaged image. . A millimeter wave radar can be preferably used as the forward distance sensor 22 .

The side recognizing means 30 includes a right front distance sensor 31 for detecting the distance and position to the right front preceding vehicle, a left front distance sensor 32 for detecting the distance and position to the left front preceding vehicle, and a right rear distance sensor 32 for detecting the distance and position to the left front preceding vehicle. It consists of a right rear distance sensor 33 for detecting the distance and position to the following vehicle and a left rear distance sensor 34 for detecting the distance and position to the left rear vehicle. LIDAR (laser image detection/ranging) can be preferably used as these distance sensors 31-34.

A group of internal sensors for obtaining vehicle information 40 is composed of a speed sensor, a steering angle sensor, a yaw rate sensor, an acceleration sensor, etc., and the respective detection values are input to the controller 10 .

The controller 10 cooperates with a steering controller 11 that performs steering control, an engine controller 12 that performs speed control (acceleration/deceleration control), and a brake controller 13 to integrate automatic driving control such as ACC control, LKA control, and lane change control. It consists of a ROM that stores programs and data for processing, a CPU that performs arithmetic processing, a RAM that reads the programs and data, stores dynamic data and arithmetic processing results, and a computer that includes an input/output interface. .

In the ACC control, when the forward recognition means 20 does not recognize the preceding other vehicle, the engine controller 12 and the brake controller 13 perform acceleration/deceleration control to perform constant speed travel according to the target vehicle speed (cruise control set speed). When the preceding other vehicle is recognized and approaches to the set time gap (inter-vehicle time=inter-vehicle distance/self-vehicle speed), the set time gap is maintained and follow-up driving is performed.

LKA control detects lane markings and the position of the vehicle based on image data acquired by the front camera 21, and assists steering force so that the vehicle runs in the center of the lane through steering control by the steering controller 11. FIG. Furthermore, by interlocking the LKA control and the ACC control, it is possible to perform partially automatic driving within the lane, which corresponds to limited automatic steering.

When the forward recognition means 20 recognizes another preceding vehicle and approaches the vehicle until the preset time gap while the LKA control is operating in conjunction with the ACC control, the side recognition means 30 detects that there is an adjacent lane. In addition, when it is confirmed that neither the preceding other vehicle nor the following other vehicle exists within the range of the predetermined inter-vehicle distance, the LKA function is canceled with the driver's blinker operation as a trigger, and the automatic lane is changed to the adjacent driving lane. is started.

By the way, as already mentioned, the sizes and behaviors of ordinary vehicles, large vehicles, and two-wheeled vehicles are different. Therefore, in the running control system according to the present invention, the front camera 21 and the front distance sensor 22 that constitute the forward recognition means 20 identify the preceding vehicle to be overtaken, and the condition for starting the automatic lane change is determined according to the vehicle class. I am trying to set it.

For example, the preceding vehicle is detected as a moving object by image processing (feature points, optical flow extraction, inter-frame difference, etc.) from the image acquired by the front camera 21, and the distance from the preceding vehicle detected by the front distance sensor 22 is calculated. , the size (width, height), shape (horizontal-to-horizontal ratio), or size of the license plate of the preceding vehicle can be measured to identify the vehicle class.

Specifically, as for the size and shape of the vehicle, in the case of a two-wheeled vehicle, it can be identified from the fact that the width is a predetermined width or less (for example, 1 m or less) and the aspect ratio is vertically long. In the case of trucks, the width is within 2m for small trucks, 2 to 2.5m for medium trucks, and 2.5 to 3m for large trucks and buses. The size (length x width) of a license plate is 22 cm x 44 cm for large vehicles, 16.5 cm x 33 cm for standard vehicles, and 12.5 cm x 23 cm for motorcycles. The preceding vehicle can also be identified by character recognition of the license plate.

Next, start conditions for standard-sized vehicles, two-wheeled vehicles, and large-sized vehicles will be described.

(Standard-sized car)
FIG. 2 shows a situation in which a preceding other vehicle 2 (ordinary vehicle) exists in front of the traveling lane 51 of the own vehicle 1, and a following other vehicle (ordinary vehicle) exists behind the adjacent traveling lane 52 on the right side. . In this case, the condition for starting the automatic lane change is that the forward inter-vehicle distance x is equal to or greater than the predetermined inter-vehicle distance x1. The predetermined inter-vehicle distance (x1) is determined according to the running speed based on the braking distance. set.

Although it depends on the use of the own vehicle 1, since the proportion of ordinary vehicles is high when looking at the overall traveling distance, the initial value is the starting condition when the preceding other vehicle is an ordinary vehicle, and the following two-wheeled vehicles and large vehicles are used. Control is performed to apply the respective start condition in the case.

(motorcycle)
As shown in FIG. 3, when the two-wheeled vehicle 4 is traveling in front of the traveling lane 51 of the vehicle 1, the front distance sensor 22 detects the relative distance to the two-wheeled vehicle 4 (the front inter-vehicle distance x). A camera 21 and a forward distance sensor 22 detect the lateral position y of the two-wheeled vehicle 4 with reference to the center of the lane. Since a two-wheeled vehicle can easily change its position within a lane, the lane change is performed in a situation where a sufficient lateral distance is secured.

As shown in FIG. 4, depending on the lateral position y of the two-wheeled vehicle 4, the traveling position of the two-wheeled vehicle 4 is divided into lane center yc, lane rightward yr, and lane leftward yl. For example, when the width of the driving lane 51 is 3.5 m, if y<±0.5 m, the lane center yc; If it is -1.75m, the left side of the lane is yl.

When the preceding two-wheeled vehicle 4 is traveling in the lane center yc or on the left side of the lane yl, lane change is started if the relative distance x to the two-wheeled vehicle 4 is within the predetermined inter-vehicle distance x1. On the other hand, when it is determined that the lateral position of the two-wheeled vehicle 4 is on the right side yr of the lane, the lane change is stopped.

(Large vehicle)
Next, as shown in FIG. 5, when a large vehicle 5 is traveling in front of a driving lane 51 of the vehicle 1, the predetermined inter-vehicle distance as a reference for starting a lane change is set in the case of an ordinary vehicle or a two-wheeled vehicle ( x1) is changed to a predetermined inter-vehicle distance x2, which is greater than x1).

If the vehicle ahead is a large vehicle, the forward visibility is limited when approaching. In addition, since a large vehicle has a large inertia and tends to maintain the vehicle speed, it is expected that a large vehicle will make a sudden lane change when it approaches the preceding vehicle. Therefore, by starting the lane change at the vehicle-to-vehicle distance x2, which is longer than that of a normal vehicle, it is possible to cope with the limited visibility and the behavior of a large vehicle.

Therefore, for the reasons described above, when there is neither preceding vehicle nor following vehicle within the predetermined inter-vehicle distance x1 of the adjacent lane 52, the predetermined inter-vehicle distance is required before the large vehicle 5 approaches the predetermined inter-vehicle distance x1. The lane change is started when the vehicle becomes x2.

For example, when the large vehicle 5 travels at 80 km/h (22.2 m/s), the inter-vehicle time is extended by 2 seconds to change the predetermined inter-vehicle distance x2=x1+2 (s)×22.2 (m/s). Assuming that the braking distance of 54 m when traveling at a speed of 80 km/h is the predetermined inter-vehicle distance x1, the predetermined inter-vehicle distance x2 after the change is 98.4 m.

(auto lane change flow)
An automatic lane change flow based on the above embodiment will be described below with reference to FIG.
When the automatic lane change is activated while the ACC control and the LKA control are in operation (step 100), the forward vehicle detection by the forward recognition means 20 and the adjacent lane detection by the side recognition means 30 are carried out. (Step 101).

In such a state, the forward vehicle is detected by the forward recognition means 20, the adjacent lane is present, and neither the preceding other vehicle nor the following other vehicle is present within the predetermined inter-vehicle distance of the adjacent lane. is confirmed, the front camera 21 and the front distance sensor 22 detect the front vehicle shape (step 102).

If it is determined that the vehicle ahead is a two-wheeled vehicle (step 103), the start condition is set for the two-wheeled vehicle (step 120), and the lateral position of the two-wheeled vehicle is detected (step 121). If the motorcycle is in the center or on the left side of the lane, lane change is started when the forward distance x<predetermined inter-vehicle distance x1 (steps 113, 114). Cancel the change (step 122).

When it is determined that the vehicle ahead is a large vehicle (step 104), a start condition is set for a large vehicle (step 130), and lane change is started when the forward distance x<predetermined inter-vehicle distance x2. (Steps 133, 114). When the forward distance x does not reach the predetermined inter-vehicle distance x2, forward vehicle detection by the forward recognition means 20 and adjacent lane detection by the side recognition means 30 are continued.

If the vehicle in front is determined to be an ordinary vehicle rather than a two-wheeled vehicle or a large vehicle, the start condition (default value) for ordinary vehicles is maintained, and the lane change is started when the forward distance x<predetermined inter-vehicle distance x1. (Steps 113, 114). When the forward distance x does not reach the predetermined inter-vehicle distance x1, forward vehicle detection by the forward recognition means 20 and adjacent lane detection by the side recognition means 30 are continued.

Although several embodiments of the present invention have been described above, it should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and that various modifications and changes are possible based on the technical idea of the present invention. I will add.

1 Vehicle (Own car, Ordinary car)
2 Vehicles (preceding other vehicles, ordinary vehicles)
3 Vehicles (following other vehicles)
4 Motorcycle (preceding other vehicle)
5 Large vehicles (preceding other vehicles)
10 Control controller 11 Steering controller 12 Engine controller 13 Brake controller 20 Front recognition means 21 Front camera 22 Front distance sensor 30 Side recognition means 31 Right front distance sensor 32 Left front distance sensor 33 Right rear distance sensor 34 Left rear distance sensor

Claims (3)

Forward recognition means for recognizing a driving lane of the own vehicle and other preceding vehicles traveling in the driving lane;
side recognition means for recognizing other preceding and following vehicles traveling in adjacent lanes;
A vehicle travel control device comprising:
When the preceding other vehicle is not recognized by the forward recognition means, the vehicle is driven at a constant speed according to the target vehicle speed, and when the preceding other vehicle is recognized by the forward recognition means and approaches to the set inter-vehicle time , the vehicle is in the adjacent lane. A vehicle having a function of changing lanes to an adjacent lane when there is neither a preceding vehicle nor a following vehicle within a predetermined inter-vehicle distance,
The predetermined inter-vehicle distance is set according to the running speed of the own vehicle,
having a function of determining the vehicle class of the preceding other vehicle recognized by the forward recognition means, and a function of changing the start condition of the lane change according to the vehicle class ,
The function of determining the vehicle class of the preceding other vehicle includes a function of determining whether the vehicle class is a standard-sized vehicle or a large-sized vehicle,
The function of changing the condition for starting the lane change according to the vehicle class is such that, when the other preceding vehicle is a large-sized vehicle, the predetermined inter-vehicle distance as the condition for starting the lane change is set to that of a standard-size vehicle. A travel control device for a vehicle, characterized in that it is made larger than a case . 2. The vehicle travel control device according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined inter-vehicle distance is set to increase as the traveling speed of the own vehicle increases. The function of determining the vehicle class of the preceding other vehicle further includes a function of determining that the vehicle class is a two-wheeled vehicle, and the function of changing the lane change start condition according to the vehicle class is the function of determining the vehicle class of the preceding other vehicle. If the vehicle is a two-wheeled vehicle, it includes a function to detect the lateral position of the two-wheeled vehicle within the vehicle's running lane, and includes a function not to start changing lanes when the lateral position of the two-wheeled vehicle is closer to the adjacent running lane than a setting. 3. A traveling control device for a vehicle according to claim 1 or 2 , characterized in that:

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