JPH04236700A - Confirmation device for automobile - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a rear-end collision on by detecting the relative speed between a precedent and a following vehicle by measuring variation in the distance between the vehicles, and making a driver confirm that the relative speed exceeds a specific value in such a case. CONSTITUTION:The ON/OFF signal of a brake switch 2, the acceleration detection signal of a laser type radar 3 for obstacle detection, etc., are inputted as input data to a control unit 1. If the following collides against the precedent vehicle possibly judging from the input data, a braking lamp 5 is turned on at need or a transmitter 6 for sending warning information for speed reduction to the following vehicle is placed in operation.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle identification device for preventing rear-end collisions.

0002

[Background Art] For example, by detecting the inter-vehicle distance and vehicle speed, and comparing the actual inter-vehicle distance with the limit inter-vehicle distance corresponding to the vehicle speed at that time, it is possible to determine if the actual inter-vehicle distance is smaller than the above-mentioned limit inter-vehicle distance. A rear-end collision prevention device for a car that enables safe driving by notifying the driver of the situation with a warning lamp or the like and decelerating the vehicle is well known (for example, disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 155700/1983). (see official bulletin)
.

[0003]Recently, by electronically controlling the driving condition of one's own vehicle in consideration of the relationship with the driving condition of other vehicles, it is possible to achieve safe and reliable driving regardless of the driver's level of driving skill or sense. Various devices have been developed to enable smooth running.

0004

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] However, in all of the conventional techniques known so far, the distance between the rear vehicle and the vehicle in front is measured, and the own vehicle (rear vehicle) is determined based on the distance between the rear vehicle and the vehicle in front. It attempts to self-control to avoid rear-ending another vehicle in front, and conversely, it prevents the other vehicle in the rear from colliding with the vehicle in front. There is a problem in that it is not possible for one's own vehicle to protect itself by controlling the vehicle behind it. Therefore, in order to prevent another vehicle, the rear vehicle, from colliding with the vehicle in front, which is the vehicle in front, using the conventional rear-end collision prevention system, it is essential that the rear vehicle itself has a similar rear-end collision prevention device. Become.

On the other hand, brake lights have conventionally been generally used as rear-end collision prevention means for giving a warning to the rear vehicle on the front vehicle side.

However, current brake lights only turn on when the brake is depressed. Therefore, this system has the following problems.

(1) When the engine brake is applied to cause sudden deceleration, the brake lights do not light up, so there is a risk of a rear-end collision with a vehicle following.

(2) At night, it is difficult to distinguish between stopped vehicles and moving vehicles, and accidents occur in which following vehicles collide with stopped trucks.

(3) A device has been devised that turns on the brake light when the accelerator is released, but this does not allow braking even when 5th gear is selected and the engine brake is hardly applied. There is a drawback that the lights may turn on.

0010

[Means for solving the problem] Claims 1 and 2 of the present application
The inventions described in each section have been made for the purpose of solving the above-mentioned problems, and are each configured as follows.

(1) Structure of the invention as claimed in claim 1 The automobile confirmation device of the invention as claimed in claim 1 detects relative speed by measuring a change in inter-vehicle distance between a front vehicle and a rear vehicle. The vehicle comprises a relative speed detecting means, and a confirming means for causing an occupant to confirm the fact when the relative speed between the front vehicle and the rear vehicle detected by the relative speed detecting means exceeds a predetermined value. ing.

(2) Structure of the invention as claimed in claim 2 The automobile confirmation device of the invention as claimed in claim 2 comprises a deceleration detecting means for detecting the deceleration of the vehicle in front, and a deceleration detected by the deceleration detecting means. The vehicle is configured to include a confirmation means for confirming this fact to the occupants of the rear vehicle when the deceleration of the front vehicle exceeds a predetermined value.

[0013]

[Function] As a result of the above-mentioned configuration of the automobile verification device according to each of the inventions as claimed in Claims 1 and 2 of the present application, the following functions are achieved in accordance with the configuration.

(1) Effect of the invention set forth in claim 1 In the automobile confirmation device of the invention set forth in claim 1, first, a change in the inter-vehicle distance between the front vehicle and the rear vehicle is measured by the relative speed detection means. detects the relative speed between both vehicles, and when the relative speed between the front vehicle and the rear vehicle detected by the relative speed detection means exceeds a predetermined value, the confirmation means confirms this fact to the occupants. It acts as a force. As a result, the occupant of the rear vehicle can decelerate by appropriately releasing the accelerator or stepping on the brake.

(2) Effect of the invention set forth in claim 2 In the automobile confirmation device of the invention set forth in claim 2, first, the deceleration detecting means causes a change in the inter-vehicle distance between the front vehicle and the rear vehicle. When the deceleration of the front vehicle detected by the deceleration detection means exceeds a predetermined value, the confirmation means causes an occupant of the rear vehicle to confirm the fact. act. As a result, the occupant of the rear vehicle can decelerate by appropriately releasing the accelerator or stepping on the brake.

[0016]

Therefore, according to the inventions recited in Claims 1 and 2 of the present application, it is possible to make the following vehicle reliably aware of the presence of the own vehicle and the relative change in the distance between the vehicles, and the own vehicle By controlling the vehicle on the side, it becomes possible to reliably prevent another vehicle from colliding with the vehicle. Moreover, if the device is activated, it can issue a warning to the vehicle behind you, not only when the vehicle in front of you is moving, but also when the vehicle in front of you is stopped. Become.

[0017]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIGS. 1 to 3 show an automobile verification device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

First, FIG. 1 shows the system configuration of the control unit section of the same apparatus, and reference numeral 1 in the figure is a control unit on the front vehicle A side for vehicle confirmation control formed by, for example, a microcomputer. The control unit 1 has a random access memory (RA) for inputting and temporarily storing various measurement data.
M) and a read-only memory (ROM) that stores control functions (control programs) as shown in FIG. 2, and the control functions are specifically implemented by the operation of the CPU.

That is, the control unit 1 first receives the ON/O of the brake switch 2 as input data.
FF signal, a detection signal of the inter-vehicle distance L between the front vehicle A and the rear vehicle B shown in FIG. 3 measured by the laser-based obstacle detection radar 3, an acceleration detection signal detected by the acceleration sensor 4, etc. are input, and the control shown in Figure 2 is performed based on the input data, and when there is a possibility that the rear vehicle B will collide with the front vehicle A, the control is performed as necessary. to turn on the brake lights 5, or to activate the transmitter 6 for transmitting deceleration warning information (described later) to the rear vehicle B. The rear vehicle B receives the warning information from the front vehicle A, for example, and warns the driver of the rear vehicle B that the front vehicle A is braking or decelerating by voice or display. A warning means 7 is provided.

Next, the control unit 1 shown in FIG.
The control function will be explained in detail with reference to the functional block diagram of FIG.

First, in FIG. 2, reference numeral 11 indicates brake operation determining means, and the brake operation determining means 11 determines whether the brakes of the vehicle A in front are activated or not based on the ON/OFF signal of the brake switch 2. When the brake is activated, a lighting control signal is supplied to the brake light lighting means 12 to turn on the brake light 5, and a transmitter drive signal is supplied to the transmitter drive means 19 to perform the above-mentioned warning information transmission. The transmitter 6 is activated to issue a warning to the rear vehicle B that the front vehicle A has started braking.

As a result, the fact that the front vehicle A is decelerating by stepping on the brake is reliably transmitted to the driver of the rear vehicle B, and the driver of the rear vehicle B takes corresponding deceleration measures. This makes it possible to avoid rear-end collisions as much as possible even when the vehicle A in front brakes suddenly.

Next, reference numeral 13 denotes a relative speed detecting means for detecting the relative speed between the front vehicle A and the rear vehicle B. Relative velocity is measured from the Doppler shift of transmitted and received waves. The measured value is then supplied to the relative speed comparison means 14 and compared with a predetermined reference relative speed stored in the reference value memory 15 in advance. As a result of the comparison, when the detected relative speed is higher than the reference speed, the inter-vehicle distance L between the front vehicle A and the rear vehicle B is approaching the limit inter-vehicle distance. In order to give a deceleration instruction to the rear vehicle B, the brake light lighting means 12 is first activated to light the brake lights 5, as in the case of braking determination described above, and the transmitter driving means 19 is further activated to transmit the signal. 6, transmits warning information to the driver of the rear vehicle B, and instructs the driver of the vehicle B to decelerate. As a result, the rear vehicle B is smoothly decelerated, and a sufficient inter-vehicle distance L is ensured.

Further, reference numeral 16 denotes deceleration detecting means, and the deceleration detecting means 16 detects the deceleration of the front vehicle A from the degree of decrease in acceleration based on the acceleration detection signal from the acceleration sensor 4. The detected value is then supplied to the deceleration comparison means 17 and compared with a predetermined reference deceleration stored in the reference value memory 18 in advance. As a result of the comparison, when the actually detected deceleration is higher than the reference deceleration, the vehicle speed of the rear vehicle B is relatively higher than that of the front vehicle A and the rear vehicle B.
Since the inter-vehicle distance L is approaching the limit inter-vehicle distance, in order to give a deceleration instruction to the rear vehicle B, the brake light lighting means 12 is activated in the same way as in the above-mentioned braking judgment and relative speed judgment. to turn on the brake light 5, while activating the transmitter driving means 19 to drive the transmitter 6,
Warning information is sent to the driver of the rear vehicle B, and an instruction to decelerate is given. As a result, the rear vehicle B is smoothly decelerated in accordance with the deceleration of the front vehicle A, and a sufficient inter-vehicle distance L is ensured.

Therefore, according to the configuration of the embodiment described above, the following beneficial effects can be achieved.

(1) Even when the engine brake is applied, the brake lights are turned on and a warning is issued, so it is possible to reliably notify the vehicle behind that the vehicle is decelerating, which helps prevent rear-end collisions.

(2) Even when the vehicle behind is approaching rapidly due to overspeeding, etc., it is possible to call attention to the vehicle behind, leading to the prevention of a rear-end collision.

(3) When the vehicle in front of you is stopped (especially at night), or when the vehicle behind you approaches the vehicle without noticing that the vehicle in front of you is stopped, the brake lights will also come on and give you a warning. Therefore, rear-end collisions can be effectively prevented.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system configuration centered on a control unit section of an automobile verification device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing control functions of a control unit of a vehicle verification device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the operating state of the automobile verification device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 is the control unit, 2 is the brake switch, 3
is a radar, 4 is an acceleration sensor, 5 is a brake light, 6 is a transmitter, 7 is a warning means, 14 is a relative speed comparison means, 17
is a deceleration comparison means.

Claims (2)

[Claims] Claim 1: Relative speed detection means for detecting relative speed by measuring a change in inter-vehicle distance between the front vehicle and the rear vehicle; A confirmation device for an automobile, comprising confirmation means for confirming this fact to an occupant of a rear vehicle when the relative speed between the two exceeds a predetermined value. 2. A deceleration detecting means for detecting the deceleration of the vehicle in front, and a means for detecting the deceleration of the vehicle in front of the vehicle; An automobile confirmation device comprising a confirmation means for carrying out confirmation.