JPH04296911A - Running controller for mobile vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To control the speed without giving sensations of fear and danger to a driver by using road information picked up by a visual device to adapt the vehicle speed in curve parts of a road to a human sense. CONSTITUTION:An image sensor 1 like a television camera is used to detect the road condition in the front of a vehicle, and the detection result is sent to a road recognizing part 2. The road recognizing part 2 recognizes the road area in the front of the vehicle based on the inputted road image. A deviation area evaluating part 3 compares the road area recognized by the road recognizing part 2 with a standard road pattern based on it to calculate the deviation area. A speed controller 4 sends a throttle control signal to a throttle valve 6 and sends a brake control signal to a brake damping part 9 provided on a wheel 7 based on the deviation area calculated by the deviation area evaluating part 3, the speed set by a speed setting part 5, and a speed measured signal which is actually measured by a vehicle speed sensor 8 and is fed back to the speed controller 4, thereby controlling the speed without giving sensations of fear and danger to the driver.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a traveling control device for a moving vehicle, and more particularly to a traveling control device for a moving vehicle that adjusts the speed of the vehicle depending on the curve of the road in front of the moving vehicle.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in so-called auto-cruise, which controls the speed of a moving vehicle according to a set speed, the curvature of the road in front of the vehicle is not taken into consideration. In addition, in systems that use a visual device to capture the road condition and use it to calculate the curvature of the road ahead and control speed, the limit speed for going off course is calculated based on the obtained road curvature. By controlling the vehicle speed within these limits, the system realizes a safe driving control system.

0003

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, with the above-mentioned conventional travel control device, the vehicle tends to travel at the limit of lateral acceleration at a safe speed that does not go off course, which is calculated based on the road curvature. When a human (driver) looks ahead of the road, the sense of danger he or she feels due to the relationship with the vehicle speed at that time is not taken into account by using road information captured by a visual device, so road curves There is a problem in that the vehicle speed at certain points does not match human senses, giving humans a sense of fear and danger.

0004

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention has been made for the purpose of solving the above-mentioned problems, and has the following configuration as a means for solving the above-mentioned problems. That is, an image input means for recognizing the outside world, a constant speed traveling means for controlling constant speed traveling according to a set speed, and a traveling means for recognizing a running route from the image recognized by the image input means. a road recognition means, a calculation means for calculating a deviation area on an image of an image area of the running road with respect to an image area of a straight running road corresponding to the running road recognized by the running road recognition means, and the calculation means and means for correcting the control by the constant speed traveling means according to the calculation result by the means.

[0005]

[Operation] With the above configuration, smooth speed control that does not give a sense of anxiety to humans is possible.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a traveling control device for a moving vehicle (hereinafter referred to as the device) according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, this device captures the road situation in front of the vehicle using an image sensor 1 such as a television camera, and sends the detection result to a road recognition unit 2. The road recognition unit 2 recognizes the road area in front of the vehicle based on the input road image. The deviation area evaluation unit 3 compares the road area recognized by the road recognition unit 2 with a standard road pattern based thereon, and calculates a deviation area, which will be described later.

The speed control device 4 uses the deviation area calculated by the deviation area evaluation section 3, the speed set by the speed setting section 5, and the speed measurement actually measured by the vehicle speed sensor 8 and fed back to the speed control device 4. A throttle control signal is sent to the throttle valve 6 based on the signal v, and a brake control signal is sent to the brake braking unit 9 disposed on the wheel 7, so that the vehicle can maintain a safe speed. .

Next, a speed control method in the apparatus of this embodiment will be explained. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the speed control procedure in the apparatus according to this embodiment. In the figure, in step S1, the image sensor 1 is used to capture the road situation in front of the vehicle, and in step S2, the road recognition unit 2 detects the road condition from the captured image by detecting, for example, a white line in the image. The edges are extracted and the road area in front of the vehicle is recognized as a result. Hereinafter, this image will be referred to as a forward recognition image.

[0009] In step S3, the deviation area evaluation unit 3 sets a standard pattern for the road. That is, as shown in FIG.
In the forward recognition image recognized by the road recognition unit 2, points A and B where the line indicating the road area, that is, the solid line 11 indicating the road edge of the left-curving road, intersects with the image frame 12 are determined, and the solid line 1 is
Assuming that the road indicated by 1 is a straight road, a road having a road edge indicated by a broken line 13 passing through the previously determined points A and B is a standard pattern road.

In other words, the standard pattern road 13 is located at the nearest edge of the road (image frame 12) recognized by the road recognition unit 2.
(the side closest to the bottom of the road). This is to prevent an error in deviation area from occurring due to a difference in road width from the actual road if the assumed standard straight road pattern is fixed. In step S4, the speed control device 4 reads the own vehicle speed based on the signal from the vehicle speed sensor 8, and sends it to the departure area evaluation section 3 as speed data. Then, in the next step S5, the deviation area evaluation unit 3 determines a predicted distance l corresponding to the distance L that the vehicle will reach after Δt has elapsed from the current time on the forward recognition image in which the standard pattern was set in step S3. do. Δt is the so-called forecast time, which is the time required to predict how far the vehicle will travel after a predetermined time (usually 2 to 4 seconds) when the vehicle is traveling at the current speed. It is equivalent.

[0011] Therefore, a dashed-dotted line 15 shown in FIG. 4 is a prediction distance l corresponding to the distance (reaching distance) L that can be reached in such a prediction time and is determined on the screen. This foreseen distance l indicates the distance that the driver normally looks at the road surface, and the faster the vehicle speed, the farther the driver looks, so
The foreseeable distance l is also set large accordingly. Next, in step S6, the deviation area evaluation unit 3 uses the forward recognition image recognized in step S2, the standard road pattern set in step S3, and the area surrounded by the dashed-dotted line 15 indicating the predicted distance (the diagonal area in FIG. 4). ) is determined as the deviation area ΔS. Then, in the subsequent step S7, the target speed of the vehicle is adjusted by controlling the throttle valve 6 or the brake braking unit 9 according to the map shown in FIG.

In the map shown in FIG. 5, the horizontal axis is the deviation area, and the vertical axis is the vehicle speed. Further, the speed V shown by the two-dot chain line is the speed set by the speed setting section 5, and the speed VOP shown by the solid line is the target speed. The above-mentioned deviation area ΔS indicates the degree of curve of the road, and the larger the value, that is, the larger the area of the shaded part in FIG. 4, the steeper the curve. Therefore, in the map of FIG. 5, the target speed VOP tends to gradually decrease in value as the deviation area becomes larger.
The speed control device 4 controls the speed of the vehicle so as not to give the driver a sense of fear or anxiety related to the speed and speed of the curve that the driver perceives from the entire image in front of the vehicle.

It should be noted that the speed VC indicated by the broken line in FIG.
R is the slip limit speed that corresponds to the curvature of the road according to conventional speed control, and normally takes a value higher than the set speed V and reduces the speed as the curve becomes steeper.
When a predetermined point is exceeded, the speed is controlled to be lower than the set speed V. As explained above, according to this example, the fear and sense of danger that humans have toward curves in the road is determined by information visually captured. By comparing images of straight roads, determining the steepness and steepness of curves based on the area where the actual road deviates from the assumed straight road, and determining vehicle speed based on the results, it is possible to This has the effect of making it possible to control the speed so as not to give people a sense of danger or fear.

In the above embodiment, speed control was performed by focusing only on the curve of the road in front of the vehicle, but the speed control was performed by taking into account not only the curve of the road but also the uphill and downhill directions of the road, as shown in FIG. Modifications may be made to the speed characteristic VOP according to the ups and downs of the road. By doing this, speed control not only on curves but also when climbing and descending hills is optimized.
Safer speed control becomes possible.

[0015]

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention,
By quantitatively determining the steepness and steepness of road curves based on image information in front of the vehicle and performing speed control accordingly, it is possible to perform safe and smooth speed control that matches the human sense of danger on roads with many curves. There is an effect that

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a travel control device for a mobile vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a speed control procedure in the device according to the embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the road area recognized by the road recognition unit and the standard pattern road area,

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the actual road area, the standard pattern road area, and the deviation area determined based on the predicted distance;

FIG. 5 is a map showing the relationship between deviation area and vehicle speed.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Image sensor 2 Road recognition section 3 Deviation area evaluation section 4 Speed control device 5 Speed setting section 6 Throttle valve 7 Wheels 8 Vehicle speed sensor 9 Brake braking part

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Image input means for recognizing the outside world; constant speed travel means for controlling constant speed travel according to a set speed; a driving path recognition means for recognizing; and a calculating means for calculating a deviation area on the image of an image area of the driving path with respect to an image area of a straight driving path corresponding to the driving path recognized by the driving path recognition device; A traveling control device for a moving vehicle, comprising: means for correcting control by the constant speed traveling means according to a calculation result by the calculating means.