JPH05270313A - Alarm device for vehicle brake - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a vehicle brake alarm device to surely inform a quick braking operation to the following vehicle for improving safety by providing a control means which judges deceleration to be above a fixed value through a discriminating means, and blinks a light source in response to the above judgment. CONSTITUTION:A control unit 1 closes a relay 11 when vehicle deceleration detected by an acceleration-deceleration sensor 3 becomes above a fixed threshold TH (for instance O.3G) to issue an alarm light from a hazard lamp 8 to the following vehicle. Thus the control unit 1 serves concurrently as a discriminating means. In this case, when the hazard lamp 8 and a hazard controller 9 are mutually electrically connected through either a hazard warning switch 10 or the relay 11, electric power sent from a battery 6 is intermittently given from the hazard controller 9 to the hazard lamp 8 to blink it.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle brake alarm device for issuing an alarm to a following vehicle during braking.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a driver operates a brake pedal to perform a braking operation in a vehicle, a driver of a following vehicle is notified of this by lighting a stop lamp provided at the rear end of the vehicle body. As a result, the driver of the following vehicle recognizes that the preceding vehicle has decelerated and increases the attention to the behavior of the preceding vehicle in order to avoid the risk of a rear-end collision.

The vehicle is also provided with a hazard lamp for notifying surrounding vehicles of danger. This hazard lamp is also used as, for example, a flasher lamp for indicating a direction, and a hazard lamp installed near the driver's seat
By manually operating the warning switch,
All the flasher lamps in front of and behind the vehicle are made to blink.

Originally, this hazard lamp is intended to call the attention of surrounding vehicles by making it blink when the vehicle is parked on the road due to a failure or the like. However, it is becoming customary to blink the hazard lamps to prevent a rear-end collision when sudden braking is applied, for example, when the front side is congested or an accident vehicle suddenly appears in front when traveling at high speed.

[0005]

When the stop lamp is turned on with the operation of the brake pedal, the driver of the following vehicle can know that the braking operation has been performed by the preceding vehicle. The degree of deceleration cannot be immediately known from the lighting of the stop lamp, and the only way to judge is based on the change in the relative distance between the preceding vehicle and the host vehicle. Therefore, the sudden braking operation performed on the preceding vehicle can only be known based on the sudden decrease in the relative distance between the preceding vehicle and the host vehicle. For this reason,
The following vehicle cannot immediately follow the sudden braking of the preceding vehicle, and the risk of a rear-end collision is extremely large.

Moreover, if the preceding vehicle is a vehicle equipped with a so-called anti-lock braking system (hereinafter referred to as "ABS"), the following vehicle is the ABS.
In the case of an unequipped vehicle, the braking distance of the preceding vehicle becomes shorter than the braking distance of the following vehicle, and it may be extremely difficult to avoid a rear-end collision. Furthermore, when visibility is poor at night, during rainfall, or when fog occurs, it is often difficult to distinguish between a tail lamp and a stop lamp for indicating the presence of a vehicle. The defect becomes more prominent.

Such a problem can be solved by the driver simultaneously operating the hazard warning switch at the time of a sudden braking operation, causing the hazard lamp to blink, thereby strongly alerting the following vehicle. However, in order to operate the hazard warning switch at the same time as the sudden braking operation, it is necessary to be fairly skilled in driving the vehicle. Therefore, it is difficult to notify the following vehicle that the sudden braking operation has been performed by operating the hazard warning switch, and there is a drawback that the certainty is lacking.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle brake warning device which solves the above-mentioned technical problems and can notify the following vehicle of the fact that a sudden braking operation has been performed, thereby improving safety. Is to provide.

[0009]

A brake alarm system for a vehicle according to claim 1 for achieving the above object detects a light source for issuing an alarm to a following vehicle and a deceleration of the vehicle. Deceleration detecting means for determining whether the deceleration detected by the deceleration detecting means is equal to or more than a predetermined value, and the determining means determines that the deceleration is equal to or more than the predetermined value. In response to the above, the control means for causing the light source to blink.

With this configuration, when the deceleration of the vehicle becomes equal to or higher than the predetermined value due to the sudden braking operation, the control means causes the warning light source to blink. As a result, the following vehicle can quickly know that the sudden braking operation has been performed on the preceding vehicle. A brake alarm device for a vehicle according to claim 2, wherein a light source for issuing an alarm to the following vehicle, a brake pressure control means for controlling the brake pressure so as to prevent the wheels from being locked, and the brake. And a control means for causing the light source to blink in response to the operation of the pressure control means.

In this configuration, when the wheels are locked due to the sudden braking operation, the brake pressure control means operates,
So-called anti-lock control is performed. Then, in response to the start of the anti-lock control, the light source for alarm blinks. As a result, like the invention according to claim 1,
It is possible to immediately inform the following vehicle that the sudden braking operation is performed. Therefore, even if the following vehicle does not have a so-called anti-lock brake system, the risk of a rear-end collision can be effectively prevented.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a brake alarm device for a vehicle, a light source for issuing an alarm to a following vehicle, a deceleration detecting means for detecting a deceleration of the vehicle, and a deceleration detecting means for detecting the deceleration. Determining means for determining whether or not the speed is equal to or higher than a predetermined value, and first control means for causing the light source to blink in response to the determination means determining that the deceleration is equal to or higher than the predetermined value. And brake pressure control means for controlling the brake pressure so as to prevent the wheels from becoming locked, and second control means for causing the light source to blink in response to the operation of the brake pressure control means. It is characterized by including and.

According to this structure, whether the deceleration of the vehicle becomes a predetermined value or more, or whether the antilock control is performed,
If at least one of the conditions is satisfied, the alarm light source is made to blink. As a result, the actions of the vehicle brake alarm device according to the first and second aspects can be achieved at the same time.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of a vehicle brake alarm device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 shows an example in which the present invention is applied to a vehicle equipped with an anti-lock brake system (hereinafter referred to as "ABS").

The ABS is a device that realizes ideal braking by preventing the wheels from being locked even when the brake pedal is strongly depressed to perform a sudden braking operation. Therefore, the ABS detects the vehicle speed, which is the actual vehicle speed, and the wheel speed, which is the vehicle speed corresponding to the rotation of the wheels, and the slip ratio defined by the following equation (1) is The brake pressure of each wheel is controlled so as to approach a predetermined control target value.

[0016]

[Equation 1]

It is empirically known that the maximum friction coefficient between the tire and the road surface is around the slip ratio of 20%, so the above control target value is around 20%. Is set. In order to realize such anti-lock control, the vehicle is equipped with an ABS control unit 1. The control unit 1 is connected to four wheel speed sensors 2 provided for each of the front, rear, left and right wheels to detect the wheel speed of each wheel, and further for detecting the acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle. The acceleration / deceleration sensor 3 is connected. The wheel speed sensor 2 is realized by, for example, a configuration in which the rotation state of a rotor that rotates as the wheels rotate is monitored by an electromagnetic pickup.

The control of the brake pressure is performed by controlling the hydraulic pressure from a master cylinder (not shown) connected to the brake pedal with the hydraulic pressure unit 4. The hydraulic unit 4 is provided with solenoid valves (not shown) corresponding to the front and rear wheels, and the solenoid valves are driven by the control unit 1 to brake the wheels (not shown). The hydraulic pressure transmitted to is controlled. In this way, the control unit 1 and the hydraulic unit 4 constitute a brake pressure control means.

The stop switch 5 switches the voltage V _B given from the battery 6. When the stop switch 5 is turned on, the stop lamp 12 provided at the tail of the vehicle is turned on. The battery voltage V _B before passing through the ignition switch 7 is a hazard lamp 8 which is a light source for warning provided on each of the left and right sides of the front and the rear of the vehicle.
Is provided to the hazard controller 9 for controlling blinking of. Hazard lamp 8 and hazard controller 9
A parallel circuit of the hazard warning switch 10 and the relay 11 is interposed between the and. The hazard lamp 8 may also be used as a flasher lamp for indicating a direction, or may be provided separately from the flasher lamp. In this embodiment, the control unit is constituted by the control unit 1, the hazard controller 9 and the relay 11.

Hazard warning switch 10
Is provided near the driver's seat and is turned on / off by a manual operation by the driver. Also, relay 1
Reference numeral 1 is for being closed / opened under the control of the control unit 1. When the hazard warning lamp 8 and the hazard controller 9 are electrically connected by either the hazard warning switch 10 or the relay 11, the power from the battery 6 is intermittently supplied from the hazard controller 9. Given to 8. As a result, the hazard lamp 8 blinks, and an alarm is issued to surrounding vehicles.

The control unit 1 controls the deceleration of the vehicle detected by the acceleration / deceleration sensor 3 to a predetermined threshold value TH (for example, 0.
3G) and above, relay 11 is closed,
A warning light is emitted from the hazard lamp 8 toward the following vehicle. In this way, the control unit 1 also serves as the determination means. Here, the "deceleration" means the absolute value of the negative acceleration. That is, since the vehicle decelerates during braking, the acceleration has a negative value. Therefore, for example, "the deceleration is large" corresponds to a sudden decrease in the vehicle body speed.

FIG. 2 is a timing chart for explaining the control operation of the relay 11 by the control unit 1.
2 (a) shows a change in vehicle speed, which is the speed of the vehicle body, FIG. 2 (b) shows a change in deceleration detected by the acceleration / deceleration sensor 3, and FIG. 2 (c) shows a relay. 11 shows the operation of No. 11. In the present embodiment, the vehicle body speed is obtained by calculation inside the control unit 1 based on the outputs of the four wheel speed sensors 2, and the wheel speeds detected by the four wheel speed sensors 2 are, for example. The maximum value of these is the vehicle speed. That is, at the time of braking, (wheel speed) ≦ (vehicle body speed) should be satisfied, so the maximum wheel speed is approximately equal to the vehicle body speed.

When the brake pedal is strongly depressed during the period from time t1 to perform a sudden braking operation, the hydraulic pressure transmitted from the master cylinder to each wheel via the hydraulic unit 4 controls each wheel. Power works and the vehicle speed decreases. Along with this, the deceleration takes a positive value as indicated by reference numeral A1. When the degree of decrease in the vehicle body speed becomes sharp during the period from time t2, the deceleration takes a larger value as indicated by reference sign A2. At this time,
Since the deceleration exceeds the above threshold TH, the control unit 1
Closes the relay 11, as indicated by reference numeral A3. As a result, the hazard lamp 8 will blink.

As described above, in this embodiment, when the deceleration becomes equal to or higher than the predetermined threshold value TH with the sudden braking operation, the hazard lamp 8 automatically blinks in response to this. Therefore, when the sudden braking operation is performed, the hazard lamp 8 blinks even if the driver does not operate the hazard warning switch 10. As a result, it is possible to reliably notify the driver of the following vehicle that the sudden braking operation has been performed, and to draw a strong attention.

Thus, for example, even when a sudden braking operation is performed due to a traffic jam ahead or an accident vehicle appearing ahead while traveling at high speed, this is promptly notified to the following vehicle to cause a rear-end collision. The danger of can be avoided.
Further, when the field of view is bad at night, during rainfall, or when fog occurs, the light from the stop lamp 12 becomes difficult to be visually recognized. Even in such a case, the hazard lamp 8 blinks to perform a sudden braking operation. This can be reliably notified to the following vehicle. In this way, safety is greatly improved.

Moreover, since the present embodiment is applied to the vehicle equipped with the ABS, only by adding the relay 11 in addition to the respective constituent parts of the existing ABS, the alarm by the hazard lamp 8 is automatically provided. Can be done. That is, it is possible to improve safety without excessively complicating the configuration and incurring an excessive increase in cost.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the present embodiment, in the configuration shown in FIG. 1 above, when the ABS operates, the relay 1 responds to the operation.
1 is closed. That is, the anti-lock control by the control of the hydraulic pressure from the master cylinder is started when the wheels are about to be locked. Therefore, the blinking of the hazard lamp 8 is started at the same time as the start of the anti-lock control. The same effect as the first embodiment can be obtained.

Moreover, since the wheels are easily locked on, for example, snow or ice, antilock control is performed even if the deceleration is small. Therefore, even in such a case, the risk of a rear-end collision can be reliably prevented. The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. For example, by combining the first and second embodiments described above, when the deceleration becomes equal to or higher than a predetermined value or the antilock control is started, at least one of the conditions is satisfied, Alternatively, the hazard lamp 8 may be made to blink. In this way, the working examples of the respective embodiments can be achieved at the same time.

In the above embodiment, the deceleration is detected by the acceleration / deceleration sensor.
The vehicle speed is calculated from the outputs of the four wheel speed sensors 2,
Further, the deceleration can also be obtained by estimating the deceleration based on the time change of the vehicle body speed. Further, in the above embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, the deceleration is the threshold value TH.
It is supposed that the relay 11 is opened at the time t3 when it becomes less than the time, but the closed state of the relay 11 may be maintained for a certain period of time even after the deceleration becomes less than the threshold value TH. Further, the relay 11 may be closed for a certain time from the time (t2) when the deceleration becomes equal to or higher than the threshold value TH. Further, instead of automatically opening the relay 11, the relay 11 may be opened in response to a predetermined switch operation provided in the driver's seat, and the blinking state of the hazard lamp may be manually released.

Further, in the above embodiment, the case where the light sources for warning are provided on the left and right sides of the front and the rear of the vehicle is taken as an example, but the warning light should be generated at least toward the following vehicles. The object of the present invention can be achieved if a light source capable of In the above embodiment, the case where the vehicle is equipped with the ABS has been described.
Even in a vehicle not equipped with the ABS, if the deceleration of the vehicle is detected and the blinking of the hazard lamp is controlled according to the deceleration of the vehicle, the same effect as in the above embodiment can be obtained.

Various other design changes can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

[0032]

According to the vehicle brake alarm device of the first aspect, when a sudden braking operation is performed, the light source for alarm is automatically turned on and off. Therefore, the following vehicle can promptly recognize that the sudden braking operation has been performed on the preceding vehicle and deal with this. In this way, the danger of a rear-end collision can be effectively prevented and the safety can be significantly improved.

Moreover, even when the visibility is poor such as at night, during rain, or when fog occurs, there is an advantage that the warning light for the following vehicle can be surely issued by blinking the light source for the warning. According to the vehicle brake warning device of the second aspect, in response to the start of so-called antilock control,
The blinking operation of the light source for alarm is started. Therefore, it is possible to promptly notify the following vehicle that the sudden braking with anti-lock control is being performed, even if the following vehicle does not have a so-called anti-lock brake system. A rear-end collision can be effectively prevented.

In addition, since the vehicle equipped with the anti-lock brake system is already provided with the structure for detecting the deceleration of the vehicle, the above effect can be obtained by adding only a small number of parts. be able to. Therefore, the structure is neither excessively complicated nor excessively increased in cost. Further, according to the vehicle brake alarm device of the third aspect, each effect of the inventions of the first and second aspects can be simultaneously achieved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of a vehicle brake alarm device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a timing chart for explaining the operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Control Unit 2 Wheel Speed Sensor 3 Acceleration / Deceleration Sensor 4 Hydraulic Unit 8 Hazard Lamp 9 Hazard Controller 11 Relay

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A light source for issuing an alarm to a following vehicle, a deceleration detecting means for detecting a deceleration of the vehicle, and a deceleration detecting means for detecting whether or not the deceleration is equal to or more than a predetermined value. A vehicular brake warning device comprising: a determining unit for determining and a control unit for causing the light source to blink in response to the determining unit determining that the deceleration is equal to or more than the predetermined value. .. 2. A light source for issuing an alarm to a following vehicle, a brake pressure control means for controlling brake pressure so as to prevent the wheels from being locked, and the operation of the brake pressure control means. In response to
A brake alarm device for a vehicle, comprising: a control unit that causes the light source to blink. 3. A light source for issuing a warning to a following vehicle, a deceleration detecting means for detecting a deceleration of the vehicle, and a deceleration for detecting whether or not the deceleration detected by the deceleration detecting means exceeds a predetermined value. A determination means for determining, a first control means for causing the light source to blink, in response to the determination means for determining that the deceleration is equal to or higher than the predetermined value, and a state in which the wheels are locked. Brake pressure control means for controlling the brake pressure so as to avoid, and in response to the operation of the brake pressure control means,
A vehicular brake warning device comprising: a second control means for causing the light source to blink.