JPH09311717A - Automatically driven vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve magnetism detection accuracy and prevent a magnetism detection sensor from being damaged at the time of a travel on a bad rod by providing a magnetism detection sensor moving means which lowers the magnetism detection sensor from its storage position on a vehicle body to a road-surface side projection position on the travel lane side. SOLUTION: On the reverse surface of the body of the automatically driven vehicle which travels along the travel lane while detecting magnetism under the vehicle body with a magnetic nail between both right and left wheels, a magnetic nail sensor 21 is arranged so that it can freely be projected (lowered) and stored by a magnetic nail moving means 20. The magnetic nail sensor moving means 20 consists of a couple of expandable column members fitted with the magnetic nail sensor 21 atop and an actuator 26 which drives the expanding and contracting operation of the column members, and the actuator 26 is consists of an electric motor 231. Then, the rotary motion of the motor 231 is converted into linear motion to expand the column members and the magnetic nail sensor 21 is lowered to the projection position facing the travel road surface side.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an autonomous vehicle that performs automatic driving while detecting magnetic flux from magnetic nails embedded in a traveling lane at predetermined intervals, and more particularly, to detecting magnetic flux from magnetic nails. The present invention relates to a method for mounting a magnetic detection sensor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, automatic driving control (AHS)
mated Highway System) is being developed. AHS is a system that provides continuous information by communicating various kinds of information between an infrastructure installed on a road and a vehicle, and further aims at automatic driving by adding vehicle control information. Currently, a magnetic nail is used as an infrastructure for providing vehicle control information, and a vehicle sequentially detects the position of the magnetic nail embedded in a road surface to recognize the vehicle position and the vehicle attitude.

In this AHS system, it is necessary to more reliably detect magnetic nails in order to enhance the stability and reliability of vehicle control of an automatic driving vehicle. As a method, the magnetic force of each magnetic nail embedded in the traveling lane at a predetermined interval is made strong and the detection by the magnetic sensor is more reliably performed. It can be considered that the magnetic flux density is increased and the current detection by the electromagnetic induction action is more reliably performed.

[0004]

By the way, the magnetic nail is made of a permanent magnet, and there is a physical and structural limitation in increasing the magnetic force in terms of size and cost. For this reason, it is preferable to detect the magnetism with the magnetic nail by moving the magnetic detection sensor as close as possible to the magnetic nail embedded in the road surface. However, with the magnetic force of the current magnetic nail, it is about 15 minutes from the magnetic nail surface embedded in the road. It is empirically known that when the distance is more than a centimeter, it becomes indistinguishable from the earth's magnetism.

Further, when the vehicle is running, the sensor distance from the road surface to the magnetic detection sensor changes due to the damping of the vehicle, and the detection of the magnetic nail is missed. It is desirable to bring the magnetic detection sensor as close as possible to the road surface. However, in order to make the magnetic detection more reliable, if the magnetic detection sensor is brought close to the road surface of the driving lane, it will not work on a flat road such as a highway where a magnetic nail is embedded for the purpose of enabling autonomous driving. Although there is no problem, when traveling on a bad road such as an ordinary road, the magnetic detection sensor may hit the ground or a projection and be damaged.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and when the automatic detection is performed by the magnetic detection sensor, the accuracy of the magnetic detection can be improved, and the vehicle is driven on a rough road without the automatic operation. It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic driving vehicle that does not damage the magnetic detection sensor when it does.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, an automatic driving vehicle according to the first invention of the present application is capable of automatically detecting magnetic flux by a magnetic nail embedded in a driving lane at a predetermined interval. An automatic driving vehicle for driving control, a magnetic detection sensor that detects the magnetic flux from a magnetic nail, and the magnetic detection sensor is lowered from the storage position of the vehicle body to the roadside extension position of the traveling lane, and the magnetic detection sensor And a magnetic detection sensor moving unit that is close to the.

Further, the automatic driving vehicle according to the second invention is
In addition to the magnetic detection sensor and the magnetic detection sensor moving means, it is configured to have magnetic nail embedded lane detection means for detecting that the vehicle is traveling in a traveling lane in which magnetic nails are embedded. In addition, in the self-driving vehicle according to the third aspect of the present invention, in addition to the magnetic detection sensor, the magnetic detection sensor moving means, and the magnetic nail embedded lane detection means, automatic selection for performing automatic driving or manual driving is performed. The operation mode selecting means is provided.

In the self-driving vehicle configured as in the first aspect of the invention, the driver himself / herself determines whether to perform magnetic nail sensing (detection of magnetic flux by magnetic nail), and when performing magnetic nail sensing, The magnetic detection sensor is lowered to a bulging position that is separated from the underside of the vehicle body by a predetermined distance toward the road surface side of the traveling lane, and the magnetic detection sensor is brought close to the road surface of the traveling lane to improve the magnetic detection accuracy. When the magnetic nail sensing is stopped, the magnetic detection sensor is raised and stored in the storage position under the vehicle body to prevent the magnetic detection sensor from being damaged when traveling on a bad road.

In the automatic vehicle constructed as in the second aspect of the invention, the magnetic nail is embedded by the magnetic nail embedded lane detection means without the driver himself / herself determining whether or not to perform magnetic nail sensing. If it is detected that the vehicle is traveling in the driving lane, the magnetic sensor is automatically lowered from the storage position of the vehicle body to the roadside overhang position of the driving lane, and the magnetic sensor is moved closer to the road surface. Improve detection accuracy. Then, when it is detected by the magnetic nail embedded lane detection means that the vehicle is no longer traveling in the traveling lane in which the magnetic nail is embedded, the magnetic detection sensor is raised and stored in the storage position of the vehicle body, and the vehicle is driven on a rough road. Prevents damage to the magnetic detection sensor at times.

Further, in the self-driving vehicle configured as in the third aspect of the invention, the driver himself / herself determines whether or not to perform the self-driving by magnetic nail sensing, and the self-driving mode selecting means selects the self-driving mode. When the magnetic nail embedded lane detection means detects that the vehicle is traveling in the traveling lane in which the magnetic nail is embedded, the magnetic detection sensor moving means causes the magnetic detection sensor to move to the storage position of the vehicle body. From the vehicle to the roadside overhang position of the traveling lane, the magnetic detection sensor is brought closer to the road surface to improve the accuracy of magnetic detection. on the other hand,
When the manual operation mode is selected by the automatic operation mode selection means, the magnetic detection sensor is lifted from the extended position to the vehicle body side and kept in the retracted position of the vehicle body.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. First, a driving lane in which the automatic driving vehicle according to the present invention automatically operates will be described with reference to FIG. A magnetic nail 11 is embedded in the center of the traveling lane 1 along the traveling lane 1 at an interval of approximately one meter. This magnetic nail 11 has the same polarity on one side (for example, in FIG. 1A, the N pole is on the road surface side).
It is arranged. In addition, one magnetic nail for checking whose polarity is inverted to provide position information at an interval of about 500 meters (in FIG. 1A, the S pole is on the road surface side),
Three magnetic nails that perform a binary representation using the inversion of N and S are provided, and four magnetic nails form a 4-bit section information value (see FIG. 1B). And
The self-driving vehicle 2 holds the magnetic nail 11 between the left and right wheels, and detects the magnetism at the lower part of the vehicle body while traveling in the traveling lane 1.
To travel.

As shown in FIG. 2, the self-driving vehicle 2 is provided with a magnetic nail sensor 21 on the lower surface of the body of an ordinary automobile so that the magnetic nail sensor 21 can be extended (lowered) and stored by the magnetic nail sensor moving means 20 (see FIG. 5). Is configured. Further, a pair of magnetic nail sensors 21 are provided in front of and behind the vehicle body to determine the traveling direction of the autonomous vehicle 2.

As shown in FIG. 3, the magnetic nail sensor moving means 20 is composed of a pair of extendable and retractable strut members 22 having a magnetic nail sensor 21 attached to the tip thereof, and an actuator 23 for driving the extension / contraction operation of the strut members 22. Has been done.
The base member of the stretchable support member 22 is attached to the lower surface of the vehicle body of the autonomous vehicle 2, and the tip member descends from the vehicle body side toward the road surface side to a predetermined bulging position (lower portion of the vehicle body in this embodiment). And is formed in a cylindrical shape so as to extend to a position 15 cm above the road surface), and the magnetic detection sensor 21 is attached to the tip portions of the pair of tip members so as to be substantially parallel to the road surface of the traveling lane 1. .

The actuator 23 is composed of an electric motor 231 (see FIG. 5). The rotational motion of the motor 231 is converted into a linear motion to extend the columnar member 22 formed in a cylinder shape, and the magnetic nail sensor 21 is lowered to an extended position toward the road surface side. Further, the magnetic nail sensor 21 is stored in the storage position on the lower surface of the vehicle body (in this embodiment, a position in contact with the lower portion of the vehicle body) by rotating the motor 231 in the reverse direction.
FIG. 3A is a side view of the magnetic nail sensor 21 stored in the vehicle body, and FIG. 3B is a side view of the magnetic nail sensor 2.
1 is a side view showing a state in which a magnetic flux is detected by a magnetic nail 11 when the vehicle 1 extends from the vehicle body in the road surface direction of the traveling lane 1.

A vehicle battery B is used as a power source of the actuator 23, and is connected to a motor 231 employed as an actuator. The motor drive circuit 26 of the motor 231 (part of the magnetic nail sensor moving means 20; see FIG. 5) includes a battery B, a switching circuit 25 for switching the direction of the current supplied from the battery B, and a relay switch 24. The armature circuit of the motor 231 is supplied with current from the battery B when the relay switch 24 is closed, and is driven to rotate. Switching circuit 2
5 reverses the direction of the armature current,
The forward and reverse rotation of is controlled. Note that this relay switch 2
The on / off control of the switch 4 and the switching control of the switching circuit 25 are electrically controlled by a manual selection switch for performing or not performing magnetic nail sensing provided in a driving cabin of the automatic driving vehicle according to the present invention or a logic circuit of the automatic driving system. Is done.

FIG. 4 shows a flow chart of a basic automatic driving control system according to the present invention. As shown in this flowchart, when the driver intends to perform magnetic nail sensing at his / her own discretion while driving on the driving lane 1 in which the magnetic nail 11 is embedded, the driver manually operates the driving cabin. A selection switch (not shown) is positioned on the selected side of magnetic nail sensing (s-1). Then, the relay switch 24 is closed, and the switching circuit 25 is also selected so that the motor 231 rotates in the direction in which the magnetic nail sensor 21 is lowered from the storage position to the extended position (normal rotation). Therefore, the magnetic nail sensor 21 projects from the storage position of the vehicle body to the road surface side of the traveling lane 1 and descends to a projecting position of about 15 cm from the road surface (s-2). When the magnetic nail sensor 21 is set to this extended position, the current supply to the motor 231 is cut off, which enables magnetic nail sensing by the magnetic nail sensor 21.

Driving lane 1 in which a magnetic nail 11 is embedded
If no, or if the driver desires to run manually, the manual selection switch provided in the driving cabin is turned off (s-3). Then, the switching circuit 2
5 is selected so that the motor 231 rotates (reverse rotation) in the direction in which the magnetic nail sensor 21 is stored in the storage position.
Therefore, the magnetic nail sensor 21 moves up to the storage position of the vehicle body (s-4). When the magnetic nail sensor 21 is stored in the storage position, the current supply to the motor 231 is cut off,
Again, the magnetic nail sensing is held in a standby state where it can be selected.

Next, a preferred system configuration diagram of the automatic driving control system according to the present invention is shown in FIG. This is configured using a navigation system mounted on the vehicle. The automatic driving control system includes an automatic driving mode selection switch 31 operated by the driver himself / herself to determine whether to perform manual driving or automatic driving, and a GPS, for example.
The vehicle lane 1 in which the vehicle position detecting means 321 for detecting the vehicle position on the map using the and the magnetic nail 11 are embedded
Magnetic nail embedding lane detecting means 32 including map information storing means 322 that stores information on the information, and outputs from these automatic operation mode selection switch 31 and magnetic nail embedding lane detecting means 32. An automatic operation control unit 33 that determines whether or not the magnetic nail sensor position control unit that appropriately determines the position of the magnetic nail sensor 21 according to the output of the automatic operation control unit 33 and controls the movement in the vertical direction. And 34.

The operation of the automatic driving control system thus configured will be described with reference to the flow chart shown in FIG. The driver activates the magnetic nail embedded lane detecting means 32 using the navigation system before or during traveling, and detects the own vehicle position by the own vehicle position detecting means 321. This vehicle position is displayed on the map information stored in the map information storage means 322. This map information includes, in addition to predetermined road information, a driving lane 1 in which a magnetic nail 11 is embedded.
It is also possible to determine whether or not the host vehicle is currently traveling in the traveling lane 1 in which the magnetic nails 11 are filled. For this reason, the output of the own vehicle position detecting means 321 and the output of the map information storing means 322 are input to the automatic driving control unit 33, and whether or not the own vehicle is traveling on the traveling lane 1 in which the magnetic nail 11 is embedded is determined. Is determined (s-11).

When the automatic driving control unit 33 detects that the vehicle is on the traveling lane 1, the driver is informed that automatic driving is possible. Here, the driver makes a selection between manual driving and automatic driving by performing magnetic nail sensing according to the driver's own judgment (s-12). When the driver does not select the automatic driving mode, there is no need to move the magnetic nail sensor 21, and the automatic driving control system is in a standby state for automatic driving.

In this state, when the driver operates the automatic operation mode selection switch 31 to select automatic operation,
The automatic driving control unit 33 outputs a command for performing automatic driving traveling to the magnetic nail sensor position control unit 34, and the magnetic nail sensor position control unit 34 closes the relay switch 24 of the motor drive circuit 26 described above and switches the switching circuit 25. Is switched to the normal rotation side to lower the magnetic nail sensor 21 from the vehicle body side retracted position to the overhanging position on the road surface side of the traveling lane 1 so that the magnetic nail 11 can detect the magnetic flux (s-13). ). On the contrary, when the driver first operates the automatic driving mode selection switch 31 to select the automatic driving mode, the automatic driving control unit 33 automatically detects that the vehicle is on the traveling lane 1. The operation is switched to driving, and an automatic operation command is output to the magnetic nail sensor position control unit 34 to lower the magnetic nail sensor 21 to the extended position.

When the driving lane 1 ends or the driver desires a manual driving, the driver operates the automatic driving mode selection switch 31 to select the manual driving (s-14). When this selection is made, the automatic driving control unit 33 issues a command for raising the magnetic nail sensor 21, which has been lowered from the vehicle body side to the extended position on the road surface side of the traveling lane 1, to the retracted position on the vehicle body side. It outputs to the sensor position control unit 34 and switches the switching circuit 25 to the reverse rotation side.
Then, the magnetic nail sensor 21 is raised and stored in the storage position (s-15). As a result, the magnetic nail sensing is stopped, and thereafter, when the magnetic nail sensor 21 reaches the storage position, the relay switch 24 is also opened.

With such an operation, the driver can select the manual driving or the automatic driving according to his / her own will, and the traveling in which the magnetic nail 11 is buried by the magnetic nail embedded lane detecting means 32 provided inside. Lane 1
Can be automatically determined to be running, and the operation can be automatically switched from manual operation to automatic operation.

[0025]

As described above, in the self-driving vehicle according to the present invention, not only can the magnetic detection sensor be moved up and down to prevent the sensor from being damaged when traveling on a bad road, but the magnetic detection sensor can be moved upward from the magnetic nail. Since the vehicle can be located at a predetermined distance, it is possible to improve the accuracy of magnetic detection during automatic driving, and to improve the running stability and reliability of the autonomous vehicle. Further, when the magnetic nail embedded lane detection means is provided, the position of the magnetic detection sensor can be moved up and down by automatically determining the driving lane in which the magnetic nail is embedded and the general lane not. Damage due to mistakes can also be prevented.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a driving lane in which a magnetic nail is embedded.

FIG. 2 is an external view showing a mounting position of a magnetic detection sensor.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing a storage position and a projecting position of the magnetic detection sensor.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a basic automatic driving control system according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of an automatic operation control system according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of an automatic operation control system according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Automatic Driving Vehicle 11 Magnetic Nail 20 Magnetic Nail Sensor Moving Means 21 Magnetic Nail Sensor (Magnetic Detection Sensor) 22 Strut Member 23 Actuator 24 Relay Switch 25 Switching Circuit 26 Motor Drive Circuit 31 Automatic Driving Mode Selection Switch 32 Magnetic Nail Embedded Lane Detection Means 33 Automatic operation control unit 34 Magnetic nail sensor position control unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A self-driving vehicle that performs automatic driving control while sequentially detecting magnetic fluxes of magnetic nails embedded in a driving lane at predetermined intervals, the magnetic detection sensor detecting magnetic fluxes of magnetic nails, When automatically driving the traveling lane, the magnetic detection sensor is located at a lower portion of the vehicle body of the autonomous driving vehicle and is located at a storage position that is separated from the road surface of the traveling lane by a predetermined distance to the road surface side of the traveling lane. A self-driving vehicle, comprising: a magnetic detection sensor moving means for moving the vehicle down. 2. An automatic driving vehicle for automatically controlling driving while sequentially detecting magnetic fluxes of magnetic nails embedded in a driving lane at predetermined intervals, the magnetic detection sensor for detecting magnetic fluxes of magnetic nails, Magnetic nail embedded lane detection means for detecting that the vehicle is traveling in a traveling lane with embedded nails, and the magnetic nail embedded lane detection means detects that the vehicle is traveling in a traveling lane in which magnetic nails are embedded. And a magnetic detection sensor moving means for automatically lowering the magnetic detection sensor from the storage position to the extended position. 3. A magnetic nail embedding device having automatic operation mode selection means for selecting whether to perform automatic operation or manual operation, and when automatic operation is selected by the automatic operation mode selection means. When it is detected by the lane detection means that the vehicle is traveling in a traveling lane in which a magnetic nail is embedded, the magnetic detection sensor moving means automatically lowers the magnetic detection sensor from the storage position to the extended position. The automatic driving vehicle according to claim 2, wherein the magnetic detection sensor is held at the storage position when manual driving is selected by the automatic driving mode selection means.