WO2000005091A1

WO2000005091A1 - Apparatus for modifying the operation of a vehicle based on the vehicle's position

Info

Publication number: WO2000005091A1
Application number: PCT/GB1999/002354
Authority: WO
Inventors: Mark Jonathan Basten
Original assignee: Lucas Industries Plc
Priority date: 1998-07-24
Filing date: 1999-07-20
Publication date: 2000-02-03
Also published as: GB9816230D0

Abstract

A system is provided in which a position detector, such as a GPS system, provides position data to a country identification means (12) and a national rules data base (14) to modify vehicle systems according to national laws.

Description

APPARATUS FOR MODIFYING THE OPERATION OF A VEHICLE BASED ON THE VEHICLE'S POSITION

The present invention relates to an apparatus for automatically modifying the operation of a vehicle, based on the vehicle's position.

Nehicle control systems, such as cruise controllers, have become increasingly sophisticated. Early cruise controllers merely acted to maintain the vehicle speed at a target speed. Such a controller did not monitor the distance to, or speed of, vehicles ahead of the controlled vehicle. This resulted in frequent driver intervention in order to prevent

the vehicle under cruise control from running into the back of a leading vehicle traveling at a slower speed.

EP 0612641 A describes an improved cruise control system in which a radar detector is used to identify the distance to and relative speed of a vehicle traveling in front of the

controlled vehicle. This vehicle will be referred to as the "target vehicle". The cruise controller calculates a desired range to the target vehicle and uses this, in combination with the measured range, to calculate a range error. The range error and relative speed difference are then combined in a weighted manner in order to derive an acceleration demand signal which is used to control both the throttle and brake systems. Thus the cruise control system will control the vehicle speed up to the set speed. However, if the vehicle under control approaches a slower vehicle from behind, the cruise control system will automatically decelerate the controlled vehicle in order to ensure that the controlled vehicle remains at a safe distance behind the target vehicle without the need for driver intervention.

EP 0716949 discloses a further development of the control system described in EP 0612641. It was realised that, in real life, the controlled vehicle and the target vehicle may not be on a single main carriageway. Thus, in left hand drive countries, such as the UK and

Japan, the target vehicle may move to the left to select a slower lane. Similarly, the target vehicle may move to the right to select a faster lane. In either event, the target vehicle moves out of the direct path of the controlled vehicle, and this may result in a second target

vehicle becoming visible to the radar system. However, the cruise controller is not immediately free to lock onto the second target as this may inadvertently cause it to

overtake the first target in an illegal manner, depending on the national laws applying in the particular country. Thus, for example, the cruise controller fitted to a UK based vehicle would not allow that vehicle to overtake a slower vehicle when the slower vehicle is in a right hand lane since this is an illegal manoeuvre in the UK. However, should that vehicle then be taken to continental Europe the instructions within the cruise controller would then

be inadequate since, as continental Europe drives on the right hand side of the road, overtaking should then be done to the left hand side of the slow vehicle. It is therefore required to be able to modify the operation of the automatic cruise control in order to account for changes to the driving rules resulting from crossing national borders.

There are other vehicle systems which could be controlled in such a similar manner. For example, some countries may require vehicles to operate with day running lights whereas others do not. According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle behaviour

modification apparatus, comprising means for determining the position of a vehicle and for

outputting positional information to vehicle systems in order to modify their behaviour.

Advantageously, the position determining means comprises at least one receiver responsive

to transmitted signals and processing means for processing the at least one signal in order

to determine the vehicle's position.

The receiver may be a global positioning satellite (GPS) receiver for identifying the

position of the vehicle. In such an arrangement, the position of the vehicle can currently be determined to within tens of metres. It is expected that the base resolution of the GPS system will improve to allow position to be determined more accurately. Additionally or alternatively to improvements in the basic GPS resolution, differential GPS techniques may be employed (i.e. where a fixed object with a known position receives the GPS signals, calculates it's position according to the GPS signals, compares the known and calculated positions to derive a GPS error, and then transmits an error correction signal that can be used by differential GPS receivers to refine the estimate of their own position). The positional information may then be used to identify the country in which the vehicle is traveling in order to extract the rules for controlling the cruise control. Additionally or alternatively, the position may be compared with map information, which may include information as to road types and speed limits, in order that the set speed of the cruise control may be automatically determined. Thus, for example, if in the United Kingdom, the position corresponds to that of a motorway, then the set speed may automatically be set to 70 Miles Per Hour (MPH), if the position corresponds to an urban area then the set speed

may be set to 30 MPH, or the cruise control may be disabled to ensure that the driver is alert and paying attention to hazards that can occur in the urban driving situation.

Additionally or alternatively, the at least one receiver may be responsive to the signals transmitted by mobile telephone networks. The at least one receiver may analyse these

signals in order to determine which cell of a network it is in. Once the cell has been identified, the processing means may then access a database in order to determine where

that cell is located and consequently to identify the country in which the vehicle is traveling.

Additionally or alternatively the at least one receiver may scan the local FM broadcast band or digital audio broadcasts in order to determine the data signals piggybacked onto the broadcast transmissions, for example RDS signals and then access a database to identify in which country the or each station identified transmits from.

FM transmissions can extend across national boundaries, for example between Great Britain and France, where vehicles are driven on opposing sides of the carriageway. Advantageously, in the event of any doubt as to the vehicle's location, the system will default to a safe mode or prompt the driver for manual input.

Other relatively high frequency radio bands could also be scanned. Thus, for example the local television signals could be scanned in order to identify the signal providers from

information included as part of a teletext service. Additionally or alternatively inertial or "distance and direction" type navigation systems

may also be used to determine the vehicle's position.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle cruise

controller comprising data processing means for determining desired vehicle speed or acceleration in accordance with a predetermined control strategy and vehicle position determining means for supplying information concerning the position of the vehicle to the data processing means such that the control strategy can be adapted in response to the

vehicle's position.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of modifying the operation of vehicle systems, comprising the steps of estimating a vehicle's position, using this to identify the country in which the vehicle is traveling and accessing a database of rules and/or vehicle operating parameters to vary the operation of vehicle systems in accordance with the country in which the vehicle is in.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention there is provided a computer program

product for causing a suitable computer to perform the third aspect of the present invention.

As noted herein before, other vehicle systems may also be responsive to the country identifying information. For example, it may be possible to automatically deflect headlights in order that they do not dazzle oncoming drivers, to actuate day running lights where they are mandatory or vary other systems. In addition, engine management systems may be able to choose between differing control strategies, for example to trade emission

performance against vehicle speed and acceleration in countries where emission regulations are particularly stringent, or particularly lax. As a further possibility the vehicle's current position may be used to access map data in order to look ahead for impending hazards or

changes in driving conditions. Thus the vehicle could adjust its performance, for example

suspension settings and/or cruise speed, as a precautionary measure. Thus if the driver was cruising on a fast road but a look ahead operation based on the map data indicated that one

or more sharp bends were ahead, then the vehicle could issue a warning (e.g. audible or visual) to the driver and may also automatically decelerate the vehicle to a more appropriate speed to take the corner. Similarly, if it was identified that the road had many

bends or was dangerous in some other form, the cruise control could warn the driver and optionally disable itself in order to ensure that the driver was exerting control over the vehicle. Additionally or alternatively the cruise control system may monitor the movements of the steering and automatically disable itself if the amount of steering (as judged by frequency and severity of movement of a steering control, normally the steering

wheel) performed by the driver exceeds a predetermined threshold.

Additionally enhanced GPS accuracy or differential GPS may be used to determine the vehicle's position to such an extent that it is possible to identify which lane of a carriageway the vehicle is on and this can be used to prevent the cruise controller from identifying a target vehicle as being in one lane, for example directly ahead, when in fact the carriageway curves and consequently the lanes of the carriageway are offset from their expected positions. The present invention will further be described, by way of example, with reference to the

accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of an automobile control system incorporating an

embodiment of the present invention; and

Figure 2 schematically illustrates the system blocks within an automobile fitted with the

present invention.

As shown in Figure 1, a vehicle is provided with a cruise control 2 responsive to a distance

measuring sensor, e.g. a radar sensor, 4 and arranged to control the brakes 6 and engine 8. The cruise controller 2 and radar sensor 4 are of the type described in EP 0716949 which is incorporated herein by reference. Specifically, the radar sensor is able to determine the range to a target, the relative speed of the target and the angular offset of the target. This

data is transferred to the cruise controller 2 such that the controller has knowledge concerning the speed and distance to vehicles not only directly ahead of the vehicle being

controlled, but also in lanes to the side of the vehicle being controlled. On the basis of this information, the cruise controller can target which vehicle is to be identified as a primary target and, in accordance with its programming, can decide whether an overtaking manoeuvre to one side or another of a target vehicle is legal or illegal within the country in which the controlled vehicle is traveling.

In order to provide automated updating of the rules governing the cruise controller's operation, the controller 2 receives data concerning whether a fast lane is the right hand lane or the left hand lane, and also an indication of the local rules for overtaking. The data

is derived from a database in response to an estimate of the vehicle's position.

The position determining system comprises a navigation system 10, for example a GPS system, which provides position data which is used by a data processor to access a look up table 12 in order to obtain a country identifying output. This data is then used by the data

processor to access a national driving rule database 14 which identifies relevant local rules

to the cruise controller 2. Thus the national driving rule database passes information to the cruise controller identifying whether the vehicle is in a left hand drive or right hand drive jurisdiction. It can also pass information concerning whether overtaking in a "slow lane" ie

undertaking is legal or illegal within that jurisdiction or, depending on the complexity of the data base and national by-laws, whether such an manoeuvre is permitted on certain

specified carriageways. The national rule database may also pass default maximum speeds to the cruise controller in order that the driver does inadvertently exceed the local speed limits, unless he has chosen to override the default speed suggested to the cruise controller.

The automatic cruise control 2 is responsive to driver actuation of at least one of the accelerator pedals, the brake pedal, and optionally the steering wheel. Thus the cruise controller can deactivate when the driver intervenes by pressing either the accelerator or brake pedals, and may also deactivate or change its mode of operation in response to a steering command. The cruise controller is also responsive to a headway control 16 which allows the driver to select a desired time separation between the controlled vehicle and the target vehicle. Similarly, the cruise controller is also responsive to the vehicle indicator turn switch 18. Thus, the cruise controller operation may be modified in response to driver command. For example, if the driver is in a left hand drive jurisdiction, such as the UK,

and wishes to overtake a vehicle in front, the driver operates the turn switch 18 to indicate that he is going to move to the right. From this, the cruise controller 2 can deduce that the driver wishes to overtake the target vehicle and can reduce the target distance in order that

the overtaking manoeuvre can be completed in a short a period as possible. Once the driver has moved out of the vehicle lane in which it has been traveling, as detected by the

steering manoeuvre or by the automatic canceling of the turn switch, the cruise control can then revert to the set cruise speed as the original target vehicle will no longer be in front of

the controlled vehicle.

However, if the driver indicates that he wishes to manoeuvre into a slower lane, which may be precursor to a left turn from the carriageway, then the operation of the cruise controller is modified in order to set the maximum acceleration to zero such that, once the road

ahead becomes clear, the vehicle does not accelerate since sudden acceleration when approaching an exit road could be disconcerting, if not dangerous. Once the turn is completed, as determined from monitoring the steering wheel or the turn switch, normal cruise control operation is resumed, either immediately or after a small delay to ensure that the turn has actually been completed. Conversely, if the vehicle was then taken into a jurisdiction with drives on the right, the operation of the cruise controller would need to be modified since indicating a left turn would then be the precursor to an overtaking manoeuvre and consequently the maximum acceleration limit should not be set to zero. Figure 2 shows the implementation of the system of Figure 1 within a vehicle in which data is interchanged between units via a car area network data bus. The engine controller 8, brake controller 6 and cruise controller 2 already communicate over the data bus 30. Thus modification of the vehicle hardware to incorporate such a system is minimal since it is

merely required to interface the navigation system (GPS or similar) to the data bus 30 as

well as to provide an interconnect between the turn switch 18 and the data bus 30 via a man

machine interface unit 32.

The cruise controller or another vehicle system may compare data received from the position determining system and the radar or other system such as a machine vision system to determine if the driver is driving on the expected side of the carriageway. If the driver is not on the expected side and is deemed not to be executing an overtaking manoeuvre, then an alarm signal may be asserted to indicate to the driver that he is driving on the wrong side of the road.

It is thus possible to provide a position identification system which provides an output to

other vehicle systems in order to modify their behaviour dependent upon the geographical position of the vehicle.

Claims

1. A vehicle behaviour modification apparatus, characterised by a position detector

(10) for determining the position of a vehicle and for outputting positional information to vehicle systems (14, 2) in order to modify their behaviour.

2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that the position derived from

the position detector (10) is used to identify the country in which the vehicle is travelling.

3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 or 2, characterised in that the position derived from the position detector (10) is compared with map data to identify road data for

automatic setting of a cruise control of a vehicle.

4. An apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the position detector (10) comprises at least one receiver responsive to transmitted signals, and a data processor for processing the at least one signal to determine the

vehicles position.

5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 4, characterised in that the receiver is a Global positioning satellite or differential global positioning satellite receiver.

6. An apparatus as claimed in claim 4 or 5, characterised in that the receiver is responsive to at least one of signals transmitted by mobile telephone networks, radio broadcasts FM radio broadcasts, and television transmission.

7. An apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the position detector comprises one of an inertial navigation system and a distance

and direction navigation system.

8. A cruise control for a vehicle, comprising a data processor (2) for determining desired vehicle speed or acceleration in accordance with a predetermined strategy, and a vehicle position determining means (10, 12, 14) for supplying information concerning the position of the vehicle to the data processor (2) such that the control strategy can be adapted in response to the vehicle's position.

9. A vehicle including a vehicle behaviour modification apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7, or including a cruise controller as claimed in claim 8.

10. A vehicle as claimed in claim 9, characterised by comprising means for performing

at least one of:

using country information data to change the deflection of headlights;

using country information data to actuate day running lights;

variation of engine management control strategies to meet emission regulations in a particular country;

looking ahead at map data to issue a warning of impending hazards, and/or to adjust target speed.

11. A cruise control as claimed in claim 8, characterised in that it is responsive to a database of national driving rules such that appropriate rules are selected on the

basis of the vehicle's position.

12. A vehicle behaviour modification apparatus in combination with means for determining which side of a carriageway a vehicle is driving on and for issuing a

warning if the vehicle is not on the expected side.

13. A method of modifying the operation of vehicle systems, comprising the steps of

estimating a vehicle's position, using this to identify the country in which the vehicle is travelling and accessing a database of rules and/or vehicle operating parameters to vary the operation of vehicle systems in accordance with the country in which the vehicle is in.

14. A computer program product for performing the method of claim 13.