WO2021106024A1

WO2021106024A1 - Automatic guidance system substituting the driver in case of malaise or critical conditions

Info

Publication number: WO2021106024A1
Application number: PCT/IT2020/050294
Authority: WO
Inventors: Valentina DADDI
Original assignee: Vdproject S.R.L.
Priority date: 2019-11-25
Filing date: 2020-11-25
Publication date: 2021-06-03
Also published as: IT201900022041A1; WO2021106024A9; WO2021106024A4

Abstract

The here described system is intended to be used on vehicles able to operate on road and to solve the problem of substituting the manual driving action of the driver with the automatic driving action of the vehicle anytime the driver does not feel fit enough for prosecuting the manual driving action or because of the detection of an anomalous vehicle state while travelling. This is achieved through a peculiar automatic driving action with the elaboration of the control command completely internal to the vehicle, as to drive the user to a place and to a condition of safe stop, as well as through further automatic functions.

Description

DESCRIPTION

Title of the invention: Automatic guidance system substituting the driver in case of malaise or critical conditions Technical Field

The here described system is intended for application on vehicles which may also circulate on roads, therefore for application on vehicles intended for exclusive usage on road or on vehicles which have on-road or off-road application, and it aims to solve the problem of substituting the guidance action of the driver with the automatic guidance action of the vehicle anytime the driver does not feel fit enough for keeping on driving with manual commands, for example because of a sudden unexpected malaise, or because of the detection of an anomalous state of the vehicle while moving which would cause its imminent shutdown or turning off, leading therefore the user in such circumstances to a place and to a condition of safe stop and activating simultaneously the emergency call towards the Public Safety Answering Point or the like and/or towards the road rescue. Its application is intended mainly for four-wheel vehicles for people and/or goods transport or transportation, therefore for vehicles belonging to M and N categories, as per EU Regulation n. 858/2018 and equivalent UNECE standard; it can be extended also to agricultural vehicles as per EU Regulation n. 167/2013 and equivalent UNECE standard, to three- wheel vehicles or the like, which are included in vehicles belonging to L category as per EU Regulation n. 168/2013 and equivalent UNECE standard; the application on two-wheel vehicles is also evaluated, although the actuation could reveal itself more complicated in comparison to the previously described cases mainly because of the management of the load to keep vertical balance due to the presence of the rider.

Background Art

As to introduce the here present description, it is here reported a vocabulary based on technical terms and abbreviations known at the state of the art: - The term “automatic guidance” means the capability of the vehicle to control through input signals generated within the vehicle itself all the systems necessary to define its travel dynamics; among them the steering system is present, therefore the term “automatic guidance” refers also to the “automatically commanded steering function” as per UN Regulation n. 79.

In particular, the terms “automatic control of vehicle guidance” or “control logic for the automatic guidance” mean a complex of vehicle on-board control systems able to automatically move the vehicle steering, to automatically activate the braking system of the vehicle, to automatically regulate the vehicle speed and the torque supplied from the power unit, to automatically intervene in the selection of transmission ratio between power unit and wheels, if present, and to automatically intervene in the activation of vehicle emergency lighting and/or of human-machine interaction components which perform similar operations through the reproduction of bright images, for example screens;

- The term “emergency call” indicates all the systems applied or defined in the European Union or in extra-European regions as to automatically perform the call towards the Public Safety Answering Point PSAP or its equivalent directly or indirectly through a third-party; to the purpose, the references include the European standards EN 15722:2015, EN 16102:2011, EN 16072:2015 which define the European eCall Emergency Call system and related standards or technical specifications, such as CEN/TS 17249:2019, and the system named “Automatic Crash Notification System”, valid in the territory of United States of America U.S.A., as indicated in ISO 24978:2009 standard;

- The abbreviation “MSD” which refers to the term “Minimum Set of Data” indicates the data content and the data structure to be transmitted through a message in case of Emergency Call as per European standard EN 15722:2015 and as per related Directive which puts this into effect;

- The term “manual activation” means the presence of at least one push button, one switch, one lever or the like inside the vehicle which the driver can manually pull or push as to alert the vehicle of his/her condition of malaise and as to permit the activation of automatic guidance control logics;

- The term “emergency stopping lay-by” means the area beyond the carriageway where the vehicle can be parked for emergency reasons; - The term “safety stopping place” means an area suitable for the parking of the vehicle in which the surrounding vehicles are stopped or moved at very low speed; as example and as a means for clarifying, in the definition of “safety stopping place” parking areas, service stations, road tolling stations included in the carriageway, the emergency lane and the emergency stopping lay-by, which are placed beyond the carriageway, are included;

- The abbreviation “ABS” which refers to the term “Anti-lock Braking System” means the Anti-lock Braking System, as known at the state of the art;

- The abbreviation “ECU”, which refers to the terms “Electronic Control Unit”, means a generic electronic control unit among the vehicle on-board electronic control units.

Moreover, where not differently specified, the international measurement unit system is here considered as metric system to define the default values in the control logics, which can be converted to be expressed with other metric systems, if necessary; as far as the reference values for speed are concerned, the kilometer per hour is used as measurement unit, indicated with the abbreviation “km/h”, where 1 km/h is equal to 5/18 m/s.

At the state of the art automatic guidance systems are known, regulated on the international markets also through the UN Regulation n.79 and they are already applied to commercial products intended for agricultural vehicles, they result on trial on four-wheel road vehicles for people and goods transport or transportation or they are already commercialized for the application on the same vehicles, as long as they are limited to parking manoeuvre. Moreover, the Emergency Call system is known, whose implementation is compulsory within the territory of European Union for newly homologated cars and commercial vehicles, and the systems to detect tiredness and the physical state of the driver are also known, already present on road vehicles and whose main role is operating the steering controls with minimum steering angle with the aim of recalling the driver’s attention in case of tiredness automatically detected through the on-board sensors and of maintaining the trajectory stability in the lane. To this extent, some examples consist in patent number and/or patent application number EP2699463, FR2848010, MI2014A000968, RM2012A000540, US

2019/0235514, WO 2018074148, US 2019/0236950.

Disclosure Of Invention

As reported in the previous “Technical Field” section, the here described system is intended to solve the problem of substituting the guidance action of the driver with the automatic guidance action of the vehicle anytime the driver does not feel fit enough for keeping on driving with vehicle manual commands for many reasons, among which first of all a sudden unexpected malaise can be considered, and it is intended to operate an automatic guidance action with the elaboration of the control command completely internal to the vehicle, as to lead the user to a place and to a condition of safe parking; at the same time, the system activates the automatic emergency call towards the Safety Answering Point, indicating to it the presence of a state of driver malaise. The same system application can occur also in case of detection of an anomalous state of the vehicle which would cause it the imminent shutdown or turning off. In any case, the here proposed guidance system is neither a guidance which is controlled externally from the vehicle, nor a guidance with corrective actions only and therefore its usage is intended for road vehicles with a high automation grade; it is however considered the objective of risk minimization and maximum safety level for the final user.

As to achieve the above described objective, the system is able both to interact with systems already present in modern vehicles, as to determine the complete vehicle state and the user state at the time of its activation, and to operate all the on-board systems necessary for the guidance and for alerting the vehicles circulating in the nearby of the controlled vehicle about the fact that an emergency situation is occurring through the activation of emergency lights, as well as the system for automatic call, as previously introduced and as better specified in the following “Best Mode For Carrying Out The Invention” section. The automatic call can be activated in this context also towards road rescue services for the rescue of the vehicle in case of detected on-board failure.

Best Mode For Carrying Out The Invention

As to define the embodiments of the here described system, it is convenient to remind: - The vocabulary of technical terms and abbreviations, as per previous

“Background Art” section;

- The functional objective of the system, as introduced in the previous “Technical Field” and “Disclosure Of Invention” sections, which consists in the activation of the automatic control of vehicle guidance in case of detection through system manual activation or through measurement and automatic calculation of the driver condition of malaise or tiredness while driving the vehicle and in the automatic vehicle handling, as to reach a safety stopping place, such as an emergency stopping lay-by, with maximum safety level for the driver. From a functional point of view, the system performs the following functions and tasks:

1. At the time of manual activation for the indication of malaise, the system: a. Activates the emergency lighting of the vehicle; b. Commands the emergency call system to perform the emergency call, adding if possible the indication of malaise and/or tiredness in the automatic message towards the Public Safety Answering Point or the like, therefore in the MSD message or the like; c. Measures the distance between the controlled vehicle and the vehicle behind it and gradually reduces the vehicle speed of the controlled vehicle under the value of 30 km/h, therefore leads the vehicle to a vehicle speed inferior to that threshold; the system performs firstly an automatic braking action, then decides the behavior to be held during the automatic guidance and finally intervenes on the steering commands and on the commands of all the other vehicle systems as above cited.

This value of threshold is compatible, for example, with the current international regulation, which provides for road vehicles a maximum vehicle speed in steering manoeuvre equal to 10 km/h and it is at the same time compatible with possible future modifications of the same regulation.

The system shall act as to guarantee a stopping distance sufficient for the vehicle behind it, which is calculated from the current distance between the controlled vehicle and the vehicle behind it and from the value of necessary distance for deceleration based on the first two measurements of vehicle speed acquired at the time of system activation. If no vehicle behind the controlled vehicle is detected or present, the system considers a conservative stopping distance, that is to say a minimum stopping distance, not inferior to 20 m, which can be increased as a function of vehicle speed acquired at the time of manual activation by the user of the system push button or switch or lever or the like indicating the malaise or tiredness. The same functional logic is performed if the request of system activation derives from the measurements acquired through the on-board sensors.

The vehicle stopping distance can be however modulated and minimized by the system if the on-board sensors and/or the localization system and/or the identification system for road signs and obstacles alert about the presence of a stop, of a fixed or moving entity in front of the vehicle, for which the immediate application of emergency braking is necessary;

Calculates the current position of the vehicle inside the carriageway, the minimum distance and the trajectory which the vehicle shall follow to take it in the first available safety stopping place; as a function of performed calculation, the system decides if: i. Maintaining the vehicle inside the carriageway, preferably maintaining for the longest time possible the driving trajectory inside the lane in which the vehicle is present at the time of system activation and therefore commanding the steering trajectory as per road profile, moving the vehicle until the first safety stopping place, where the evaluation of the first safety stopping place is performed taking the distance and the simplicity of manoeuvre measured as lateral displacement into account, and bringing the same vehicle to the complete stop or ii. Trying to gradually move the vehicle starting from the first instant of activation of automatic guidance until it reaches the emergency lane, progressively crossing the carriage lanes necessary to reach the same emergency lane; this functionality can imply also a complicated and complex manoeuvre as the crossing of all carriage lanes is.

It is here again specified that the system performs the decisional criterion only after the vehicle has reached a speed value inferior to 30 km/h and a dynamic profile of descendent vehicle speed and that the speed at which the vehicle can perform the automatic steering manoeuvre does not exceed the limitations provided in the directives and regulations in force applicable to the product, as a function of the vehicle category in which the present system is applied. Since the limits of vehicle speed for automatic manoeuvre and the characteristics of steering as per product regulations are defined, these aspects are not further deepened in the present text. The decisional criterion which the system applies is based above all, in addition to the previous considerations, on the minimization of the manoeuvre risk, which can be explicated in mathematical terms through the following aspects:

- The presence of a safety stopping place, such as the emergency lane or the like, next to or in the proximity of the driving lane, detected through the system for localization and acquisition of information about the type of surrounding places (for example, the localization of a SOS emergency stopping lay- by in highway) and/or through the identification system for road signs and obstacles which surround the vehicle (for example, the identification of a row of parked cars next to the moving vehicle) or the presence of a generic parking place in which it is possible to create a safety condition and - The detection of absence of vehicles moving around the controlled vehicle in a ray whose length is at least equal to 40 m, as to be certain to be able to start the lane crossing manoeuvre at low speed, that is a speed equal or inferior to 10 km/h as per current regulation for road vehicles and as above described, without forcing other vehicles to dangerous manoeuvre or dangerous braking actions.

A first simple example of authorized manoeuvre by the system consists in the use case in which the vehicle is travelling on the minimum-speed lane of the highway; therefore, subsequently to the indication from the driver of a condition of malaise, it detects the available emergency lane and performs all the operations as per previous “a.”, “b.”, “c.” and “d., ii.” points.

A second use case which can be considered as example consists in a vehicle travelling on the maximum-speed lane of the highway for which one of the worst conditions for the vehicle and the surrounding environment occurs, that is to say the absence of arranged safety stopping places within the distance which the vehicle can sustain as a function of the available on-board energy and the impossibility of lane crossing due to the traffic jam; in this case, the system keeps the vehicle on the initial lane, commanding deceleration in a way to let the driver of the vehicle behind the controlled vehicle have a sufficient stopping distance for the sake of his/her safety and of the safety of all living beings present in the automated vehicle as well, as well as to perceive the problem of the controlled vehicle and the fact that it is going to reach a stopping condition. It is here intended as part of the state of the art that the system communicates to the user all its state changes, therefore the activation and the deactivation of its functionalities;

2. In case of automatic detection of tiredness and/or malaise from the on- board sensors, the system starts to interact with the user through the on board available Human-Machine Interface and asks the driver the authorisation, that is to say the consent, to activate the automatic guidance control; the request may be forwarded through audio indications, visual indications or both of them; the answer of the driver is evaluated as positive if the same driver releases all the pedals or the equivalent commands for acceleration, braking and clutch disconnection, for the vehicles provided with manual selection of gear ratio, for at least 10 s or if in such conditions within 10 s the number of rounds of engine, either in case of a motor using a single technology or in case of power unit with hybrid technology, diminishes of at least the 20% from the value measured at the time of system authorization request to operate. If the driver confirms the authorisation, the system performs all the function as per previous point n. “1”.

3. The system can operate as per previous point n. “2.” also if it detects some types of on-board severe fault or a condition which can take it to the shutdown or turning off while travelling, for example: as far as the oil circuit is concerned, detected minimum oil pressure value or minimum oil level detected through a float; anomalous, that is to say unexpected, value of absorbed current from the power unit actuators; anomalous power unit temperature; anomalous behavior of one of the tires. In this case, the automatic emergency call is going to be executed simultaneously with the automatic call to the road rescue service number, either if it was previously set by the driver or if it consists in a public use number, and the system informs the user through the Human-Machine Interface about the type of detected fault.

The automatic guidance system can be deactivated on driver’s request, expressed at the time in which the driver pushes any pedal or manually interacts with any on-board actuators with the exception of air conditioning actuators and window actuators; it is obviously intended, as to be consistent with what previously stated, that only the driver keeps the control of steering, as long as the vehicle reaches a vehicle speed inferior to the threshold allowed for automatic manoeuvre and that, also when the automatic manoeuvre is activated, the steering manual command can be activated again at any time. In this case, the emergency call is going to terminate as per procedure expected at the state of the art by law; the call to the road rescue service is going to cease when the road rescue service which receives the call closes the communication.

From a system physical architectural point of view and from a system integration point of view, the system requires the presence of the following minimum systems and components with which it shall interact, through which it shall acquire input data communicated using high-speed on-board communication protocols or communication protocols for on-air transmission of encrypted uncorruptible data and by means of which it shall operate the electrical, mechanical and/or hydraulic on-board units with the same security criteria used for exchanged data and signals:

- Localization system which includes among its sensors at least two GPS sensors, that is to say receivers, and similar techniques or receivers providing signal coverage in partially closed environments (such as radio antennas to be used in tunnels) with the objective of calculation of vehicle localization inside the carriageway and, if possible, at least three units for photo or video acquisition, one of which shall be placed in the front of vehicle or at the rear of the vehicle and two of which shall be placed on the sides of the vehicle;

- Obstacle detection system containing at least four sensors placed at the corners of the vehicle, such as radar sensors or the like already available at the state of the art, as to provide the system with an indication of the necessity to activate the emergency braking and to let the system decide if performing the lane changing manoeuvre or not;

- For the same purpose of the previous paragraph, it is envisaged the presence of a system which acquires information about the safety stopping places available in the nearby of the vehicle considering a ray of at least 500 m around the estimated vehicle position; the system functioning can be based on real-time downloaded data from at least one reference database or preloaded in the system electronic control unit and already automatically checked for their validity, completeness and consistency, that is to say integrity, updated periodically and/or during system operation;

- A call system able to perform both the emergency call as per regulation in force and a call towards a public and/or private number for road rescue service;

- At least two communication channels dedicated to the interaction with the ABS braking electronic control unit, if this is not incorporated in the automatic guidance system electronic control unit and/or at least two electrical outputs driven for the closure of at least one braking actuator, such as the closure of one breaking actuator for each brake disc if the type of brake installed on vehicle is the disc brake, which is added to the other actuators already present on the same components;

- At least two cabled communication channels which are dedicated to the interaction with the steering electronic control unit, if this is not incorporated in the automatic guidance system electronic control unit, and/or at least two driven electrical outputs, where the number of required cables varies as a function of the specifications of the steering actuators (electro- hydraulic, pure electric or electro-mechanical actuators);

- At least two communication channels dedicated to the interaction with the electronic control unit ECU for engine or motor or power unit, if this is not incorporated in the electronic control unit of the automatic guidance system; if it is incorporated instead, the robustness condition varies as a function of the type of installed motorization, which on a general level shall guarantee as output the supply of minimum required torque for vehicle traction;

- At least two cabled communication channels dedicated to the interaction with the electronic control unit for transmission automatic control, if a mechanical system for gear change is present on the vehicle and if the above said control unit is not incorporated within the automatic guidance system electronic control unit; in case of a single electronic control unit for automatic guidance and automatic gear selection, the presence of a redundant electrical actuator is required, which should be at least double on the arm for gear selection or the like;

- At least two cabled communication channels dedicated to the communication towards the vehicle body electronic control unit or the like with the aim of driving the lights on the vehicle, including the emergency lights, and one direct electrical output for driving the emergency lights on the vehicle, which constitute also the direction indication when necessary; to this output further electrical outputs can be added for the direct driving of all lights on the vehicle; - A push button or a switch or a lever or the like for human- machine manual interaction and system activation;

- Redundant electrical/electronic architecture for the calculation units placed internally to the system electronic control unit, in number at least equal to two; - At least one rechargeable battery internal to the electronic control unit.

An expert in the art can promptly realize that various modifications and changes can be applied to the present invention without following the here described embodiments as examples, without departing from the scope of present disclosure.

Claims

1. System of activation and actuation of automatic guidance for road vehicles composed of:

- A push button or a switch or a lever for manual activation of the system,

- A group of sensors for automatic activation of the system,

- An electronic control unit for calculation of control logics of automatic guidance installed on vehicle and provided at least with: o Two electrical outputs for direct activation of two related brake actuators, o Two electrical outputs for direct activation of emergency lighting on vehicle, o Two electrical outputs for the direct control of steering actuator, o Two electrical outputs for the direct control of transmission engagement, o An internal rechargeable battery for the independent power supply,

And at maximum eight cabled electrical lines for communication with the other vehicle on-board electronic control units, redundant in pairs for the steering electronic control unit, for the electronic control unit of engine or motor or power unit, for the braking electronic control unit and the transmission electronic control unit,

- At least two receivers for vehicle localization able to work in partially closed environment,

- Two cameras for the monitoring of environment which surrounds the vehicle, which are positioned at the lateral sides of the vehicle, in addition to at least a frontal or a rear camera,

- An obstacle detection system, - An electronic control unit which performs the automatic emergency call, where the emergency call is defined through EN 15722, EN 16072, EN 16102 and similar international standards and regulations, - A database through which the information about the localization of emergency stopping lay-bys can be remotely updated, characterized in that on manual activation through the pressure of button or switch or the like:

- It operates the brake actuators of the vehicle until it detects the vehicle speed under a set value and a minimum safety stopping distance between the controlled vehicle and the vehicle behind it;

- When the vehicle speed results lower than the set level, it decides for the activation of a first automatic guidance system which executes at first the deceleration of the vehicle on the current street lane or of a second automatic guidance system which: o Calculates the trajectory and the dynamic characteristics of the vehicle as to let the vehicle cross the street lanes until it goes beyond the carriageway and reaches the emergency lane and o Commands all the actuators internal to vehicle necessary for the purpose;

- It activates concurrently with the first braking action the automatic emergency call, adding as optional additional data a word or an acronym which indicates the status of malaise of the driver;

2. System as per previous claim n.1 characterized in that, if it receives a request of activation automatically calculated from the measurement of the on-board sensors, it waits the consent of the user before starting the operation and the consent is indicated through the release of manual commands of acceleration, braking and transmission, if present, by the driver for a defined period of time; 3. System as per previous claim n.1 characterized in that, if it receives a request of activation automatically calculated from the measurement of on-board sensors, it starts to operate only if it measures within a defined period of time a continuously descending profile of engine or motor or power unit number of rounds with a decrease rate in absolute value greater than a set value, if no failure condition is detected.