Vehicle control device

• US 10,137,932 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2017
• Issued: 11/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Oguro, Hiroshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tan Q
• Application Number:
  US15/718,190
• Publication Number:
  US 20180093709A1
• Time in Patent Office: 425 Days
• Field of Search: 701 23, 701 41
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0082 for initialising the control system
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/10 Longitudinal speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/00 Input parameters relating to infrastructure
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/30 Road curve radius
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/53 Road markings, e.g. lane marker or crosswalk
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/207 Steering angle of wheels
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/12 Lane keeping
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/18054 at stand still, e.g. engine in idling state hill holding B60W30/18118
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/10 related to vehicle motion
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 60/0051 from occupants to vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 15/025 Active steering aids, e.g. helping the driver by actively influencing the steering system after environment evaluation B62D1/28 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 6/002 computing target steering angles for front or rear wheels B62D7/159 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0212 with means for defining a desired trajectory involving a plurality of land vehicles G05D1/0287

Abstract

A vehicle control device is equipped with a target steering angle generating unit adapted to generate a target steering angle for a vehicle from a relationship between acquired lane information and an attitude of the vehicle, during a period in which a low speed traveling state is being detected, or during a period until a predetermined condition from a mode transition time point is satisfied, and a steering angle control unit adapted to control the steering angle of the vehicle so as to agree with the generated target steering angle.

Claims

1. A vehicle control device which is configured to be capable of implementing automatic driving or providing an automatic driving assist, comprising:

an external environment state detecting unit adapted to detect a state of external environment of a vehicle;

a lane information acquisition unit adapted to acquire lane information that is capable of specifying shape of a lane in which the vehicle intends to travel, on basis of a detection result by the external environment state detecting unit;

a state detecting unit adapted to detect a low speed traveling state in which speed of the vehicle is less than or equal to a predetermined value;

a target steering angle generating unit adapted to generate a target steering angle for the vehicle from a relationship between lane information acquired from the lane information acquisition unit and an attitude of the vehicle, during a period in which the low speed traveling state is being detected; and

a steering angle control unit adapted to control a steering angle of the vehicle so as to agree with the target steering angle generated by the target steering angle generating unit.

2. The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein the target steering angle generating unit generates the target steering angle from a relationship between an orientation of the vehicle and an orientation of the lane as indicated by the lane information, and/or from a relationship between a curvature corresponding to the attitude of the vehicle and a curvature of the lane as indicated by the lane information.

3. The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein the lane information acquisition unit acquires the lane information which is actually detected by the external environment state detecting unit under the low speed traveling state.

4. The vehicle control device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a trajectory generating unit adapted to generate a travel trajectory for the vehicle based on a detection result by the external environment state detecting unit;

wherein the lane information acquisition unit acquires as the lane information the travel trajectory generated by the trajectory generating unit.

5. A vehicle control device which is configured to be capable of implementing automatic driving or providing an automatic driving assist, comprising:

an external environment state detecting unit adapted to detect a state of external environment of a vehicle;

a lane information acquisition unit adapted to acquire lane information that is capable of specifying shape of a lane in which the vehicle intends to travel, on basis of a detection result by the external environment state detecting unit;

a transition detecting unit adapted to detect a mode transition time point at which an automatic driving mode transitions from an OFF state to an ON state while the vehicle is stopped;

a target steering angle generating unit adapted to generate a target steering angle for the vehicle from a relationship between lane information acquired from the lane information acquisition unit and an attitude of the vehicle, during a period from the mode transition time point detected by the transition detecting unit until a predetermined condition is satisfied; and

a steering angle control unit adapted to control a steering angle of the vehicle so as to agree with the target steering angle generated by the target steering angle generating unit.

6. The vehicle control device according to claim 5, wherein the target steering angle generating unit generates the target steering angle from a relationship between an orientation of the vehicle and an orientation of the lane as indicated by the lane information, and/or from a relationship between a curvature corresponding to the attitude of the vehicle and a curvature of the lane as indicated by the lane information.

7. The vehicle control device according to claim 5, wherein the lane information acquisition unit acquires, until the predetermined condition is satisfied, the lane information which is actually detected by the external environment state detecting unit.