VEHICLE TRAVEL CONTROL APPARATUS

• US 20100305804A1
• Filed: 06/01/2010
• Published: 12/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Taguchi, Koji
• Granted Patent: US 8,515,615 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/29
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/00 Methods or arrangements for processing data by operating upon the order or content of the data handled logic circuits H03K19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/167 Driving aids for lane monitoring, lane changing, e.g. blind spot detection

Abstract

A vehicle travel control apparatus that controls state of travel of a vehicle by adjusting output of the vehicle relative to amount of operation of an operation member includes: a vehicle travel state detection portion that detects the state of travel of the vehicle; and an output adjustment portion that, when the amount of operation of the operation member increases, adjusts degree of increase in the output of the vehicle to a degree that is greater if amount of increase in the amount of operation of the operating member is smaller, based on the state of travel of the vehicle, and that, when the amount of operation of the operation member decreases, adjusts degree of decrease in the output of the vehicle to a degree that is greater if the amount of decrease in the amount of operation is smaller, based on the state of travel of the vehicle.

Claims

1. A vehicle travel control apparatus that controls state of travel of a vehicle by adjusting output of the vehicle relative to amount of operation of an operation member, comprising:

a vehicle travel state detection portion that detects the state of travel of the vehicle; and

an output adjustment portion that, when the amount of operation of the operation member increases, adjusts degree of increase in the output of the vehicle to a degree that is greater if amount of increase in the amount of operation of the operating member is smaller, based on the state of travel of the vehicle, and that, when the amount of operation of the operation member decreases, adjusts degree of decrease in the output of the vehicle to a degree that is greater if the amount of decrease in the amount of operation is smaller, based on the state of travel of the vehicle.

2. The vehicle travel control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the vehicle travel state detection portion has a vehicle entrance prediction portion that predicts entrance of the vehicle into an undesirable region that is undesirable to a driver of the vehicle, based on the state of travel of the vehicle; and

the output adjustment portion adjusts the output of the vehicle so as to evade the entrance of the vehicle into the undesirable region.

3. The vehicle travel control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the undesirable region is a dilemma zone that is defined by a possible-to-stop curve that represents velocity of the vehicle and distance of the vehicle to a traffic light stop line which have such a relation that a stop position at which the vehicle traveling at the velocity and at the distance is able to stop through deceleration coincides with the traffic light stop line, and by a possible-to-pass straight line that represents the velocity of the vehicle and the distance of the vehicle to the traffic light stop line from which the vehicle is expected to pass the traffic light stop line before the vehicle is not allowed to pass the traffic light stop line.

4. The vehicle travel control apparatus according to claim 3, wherein when there is a preceding vehicle that precedes the vehicle, the output adjustment portion executes at least one of reducing the degree of increase in the output of the vehicle relative to the amount of operation of an accelerator pedal that is the operation member and increasing the degree of decrease in the output of the vehicle relative to the amount of operation of the accelerator pedal.

5. The vehicle travel control apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the output adjustment portion alters the degree of increase or the degree of decrease in the output of the vehicle relative to the amount of operation of the accelerator pedal based on a positional relation of the preceding vehicle to the dilemma zone.

6. The vehicle travel control apparatus according to claim 3, wherein:

when there is a succeeding vehicle that succeeds the vehicle, the undesirable region is an optional zone in which the distance to the stop position from the vehicle traveling is longer than in the dilemma zone, and which is defined by the possible-to-stop curve that represents velocity of the vehicle and the distance of the vehicle to the traffic light stop line which have such a relation that the stop position at which the vehicle traveling at the velocity and at the distance is able to stop through deceleration coincides with the traffic light stop line, and by the possible-to-pass straight line that represents the velocity of the vehicle and the distance of the vehicle to the traffic light stop line from which the vehicle is expected to pass the traffic light stop line before the vehicle is not allowed to pass the traffic light stop line; and

the output adjustment portion adjusts the output of the vehicle so as to evade the entrance of the vehicle into the optional zone.

7. The vehicle travel control apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the output adjustment portion adjusts the output of the vehicle so as to evade the entrance of the succeeding vehicle into the dilemma zone and the entrance of the succeeding vehicle into the optional zone.

8. The vehicle travel control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein:

the undesirable region is at least one of a merging point and a movement path changing point; and

when probability of existence of an other vehicle at the merging point or the movement path changing point is high, the output adjustment portion increases the degree of increase or the degree of decrease in the output of the vehicle relative to the amount of operation of an accelerator pedal that is the operation member.

9. The vehicle travel control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein:

the undesirable region is a merging point; and

when at the merging point, it is not possible to maintain acceleration/deceleration of an other vehicle if the vehicle changes lanes, the output adjustment portion increases the degree of increase or the degree of decrease in the output of the vehicle relative to the amount of operation of an accelerator pedal that is the operation member.

10. The vehicle travel control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the operation member is an accelerator pedal; and

the output adjustment portion makes such alteration that the degree of increase or the degree of decrease in the output of the vehicle relative to the amount of operation of the accelerator pedal becomes greater.

11. The vehicle travel control apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the output adjustment portion makes such alteration that the degree of increase or the degree of decrease in the output of the vehicle relative to the amount of operation of the accelerator pedal becomes greater if the distance from a present traveling position of the vehicle to an undesirable region that is undesirable to the driver is shorter.

12. The vehicle travel control apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the output adjustment portion makes such alteration that the degree of increase or the degree of decrease in the output of the vehicle relative to the amount of operation of the accelerator pedal becomes greater if a position of the entrance of the vehicle into an undesirable region that is undesirable to the driver is nearer to a central position in the undesirable region.

13. The vehicle travel control apparatus according to claim 10, wherein:

when a position of the entrance of the vehicle into an undesirable region that is undesirable to the driver is near to a position at which it is possible pass the traffic light stop line before the traffic light turns red, with reference to the undesirable region, the output adjustment portion increases the degree of increase in the output of the vehicle relative to the amount of operation of the accelerator pedal; and

when the position of the entrance of the vehicle into the undesirable region is near to a position at which it is possible to stop at the traffic light stop line, with reference to the undesirable region, the output adjustment portion increases the degree of decrease in the output of the vehicle relative to the amount of operation of the accelerator pedal.

14. The vehicle travel control apparatus according to claim 10, wherein an undesirable region that is undesirable to the driver is a dilemma zone that is defined by a possible-to-stop curve that represents velocity of the vehicle and distance of the vehicle to a traffic light stop line which have such a relation that a stop position at which the vehicle traveling at the velocity and at the distance is able to stop through deceleration coincides with the traffic light stop line, and by a possible-to-pass straight line that represents the velocity of the vehicle and the distance of the vehicle to the traffic light stop line from which the vehicle is expected to pass the traffic light stop line before the vehicle is not allowed to pass the traffic light stop line.

15. The vehicle travel control apparatus according to claim 14, wherein there is a preceding vehicle that precedes the vehicle, the output adjustment portion executes at least one of reducing the degree of increase in the output of the vehicle relative to the amount of operation of the accelerator pedal and increasing the degree of decrease in the output of the vehicle relative to the amount of operation of the accelerator pedal.

16. The vehicle travel control apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the output adjustment portion alters the degree of increase or the degree of decrease in the output of the vehicle relative to the amount of operation of the accelerator pedal based on a positional relation of the preceding vehicle to the dilemma zone.

17. The vehicle travel control apparatus according to claim 14, wherein:

when there is a succeeding vehicle that succeeds the vehicle, an undesirable region that is undesirable to the driver is an optional zone in which the distance to the stop position from the vehicle traveling is longer than in the dilemma zone, and which is defined by the possible-to-stop curve that represents the velocity of the vehicle and the distance of the vehicle to the traffic light stop line which have such a relation that the stop position at which the vehicle traveling at the velocity and at the distance is able to stop through deceleration coincides with the traffic light stop line, and by the possible-to-pass straight line that represents the velocity of the vehicle and the distance of the vehicle to the traffic light stop line from which the vehicle is expected to pass the traffic light stop line before the vehicle is not allowed to pass the traffic light stop line; and

the output adjustment portion adjusts the output of the vehicle so as to evade the entrance of the vehicle into the optional zone.

18. The vehicle travel control apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the output adjustment portion adjusts the output of the vehicle so as to evade the entrance of the succeeding vehicle into the dilemma zone and the entrance of the succeeding vehicle into the optional zone.

19. The vehicle travel control apparatus according to claim 10, wherein:

an undesirable region that is undesirable to the driver is at least one of a merging point and a movement path changing point; and

when probability of existence of an other vehicle at the merging point or the movement path changing point is high, the output adjustment portion increases the degree of increase or the degree of decrease in the output of the vehicle relative to the amount of operation of the accelerator pedal.

20. The vehicle travel control apparatus according to claim 10, wherein:

an undesirable region that is undesirable to the driver is a merging point; and

when at the merging point, it is not possible to maintain acceleration/deceleration of an other vehicle if the vehicle changes lanes, the output adjustment portion increases the degree of increase or the degree of decrease in the output of the vehicle relative to the amount of operation of the accelerator pedal.

21. The vehicle travel control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the output adjustment portion has a basic map in which the a target acceleration/deceleration is set according to the amount of operation of the accelerator pedal; and

when the evasive induction target acceleration/deceleration is set according to the state of travel of the vehicle, an induction map is generated by correcting the basic map so that amount of change in acceleration/deceleration of the vehicle commensurate with an operation change amount of the accelerator pedal within a predetermined range that contains the amount of operation of the accelerator pedal that corresponds to the evasive induction target acceleration/deceleration.