TRAIN-OF-VEHICLE TRAVEL SUPPORT DEVICE

• US 20110118967A1
• Filed: 06/30/2009
• Published: 05/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Tsuda, Yoshiaki
• Granted Patent: US 9,520,064 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/117
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2420/403 Image sensing, e.g. optical camera
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2420/408 Radar; Laser, e.g. lidar
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/10 Longitudinal speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/10 Path keeping cruise control for automatically following a preceding vehicle B60W30/165
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/16 Control of distance between vehicles, e.g. keeping a distance to preceding vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/161 Decentralised systems, e.g. inter-vehicle communication

Abstract

A train-of-vehicle travel support device which enables a train-of-vehicle travel of a plurality of vehicles even on a running road in which no magnetic marker is embedded. The train-of-vehicle travel support device includes a sensor unit obtaining road line shape data of a feature on a road surface, a processor unit obtaining running control data based on comparison of the road line shape data obtained by the sensor unit and reference data which has been previously stored, and an inter-vehicle communication device transmitting wirelessly the running control data obtained by the processor unit to a following vehicle.

Claims

1. A train-of-vehicle travel support device comprising:

a preceding-vehicle-mounted sensor unit obtaining road line shape data including a three-dimensional position and data of a shape of a feature on a road surface;

a preceding-vehicle-mounted processor unit searching corresponding points in the road line shape data showing the three-dimensional position and the shape of the feature obtained by the preceding-vehicle-mounted sensor unit and in reference data including a three dimensional position and data of a shape of the road surface which has been previously stored, computing a difference, in a three-dimensional position coordinate, between the corresponding point at a side of the road line shape data and the corresponding point at a side of the reference data, and obtaining running control data of a preceding vehicle based on the difference of the three-dimensional position coordinate computed;

an inter-vehicle communication device transmitting the running control data of the preceding vehicle obtained by the preceding-vehicle-mounted processor unit to a following vehicle; and

a following-vehicle-mounted processor unit obtaining running control data of the following vehicle based on the running control data of the preceding vehicle transmitted by the inter-vehicle communication device.

2. The train-of-vehicle travel support device of claim 1,

wherein the preceding-vehicle-mounted processor unit corrects a self-position measured by navigation positioning based on the difference of the three-dimensional position coordinate computed, and obtains the running control data of the preceding vehicle based on the self-position corrected.

3. The train-of-vehicle travel support device of claim 1, further comprising:

a following-vehicle-mounted sensor unit mounted on the following vehicle and measuring position gap amount of the self-vehicle with respect to the preceding vehicle,

wherein the following-vehicle-mounted processor unit obtains running control data of the self-vehicle based on the running control data of the preceding vehicle and the position gap amount measured by the following-vehicle-mounted sensor unit.

4. The train-of-vehicle travel support device of claim 2, further comprising:

a following-vehicle-mounted sensor unit mounted on the following vehicle and measuring position gap amount of the self-vehicle with respect to the preceding vehicle,

wherein the following-vehicle-mounted processor unit obtains running control data of the self-vehicle based on the running control data of the preceding vehicle and the position gap amount measured by the following-vehicle-mounted sensor unit.