Apparatus, program and method for collision avoidance support

• US 20110130936A1
• Filed: 10/26/2010
• Published: 06/02/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Noda, Kazuhiro
• Granted Patent: US 8,874,342 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/70
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/163 involving continuous checking
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/167 Driving aids for lane monitoring, lane changing, e.g. blind spot detection

Abstract

A collision avoidance support apparatus sets a side area right beside an own vehicle in an adjacent lane as a constant-speed target space, which is used for lane change at a constant speed, and also sets a diagonally-front area and a diagonally-rear area as alt-speed target spaces, which are used for lane change at an accelerated speed and at a decelerated speed. Then, a target space that is free of other vehicles is extracted by the apparatus. If there is no target space that is free of the other vehicles, the lane change is determined as unsafe. If there is no other vehicle in the constant-speed target space, the lane change is determined to be safe at the constant speed. If there is no other vehicle in at least one of the alt-speed target spaces, the lane change is determined to be safe at an accelerated speed or a decelerated speed.

Claims

1. A collision avoidance support apparatus for providing lane change support for an own vehicle when the own vehicle moves from a currently-traveling lane to an adjacent lane, the apparatus comprising:

a constant-speed targeting unit for setting as a target space a right-beside area of the own vehicle in the adjacent lane for constant-speed lane change of the own vehicle at a current speed;

an alt-speed targeting unit for setting as a target space at least one diagonally-side area of the own vehicle in the adjacent lane for altered-speed lane change of the own vehicle, wherein the diagonally-side area includes a forward extension of the right-beside area when the own vehicle is required to accelerate before moving to the target space in the adjacent lane, and wherein the diagonally-side area includes a backward extension of the right-beside area when the own vehicle is required to decelerate before moving to the target space in the adjacent lane;

a vehicle detection unit for detecting a position of an other vehicle that is traveling in the adjacent lane;

a target extraction unit for extracting, from among target spaces set by each of the targeting units, a target space that is free of the other vehicle based on the detected position of the other vehicle from the vehicle detection unit; and

a lane change determination unit for determining whether to perform a lane change, wherein the determination of whether to perform the lane change is one of (a) the lane change of the own vehicle is unsafe when each of the right-beside area and the diagonally-side areas in the adjacent lane is occupied by at least one other vehicle, (b) the lane change of the own vehicle to the right-beside area is safe at the current speed when the right-beside area in the adjacent lane is not occupied by the other vehicle, and (c) the lane change of the own vehicle to the diagonally-side area is safe after acceleration or deceleration when the diagonally-side area with the forward extension or with the backward extension in the adjacent lane is not occupied by the other vehicle.

2. The collision avoidance support apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a speed acquisition unit for acquiring information on a travel speed of the own vehicle, wherein

the constant-speed targeting unit and the alt-speed targeting unit set a size of the target space based on the information of the travel speed of the own vehicle.

3. The collision avoidance support apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a relative speed acquisition unit for acquiring a relative speed of the other vehicle in the adjacent lane relative to the own vehicle; and

a correction unit for correcting a size of the target space based on the relative speed.

4. The collision avoidance support apparatus of claim 3;

wherein

the correction unit corrects the size of the target space by adjusting a boundary of the target space on an other vehicle side with reference to a standard position that is positioned right beside the own vehicle in the adjacent lane, and

the adjusted boundary position of the target space on the other vehicle side is determined according to the relative speed.

5. The collision avoidance support apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a relative speed acquisition unit for acquiring a relative speed of the other vehicle in the adjacent lane relative to the own vehicle, wherein,

even when at least one of the right-beside area and the diagonally-side areas is free of the other vehicle, the lane change determination unit determines that the lane change should be postponed until passing-by of the other vehicle, if (a) the other vehicle exists in one of the right-beside area and the diagonally-side areas, and (b) the relative speed of approach of the other vehicle is equal to or greater than a threshold speed.

6. The collision avoidance support apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a notification unit for notifying a driver of the own vehicle of a determination result of the lane change determination unit.

7. The collision avoidance support apparatus of claim 6 further comprising:

an operation result acquisition unit for acquiring an operation result of a lane change operation by the driver of the own vehicle; and

a prohibition unit for prohibiting an operation of the notification unit when the lane change operation is not detected by the operation result acquisition unit.

8. The collision avoidance support apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a speed adjustment unit for automatically performing a speed adjustment until the speed of the own vehicle becomes suitable for lane change in case that the lane change determination unit has determined that the lane change is safe by acceleration or deceleration of the own vehicle.

9. The collision avoidance support apparatus of claim 8 further comprising:

an operation result acquisition unit for acquiring an operation result of a lane change operation by the driver of the own vehicle; and

a prohibition unit for prohibiting an operation, of the speed adjustment unit when the lane change operation is not detected.

10. A program product having instructions stored in a computer-readable storage medium, the instructions comprising:

controlling a computer to be serving as respective units that constitute the collision avoidance support apparatus of claim 1.

11. A method of avoiding collision of an own vehicle that is moving from a currently-traveling lane to an adjacent lane in traffic, the method comprising:

detecting a position of an other vehicle in the adjacent lane;

detecting a travel speed of the own vehicle;

calculating a relative speed of the other vehicle;

defining a lane change target space in the adjacent lane, the target space defined as at at least one of a side position, a diagonally-front position, and a diagonally-rear position of the own vehicle;

determining lane-changeability based on the defined lane change target space and the detected position of the other vehicle; and

providing a lane change instruction that instructs either (a) to move to the adjacent lane when the determined lane-changeability is positive, or (b) to stay in the currently-traveling lane when the determined lane-changeability is not positive.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein

a lane change instruction to move to the adjacent lane is provided when there is no vehicle in the target space of the side position.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein

a restricted lane change instruction is provided when there is at least one other vehicle in the target space of the side position.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein

the restricted lane change instruction to stay in the currently-traveling lane until overtaking is provided when the relative speed of the other vehicle in the target space of the side position is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein

the restricted lane change instruction to move to the adjacent lane is conditionally provided when the relative speed of the other vehicle in the target space of the side position is smaller than a predetermined threshold.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein

the restricted lane change instruction to move to the adjacent lane after deceleration is provided when there is no vehicle in the target space of the diagonally-rear position.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein

the restricted lane change instruction to move to the adjacent lane after acceleration is provided when (a) there is at least one other vehicle in the target space of the diagonally-rear position, and (b) there is no other vehicle in the target space of the diagonally-front position.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein

the lane change instruction is provided when an operation of a lane-change associated device by a driver of the own vehicle is detected.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein

the lane-change associated device is a blinker of the own vehicle.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein

at least one of an engine and a brake of the own vehicle is controlled to adjust the travel speed of the own vehicle based on the determination of lane-changeability.