RUNNING CONTROL DEVICE, AND RUNNING CONTROL METHOD

• US 20110137487A1
• Filed: 06/12/2009
• Published: 06/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Hayakawa, Yasuhisa, Kobayashi, Masahiro, Sato, Ko, Nishimaki, Shuhei
• Granted Patent: US 8,744,742 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 7/22 initiated by contact of vehicle, e.g. bumper, with an external object, e.g. another vehicle , or by means of contactless obstacle detectors mounted on the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/18 including control of braking systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/184 with wheel brakes
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/20 including control of steering systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2720/14 Yaw
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/08 Active safety systems predicting or avoiding probable or impending collision or attempting to minimise its consequences
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/0956 the prediction being responsive to traffic or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/12 Lane keeping
• 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 15/0265 Automatic obstacle avoidance by steering
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 6/002 computing target steering angles for front or rear wheels B62D7/159 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9318 Controlling the steering
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/16 Anti-collision systems road vehicle drive control systems for predicting or avoiding probable or impending collision otherwise than by control of a particular sub-unit B60W30/08
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/167 Driving aids for lane monitoring, lane changing, e.g. blind spot detection

Abstract

[Object] An object of the present invention is to restrict an unnecessary control intervention at a scene where a vehicle avoids an obstacle etc. ahead of the vehicle by steering.

[Means to Solve] A lateral object that exists on a side of the vehicle is detected (step S3), a later-arriving lateral position Xf at which the vehicle arrives after a lapse of a headway time Tt, with respect to a traffic lane, is estimated, and when the later-arriving lateral position Xf reaches a predetermined threshold value XL under the condition in which the lateral object is detected, a lane change of the vehicle in a direction to a side of the lateral object is suppressed. When detecting that the vehicle moves laterally in a direction opposite to a side of a side vehicle, an avoidance flag is set to Fa=1 (step S6). Subsequently, when the vehicle starts a lateral movement in a direction to the side of the side vehicle, a return flag is set to Fr=1 (step S7). When the return flag is set to Fr=1 in this way, a suppression flag is set to F=0 until a setting time Tm elapses, then the suppression of the lateral movement is forbidden (step S9).

Claims

1. A running control device comprising:

a lateral object detecting means that detects a lateral object which exists on a side of a vehicle;

a later-arriving position estimating means that estimates a later-arriving lateral position at which the vehicle arrives after a lapse of a predetermined time, with respect to a traffic lane;

a running controlling means that suppresses a lateral movement of the vehicle in a direction to a side of the lateral object when judging that the later-arriving lateral position estimated by the later-arriving position estimating means reaches a position of the lateral object side with respect to a predetermined lateral position under a condition in which the lateral object detecting means detects the lateral object;

an avoidance movement detecting means that detects that the vehicle laterally moves in a direction opposite to the side of the lateral object; and

a restricting means that restricts the suppression of the lateral movement executed by the running controlling means after the avoidance movement detecting means detects the lateral movement of the vehicle.

2. The running control device as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

after the avoidance movement detecting means detects the lateral movement of the vehicle, the restricting means restricts the suppression of the lateral movement executed by the running controlling means so that the greater the lateral movement in the direction opposite to the side of the lateral object, the greater the suppression of the lateral movement in the direction to the side of the lateral object.

3. The running control device as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

after the avoidance movement detecting means detects the lateral movement of the vehicle, the restricting means restricts the suppression of the lateral movement executed by the running controlling means so that the greater the lateral speed in the direction opposite to the side of the lateral object, the greater the suppression of the lateral movement in the direction to the side of the lateral object.

4. The running control device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a return movement detecting means that detects that the vehicle laterally moves in the direction to the side of the lateral object after the avoidance movement detecting means detects the lateral movement of the vehicle, and wherein

the restricting means restricts the suppression of the lateral movement executed by the running controlling means when the return movement detecting means detects the lateral movement of the vehicle.

5. The running control device as claimed in claim 4, wherein:

the restricting means restricts the suppression of the lateral movement executed by the running controlling means for a time period from a time point at which the return movement detecting means detects the lateral movement of the vehicle until a current lateral position of the vehicle with respect to the traffic lane returns to an initial lateral position when the avoidance movement detecting means detects the lateral movement of the vehicle.

6. The running control device as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the restricting means restricts the suppression of the lateral movement executed by the running controlling means by correcting at least one of the later-arriving lateral position and the predetermined lateral position so that the later-arriving lateral position estimated by the later-arriving position estimating means is less apt to reach the predetermined lateral position.

7. The running control device as claimed in claim 6, wherein:

the restricting means corrects the later-arriving lateral position by correcting the predetermined time.

8. The running control device as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the lateral object detecting means detects the lateral object which exists in a detection distance of the side of the vehicle, and

the restricting means restricts the suppression of the lateral movement executed by the running controlling means by correcting the detection distance of the lateral object detecting means so as to decrease the detection distance.

9. The running control device as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the restricting means restricts the suppression of the lateral movement executed by the running controlling means by correcting a suppression amount when the running controlling means suppresses the lateral movement of the vehicle so as to decrease the suppression amount.

10. The running control device as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the restricting means forbids the suppression of the lateral movement executed by the running controlling means.

11. A running control method comprising:

detecting a lateral object which exists on a side of a vehicle;

estimating a later-arriving lateral position at which the vehicle arrives after a lapse of a predetermined time, with respect to a traffic lane;

suppressing a lateral movement of the vehicle in a direction to a side of the lateral object when judging that the later-arriving lateral position reaches a predetermined lateral position under a condition in which the lateral object is detected; and

restricting the suppression of the lateral movement of the vehicle in the direction to the side of the lateral object when detecting that the vehicle laterally moves in a direction opposite to the side of the lateral object.