Leading Vehicle Detecting Apparatus And Inter-Vehicular Control Apparatus Using Leading Vehicle Detecting Apparatus

• US 20130158830A1
• Filed: 12/13/2012
• Published: 06/20/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Kurumisawa, Jin, Namikiri, Tatsuya
• Granted Patent: US 9,061,590 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/96
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 31/00 Vehicle fittings, acting on a single sub-unit only, for automatically controlling vehicle speed, i.e. preventing speed from exceeding an arbitrarily established velocity or maintaining speed at a particular velocity, as selected by the vehicle operator fittings acting on two or more sub-units B60W30/14; speedometers G01P; systems or devices for controlling speed in general G05D13/00 ; in traffic anti-collision system for road vehicles G08G1/16
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/06 including control of combustion engines
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/18 including control of braking systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2420/408 Radar; Laser, e.g. lidar
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/14 Yaw
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/28 Wheel speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/30 Road curve radius
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/162 Speed limiting therefor
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/0097 Predicting future conditions

Abstract

A leading vehicle detecting apparatus and inter-vehicular control apparatus which can reduce delay in deciding accurately whether or not the own vehicle is following a particular leading vehicle are provided. The leading vehicle detecting apparatus includes: a signal acquiring section that acquires position signals outputted from a position detecting section that detects the position of the leading vehicle, and detection signals outputted from state detecting sections that detect a state of an own vehicle cruising line; a storage section storing in advance a probability map showing the probability of the own vehicle following the leading vehicle, based on distance from an expected cruising line of the own vehicle to leading vehicle the position; and a calculating section that calculates the expected cruising line based on is the detection signals, and judges whether the own vehicle is following the leading vehicle based on the expected cruising line, position signals, and probability map.

Claims

1. A leading vehicle detecting apparatus, wherein the leading vehicle detecting apparatus may be mounted in a vehicle and judges therein whether or not an own vehicle is traveling such as to follow a preceding vehicle traveling ahead of the own vehicle in a same traffic lane, including:

a signal acquiring section that acquires both a position signal outputted from a position detecting section which detects a position of the preceding vehicle and a detected signal outputted from a state detecting section which detects a state of a present cruising line in which the own vehicle is traveling;

a storage section that stores in advance a probability map that assigns a probability regarding whether or not the own vehicle is following the leading vehicle on the basis of a distance from an expected cruising line of the own vehicle and the position of the leading vehicle; and

a calculating section that calculates the expected cruising line on the basis of the detection signal, and judges whether or not the own vehicle is following the leading vehicle on the basis of the calculated expected cruising line, the position signal, and the probability map.

2. The leading vehicle detecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the storage section accumulates and stores therein the position signals of the preceding vehicle that have been discretely acquired;

the calculating section

determines a follow probabilities for the plurality of position signals on the basis of i) the plurality of position signals having differing elapsed times after acquisition, ii) the expected cruising line calculated on the basis of the detection signal acquired most recently, and iii) the probability map when judging whether or not the own vehicle is following the preceding vehicle on the basis of the expected cruising line, the position signals and the probability map, and then

judges whether or not the own vehicle is following the preceding vehicle on the basis of a combined probability that is calculated from the determined plurality of follow probabilities.

3. The leading vehicle judging apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the probability map sets the follow probability relatively high when the distance from the expected cruising line to the position of the preceding vehicle is within a predetermined range, and sets the follow probability relatively low when the distance exceeds the predetermined range;

and

in the probability map corresponding to positional information of which the elapsed time after acquisition is relatively long, the predetermined range is set to be narrower than that in the probability map corresponding to positional information of which the elapsed time after acquisition is relatively short.

4. The leading vehicle detecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the storage section stores in advance therein a plurality of kinds of probability maps based on the traveling speed of the own vehicle;

the calculating section selects the probability map for the traveling speed of the own vehicle among the plurality of kinds of probability maps on the basis of an inputted signal of the traveling speed of the own vehicle, and then judges whether or not the own vehicle is following the leading vehicle using the selected probability map.

5. The leading vehicle detecting apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the storage section stores in advance therein a plurality of kinds of probability maps based on the traveling speed of the own vehicle;

the calculating section selects the probability map for the traveling speed of the own vehicle among the plurality of kinds of probability maps on the basis of an inputted signal of the traveling speed of the own vehicle, and then judges whether or not the own vehicle is following the leading vehicle using the selected probability map.

6. The leading vehicle detecting apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

the storage section stores in advance therein a plurality of kinds of probability maps based on the traveling speed of the own vehicle;

the calculating section selects the probability map for the traveling speed of the own vehicle among the plurality of kinds of probability maps on the basis of an inputted signal of the traveling is speed of the own vehicle, and then judges whether or not the own vehicle is following the leading vehicle using the selected probability map.

7. The leading vehicle detecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the expected cruising line calculated by the calculating section includes transition curves.

8. An inter-vehicular control apparatus, wherein the inter-vehicular apparatus may be mounted in a vehicle and controls thereby the distance between an own vehicle and a leading vehicle, when the own vehicle is following the leading vehicle traveling in the same traffic lane as the own vehicle, among the vehicles traveling ahead of the own vehicle, including:

i) the leading vehicle detecting apparatus according to claim 1; and

ii) a control section which controls the inter-vehicular distance to be within a predetermined range by controlling the traveling speed of the own vehicle on the basis of the inter-vehicular distance from the leading vehicle, the distance being judged by the leading vehicle detecting apparatus to the own vehicle.

9. A leading vehicle judging method, wherein the leading vehicle judging method judges whether or not an own vehicle is traveling such as to follow a preceding vehicle traveling ahead of the own vehicle in a same traffic lane, the method including:

acquiring both a position signal outputted from a position detecting section which detects a position of the preceding vehicle and a detected signal outputted from a state detecting section which detects a state of a present cruising line in which the own vehicle is traveling;

storing in advance a probability map that assigns a probability regarding whether or not the own vehicle is following the leading vehicle on the basis of a distance from an expected cruising line of the own vehicle and the position of the leading vehicle; and

calculating the expected cruising line on the basis of the detection signal, and judges whether or not the own vehicle is following the leading vehicle on the basis of the calculated expected cruising line, the position signal, and the probability map.

10. An inter-vehicular control method, wherein the inter-vehicular method is executed in vehicles and controls thereby the distance between an own vehicle and a leading vehicle when the own vehicle is following the leading vehicle traveling in the same traffic lane as the own vehicle among the vehicles traveling ahead of the own vehicle, the method including:

i) judging the leading vehicle according to claim 9; and

ii) controlling the inter-vehicular distance to be within a predetermined range by controlling the traveling speed of the own vehicle on the basis of the inter-vehicular distance from the leading vehicle, the distance being judged by the preceding step i).