CONVOY TRAVEL APPARATUS

• US 20140100734A1
• Filed: 09/30/2013
• Published: 04/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Yamashiro, Takahisa
• Granted Patent: US 9,202,379 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/23
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/22 Platooning, i.e. convoy of communicating vehicles

Abstract

A convoy travel apparatus in a self vehicle of a convoy organizes plural convoys of traveling vehicles in consideration of a non-convoy vehicle that desires to pass the plural convoys when the plural convoys are traveling in parallel on a multi-lane road. The apparatus determines whether the plural convoys are traveling in parallel with each other on a multi-lane road, and if an in-parallel travel state of the convoys is determined, the self vehicle in one of the convoys may be accelerated or decelerated to allow the non-convoy vehicle to pass the plural convoys.

Claims

1. A convoy travel apparatus for a self vehicle comprising:

a follow travel control unit for guiding the self vehicle to follow a preceding vehicle based on information transmitted from the preceding vehicle, the preceding vehicle and at least one follower vehicle making up a convoy of traveling vehicles;

an in-convoy vehicle identification unit for identifying each of all vehicles except the self vehicle in a self convoy as an in-convoy vehicle;

an order identification unit for determining an order of the self vehicle in the self convoy based on the information obtained from other vehicles;

a distance calculator for calculating a leader vehicle distance, based on the information from the other vehicles, between the self vehicle and a leader vehicle of the self convoy and a tail vehicle distance between the self vehicle and a tail vehicle traveling at a tail end of the self convoy;

a convoy information transmitter for transmitting, to the other vehicles, convoy information including the leader vehicle distance, the tail vehicle distance, a current position of the self vehicle, and a travel direction of the self vehicle;

a parallel travel determination unit for determining, when the self vehicle is the leader vehicle of the self convoy, whether the self convoy and an object convoy are traveling in parallel with each other in an in-parallel travel state, based on the convoy information of the self convoy that at least includes the tail vehicle distance, the current position of the self vehicle, and the travel direction of the self vehicle and the convoy information of the object convoy transmitted from an external vehicle that does not belong to the self convoy, the convoy information of the object convoy including a current position, a travel direction, a leader vehicle distance and a tail vehicle distance of the external vehicle; and

a parallel travel resolver for resolving the in-parallel travel state of the self convoy and the object convoy by controlling a behavior of the self vehicle when the parallel travel determination unit determines that the two convoys are in the in-parallel travel state.

2. The convoy travel apparatus of claim 1, wherein

the parallel travel resolver performs a speed control for increasing a speed of the self convoy or for decreasing the speed of the self convoy, while maintaining within a currently-traveling lane.

3. The convoy travel apparatus of claim 2 further comprising:

a distance determiner for determining which of a forward adjustment and a backward adjustment is a lesser adjustment distance for the self convoy to resolve the in-parallel travel state, where (i) the forward adjustment moves the self convoy forward to a position ahead of the object convoy and (ii) the backward adjustment moves the self convoy backward to allow the object convoy to move to a position ahead of the self convoy, wherein

the parallel travel resolver accelerates the self vehicle when the distance determiner determines that the forward adjustment distance is less than the backward adjustment distance, and

the parallel travel resolver decelerates the self vehicle when the distance determiner determines that the backward adjustment distance is less than the forward adjustment distance.

4. The convoy travel apparatus of claim 2, wherein

the convoy information transmitter transmits a speed of the self vehicle as the convoy information,

when accelerating the self vehicle, the parallel travel resolver accelerates the self vehicle to a speed that exceeds the speed of the external vehicle which is included in the received vehicle information from the external vehicle, and

when decelerating the self vehicle, the parallel travel resolver decelerates the self vehicle to a speed that is lower than the speed of the external vehicle which is included in the received vehicle information from the external vehicle.

5. The convoy travel apparatus of claim 1, wherein

the parallel travel determination unit determines whether the self convoy and the object convoy are traveling in the in-parallel travel state in two adjacent lanes, and

when the parallel travel determination unit determines that the self convoy and the object convoy are traveling in the in-parallel travel state in two adjacent lanes, the parallel travel resolver controls a behavior of the self vehicle for resolving the in-parallel travel state.

6. The convoy travel apparatus of claim 1, wherein

the parallel travel determination unit determines whether the self convoy and the object convoy are traveling in the in-parallel travel state in two adjacent lanes, and

the follow travel control unit controls the self vehicle to follow the preceding vehicle and to change lanes by using information obtained from the preceding vehicle when the preceding vehicle changes lanes,

the convoy travel apparatus further comprising:

a vacancy determination unit for determining whether an adjacent lane has a vacant area, at a position that extends from a diagonal front of the self convoy toward a side of the self convoy, into which all vehicles in the self convoy are movable by changing lanes, and

the parallel travel resolver performs a steering control for the self vehicle to change lanes when (i) the parallel travel determination unit determines whether the self convoy and the object convoy are traveling in the in-parallel travel state in two adjacent lanes and (ii) the vacancy determination unit determines that the adjacent lane has the vacant area.

7. The convoy travel apparatus of claim 5, wherein

the parallel travel determination unit determines whether the object convoy is traveling in the in-parallel travel state in the adjacent lane that is adjacent to a currently traveling lane of the self vehicle, based on (i) a relative position between the self vehicle and the external vehicle which is derived from the position of the external vehicle and the position of the self vehicle and (ii) the travel directions of the self vehicle and the external vehicle.

8. The convoy travel apparatus of claim 5 further comprising:

a lane identification information obtainer for obtaining lane identification information that identifies a currently-traveling lane of the self vehicle, wherein

the convoy information transmission unit transmits, as the convoy information, the lane identification information, and

the parallel travel determination unit determines whether the object convoy is traveling in the in-parallel travel state in the adjacent lane that is adjacent to a currently traveling lane of the self vehicle, based on (i) the lane identification information that is included in the convoy information received from the external vehicle and (ii) the lane identification information obtained by the lane information obtainer in a self apparatus.