Safety driving system

• US 5,745,031 A
• Filed: 08/28/1995
• Issued: 04/28/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi FUSO Truck & Bus Corporation (Daimler Truck Holding AG)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Jidosha Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Inventors: Yamamoto, Keiichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Hofsass, Jeffery
• Assistant Examiner(s): GOINS, DAVETTA WOODS
• Application Number:
  US08/507,481
• Time in Patent Office: 974 Days
• Field of Search: 340/439, 340/575, 340/576
• US Class Current: 340/439
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 28/066 actuating a signalling device B60K28/063 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/06 indicating a condition of sleep, e.g. anti-dozing alarms

Abstract

A safety driving system detects a driver'"'"'s alertness, thereby emitting an alarm depending on the detected alertness. The safety driving system comprises an operation detecting section A, which updates monotonousness T each time one of the driver-operated device is operated, and subtracts a weight ni, assigned to the operated device, from a value denoting the monotonousness, a steering detecting section (C) for deriving a steering amount (e.g. SQ), a running position detecting section (A) for detecting a zigzag amount (Rn) denoting a deviation of white lines detected based on an image of a road surface, a fuzzy inference section D inferring driver'"'"'s alertness using membership functions of the sections (A), (B) and (C), and an alerting section F for emitting an alarm in accordance with the detected driver'"'"'s alertness. The zigzag amount (Rn) may be determined on the basis of images which are taken by a camera 2 and which indicate white lines on the road surface so as to reliably determine the driver'"'"'s alertness.

Claims

1. A safety driving system comprising:

an operation detecting section including accumulating means accumulating at each first predetermined cycle a constant during the operation of a vehicle and deriving monotonousness and subtracting means for subtracting a weight assigned to an operated device, except for a steering wheel, from a sum of accumulated constants and updating the monotonousness;

a steering detecting section detecting an amount of steering operation within a preset period of time;

a running position detecting section including;

an image data memory selectively receiving and storing images of a road surface in front of a vehicle which are photographed at each second predetermined cycle by a camera supported on a vehicle body;

image processing means extracting data on white lines of the road surface and determining coordinates of white lines defining a lane;

a zigzag amount calculating section receiving coordinate data of the white lines and calculating a zigzag amount which denotes a deviation of the white lines on horizontal coordinates at each second predetermined cycle; and

zigzag amount averaging section averaging the zigzag amount data calculated at a predetermined number of times;

a fuzzy inference section inferring a driver'"'"'s alertness on the basis of membership functions respectively corresponding to the updated monotonousness, the amount of steering operation, and the average zigzag amount; and

an alerting section activating wake-up members depending upon the driver'"'"'s alertness.

2. The safety driving system as in claim 1, wherein the steering detecting section detects steering amounts of the steering wheel as the status data on the steering wheel within the present period of time.

3. The safety driving system as in claim 1, wherein the steering detecting section includes at least either a steering speed sensor for calculating an average steering speed of the steering wheel as the status data of the steering wheel within the preset period of time, or a steering sensor detecting the number of steering operations within the preset period of time.

4. The safety driving system as in claim 1, wherein the zigzag amount calculating section nullifies zigzag amounts collected while a winker signal is present.

5. The safety driving system as in claim 1, wherein the fuzzy inference section infers the driver'"'"'s alertness using an average zigzag amount during an initial period immediately after actuation of the vehicle, as a reference value of the membership function for the running position detecting section.

7. The safety driving system as in claim 1, wherein the alerting section classifies the driver'"'"'s alertness into one of four levels, includes a plurality of wake-up members emitting various alarms in accordance with the driver'"'"'s alertness, and activates one of the wake-up members depending upon the driver'"'"'s alertness.

6. The safety driving system comprising:

an operation detecting section including accumulating means for accumulating at each of a predetermined cycle a constant during the operation of a vehicle and deriving monotonousness and subtracting means subtracting a weight assigned to an operated device, except for a steering wheel, from a sum of accumulated constants and updating the monotonousness;

a steering operation detecting section detecting an amount of steering operation within a preset period of time;

a fuzzy inference section inferring a driver'"'"'s alertness on the basis of membership functions respectively corresponding to the updated monotonousness and the amount of steering operation; and

an alerting section activating wake-up members depending upon the driver'"'"'s alertness.

8. The safety driving system as in claim 6, wherein the alerting section classifies the driver'"'"'s alertness into one of four levels, includes a plurality of wake-up members emitting various alarms in accordance with the driver'"'"'s alertness, and activates one of the wake-up members depending upon the driver'"'"'s alertness.