Apparatus and method for controlling a distance between traveling vehicles and actuating a warning device and a recording medium for storing related program

• US 6,894,605 B2
• Filed: 04/04/2001
• Issued: 05/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Samsung Group)
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Kato, Hisanao, Sakai, Norihiko, Nozawa, Toyohito, Isogai, Akira, Nishimura, Takao, Teramura, Eiji
• Primary Examiner(s): Lieu, Julie
• Application Number:
  US09/824,707
• Publication Number:
  US 20010039472A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,504 Days
• Field of Search: 340/903, 340/438, 340/436, 340/904, 340/435, 701/36, 701/1, 701/301, 701/96
• US Class Current: 340/435
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 31/0008 including means for detecting potential obstacles in vehicle path
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/105 Longitudinal acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/024 in combination with a laser lasers per se H01S

Abstract

Recognition result of an objective recognized as a preceding vehicle is analyzed to judge whether this objective is correctly detected as a vehicle or not. A relative acceleration is calculated based on a relative speed corresponding to the objective when analysis result shows properness of this objective as a vehicle. The relative acceleration is set to 0 when analysis result shows improperness of the objective. An inter-vehicle control amount is corrected based on the obtained relative acceleration. The distance between the preceding vehicle and the controlled vehicle is controlled based on the corrected inter-vehicle control amount.

Claims

1. An inter-vehicle control apparatus comprising:

accelerating/decelerating means installed on a controlled vehicle for accelerating and decelerating said controlled vehicle,

objective recognizing means for calculating at least a relative position and a relative speed of an objective to be recognized with respect to said controlled vehicle,

selecting means for selecting a preceding vehicle traveling ahead of said controlled vehicle based on recognition result obtained by said objective recognizing means,

inter-vehicle control means for calculating an inter-vehicle control amount based on a difference between an actual inter-vehicle physical amount representing an actual distance between the controlled vehicle and said preceding vehicle selected by said selecting means and a target inter-vehicle physical amount representing a target distance between the selected preceding vehicle and the controlled vehicle, and a relative speed between the controlled vehicle and the selected preceding vehicle, and then actuating said accelerating/decelerating means based on the calculated inter-vehicle control amount, thereby accelerating or decelerating said controlled vehicle so as to maintain an appropriate distance between two traveling vehicles,

wherein said inter-vehicle control apparatus further comprises;

analyzing means for analyzing the recognition result obtained by said objective recognizing means to judge whether the objective corresponding to said preceding vehicle selected by said selecting means is correctly detected as a vehicle or not; and

correcting means for calculating a relative acceleration based on the relative speed calculated by said objective recognizing means only when analysis result of said analyzing means shows properness of said objective as a vehicle, and correcting said inter-vehicle control amount based on the calculated relative acceleration, so that said inter-vehicle control means can control the distance between said preceding vehicle and said controlled vehicle based on the inter-vehicle control amount corrected by said correcting means,

wherein said correcting means applies guard processing to the calculated relative acceleration so that the relative acceleration value can be limited by at least one of upper and lower limit values which are determined considering actual relative acceleration of ordinary vehicles, and

said correcting means corrects said inter-vehicle control amount based on the relative acceleration being applied the guard processing.

2. The inter-vehicle control apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein said analyzing means judges that the objective corresponding to said preceding vehicle is correctly detected as a vehicle when presence of said objective is recognized continuously for a predetermined time after said objective is newly detected by said objective recognizing means.

3. The inter-vehicle control apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein said analyzing means judges that the objective corresponding to said preceding vehicle is correctly detected as a vehicle when the relative acceleration obtained based on the relative speed calculated by said objective recognizing means is within a predetermined range applicable to ordinary vehicles.

4. The inter-vehicle control apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein said analyzing means judges that the objective corresponding to said preceding vehicle is correctly detected as a vehicle when a present distance of said preceding vehicle calculated by said objective recognizing means is judged to be an appropriate value based on at least a previously calculated distance value and distance calculating accuracy of said objective recognizing means.

5. The inter-vehicle control apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein

said objective recognizing means is capable of recognizing configuration of an objective, and

said analyzing means judges that the objective corresponding to said preceding vehicle is correctly detected as a vehicle when objective configuration recognized by said objective recognizing means is recognizable as a vehicle.

6. The inter-vehicle control apparatus in accordance with claim 5, wherein said analyzing means checks both a lateral length and a longitudinal length of said objective in the judgement of configuration of said object.

7. The inter-vehicle control apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein

said objective recognizing means is capable of recognizing configuration of an objective, and

said analyzing means judges that the objective corresponding to said preceding vehicle is correctly detected as a vehicle when change of objective configuration recognized by said objective recognizing means is within a range applicable to ordinary vehicles.

8. The inter-vehicle control apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein said analyzing means judges that the objective corresponding to said preceding vehicle is correctly detected as a vehicle when the distance and the relative speed of said objective is within a range applicable to ordinary traffic environment.

9. The inter-vehicle control apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein said analyzing means judges that the objective corresponding to said preceding vehicle is correctly detected as a vehicle only when all of conditions are satisfied in a plurality of judgements.

10. The inter-vehicle control apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein

said correcting means applies filter processing to the calculated relative acceleration to correct said inter-vehicle control amount based on the relative acceleration being applied the filter processing, and

said filter processing is performed by using a weak filtering factor when sharp response is necessary and by using a strong filtering factor when sharp response is not necessary, wherein a situation requiring sharp response is judged by checking whether or not a distance from the controlled vehicle to said preceding vehicle is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value and whether or not an absolute value of the relative speed is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value.

11. The inter-vehicle control apparatus in accordance with claim 10, wherein said correcting means performs the filter processing with the strong filtering factor, after it is once judged that said preceding vehicle is correctly detected as a vehicle, if it is later judged that the preceding vehicle is incorrectly detected as a vehicle even if said preceding vehicle is present at an appropriate position where said preceding vehicle is accurately detectable.

12. The inter-vehicle control apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein said correcting means multiplies said relative acceleration by a predetermined gain and corrects said inter-vehicle control amount based on the relative acceleration being gain multiplied.

13. The inter-vehicle control apparatus in accordance with claim 12, wherein said gain is set to a relatively small value when said preceding vehicle is far from said controlled vehicle than a predetermined distance.

14. The inter-vehicle control apparatus in accordance with claim 12, wherein said gain is set to a relatively large value when said relative acceleration is a negative value compared with a gain value used when said relative acceleration is a positive value.

15. The inter-vehicle control apparatus in accordance with claim 12, wherein

guard processing is applied to the relative acceleration being gain multiplied so that the relative acceleration value can be limited by at least one of upper and lower limit values, and

said inter-vehicle control amount is corrected based on the relative acceleration being applied the guard processing.

16. The inter-vehicle control apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein said correcting means calculates a correction amount based on said relative acceleration and corrects said inter-vehicle control amount based on the calculated correction amount.

17. The inter-vehicle control apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein said correcting means adds a correction amount based on the relative acceleration to a target acceleration serving as said inter-vehicle control amount.

18. An inter-vehicle warning apparatus comprising:

objective recognizing means for calculating at least a relative position and a relative speed of an objective to be recognized with respect to a controlled vehicle,

selecting means for selecting a preceding vehicle traveling ahead of said controlled vehicle based on recognition result obtained by said objective recognizing means,

warning means for generating warning when an actual inter-vehicle physical amount representing an actual distance between the preceding vehicle selected by said selecting means and the controlled vehicle is shorter than a warning physical amount representing a predetermined warning distance,

wherein said inter-vehicle warning apparatus further comprises;

analyzing means for analyzing the recognition result obtained by said objective recognizing means to judge whether the objective corresponding to said preceding vehicle selected by said selecting means is correctly detected as a vehicle or not; and

correcting means for calculating a relative acceleration based on the relative speed calculated by said objective recognizing means only when analysis result of said analyzing means shows properness of said objective as a vehicle, and correcting said warning physical amount based on the calculated relative acceleration, so that said warning means can generate warning based on the warning physical amount corrected by said correcting means,

wherein said correcting means applies guard processing to the calculated relative acceleration so that the relative acceleration value can be limited by at least one of upper and lower limit values which are determined considering actual relative acceleration of ordinary vehicles, and

said correcting means corrects said warning physical amount based on the relative acceleration being applied the guard processing.

19. The inter-vehicle warning apparatus in accordance with claim 18, wherein said analyzing means judges that the objective corresponding to said preceding vehicle is correctly detected as a vehicle when presence of said objective is recognized continuously for a predetermined time after said objective is newly detected by said objective recognizing means.

20. The inter-vehicle warning apparatus in accordance with claim 18, wherein said analyzing means judges that the objective corresponding to said preceding vehicle is correctly detected as a vehicle when the relative acceleration obtained based on the relative speed calculated by said objective recognizing means is within a predetermined range applicable to ordinary vehicles.

21. The inter-vehicle warning apparatus in accordance with claim 18, wherein said analyzing means judges that the objective corresponding to said preceding vehicle is correctly detected as a vehicle when a present distance of said preceding vehicle calculated by said objective recognizing means is judged to be an appropriate value based on at least a previously calculated distance value and distance calculating accuracy of said objective recognizing means.

22. The inter-vehicle warning apparatus in accordance with claim 18, wherein

said objective recognizing means is capable of recognizing configuration of an objective, and

said analyzing means judges that the objective corresponding to said preceding vehicle is correctly detected as a vehicle when objective configuration recognized by said objective recognizing means is recognizable as a vehicle.

23. The inter-vehicle warning apparatus in accordance with claim 22, wherein said analyzing means checks both a lateral length and a longitudinal length of said objective in the judgement of configuration of said object.

24. The inter-vehicle warning apparatus in accordance with claim 18, wherein

said objective recognizing means is capable of recognizing configuration of an objective, and

said analyzing means judges that the objective corresponding to said preceding vehicle is correctly detected as a vehicle when change of objective configuration recognized by said objective recognizing means is within a range applicable to ordinary vehicles.

25. The inter-vehicle warning apparatus in accordance with claim 18, wherein said analyzing means judges that the objective corresponding to said preceding vehicle is correctly detected as a vehicle when the distance and the relative speed of said objective is within a range applicable to ordinary traffic environment.

26. The inter-vehicle warning apparatus in accordance with claim 18, wherein said analyzing means judges that the objective corresponding to said preceding vehicle is correctly detected as a vehicle only when all of conditions are satisfied in a plurality of judgements.

27. The inter-vehicle warning apparatus in accordance with claim 18, wherein

said correcting means applies filter processing to the calculated relative acceleration to correct said warning physical amount based on the relative acceleration being applied the filter processing, and

said filter processing is performed by using a weak filtering factor when sharp response is necessary and by using a strong filtering factor when sharp response is not necessary, wherein situation requiring sharp response is judged by checking whether or not a distance from the controlled vehicle to said preceding vehicle is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value and whether or not an absolute value of the relative speed is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value.

28. The inter-vehicle warning apparatus in accordance with claim 27, wherein said correcting means performs the filter processing with the strong filtering factor, after it is once judged that said preceding vehicle is correctly detected as a vehicle, if it is later judged that the preceding vehicle is incorrectly detected as a vehicle even if said preceding vehicle is present at an appropriate position where said preceding vehicle is accurately detectable.

29. The inter-vehicle warning apparatus in accordance with claim 18, wherein said correcting means multiplies said relative acceleration by a predetermined gain and corrects said warning physical amount based on the relative acceleration being gain multiplied.

30. The inter-vehicle warning apparatus in accordance with claim 29, wherein said gain is set to a relatively small value when said preceding vehicle is far from said controlled vehicle than a predetermined distance.

31. The inter-vehicle warning apparatus in accordance with claim 29, wherein said gain is set to a relatively large value when said relative acceleration is a negative value compared with a gain value used when said relative acceleration is a positive value.

32. The inter-vehicle warning apparatus in accordance with claim 29, wherein

guard processing is applied to the relative acceleration being gain multiplied so that the relative acceleration value can be limited by at least one of upper and lower limit values, and

said warning physical amount is corrected based on the relative acceleration being applied the guard processing.

33. The inter-vehicle warning apparatus in accordance with claim 18, wherein said correcting means calculates a correction amount based on said relative acceleration and corrects said warning physical amount based on the calculated correction amount.

34. The inter-vehicle warning apparatus in accordance with claim 18, wherein said correcting means adds a correction amount based on the relative acceleration to the warning distance serving as said warning physical amount.