Cruise control system

• US 7,792,624 B2
• Filed: 09/22/2006
• Issued: 09/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Matsumoto, Shinji, Suzuki, Tatsuya, Nakamura, Masahide
• Primary Examiner(s): Black; Thomas G
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nolan; Peter D
• Application Number:
  US11/525,042
• Publication Number:
  US 20070078584A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,446 Days
• Field of Search: 701/93, 701/70, 701/72, 701/94, 701/95, 701/96, 701/97, 701/98, 340/437, 340/438, 340/441
• US Class Current: 701/72
• 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: G08G 1/161 Decentralised systems, e.g. inter-vehicle communication

Abstract

A cruise control system includes a curve state detecting section, a target deceleration rate calculating section, a deceleration control section, a map matching detecting section, a position evaluating section and a revising section. The deceleration control section is configured to execute deceleration control within a deceleration control region before a curve existing in front of the vehicle. The map matching detecting section is configured to detect whether a map matching operation caused a vehicle traveling position to move onto a traveling road. The revising section is configured to perform at least one of increasing a deceleration rate of the vehicle and extending an end position of a deceleration control region to a position inside the curve based on a positional relationship between the vehicle traveling position and the curve when the vehicle traveling position after the map matching operation is within the deceleration control region.

Claims

1. A cruise control system comprising:

a curve state detecting section configured to detect a curve state of a curve existing in front of a vehicle based on information obtained by a navigation system;

a target deceleration rate calculating section configured to calculate a target deceleration rate at which the vehicle is decelerated within a deceleration control region before the curve based on the curve state detected by the curve state detecting section;

a deceleration control section configured to execute deceleration control of the vehicle within the deceleration control region based on the target deceleration rate calculated by the target deceleration rate calculating section;

a map matching detecting section configured to detect whether a map matching operation executed by the navigation system caused a vehicle traveling position in a map to move onto a traveling road on which the vehicle is estimated to be traveling;

a position evaluating section configured to determine whether the vehicle traveling position after the map matching operation is within the deceleration control region; and

a revising section configured to extend an end position of the deceleration control region to a position inside the curve when the position evaluating section determines that the vehicle traveling position after the map matching operation is within the deceleration control region.

2. The cruise control system recited in claim 1, wherein

the target deceleration rate calculating section is further configured to calculate the target deceleration rate such that a target vehicle speed suited to the curve state will be achieved before the vehicle reaches the curve and to set a maximum value of the target deceleration rate in advance, and

the revising section is further configured to set the end position of the deceleration control region to a position where the vehicle will be when the vehicle is decelerated at the maximum value of the target deceleration rate until the target vehicle speed is reached if the deceleration control is started at the vehicle traveling position after the map matching operation.

3. The cruise control system recited in claim 1, wherein the position evaluating section is further configured to determine whether the vehicle traveling position after the map matching operation is within the deceleration control region based on the target deceleration rate calculated based on the vehicle traveling position after the map matching operation.

4. The cruise control system recited in claim 3, wherein

the position evaluating section is further configured to determine that the vehicle traveling position after the map matching operation is within the deceleration control region when the target deceleration rate calculated based on the vehicle traveling position after the map matching operation is larger than a prescribed threshold value.

5. The cruise control system recited in claim 1, wherein

the revising section is further configured to extend the end position of the deceleration control region by setting a control execution time of the deceleration control.

6. A cruise control system comprising:

curve state detecting means for detecting a curve state of a curve existing in front of a vehicle;

target deceleration rate calculating means for calculating a target deceleration rate at which the vehicle is decelerated within a deceleration control region before the curve based on the curve state detected by the curve state detecting means;

deceleration control means for executing deceleration control of the vehicle within the deceleration control region based on the target deceleration rate calculated by the target deceleration rate calculating means;

map matching detecting means for detecting whether a map matching operation executed by a navigation system caused a vehicle traveling position in a map to move onto a traveling road on which the vehicle is estimated to be traveling;

position evaluating means for determining whether the vehicle traveling position after the map matching operation is within the deceleration control region when the map matching detecting means detects that the map matching operation caused the vehicle traveling position in the map to move onto the traveling road; and

revising means for changing the deceleration control when the position evaluating means determines that the vehicle traveling position after the map matching operation is within the deceleration control region by extending an end position of the deceleration control region to a position inside the curve.

7. A cruise control method comprising:

executing deceleration control of a vehicle within a deceleration control region before a curve existing in front of the vehicle;

detecting whether a map matching operation executed by a navigation system caused a vehicle traveling position in a map to move onto a traveling road on which a vehicle is estimated to be traveling; and

revising the deceleration control when the vehicle traveling position after the map matching operation is within the deceleration control region by extending an end position of the deceleration control region to a position inside the curve.