Driving assistance device

• US 10,661,794 B2
• Filed: 03/29/2017
• Issued: 05/26/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Niino, Hiroaki, Ohoka, Masao, Narita, Takahiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Sarwar, Babar
• Application Number:
  US16/089,988
• Publication Number:
  US 20190118809A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,154 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2201/022 Collision avoidance systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 7/12 for automatic initiation; for initiation not subject to will of driver or passenger limiting speed of vehicles other than rail vehicles B60K31/00
• 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: B60T 8/00 Arrangements for adjusting wheel-braking force to meet varying vehicular or ground-surface conditions, e.g. limiting or varying distribution of braking force by changing number of effective brake cylinders in power brake systems B60T17/10
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 8/17 Using electrical or electronic regulation means to control braking detecting or indicating faulty operation B60T8/885
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 8/17558 specially adapted for collision avoidance or collision mitigation road vehicle drive control systems for collision avoidance otherwise than by controlling a particular sub-unit B60W30/09
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/04 including control of propulsion units
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/18 including control of braking systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/20 including control of steering systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/00 Input parameters relating to objects
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/4041 Position
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/804 Relative longitudinal speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/20 Steering systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2720/106 Longitudinal acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/0953 the prediction being responsive to vehicle dynamic parameters
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/0956 the prediction being responsive to traffic or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/10 Path keeping cruise control for automatically following a preceding vehicle B60W30/165
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/143 Speed control B60W30/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 60/001 Planning or execution of driving tasks
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 15/0265 Automatic obstacle avoidance by steering
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/16 : Anti-collision systems road vehicle drive control systems for predicting or avoiding probable or impending collision otherwise than by control of a particular sub-unit B60W30/08

Abstract

A driving assistance device includes a recognition unit, a region setting unit, a travel setting unit, and a travel control unit. Based on the relative speed of a vehicle with respect to an object recognized by the recognition unit, the region setting unit sets a prohibited travel region where the vehicle is prohibited from entering around the object, and further sets a region of a travel path that excludes the prohibited travel region as a permitted travel region where the vehicle is to travel. The travel setting unit sets at least one of a target vehicle speed and a target travel trajectory of the vehicle that is to travel in the permitted travel region set by the region setting unit.

Claims

1. A driving assistance device comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory storing instructions that when executed by the one or more processors causes the driving assistance device to perform processes comprising;

a recognition process which recognizes an object and a travel path based on detection information obtained from a sensor which detects the object and the travel path, the object being present around a vehicle, the travel path being where the vehicle is traveling;

a region setting process which sets a prohibited travel region around the object based on a relative speed of the vehicle with respect to the object recognized by the recognition process, and further sets a region of the travel path that excludes the prohibited travel region as a permitted travel region, the prohibited travel region being where the vehicle is prohibited from entering, the permitted travel region being where the vehicle is to travel;

a travel setting process which sets at least one of a target vehicle speed and a target travel trajectory of the vehicle which is traveling in the permitted travel region set by the region setting process; and

a travel control process which controls the vehicle travel based on at least one of the target vehicle speed and the target travel trajectory set by the travel setting process, wherein

the region setting process sets the prohibited travel region larger as the relative speed increases, and sets the prohibited travel region smaller as the relative speed decreases; and

the travel setting process adjusts the relative speed by setting the target vehicle speed such that the prohibited travel region which is set by the region setting process based on the relative speed is of a size that allows the vehicle to avoid the prohibited travel region and travel in the permitted travel region.

2. The driving assistance device according to claim 1, wherein

the recognition process recognizes whether the object is stationary or in motion, and

the region setting process sets the prohibited travel region larger when the object is stationary than when the object is in motion.

3. The driving assistance device according to claim 2, wherein

the region setting process sets, around the object that is stationary, the prohibited travel region that is larger when the recognition process recognizes that there is an area undetectable by the sensor due to being blocked by the object that is stationary than when the area is absent.

4. The driving assistance device according to claim 1, wherein

the travel setting process sets the target vehicle speed lower than a current vehicle speed of the vehicle when the vehicle is unable to avoid the prohibited travel region located ahead in a traveling direction during travel, so that the prohibited travel region ahead in the traveling direction is reduced in size.

5. The driving assistance device according to claim 1, wherein

when another vehicle around which the prohibited travel region has been set by the region setting process approaches the vehicle from behind in a traveling direction of the vehicle, and the when vehicle cannot avoid the prohibited travel region set around the other vehicle approaching from behind in the traveling direction during travel, the travel setting process sets the target vehicle speed higher than a current vehicle speed of the vehicle so that the prohibited travel region is reduced in size.

6. The driving assistance device according to claim 1, wherein

the region setting process sets the prohibited travel region for the object that is at least partially present in the travel path and not set the prohibited travel region for the object that is present outside the travel path.

7. The driving assistance device according to claim 1, wherein

the recognition process recognizes a travel lane in which the vehicle is traveling as the travel path based on a white line detected by the sensor.

8. The driving assistance device according to claim 1, wherein

the travel setting process sets a center position of the permitted travel region in a width direction of the travel path extending along a direction of the vehicle travel as the target travel trajectory.

9. A driving assistance method comprising:

recognizing an object and a travel path based on detection information obtained from a sensor which detects the object and the travel path, the object being present around a vehicle, the travel path being where the vehicle is traveling;

setting a prohibited travel region around the object based on a relative speed of the vehicle with respect to the recognized object, the prohibited travel region being where the vehicle is prohibited from entering;

setting a region of the travel path that excludes the prohibited travel region as a permitted travel region, the permitted travel region being where the vehicle is to travel;

setting at least one of a target vehicle speed and a target travel trajectory of the vehicle which is traveling in the permitted travel region;

controlling vehicle travel based on at least one of the target vehicle speed and the target travel trajectory;

setting the prohibited travel region includes setting the prohibited travel region larger as the relative speed increases, and setting the prohibited travel region smaller as the relative speed decreases; and

adjusting the relative speed by setting the target vehicle speed such that the prohibited travel region is of a size that allows the vehicle to avoid the prohibited travel region and travel in the permitted travel region.