Travel control apparatus of vehicle

• US 20030093210A1
• Filed: 11/13/2002
• Published: 05/15/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Kondo, Toshiyuki, Sawada, Mamoru, Kataoka, Motoaki
• Granted Patent: US 6,957,138 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/96
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 17/0195 characterised by the regulation being combined with other vehicle control systems conjoint control of vehicle sub-units including control of suspension systems B60W10/22
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2400/824 Travel path sensing; Track monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2600/20 Manual control or setting means
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2800/166 Platooning
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2800/85 System Prioritisation
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2800/91 Suspension Control
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2800/92 ABS - Brake Control
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2800/95 Automatic Traction or Slip Control [ATC]
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2800/96 ASC - Assisted or power Steering control
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2800/97 Engine Management System [EMS]
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 31/0008 including means for detecting potential obstacles in vehicle path
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2220/02 Driver type; Driving style; Driver adaptive features
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0029 Mathematical model of the driver
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/005 Sampling
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/30 Driving style
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2720/106 Longitudinal acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2720/14 Yaw
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/09 Taking automatic action to avoid collision, e.g. braking and steering
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/16 Control of distance between vehicles, e.g. keeping a distance to preceding vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/09 Driving style or behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 : specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 : in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 : Network security protocols

Abstract

A vehicle travel control apparatus makes an own vehicle automatically follow a vehicle in front by setting a target acceleration/deceleration G0 using travel data expressing behavior of the vehicle, travel environment, driving operations and others. Here, during vehicle travel based on driver control, multiple travel data are sampled a predetermined number of times to perform multiple regression analysis on that sampled data. Preference data expressing preferences of the driver (multiple regression coefficients) are thereby obtained, and target acceleration/deceleration computation data are updated using these multiple regression coefficients. As a result, it is possible to control the behavior of the vehicle in accordance with preferences of the driver during automatic following control execution.

Claims

1. A vehicle travel control apparatus for proxying/assisting driving of a driver by automatically controlling a control object without reference to driving operations of a driver during vehicle travel, the apparatus comprising:

detecting means for detecting three or more types of travel data, including a behavior of a vehicle during vehicle travel or in addition to this behavior at least one of a driving operation of a driver and a travel environment of the vehicle;

sampling means for sampling all the travel data detected by the detecting means during non-control of the control object by the travel control apparatus;

digitization means for digitizing a plurality of preferences of the driver during vehicle travel by performing multiple regression analysis with one travel data expressing a behavior of the vehicle as a target variable and the other travel data as explanatory variables among the travel data sampled by the sampling means;

control target computing means for, during control of the control object by the travel control apparatus, computing a control target of the behavior of the vehicle that is the target variable on the basis of, among the travel data detected by the detecting means, the travel data excluding the behavior of the vehicle that is the target variable, and the preference data digitized by the digitization means; and

control means for controlling the control object so that the behavior of the vehicle that is the target variable during vehicle travel becomes the control target computed by the control target computing means.

2. A vehicle travel control apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

first sampling prohibiting means for monitoring the operating state of another travel control apparatus for proxying/assisting driving of a driver and prohibiting operation of the sampling means while the other travel control apparatus is operating.

3. A vehicle travel control apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

second sampling prohibiting means for determining from the travel data detected by the detecting means whether the vehicle is in a travel state unsuitable for travel safety, and prohibiting operation of the sampling means when the vehicle is in the travel state unsuitable for travel safety.

4. A vehicle travel control apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

correlation coefficient computing means for computing respective single coefficients of correlation of, among the travel data sampled by the sampling means, the behavior of the vehicle that is the target variable with the other travel data, wherein the digitization means digitizes the preferences of the driver by performing the multiple regression analysis with travel data of which the absolute value of the single correlation coefficient computed by the correlation coefficient computing means is above a predetermined value as the explanatory variables.

5. A vehicle travel control apparatus of a vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising:

domain determining means for determining to which of a number of pre-divided travel domains the travel domain of the vehicle belongs, using at least one of the travel data detected by the detecting means,

wherein the sampling means samples the travel data in correspondence with the travel domains determined by the domain determining means,

wherein the digitization means digitizes the preferences of the driver by travel domain, using the travel data for the travel domains sampled by the sampling means, and

wherein the control target computing means computes the control target using, of the respective preference data of the travel domains digitized by the digitization means, the preference data corresponding to the present travel domain determined by the domain determining means.

6. A vehicle travel control apparatus of a vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising:

initialization means for, during control of the control object by the travel control apparatus, monitoring the frequency with which control is stopped on the basis of an operation of the driver, and when this frequency is high, returning the preference data to initial values.

7. A vehicle travel control apparatus of a vehicle according to claim 1,

wherein the detecting means detects as travel data at least a front-rear direction acceleration/deceleration of the own vehicle, the relative speed of the own vehicle and a vehicle in front, and an inter-vehicle distance deviation, which is a deviation between the inter-vehicle distance from the own vehicle to the vehicle in front and a target inter-vehicle distance,

wherein the digitization means digitizes the preferences of the driver when the vehicle is following a vehicle in front, by multiple regression analysis with, among the travel data detected by the detecting means, the front-rear direction acceleration/deceleration of the own vehicle as the target variable and the other travel data as the explanatory variables,

wherein the control target computing means computes the control target of the front-rear direction acceleration/deceleration of when the own vehicle is being made to follow the vehicle in front using the preference data digitized by the digitization means and, among the travel data detected by the detecting means, the travel data excluding the front-rear direction acceleration/deceleration of the own vehicle, and

wherein the control means, by controlling a control object constituting a drive/braking system of the vehicle so that the front-rear direction acceleration/deceleration of the own vehicle becomes the target acceleration/deceleration, performs automatic following control making the own vehicle follow the vehicle in front automatically.

8. A vehicle travel control apparatus of a vehicle according to claim 5,

wherein the detecting means detects as travel data at least a front-rear direction acceleration/deceleration of the own vehicle, the relative speed of the own vehicle and a vehicle in front, and an inter-vehicle distance deviation, which is a deviation between the inter-vehicle distance from the own vehicle to the vehicle in front and a target inter-vehicle distance,

wherein the digitization means digitizes the preferences of the driver when the vehicle is following a vehicle in front, by multiple regression analysis with, among the travel data detected by the detecting means, the front-rear direction acceleration/deceleration of the own vehicle as the target variable and the other travel data as the explanatory variables,

wherein the control target computing means computes the control target of the front-rear direction acceleration/deceleration of when the own vehicle is being made to follow a vehicle in front using the preference data digitized by the digitization means and, among the travel data detected by the detecting means, the travel data excluding the front-rear direction acceleration/deceleration of the own vehicle,

wherein the control means, by controlling a control object constituting a drive/braking system of the vehicle so that the front-rear direction acceleration/deceleration of the own vehicle becomes the target acceleration/deceleration, performs automatic following control making the own vehicle follow the vehicle in front automatically, and

wherein the domain determining means, for the determination of the travel domain, uses the front-rear direction acceleration/deceleration of at least one of the own vehicle and the vehicle in front.

9. A vehicle travel control apparatus of a vehicle according to claim 5,

wherein the detecting means detects as travel data at least a front-rear direction acceleration/deceleration of the own vehicle, the relative speed of the own vehicle and a vehicle in front, and an inter-vehicle distance deviation, which is a deviation between the inter-vehicle distance from the own vehicle to the vehicle in front and a target inter-vehicle distance,

wherein the digitization means digitizes the preferences of the driver when the vehicle is following a vehicle in front, by multiple regression analysis with, among the travel data detected by the detecting means, the front-rear direction acceleration/deceleration of the own vehicle as the target variable and the other travel data as the explanatory variables,

wherein the control target computing means computes the control target of the font-rear direction acceleration/deceleration of when the own vehicle is being made to follow a vehicle in front using the preference data digitized by the digitization means and, among the travel data detected by the detecting means, the travel data excluding the front-rear direction acceleration/deceleration of the own vehicle,

wherein the control means, by controlling a control object constituting a drive/braking system of the vehicle so that the front-rear direction acceleration/deceleration of the own vehicle becomes the target acceleration/deceleration, performs automatic following control making the own vehicle follow the vehicle in front automatically, and

wherein the domain determining means, for the determination of the travel domain, uses the front-rear direction relative acceleration of the own vehicle with respect to the vehicle in front.

10. A vehicle travel control apparatus of a vehicle according to claim 7,

wherein the detecting means detects the inter-vehicle distance deviation by detecting respectively the front-rear direction speed of the own vehicle and the inter-vehicle distance between the own vehicle and the vehicle in front, computing a target inter-vehicle distance from the front-rear direction speed of the own vehicle, and obtaining the difference between this target inter-vehicle distance and the detected inter-vehicle distance.

11. A vehicle travel control apparatus of a vehicle according to claim 10,

wherein the digitization means digitizes, in addition to the preference data used by the control target computing means for computing the target acceleration/deceleration, second preference data expressing a relationship between the inter-vehicle distance and the own vehicle speed of when the vehicle is following a vehicle in front, by single regression analysis with the inter-vehicle distance between the own vehicle and the vehicle in front detected by the detecting means as the target variable and the front-rear direction speed of the own vehicle as the explanatory variable, and

wherein the detecting means computes the target inter-vehicle distance on the basis of the second preference data and the front-rear direction speed of the own vehicle.

12. A vehicle travel control apparatus of a vehicle according to claim 1,

wherein the detecting means detects as travel data at least a front-rear direction speed of the vehicle, a yaw rate, a road curvature of the travel road, and a deviation between the width-direction center position of a travel lane a predetermined distance in front of the vehicle and the width-direction centre position of the vehicle,

wherein the digitization means digitizes preferences of the driver when the vehicle is traveling along a travel lane, by multiple regression analysis with, among the travel data detected by the detecting means, the yaw rate of the vehicle as a target variable and the other travel data as explanatory variables,

wherein the control target computing means computes a target yaw rate of when the vehicle is being made to travel along a travel lane, using the preference data digitized by the digitization means and, among the travel data detected by the detecting means, the travel data excluding the yaw rate, and

wherein the control means performs automatic traffic lane maintenance control making the vehicle travel automatically along a travel lane, by controlling a control object constituting the steering system of the vehicle so that the yaw rate of the vehicle becomes the target yaw rate.

13. A method for proxying/assisting vehicle driving of a driver by automatically controlling a control object without reference to driving operations of a driver during vehicle travel, the method comprising steps:

detecting three or more types of travel data, including a behavior of the vehicle during vehicle travel or in addition to this behavior at least one of a driving operation of a driver and a travel environment of the vehicle;

sampling all the travel data detected by the detecting means during non-control of the control object by the travel control apparatus;

digitizing a plurality of preferences of the driver during vehicle travel by performing multiple regression analysis with one travel data expressing a behavior of the vehicle as a target variable and the other travel data as explanatory variables among the travel data sampled by the sampling means;

computing during control of the control object by the travel control apparatus, a control target of the behavior of the vehicle that is the target variable on the basis of, among the travel data detected by the detecting means, the travel data excluding the behavior of the vehicle that is the target variable, and the preference data digitized by the digitization means; and

controlling the control object so that the behavior of the vehicle that is the target variable during vehicle travel becomes the control target computed by the control target computing means.