Preceding-vehicle following control system

• US 20040061626A1
• Filed: 09/11/2003
• Published: 04/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Kubota, Kenta
• Granted Patent: US 7,272,482 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/96
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 31/0008 including means for detecting potential obstacles in vehicle path
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2201/08 Lane monitoring; Lane Keeping Systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2201/081 using distance control
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0022 Gains, weighting coefficients or weighting functions
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/00 Input parameters relating to infrastructure
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/10 Number of lanes
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2754/30 Longitudinal distance
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/16 Control of distance between vehicles, e.g. keeping a distance to preceding vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/165 Automatically following the path of a preceding lead vehicle, e.g. "electronic tow-bar"
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9325 for inter-vehicle distance regulation, e.g. navigating in platoons
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/167 Driving aids for lane monitoring, lane changing, e.g. blind spot detection
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/22 Platooning, i.e. convoy of communicating vehicles

Abstract

A preceding-vehicle following control system for a host vehicle is comprised of a road information device (2, 3) for obtaining road information of a road ahead of the host vehicle, a preceding-vehicle detector (1) for obtaining preceding-vehicle information of a preceding vehicle ahead of the host vehicle and a controller (10) connected to the road information device and the preceding vehicle recognizing device. The controller is arranged to determine a road width of the road from the road information, to vary a condition for determining a control characteristic of a control system of a following control for following the preceding vehicle, and to execute the following control on the basis of the condition for determining the control characteristic and the preceding-vehicle information.

Claims

1. A preceding-vehicle following control system for a host vehicle, comprising:

a controller arranged,

to obtain road width indicative information of a road traveled by the host vehicle, and

to execute a following control for following a preceding vehicle ahead of the host vehicle according to the road width indicative information.

2. The preceding-vehicle following control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the controller is further arranged to vary a control gain employed for obtaining a target vehicle speed according to the road width indicative information in the execution of the following control.

3. The preceding-vehicle following control system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the controller is further arranged to vary the control gain so that a change of the target vehicle speed decreases as a road width obtained from the road width indicative information increases.

4. The preceding-vehicle following control system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the controller is further arranged to set the control gain on the basis of a natural frequency of a transfer characteristic in a control system of the following control, and to decrease the natural frequency as the road width increases.

5. The preceding-vehicle following control system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the controller is further arranged to set the control gain on the basis of a damping coefficient of a transfer characteristic in a control system of the following control, and to increase the damping coefficient as the road width increases.

6. The preceding-vehicle following control system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the controller is further arranged to set the control gain on the basis of a natural frequency of a transfer characteristic in a control system of the following control, and to decrease the natural frequency as the road width increases.

7. The preceding-vehicle following control system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the control gain includes first and second control gains, and a target vehicle speed is determined from the sum of a first product and a second product where the first product is obtained by multiplying a difference between an inter-vehicle distance and a target inter-vehicle distance and a first gain, and the second product is obtained by multiplying a relative speed between the host vehicle and a preceding vehicle and a second gain

8. The preceding-vehicle following control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the controller is further arranged to set a target inter-vehicle distance according to the road width indicative information in the execution of the following control.

9. The preceding-vehicle following control system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the controller is further arranged to correct the target inter-vehicle distance on the basis of the road width.

10. The preceding-vehicle following control system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the controller is further arranged to vary a correction quantity of the target inter-vehicle distance on the basis of the host-vehicle speed.

11. The preceding-vehicle following control system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the controller is further arranged to increase the target inter-vehicle distance as the host-vehicle speed increases.

12. The preceding-vehicle following control system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the controller is further arranged to increase the target inter-vehicle distance as the road width is decreased.

13. The preceding-vehicle following control system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the controller is further arranged to calculate a target vehicle speed based on the target inter-vehicle distance and to execute the following control using the target vehicle speed.

14. The preceding-vehicle following control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the road width indicative information includes at least one of the number of lanes and a lane width of the traveling road.

15. The preceding-vehicle following control system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a car navigation system connected to the controller, the car navigation system has stored the road width indicative information wherein.

16. The preceding-vehicle following control system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a CCD camera which takes an image picture of a road ahead of the host vehicle, the controller obtaining a lane width of the road based on the image picture.

17. A preceding-vehicle following control system for a host vehicle, comprising:

a road information device obtaining road information as to a road traveled by the host vehicle;

a preceding-vehicle recognizing device obtaining preceding-vehicle information of a preceding vehicle ahead of the host vehicle; and

a controller connected to the road information device and the preceding vehicle recognizing device, the controller being arranged,

to determine a road width of the road from the road information,

to vary a condition for determining a control characteristic of a control system of a following control for following the preceding vehicle, and

to execute the following control on the basis of the condition for determining the control characteristic and the preceding-vehicle information.

18. A method of controlling a host vehicle, comprising:

obtaining road width indicative information of a road traveled by the host vehicle; and

executing a following control for following a preceding vehicle ahead of the host vehicle according to the road with indicative information.

19. A preceding-vehicle following control system for a host vehicle, comprising:

road width obtaining means for obtaining road width indicative information of a road traveled by the host vehicle; and

following control means for following a preceding vehicle ahead of the host vehicle upon taking account of the road width indicative information.