Vehicle braking device and vehicle braking method

• US 20050004739A1
• Filed: 07/01/2004
• Published: 01/06/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/04/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Subaru Corp.
• Original Assignee: Fuji Heavy Industries Limited (Subaru Corp.)
• Inventors: Hiwatashi, Yutaka
• Granted Patent: US 7,177,747 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/70
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/164 Centralised systems, e.g. external to vehicles

Abstract

Vehicle braking is precisely performed matching with a condition. A recognizing unit 5 recognizes a target object based on information from a preview sensor 2 for detecting a forward condition of a vehicle, and outputs positional information of the target object thus recognized as preview information. An information acquiring unit 6 specifies a target object located on a road based on information from an infrastructure 30 equipped on a road, and outputs position information of the target object thus specified as infrastructure information. If an instructing unit 7authorizes the automatic braking of the vehicle carried out by the controlling unit 8 under the condition that the matching between a position of the target object based on the preview information and a position of the target object based on the infrastructure information is established, the controlling unit 8 carries out the automatic braking of the vehicle.

Claims

1. A vehicle braking device, comprising:

a recognizing unit for recognizing a target object based on information from a preview sensor that detects a forward condition of a vehicle and outputting position information of the target object thus recognized as preview information;

an information acquiring unit for specifying a target object located on a road based on information from an infrastructure equipped on the road and outputting position information of the target object thus specified as infrastructure information;

a controlling unit for automatically braking the vehicle; and

an instructing unit for authorizing the controlling unit to automatically brake the vehicle under the condition that matching between a position of the target object based on the preview information and a position of the target object based on the infrastructure information is established.

2. The vehicle braking device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the information acquiring unit acquires pedestrian information concerning positions of pedestrians at an intersection, the pedestrian information being detected by the infrastructure.

3. The vehicle braking device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the instructing unit does not authorize the controlling unit to automatically brake the vehicle under the condition that the matching between the position of the target object based on the preview information and the position of the target object based on the infrastructure information is not established.

4. The vehicle braking device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the controlling unit carries out information provision based on the information from the infrastructure or gives an alarm to evoke attention to the target object in accordance with reliability of detection precision of the target object by the preview sensor.

5. The vehicle braking device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the instructing unit does not authorize the controlling unit to automatically brake the vehicle under the condition that the matching between the position of the target object based on the preview information and the position of the target object based on the infrastructure information is not established.

6. The vehicle braking device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the controlling unit carries out information provision based on the information from the infrastructure or gives an alarm to evoke attention to the target object in accordance with reliability of detection precision of the target object by the preview sensor.

7. The vehicle braking device as claimed in claim 3, wherein the controlling unit carries out information provision based on the information from the infrastructure or gives an alarm to evoke attention to the target object in accordance with reliability of detection precision of the target object by the preview sensor.

8. The vehicle braking device as claimed in claim 5, wherein the controlling unit carries out information provision based on the information from the infrastructure or gives an alarm to evoke attention to the target object in accordance with reliability of detection precision of the target object by the preview sensor.

9. A vehicle braking method, comprising:

a first step of recognizing a target object based on information from a preview sensor that detects a forward condition of a vehicle, and outputting position information of the target object thus recognized as preview information;

a second step of specifying a target object located on a road based on information from an infrastructure equipped on the road, and outputting position information of the target object thus specified as infrastructure information;

a third step of automatically braking the vehicle; and

a fourth step of authorizing the automatic braking of the vehicle under the condition that matching between a position of the target object based on the preview information and a position of the target object based on the infrastructure information is established.

10. The vehicle braking method as claimed in claim 9, wherein the fourth step does not authorize the automatic braking of the vehicle under the condition that the matching between the position of the target object based on the preview information and the position of the target object based on the infrastructure information is not established.

11. The vehicle braking method as claimed in claim 9, further comprising a fifth step of carrying out information provision based on the information from the infrastructure or giving an alarm to evoke attention to the target object in accordance with reliability of detection precision of the target object by the preview sensor.

12. The vehicle braking method as claimed in claim 10, further comprising a fifth step of carrying out information provision based on the information from the infrastructure or giving an alarm to evoke attention to the target object in accordance with reliability of detection precision of the target object by the preview sensor.