Vehicle traveling control device

• US 20050125155A1
• Filed: 11/30/2004
• Published: 06/09/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Subaru Corp.
• Original Assignee: Fuji Heavy Industries Limited (Subaru Corp.)
• Inventors: Kudo, Shinya
• Granted Patent: US 7,243,026 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/301
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2400/823 Obstacle sensing
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2401/142 Visual Display Camera, e.g. LCD
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2600/1873 Model Following
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2800/242 Obstacle avoidance manoeuvre
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2800/965 Automatic or driver-independent manoeuvre, e.g. for obstacle avoidance or roll-over prevention
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2201/022 Collision avoidance systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2260/02 Active Steering, Steer-by-Wire
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0028 Mathematical models, e.g. for simulation
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0057 Frequency analysis, spectral techniques or transforms
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2420/403 Image sensing, e.g. optical camera
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/00 Input parameters relating to objects
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/09 Taking automatic action to avoid collision, e.g. braking and steering
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/095 Predicting travel path or likelihood of collision
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 15/0265 Automatic obstacle avoidance by steering
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 6/002 computing target steering angles for front or rear wheels B62D7/159 takes precedence

Abstract

A control device sets avoidance traveling reaching points, avoidance traveling target points, and a final avoidance target point of an obstacle to be avoided based on the position of the obstacle to be avoided and the position of the vehicle for the target passing position based on obstacle information recognized by a stereo camera, and an environment recognition unit, inputs the target actual steering angle as a vehicle motion parameter obtained according to a vehicle motion model to an electric power steering control device with these target passing positions as a target, and guides the avoidance traveling. The increase of the number of operations is controlled thereby to a minimum, and the obstacle is smoothly, efficiently and stably avoided based on actual behavior of the vehicle.

Claims

1. A vehicle traveling control device comprising:

object detection means for detecting an object in a traveling environment;

obstacle recognition means for recognizing an obstacle to form a traveling obstacle of the vehicle from among the objects detected by the object detection means; and

control means for guiding the vehicle so as to turnably avoid the obstacle recognized by the obstacle recognition means;

wherein the control means sets an avoidance traveling start point to start the avoidance traveling, an avoidance traveling reaching point on the obstacle side based on the position of the obstacle, and an avoidance traveling target point between the avoidance traveling start point and the avoidance traveling reaching point;

sets vehicle motion parameters based on a vehicle motion model with the avoidance traveling target point and the avoidance traveling reaching point as target passing positions; and

guides the vehicle so that the turning direction of the vehicle is switched to the opposite direction at the avoidance traveling target point with respect to the turning direction of the vehicle from the avoidance traveling start point to the avoidance traveling target point.

2. The vehicle traveling control device according to claim 1, wherein the control means sets a final avoidance target point to avoid the obstacle, sets vehicle motion parameters based on a vehicle motion model with the final avoidance target point as a target passing position, and guides the vehicle to the target passing position.

3. The vehicle traveling control device according to claim 1, wherein the control means estimates a present position of the vehicle based on positional information of the obstacle obtained with the avoidance traveling start point as a reference, presently obtained positional information of the obstacle from the obstacle recognition means, and the state of the motion of the vehicle when the vehicle is guided with the avoidance traveling target point as the target passing position:

estimates a new avoidance traveling target point by the avoidance traveling target point set with the avoidance traveling start point as a reference, the present position of the vehicle, and the state of the motion of the vehicle; and

sets the new avoidance traveling target point to be at the target passing position.

4. The vehicle traveling control device according to claim 2, wherein the control means estimates a present position of the vehicle based on positional information of the obstacle obtained with the avoidance traveling start point as a reference, presently obtained positional information of the obstacle from the obstacle recognition means, and the state of the motion of the vehicle when the vehicle is guided with the avoidance traveling target point as the target avoidance position:

estimates a new avoidance traveling target point by the avoidance traveling target point set with the avoidance traveling start point as a reference, the present position of the vehicle, and the state of the motion of the vehicle; and

sets the new avoidance traveling target point to be at the target passing position.

5. The vehicle traveling control device according to claim 1, wherein the avoidance traveling reaching point is set based on positional information of the obstacle from the obstacle recognition means obtained when guiding the vehicle and the state of the motion of the vehicle.

6. The vehicle traveling control device according to claim 4, wherein the avoidance traveling reaching point is set based on positional information of the obstacle from the obstacle recognition means obtained when guiding the vehicle and the state of the motion of the vehicle.

7. The vehicle traveling control device according to claim 1, wherein the control means sets a steering angle to be substantially zero when the transverse deviation between the target passing position and the position of the vehicle does not exceed a preset value.

8. The vehicle traveling control device according to claim 4, wherein the control means sets a steering angle to be substantially zero when the transverse deviation between the target passing position and the position of the vehicle does not exceed a preset value.

9. The vehicle traveling control device according to claim 1, wherein the control means cancels the guiding of the vehicle if the object detection means detects that pedestrians are present on both sides of the obstacle.

10. The vehicle traveling control device according to claim 4, wherein the control means cancels the guiding of the vehicle if the object detection means detects that pedestrians are present on both sides of the obstacle.

11. The vehicle traveling control device according to claim 1, wherein the control means guides the vehicle to the side on which no pedestrian is present if the object detection means detects that a pedestrian is present on one side of the obstacle.

12. The vehicle traveling control device according to claim 4, wherein the control means guides the vehicle to the side on which no pedestrian is present if the object detection means detects that a pedestrian is present on one side of the obstacle.

13. The vehicle traveling control device according to claim 1, wherein the control means guides the vehicle to the side on which no oncoming vehicle is present if the object detection means detects the oncoming vehicle on either side of the obstacle.

14. The vehicle traveling control device according to claim 4, wherein the control means guides the vehicle to the side on which no oncoming vehicle is present if the object detection means detects the oncoming vehicle on either side of the obstacle.

15. The vehicle traveling control device according to claim 1, wherein the control means cancels the guiding of the vehicle if the object detection means detects a second obstacle different from the above obstacle approaches from both sides at the rear of the vehicle.

16. The vehicle traveling control device according to claim 4, wherein the control means cancels the guiding of the vehicle if the object detection means detects a second obstacle different from the above obstacle approaches from both sides at the rear of the vehicle.

17. The vehicle traveling control device according to claim 1, wherein the control means guides the vehicle to the side on which a second obstacle does not approach if the object detection means detects the second obstacle different from the above obstacle approaches from either backward side of the vehicle.

18. The vehicle traveling control device according to claim 4, wherein the control means guides the vehicle to the side on which a second obstacle does not approach if the object detection means detects the second obstacle different from the above obstacle approaches from either backward side of the vehicle.