Vehicle speed control device, method of determining target speed by using the device, and program executing the method

• US 20070192013A1
• Filed: 01/19/2007
• Published: 08/16/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Astemo Ltd. (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Sakata, Masao, Imai, Masato, Sakamoto, Hiroshi, Inoue, Takeshi, Tanikoshi, Koichiro, Bando, Mikio
• Granted Patent: US 8,005,602 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/93
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2210/36 Global Positioning System [GPS]
• 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: B60W 10/04 including control of propulsion units
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/00 Input parameters relating to infrastructure
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/10 Number of lanes
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2720/106 Longitudinal acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/16 Control of distance between vehicles, e.g. keeping a distance to preceding vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/02 related to ambient conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/105 Speed

Abstract

The present invention relates to a vehicle speed control device for controlling a speed of a vehicle. The vehicle speed control device includes a current location error estimation section for extracting area attribute information from the map information, for producing a location error probability distribution, a target speed calculation section for receiving the target speed correction instruction, for accessing preset data that shows an acceleration or a gradient of an acceleration which allows a driver not to feel uncomfortable, and for computing target speed values at nodes over the distance in such a way that the target speed values create a continuous curve, and a speed control section for sensing a speed of a vehicle, and for controlling a driving torque of the vehicle so that the sensed speed traces the continuous curve composed of the target speed values.

Claims

1. A vehicle speed control device including a speed control section, the vehicle speed control device for controlling a speed of a vehicle within a control-executed zone by computing a target speed of the vehicle based on map information and a current location of the vehicle and by supplying the target speed to the speed control section, the vehicle speed control device comprising:

a current location error estimation section for extracting area attribute information from the map information, for producing a location error probability distribution of the vehicle, based on the area attribute information, and for outputting the produced location error probability distribution as a target speed correction instruction, wherein the area attribute information indicates an attribute of the current location or of the control-executed zone;

a target speed calculation section for receiving the target speed correction instruction, for accessing preset data that shows an acceleration or a gradient of an acceleration which does not make a driver feel uncomfortable and that depends on the location error probability distribution and a distance between a destination and a speed change start point of the target speed, and for computing target speed values at nodes over the distance in such a way that the target speed values create a continuous curve; and

a speed control section for sensing a speed of a vehicle, and for controlling a driving torque of the vehicle so that the sensed speed traces the continuous curve composed of the target speed values.

2. The vehicle speed control device according to claim 1, further comprising the human sensitivity model memory section which is to be accessed by the target speed calculation section, and which contains the acceleration or the gradient of the acceleration, and at least one of a node-to-node link distance, a node-to-node link width, a node-to-node link number, node-to-node link information, and node-to-node link speed,

wherein the node-to-node link distance indicates a distance between adjacent ones of nodes, the node-to-node link width indicates a width of a road, the node-to-node link number indicates the number of lanes on the road, a node-to-node link information indicates a direction in which the vehicle is to turn at the nodes to which the node-to-node link number is allocated, and the node-to-node link speed indicates a speed limit of a link between adjacent ones of the nodes.

3. The vehicle speed control device according to claim 1, further comprising a user interface section for informing an external that the speed control section cannot execute a control operation, if the current location of the vehicle is not acquired.

4. The vehicle speed control device according to claim 1,

wherein the current location error estimation section, comprises:

a fixed measurement point location error probability distribution memory section for containing location error probability distributions corresponding to fixed measurement point nodes;

a location error probability distribution acquisition section for acquiring the location error probability distributions from the fixed measurement point location error probability distribution memory section;

a map information acquisition section for acquiring the area attribute information on at least two of the fixed measurement point nodes around the current location or on the control-executed zone; and

an error probability distribution interpolation pattern memory section for containing area transit interpolation patterns depending on the area attribute information at adjacent ones of the nodes; and

an error probability distribution interpolation section for correcting the location error probability distributions by using the area transit interpolation patterns and for outputting the corrected location error probability distributions.

5. The vehicle speed control device according to claim 4,

wherein the current location error estimation section, further comprises:

a vehicle information error probability distribution correction section for computing probability distributions representing an magnitude of a possible error which one or more sensors installed on the vehicle occurs at the nodes, for determining new error probability distributions produced by multiplying the probability distributions at the nodes by the location error probability distributions at the corresponding nodes; and

for outputting the new error probability distributions to the target speed calculation section as the target speed correction instructions.

6. The vehicle speed control device according to claim 1,

the target speed calculation section comprises:

a function computing section for creating a target speed curve by computing target speed values at the individual nodes between the current location and the destination, on the condition that an error is ignored;

an allowable error speed determining section for, upon reception of the target speed correction instructions from the current location error estimation section, computing an allowable error speed, based on a difference between a target speed value on the target speed curve at an allowable error point and a target speed value at the destination, wherein the allowable error speed covers accuracy requirement of the speed control section;

a response curve generating section for receiving the location error probability distributions at the nodes from the current location error estimation section, for entering the received location error probability distributions into a vehicle speed control system, for creating a response target speed curve having an amplitude between the current location and the destination, and for outputting the created curve, wherein the vehicle speed control system, which is adapted to receive the current location and to output the target speed, varies the speed of the vehicle based on the target speed, senses the variation in the current location with time passing, and feedbacks the variation to the current location;

a target speed error range update section for converting the location error probability distributions into speed error ranges having an error on the near and far side with respect to the current location, and for updating the target speed error ranges at the nodes by using values of the target speed error range if the target speed error range falls within the speed error range, or by using a maximum or minimum value of the target speed error range if the target speed error range falls outside the speed error range;

a new target speed value curve generating section for creating a new target speed curve that passes through an extremal value on the target speed error range on the near side and that has a speed change start point being sifted from that of the target speed curve on the near side; and

a new target speed output section for accessing the human sensitivity model memory section, for correcting one or more values on the new target speed curve, and for outputting the corrected new target speed curve to the speed control section.

7. The vehicle speed control device according to claim 6,

wherein the target speed calculation section further comprises target speed value curve learning memory section for memorizing the new target speed curve for the route whenever the vehicle runs on a route, and for outputting the target speed curve to the speed control section when the vehicle approaches the route.

8. A method of setting a target speed by using a vehicle speed control device, the vehicle speed control device including a memory unit and a computing unit, for controlling a speed of a vehicle within a control-executed zone by computing a target speed of the vehicle based on map information and a current location of the vehicle and by supplying the target speed to a speed control section, the method comprising:

producing a location error probability distribution of the vehicle by using the computing unit, based on area attribute information contained in the map information, wherein the area attribute information indicates an attribute of the current location or of the control-executed zone;

outputting the location error probability distribution,

reading preset data that shows an acceleration or a gradient of an acceleration which allows a driver not to feel uncomfortable and that depends on the location error probability distribution and a distance between a destination and a speed change start point of the target speed; and

computing target speed values at nodes over the distance by using the computing unit in such a way that the target speed values create a continuous curve.

9. The method according to claim 8,

wherein the production of the location error probability distribution of the vehicle comprises:

accessing a fixed measurement location error probability distribution DB contained in the memory unit and corresponding to the fixed measurement point nodes;

acquiring the location error probability distribution from the fixed measurement location error probability distribution DB;

extracting, from the map information contained in the memory unit, the area attribute information between at least two of the fixed measurement point nodes around the current location;

computing an error of the current location of the vehicle by correcting the location error probability distributions by using area transit interpolation patterns being determined by the area attribute information;

computing probability distributions representing a magnitude of a possible error which one or more sensors installed on the vehicle occurs at the nodes between the current location and the determination,

determining new error probability distributions produced by multiplying the probability distributions at the nodes by the location error probability distributions at the corresponding nodes; and

outputting the new error probability distributions as the target speed correction instructions.

10. The method according to claim 8,

wherein the computation of the target speed values at the nodes comprises:

creating a target speed curve by computing target speed values at the individual nodes between the current location and the destination, on the condition that an error is ignored;

upon reception of the target speed correction instructions, computing an allowable error speed, based on a difference between a target speed value on the target speed curve at an allowable error point and a target speed value at the destination, wherein the allowable error speed covers accuracy requirement of the speed control section;

receiving the location error probability distributions at the nodes from the current location error estimation section,

entering the received location error probability distributions into a vehicle speed control system,

creating a response target speed curve having an amplitude between the current location and the destination, and for outputting the created curve, wherein the vehicle speed control system, which is adapted to receive the current location and to output the target speed, varies the speed of the vehicle based on the target speed, senses the variation in the current location with time passing, and feedbacks the variation to the current location;

converting the location error probability distributions into speed error ranges having an error on the near and far side with respect to the current location,

updating the target speed error ranges at the nodes by using values of the target speed error range if the target speed error range falls within the speed error range, or by using a maximum or minimum value of the target speed error range if the target speed error range falls outside the speed error range;

creating a new target speed curve that passes through an extremal value on the target speed error range on the near side and that has a speed change start point being sifted from that of the target speed curve on the near side;

accessing the human sensitivity model memory section that contains an acceleration or a gradient of an acceleration which allows a driver not to feel uncomfortable and that depends on the location error probability distribution and a distance between the destination and a speed change start point of the target speed;

correcting one or more values on the new target speed curve, and

outputting the corrected new target speed curve to the speed control section.