OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE CONTROL DEVICE AND RECORDING MEDIUM

• US 20100217527A1
• Filed: 06/13/2006
• Published: 08/26/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toyota Chuo Kenkyusho (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toyota Chuo Kenkyusho (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Hattori, Yoshikazu, Ono, Eiichi
• Granted Patent: US 7,949,469 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/301
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2201/022 Collision avoidance systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2210/32 Vehicle surroundings
• 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 10/12 including control of differentials
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/184 with wheel brakes
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/20 including control of steering systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0026 Lookup tables or parameter maps
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/10 Longitudinal speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/12 Lateral speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/803 Relative lateral speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/804 Relative longitudinal speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/08 Active safety systems predicting or avoiding probable or impending collision or attempting to minimise its consequences
• 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: B60W 40/105 Speed
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 15/0265 Automatic obstacle avoidance by steering
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes

Abstract

An obstacle avoidance control device has a detector for detecting the distance between a vehicle and an obstacle and the relative speed of the vehicle with respect to the obstacle, a memory for storing a map for calculating vehicle generation force to avoid the obstacle based on a parameter set by a physical quantity determined by a component V_x in the vehicle front-rear direction as of the relative speed, a component V_y in the vehicle lateral direction of the relative speed, and a distance Y_e′ in the vehicle lateral direction, for avoiding the obstacle, and a computing unit for computing the parameter based on the distance and the relative speed that are detected by the detector and computing vehicle generation force by using the calculated parameter and the map.

Claims

1. An obstacle avoidance control device comprising:

a detector for detecting a distance between a vehicle and an obstacle and a relative speed of the vehicle with respect to the obstacle;

a memory which stores a map for computing a vehicle resultant force for avoiding the obstacle based on a parameter specified by a physical quantity determined based on a component v_x in the vehicle longitudinal direction of the relative speed, a component v_y in a vehicle lateral direction of the relative speed and a vehicle lateral direction distance Y_e′

for avoiding the obstacle; and

a computing unit for computing the parameter based on the distance and the relative speed detected by the detector and the vehicle resultant force using the computed parameter and the map.

3. The obstacle avoidance control device of claim 1, further comprising a notifying device for notifying a vehicle driver of an obstacle avoidance condition based on the vehicle resultant force computed by the computing unit.

4. The obstacle avoidance control device of claim 1, further comprising a control unit for controlling at least one of steering angle, braking force and driving force based on the vehicle resultant force computed by the computing unit.

9. The obstacle avoidance control device of claim 4, further comprising an alarm unit for dispatching an alarm if no control is performed by the control unit when the distance is longer by a predetermined distance than the shorter distance of the shortest avoidance distance by straight line braking and the shortest avoidance distance by pure lateral movement.

10. The obstacle avoidance control device of claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the vehicle resultant force is a direction θ

of the vehicle resultant force.

2. An obstacle avoidance control device comprising:

a detector for detecting a distance between a vehicle and an obstacle and a relative speed of the vehicle with respect to the obstacle;

a memory which stores a map for computing a vehicle resultant force for avoiding the obstacle based on a first parameter specified by a physical quantity determined based on a component v_x in the vehicle longitudinal direction of the relative speed and a vehicle lateral direction distance Y_e′

for avoiding the obstacle and a second parameter specified by a physical quantity determined based on a component v_y in the vehicle lateral direction of the relative speed and a vehicle lateral direction distance Y_e′

for avoiding the obstacle; and

a computing unit for computing the first parameter and the second parameter based on the distance detected by the detector and the relative speed and for computing the vehicle resultant force using the computed first parameter and second parameter and the map.

5. The obstacle avoidance control device of claim 2, wherein the first parameter is specified by a ratio the component v, in the vehicle longitudinal direction of the relative speed and a square root of the vehicle lateral direction distance Y_e′

for avoiding the obstacle or a ratio between the component v, in the vehicle longitudinal direction of the relative speed and a time T_min required for traveling over the vehicle lateral direction distance Y_e′

for avoiding the obstacle, and the second parameter is specified by a ratio between the component v_y in the vehicle lateral direction of the relative speed and a square root of the vehicle lateral direction distance Y_e′

for avoiding the obstacle or a ratio between the component v_y in the vehicle lateral direction of the relative speed and the time T_min required for traveling over the vehicle lateral direction distance Y_e′

for avoiding the obstacle.

6. The obstacle avoidance control device of claim 2, wherein the first parameter is specified by a ratio of square root of the vehicle lateral direction distance Y_e′

for avoiding the obstacle with respect to the component v_x in the vehicle longitudinal direction of the relative speed, and the second parameter is specified by a ratio of the component v_y in the vehicle lateral direction of the relative speed with respect to the square root of the vehicle lateral direction distance Y_e′

for avoiding the obstacle.

7. The obstacle avoidance control device of claim 2, wherein the map is constituted of a map which specifies a relationship among the first parameter, the second parameter and the vehicle resultant force.

8. The obstacle avoidance control device of claim 2, wherein the map comprises a first map which specifies the relationship among the first parameter, the second parameter, and a first initial parameter specified by a physical quantity determined based on an initial value v0 in the vehicle longitudinal direction of the relative speed and an initial value Ye of the vehicle lateral direction distance for avoiding the obstacle, a second map which specifies a relationship of the first parameter, the second parameter, and a second initial parameter specified by a physical quantity determined based on an initial avoidance time and a current time, and a third map which specifies the relationship among the first initial parameter, the second initial parameter, and the vehicle resultant force.

11. A recording medium recording an obstacle avoidance control program which causes a computer to carry out processing comprising:

importing a distance between a vehicle and an obstacle and a relative speed of the vehicle with respect to the obstacle, which are detected by a detector for detecting the distance and the relative speed;

computing a vehicle resultant force for avoiding the obstacle based on a parameter specified by a physical quantity determined based on a component v_x in the vehicle longitudinal direction of the relative speed, a component v_y in the vehicle lateral direction of the relative speed, and a vehicle lateral direction distance Y_e for avoiding the obstacle; and

computing the parameter based on the distance and the relative speed detected by the detector, and using the computed parameter and the map to compute the vehicle resultant force.

13. The recording medium recording the obstacle avoidance control program of claim 11 or claim 12 wherein the vehicle resultant force is a direction θ

of the vehicle resultant force.

12. A recording medium recording an obstacle avoidance control program which causes a computer to carry out processing comprising:

importing a distance between a vehicle and an obstacle and a relative speed of the vehicle with respect to the obstacle, which are detected by a detector for detecting the distance and the relative speed;

computing, based on the imported information, a first parameter specified by a physical quantity determined based on a component v_x in the vehicle longitudinal direction of the relative speed and a vehicle lateral direction distance Y_e′

for avoiding the obstacle, and a second parameter specified by a physical quantity determined based a component v_y in the vehicle lateral direction of the relative speed and the vehicle lateral direction distance Y_e′

for avoiding the obstacle;

read out a map for computing, based on the first parameter and the second parameter, a vehicle resultant force for avoiding the obstacle, from a memory in which the map is stored; and

compute the vehicle resultant force for avoiding the obstacle based on the calculated first parameter, the calculated second parameter and the read out map.