ROW RUNNING CONTROL SYSTEM AND VEHICLE

• US 20110270513A1
• Filed: 01/20/2009
• Published: 11/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/20/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Shida, Mitsuhisa
• Granted Patent: US 8,989,995 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/117
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/165 Automatically following the path of a preceding lead vehicle, e.g. "electronic tow-bar"
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/161 Decentralised systems, e.g. inter-vehicle communication
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/22 Platooning, i.e. convoy of communicating vehicles

Abstract

A row running control system is a system that controls the running state of each vehicle by optimum control (LQ control) so that five vehicles, for example, run in a row. Acceleration instruction values for the succeeding four vehicles among the five vehicles are determined as values minimizing predetermined evaluation functions, and the evaluation functions are calculated based on the errors of the distances between the respective vehicles, relative speeds between the respective vehicles and the acceleration instruction values for the respective vehicles.

Claims

1. A row running control system that controls running states of each vehicle so that a plurality of vehicles runs in a row,

wherein a group of running control amounts of at least a part of a plurality of constituent vehicles of constituent vehicles constituting the row is determined as a group of running control amounts which minimize a predetermined evaluation value, and

wherein the predetermined evaluation value is calculated based on a value concerning the relative relationship between the respective constituent vehicles and a value concerning a running control amount of at least one constituent vehicle of the constituent vehicles.

2. The row running control system according to claim 1,

wherein the predetermined evaluation value is a value that is calculated by performing a weighting on each of the values concerning the relative relationship between the respective constituent vehicles and the value concerning the running control amount of at least one constituent vehicle of the constituent vehicles.

3. The row running control system according to claim 1,

wherein the value concerning the relative relationship between the constituent vehicles includes at least one of errors of respective inter-vehicle distances between the vehicle and an immediately preceding constituent vehicle in the respective constituent vehicles or the respective relative speeds between the vehicle and the immediately preceding constituent vehicle in the respective constituent vehicles.

4. The row running control system according to claim 1,

wherein at least a part of the plurality of constituent vehicles includes a lead vehicle in the row.

5. The row running control system according to claim 4,

wherein the value concerning the running control amount of at least one constituent vehicle is a value that is calculated by performing a weighting on each of an target running control amount of the lead vehicle and the running control amounts of succeeding vehicles other than the lead vehicle, and

wherein weights in the weighting are determined based on a positional relationship between the lead vehicle and an obstruction that exists ahead of the lead vehicle.

6. The row running control system according to claim 3,

wherein the predetermined evaluation value is a value that is calculated by performing a weighting on each of errors of the respective inter-vehicle distances between the vehicle and the immediately preceding vehicle in the respective constituent vehicles and the running control amount of at least one constituent vehicle of the constituent vehicles, and

wherein weights in the weighting are determined based on the running speeds of the respective constituent vehicles.

7. A vehicle comprising the row running control system according to claim 1.