JP4899429B2 - Driving support device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a device that supports driving of a vehicle, and more particularly, to a driving support device that supports merging to a main line at a merging portion of a road.

  Joining to a motorway such as an expressway is one of the driving operations that are difficult for beginners with low driving skills and so-called paper drivers. The reason for this is that there is a large speed difference between the vehicle traveling on the main line that is the merging destination and the host vehicle, and therefore the vehicle located in the rear side of the host vehicle is in the merging operation. It is considered that it is necessary to determine whether or not there is a possibility of being involved, and to set whether or not the merging is possible and the merging operation, which is a burden.

A vehicle control device disclosed in Patent Document 1 is known as a support device that supports such a merging operation. In this technology, the positional relationship between the host vehicle at the junction and the other vehicle traveling on the main line is predicted from the traveling state of the host vehicle and the other vehicle before the junction, and the vehicle travels so as not to get too close to the other vehicle. Provide support.
JP-A-8-263793

  In the technique of Patent Document 1, the merge point is set to the intersection of the roads that merge. However, the accelerating lane that joins the expressway has a section parallel to the main line, and at which position of this parallel section the host vehicle enters the main line to join, that is, where the confluence is located Whether to set depends on the driver. In addition, the acceleration state of the host vehicle up to this junction may vary depending on the driver. If the merging point and the acceleration state based on the prediction by the support device are different from the actual situation, the positional relationship between the host vehicle and the other vehicle at the merging point is also different, and appropriate driving support cannot be performed. Such a problem is not described in Patent Document 1.

  Then, this invention makes it a subject to provide the driving | running | working assistance apparatus which enabled it to perform the driving | running | working assistance at the time of a more suitable confluence according to a driver | operator's characteristic.

In order to solve the above problems, a driving support device according to the present invention is a driving support device that performs driving support when a vehicle traveling on a first road merges with a second road. Driving characteristic detecting means for detecting or estimating the proficiency level, merging start position estimating means for estimating the merging start position of the host vehicle to the second road based on the detected or estimated proficiency level, and the estimated merging start position; Predicting the start point of merging based on the traveling state of the host vehicle, and predicting the current position of the vehicle assuming that there is a vehicle that reaches the merging start position on the second road simultaneously with the host vehicle Vehicle detection means for detecting the presence or absence of a vehicle near the position predicted by the positional relationship prediction means, and the own vehicle according to the presence or absence of another vehicle on the second road near the predicted position detected by the vehicle detection means Provide driving support for And driving support means, characterized in that it comprises.

  Here, the merge start position is the position at which the vehicle starts to enter the second road. Specifically, a part of the vehicle (usually the front end on the second road side) is the second road. It shall refer to the position where entry begins within the driving lane. This is a concept different from the merging point and merging position in Patent Document 1 described above. The driving characteristics of the driver are parameters related to the driving situation from the current position to the merging, and are the acceleration characteristics and the setting of the merging position depending on the characteristics (individuality) of the driver or parameters that influence these. is there.

  According to the present invention, such driving characteristics are detected or estimated, the merging start position is estimated, and the positional relationship with the other vehicle at the time when the host vehicle reaches the merging start position according to the traveling state is predicted. . That is, it is possible to predict the merging start position that changes according to the driving characteristics, and to more appropriately perform the travel support until the merging start.

The more familiar the driver is, the more effective the first road is utilized as an acceleration section / merging preparation section. That is, there is a tendency to start merging on the side close to the end position of the first road. Therefore, as the proficiency level detected or estimated by the driving characteristic detection means is higher , the position closer to the terminal position of the first road than the lower case may be estimated as the merging start position. This proficiency level is recorded by reading the driving proficiency level information from the input device set on the vehicle, the ETC card of the ETC (Electronic Toll Collection) system, or the driver's individual key. By doing so, it can be done.

Alternatively, the driving characteristic detection means may determine the proficiency level based on the driver's past joining position. That is, the past joining start position is learned, and the joining start position is estimated according to the learning result.

The positional relationship prediction means may perform position prediction in consideration of the proficiency level detected or estimated. The time until the merge start position and the vehicle speed at the merge start position are estimated according to the proficiency level , and the positional relationship with other vehicles at the merge start position is predicted.

The driving support means may issue a warning to the driver by voice or display when the vehicle detecting means detects another vehicle on the second road near the predicted position. This warning includes not only the case of notifying that there is another vehicle approaching but also the case of giving an instruction for avoiding the approach such as acceleration / deceleration.

  According to the present invention, the merging start position is estimated according to the driving characteristics of the driver, and the positional relationship with the other vehicle at the time of reaching the estimated position is predicted, so that the positional relationship prediction in a more realistic manner can be performed. It becomes possible, and appropriate confluence support can be provided. In particular, the prediction of the positional relationship with higher accuracy is achieved by predicting the positional relationship with the other vehicle at the merging start position and the arrival time based on the driving characteristics such as the driver's proficiency level, past merging start position, and acceleration characteristics. be able to.

  By issuing a warning to the driver by voice or display according to the positional relationship prediction result, it is possible to prevent unnecessary approach to other vehicles in advance, ensuring safety and improving drivability. Can do.

  DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In order to facilitate the understanding of the description, the same reference numerals are given to the same components in the drawings as much as possible, and duplicate descriptions are omitted.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a driving support device (driving support device) 100 according to the present invention. The driving support device 100 particularly supports a merging operation, and is configured mainly with a driving support ECU 50 that is a control unit and a rear side safety determination ECU 4. These ECUs and each ECU to be described later are constituted by a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, and the like, and each ECU is connected to be communicable with each other directly or via an in-vehicle LAN. Each ECU may be completely separated in terms of hardware, but some or all of the ECUs may share part or all of the hardware. In this case, the functions of the ECUs are divided by software, but a configuration in which some programs are shared may be used.

  The rear side safety determination ECU 4 includes a merging start position predicting unit 40 that predicts the merging start position described above, and a positional relationship predicting unit 41 that predicts a positional relationship with another vehicle when the predicted merging start position is reached. Vehicle information recognition ECU 10 for recognizing vehicle information such as vehicle speed, environment information recognition ECU 20 for recognizing conditions around the vehicle, that is, the state of the road and other vehicles, and driver information for recognizing the driving characteristics of the driver. Each output of the recognition ECU 30 is inputted, and the determination result is notified to the driving support ECU 50.

  The vehicle information recognition ECU 10 includes a steering angle sensor 11 that is installed on a steering shaft and the like and detects a steering angle of the driver, an accelerator opening sensor 12 that is disposed on an accelerator pedal and detects an accelerator opening operated by the driver, The outputs of the vehicle speed sensor 13 (which may be a wheel speed sensor that measures the amount of wheel rotation) for detecting the vehicle speed of the host vehicle and the winker operation sensor 14 for detecting the operation state of the direction indicator (winker) are input. Has been.

  The environmental information recognition ECU 20 determines a rear side vehicle recognition sensor 21 that detects the position and speed of a vehicle traveling on the rear side, an in-vehicle communication device 22 that performs road-to-vehicle communication and inter-vehicle communication, and determines the current position of the vehicle. Each output of the navigation system 23 is input. Here, as the rear side vehicle recognition sensor 21, in addition to an active type detection device such as a radio wave radar or a sonar, a camera for imaging the rear side of the vehicle and an image processing device for image processing of the acquired image are combined. An image recognition device may be employed. Further, a radar sonar and an image recognition device may be combined. As the navigation system 23, an inertial navigation device or a navigation device using GPS can be used, or both may be combined. Furthermore, it is more preferable that the navigation apparatus stores map information including road information in an electromagnetic storage means and can be referred to from position information. Moreover, information exchange with the vehicle-mounted communication apparatus 22 may be possible.

  The driver information recognition ECU 30 receives outputs of a skill level determination device 31 that determines a driving skill level that is one of the driving characteristics of the driver, and a storage device 32 that stores a learning result on the driving characteristics. . Here, as the skill level determination device 31, in addition to a device in which the driver inputs the skill level using a keyboard, touch panel, switch, etc., skill level information is recorded in advance on a magnetic card, IC card, etc. A method of reading by a reader may be used. The magnetic card or IC card in this case may be a card that also serves as a driver's license, a card-type vehicle key, or an ETC card. Further, the proficiency level may be determined from the characteristics of the driving operation including the past merging operation. In this case, the determination result may be stored in the storage device 32. The storage device 32 includes a nonvolatile RAM, a flash memory, a hard disk, and the like, and stores a learning result of operation characteristics and the like.

  A speaker 51, a display 52, an engine ECU 53, a brake ECU 54, and a steering ECU 55 are connected to the driving support ECU 50. The speaker 51 gives sound to the driver, and the display 52 gives visual warnings to the driver and prompts appropriate operations. These may be shared with the in-vehicle AV device. The engine ECU 53, the brake ECU 54, and the steering ECU 55 perform desired driving support control by controlling the drive system, the braking system, and the steering system, respectively, according to instructions from the driving support ECU 50.

Before describing the driving support operation according to the present invention, the change in the positional relationship between vehicles during the merging operation according to the driver's proficiency will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2A shows the positional relationship of the vehicle at the time of joining by the skilled driver, and FIG. 2B shows the positional relationship of the vehicle at the time of joining in the case of a driver who is not good at the joining operation such as a beginner. Is shown. Here, in motorways such as highway, the vehicle 6 travels on the acceleration lane L _a, taking as an example the case entering the main line L _m. Hereinafter, the entrance point of the acceleration lane L _a with respect to the road extending direction P _E, denote the position of at least part of the vehicle 6 starts to enter the main line L _m lanes merging start point P _S.

一方、自車両６が合流開始点Ｐ_Ｓに到達した時点（符号６_Ｓで示す位置）に到達した際に、本線Ｌ_ｍ上の合流開始点Ｐ_Ｓに到達する他車両７_Ｓのｔ秒前の位置をＰ_Ｂ、Ｐ_ＥとＰ_Ｂとの距離をΔＬ_Ｂとすると、以下の関係が成立する。

Vehicle 7 to run the main line _{L m} (here, 90 km / h) constant speed _{V 2} is assumed to be traveling in. Although the vehicle 6 traveling on the acceleration lane L _a reaches confluence starting point P _S while accelerating, the acceleration when the a constant acceleration a, the acceleration lane inlet P V ₀ the initial vehicle speed at _E, the time to reach t, V ₁ using the vehicle speed when reaching _a distance of [Delta] L a between the confluence starting point P _S and an acceleration lane inlet P _E, and when the following relationship is established.

On the other hand, upon reaching the time when the vehicle 6 reaches the merging start point P _S (position shown by reference numeral 6 _S), mains L other vehicle 7 reaches the merging start point P _S on _{m S} t seconds before the position _P B, and the distance between _{P E} and _{P B} and [Delta] L _B, the following relationship is established.

As shown in FIG. 2 (a), in the case of a skilled driver, acceleration lane L speed close _a vehicle 7 is traveling the main lane L _m using fill the (V _{1 =} In the example 83km / h ) Therefore, [Delta] L _a is as long as 170m, [Delta] L _B is relatively short as 30 m, in the acceleration lane entrance _{P E,} the range on the main line to note is short.

In contrast, as shown in FIG. 2 (b), in the case of premature driver, I would hesitate to use fear merging failure to previous acceleration lane L _a, effectively an acceleration lane L _a It cannot be used as an acceleration section. That, [Delta] L _a is shortened (in the example, 130m). In addition, the acceleration in this section is less than half that of the skilled driver. Therefore, low vehicle speeds _{V 1} to be compared with the vehicle 7 to run the main _{L m} at the confluence starting point _{P S} (64km / h in the example), [Delta] L _B becomes longer as 60 m. As a result, in the acceleration lane entrance P _E, the range of the main line L _m Note also becomes longer.

Doing support such expecting similar merging operations and skilled operator against premature driver will set narrow attention space required in the acceleration lane entrance P _E, leading to confluence starting point P _S By the time, there is a possibility that the distance to the vehicle on the main line will be closer than necessary. This may reduce the reliability of the support device. On the other hand, if the attention area is set wide, the risk of such approach of the vehicle is reduced, but the attention area may become excessively wide, which may also reduce the reliability of the support device. is there.

  The driving support device of the present invention has an effect of suppressing excess and deficiency of the attention area. The operation will be specifically described below. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of the support operation, and FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the positional relationship of the vehicle during this control. This process is executed when the merging support condition is established in cooperation with each of the ECUs 10, 20, 30, and 50 with the rear side safety determination ECU 4 as the center.

  As the merging support condition, the driver selects support execution by a switch (not shown), and the course of the own vehicle from the information acquired by the navigation system 23 and the in-vehicle communication device 22, the output of the blinker operation sensor 14, etc. May be determined to satisfy the condition when it is determined that the road is a course that joins the main line.

First, to obtain the topographical information of the acceleration lane _{L a} from the environment information recognition ECU 20 (step S1). For example, by receiving and reading the map information stored in the storage device of the navigation system 23, the information-vehicle communication device 22 from the placed roadside communication equipment in the vicinity of the acceleration lane L _a, acceleration lane L _a from the acceleration lane entrance _{P E} obtaining distance _{L 1} to the end _{P X.}

Furthermore, from the vehicle information recognition ECU 10, and acquires the vehicle state quantity in the acceleration lane inlet _{P E} (Step S2). As the vehicle state quantity, the vehicle speed V ₀ acquired from the vehicle speed sensor 13 and the acceleration a obtained by differentiating the vehicle speed V ₀ are acquired.

  From the driver information recognition ECU 30, the driving characteristic information of the driver is acquired (step S3). The driving characteristic includes information related to the skill level of the merging operation determined by the skill level determination device 31.

  Note that the order of the processes in steps S1 to S3 may be different, and some processes may be executed in parallel. In particular, the processes in the vehicle information recognition ECU 10, the environment information recognition ECU 20, and the driver information recognition ECU 30 may be performed individually in parallel, and the processing results may be transferred simultaneously or sequentially to the rear side safety determination ECU 4.

In step S4, by merging start position prediction unit 40 predicts the merging start position _{P S.} Specifically, the distance [Delta] L _a of the acceleration section from the acceleration lane entrance _{P E} to the joining start position _{P S, ΔL a = α ×} L 1 ( however, 0 <α <1) is estimated by the expression. Where alpha is meant to be set in accordance with the skill of the determination, the effective use of acceleration lane L _a higher degree of skill is high driver (closer to 1) alpha largely set, the proficiency For a low driver, α is set small (close to 0).

ここでは、加速度ａを一定として求めたが、加速度ａの変化状況を予測して推定を行ってもよい。例えば、アクセル開度センサ１２の出力変化から運転者の加速状態に対する意図（例えば、加速度をさらに強めようとしているのか現在の加速度を維持しようとしているのか）を推定し、推定した加速度変化を考慮して到達時間を予測してもよい。 Positional relationship prediction unit 41 then is thus set distance of the acceleration section DerutaLa, initial vehicle speed V0, and estimates the time t to the joining start position P _S reaches based on the acceleration a (step S5). For example, assuming that the acceleration a is constant, the time t to reach may be obtained by the following equation (4) obtained by modifying the equation (2).

Here, the acceleration a is determined to be constant, but the change state of the acceleration a may be predicted and estimated. For example, the driver's intention to the acceleration state (for example, whether the acceleration is to be further increased or the current acceleration is to be maintained) is estimated from the output change of the accelerator opening sensor 12, and the estimated acceleration change is taken into consideration. The arrival time may be predicted.

Positional relationship prediction unit 41, based on the arrival time estimated, estimates the vehicle speed V ₁ of the time arrival of the vehicle 6 (step S6), and further vehicle traveling the main line L _m is traveling at a constant speed V ₂ on the assumption that the other vehicle 7 is expected to reach the vehicle 6 simultaneously with the merging start position P _S is indicated by the vehicle 6 is accelerated lane when the inlet is located (vehicle 6 _E. ), The position P _B (indicated by the vehicle 7 _E ) on the main line L _m is calculated. Specifically, determining the [Delta] L _B based on the equation (3) described above (step S7).

Next, to grasp the current status of the other vehicles around the P _B position (step S8). Then, the distance L _C from P _{B of the} vehicle 7 (closest vehicle) that is closest to P _B on the main line L _m is obtained. Here, in the case as the LC positive, meaning that in the vicinity of the confluence starting point P _S reaches a position other vehicle 7 _S is positioned behind the vehicle 6 _S, if negative, the other vehicle 7 _S is intended to mean that it is located in front of the vehicle 6 _S.

In the case where another vehicle within a predetermined distance L _R is not present, it may be set as L C ₌ L _R. This is because a vehicle with a distance may be out of the range of the rear side vehicle recognition sensor 21, and there is no possibility of affecting the traveling of the host vehicle, and it is not necessary to grasp the positional relationship. There, as the L _R value in this case, for example, it may be set to [Delta] L _B.

Then, the absolute value of the obtained _{L C} To evaluate whether is within the threshold value _{L th} (Step S9). The threshold L _th is sufficiently smaller than L _R, is a threshold for determining that the distance is not in the proper relationship as the positional relationship at the time merging start position P _S reached. Thus, L _th is not a constant determined uniformly, may be set as a value determined according to the relative speed at the time merging start position P _S reaches between the host vehicle and another vehicle. This is because, even when the distance is the same, when the vehicle is approaching and when the vehicle is moving away, the margin time for avoiding the access is different and the driver feels a different danger. Note that threshold values having different absolute values may be used for positive cases and negative cases.

When it is determined that the absolute value of L _C is within the threshold value L _th , the process proceeds to step S 10, and the driving support ECU 50 approaches the other vehicle 7 at the start of merging with the driver through the speaker 51 and the display 52. Alert you that you are too much. Furthermore, if it is possible to maintain the distance from other vehicles by changing the merging start position and the acceleration state of the acceleration section, the engine ECU 53, the brake ECU 54, and the steering ECU 55 are instructed to adjust the vehicle speed or change the entry time point. It is better to perform collision avoidance control. An instruction for prompting the driver to perform an appropriate operation may be given through the speaker 51 and the display 52 without directly controlling them.

In step S9, the absolute value of L _C is when it is determined to exceed the threshold value L _th, the process proceeds to step S11. In this case, it is determined that a sufficient distance from the other vehicle 7 can be secured, but in order to prevent the prediction and the actual from greatly deviating, the driving support ECU 50 notifies the driver through the speaker 51 and the display 52. An instruction for prompting an appropriate operation (instructing to keep the acceleration as it is or instructing an appropriate joining start position) may be performed based on the predicted joining start position or vehicle speed.

  Even after passing through the acceleration lane entrance, appropriate merge support can be performed by repeating the same process using the current position instead of the acceleration lane entrance. In particular, when traveling while maintaining the acceleration state at the accelerating lane entrance, it is determined that the vehicle is too close to the other vehicle at the merging start position, and when performing operation support, it is necessary to appropriately control the support value by similar processing. .

According to the present invention, it is possible to predict the appropriate merging start position P _E in response to the driver's skill level, to predict the positional relationship between the other vehicle at a position P _E, improving the prediction accuracy of the positional relationship In addition, the accuracy of support for confluence is improved. Therefore, the excess or deficiency of the attention range can be reduced, and the reliability of the support operation is improved. As a result, the burden on the driver during the merging operation is reduced, and safety is improved.

  In the above example, the driving skill is given as the driving characteristic determined in step S3. However, the actual driving characteristic at the time of the merging operation may be learned and used. FIG. 5 is a processing flow showing the operation characteristic learning operation. This learning operation is performed at the time of the merging operation including non-support time.

In step S21, the operating characteristic value detected during the merging operation is read. As the operating characteristic values, an average acceleration a _ave in the acceleration lane, the ratio α and the like for the overall length L ₁ of the acceleration lane L _a of the acceleration section [Delta] L _a that described above. In step S22, these values are stored in the driving characteristic value database in the storage device 32 in association with driver-specific ID information for identifying the driver. Next, the driving characteristic value of the driver is read from the stored driving characteristic value database and statistically processed to set the driving characteristic value to be used at the time of merging support (step S23), and stored in the database in the storage device 32. Store (step S24).

  As this statistical processing, there are a method using the average value, a method using the mode value, and a method using the median value. When obtaining these representative values, a predetermined number of data on the maximum value or minimum value side may be excluded from the statistical processing. In addition, data that is older in time may be excluded from the statistical processing, or the next driving characteristic value may be predicted by adding processing for determining a tendency.

  At the time of merging support, it is possible to estimate the merging start position with high accuracy according to the driving characteristics of the driver by reading the driving characteristic value set in this way and performing the merging support processing, with higher accuracy. Confluence support can be realized. In particular, since detailed control according to the characteristics of individual drivers is possible, the reliability of the support system is improved, the burden at the time of merge operation is reduced, and the safety is also improved.

It is a block block diagram of the driving assistance device concerning this invention. It is a position relationship figure explaining the difference in the positional relationship of the vehicles at the time of joining by the difference in the skill level of a driver. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the driving assistance operation | movement by the apparatus of FIG. FIG. 4 is a positional relationship diagram of a vehicle in the control of FIG. 3. It is a flowchart explaining the driving | operation characteristic learning operation | movement by the apparatus of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

  4 ... rear side safety determination ECU, 6 ... own vehicle, 7 ... other vehicle, 10 ... vehicle information recognition ECU, 11 ... rudder angle sensor, 12 ... accelerator opening sensor, 13 ... vehicle speed sensor, 14 ... winker operation sensor, DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 20 ... Environmental information recognition ECU, 21 ... Rear side vehicle recognition sensor, 22 ... In-vehicle communication apparatus, 23 ... Navigation system, 30 ... Driver information recognition ECU, 31 ... Skill level determination apparatus, 32 ... Memory | storage device, 40 ... Merge Start position predicting unit, 41... Positional relationship predicting unit, 50... Driving assistance ECU, 51... Speaker, 52 .. display, 53 ... engine ECU, 54 ... brake ECU, 55 ... steering ECU, 100.

Claims (5)

In the travel support device that performs travel support when a vehicle traveling on the first road joins the second road,
Driving characteristic detection means for detecting or estimating the proficiency level of the driver's merging operation;
Merging start position estimating means for estimating a merging start position of the own vehicle to the second road based on the proficiency level detected or estimated;
The vehicle when the merge start point is predicted based on the estimated merge start position and the traveling state of the host vehicle, and it is assumed that there is a vehicle that reaches the vicinity of the merge start position on the second road simultaneously with the host vehicle. A positional relationship prediction means for predicting the current position of
Vehicle detection means for detecting the presence or absence of other vehicles on the second road near the position predicted by the positional relationship prediction means;
A travel support device, comprising: travel support means for supporting travel of the host vehicle according to the presence or absence of another vehicle on the second road near the predicted position detected by the vehicle detection means. The driving support according to claim 1, wherein the higher the proficiency level detected or estimated by the driving characteristic detecting means, the closer to the terminal position of the first road is estimated as a merging start position than when the driving characteristic is low. apparatus. The driving support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the driving characteristic detection unit determines a proficiency level based on a past joining position of the driver. The travel support apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the positional relationship predicting means predicts the merging start time in consideration of the proficiency level detected or estimated. The driving support means issues a warning to the driver by voice or display when another vehicle is detected on the second road near the predicted position by the vehicle detection means. The driving support device according to any one of the above.

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