Driving assistance device and driving assistance method

Abstract

The present application is a driving assistance device that includes a communication function detection unit that detects whether or not a surrounding vehicle is equipped with a communication function, a surrounding vehicle information acquisition unit that acquires a relative distance between the own vehicle and the surrounding vehicle based on information acquired from the surrounding vehicle equipped with the communication function, and a manual driving vehicle estimation unit that estimates whether or not a manual driving vehicle exists in the surroundings of the own vehicle.

Description

[0001] Reference-based incorporation

[0002] This application claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2021-129526, filed on August 6, 2021 (Reiwa 3), the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Technical Field

[0003] This invention relates to a driving assistance device and driving assistance method that uses vehicle-to-vehicle communication to determine whether a vehicle is manually driven. Background Technology

[0004] With the widespread adoption of autonomous driving, it is anticipated that autonomous and manually driven vehicles will coexist on the road. In such a scenario, autonomous vehicles will use sensor information from cameras and other means to detect manually driven vehicles.

[0005] As background technology in this field, the following prior art exists. Patent document 1 (Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2020-35155) discloses a driving control device comprising a communication unit, a control unit, and a storage unit. The control unit comprises a detection unit, a driving control unit, and a notification unit. The detection unit detects manually driven vehicles present in the vicinity of the autonomous vehicle. When a manually driven vehicle is detected by the detection unit, the driving control unit controls the driving of the autonomous vehicle in a manner that assists the driving of the manually driven vehicle. The notification unit notifies the manually driven vehicle of assistance information related to the assistance. Summary of the Invention

[0006] The problem the invention aims to solve

[0007] However, autonomous vehicles are controlled by maintaining a certain distance from other vehicles, so there is a possibility that they may obstruct the driving of manually driven vehicles without being aware of the actions of the drivers of the manually driven vehicles around them. As a result, this could trigger a forced lane change by the manually driven vehicle, causing the autonomous vehicle to brake suddenly. Furthermore, in the detection of surrounding conditions based on sensors such as cameras, it is difficult to accurately identify manually driven vehicles in adverse weather conditions or at night.

[0008] Technical means to solve the problem

[0009] A representative example of the invention disclosed in this application is shown below. Specifically, a driving assistance device includes: a communication function detection unit that detects whether surrounding vehicles are equipped with communication functions; a surrounding vehicle information acquisition unit that acquires the relative distance between the vehicle and the surrounding vehicles based on information acquired from surrounding vehicles equipped with the communication functions; and a manual driving vehicle estimation unit that estimates whether a manually driven vehicle exists around the vehicle.

[0010] The effects of the invention

[0011] According to one aspect of the present invention, the presence of a manually driven vehicle can be accurately determined. The following description of embodiments will clarify issues, configurations, and effects beyond those described above. Attached Figure Description

[0012] Figure 1 A diagram illustrating the configuration of a driver assistance system.

[0013] Figure 2 This is a flowchart for the detection and processing of manually driven vehicles.

[0014] Figure 3 This is a flowchart for braking and acceleration control processing.

[0015] Figure 4 A diagram illustrating braking and acceleration control. Detailed Implementation

[0016] The embodiments of the present invention will now be described.

[0017] Figure 1 This diagram illustrates the configuration of the driving assistance device 100 in this embodiment.

[0018] The driving assistance device 100 of this embodiment includes a GNSS receiver 103 that receives RF signals from a GNSS antenna 101 and a V2X communication device 104 that receives RF signals from a V2X antenna 102. The driving assistance device 100 can use the GNSS receiver 103 and the V2X communication device 104 to obtain the latitude and longitude information of its own vehicle and the latitude and longitude information of surrounding vehicles equipped with V2X communication devices. V2X is a general term for Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V), Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I), and Vehicle to Pedestrian (V2P) communication. In this embodiment, the latitude and longitude information of the own vehicle obtained by the GNSS receiver 103 and the latitude and longitude information of surrounding vehicles obtained by the V2X communication device 104 are respectively input to the CPU 105 to calculate the inter-vehicle distance between the own vehicle and surrounding vehicles.

[0019] CPU105 identifies manually driven vehicles without V2X communication by comparing the calculated inter-vehicle distances, and generates braking acceleration data 106 for braking acceleration control in the following manner: adjusting the speed of its own vehicle in a way that does not hinder the movement of the manually driven vehicle, and maintaining the inter-vehicle distance between its own vehicle and the vehicle in front at a certain level.

[0020] CPU 105 is an arithmetic unit that executes programs stored in memory (not shown). By executing programs, CPU 105 operates as a functional unit (self-position acquisition unit, surrounding vehicle information acquisition unit, inter-vehicle distance comparison unit, manually driven vehicle identification unit, and driving plan sharing unit) that provides specified functions.

[0021] Figure 2 This is a flowchart of the manual driving vehicle detection process performed by the driving assistance device 100 in this embodiment.

[0022] Step S101: In the manual driving vehicle detection, firstly, the surrounding vehicle information acquisition unit determines whether the surrounding vehicles are equipped with V2X communication function based on whether the surrounding vehicles of its own vehicle are conducting V2X communication, thereby confirming the number of vehicles that can conduct vehicle-to-vehicle communication.

[0023] Step S102: If the surrounding vehicle information acquisition unit determines that there are two or more vehicles around its own vehicle capable of vehicle-to-vehicle communication, proceed to step S103. On the other hand, if it determines that there are one or fewer vehicles around its own vehicle capable of vehicle-to-vehicle communication, return to step S101 to confirm the vehicles equipped with V2X around its own vehicle.

[0024] Step S103: The self-positioning unit obtains the latitude and longitude information of its own vehicle 200 from the GNSS receiver 103.

[0025] Step S104: The surrounding vehicle information acquisition unit acquires images from the V2X communication device 104. Figure 4 The latitude and longitude information of autonomous vehicles such as vehicles 201 to 203 that are driving around their own vehicle 200 and equipped with V2X communication devices.

[0026] Step S105: The workshop distance comparison unit calculates the distance between vehicles that can communicate based on the latitude and longitude information of its own vehicle 200 and the latitude and longitude information of surrounding vehicles 201 to 203.

[0027] Step S106: The inter-vehicle distance comparison unit determines whether the calculated inter-vehicle distances are within a certain range. If the inter-vehicle distance is longer than a predetermined threshold, it cannot distinguish between an autonomous vehicle and a manually driven vehicle, so it repeatedly calculates the inter-vehicle distance between its own vehicle and surrounding vehicles until the inter-vehicle distance falls within a certain range. On the other hand, if the inter-vehicle distance is within a certain range, the calculated inter-vehicle distances are compared in step S107. The inter-vehicle distance calculated in step S106 is the inter-vehicle distance between vehicles traveling in the same lane, for example... Figure 4The distance between the vehicle 201 in front of the vehicle and the vehicle 200 itself is shown, as is the distance between the vehicle 202 traveling in front of the vehicle in the left lane and the vehicle 203 traveling behind the vehicle in the same lane.

[0028] Step S107: The manual driving vehicle recognition unit compares the relative distance between vehicles traveling in the same lane with a predetermined threshold to determine whether the relative distance is greater than or equal to the standard inter-vehicle distance plus the vehicle length for autonomous driving vehicles. Furthermore, the inter-vehicle distance in autonomous driving control is expressed as the distance between the front of the vehicle and the rear of the preceding vehicle. The inter-vehicle distance calculated based on vehicle position is expressed as the distance between the center position of the vehicle and the center position of the preceding vehicle. Therefore, the threshold is obtained by adding the vehicle length to the standard inter-vehicle distance in autonomous driving control. In addition, the standard inter-vehicle distance for autonomous driving vehicles can be a fixed value or a value that varies according to speed. The vehicle length can be the length of the vehicle itself or the length of surrounding vehicles obtained through V2X communication.

[0029] Step S108A: If the calculated inter-vehicle distance determined in step S107 is greater than or equal to the standard inter-vehicle distance of an autonomous vehicle plus the vehicle length, the manual vehicle identification unit determines that a vehicle without V2X communication function or a manually driven vehicle 204 exists at that large inter-vehicle distance. For example, if the relative distance 206 between vehicle 202 and vehicle 203 traveling in the left lane is longer than a predetermined threshold (the standard inter-vehicle distance of an autonomous vehicle plus the vehicle length), then it is determined that a manually driven vehicle 204 exists.

[0030] Step S108B: If the calculated inter-vehicle distance determined in step S107 is not greater than the standard inter-vehicle distance plus the vehicle length of an autonomous vehicle, the manual vehicle identification unit determines that the surrounding vehicles are only autonomous vehicles equipped with V2X communication capabilities. For example, if the relative distance 205 between vehicle 201 and vehicle 200 traveling in the center lane is shorter than a predetermined threshold (the standard inter-vehicle distance plus the vehicle length of an autonomous vehicle), it is determined that there is no manually driven vehicle 204 between vehicle 201 and vehicle 200.

[0031] Figure 3 This is a flowchart of the braking and acceleration control process performed by the driving assistance device 100 in this embodiment. Figure 3 In the braking and acceleration control process shown, the detected degrees of freedom of the manually driven vehicle are increased.

[0032] Step S109: First, the driving plan sharing unit calculates the number of lanes on the road being driven based on the inter-vehicle distance information. Step S109 is like... Figure 4 The distance 207 between vehicle 202 traveling in the left lane and vehicle 201 traveling in the center lane, and the distance 208 between vehicle 203 traveling in the left lane and its own vehicle 200, are shown. Using integer multiples of lane widths specified in the road structure example (e.g., 3.2 to 3.6 m) as thresholds, the parallel driving status of vehicles is inferred based on these distances, thereby calculating the number of lanes and lane widths. Alternatively, when a high-precision map is available, the number of lanes and lane widths can also be obtained from the high-precision map.

[0033] Step S110: The driving plan sharing unit determines whether the relative distance to the adjacent vehicle in the lateral direction orthogonal to the vehicle's direction of travel is greater than the lane width. If the relative distance to the adjacent vehicle in the lateral direction is less than the lane width, it is determined that there is a single lane or multiple lanes but they are driving in a queue in the same lane, and the vehicle 200 does not implement braking and acceleration control (S116).

[0034] Step S111: If it is determined in step S110 that the relative distance to the lateral adjacent vehicle is greater than the lane width, the driving plan sharing unit determines the driving lane of the detected manual driving vehicle 204. For example, the lane in which the manual driving vehicle 204 is driving can be determined based on the number of lanes calculated in step S109 and the positional relationship of the detected manual driving vehicle 204. Alternatively, it can be inferred that the manual driving vehicle 204 exists in a location where there is enough space for an autonomous vehicle. Subsequently, if it is determined that the detected manual driving vehicle 204 is driving in the right lane relative to its own vehicle 200, the manual driving vehicle 204 can freely change lanes to the overtaking lane, so the own vehicle 200 does not implement braking and acceleration control (S116).

[0035] Step S112: If, in step S111, it is determined that the detected manually driven vehicle 204 is traveling in the left lane relative to its own vehicle 200, and the driving plan sharing unit determines that the vehicle is traveling between vehicles 202 and 203 based on the relative distances between the vehicle 202 traveling in front of it in the left lane, the vehicle 203 traveling behind it in the same lane, and its own vehicle 200, the driving plan sharing unit determines that the manually driven vehicle 204 is traveling alongside its own vehicle 200. When its own vehicle 200 is traveling alongside the manually driven vehicle 204, in order to urge the manually driven vehicle 204 to disengage from the convoy of autonomous vehicles and allow the autonomous vehicles to move together, braking acceleration data 106 is generated to increase the distance between its own vehicle 200 and the surrounding vehicles 201 to the same level as the distance between the vehicles in front of and behind the detected manually driven vehicle 204, and this data is sent to the driving control device to implement braking acceleration control (S114). Alternatively, the vehicle 200 can increase the distance between itself and the vehicles behind it without increasing the distance between itself and the surrounding vehicles 201 in front. In this case, since the distance between the vehicle 200 and the vehicles behind it is increased, the driving plan of the vehicle 200 following the acceleration and braking control data must be sent to the vehicles behind it via the V2X communication device 104 to cooperate with the vehicles behind it based on the driving plan.

[0036] Step S113: If it is determined in step S112 that the manually driven vehicle 204 is not driving alongside its own vehicle 200, the driving plan sharing unit does not implement braking and acceleration control of its own vehicle 200, but instead determines whether there are other surrounding vehicles driving alongside the manually driven vehicle 204. If there are surrounding vehicles driving alongside the manually driven vehicle 204, a driving plan instruction is given to the surrounding vehicle (S115) to make the distance between the surrounding vehicle and the vehicle in front the same as the distance between the detected vehicles in front and behind the manually driven vehicle 204. Thus, by setting the surrounding vehicle to a state where it can reverse backward, the manually driven vehicle 204 can change lanes to the right lane, thereby urging the manually driven vehicle 204 to break away from the platoon of autonomous vehicles and move together. In addition, forced lane changes by the manually driven vehicle 204 can be prevented.

[0037] As explained above, the driving assistance device 100 of this embodiment includes: a communication function detection unit that detects whether surrounding vehicles are equipped with communication functions; a surrounding vehicle information acquisition unit that obtains the relative distance between its own vehicle and surrounding vehicles based on information obtained from surrounding vehicles equipped with communication functions; and a manual driving vehicle estimation unit that estimates whether there are manually driving vehicles around its own vehicle, so that the presence of manually driving vehicles can be accurately determined by using V2X communication.

[0038] Furthermore, the manual driving vehicle estimation unit infers the existence of the manual driving vehicle based on the relative distance between its own vehicle and the surrounding vehicles, so it can accurately determine the existence of the manual driving vehicle in various environments such as when the camera is malfunctioning, when the field of vision is poor, or when it is surrounded by large vehicles.

[0039] Furthermore, the system includes a driving plan sharing unit. When the relative distance between the vehicle itself and a vehicle traveling in front of or behind it is shorter than the relative distance between the first autonomous vehicle and the second autonomous vehicle, the driving plan sharing unit will increase the braking acceleration data output of the inter-vehicle distance between the vehicle itself and the vehicle traveling in front of or behind it. Therefore, the system can guide the manually driven vehicle to make lane changes in a way that avoids the manually driven vehicle from being obstructed from free driving by increasing the inter-vehicle distance with the preceding vehicle.

[0040] Furthermore, the driving plan sharing unit shares the driving plan that follows the output braking and acceleration data with surrounding vehicles through communication functions, so it can urge manually driven vehicles to detach from the convoy of autonomous vehicles to achieve safe driving by having autonomous vehicles drive together in a platoon.

[0041] Furthermore, the system includes a driving plan sharing unit. When there are vehicles driving alongside manually driven vehicles, the driving plan sharing unit will increase the driving plan output of the inter-vehicle distance between the vehicle driving alongside and the vehicle driving in front or behind. Therefore, it can urge manually driven vehicles to detach from the convoy of autonomous vehicles to achieve safe driving by having autonomous vehicles drive in a convoy.

[0042] Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, but includes various modifications and equivalent configurations within the spirit of the appended claims. For example, the embodiments described above are detailed descriptions provided to illustrate the invention in an easily understandable manner, and the invention is not necessarily limited to having all the configurations described. Moreover, a portion of the configuration of one embodiment may be replaced with the configuration of another embodiment. Furthermore, the configuration of one embodiment may be incorporated into the configuration of another embodiment. Furthermore, other configurations may be added to, deleted from, or replaced in parts of the configurations of each embodiment.

[0043] Furthermore, the various components, functions, processing units, and processing methods mentioned above can be partially or entirely implemented in hardware, for example, by designing using integrated circuits, or they can be implemented in software by having a processor interpret and execute programs that implement each function.

[0044] Information such as programs, tables, and files that perform various functions can be stored in storage devices such as memory, hard disks, SSDs (Solid State Drives), or recording media such as IC cards, SD cards, and DVDs.

[0045] Furthermore, the control lines and information lines shown are only those deemed necessary for the explanation and may not represent all the control lines and information lines required for implementation. In fact, almost all components can be considered interconnected.

Claims

1. A driving assistance device, characterized in that, have: The communication function testing department detects whether surrounding vehicles are equipped with communication functions. The surrounding vehicle information acquisition unit obtains the relative distance between its own vehicle and the surrounding vehicles based on information obtained from surrounding vehicles equipped with the communication function. as well as The manual driving vehicle estimation unit estimates whether there are manually driven vehicles around its own vehicle. If the distance between a first automated vehicle and a second automated vehicle traveling in one of the left or right lanes of the vehicle itself is longer than a predetermined distance, the manual driving vehicle estimation unit estimates that there is a manual driving vehicle between the first automated vehicle and the second automated vehicle. The driving assistance device further includes a driving plan sharing unit, which outputs braking acceleration data to increase the inter-vehicle distance between itself and a vehicle traveling in front of or behind it when the relative distance between itself and a first autonomous vehicle and a second autonomous vehicle is shorter than the relative distance between itself and the first autonomous vehicle.

2. The driving assistance device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The vehicle is equipped with a vehicle-to-vehicle distance comparison unit. When the manual driving vehicle estimation unit estimates that there is a manually driven vehicle in a lane to the left or right of the vehicle, the vehicle-to-vehicle distance comparison unit compares the relative distance between the vehicle and vehicles traveling in front of or behind the vehicle and the relative distance between the first autonomous vehicle and the second autonomous vehicle based on information obtained by the surrounding vehicle information acquisition unit.

3. The driving assistance device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The driving plan sharing unit shares the driving plan, which follows the output braking and acceleration data, with the surrounding vehicles through the communication function.

4. The driving assistance device according to claim 1, characterized in that, Equipped with a driving plan sharing unit, when there is a vehicle driving alongside the manually driven vehicle, the driving plan sharing unit will increase the driving plan output of the inter-vehicle distance between the vehicle driving alongside and the vehicle driving in front or behind.

5. A driving assistance method, which is a method executed by a driving assistance device, characterized in that, The driving assistance device has a computing unit that performs prescribed processing and a storage device connected to the computing unit. The driving assistance method includes: The communication function testing steps involve detecting whether surrounding vehicles are equipped with communication functions. The step of obtaining information about surrounding vehicles involves obtaining the relative distance between the vehicle and the surrounding vehicles based on information obtained from surrounding vehicles equipped with the aforementioned communication function. as well as The manual driving vehicle estimation steps involve estimating whether there are manually driven vehicles around the user's own vehicle. The manual driving vehicle estimation step further includes: if the distance between a first automated vehicle and a second automated vehicle traveling in one of the left or right lanes of the vehicle itself is longer than a predetermined distance, it is estimated that there is a manually driven vehicle between the first automated vehicle and the second automated vehicle. The driving assistance method further includes: when the relative distance between the vehicle itself and a vehicle traveling in front of or behind the vehicle itself is shorter than the relative distance between the first autonomous vehicle and the second autonomous vehicle, outputting braking acceleration data to increase the inter-vehicle distance between the vehicle itself traveling alongside a manually driven vehicle or the vehicle traveling in front of or behind the vehicle itself and the vehicle in front.

Images