Vehicle drive supporting device

Abstract

To easily inform a movable object of start of a vehicle.SOLUTION: A vehicle drive supporting device includes: an information acquisition device acquiring information on the circumference of a vehicle; control devices (10, 20) capable of executing garage-leaving support control as drive support control for moving the vehicle to a prescribed target garage-leaving position from a present position of the vehicle on the basis of acquired circumferential information; and light drawing devices (60, 61) structured so that a start notice display for indicating that the vehicle travels in a prescribed area of a road surface in a travelling direction of the vehicle can be drawn with light. The control device draws the start notice display in a first mode when any movable object including a pedestrian does not exist in a prescribed area in the vicinity of the vehicle during an execution period from a starting point to a finishing point of the garage-leaving support control, and draws the start notice display in a second mode when the movable object exists in the vicinity area.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a driving assistance device that executes leaving-location assistance control for moving a vehicle to a target leaving position. [Background technology]

[0002] Conventional devices draw a departure notification display on the road surface when the start switch is changed from off to on while the vehicle brake is on, and then detects that the brake has been switched from on to off (see, for example, Patent Document 1). [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] WO 2020 / 067305 (Paragraph 0060) Summary of the Invention

[0004] Conventional devices draw a departure notification display on the road surface when a brake switch from on to off is detected, so the timing of drawing the departure notification display is immediately before the vehicle starts moving. Furthermore, the display mode of the departure notification display does not change whether a "pedestrian or a person riding a bicycle (hereinafter referred to as a "movable object")" is near the vehicle or away from the vehicle. Therefore, there are cases where the departure notification display cannot effectively notify a movable object that "the vehicle is starting."

[0005] The present invention has been made to address the above-mentioned problems, and is a vehicle driving assistance device comprising: an information acquisition device (10-15, 20-22) that acquires information about the vehicle's surroundings; a control device (10, 20, 30, 40, 50) capable of executing departure assistance control, which is driving assistance control for moving the vehicle from its current position to a predetermined target departure position based on the acquired surrounding information; and an optical drawing device (20, 60, 61) configured to be able to use light to draw a departure notification display to indicate that the vehicle is moving forward in a predetermined area of ​​the road surface in the direction of travel of the vehicle.

[0006] The control device is configured to draw the departure notification display in a first manner when a movable object, including a pedestrian, is not present within a specified vicinity area of ​​the vehicle during the execution period from the start to the end of the departure assistance control, and to draw the departure notification display in a second manner when the movable object is present within the vicinity area.

[0007] This driving support device draws the departure notification display from the start of the leaving support control, so that the moving object can be notified of the departure of the vehicle by the departure notification display from a time point sufficiently before the vehicle starts to start. Furthermore, when the moving object approaches the vehicle and enters the vicinity of the vehicle, this driving support device changes the drawing mode of the departure notification display from the first mode to the second mode. Therefore, the moving object can be more effectively notified of the departure of the vehicle. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0008] [Figure 1] 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a vehicle driving assistance device according to an embodiment of the present invention; [Diagram 2] This is a routine executed by the CPU of the parking assistance ECU shown in FIG. [Diagram 3] 2 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the driving support device shown in FIG. 1. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0009] A vehicle driving assistance device (the device) according to an embodiment of the present invention is mounted on a vehicle (not shown) and includes the components (parts) shown in Fig. 1. In this specification, an ECU is an electronic control device including a microcomputer including a CPU. Two or more of the multiple ECUs described below may be integrated into one ECU.

[0010] The PVM (Panoramic View Monitor)-ECU 10 includes, as its functions, a display image generating unit 10a, an exit frame generating unit 10b, and a display control unit 10c. The display image generating unit 10a generates an overhead image of the vehicle and an image of the vehicle's traveling direction based on image data from a front camera 11 that captures the scene in front of the vehicle, a rear camera 12 that captures the scene behind the vehicle, a right side camera 13 that captures the scene to the right of the vehicle, and a left side camera 14 that captures the scene to the left of the vehicle, each of which has a wide-angle lens. The leaving slot generating unit 10b searches for a space from which a parked vehicle can leave based on the overhead image, and generates a frame surrounding the space as an leaving slot image. The display control unit 10c causes the display 15 to display an image in which the leaving slot image is superimposed on each of the "bird's-eye view image and the traveling direction image."

[0011] The parking assist ECU 20 receives signals from a plurality (five) of radar sensors 21, a plurality (twelve) of ultrasonic sensors (sonars) 22, a parking assist switch 23, a vehicle speed sensor 24, a shift position sensor 25, etc. The radar sensor 21 acquires and outputs target information that specifies the distance between the vehicle and a three-dimensional object located around the vehicle, the relative speed to the three-dimensional object, and the relative direction of the three-dimensional object. The ultrasonic sensor 22 uses ultrasonic waves to detect the distance to the three-dimensional object around the vehicle. The parking assist switch 23 is a switch that is operated by the driver who wishes to start or end the parking assist and the like. The vehicle speed sensor 24 detects the vehicle speed, and the shift position sensor 25 detects the position of the shift lever.

[0012] The parking assist ECU 20 includes, as its functions, a route generating unit 20a and a vehicle control instruction unit 20b. For example, when the vehicle speed is zero and the departure slot (target departure slot indicating the target departure position) that the vehicle should reach by the departure assistance control has been determined by the driver's operation on the display 15, the route generation unit 20a generates a route from the vehicle's current position to the target departure slot as a target route. When the target route is generated and the signal from the parking assist switch 23 changes to a signal indicating that "the driver is instructing the start of parking exit assist control" and "the start condition for parking exit assist control is met", the vehicle control instruction unit 20b sends an instruction signal to the HV ECU 30, the brake ECU 40 and the steering ECU 50 so that the vehicle proceeds at a low speed along the target route. These "search for an exit slot, determination of a target exit slot, generation of a target route, and control for moving a vehicle so that the vehicle proceeds along the target route" are exit assistance controls as one type of driving assistance control. The exit assistance control itself is well known (see, for example, JP 2018-140757 A, JP 2023-63070 A, JP 2023-46472 A, JP 2022-141997 A, JP 2020-142752 A, and JP 2020-152294 A, etc.).

[0013] The HV-ECU 30 controls the power train actuator 31 to change the torque generated by a drive device (for example, an engine and / or a motor), thereby controlling the drive force of the vehicle. The brake ECU 40 controls the brake actuator 41 to change the friction braking force generated by the braking device 42, thereby controlling the braking force of the vehicle. The steering ECU 50 controls a motor driver 51 to drive a steering motor 52, thereby controlling the steering angle of the vehicle.

[0014] The road surface drawing ECU 60 controls the road surface drawing device 61 in response to an instruction from the parking assistance ECU 20 to draw a departure notification display (pattern) MK on the road surface in front of the vehicle with light in either a first mode (e.g., yellow or continuously lit state) or a second mode (e.g., red or flashing state). The road surface drawing device 61 is, for example, disposed at the front and rear of the vehicle, and includes a first light source that emits yellow light, a second light source that emits red light, and a shielding plate having slits for drawing a departure notification display MK of a predetermined shape on the road surface using these light sources. The road surface drawing device 61 may be a device as disclosed in Patent Document 1, so long as it has a red light source and a yellow light source as light sources.

[0015] A CPU (not shown) of the parking assist ECU 20 executes a routine shown in the flowchart of Fig. 2 every time a predetermined time has elapsed. Therefore, at a predetermined timing, the CPU starts processing from step (hereinafter, abbreviated as "S") 200 in Fig. 2, proceeds to S210, and determines whether the value of an exit assistance flag Xs, which indicates that the exit assistance control is being executed when the flag is "1", is "0" or not.

[0016] When the value of the leaving support flag Xs is "0" (i.e., when leaving support control is not being executed), the CPU proceeds from S210 to S220 and determines whether or not the start condition of leaving support control is satisfied. If the start condition of leaving support control is not satisfied, the CPU proceeds directly from S220 to S295 and ends this routine. On the other hand, when the start condition of leaving support control is satisfied, the CPU proceeds from S220 to S230 and starts the above-mentioned leaving support control, proceeds to S240 and sets the value of the leaving support flag Xs to "1", and then proceeds to S295.

[0017] Next, when the CPU proceeds to S210 again, the CPU judges "No" in S210 and proceeds to S250. In S250, the CPU judges whether or not a movable object exists in a predetermined vicinity area of ​​the vehicle (around the vehicle). This vicinity area may be an area set to surround the vehicle body (area AR in (A) and (B) of FIG. 3), or may be a range within a set distance from the vehicle body. Movable objects include pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles, other vehicles, etc. The parking assist ECU 20 determines the type of "object around the vehicle detected based on information from the radar sensor 21, ultrasonic sensor 22, etc." based on the image data transmitted from the PVM-ECU 10 and a pattern matching method.

[0018] If there is no movable object in a predetermined vicinity of the vehicle, the CPU proceeds from S250 to S260 and draws a departure notification display MK of a predetermined shape in a first manner (yellow light in this example) on the road surface in the traveling direction of the vehicle (see (A) and (C) of FIG. 3). After that, the CPU proceeds to S270 and determines whether the vehicle has reached the target departure position (whether the vehicle has reached the target departure frame). If the vehicle has not reached the target departure position, the CPU proceeds directly from S270 to S295. As a result, the drawing of the departure notification display MK is continued from the start of the departure support control until the vehicle reaches the target departure position (i.e., until the end of the departure support control arrives) (see (D) of FIG. 3).

[0019] On the other hand, if the vehicle has reached the target leaving position, the CPU proceeds from S270 to S280, sets the value of the leaving support flag Xs to "0", ends the leaving support control, and ends drawing the departure notification display MK (see FIG. 3(E)). After that, the CPU proceeds to S295.

[0020] Meanwhile, when the CPU proceeds to S250, if a movable object is present within the vicinity of the vehicle, the CPU proceeds from S250 to S290, and draws a departure notification display MK of a predetermined shape in a second manner (red light in this example) on the road surface in the traveling direction of the vehicle (see FIG. 3B). After that, the CPU proceeds to S270.

[0021] As described above, the present device draws the departure notification display MK from the start to the end of the leaving assistance control, so that it is possible to easily inform a movable object that the vehicle is about to leave. Furthermore, the present device draws the departure notification display MK in a first manner when a movable object is not in the vicinity of the vehicle, and draws the departure notification display MK in a second manner when a movable object is in the vicinity of the vehicle. Therefore, since the manner in which the departure notification display MK is drawn changes when a movable object such as a pedestrian approaches the vehicle, the movable object can more reliably recognize that the vehicle is about to leave. [Explanation of symbols]

[0022] 10...PVM-ECU, 11...front camera, 12...back camera, 13...right side camera, 14...left side camera, 20...parking assist ECU, 21...radar sensor, 22...ultrasonic sensor (sonar), 60...road surface drawing ECU, 61...road surface drawing device.

Claims

[Claim 1] An information acquisition device that acquires information about the surroundings of the vehicle; a control device capable of executing a departure assistance control, which is a driving assistance control for moving the vehicle from a current position of the vehicle to a predetermined target departure position based on the acquired surrounding information; an optical drawing device configured to draw, by light, a departure notification display for indicating that the vehicle is moving forward on a predetermined area of ​​a road surface in a traveling direction of the vehicle; Equipped with The control device includes: during an execution period from a start time to an end time of the leaving assistance control, when a movable object including a pedestrian is not present within a predetermined vicinity area of ​​the vehicle, the departure notification display is drawn in a first manner, and when the movable object is present within the vicinity area, the departure notification display is drawn in a second manner; A vehicle driving assistance device configured as above.

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