Vehicle control device and vehicle control method

Abstract

To provide a vehicle control device and a vehicle control method capable of acquiring an appropriate evaluation result.SOLUTION: The vehicle control device 100 is a device for evaluating an annular road TA by causing an autonomous vehicle AC to travel on the road TA a plurality of times, and includes a calculation unit 20 that calculates a traveling position of the autonomous vehicle AC on the road TA in a vehicle width direction DL based on a normal random number each time the autonomous vehicle AC travels around the road TA, and a control unit 30 that controls the autonomous vehicle AC so that the autonomous vehicle AC travels on the road TA at the traveling position calculated by the calculation unit 20.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a vehicle control device and a vehicle control method. [Background technology]

[0002] Patent Document 1 describes a driving management device. This device includes a vehicle detection unit that detects vehicles driving in driving lanes defined on a road, a driving position determination unit that determines the driving position of the vehicle detected by the vehicle detection unit in the vehicle width direction of the driving lane, and a driving position instruction unit that instructs the vehicle detected by the vehicle detection unit on the driving position determined by the driving position determination unit in the vehicle width direction of the driving lane. The driving position determination unit distributes the driving positions of the determined driving positions in the vehicle width direction of the driving lane among a group of vehicles detected by the vehicle detection unit. In particular, this device includes a selection candidate storage unit that stores multiple selection candidates for the driving position in the vehicle width direction of the driving lane. The driving position determination unit sequentially selects from the multiple selection candidates the driving position in the vehicle width direction of the driving lane to be determined for the vehicle detected by the vehicle detection unit. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Publication No. 2020-091621 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] The driving management device described in Patent Document 1 above aims to prevent the progression of road surface damage from accelerating by dispersing the driving positions of vehicles, even in a future transportation society in which self-driving vehicles are widespread.

[0005] In the above technical field, road evaluation using an autonomous vehicle is being considered. In this case, the autonomous vehicle is made to travel multiple times along a circular evaluation road to obtain the number of wheels that reach fatigue failure on the pavement and road structure of the evaluation road. In this case, it is believed that appropriate evaluation results can be obtained by simulating the travel of the autonomous vehicle in an actual driving situation where multiple non-autonomous vehicles travel on the road.

[0006] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle control device and a vehicle control method that are capable of acquiring appropriate evaluation results. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] Here, through intensive research to solve the above problem, the inventors have found that when an autonomous vehicle drives an evaluation road multiple times, the autonomous vehicle's driving position in the vehicle width direction each time the autonomous vehicle makes a lap can be determined based on a normal distribution. In this case, it is conceivable to determine the driving position of the autonomous vehicle for each lap so that, when the planned number of laps for the day is achieved, the record of the driving positions traveled by the autonomous vehicle (driving performance) will be normally distributed. In this way, by accumulating the driving performance that is normally distributed each day over multiple days, it is possible to obtain an appropriate evaluation that is in line with actual driving conditions.

[0008] Meanwhile, the inventors have come to the following new finding. That is, in the above-described method of determining a driving position that forms a daily driving record that is normally distributed, if the planned number of laps cannot be reached due to some kind of trouble, the normal distribution of the driving record may be disrupted. Furthermore, when considering 24-hour operation of an autonomous vehicle in order to improve the efficiency of road evaluation, the method of determining the planned number of laps for each day may not be optimal. Therefore, the inventors have conducted further studies based on the above-mentioned finding, and have come up with the present invention.

[0009] The vehicle control device of the present invention is [1] "a vehicle control device for evaluating a circular road by having an autonomous vehicle drive on the road multiple times, the vehicle control device comprising: a calculation unit that calculates the driving position of the autonomous vehicle on the road in the vehicle width direction based on normal random numbers each time the autonomous vehicle goes around the road; and a control unit that controls the autonomous vehicle so that the autonomous vehicle drives on the road at the driving position calculated by the calculation unit."

[0010] Furthermore, the vehicle control method of the present invention is [4] "a vehicle control method for evaluating a circular road by having an autonomous vehicle travel on the road multiple times, the vehicle control method comprising: a calculation step of calculating the driving position of the autonomous vehicle on the road in the vehicle width direction based on normal random numbers each time the autonomous vehicle travels around the road; and a control step of controlling the autonomous vehicle so that the autonomous vehicle travels on the road at the driving position calculated in the calculation step."

[0011] This device and method are for evaluating a circular road by having an autonomous vehicle travel on the road multiple times. Each time the autonomous vehicle travels around the road, the autonomous vehicle's travel position on the road in the vehicle width direction is calculated based on normal random numbers, and processing is performed to control the autonomous vehicle so that the autonomous vehicle travels on the road at the calculated travel position (e.g., processing to transmit a travel position instruction signal, which will be described later). This makes it possible to simulate actual travel conditions and obtain an appropriate road evaluation that is in line with the actual travel conditions.

[0012] In particular, with this device and method, the driving position of the autonomous vehicle is calculated each time the autonomous vehicle makes a lap, as described above. Therefore, there is no need to set a planned number of laps per day, as shown in the above findings. Furthermore, even if the lap is interrupted due to some kind of trouble, the normal distribution of driving performance data is prevented from being disrupted by continuing the lap while recalculating the driving position. Therefore, evaluation results can be obtained more efficiently and appropriately.

[0013] The vehicle control device according to the present invention may be [2] "the vehicle control device according to the above [1], which is mounted on a remote monitoring system for the autonomous vehicle and includes a receiving unit that receives a lap-up signal from the autonomous vehicle when the autonomous vehicle has lapped the road, wherein the calculating unit calculates the driving position based on a normal random number when the receiving unit receives the lap-up signal, and the control unit transmits a driving position instruction signal to the autonomous vehicle including information indicating the driving position so that the autonomous vehicle drives on the road at the driving position calculated by the calculating unit." In this way, the vehicle control device may be mounted on a remote monitoring system. This reduces the load on the autonomous vehicle and eliminates the need to separately obtain driving history from the autonomous vehicle.

[0014] The vehicle control device according to the present invention may be [3] "the vehicle control device according to the above [1], which is mounted on the autonomously driven vehicle and includes a recording unit that records a driving history indicating the driving positions where the autonomously driven vehicle has traveled." In this way, the vehicle control device may be mounted on an autonomously driven vehicle. [Effects of the Invention]

[0015] According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a vehicle control device and a vehicle control method that are capable of acquiring appropriate evaluation results. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0016] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an automatically driven vehicle that is the control target in the vehicle control device and vehicle control method according to this embodiment, and a road on which the automatically driven vehicle travels. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the vehicle control device shown in FIG. [Figure 3] FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of a vehicle control method according to this embodiment. [Figure 4] 10 is a graph showing an example of a driving record. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0017] A vehicle control device and a vehicle control method according to an embodiment will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the description of each drawing, the same or corresponding elements are denoted by the same reference numerals, and duplicated descriptions may be omitted.

[0018] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an autonomously driven vehicle that is the control target in a vehicle control device and vehicle control method according to this embodiment, and a road on which the autonomously driven vehicle travels. As shown in FIG. 1, the autonomously driven vehicle AC is placed on a circular (track-shaped in the illustrated example) road TA. The road TA is an evaluation road for evaluating fatigue failure of pavement, road structure, etc. The autonomously driven vehicle AC is set to travel the road TA multiple times by autonomous driving. In this embodiment, the vehicle control device 100 is mounted on a remote monitoring system RS that is capable of wireless communication with the autonomously driven vehicle AC.

[0019] Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of the vehicle control device shown in Fig. 1. The vehicle control device 100 shown in Fig. 2 is a computer having, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a ROM (Read Only Memory), a RAM (Random Access Memory), etc. The vehicle control device 100 realizes the processing of each functional unit by, for example, storing data in the RAM based on a signal output by the CPU, loading a program stored in the ROM into the RAM, and executing the program loaded into the RAM.

[0020] The vehicle control device 100 calculates the traveling position (lateral position) of the autonomously driven vehicle AC in the vehicle width direction DL (the direction intersecting the extension direction DA of the road TA) of the autonomously driven vehicle AC each time the autonomously driven vehicle AC goes around the road TA, and controls the autonomously driven vehicle AC so that the autonomously driven vehicle AC travels at the calculated traveling position. To this end, the vehicle control device 100 includes a receiving unit 10, a calculating unit 20, a control unit 30, and a recording unit 40.

[0021] The receiver 10 is configured to be able to receive signals from the autonomously driven vehicle AC via wireless communication. The receiver 10 receives a circling up signal S1 from the autonomously driven vehicle AC when the autonomously driven vehicle AC circling a road TA. The circling up signal S1 is a signal that is transmitted from the autonomously driven vehicle AC to the receiver 10, for example, every time the autonomously driven vehicle AC passes a predetermined position in the direction DA in which the road TA extends.

[0022] Each time the autonomous vehicle AC goes around the road TA, the calculation unit 20 calculates the traveling position of the autonomous vehicle AC on the road TA in the vehicle width direction based on normal random numbers. More specifically, the calculation unit 20 calculates the traveling position based on normal random numbers when the receiving unit 10 receives a traveling up signal A1 from the autonomous vehicle AC. At this time, the calculation unit 20 can receive a decision on the standard deviation (e.g., 1σ, 2σ, 5σ, etc.) to be used when calculating the traveling position using the normal random numbers.

[0023] Control unit 30 is configured to be able to transmit signals to autonomously driven vehicle AC via wireless communication. Control unit 30 controls autonomously driven vehicle AC so that autonomously driven vehicle AC travels on road TA at the travel position calculated by calculation unit 20. More specifically, control unit 30 transmits a travel position instruction signal S2 including information indicating the travel position calculated by calculation unit 20 to autonomously driven vehicle AC so that autonomously driven vehicle AC travels on road TA at the travel position calculated by calculation unit 20.

[0024] Recording unit 40 records the driving history indicating the driving position calculated by calculation unit 20 (i.e., the driving position where autonomous vehicle AC has driven). As described above, calculation unit 20 calculates the driving position of autonomous vehicle AC using normal random numbers. Therefore, as the number of times autonomous vehicle AC has lapped road TA increases (for example, to about 100,000 times) and the driving history is accumulated, the relationship between the driving position of autonomous vehicle AC and the number of laps converges to a normal distribution, as shown in FIG. 4.

[0025] In other words, the vehicle control device 100 can obtain an appropriate evaluation that is in line with the actual driving conditions of the road TA by simulating the actual driving conditions.

[0026] Next, a vehicle control method according to this embodiment will be described. The vehicle control method according to this embodiment is a vehicle control method for evaluating a circular road TA by causing an autonomously driven vehicle AC to travel on the road TA multiple times. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of the vehicle control method according to this embodiment. Note that, although an example in which the vehicle control method is implemented in the vehicle control device 100 described above will be described below, the vehicle control method according to this embodiment is not limited to being implemented by the vehicle control device 100.

[0027] 3, in the vehicle control method according to this embodiment, first, the receiver 10 receives a lap-up signal S1 from the autonomously driven vehicle AC (step S101). Next, when the receiver 10 receives the lap-up signal A1 from the autonomously driven vehicle AC, the calculation unit 20 calculates the traveling position of the autonomously driven vehicle AC on the road TA in the vehicle width direction DL based on normal random numbers (step S102: calculation step). That is, in step S102, the calculation unit 20 calculates the traveling position of the autonomously driven vehicle AC on the road TA in the vehicle width direction DL based on normal random numbers each time the autonomously driven vehicle AC circles the road TA.

[0028] Next, the control unit 30 transmits a driving position instruction signal S2 including information indicating the driving position to the automatically driven vehicle AC so that the automatically driven vehicle AC drives on the road TA at the driving position calculated by the calculation unit 20 (step S103: control step). That is, in step S103, the control unit 30 controls the automatically driven vehicle AC so that the automatically driven vehicle AC drives on the road TA at the driving position calculated in step S102.

[0029] As described above, the vehicle control device 100 and vehicle control method according to this embodiment are intended to evaluate a road TA by having an autonomously driven vehicle AC travel along the circular road TA multiple times. With the vehicle control device 100 and vehicle control method according to this embodiment, each time the autonomously driven vehicle AC travels around the road TA, the traveling position of the autonomously driven vehicle AC on the road TA in the vehicle width direction DL is calculated based on normal random numbers, and processing is performed to control the autonomously driven vehicle AC so that the autonomously driven vehicle AC travels along the road TA at the calculated traveling position (for example, processing to transmit a traveling position instruction signal S2, which will be described later). This makes it possible to simulate actual traveling conditions, and to obtain an appropriate road evaluation that is in line with the actual traveling conditions.

[0030] In particular, in the vehicle control device 100 and vehicle control method according to this embodiment, the driving position of the autonomously driven vehicle AC is calculated each time the autonomously driven vehicle AC makes a lap, as described above. Therefore, there is no need to set a planned number of laps per day, and even if the lap driving is interrupted due to some kind of trouble, the normal distribution of driving performance data is prevented from being disrupted by continuing the lap driving while recalculating the driving position. Therefore, it is possible to obtain evaluation results more efficiently and appropriately.

[0031] Furthermore, the vehicle control device 100 and vehicle control method according to this embodiment do not require a storage area for when the system is turned off, making the system simpler than a method of generating a normal distribution based on a planned number of wheels in advance. Furthermore, the vehicle control device 100 and vehicle control method according to this embodiment do not require the incorporation of logic for allocating lap count instructions.

[0032] The vehicle control device 100 according to this embodiment is also mounted in a remote monitoring system RS for an autonomously driven vehicle AC. The vehicle control device 100 also includes a receiver 10 that receives a lap up signal S1 from the autonomously driven vehicle AC when the autonomously driven vehicle AC has traveled around a road TA. When the receiver 10 receives the lap up signal S1, the calculator 20 calculates the vehicle's driving position based on a normal random number, and the controller 30 transmits a driving position instruction signal S2 including information indicating the vehicle's driving position to the autonomously driven vehicle AC so that the autonomously driven vehicle AC drives around the road TA at the driving position calculated by the calculator 20. In this way, the vehicle control device 100 may be mounted in the remote monitoring system RS. This reduces the load on the autonomously driven vehicle AC and eliminates the need to separately acquire driving records from the autonomously driven vehicle AC.

[0033] The above embodiment has described one aspect of the vehicle control device according to the present invention. Therefore, the vehicle control device according to the present invention is not limited to the vehicle control device 100 according to the above embodiment, and can be modified as desired.

[0034] For example, in the above embodiment, an example has been described in which the vehicle control device 100 is mounted on the remote monitoring system RS. However, the vehicle control device 100 may also be mounted on an autonomously driven vehicle AC. In this case, the vehicle control device 100 includes a recording unit (e.g., recording unit 40) that records a driving history indicating the driving positions where the autonomously driven vehicle AC has traveled. In this case, the driving history can be extracted and acquired from the recording unit when, for example, maintaining the autonomously driven vehicle AC. [Explanation of symbols]

[0035] 10...receiving unit, 20...calculating unit, 30...control unit, 40...recording unit, 100...vehicle control device, AC...autonomous driving vehicle, TA...road, S1...circuit up signal, S2...driving position instruction signal, RS...remote monitoring system.

Claims

1. A vehicle control device for evaluating a circular road by causing an autonomous vehicle to travel on the road multiple times, a calculation unit that calculates a traveling position of the autonomous vehicle on the road in a vehicle width direction based on normal random numbers each time the autonomous vehicle travels around the road; a control unit for controlling the autonomously driven vehicle so that the autonomously driven vehicle travels on the road at the travel position calculated by the calculation unit; and A vehicle control device comprising:

2. The remote monitoring system for the autonomous vehicle is installed therein, a receiving unit that receives a lap-up signal from the automatically driven vehicle when the automatically driven vehicle has lapped the road; the calculation unit calculates the running position based on a normal random number when the receiving unit receives the rotation up signal; the control unit transmits to the autonomously driven vehicle a traveling position instruction signal including information indicating the traveling position calculated by the calculation unit so that the autonomously driven vehicle travels on the road at the traveling position calculated by the calculation unit. The vehicle control device according to claim 1 .

3. The autonomous driving vehicle is equipped with A recording unit is provided that records a driving history indicating the driving position where the autonomous driving vehicle has traveled. The vehicle control device according to claim 1 .

4. A vehicle control method for evaluating a circular road by causing an autonomous vehicle to travel on the road multiple times, comprising: a calculation step of calculating a traveling position of the autonomous vehicle on the road in a vehicle width direction based on normal random numbers each time the autonomous vehicle travels around the road; a control step of controlling the autonomously driven vehicle so that the autonomously driven vehicle travels on the road at the travel position calculated in the calculation step; A vehicle control method comprising:

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