Control device for mobile vehicles

Abstract

The goal is to simultaneously suppress the reduction in the vehicle's driving efficiency caused by excessive execution of hazard avoidance control, and to provide appropriate notification to the vehicle's occupants regarding the initiation of this hazard avoidance control. [Solution] When an object that poses a collision risk with a moving body is recognized, risk avoidance control is performed to avoid a collision with the object, and notification control regarding the risk avoidance control is provided to the occupants of the moving body. The risk avoidance control includes a first avoidance control performed before the collision risk reaches a predetermined level, and a second avoidance control performed after the collision risk reaches a predetermined level. The moving body control in the first avoidance control includes a moving body control that avoids a collision with an object that poses a collision risk with the moving body to a lesser degree than the moving body control in the second avoidance control. The notification control includes a warning about the possibility of the second avoidance control being performed.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to an apparatus for controlling a moving body such as a vehicle.

Background Art

[0002] Patent Document 1 discloses a notification device mounted on a vehicle. This conventional device identifies the traffic situation surrounding the vehicle based on information representing the surrounding situation of the vehicle and information representing the driving state of the vehicle. The conventional device also predicts a risk related to the vehicle based on the identified traffic situation and performs notification control recognized by any one of the auditory, visual, and tactile senses of the vehicle occupants. The mode of notification is switched according to the degree of the predicted risk. The conventional device further performs risk avoidance control according to the degree of the predicted risk. The risk avoidance control is vehicle control including at least one of deceleration and steering.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0003]

Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0004] Consider the case of performing combined notification control and risk avoidance control according to the degree of the predicted risk. In this case, by performing the notification control, information regarding the execution or expected execution of the risk avoidance control can be provided to the vehicle occupants. On the other hand, excessive execution of the risk avoidance control may reduce the driving efficiency of the vehicle. In addition, excessive notification of the expected execution of the risk avoidance control may cause uneasiness to the occupants. Therefore, it can be said that the device of Patent Document 1 has room for improvement from the viewpoint of suppressing the reduction of driving efficiency and providing appropriate notification to the occupants.

[0005] One objective of this disclosure is to provide a technology that can simultaneously suppress the reduction in the driving efficiency of a mobile vehicle due to excessive execution of hazard avoidance control and provide appropriate notification to the occupants of the mobile vehicle regarding the initiation of this hazard avoidance control. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] This disclosure relates to a control device for a mobile body and has the following features: The control device comprises one or more storage devices for storing information about the operating environment of the mobile unit, and one or more processors that perform various controls based on the operating environment information. The various controls include risk avoidance controls performed to avoid collisions with objects that pose a risk of collision with the moving object when such objects are detected, and notification controls regarding risk avoidance controls directed to the occupants of the moving object. Risk avoidance control includes a first avoidance control performed before the collision risk reaches a predetermined level, and a second avoidance control performed after the collision risk reaches a predetermined level. The moving body control in the first avoidance control includes a moving body control that avoids collisions with objects that pose a collision risk to the moving body to a lesser degree than the moving body control in the second avoidance control. The notification control includes a warning about the possibility of the second avoidance control being executed. [Effects of the Invention]

[0007] According to this disclosure, before the collision risk reaches a predetermined level, a first avoidance control is performed that is less decisive than the second avoidance control performed after the risk reaches the predetermined level. By performing the first avoidance control with a less decisive degree, it is possible to suppress the decrease in driving efficiency caused by excessive execution of risk avoidance control. According to this disclosure, since the notification control also gives notice that the second avoidance control may be performed, it is also possible to provide appropriate notification to the occupants regarding the execution of the second avoidance control. Therefore, it is possible to achieve both the suppression of the decrease in driving efficiency caused by excessive execution of risk avoidance control and appropriate notification to the occupants regarding this execution. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0008] [Figure 1] This is a diagram illustrating risk avoidance control. [Figure 2] This is a diagram illustrating the features of the embodiment. [Figure 3] This is a block diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of a mobile system including a control device according to the embodiment. [Figure 4] This is a timing chart showing examples of risk avoidance control and notification control implementation. [Figure 5] This is a timing chart showing examples of risk avoidance control and notification control implementation. [Figure 6] This is a timing chart showing examples of risk avoidance control and notification control implementation. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0009] The control device for a mobile body according to the embodiments of this disclosure will be described below with reference to the drawings.

[0010] 1. Risk avoidance control The control device according to the embodiment performs driver assistance control to support the driving of a mobile vehicle such as a taxi or bus. This driver assistance control may be included in the automated driving control. Typically, the control device of the embodiment is mounted on the mobile vehicle MB. Some functions of the control device according to the embodiment may be located on an external device (e.g., an external server) outside the mobile vehicle MB, in which case the driver assistance control may be performed remotely. In other words, the functions of the control device according to the embodiment may be distributed between the mobile vehicle MB and the external device.

[0011] The driver assistance control includes "risk avoidance control" to avoid risk factors RF in front of the moving body MB. Figure 1 is a diagram illustrating the risk avoidance control. Here, the X direction in Figure 1 is the direction of travel of the moving body MB, and the Y direction is the plane direction perpendicular to the X direction. However, the coordinate system (X,Y) is not limited to this example.

[0012] In risk avoidance control, at least one of the steering and deceleration of the moving vehicle MB is controlled to avoid risk factors RF recognized in front of the moving vehicle MB. For example, in Figure 1, the moving vehicle MB is traveling on the roadway RW. The shoulder RS ​​is adjacent to the roadway RW. A pedestrian PD located on the shoulder RS ​​in front of the moving vehicle MB may enter the roadway RW. Therefore, the pedestrian PD can be said to be a risk factor RF.

[0013] In the example shown in Figure 1, risk avoidance control includes both steering control and deceleration control. In steering control, the steering device of the moving body MB is controlled to move away from the pedestrian PD. In deceleration control, the braking device of the moving body MB is controlled so that the speed v decreases as it approaches the pedestrian PD. In the example shown in Figure 1, steering control and deceleration control start from time T1. However, steering control and deceleration control do not have to start at the same time. Also, the pedestrian PD may be another moving body (e.g., a motorcycle or vehicle). Furthermore, risk factors RF include not only pedestrians on the shoulder RS ​​but also pedestrians on the roadway RW.

[0014] 2. Characteristics of risk avoidance control in the embodiment As already explained, risk avoidance control is performed to avoid risk factors RF. Therefore, when executing risk avoidance control, the risk of the moving object MB colliding with risk factors RF (collision risk) is calculated. The collision risk is calculated, for example, based on the collision time-to-collision (TTC) of the moving object MB with respect to risk factors RF. The TTC is calculated, for example, based on the position and velocity information of the risk factors RF and the position and velocity information of the moving object MB. Once the collision risk is calculated, it is converted into a risk level RLv (for example, RLv = constant k × 1 / TTC), and if the risk level RLv rises to or above a specified level Lvth, the execution of risk avoidance control is initiated.

[0015] In risk avoidance control, at least one of the steering device and the braking device of the moving body MB is controlled to avoid a collision (or contact) with the risk factor RF. FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the features of the embodiment. In the description of FIG. 2, attention is paid to the deceleration control among the risk avoidance controls. In the upper part of FIG. 2, the deceleration control is performed from time T1 to time T2. If a collision (or contact) with the risk factor RF is to be avoided, it is desirable to sufficiently reduce the speed v of the moving body MB.

[0016] However, the calculation of the collision risk (risk level RLv) is also performed during the risk avoidance control. Therefore, if the risk level RLv drops below the specified level Lvth during the risk avoidance control, the execution of the risk avoidance control is terminated and the normal control is resumed. However, if the speed v of the moving body MB is sufficiently reduced in the risk avoidance control, it will take time to return to the speed v before the execution of the risk avoidance control, which will reduce the running efficiency of the moving body MB.

[0017] Therefore, in the risk avoidance control of the embodiment, two-stage risk avoidance control is set and executed. Specifically, when the risk level RLv rises above the first specified level Lvth1 (= Lvth), the first risk avoidance control with a relatively low avoidance degree (hereinafter, also referred to as "first avoidance control") is executed. And when the risk level RLv rises above the second specified level Lvth2 (> Lvth1) during the first risk avoidance control, the second risk avoidance control with a relatively high avoidance degree (hereinafter, also referred to as "second avoidance control") is executed.

[0018] The high or low avoidance degree can be realized by providing a difference in the target deceleration a. For example, in the first avoidance control, the target deceleration a is set to the deceleration a0 (for example, 0.05G), and in the second avoidance control, the target deceleration a is set to the deceleration a1 (for example, the maximum speed). Thereby, in the first avoidance control, a gentle deceleration with a low avoidance degree can be performed, and in the second avoidance control, a rapid deceleration with a high avoidance degree can be performed.

[0019] The degree of avoidance can also be achieved by setting a difference in the target rudder angle θ. For example, in the first avoidance control, the target rudder angle θ is set to ±θ0, and in the second avoidance control, the target rudder angle θ is set to ±θ1 (>θ0). Thereby, in the first avoidance control, a gentle steering operation with a low degree of avoidance can be performed, and in the second avoidance control, a rapid steering operation with a high degree of avoidance can be performed.

[0020] An example of the risk avoidance control of the embodiment is shown in the lower part of FIG. 2. In the example shown in this lower part, the first avoidance control is performed from time T1 to time T3. Further, after time T3, the execution is switched from the first avoidance control to the second avoidance control. This is because the risk level RLv has risen above the second specified level Lvth2 during the first avoidance control (solid line: there is a collision risk). If the risk level RLv drops below the first specified level Lvth1, the execution of the first avoidance control is terminated without executing the second avoidance control and returns to the normal control (dotted line: there is no collision risk).

[0021] By setting such two-stage risk avoidance control, when the risk level RLv drops below the first specified level Lvth1 during the first avoidance control, the time until returning to the speed v before the execution of the first avoidance control can be shortened, and the decrease in the running efficiency of the moving body MB can be suppressed. On the other hand, when the risk level RLv rises above the second specified level Lvth2 during the first avoidance control, the execution is switched to the second avoidance control, and a collision (or contact) with the risk factor RF can be avoided.

[0022] However, if risk avoidance control is performed in two stages, the attitude of the moving vehicle M changes abruptly when the second avoidance control is initiated, which may compromise the safety of the occupants. Therefore, in this embodiment, notification control is performed during the execution of the first avoidance control to inform passengers of the possibility of performing the second avoidance control. As shown in the lower part of Figure 2, in the notification control, announcements such as "The vehicle may come to a sudden stop (sideways sway), please be careful" or "The vehicle may come to a sudden stop (sideways sway), standing passengers please hold on to the handrails" are played from the in-cabin speakers. In the notification control, the announcements described above may also be displayed on the in-cabin display.

[0023] It is also possible to perform notification control regarding the execution of the first avoidance control when initiating the first avoidance control. However, in embodiments where risk avoidance control may be executed in two stages, excessive notification of the execution or warning of the execution of risk avoidance control may cause anxiety among the occupants. Therefore, in the notification control of this embodiment, information regarding the execution of the first avoidance control is not provided, and only information regarding the possibility of executing the second avoidance control, which has a higher degree of avoidance, is provided. This allows for an appropriate amount of information regarding the execution of risk avoidance control to be delivered to the occupants.

[0024] 3. Example System Configuration Figure 3 is a block diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of a mobile system 10 including a control device according to an embodiment. The mobile system 10 shown in Figure 3 is mounted on a mobile body MB. The mobile system 10 includes a sensor group 20, a control device 30, a travel device 40, and a user interface 50.

[0025] The sensor group 20 includes, for example, a state sensor, a recognition sensor, and a position sensor. The state sensor detects the state of the mobile body MB. For example, the state sensor detects the speed, lateral acceleration, yaw rate, and rudder angle of the mobile body MB. The recognition sensor recognizes (detects) the surrounding environment of the mobile body MB. Examples of recognition sensors include cameras, LIDAR (Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging), and radar. The position sensor detects the position and orientation of the mobile body MB. The position sensor includes a GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System).

[0026] The control device 30 has a configuration corresponding to the control device according to the embodiment. The control device 30 includes one or more processors 31 (hereinafter also simply referred to as "processor 31") and one or more storage devices 32 (hereinafter also simply referred to as "storage devices 32"). The processor 31 executes various processes. Examples of processors 31 include CPU (Central Processing Unit), GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits), FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array), etc. The storage devices 32 store (store) various information. Examples of storage devices 32 include volatile memory, non-volatile memory, HDD (Hard Disk Drive), SSD (Solid State Drive), etc. The control device 30 may include one or more control devices.

[0027] The storage device 32 stores various information necessary for processing by the processor 31. This information includes the control program PRG. The control program PRG is a computer program for controlling the mobile body MB and is executed by the processor 31. The control program PRG may be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium. By executing the control program PRG, the processor 31 realizes the various functions of the control device 30.

[0028] The various types of information also include operating environment information (ENV). Examples of operating environment information (ENV) include status information, surrounding conditions information, and location information. Status information indicates the state of the mobile body MB. Surrounding conditions information indicates the conditions around the mobile body MB. Location information indicates the position and orientation of the mobile body MB. The operating environment information (ENV) is acquired by the sensor group 20 and stored in the storage device 32.

[0029] The running gear 40 includes a steering gear, a drive gear, and a braking gear. The steering gear steers the moving body MB. For example, the steering gear includes an electric power steering (EPS) system. The drive gear is a power source that generates driving force. Examples of drive gears include an engine, an electric motor, and an in-wheel motor. The braking gear generates braking force. The running gear 40 is controlled based on control commands CON from the control device 30. The control commands CON include commands for performing risk avoidance control.

[0030] The user interface 50 presents information to the user of the mobile vehicle MB. The user of the mobile vehicle MB is the driver or occupant of the mobile vehicle MB. The user interface 50 includes input devices, display devices, and speakers. Examples of input devices include touch panels, switches, etc. Examples of display devices include instrument panels, displays, head-up displays (HUDs), etc. The user interface 50 is controlled based on notification commands ALM from the control device 30. The notification commands ALM include commands for executing notification control.

[0031] 4. Examples of combinations of risk avoidance control and notification control Figures 4 and 5 are timing charts illustrating examples of risk avoidance control and notification control execution. Two types of scenarios are depicted in Figures 4 and 5. In the scenario shown in Figure 4, both the first and second avoidance controls are executed. In the scenario shown in Figure 5, only the first avoidance control is executed.

[0032] In the examples shown in Figures 4 and 5, the first avoidance control is initiated at time T4 when the risk level RLv reaches the first specified level Lvth1. In the first avoidance control, the target deceleration a for deceleration control is set to deceleration a0, and the running gear (braking gear) of the moving body MB is controlled. In the examples shown in Figures 4 and 5, notification control is also temporarily performed at this time T4.

[0033] In the example shown in Figure 4, the risk level RLv continues to rise even after time T4. Then, at time T5, when the risk level RLv reaches the second specified level Lvth2, the second avoidance control is initiated. In the second avoidance control, the target deceleration a of the deceleration control is set to the maximum deceleration amax, and the running gear (braking gear) of the mobile body MB is controlled. The second avoidance control ends at time T6 as the mobile body MB stops. On the other hand, in the example shown in Figure 5, the risk level RLv begins to decline after time T4. Then, at time T7, when the risk level RLv falls below the first specified level Lvth1, the first avoidance control is initiated, and normal control begins.

[0034] In this manner, depending on the change in the risk level RLv during the first avoidance control, a switch from the first avoidance control to the second avoidance control will occur, or the first avoidance control will end without this switch. In addition, the execution of the second avoidance control in the future will be announced at the same time as the start of the first avoidance control.

[0035] Figure 6 is a timing chart showing another example of risk avoidance control and notification control. The scenario depicted in Figure 6 is basically the same as the scenario shown in Figure 4. The difference between the two is the start time of the notification control. That is, in the scenario shown in Figure 6, notification control is temporarily performed at time T8 when the risk level RLv reaches a specified level Lvth1.5, which is midway between the first specified level Lvth1 and the second specified level Lvth2. Thus, the timing of notification control can be set to any timing during the first avoidance control, and such timing can be set according to the risk level RLv.

[0036] 5. Combination with warning control In this embodiment, in addition to the risk avoidance control and notification control described above, warning control may also be performed. In warning control, for example, the horn of the mobile body MB is controlled and a warning sound is emitted towards the risk factor RF. The timing of the execution of warning control is, for example, simultaneously with the start of the execution of notification control, or before the start of the execution of notification control. By performing warning control simultaneously with the start of the execution of notification control, or before the start of the execution of notification control, it is possible to prompt the risk factor RF to take action to avoid collision (or contact) with the risk factor RF. The timing of the execution of warning control can be set according to the risk level RLv, similar to the timing of the execution of notification control. [Explanation of symbols]

[0037] 10...Mobile system, 20...Sensor group, 30...Control device, 31...Processor, 32...Memory device, 40...Traction device, 50...User interface, MB...Mobile unit, PD...Pedestrian, RF...Risk factor, RS...Roadside, RW...Roadway, ENV...Driving environment information, CON...Control command, ALM...Notification command

Claims

1. A control device for a mobile body, One or more storage devices that store information about the operating environment of a mobile device, One or more processors that perform various controls based on the aforementioned operating environment information, Equipped with, The various controls include risk avoidance control performed to avoid collision with an object when an object that poses a risk of collision with the moving body is recognized, and notification control regarding the risk avoidance control to the occupants of the moving body. The risk avoidance control includes a first avoidance control performed before the collision risk reaches a predetermined level, and a second avoidance control performed after the collision risk reaches the predetermined level. The moving body control in the first avoidance control includes a moving body control that avoids collisions with the object to a smaller degree than the moving body control in the second avoidance control. The notification control includes a notice of the possibility that the second avoidance control may be executed. This is a control device for a mobile body.

2. A control device according to claim 1, The notification control is performed while the first avoidance control is being executed. A control device for a mobile body, characterized by the following features.

3. A control device according to claim 1 or 2, The notification control does not include providing information regarding the execution of the first avoidance control. A control device for a mobile body, characterized by the following features.

4. A control device according to claim 1 or 2, The second avoidance control includes deceleration control at the maximum deceleration of the moving body. A control device for a mobile body, characterized by the following features.

5. A control device according to claim 1 or 2, The aforementioned various controls include a warning control that emits a warning sound towards an object if an object that poses a risk of collision with the moving body is detected. The warning control is performed simultaneously with the start of the execution of the notification control, or before the start of the execution of the notification control. A control device for a mobile body, characterized by the following features.

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