Vehicle control system and computer program

Abstract

To discriminate a road type when the road type cannot be discriminated from a camera image.SOLUTION: A vehicle control system 100 comprises an imaging device 11 which generates an image by imaging the outside of an own vehicle, and a control device 6. The control device 6 discriminates a road type of a road, on which the own vehicle travels, by recognizing a specific object in the image and, in a case where the specific object cannot be recognized, takes discrimination measures for discriminating the road type of the road on which the own vehicle travels.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a vehicle control system and a computer program. [Background technology]

[0002] When the distance between the vehicle and the preceding vehicle becomes small, the preceding vehicle blocks the view of the camera that captures the road dividing lines on the road surface in front of the vehicle. As a result, the camera cannot capture the road surface in front of the vehicle. Therefore, Patent Document 1 discloses a vehicle control device that changes the capture direction of the camera from the front of the vehicle to the side of the vehicle when the distance between the vehicle and the preceding vehicle becomes equal to or less than a predetermined reference value, and captures the road dividing lines on the side of the vehicle. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] JP 2009-146289 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] When a vehicle travels following another vehicle, the vehicle's air resistance can be reduced, which reduces the vehicle's energy consumption (fuel consumption or power consumption) and increases the vehicle's range. Therefore, in recent years, technological development has been progressing regarding platooning, in which multiple vehicles travel in a convoy while maintaining a certain distance between each other.

[0005] When vehicles are traveling in a convoy, it is expected that the distance between vehicles will be smaller than that during conventional vehicle distance control such as adaptive cruise control (ACC) in order to further reduce the air resistance of the vehicles. Furthermore, it is expected that on general roads, situations will arise where sudden braking will be required due to, for example, a pedestrian suddenly running out into the road. For this reason, from the viewpoint of safety, it is desirable to carry out platooning not on general roads, but on expressways exclusively for automobiles (national expressways and expressways exclusively for automobiles) where pedestrians are not allowed to pass and parking and stopping on the main roads are prohibited.

[0006] Therefore, when platooning, it is necessary to determine whether the road on which vehicles are traveling is an expressway for automobiles only, in other words, to determine the road type.Although it is conceivable that this determination could be made based on camera images, there are cases in which this determination cannot be made based on camera images.

[0007] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and has an object to make it possible to determine the road type when the road type cannot be determined from the camera image. [Means for solving the problem]

[0008] In order to solve the above problems, a vehicle control system according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an imaging device that captures an image of the outside of the vehicle and generates an image, and a control device. The control device is configured to determine the road type of the road on which the vehicle is traveling by recognizing a specific object in the image, and when the specific object cannot be recognized, to take a determination measure for determining the road type of the road on which the vehicle is traveling.

[0009] According to one aspect of the present invention, a computer program for a control device that controls a vehicle control system equipped with an imaging device that photographs the outside of the vehicle and generates an image is configured to cause the control device to determine the road type of the road on which the vehicle is traveling by recognizing a specific object in the image, and if the specific object cannot be recognized, to take a determination measure to determine the road type of the road on which the vehicle is traveling. Effect of the Invention

[0010] According to these aspects of the present invention, when the road type cannot be determined from an image generated by an imaging device, the road type can be determined by taking the measures required to determine the road type. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0011] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a vehicle control system according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a vehicle control process according to the first embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 3A] FIG. 3A is a diagram showing a state in which the view of the camera is blocked by a preceding vehicle traveling in the same lane due to a short distance between the preceding vehicle and the vehicle. [Figure 3B] FIG. 3B is a diagram showing a state in which the view of the camera is blocked by a preceding vehicle traveling in an adjacent lane due to the short distance between the preceding vehicle and the preceding vehicle. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a vehicle control process according to the second embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0012] Hereinafter, the embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the following description, like elements are designated by like reference numerals.

[0013] (First embodiment) FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a vehicle control system 100 according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

[0014] 1, a vehicle control system 100 according to this embodiment includes a surrounding information acquisition device 1, a current position detection device 2, a human machine interface (hereinafter referred to as "HMI"), a communication device 4, a vehicle behavior detection device 5, and an electronic control unit 6. The surrounding information acquisition device 1, the current position detection device 2, the HMI 3, the communication device 4, and the vehicle behavior detection device 5 are electrically connected to the electronic control unit 6 via an in-vehicle network that complies with standards such as CAN (Controller Area Network).

[0015] The peripheral information acquisition device 1 is a device for acquiring information (hereinafter referred to as "vehicle peripheral information") related to the surrounding environment of a vehicle (own vehicle). The vehicle peripheral information acquired by the peripheral information acquisition device 1 is transmitted to an electronic control unit 6 via an in-vehicle network. The peripheral information acquisition device 1 can be composed of a single device or multiple devices, and can be composed of, for example, a camera, a LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), a millimeter wave radar sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, etc. In this embodiment, the peripheral information acquisition device 1 includes a camera 11 that captures an image in front of the vehicle and generates an image, and a LiDAR 12. In the following description, the image generated by this camera is referred to as a "camera image".

[0016] The current position detection device 2 is a device for detecting the current position of the vehicle (for example, the longitude and latitude of the vehicle). For example, the current position detection device 2 may be a GNSS receiver that detects the current position based on satellite radio waves received from a plurality of satellites, but is not limited to this. The current vehicle position detected by the current position detection device 2 is transmitted to the electronic control unit 6 via the in-vehicle network.

[0017] The HMI 3 is an interface for inputting and outputting information between the vehicle and a user of the vehicle (for example, a driver, a passenger, an external operator of the vehicle, etc.). The HMI 3 includes an output device for outputting information to be provided to the vehicle user, and an input device for the vehicle user to perform various input operations. Examples of the output device include a display, a speaker, a vibration unit, etc. Examples of the input device include a touch panel, an operation button, an operation switch, a microphone, etc. The HMI 3 provides the output information received from the electronic control unit 6 via the in-vehicle network to the vehicle user via the output device. The HMI 3 also transmits input information input via the input device to the electronic control unit 6 via the in-vehicle network.

[0018] The HMI 3 can be installed in the vehicle in advance, or the vehicle user can connect a terminal (e.g., a smartphone, tablet, PC, etc.) owned by the vehicle user to the electronic control unit 6 via a wired or wireless connection to have the terminal function as the HMI 3.

[0019] The communication device 4 is a device for communicating with the outside of the vehicle. The communication device 4 includes a wide-area communication device for communicating with the outside of the vehicle via a wireless communication network, and a short-range communication device for directly communicating between terminals (for example, between vehicles, between a road and a vehicle, or between a pedestrian and a vehicle).

[0020] The vehicle behavior detection device 5 detects parameters indicative of the vehicle behavior. The parameters detected by the vehicle behavior detection device 5 are transmitted to the electronic control unit 6 via an in-vehicle network. Examples of the vehicle behavior detection device 5 include a vehicle speed sensor, an acceleration sensor, and a steering angle sensor, and the parameters indicative of the vehicle behavior include the vehicle speed, acceleration, steering angle, etc. detected by these sensors.

[0021] The electronic control unit 6 includes a communication interface (communication I / F) 61 , a memory 62 , and a processor 63 .

[0022] The communication interface 61 includes an interface circuit for connecting the electronic control unit 6 to an in-vehicle network. The electronic control unit 6 is connected to various in-vehicle devices such as the peripheral information acquisition device 1 described above via the communication interface 61.

[0023] The memory 62 has a storage medium such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), an optical recording medium, a semiconductor memory, etc. The memory 62 stores various computer programs and data executed by the processor 63. The memory 62 also stores data generated by the computer programs, data received from various in-vehicle devices via the communication interface 61, etc.

[0024] The processor 63 includes one or more central processing units (CPUs) and their peripheral circuits. The processor 63 executes various processes based on various computer programs stored in the memory 62. For example, while the vehicle is traveling, the processor 63 executes an object detection process on the received camera image every time the processor 63 receives a camera image from the camera 11, and executes a vehicle control process according to the result of the object detection process. The contents of the vehicle control process will be described below with reference to FIG. 2.

[0025] FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the vehicle control process according to this embodiment.

[0026] In step S101, when the electronic control unit 6 receives a camera image, it checks whether or not a specific object is captured in the camera image. Whether or not a specific object is captured in the camera image can be checked by inputting the camera image to a classifier such as a deep neural network trained according to a learning method such as backpropagation using a large number of teacher images.

[0027] A specific object is an object installed on a road that allows the vehicle to determine whether the road on which the vehicle is traveling is a general road or a highway for automobiles only (national expressways and expressways) on which pedestrians and other traffic and parking and stopping on the main road are prohibited. In other words, a specific object is an object installed on a road that allows the vehicle to determine the road type of the road on which the vehicle is traveling. Examples of such specific objects include road signs and traffic lights. This is because if a road sign indicates that the road ahead or the road the vehicle is traveling on is a highway for automobiles only (hereinafter referred to as a "specific road sign"), the vehicle can recognize that the road on which the vehicle is traveling is a highway for automobiles only. Also, if a traffic light is present, the road can be considered to be a general road.

[0028] If the specific object is captured in the camera image, that is, if the specific object can be confirmed in the camera image, the electronic control unit 6 proceeds to the process of step S102. On the other hand, if the specific object cannot be confirmed in the camera image, the electronic control unit 6 proceeds to the process of step S106.

[0029] In step S102, the electronic control unit 6 resets a count timer T, which calculates the elapsed time since the specific object disappeared from the camera image (hereinafter referred to as "specific object unconfirmed time"), to the initial value of zero.

[0030] In step S103, if the specific object in the camera image is a specific road sign or a traffic light, the electronic control unit 6 proceeds to processing in step S104. On the other hand, if the specific object in the camera image is a road sign but not a specific road sign, the electronic control unit 6 proceeds to processing in step S105.

[0031] In step S104, the electronic control unit 6 sets the platooning flag F1 to 1. The platooning flag F1 is a flag that is set to 1 when it is confirmed that the road on which the vehicle is traveling is an expressway exclusively for automobiles, and its initial value is set to 0.

[0032] When the platooning flag F1 is set to 1, the electronic control unit 6 starts platooning automatically or in response to a request from the vehicle user. When platooning starts, the electronic control unit 6 creates a driving plan for the vehicle based on vehicle surrounding information and the like so that the vehicle can change lanes in accordance with the lane change of the preceding vehicle while maintaining a constant distance from the preceding vehicle, and can follow the preceding vehicle while tracing the position of the preceding vehicle in the lane, and performs automatic driving by automatically performing driving operations related to acceleration, steering, and braking according to the driving plan. By platooning, the vehicle can be made to follow other vehicles, thereby reducing the air resistance of the vehicle. Therefore, the energy consumption (fuel consumption or power consumption) of the vehicle can be reduced and the cruising range of the vehicle can be increased.

[0033] In addition, if platooning is started in response to a request from a vehicle user, when the platooning flag F1 is set to 1, it is desirable to suggest to the vehicle user via HMI 3 that they engage in platooning, or to request permission to engage in platooning.

[0034] In step S105, the electronic control unit 6 sets the platooning flag F1 to "0."

[0035] In step S106, the electronic control unit 6 calculates the elapsed time since the specific object disappeared from the camera image, that is, the unconfirmed time of the specific object. Specifically, the electronic control unit 6 adds the calculation cycle (the shooting cycle of the camera 11) ΔT to the previous value of the count timer T.

[0036] In step S107, the electronic control unit 6 determines whether the count timer T is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold T1. If the count timer T is equal to or greater than the threshold T1, the electronic control unit 6 proceeds to processing in step S108. On the other hand, if the count timer T is less than the threshold T1, the electronic control unit 6 ends this processing.

[0037] In step S108, the electronic control unit 6 judges whether or not the view of the camera 11 is obstructed by a preceding vehicle traveling in the same lane or an adjacent lane due to the vehicle-to-vehicle distance being short, as shown in, for example, FIG. 3A or FIG. 3B. This judgment can be made by, for example, measuring the distance from the preceding vehicle using the lidar 12, a millimeter wave radar sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, or the like. Specifically, if the distance from the preceding vehicle is less than a predetermined distance, it can be determined that the view of the camera 11 is obstructed by the preceding vehicle. Note that the method is not limited to this, and for example, a judgment may be made from a camera image using a classifier such as a deep neural network, as in the case of recognizing a specific object.

[0038] If the view of the camera 11 is blocked by the preceding vehicle, the electronic control unit 6 determines that this is the reason why road signs and traffic lights installed on the shoulder or above the road are not captured in the camera image, and proceeds to the process of step S109. On the other hand, if the view of the camera 11 is not blocked by the preceding vehicle, the electronic control unit 6 ends this process.

[0039] In step S109, the electronic control unit 6 takes a necessary determination step to determine the road type of the road on which the vehicle is traveling, and determines whether or not the road type of the road on which the vehicle is traveling can be determined. In this embodiment, the determination step is a step for determining the road type without using a camera image. Examples of such a determination step include a step for determining the road type of the road on which the vehicle is traveling based on the current position of the vehicle and map information, a step for determining based on a signal (e.g., a signal including road type information) received from a roadside device by road-to-vehicle communication, and a step for determining based on road type information input by a user of the vehicle via the HMI 3.

[0040] In step S110, the electronic control unit 6 sets the platooning flag F1 to 1.

[0041] In step S111, the electronic control unit 6 sets the platooning permission flag F1 to "0."

[0042] The vehicle according to the present embodiment described above includes a camera 11 (imaging device) that captures an image of the outside of the vehicle and generates a camera image, and an electronic control unit 6 (control device).The electronic control unit 6 is configured to determine the road type of the road on which the vehicle is traveling by recognizing a specific object in the camera image, and if the specific object cannot be recognized, to take a determination measure for determining the road type of the road on which the vehicle is traveling.

[0043] As a result, even when the road type cannot be determined from the camera image, the road type can be determined by taking the necessary measures to determine the road type.

[0044] In particular, in this embodiment, the electronic control unit 6 is configured to take measures to determine the road type without using camera images, such as a measure to determine the road type based on the current position of the vehicle and map information, a measure to determine the road type based on a signal received from a roadside unit, or a measure to determine the road type based on road type information input by the user of the vehicle via the HMI 3.

[0045] This makes it possible to determine the road type using a road type determination method that does not use camera images when the road type cannot be determined from the camera images.

[0046] In addition, in this embodiment, if the road type of the road on which the vehicle is traveling is a highway exclusively for self-driving vehicles on which travel other than by automobiles is prohibited, the electronic control unit 6 is configured to automatically perform platooning on that road, or to suggest to the user of the vehicle via the HMI 3 that platooning be performed on that road, or to request permission to perform platooning on that road from the user of the vehicle via the HMI 3.

[0047] This allows vehicles to platoon and increase their range when traveling on expressways, where there is less risk of pedestrians running into the roads compared to regular roads.

[0048] Second embodiment Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. This embodiment differs from the first embodiment in the contents of the determination measures. The following mainly describes the differences.

[0049] Fig. 4 is a flowchart for explaining an example of the vehicle control process according to this embodiment. In Fig. 4, the contents of the process of steps S101 to S108 are the same as those in the first embodiment, so the description thereof will be omitted here.

[0050] In the first embodiment described above, a measure for determining the road type without using a camera image is taken as the discrimination measure. In contrast, in the present embodiment, in order to be able to determine the road type using a camera image, in step S201, the electronic control unit 6 takes a measure for increasing the inter-vehicle distance between the vehicle traveling in the same lane as the vehicle itself or between the vehicle traveling in the adjacent lane and the vehicle itself, from the current inter-vehicle distance.

[0051] For example, when driving operations related to acceleration and braking are automatically performed so that the distance between the vehicle and the preceding vehicle becomes the target distance, the electronic control unit 6 increases the target distance between the vehicle and the preceding vehicle. If the reason why a specific object is not captured in the camera image is due to the distance between the vehicle and the preceding vehicle traveling in the same lane or an adjacent lane being too close, that is, due to the camera's field of view being blocked by the preceding vehicle, the cause can be eliminated by increasing the distance between the vehicle and the preceding vehicle in this way.

[0052] The timing for restoring the target inter-vehicle distance to the original value is not particularly limited. For example, Thereafter, the target vehicle distance may be returned when it is recognized that a specific object has been moved onto the camera image, or when a predetermined time has elapsed since the target vehicle distance was increased.

[0053] In addition, the target inter-vehicle distance may be increased by a fixed distance each time the process proceeds to step S201 until it reaches a specified upper limit inter-vehicle distance, and then returned to the original distance at the specified timing described above, or once the process proceeds to step S201, the target inter-vehicle distance may be increased to a fixed distance uniformly, and then returned to the original distance at the specified timing described above.

[0054] Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the above-mentioned embodiments merely show some of the application examples of the present invention, and it is not intended that the technical scope of the present invention be limited to the specific configurations of the above-mentioned embodiments.

[0055] For example, in the above embodiment, the computer program executed in the electronic control unit 6 of the vehicle control system 100 may be provided in a form recorded on a computer-readable portable recording medium, such as a semiconductor memory, a magnetic recording medium, or an optical recording medium.

[0056] 3. HMI 6 Electronic control unit (control device) 11 Camera (imaging device) 100 Vehicle Control System

Claims

1. an imaging device that captures an image of the outside of the vehicle and generates an image; A control device; A vehicle control system comprising: The control device includes: determining a road type of a road on which the vehicle is traveling by recognizing a specific object in the image; When the specific object cannot be recognized, a measure is taken to increase the inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle and a preceding vehicle traveling in the same lane as the host vehicle or a preceding vehicle traveling in an adjacent lane, as a discrimination measure for discriminating the road type of the road on which the host vehicle is traveling, from the current inter-vehicle distance. Vehicle control system.

2. Further comprising an HMI for inputting and outputting information; The control device includes: When the road type of the road on which the vehicle is traveling is a road on which travel other than by automobiles is prohibited, the vehicle is configured to automatically perform platooning on the road, or to suggest to the user of the vehicle via the HMI that platooning be performed on the road, or to request permission to perform platooning on the road from the user of the vehicle via the HMI. The vehicle control system of claim 1 .

3. The specific object is a road sign or a traffic light. The vehicle control system according to claim 1 or 2.

4. A computer program for a control device that controls a vehicle control system including an imaging device that captures an image of the outside of a vehicle, the computer program comprising: determining a road type of a road on which the vehicle is traveling by recognizing a specific object in the image; A computer program for causing the control device to execute, when the specific object cannot be recognized, a discrimination measure for determining the road type of the road on which the vehicle is traveling, a measure for increasing the inter-vehicle distance between the vehicle and a preceding vehicle traveling in the same lane as the vehicle or an preceding vehicle traveling in an adjacent lane, from the current inter-vehicle distance.

Images