Vehicle collision detection device

Abstract

To provide a vehicle collision determination device capable of detecting a possible damage to the bottom surface of a vehicle due to a collision.SOLUTION: A vehicle collision determination device detects vertical acceleration (100), and predicts, based on the vertical acceleration that occurs when front wheels go over a step, the time when rear wheels go over the step based on the vehicle speed at that time and the length of a vehicle wheel base (102 to 104). If the vertical acceleration is detected at a timing earlier than the predicted time and equal to or above a predetermined threshold value, the device determines that the vehicle has collided with the bottom surface of the vehicle (106 to 110).SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 5

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a vehicle collision determination device. [Background technology]

[0002] Patent Document 1 discloses that the magnitude of vertical acceleration and the shape of the waveform can be used to distinguish between a low-speed collision and driving on a rough road, and to distinguish between collision types such as a pole collision and an underride collision.

[0003] Specifically, in Patent Document 1, when a frontal collision occurs, if the acceleration detected by the front and rear G sensors is moderate and not large enough to exceed the threshold value for a low-speed head-on collision, and if the acceleration detected by the up and down G sensors rises to a positive value and exceeds a first threshold value, then turns negative and exceeds a second threshold value, it is determined that an impact has occurred due to driving on a very rough road, and if the acceleration detected by the up and down G sensors rises to a negative value without rising to a positive value and exceeds the second threshold value, it is determined that an impact has occurred due to a frontal pole collision or an underride collision. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2020-138636 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] To prevent vehicle damage from being overlooked when appraising a used car or when a customer returns a rental car, a system is being considered that can determine whether or not there is damage in advance from vehicle data.

[0006] However, when determining damage from vehicle data such as vehicle behavior, there is a risk that damage to the underside of the vehicle caused by the vehicle colliding with a step due to driving over a step may be judged as simply going over the step, and damage to the underside of the vehicle may not be detected.

[0007] The present invention has been made in consideration of the above circumstances, and has an object to provide a vehicle collision determination device that can detect the possibility of damage to the underside of a vehicle due to a collision. [Means for solving the problem]

[0008] A vehicle collision determination device according to a first aspect includes: an acquisition unit that acquires detection results of a detection unit that detects vertical acceleration occurring in a vehicle and a vehicle speed detection unit that detects a vehicle speed; and a determination unit that determines that a collision has occurred at the bottom of the vehicle when vertical acceleration equal to or greater than a predetermined first threshold is detected from the results acquired by the acquisition unit within a predicted time corresponding to a time interval between a front wheel and a rear wheel calculated based on the vehicle speed at the time the vehicle goes over a step. The determination unit determines that the step has been crossed when the vertical acceleration is detected to be equal to or greater than a predetermined second threshold, and the predicted time is a first time calculated by dividing a wheelbase of the vehicle by a vehicle speed at the time when it is determined that the step has been crossed. .

[0009] According to the first aspect, the detection results of the vertical acceleration occurring in the vehicle and the vehicle speed are acquired by the acquisition unit.

[0010] The determination unit determines that a collision has occurred with the underside of the vehicle when it detects, from the results acquired by the acquisition unit, a vertical acceleration equal to or greater than a predetermined first threshold within a predicted time corresponding to the distance between the front wheels and the rear wheels, the time being calculated based on the vehicle speed at the time the vehicle went over the step. This makes it possible to determine whether the underside of the vehicle collided with the step when going over the step, thereby making it possible to detect the possibility of damage to the underside of the vehicle due to the collision.

[0011] Also When the determination unit detects the vertical acceleration equal to or greater than a predetermined second threshold, it determines that the step has been crossed, and the predicted time is a first time calculated by dividing the wheelbase of the vehicle by the vehicle speed at the time it is determined that the step has been crossed.

[0012] this According to the present invention, it is possible to detect whether the vehicle is going over a step from the detection result of the vertical acceleration, and to determine whether a collision has occurred with the bottom of the vehicle.

[0013] No. 2The vehicle collision determination device according to the embodiment includes: an acquisition unit that acquires detection results of a detection unit that detects vertical acceleration occurring in a vehicle and a vehicle speed detection unit that detects a vehicle speed; and a determination unit that determines that a collision has occurred at the bottom of the vehicle when vertical acceleration equal to or greater than a predetermined first threshold is detected from the acquisition results of the acquisition unit within a predicted time corresponding to a time interval between a front wheel and a rear wheel calculated based on the vehicle speed at the time the vehicle goes over a step. The acquisition unit further acquires a detection result from a step detection unit mounted on the vehicle and detecting the step ahead of the vehicle, and the predicted time is a time from a time when vertical acceleration occurs as a result of the front wheels of the vehicle climbing up the step to a time when vertical acceleration occurs as a result of the rear wheels climbing up the step, predicted from a distance to the step detected by the step detection unit and a vehicle speed at the time the step is detected. .

[0014] No. 2 According to this aspect, by predicting the predicted time from when the front wheels climb over the step until when the rear wheels climb over the step, it is possible to determine whether the front and rear wheels will collide with the underside of the vehicle.

[0015] No. 3 The vehicle collision determination device according to the embodiment is a first embodiment. or second In the vehicle collision determination device according to this aspect, a transmission unit is further provided that transmits the collision history of the bottom of the vehicle to a server outside the vehicle when the determination unit determines that a collision has occurred on the bottom of the vehicle.

[0016] No. 3 According to this aspect, it is possible to check damage when a used car is appraised or when a rental car is returned from the collision history transmitted to the server. [Effects of the Invention]

[0017] As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a vehicle collision determination device that can detect the possibility of damage to the underside of a vehicle. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0018] [Figure 1] 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a vehicle including a vehicle collision determination device according to a first embodiment. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a vehicle collision determination device and a part of a data server. [Figure 3] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of vertical acceleration waveforms when the front and rear wheels go over a step. [Figure 4] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a vertical acceleration waveform when the underside of a vehicle is damaged. [Figure 5] 4 is a flowchart showing an example of a flow of processing performed by the vehicle collision determination device according to the present embodiment. [Figure 6] FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a vehicle including a vehicle collision determination device according to a second embodiment. [Figure 7] FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining damage determination of the underside of a vehicle in the second embodiment. [Figure 8] 4 is a flowchart showing an example of a flow of processing performed by the vehicle collision determination device according to the present embodiment. [Figure 9] 10A and 10B are diagrams for explaining the difference between the first embodiment and the second embodiment in determining a collision with the underside of the vehicle. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0019] An embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In this embodiment, a vehicle collision determination device for determining damage to the underside of a vehicle will be described.

[0020] (First embodiment) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a vehicle including a vehicle collision determination device according to the first embodiment.

[0021] As shown in FIG. 1, a vehicle 10 is equipped with a vehicle collision determination device 12 according to this embodiment, a vertical G sensor 14 as an example of a detection unit, a vehicle speed sensor 16 as an example of a vehicle speed detection unit, a vehicle information recording unit 18, and an in-vehicle communication device 20 as an example of a transmission unit.

[0022] The vehicle collision determination device 12 is connected to a vertical G sensor 14, a vehicle speed sensor 16, a vehicle information recording unit 18, and an in-vehicle communication device 20.

[0023] The vertical G sensor 14 detects vertical acceleration occurring in the vehicle 10 and outputs the detection result to the vehicle collision determination device 12 .

[0024] The vehicle speed sensor 16 detects the speed of the vehicle 10 (hereinafter, may be referred to as vehicle speed) and outputs the detection result to the vehicle collision determination device 12.

[0025] The vehicle information recording unit 18 records information such as the wheel base of the vehicle 10, which is read and used by the vehicle collision determination device 12 when determining whether a collision has occurred at the bottom of the vehicle.

[0026] The in-vehicle communication device 20 connects the vehicle 10 to a data server 22, which is an example of an external server, via wireless communication, and transmits the determination result of the vehicle collision determination device 12 to the data server 22.

[0027] Next, we will explain the configurations of the vehicle collision determination device 12 and the data server 22. Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a portion of the vehicle collision determination device 12 and the data server 22. Note that the vehicle collision determination device 12 and the data server 22 have the general computer configuration shown in Fig. 2, so the configuration of the vehicle collision determination device 12 will be explained below as a representative.

[0028] 2, the vehicle collision determination device 12 is configured with a general microcomputer including a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 12A, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 12B, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 12C, an interface (I / F) 12D, and a bus 12E. The CPU 12A functions as an example of an acquisition unit and a determination unit.

[0029] With the above configuration, the vehicle collision determination device 12 uses the CPU 12A to execute control of access to the ROM 12B and RAM 12C, and control of transmission and reception of communication data via the communication I / F unit 12D. For example, the CPU 12A loads a vehicle collision determination program stored in advance in the ROM 12B or a storage device (not shown) into the RAM 12C and executes it to determine a collision with the underside of the vehicle.

[0030] Incidentally, if an accident history is overlooked and an accurate appraisal is not made when appraising a used car, it may result in an inappropriate transaction for the user or a loss of credibility for the dealer. Therefore, a system is being considered that prevents accident history from being overlooked when appraising a used car by detecting accidents using sensors mounted on the vehicle 10, such as an acceleration sensor, and recording the accident history for each vehicle 10 in a data server 22. In addition, a system is being considered that checks whether the vehicle 10 has any damage when returned from a rental car, etc., using data acquired in advance, and there is a growing need to utilize accident and damage data for the vehicle 10.

[0031] Furthermore, if the vehicle 10 damages its underside when going over a step or speed bump, it is difficult to identify the location of the damage and there is concern about the impact on parts related to driving, so it is important to detect a collision with the underside of the vehicle. However, because vertical acceleration is also detected when the wheels go over a step, it is difficult to detect a collision with the underside of the vehicle based solely on the magnitude of vertical acceleration. A speed bump is a structure that raises part of the road to encourage the driver to slow down.

[0032] Therefore, in the vehicle collision determination device 12 according to this embodiment, in order to distinguish between a collision and rough road driving, the detection results of the acceleration in the vertical direction of the vehicle are used to determine a collision with the underside of the vehicle. However, in cases where the underside of the vehicle is damaged when the vehicle 10 goes over a step, it is difficult to detect a collision with the underside of the vehicle using only the acceleration in the vertical direction. Therefore, the vehicle collision determination device 12 according to this embodiment detects damage to the underside of the vehicle from the relationship between the time when the acceleration in the vertical direction occurs and the wheelbase.

[0033] Specifically, the CPU 12A expands the vehicle collision detection program stored in the ROM 12B into the RAM 12C and executes it to perform processing to determine whether or not a collision has occurred with the underside of the vehicle based on the detection results of the vertical G sensor 14 and the vehicle speed sensor 16.

[0034] The process for determining whether or not a collision with the vehicle underside has occurred is based on the timing of vertical acceleration. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 3 , the time it takes for the rear wheels to cross the step is predicted based on the vehicle speed and the wheelbase length of the vehicle 10, based on the vertical acceleration generated when the front wheels cross the step. If vertical acceleration equal to or greater than a predetermined first threshold is not detected earlier than the predicted time, it is determined that there has been no collision with the vehicle underside. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4 , if vertical acceleration equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold is detected earlier than the predicted time, it is determined that there has been a collision with the vehicle underside. If a collision with the vehicle underside is determined to have occurred, the determination result is transmitted to and recorded on the data server 22, which can be used for used car appraisals and damage detection for rental cars. In this embodiment, a step is determined to have occurred if vertical acceleration equal to or greater than a predetermined second threshold is detected. However, the first and second thresholds may be the same or different.

[0035] Next, a specific process performed by the vehicle collision determination device 12 according to this embodiment configured as described above will be described. Fig. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of the flow of the process performed by the vehicle collision determination device 12 according to this embodiment. The process in Fig. 5 starts when, for example, an ignition switch (not shown) of the vehicle 10 is operated to turn on the power of the vehicle 10.

[0036] In step 100, the CPU 12A detects the vertical acceleration by acquiring the detection result of the vertical acceleration from the vertical G sensor 14, and proceeds to step 102. For example, the vertical acceleration when the front wheel goes over a step is detected. Note that the vertical acceleration detected in step 100 is not limited to the acceleration of the front wheel.

[0037] In step 102, the CPU 12A determines whether the vertical acceleration is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold. If the determination is affirmative, the process proceeds to step 104, and if negative, the process proceeds to step 112.

[0038] In step 104, the CPU 12A predicts the time T at which acceleration will occur in the rear wheels from the wheelbase and vehicle speed, and proceeds to step 106. That is, assuming that the vertical acceleration detected in step 100 is the front wheels, the CPU 12A obtains the detection result of the vehicle speed sensor 16 at the time when the front wheels go over the step, and divides the wheelbase by the obtained vehicle speed to calculate the time as the predicted time at which acceleration will occur in the rear wheels.

[0039] In step 106, the CPU 12A detects the vertical acceleration by acquiring the detection result of the vertical acceleration from the vertical G sensor 14, and proceeds to step 108. For example, the vertical acceleration of the rear wheels is detected. Note that the vertical acceleration detected in step 106 is not limited to the acceleration of the rear wheels.

[0040] In step 108, the CPU 12A determines whether or not acceleration equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value has occurred within the predicted time T. If the determination is affirmative, the process proceeds to step 110;

[0041] In step 110, the CPU 12A determines that the collision occurred with the underside of the vehicle, transmits the determination result to the data server 22 for recording, and proceeds to step 112. Note that the vertical acceleration at the time of the determination of the collision may be transmitted to the data server 22 as a collision history together with the determination result, so that the degree of damage caused by the collision can be estimated from the vertical acceleration at the time of the collision.

[0042] In step 112, the CPU 12A determines whether or not to end the process. For example, the determination is made as to whether or not an ignition switch (not shown) has been turned off. If the determination is negative, the process returns to step 100 and the above-described process is repeated. If the determination is positive, the process ends.

[0043] In this way, in this embodiment, the time it will take for the rear wheels to go over the step is predicted from the vehicle speed and the length of the wheelbase based on the acceleration when the front wheels go over the step, and if vertical acceleration equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold is detected within the predicted time, it is determined that a collision has occurred with the underside of the vehicle. This makes it possible to determine whether the underside of the vehicle has collided with the step when the vehicle 10 goes over the step, making it possible to detect possible damage to the underside of the vehicle.

[0044] (Second embodiment) Next, a vehicle collision determination device according to a second embodiment will be described. Fig. 6 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a vehicle 10 including the vehicle collision determination device according to this embodiment. Note that the same components as those in Fig. 1 are given the same reference numerals and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

[0045] In the above embodiment, the vertical acceleration of the front wheels is detected only from the detection results of the vertical G sensor 14, but since there is no guarantee that the vertical acceleration detected in step 100 of FIG. 5 is the vertical acceleration of the front wheels, there is a possibility that a collision with the underside of the vehicle will be erroneously determined.

[0046] Therefore, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, a step detector 17 for detecting steps is provided.

[0047] The step detection unit 17 may, for example, detect targets such as steps ahead of the vehicle 10 using various radars, as shown in the upper part of Figure 7, or may detect targets such as steps from images captured by a camera.

[0048] In this embodiment, a step is detected by the step detection unit 17, and it is determined whether or not a collision has occurred with the underside of the vehicle. Specifically, the time at which vertical acceleration occurs as the front and rear wheels climb over the step is predicted from the distance to the step detected by the step detection unit 17 and the vehicle speed at that time. Then, as shown in the lower part of Fig. 7, if vertical acceleration equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold is detected between the time at which the front wheels climb over the step and the time at which the rear wheels climb over the step, it is determined that the underside of the vehicle has been damaged.

[0049] Next, specific processing performed by the vehicle collision determination device 12 according to this embodiment will be described. Fig. 8 is a flowchart showing an example of the flow of processing performed by the vehicle collision determination device 12 according to this embodiment. The processing in Fig. 8 starts when, for example, an ignition switch (not shown) of the vehicle 10 is operated to turn on the power of the vehicle 10. Furthermore, the same processing as in Fig. 5 will be described using the same reference numerals.

[0050] In step 101, the CPU 12A acquires the step detection result from the step detection unit 17, and the process proceeds to step 103.

[0051] In step 103, the CPU 12A determines whether or not a step has been detected. If the determination is affirmative, the process proceeds to step 105, and if negative, the process proceeds to step 112.

[0052] In step 105, CPU 12A calculates damage possibility time T' from the step detection time and vehicle speed, and proceeds to step 107. That is, the CPU 12A derives the distance to the detected step from the detection result of step detection unit 17, and obtains the detection result of vehicle speed sensor 16 at the time the step was detected. Then, from the distance to the step detected by step detection unit 17 and the vehicle speed at the time the step was detected, the CPU 12A calculates damage possibility time T' as the time from the time when vertical acceleration occurs as the front wheels climb over the step to the time when vertical acceleration occurs as the rear wheels climb over the step.

[0053] In step 107, the vertical acceleration is detected by obtaining the detection result of the vertical acceleration from the vertical G sensor 14, and the process proceeds to step 109.

[0054] In step 109, the CPU 12A determines whether acceleration equal to or greater than the threshold value has occurred within time T'. This determination is made by determining whether vertical acceleration equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value has been detected within the damage possibility time T' between the predicted times at which accelerations of the front and rear wheels will occur, as shown in the lower part of Fig. 7. If the determination is affirmative, the process proceeds to step 110, and if the determination is negative, the process proceeds to step 112.

[0055] In step 110, the CPU 12A determines that the collision occurred with the underside of the vehicle, transmits the determination result to the data server 22 for recording, and proceeds to step 112. Note that the vertical acceleration at the time of the determination of the collision may be transmitted to the data server 22 as a collision history together with the determination result, so that the degree of damage caused by the collision can be estimated from the vertical acceleration at the time of the collision.

[0056] In step 112, the CPU 12A determines whether or not to end the process. For example, the determination is made as to whether or not an ignition switch (not shown) has been turned off. If the determination is negative, the process returns to step 100 and the above-described process is repeated. If the determination is positive, the process ends.

[0057] In the first embodiment, if vertical acceleration equal to or greater than the threshold is not generated when the front and rear wheels go over a step, it may not be possible to determine damage to the underside of the vehicle. For example, if the vehicle speed is low when going over a step, the vertical acceleration generated by the front and rear wheels will also be small. If the vehicle height is low and there is a step or speed bump that could damage the underside of the vehicle, the detected vertical acceleration waveform will be as shown in the upper part of Figure 9. In this case, in the first embodiment, which determines a collision with the underside of the vehicle from the vertical acceleration generated by the front and rear wheels, it is difficult to distinguish between a collision and a wheel run-on. For example, it is not possible to determine whether the threshold was exceeded by a front wheel run-on or a collision with the underside of the vehicle.

[0058] In contrast, in the second embodiment, the damage possibility time T' during which a collision with the underside of the vehicle is predicted from the time when the step is detected and the vehicle speed is predicted, so that, as shown in the lower part of Figure 9, if vertical acceleration exceeding a threshold occurs within the damage possibility time T', it can be correctly determined that a collision with the underside of the vehicle has occurred.

[0059] In the above embodiment, an example in which the vehicle speed is detected by the vehicle speed sensor 16 has been described. However, instead of the vehicle speed sensor 16, an acceleration sensor that detects the acceleration in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle may be provided, and the vehicle speed may be derived from the detection result of the acceleration sensor.

[0060] Furthermore, although the processing performed by the vehicle collision determination device 12 in each of the above embodiments has been described as software processing performed by executing a program, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the processing may be performed by hardware such as a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), or an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array). Alternatively, the processing may be a combination of both software and hardware. Furthermore, if the processing is software, the program may be stored in various storage media and distributed.

[0061] Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to the above, and it goes without saying that various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. [Explanation of symbols]

[0062] 10 vehicles 12 Vehicle collision detection device 12A CPU (acquisition and judgment section) 14 Up and down G sensor (detection part) 16 Vehicle speed sensor (vehicle speed detection section) 17 Step detection unit 18 Vehicle information recording unit 20 In-vehicle communication equipment (transmitter) 22 Data Server (Server)

Claims

1. an acquisition unit that acquires the detection results of a detection unit that detects vertical acceleration occurring in the vehicle and a vehicle speed detection unit that detects the vehicle speed; a determination unit that determines that a collision has occurred with the underside of the vehicle when a vertical acceleration equal to or greater than a predetermined first threshold is detected within a predicted time corresponding to a distance between a front wheel and a rear wheel, the predicted time being calculated based on the vehicle speed at the time the vehicle goes over the step, from the results acquired by the acquisition unit; Equipped with The determination unit determines that the step has been overcome when the vertical acceleration is detected to be equal to or greater than a predetermined second threshold value, The vehicle collision determination device, wherein the predicted time is a first time calculated by dividing the wheelbase of the vehicle by the vehicle speed at the time when it is determined that the vehicle has gone over the step.

2. an acquisition unit that acquires the detection results of a detection unit that detects vertical acceleration occurring in the vehicle and a vehicle speed detection unit that detects the vehicle speed; a determination unit that determines that a collision has occurred with the underside of the vehicle when a vertical acceleration equal to or greater than a predetermined first threshold is detected within a predicted time corresponding to a distance between a front wheel and a rear wheel, the predicted time being calculated based on the vehicle speed at the time the vehicle goes over the step, from the results acquired by the acquisition unit; Equipped with the acquisition unit further acquires a detection result from a step detection unit mounted on the vehicle and configured to detect the step ahead of the vehicle; A vehicle collision judgment device in which the predicted time is the time from when vertical acceleration occurs as the front wheels of the vehicle climb up the step to when vertical acceleration occurs as the rear wheels climb up the step, predicted from the distance to the step detected by the step detection unit and the vehicle speed at the time the step is detected.

3. 3. The vehicle collision determination device according to claim 1, further comprising a transmission unit that transmits a collision history of the vehicle bottom to a server external to the vehicle when the determination unit determines that a collision has occurred on the bottom of the vehicle.

Images