Vehicle control device and vehicle control method

Abstract

To provide a vehicular control apparatus and a vehicular control method, which are capable of optimally controlling vehicular deceleration on the basis of: a deceleration amount when operating a vehicle in an automatic operation mode; and a deceleration amount in accordance with an operation of a brake pedal by a driver.SOLUTION: A processor of an ECU 160 includes: a deceleration amount calculation part 162a for calculating a first deceleration amount for controlling deceleration of a vehicle while operating the vehicle in an automatic operation mode; a deceleration amount acquisition part 162b for acquiring a vehicular second deceleration amount in accordance with an operation of a brake pedal when a driver operates the brake pedal; a deceleration control part 162d for controlling deceleration of the vehicle by using a larger value of the first deceleration amount and the second deceleration amount in a case where the second deceleration amount is equal to or less than a given threshold, while operating the vehicle in the automatic operation mode; and a stop part 162c for stopping the automatic operation mode in a case where the second deceleration amount exceeds the given threshold.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] BACKGROUND ART Conventionally, it is known that in a driving control device that executes automatic driving control, the automatic driving control is stopped when a driver performs a driving operation (Patent Document 1). [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2016-088180 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] Even when a vehicle is traveling in autonomous driving mode, the driver is required to monitor the surrounding situation and, if he or she recognizes a danger, perform a risk avoidance operation, such as braking, to avoid the danger. However, according to the technology described in the above patent document, there is a problem in that the autonomous driving control is stopped when the driver performs a driving operation, even if the driver does not wish to stop the autonomous driving control. Thus, for a driver who does not wish to end the autonomous driving, terminating the autonomous driving due to a driving operation leads to a decrease in convenience.

[0005] In view of the above problems, the object of the present disclosure is to provide a vehicle control device and a vehicle control method that can optimally control the deceleration of a vehicle based on the amount of deceleration when driving the vehicle in autonomous driving mode and the amount of deceleration corresponding to the driver's operation of the brake pedal. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] The gist of the present disclosure is as follows.

[0007] (1) a deceleration amount calculation unit that calculates a first deceleration amount for controlling deceleration of a vehicle while the vehicle is being driven in an autonomous driving mode; a deceleration amount acquisition unit that acquires a second deceleration amount of the vehicle corresponding to the operation of the brake pedal when the driver operates the brake pedal; a deceleration control unit that controls deceleration of the vehicle using a larger value of the first deceleration amount and the second deceleration amount when the second deceleration amount is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold value while the vehicle is being driven in an autonomous driving mode; a stop unit that stops the autonomous driving mode when the second deceleration amount exceeds the predetermined threshold; A vehicle control device comprising:

[0008] (2) calculating a first deceleration amount for controlling deceleration of the vehicle while the vehicle is operating in an autonomous driving mode; When the driver operates the brake pedal, acquiring a second deceleration amount of the vehicle according to the operation of the brake pedal; When the second deceleration amount is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold while the vehicle is being driven in an autonomous driving mode, the larger of the first deceleration amount and the second deceleration amount is used to control deceleration of the vehicle; If the second deceleration amount exceeds the predetermined threshold, stopping the automatic driving mode. A vehicle control method comprising: [Effects of the Invention]

[0009] According to the present disclosure, a vehicle control device and a vehicle control method are provided that are capable of optimally controlling the deceleration of a vehicle based on the amount of deceleration when driving the vehicle in autonomous driving mode and the amount of deceleration corresponding to the driver's operation of the brake pedal. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0010] [Figure 1] 1 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of a vehicle control system mounted on a vehicle. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing functional blocks of a processor of an ECU provided in a vehicle. [Figure 3] 4 is a flowchart showing a process performed by a processor of the ECU at each predetermined control period. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0011] Hereinafter, several embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. However, these descriptions are intended to merely exemplify preferred embodiments of the present invention and are not intended to limit the present invention to such specific embodiments. In the following description, similar components will be designated by the same reference numerals.

[0012] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of a vehicle control system mounted on a vehicle 100. This vehicle control system is applied to, for example, a system that allows the driver to drive with their hands off the steering wheel (hands-off driving). In this embodiment, such driving is assumed to be, for example, driving at or above level 2 or level 3 as defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). Note that, hereinafter, driving at this level is also referred to as automated driving by the vehicle.

[0013] The vehicle control system includes a positioning information receiver 110, a vehicle control device 120, an in-vehicle camera 130, one or more sensors 140, a navigation device 150, an electronic control unit (ECU) 160, a storage device 170, and an input device 180. The positioning information receiver 110, the vehicle control device 120, the in-vehicle camera 130, one or more sensors 140, the navigation device 150, the ECU 160, the storage device 170, and the input device 180 are each communicably connected via an in-vehicle network that complies with standards such as a Controller Area Network (CAN) or Ethernet (registered trademark).

[0014] The positioning information receiver 110 acquires positioning information that indicates the current position and attitude of the vehicle 100. For example, the positioning information receiver 110 may be a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver. Every time the positioning information receiver 110 receives positioning information, the positioning information receiver 110 outputs the acquired positioning information to the ECU 160 via the in-vehicle network.

[0015] The vehicle control device 120 is a variety of devices related to vehicle control, and includes an engine 120a and a motor 120b as drive sources for driving the vehicle, a friction brake 120c, a steering device 120d, a transmission (not shown), etc. Note that FIG. 1 illustrates a case where the vehicle is a plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHV), and if the vehicle is an engine vehicle, the vehicle control device 120 does not include the motor 120b. Also, if the vehicle is an electric vehicle (EV), the vehicle control device 120 does not include the engine 120a.

[0016] The vehicle-mounted camera 130 includes a two-dimensional detector configured with an array of photoelectric conversion elements, such as a CCD or C-MOS, that are sensitive to visible light, and an imaging optical system that forms an image of the area to be photographed on the two-dimensional detector. The vehicle-mounted camera 130 is installed on the dashboard or near the windshield inside the vehicle, and photographs the surroundings of the vehicle 100 (e.g., the area in front of the vehicle 100) at predetermined photographing intervals (e.g., 1 / 30 to 1 / 10 seconds) to generate an image representing the surroundings of the vehicle 100. The images obtained by the vehicle-mounted camera 130 are preferably color images. The vehicle-mounted camera 130 may also be configured as a stereo camera, and may be configured to acquire the distance to each structure in the image from the parallax between left and right images. Each time an image is generated, the vehicle-mounted camera 130 outputs the generated image to the ECU 160 via the in-vehicle network.

[0017] The one or more sensors 140 include a brake sensor that detects the amount of depression of the brake pedal by the driver.

[0018] The navigation device 150 determines a planned driving route from the current location of the vehicle 100 to the destination in accordance with a predetermined route search method such as the Dijkstra algorithm.

[0019] The ECU 160 includes a processor 162, a memory 164, and a communication interface 166. The processor 162 includes one or more CPUs (Central Processing Units) and their peripheral circuits. The processor 162 may further include other arithmetic circuits such as a logic operation unit, a numerical operation unit, or a graphics processing unit. The memory 164 includes, for example, a volatile semiconductor memory and a non-volatile semiconductor memory. The memory 164 stores various types of information related to the control of this embodiment. The communication interface 166 includes an interface circuit for connecting the ECU 160 to an in-vehicle network.

[0020] The storage device 170 includes, for example, a hard disk drive or an optical recording medium and an access device for the hard disk drive or an optical recording medium. Various types of information such as high-resolution maps are stored in the storage device 170. The storage device 170 may also store computer programs for executing processes executed on the processor 162.

[0021] The input device 180 is a device into which operational information is input by the driver, and is composed of buttons, touch sensors, etc. A setting for switching the driving of the vehicle 100 to an autonomous driving mode is input into the input device 180 by operation of the driver. In addition, information such as a destination is input into the input device 180 by operation of a passenger. When the setting for the autonomous driving mode is input into the input device 180, the vehicle 100 is set to the autonomous driving mode and driven autonomously.

[0022] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing functional blocks of the processor 162 of the ECU 160 provided in the vehicle 100. The processor 162 is one aspect of a vehicle control device according to the present disclosure and includes a deceleration amount calculation unit 162a, a deceleration amount acquisition unit 162b, a comparison unit 162c, a deceleration control unit 162d, a stopping unit 162e, and a vehicle control unit 162f. Each of these units included in the processor 162 is a functional module implemented by, for example, a computer program running on the processor 162. That is, each of these units included in the processor 162 is configured by the processor 162 and a program (software) for causing the processor 162 to function. The program may be recorded in the memory 164 of the ECU 160 or on an externally connected recording medium. Alternatively, each of these units included in the processor 162 may be a dedicated arithmetic circuit provided in the processor 162.

[0023] The deceleration amount calculation unit 162a of the processor 162 calculates a first deceleration amount for controlling deceleration of the vehicle 100 while the vehicle is being driven in the autonomous driving mode. In this embodiment, the "deceleration amount" refers to a value representing a decrease in speed per unit time, and is the absolute value of negative acceleration. Specifically, the deceleration amount calculation unit 162a applies position information representing the current position of the vehicle 100 acquired by the positioning information receiver 110 to a high-precision map stored in the storage device 170, and calculates a first deceleration amount for controlling deceleration of the vehicle 100 so that the distance between the vehicle 100 and structures such as buildings, guardrails, walls, or curbs existing along lanes around the current position obtained from the high-precision map does not fall below a predetermined distance threshold, and so that the distance between the vehicle 100 and objects around the vehicle 100 (including the structures and other vehicles such as a preceding vehicle) recognized from an image generated by the on-board camera 130 does not fall below a predetermined distance threshold. In addition, objects around the vehicle 100 are recognized from the images generated by the on-board camera 130, for example, by template matching between a template image of the object and the image generated by the on-board camera 130, or by inputting the image generated by the on-board camera 130 into a classifier that has been machine-learned for object detection.

[0024] The classifier may be, for example, a segmentation classifier that is trained in advance to output, for each pixel of an input image, the likelihood that the pixel represents an object for each type of object that may be represented at that pixel, and to identify the object with the highest likelihood as the object represented. The deceleration amount calculation unit 162a may use, as such a classifier, a deep neural network (DNN) having a segmentation convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture, such as a fully convolutional network (FCN). Alternatively, the deceleration amount calculation unit 162a may use a segmentation classifier based on other machine learning techniques, such as a random forest or a support vector machine. In this case, the deceleration amount calculation unit 162a inputs the image into the segmentation classifier to identify pixels in the image that represent a given object. The deceleration amount calculation unit 162a then determines a group of pixels representing the same type of object as the region in which the object is represented.

[0025] When the driver operates the brake pedal while the vehicle is being driven in the autonomous driving mode, the deceleration amount acquisition unit 162b of the processor 162 acquires a second deceleration amount of the vehicle 100 corresponding to the operation of the brake pedal. Specifically, the deceleration amount acquisition unit 162b acquires the second deceleration amount based on a detection value of a brake sensor that detects the amount of depression of the brake pedal by the driver.

[0026] The comparison unit 162c of the processor 162 compares the second deceleration amount with a predetermined threshold value. The predetermined threshold value is, for example, 0.1 G. The predetermined threshold value may be set to a different value depending on the driving state, such as the vehicle speed. Furthermore, when the second deceleration amount is equal to or less than the predetermined threshold value, the comparison unit 162c compares the first deceleration amount with the second deceleration amount.

[0027] When the second deceleration amount is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold, the deceleration control unit 162d of the processor 162 controls the deceleration of the vehicle 100 using the larger of the first deceleration amount and the second deceleration amount. As a result, even if the second deceleration amount due to the driver's brake operation exceeds the first deceleration amount due to the autonomous driving system control, the vehicle 100 is decelerated by the second deceleration amount as long as the second deceleration amount is equal to or less than the predetermined threshold. Therefore, the autonomous driving mode is not uniformly terminated by a brake operation, and crisis avoidance operations can be performed by operating the brake pedal while continuing to drive the vehicle 100 in the autonomous driving mode, improving convenience. Note that the deceleration control unit 162d may be included in the vehicle control unit 162f.

[0028] If the second deceleration amount exceeds a predetermined threshold, the stop unit 162e of the processor 162 stops the autonomous driving mode, thereby switching the driving of the vehicle 100 to manual driving by the driver, and the vehicle 100 is decelerated at the second deceleration amount according to the driver's operation of the brake pedal.

[0029] When the vehicle 100 is set to the autonomous driving mode, the vehicle control unit 162f of the processor 162 controls the vehicle control device 120 while referring to the high-precision map, and drives the vehicle 100 autonomously to the destination input by the driver to the input device 180. The vehicle control unit 162f drives the vehicle 100 to the destination according to the planned driving route to the destination determined by the navigation device 150. The vehicle control unit 162f also controls the vehicle control device 120 based on displays of objects, lanes, traffic lights, and the like around the vehicle 100 obtained from the high-precision map or images generated by the on-board camera 130.

[0030] Next, the processing performed by the processor 162 of the ECU 160 will be described with reference to the flowchart of Fig. 3. Fig. 3 is a flowchart showing the processing performed by the processor 162 of the ECU 160 at each predetermined control cycle.

[0031] First, the processor 162 determines whether the vehicle 100 is set to the autonomous driving mode (step S10). If the vehicle 100 is set to the autonomous driving mode, the deceleration amount calculation unit 162a of the processor 162 calculates a first deceleration amount (step S12). On the other hand, if the vehicle 100 is not set to the autonomous driving mode, the processing for this control cycle ends.

[0032] Next, the deceleration amount acquisition unit 162b of the processor 162 acquires the second deceleration amount (step S14). Next, the comparison unit 162c of the processor 162 compares the second deceleration amount with a predetermined threshold, and if the second deceleration amount is equal to or less than the predetermined threshold (YES in step S16), compares the first deceleration amount with the second deceleration amount (step S18).

[0033] If the second deceleration rate is greater than the first deceleration rate (YES in step S18), the deceleration control unit 162d of the processor 162 controls the deceleration of the vehicle 100 using the second deceleration rate (step S20).

[0034] On the other hand, if the second deceleration amount is equal to or less than the first deceleration amount (NO in step S18), the deceleration control unit 162d of the processor 162 controls the deceleration of the vehicle 100 using the first deceleration amount (step S22).

[0035] Furthermore, if the second deceleration amount is greater than the predetermined threshold in step S16, the stopping unit 162e of the processor 162 stops the automatic driving mode (step S24). After steps S20, S22, and S24, the processing in this control cycle ends.

[0036] As described above, according to this embodiment, by controlling the deceleration of the vehicle using the larger of the first deceleration amount for controlling the deceleration of the vehicle while the vehicle is being driven in autonomous driving mode and the second deceleration amount corresponding to the driver's operation of the brake pedal, it is possible to perform a crisis avoidance operation using the brake pedal while continuing driving control in autonomous driving mode. Even if the second deceleration amount due to the driver's brake operation exceeds the first deceleration amount due to system control of the autonomous driving, driving control in autonomous driving mode is not uniformly terminated, improving convenience. [Explanation of symbols]

[0037] 100 vehicles 160 Electronic Control Unit (ECU) 162 processors 162a Deceleration amount calculation section 162b Deceleration amount acquisition section 162c Comparison section 162d Deceleration control section 162e Stop 162f Vehicle control unit 164 memory 166 Communication Interface 170 Storage Device 180 Input Devices

Claims

1. a deceleration amount calculation unit that calculates a first deceleration amount for controlling deceleration of the vehicle while the vehicle is being driven in an autonomous driving mode; a deceleration amount acquisition unit that acquires a second deceleration amount of the vehicle corresponding to the operation of the brake pedal when the driver operates the brake pedal; a deceleration control unit that controls deceleration of the vehicle using a larger value of the first deceleration amount and the second deceleration amount when the second deceleration amount is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold for stopping the autonomous driving mode while the vehicle is being driven in the autonomous driving mode; a stop unit that stops the autonomous driving mode when the second deceleration amount exceeds the predetermined threshold; A vehicle control device comprising:

2. Calculating a first deceleration amount for controlling deceleration of a vehicle while the vehicle is operating in an autonomous driving mode; When the driver operates the brake pedal, a second deceleration amount of the vehicle corresponding to the operation of the brake pedal is acquired; When the second deceleration amount is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold for stopping the autonomous driving mode while the vehicle is being driven in the autonomous driving mode, the larger of the first deceleration amount and the second deceleration amount is used to control the deceleration of the vehicle; If the second deceleration amount exceeds the predetermined threshold, stopping the automatic driving mode. A vehicle control method comprising:

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