Vehicle Brake Control Using External Stimulus Recognition
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Solution Overview
Problem
In automatic driving operations, ensuring safety when the driver fails to notice abnormalities or loses judgment and physical movement abilities, making it difficult to secure safe transitions from automatic to manual driving.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle control system that acquires surrounding environment information, recognizes external stimuli, and initiates vehicle braking sequences based on predefined patterns, allowing for manual or automatic control adjustments, with driver warnings and recording of sequence invalidations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If automatic driving operation is performed without external monitoring, then automation level is improved, but safety reliability deteriorates when driver cannot respond
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary system (external monitoring device) that acts as a mediator between the automatic driving system and safety control. When the driver loses judgment ability, the external monitoring device detects this state and intervenes by triggering emergency braking, thus ensuring safety without compromising automation level.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the system continuously monitors driver state through cameras and sensors. When abnormality is detected (driver cannot respond), this feedback triggers automatic emergency braking intervention, creating a closed-loop safety system that maintains both automation and reliability.
2Reliability
If external brake control is applied to traveling vehicle, then safety is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the existing brake system multi-functional by enabling it to respond to both normal braking requests and emergency safety interventions. The same brake actuator serves dual purposes: routine deceleration and emergency stopping, thereby improving safety without adding dedicated hardware complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses existing vehicle sensors (cameras, microphones, impact sensors) to monitor for safety conditions and trigger braking. Rather than adding specialized monitoring hardware, the system repurposes existing components for safety monitoring, reducing overall device complexity while achieving external brake control capability.
Data Source
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AI summary
An environment information acquisition unit 20 acquires an image in which environment around a vehicle has been imaged, information indicating a contact with the vehicle or an impact on the vehicle, surround sounds, approach identification information for enabling an approach of an emergency vehicle to be identified, and the like as surrounding environment information of the vehicle. A vehicle control processing unit 61 recognizes predetermined external stimulation information included in the surrounding environment information, for example, a specific signal or a movement with a specific pattern, a contact to a specific part, and a specific sound. The vehicle control processing unit 61 uses the recognized predetermined external stimulation information as a vehicle brake instruction from outside and starts a vehicle braking sequence to stop the vehicle. Even if an abnormality occurs in an automatically driven vehicle and the like, vehicle brake control is easily applied to a traveling vehicle from outside.