Lane Change Safety Timing Control for Heavy Vehicles
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
It is challenging for HGVs to reliably inform drivers when it is safe to pull into the adjacent lane during overtaking maneuvers due to the limitations of existing systems in monitoring and communicating the safety of lane changes.
Innovation Solution
A control system that uses environmental sensors to determine the safety of lane changes by providing the driver with optical, haptic, and acoustic feedback based on the analysis of driving data and the characteristics of the surrounding vehicles, including speed, location, and direction of travel, ensuring a safe distance is maintained.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If HGV drivers rely on manual signaling (headlamping) to communicate safety of lane change, then the system is simple, but the reliability of safety information transmission is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors the driving environment using sensors (radar, cameras, GPS) and provides real-time feedback to the driver through multiple channels (visual display, acoustic signals, haptic feedback). This closed-loop feedback mechanism ensures reliable transmission of safety information by constantly updating the driver on lane change feasibility based on actual environmental conditions, other vehicle positions, and predicted trajectories.
Solution Approach 2:
The control system acts as an intermediary between the complex sensor environment and the driver. It processes data from multiple sensors, calculates safety parameters, and translates this information into intuitive driver alerts. This intermediary function bridges the gap between raw sensor data and driver understanding, ensuring reliable communication of safety status without requiring the driver to directly interpret complex sensor inputs.
2Measurement precision
If HGVs use multiple sensors to monitor the environment, then the measurement precision of driving situation improves, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges multiple sensor types (radar, cameras, GPS, accelerometers) into a unified monitoring platform. By combining these sensors and integrating their data streams through a central control unit, the system achieves comprehensive environmental awareness and precise driving situation monitoring. The merged sensor system processes information synergistically, where each sensor compensates for the limitations of others, thereby improving overall measurement precision while managing complexity through integration.
Solution Approach 2:
The sensor system is designed with multi-functionality, where a single sensor platform serves multiple purposes: detecting other vehicles, measuring distances, determining relative speeds, identifying lane markings, and monitoring environmental conditions. This universal approach allows the same hardware infrastructure to support various monitoring functions, improving measurement precision across different parameters without proportionally increasing device complexity.
3Measurement precision
If the control system continuously monitors driving data and environmental data, then the accuracy of lane change timing determination improves, but the energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The control system employs periodic monitoring and evaluation cycles rather than continuous full-power operation. Sensors and processing units are activated in periodic intervals to assess driving data and environmental conditions, determining lane change feasibility at discrete evaluation points. This periodic action maintains accurate timing determination by regularly updating safety assessments while reducing energy consumption by allowing the system to enter lower-power states between evaluation cycles.
Solution Approach 2:
The monitoring intensity of the control system is dynamically adjusted based on driving conditions. During critical phases such as active overtaking maneuvers or when safety margins are narrow, the system increases monitoring frequency and processing power. During stable cruising conditions with clear safety margins, the system reduces monitoring intensity. This dynamic adaptation maintains high accuracy in lane change timing determination when needed while minimizing energy consumption during low-risk periods.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a control system which is equipped and designed for use in a motor vehicle, to determine, on the basis of environment data obtained by one or several environment sensors present on the motor vehicle, a point in time as of which a safe lane change from a fast lane to an adjoining slower lane is possible. The environment sensors are designed to provide environment data representing the area laterally ahead of, laterally next to and/or laterally behind the vehicle to an electronic control unit of the control system. The control system is at least equipped and designed to determine, during a predefined interval or continuously, in the electronic control unit driving data representing the driving situation of one's own motor vehicle from sensors present in one's own motor vehicle. One or several other vehicles using the road laterally ahead of, laterally next to and/or laterally behind one's own motor vehicle are detected by means of the environment sensors during the predefined interval or continuously in order to determine characteristic variables relating to the driving situation(s) of the one or several other vehicles. On the basis of the driving data representing the driving situation of one's own vehicle and on the basis of the characteristic variables relating to the driving situation(s) of the one or several other vehicles, it is determined whether a safety-critical area laterally next to and/or laterally behind one's own motor vehicle is free of said other vehicle(s) and the finding is output optically, haptically and/or acoustically to the driver of one's own vehicle. The control system is equipped and designed to determine, on the basis of the driving data representing the driving situation of one's own vehicle and on the basis of the characteristic variables relating to the driving situation(s) of the one or several other vehicles. In the electronic control unit the point in time as of which a safe lane change is possible. This point in time is considered to be reached when the electronic control unit determines that a rear edge of one's own motor vehicle has gone past a front edge of the other vehicle and past a safety distance adapted to legal and/or physical conditions.