Emergency Steering Timing Control for Obstacle Avoidance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle traveling control systems face challenges in executing emergency steering control at an appropriate timing, often intervening too early and potentially interfering with the driver's ability to steer around an obstacle.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle traveling control apparatus that includes an autonomous sensor, a braking controller, a determination unit, a calculator, and a steering controller. This system determines the likelihood of contact with an obstacle based on relative distance and speed, executes strong braking, calculates the predicted travel distance, and permits steering intervention only when necessary, with the steering controller intervening when the time-to-contact is less than a threshold.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If emergency steering control is executed early to ensure safety, then collision avoidance capability is improved, but driver's ability to perform avoidance maneuver is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically changes the parameter of steering intervention timing based on calculated time-to-contact values. By adjusting when steering control is activated according to the precise time remaining until contact, the system optimizes the balance between ensuring collision avoidance and preserving driver autonomy for minor obstacles.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously calculates time-to-contact based on relative distance and relative speed between the vehicle and obstacle, using this feedback to determine the appropriate timing for steering intervention. This closed-loop control ensures intervention occurs at the optimal moment rather than prematurely.
2Reliability
If strong braking control is applied to reduce relative speed to zero, then collision risk is reduced, but steering intervention timing must be precisely controlled
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary calculation of time-to-contact and predicted travel distance before executing steering intervention. By anticipating the required steering timing in advance based on current relative distance and speed, the system simplifies the real-time control complexity while ensuring reliable collision risk reduction.
3Ease of operation
If steering intervention is permitted when predicted travel distance is longer than relative distance, then unnecessary interventions are suppressed, but intervention timing precision must be high
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces mechanical judgment of intervention timing with electronic calculation of time-to-contact based on sensor data. By substituting computational logic for mechanical timing mechanisms, the system achieves high measurement precision for intervention timing while suppressing unnecessary interventions through the predicted travel distance comparison.
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle traveling control apparatus includes an autonomous sensor, a braking controller, a determination unit, a calculator, and a steering controller. The autonomous sensor recognizes an obstacle ahead of a vehicle. The braking controller determines possibility of contact on the basis of a relative distance and a relative speed between the vehicle and the obstacle, and, upon determining that the vehicle is likely to contact the obstacle, executes a strong braking control of reducing the relative speed to “0”. The determination unit calculates a predicted travel distance to be traveled until the relative speed is reduced to “0”, and permits steering intervention when the predicted travel distance is longer than the relative distance. The calculator calculates time-to-contact to be taken until the vehicle contacts the obstacle. The steering controller executes a steering control when the steering intervention is permitted and the time-to-contact becomes a time threshold or less.