Travel Control Device Acceleration Logic for Energy Efficiency
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional adaptive cruise control (ACC) systems waste energy by accelerating to reduce inter-vehicle distance when a leading vehicle disappears, leading to inefficient fuel consumption.
Innovation Solution
A travel control device that detects the disappearance of a leading vehicle and determines if a new leading vehicle is present within a predetermined time, then adjusts the host vehicle's speed to match the new leading vehicle's speed within a set range, disabling acceleration to maintain a preset inter-vehicle distance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Length of moving object
If the host vehicle accelerates to reduce inter-vehicle distance when a new leading vehicle is detected, then the inter-vehicle distance is reduced to the preset distance, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the control parameter from aggressive acceleration to gentle acceleration or speed maintenance, adjusting the acceleration magnitude based on the detected speed difference between host vehicle and new leading vehicle, thereby reducing energy consumption while still achieving the preset inter-vehicle distance
Solution Approach 2:
The travel control section dynamically adjusts the acceleration behavior based on real-time speed difference detection, switching between different control modes (disable acceleration when speed difference is within range, allow acceleration when speed difference exceeds range) to optimize both distance maintenance and energy efficiency
Data Source
AI summary
A travel control device whereby wasted energy consumption can be suppressed. The travel control device (100) has: a leading vehicle detection unit (110) that, once a leading vehicle that has been followed at no more than a set vehicle speed has gone, determines whether or not a new leading vehicle has been detected within a prescribed time; a speed determination unit (120) that, if a new leading vehicle has been detected, determines whether or not the speed difference between the speed of a host vehicle and the speed of the leading vehicle is within a set range having zero as the reference therefor; and a travel control unit (130) that, if the speed difference is within the set range, controls the host vehicle so as to prohibit acceleration for reducing the distance between the host vehicle and the new leading vehicle to a set inter-vehicle distance.