Vehicle Control System Adjusting Automation Based on Occupant State
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle control systems for automatic driving do not adequately adjust their control modes based on the state of the occupant, leading to potential safety issues and inefficient operation.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle control system that includes detection units to monitor the occupant's face direction, line of sight, and arousal level, allowing for switching between different automatic driving modes to ensure appropriate task distribution and automation levels based on the occupant's state, using a camera and image processing to extract features and detect changes in the occupant's attention and engagement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If automatic driving control is executed with high automation rate, then productivity is improved, but reliability deteriorates when occupant state is not monitored
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors the occupant's state (face direction, line of sight, arousal level) and uses this feedback to dynamically adjust the automation rate. When the occupant is properly monitored (face within angle range, adequate arousal), the system maintains high automation rate for productivity. When monitoring conditions deteriorate, the system reduces automation rate or stops control to ensure reliability, thus resolving the contradiction between productivity and reliability.
2Ease of operation
If automation rate is increased to reduce occupant tasks, then ease of operation is improved, but reliability worsens when occupant becomes inattentive
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the automation rate based on real-time detection of occupant state. The automation level is not fixed but changes according to whether the occupant's face is within the predetermined angle range and whether arousal level is adequate. This dynamic adjustment ensures ease of operation when occupant is attentive while maintaining reliability by reducing automation when inattention is detected.
3Measurement precision
If face direction detection is used to monitor occupant, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The detection units are designed to perform multiple functions: detecting face direction, line of sight direction, and arousal level all using the same camera and image processing system. This multi-functionality achieves high measurement precision for monitoring occupant state while avoiding the need for separate specialized sensors for each parameter, thus managing device complexity more effectively.
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle control system includes a first detection unit configured to detect a direction of a face or a line of sight of an occupant of a subject vehicle, an automatic driving control unit configured to execute an automatic driving control, and a switching control unit configured to switch an automatic driving mode for causing the automatic driving control unit to execute the automatic driving control to one of a plurality of automatic driving modes including a first automatic driving mode and a second automatic driving mode. The switching control unit prevents the automatic driving control executed by the automatic driving control unit on the basis of a detection result by the first detection unit.