Vehicle Control System Risk-Based Target Area Adjustment

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing vehicle control systems lack the ability to accurately determine the risk of an object entering a host vehicle's course based on the relative relationship between objects, leading to either unnecessary intervention or missed collision avoidance opportunities.

Innovation Solution

A vehicle control system that uses an electronic control unit to recognize objects, determine the risk based on relative relationships such as direction, distance, and speed, and adjust the target area for driving support accordingly, increasing the operation probability and reliability of collision avoidance for high-risk objects while minimizing intervention for low-risk objects.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If driving support is performed for all detected objects to ensure collision avoidance, then safety is improved, but unnecessary intervention in driving operation increases causing driver discomfort

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecollision avoidance reliabilityVSAvoiddriver comfort
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies local quality by differentiating the target area size based on the specific object being monitored. High-risk objects (pedestrians, cyclists) receive enlarged target areas for enhanced monitoring, while low-risk objects (stationary vehicles, animals) receive standard target areas. This selective approach ensures that driving support is intensified only where necessary, maintaining safety for vulnerable road users while avoiding unnecessary intervention for low-risk objects, thereby resolving the contradiction between collision avoidance reliability and driver comfort

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements dynamics by making the target area size adjustable and object-specific rather than fixed for all objects. The system dynamically enlarges the target area for high-risk objects and maintains standard size for low-risk objects. This dynamic adaptation allows the system to concentrate monitoring resources on critical threats while reducing false alarms for benign objects, thus improving both safety and driver comfort simultaneously

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

2Reliability

If the target area is enlarged to increase detection coverage, then collision avoidance reliability is improved, but false detection and unnecessary intervention increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecollision avoidance reliabilityVSAvoidfalse detection rate
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies local quality by implementing object-specific target area enlargement rather than uniform expansion. Only high-risk objects such as pedestrians and cyclists receive enlarged target areas, while low-risk objects maintain standard target areas. This selective approach ensures that detection sensitivity is enhanced only for vulnerable road users where false detections are less critical, while avoiding false alarms for stationary objects and low-risk animals, thus resolving the contradiction between detection coverage and false detection rate

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements dynamics by making target area size adaptive and object-dependent. The system dynamically adjusts the target area based on object classification, enlarging it for high-risk moving objects while maintaining standard size for low-risk objects. This dynamic adjustment allows the system to optimize detection coverage for critical threats without proportionally increasing false detections across all object types, thereby improving reliability while controlling false alarm rates

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

3Reliability

If driving support is performed early to ensure safety, then collision avoidance reliability is improved, but driver discomfort increases due to premature intervention

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecollision avoidance reliabilityVSAvoidintervention timing
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies local quality by implementing risk-level-based intervention timing. High-risk objects receive early driving support intervention with enlarged target areas, while low-risk objects receive standard timing. This differentiated approach ensures that premature intervention is applied only where it is critical for safety (pedestrians, cyclists), while avoiding unnecessary early alerts for low-risk objects, thus resolving the contradiction between collision avoidance reliability and intervention timing

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements dynamics by making intervention timing adaptive based on object risk classification. The system dynamically adjusts when driving support is activated, providing early intervention for high-risk objects and standard timing for low-risk objects. This dynamic timing adjustment ensures that safety-critical early warnings are delivered for vulnerable road users while avoiding premature alerts that would cause driver discomfort for benign situations, thereby optimizing both safety and driver experience

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

Data Source

PatentUS10854080B2Vehicle control system
Publication Date: 2020.12.01 TOYOTA JIDOSHA KK
  • US10854080B2 patent drawing
  • US10854080B2 patent drawing
  • US10854080B2 patent drawing

AI summary

A vehicle control system includes an electronic control unit configured to: recognize at least one object; determine a risk of the at least one object entering a course of the host vehicle; and perform, when the at least one object enters a target area set in front of the host vehicle with respect to the host vehicle, driving support. The electronic control unit is configured to determine whether the risk is high or low based on a relative relationship between two or more objects, and the electronic control unit is configured to set the target area to be larger when it is determined that the risk is high than when it is determined that the risk is low.