Vehicle Merge Control Using V2V-Guided Exterior Recognition

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing methods for vehicle merging lack efficient means to accurately grasp the actions of vicinity vehicles and ensure a safe merge by balancing sensor-based and communication-based information acquisition while managing computation load.

Innovation Solution

A vehicle control device that integrates vehicle-to-vehicle and road-to-vehicle communication with sensor-based exterior recognition to prioritize and intensify sensing of mergeable spaces, using cooperative awareness messages and sensor data to manage host vehicle actions and path determination.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If sensor-based exterior recognition is used to acquire external environment information, then information can be acquired irrespective of whether an object is compatible with communication, but the accuracy and reliability of information decreases and computation load increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveability to acquire information from non-communicating objectsVSAvoidaccuracy and reliability of sensor information
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent combines communication-based information acquisition and sensor-based exterior recognition into a unified system. The determination unit integrates both communication results and sensor recognition results to comprehensively determine mergeable spaces, leveraging the strengths of both methods while compensating for their individual weaknesses.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The determination unit acts as an intermediary that processes and integrates information from both communication and sensor sources. It reconciles the objective but limited communication data with the comprehensive but potentially less reliable sensor data to produce accurate mergeable space determinations.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Measurement precision

If sensor-based exterior recognition is used to enhance sensing accuracy, then information can be acquired from all objects, but computation load increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesensing accuracy of external environmentVSAvoidcomputation load
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs sensor-based exterior recognition selectively rather than continuously for all objects. The determination unit focuses computational resources on identifying mergeable spaces by processing sensor data primarily when communication-based methods are insufficient or when sensor data can provide decisive information.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent merges communication-based information acquisition with sensor-based recognition, allowing the system to leverage the low-computation communication method first and supplement it with sensor processing only when necessary, thereby reducing overall computation load while maintaining high sensing accuracy.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

3Reliability

If communication-based method is used to acquire external environment information, then objective information with high accuracy can be expected, but information might not be acquired from objects not compatible with communication

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveobjectivity and accuracy of communication informationVSAvoidability to acquire information from all objects
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs communication-based information acquisition as a preliminary step before resorting to sensor-based recognition. This allows the system to efficiently obtain objective information from communicating objects first, and only activate the more resource-intensive sensor system when communication fails or is insufficient.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent merges two information acquisition methods into a coordinated system where communication-based and sensor-based methods complement each other. The determination unit integrates results from both methods to achieve both high reliability from communication and universal adaptability from sensor recognition.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Data Source

PatentEP3435354B1Vehicle control device
Publication Date: 2025.08.06 ASTEMO LTD
  • EP3435354B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3435354B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3435354B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

A problem to be addressed by the present invention is to obtain a vehicle control device which, while alleviating an excessive computation load, is capable of appropriately ascertaining an external environment. This vehicle control device 01 comprises an other vehicle information acquisition unit 02 which acquires information of another vehicle by communication, and an exterior recognition unit 03 which carries out recognition of the exterior of a host vehicle by sensing. The exterior recognition unit 03 senses an other vehicle vicinity space in the vicinity of the other vehicle on the basis of the information of the other vehicle which is acquired by the other vehicle information acquisition unit 02.