Vehicle control apparatus and vehicle control method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10625739-B2
Application number	US-201615578662-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 31, 2016
Priority date	Jun 2, 2015
Publication date	Apr 21, 2020
Grant date	Apr 21, 2020

Abstract

A vehicle control apparatus accumulates a history of timings of avoidance operations performed by a driver of with respect to objects that are at prescribed distances ahead of a host vehicle, and calculates a distribution of the timings of the avoidance operations. Based on the distribution of the timings of the avoidance operations, the vehicle control apparatus sets the output timing of a warning to the driver such that interference does not occur between the avoidance operation and an avoidance operation that is actually performed by the driver, and furthermore the vehicle control apparatus judges the risk of a collision with the host vehicle, with the judgement based on the position of an object that is ahead of the host vehicle, and changes the output timing of the warning based on results of the judgement of risk.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A vehicle control apparatus comprising:
a distribution calculation section that accumulates a history of the timings of avoidance operations performed by a driver of a host vehicle with respect to objects which are at prescribed distances ahead of the host vehicle, and calculates a distribution of the timings of the avoidance operations;
a warning outputting setting section which sets the output timing of a warning to the driver, based on the distribution of the timings of the avoidance operations, such that interference does not occur between the avoidance operation and an avoidance operation that is actually performed by the driver;
a judgement section which judges a risk of collision with the host vehicle based upon a position of an object that is ahead of the host vehicle; and
a change section which changes the output timing of the warning that is set by the warning outputting setting section such that interference does not occur between an avoidance operation that is performed by the driver and the output timing of the warning, with the output timing being increasingly changed to a delay side in accordance with decrease of the risk, and with the change being based on results of the judgement of the risk of collision with the host vehicle.

2. The vehicle control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
when the object overlaps a host vehicle lane in which the host vehicle is travelling, the judgement section judges the risk of collision based on a host vehicle lane overlap ratio, which is a ratio of overlap between the object and the host vehicle lane, and
the change section changes the output timing of the warning based upon the host vehicle lane overlap ratio.

3. The vehicle control apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the smaller the host vehicle lane overlap ratio becomes, the greater is made an extent to which the change section changes the output timing of the warning to a delay side.

4. The vehicle control apparatus according to claim 2 , comprising a displacement condition judgement section configured to, in a case in which the object overlaps the host vehicle lane, judge whether the object is approaching or is separating from the host vehicle in a lateral direction that is at right angles to the host vehicle lane;
and wherein the change section changes the output timing of the warning to the delay side in accordance with the host vehicle lane overlap ratio, on condition that it is judged that the object is approaching the host vehicle.

5. The vehicle control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the judgement section judges the risk of collision based on a preceding vehicle overlap ratio, which is a ratio of overlap between the host vehicle and a preceding vehicle;
and wherein the change section changes the output timing of the warning based on the preceding vehicle overlap ratio.

6. The vehicle control apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the smaller the preceding vehicle overlap ratio becomes, the greater is made an extent to which the change section changes the output timing of the warning to the delay side.

7. The vehicle control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the judgement section comprises a first judgement section which, when there is overlap between the object and a host vehicle lane in which the host vehicle is travelling, judges the risk of collision based on a host vehicle lane overlap ratio, which is a ratio of overlap between the object and the host vehicle lane, and comprises a second judgement section which, when there is overlap between the host vehicle and a preceding vehicle, judges the risk of collision based on a preceding vehicle overlap ratio, which is a ratio of overlap between the host vehicle and the preceding vehicle, and
the judgement section comprises a first change section which changes the output timing of the warning based on the host vehicle lane overlap ratio and a second change section which changes the output timing of the warning based on the preceding vehicle overlap ratio;
and comprising a selection section which selects, as the output timing of the warning, the earliest one of the warning output timings that are respectively changed by the first change section and by the second change section.

8. The vehicle control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the judgement section judges the risk of collision based on the lateral position of the object with respect to the host vehicle, and comprising
a predicted path estimation section which estimates, from a curvature of the estimated path of the host vehicle, a radius of curvature that is the reciprocal of the curvature; and
wherein the vehicle control apparatus comprises a lateral position correction section which corrects the lateral position of the object based on the radius of curvature of the estimated path of the host vehicle.

9. The vehicle control apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein when the host vehicle is travelling straight ahead, with the curvature greater than a prescribed threshold value, the lateral position correction section does not execute correction of the lateral position.

10. The vehicle control apparatus according to claim 1 , comprising a vehicle judgement section which judges whether or not an object that is ahead of the host vehicle is a vehicle, and wherein the change section changes the timing of the warning on condition that the object is a vehicle.

11. The vehicle control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the avoidance comprises a braking operation or a steering operation performed by the driver.

12. A vehicle control apparatus comprising:
a distribution calculation section that accumulates a history of the timings of avoidance operations performed by a driver of a host vehicle with respect to objects which are at prescribed distances ahead of the host vehicle, and calculates a distribution of the timings of the avoidance operations;
a warning outputting setting section which sets the output timing of a warning to the driver, based on the distribution of the timings of the avoidance operations, such that interference does not occur between the avoidance operation and an avoidance operation that is actually performed by the driver;
a judgement section which judges a risk of collision with the host vehicle based upon a position of an object that is ahead of the host vehicle; and
a change section which changes the output timing of the warning that is set by the warning outputting setting section, with the change being based on the risk of collision with the host vehicle;
wherein when the object overlaps a host vehicle lane in which the host vehicle is travelling,
the judgement section judges the risk of the collision based on a host vehicle lane overlap ratio, which is an overlap ratio between the object and the host vehicle lane, and
the change section changes the output timing of the warning based on the host vehicle lane overlap ratio.

13. A vehicle control apparatus comprising:
a distribution calculation section that accumulates a history of the timings of avoidance operations performed by a driver of a host vehicle with respect to objects which are at prescribed distances ahead of the host vehicle, and calculates a distribution of the timings of the avoidance operations,
a warning outputting setting section which sets the output timing of a warning to the driver, based on the distribution of the timings of the avoidance operations, such that interference does not occur between the avoidance operation and an avoidance operation that is actually performed by the driver, and
a judgement section which judges a risk of collision with the host vehicle

Assignees

• Denso Corp
• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Tamura Kei
• Ito Yosuke
• Minemura Akitoshi
• Tsuchida Jun
• Shimizu Masayuki

Classifications

• B60W30/0953

  the prediction being responsive to vehicle dynamic parameters · CPC title

• B60W50/14

  Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention · CPC title

• B60W2555/60

  Traffic rules, e.g. speed limits or right of way · CPC title

• B60W2520/10

  Longitudinal speed · CPC title

• G08G1/166

  for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes · CPC title