Motor vehicle safety arrangement and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9358963-B2
Application number	US-201414481024-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 9, 2014
Priority date	Sep 19, 2013
Publication date	Jun 7, 2016
Grant date	Jun 7, 2016

Abstract

A safety arrangement and method are described for controlling automatic travel of a fully automated vehicle. One or more forward-looking detection systems are provided for detecting objects in a future path of the vehicle. A control unit is configured to determine a detection confidence for the detected objects. The control unit is further operable to, upon low confidence for existence of a detected object, control a brake system of the vehicle to apply a predetermined limited amount of braking until high confidence is obtained for existence or non-existence of the previously detected object. Thereafter the control unit is further operable to apply full braking if high confidence is obtained for existence of the previously detected object and to discontinue braking if high confidence is obtained for non-existence of the previously detected object.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A safety arrangement for controlling automatic travel of a fully automated vehicle, the arrangement comprising:
one or more forward-looking detection systems for detecting objects in a future path of the vehicle; and
a control unit configured to determine a detection confidence for detected objects;
wherein the control unit is operable to, upon low confidence for existence of a detected object, control a brake system of the vehicle to apply a predetermined limited amount of braking until high confidence is obtained for existence or non-existence of the previously detected object, to control the brake system to apply full braking if high confidence is obtained for existence of the previously detected object, and to control the brake system to discontinue braking if high confidence is obtained for non-existence of the previously detected object.

2. The safety arrangement according to claim 1 wherein the control unit is operable to apply the predetermined limited amount of braking in accordance with a predetermined braking profile by which collision with a detected object is avoided while braking is minimized at all instances.

3. The safety arrangement according to claim 2 wherein, in accordance with the predetermined braking profile, object detection confidence is weighted with respect to a distance to a detected object.

4. The safety arrangement according to claim 2 wherein the control unit is operable to apply the predetermined limited amount of braking in accordance with the predetermined braking profile by balancing vehicle occupant comfort with detection confidence for a detected object.

5. The safety arrangement according to claim 2 wherein the predetermined braking profile has been obtain through setting up an optimal control problem.

6. The safety arrangement according to claim 5 wherein the predetermined braking profile has been obtained through setting up the optimal control problem as:

J
=

min
u

⁢

{

ϕ
⁡

(

x
⁡

(
T
)

)

+

∫
0
T

⁢

L
⁡

(

x
,
u

)

⁢

ⅆ
t

}

subject to: {dot over (x)}(f(x,u) and where 0≦u≦u max and u max is maximum braking and f describes a double integrator and L is the weighted sum of squares of system states and the control system where the weights are the tuning parameters.

7. The safety arrangement according to claim 1 wherein the forward-looking detection systems comprises one or more of a radar sensor, a laser sensor, a lidar sensor, an ultrasound sensor, an infrared sensor, an image sensor, or any combination thereof.

8. The safety arrangement according to claim 7 wherein the control unit is configured to determine the detection confidence for detected objects based on fused information from two or more sensors.

9. A method for controlling safe automatic travel of a fully automated vehicle, the method comprising:
detecting objects in a future path of the vehicle using one or more forward-looking detection systems;
determining a detection confidence for detected objects using a control unit;
upon determining a low confidence for existence of a detected object, controlling a brake system of the vehicle to apply a predetermined limited amount of braking until high confidence is obtained for existence or non-existence of the previously detected object; and
if high confidence is obtained for existence of the previously detected object, controlling the brake system of the vehicle to apply full braking using the control unit, and if high confidence is obtained for non-existence of the previously detected object, controlling the brake system to discontinue braking.

10. A motor vehicle comprising a safety arrangement for controlling automatic travel of a fully automated vehicle according to claim 1 .

11. A safety arrangement for controlling automatic travel of a fully automated vehicle, the arrangement comprising:
a forward-looking detection systems for detecting objects in a future path of the vehicle; and
a control unit configured to determine a detection confidence for detected objects and, upon low confidence for existence of a detected object, control a brake system of the vehicle to apply a first amount of braking until high confidence is obtained for existence or non-existence of the previously detected object, to control the brake system to apply a second amount of braking greater than the first amount if high confidence is obtained for existence of the previously detected object, and to control the brake system to discontinue braking if high confidence is obtained for non-existence of the previously detected object.

Assignees

• Volvo Car Corp

Inventors

• Solyom Stefan
• Ekmark Jonas

Classifications

• G01S17/931

  of land vehicles · CPC title

• G01S2013/93185

  Controlling the brakes · CPC title

• G01S2013/93271

  in the front of the vehicles · CPC title

• B60K31/00

  Vehicle fittings, acting on a single sub-unit only, for automatically controlling vehicle speed, i.e. preventing speed from exceeding an arbitrarily established velocity or maintaining speed at a particular velocity, as selected by the vehicle operator · CPC title

• B60T7/22 Primary

  initiated by contact of vehicle, e.g. bumper, with an external object, e.g. another vehicle {, or by means of contactless obstacle detectors mounted on the vehicle} · CPC title