Convoy travel system and convoy travel apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9779628-B2
Application number	US-201314050849-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 10, 2013
Priority date	Oct 11, 2012
Publication date	Oct 3, 2017
Grant date	Oct 3, 2017

Abstract

A convoy travel apparatus for organizing a convoy of vehicles is provided. The convoy travel apparatus controls at least one of the convoy of vehicles to change lanes to a lane that is opposite to a merging lane when it is determined that the convoy of vehicles approaches a merge point of a multi-lane road and a currently traveling lane of the convoy of vehicles has the merge point. In such a lane change scheme, a vehicle having no communication device may merge into the multi-lane road without compromising a ride comfort of the convoy of vehicles.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A convoy travel system for organizing a convoy having a plurality of vehicles that are each respectively equipped with a convoy travel apparatus, the convoy travel apparatus comprising:
a follow travel controller that controls at least one vehicle of the plurality of vehicles to respectively follow a preceding vehicle by using information obtained from the preceding vehicle through communication, the follow travel controller of the convoy travel system:
identifying a travel lane of the convoy;
determining whether the convoy is approaching a merge point of a multi-lane road that has multiple travel lanes on a side of traffic, the multiple travel lanes including a merging lane and a non-merge lane;
determining a vehicle position ranking of the at least one vehicle by using information obtained through communication from other in-convoy vehicles in the convoy; and
instructing an Electronic Power Steering Electronic Control Unit (EPS ECU) to perform steering control of the at least one vehicle to change lanes without changing its speed, wherein
when the follow travel controller (i) determines that the convoy approaches the merge point and (ii) identifies that the travel lane of the convoy is the merging lane that has the merge point, the follow travel controller controls the at least one vehicle in the convoy to change lanes without changing its speed toward the non-merge lane that is adjacent the merging lane, and leaving all remaining vehicles in the convoy to continue travelling in the travel lane without changing their speeds in an unchanged state, and
when the follow travel controller (iii) determines that the convoy approaches the merge point, and (iv) identifies that the travel lane of the convoy is the merging lane that has the merge point, the at least one vehicle having a subsequent vehicle from the plurality of vehicles travelling behind the at least one vehicle, the follow travel controller controls the subsequent vehicle to the at least one vehicle having the determined vehicle position ranking to change lanes without changing its speed toward the non-merge lane that is adjacent the merging lane while maintaining an inter-vehicle distance and position between the at least one vehicle and the subsequent vehicle during and after changing lanes.

2. The convoy travel system of claim 1 , wherein
when follow travel controller (i) determines that the convoy approaches the merge point and (ii) identifies that the travel lane of the convoy is the merging lane that has the merge point, the follow travel controller controls only one vehicle in the convoy to change lanes toward the non-merge lane that is adjacent the merging lane.

3. The convoy travel system of claim 2 , wherein the follow travel controller
determines a vehicle position ranking of the at least one vehicle in the convoy by using information obtained through communication from other in-convoy vehicles in the convoy, wherein
when the follow travel controller (i) determines that the convoy approaches the merge point, (ii) identifies that the travel lane of the convoy is the merging lane that has the merge point, and (iii) identifies that the vehicle position ranking of the at least one vehicle in the convoy is a predetermined position ranking, the follow travel controller controls the at least one vehicle to change lanes toward the non-merge lane that is adjacent the merging lane.

4. The convoy travel system of claim 3 , wherein
the predetermined position ranking in the convoy is any position ranking other than a front-most position ranking of the convoy or a rear-most position ranking of the convoy.

5. The convoy travel system of claim 3 , wherein
the predetermined position ranking in the convoy is any position ranking other than a front-most position ranking of the convoy or a rear-most position ranking of the convoy, and
the predetermined position ranking in the convoy is any position ranking that is subsequent to a middle position ranking of the convoy.

6. The convoy travel system of claim 1 , wherein
the follow travel controller determines a vehicle position ranking of the at least one vehicle in the convoy by using information obtained through communication from other in-convoy vehicles in the convoy, wherein
when the follow travel controller (i) determines that the convoy approaches the merge point, (ii) identifies that the travel lane of the convoy is the merging lane that has the merge point, and (iii) identifies that the vehicle position ranking of the at least one vehicle in the convoy corresponds to one of predetermined plural position rankings, the follow travel controller controls the at least one vehicle to change lanes toward the non-merge lane that is adjacent the merging lane.

7. The convoy travel system of claim 1 , wherein
the follow travel controller determines whether a vacant space exists in the non-merge lane that is adjacent the merging lane and in an area that extends from a diagonal-front of the at least one vehicle to a side of the at least one vehicle, and
notifies, as a lane change prior notice, a scheduled lane change of the at least one vehicle to other vehicles through communication when the follow travel controller (i) determines that the convoy approaches the merge point, (ii) identifies that the travel lane of the convoy is the merging lane that has the merge point, and (iii) determines that the vacancy space exists, and
wherein, before providing the lane change prior notice to other vehicles, the follow travel controller determines whether the lane change prior notice has already been received by the at least one vehicle either from the preceding vehicle of the at least one vehicle or from a following vehicle of the at least one vehicle through communication,
and wherein the follow travel controller of the at least one vehicle provides the lane change prior notice and controls the at least one vehicle to change lanes to the non-merge lane that is adjacent the merging lane only when the follow travel controller determines that the lane change prior notice has not already been received by the at least one vehicle either from the preceding vehicle of the at least one vehicle or from the following vehicle of the at least one vehicle through communication.

8. The convoy travel system of claim 1 , wherein
the follow travel controller determines whether a vacant space exists in the non-merge lane that is adjacent the merging lane and in an area that extends from a diagonal-front of the at least one vehicle to a side of the at least one vehicle, wherein
the follow travel controller will not control the at least one vehicle to change lanes when the vacancy determiner determines that the vacant space does not exist.

9. The convoy travel system of claim 1 , wherein
the follow travel controller performs a first other lane follow travel control when, after the lane change of the at least one vehicle to a lane that is adjacent the merging lane by the follow travel controller, the at least one vehicle travels in a different lane from a pre-lane-change preceding vehicle, or
the follow travel controller continues to perform a follow travel control of the at least one vehicle to follow the pre-lane-change preceding vehicle when, after the follow travel controller of the at least one vehicle to the non-merge lane that is adjacent the merging lane by the follow travel controller, the pre-lane-change preceding vehicle travels in a same lane as the at least one vehicle.

10. The convoy travel system of claim 9 , wherein
the follow travel controller determines whether a merging vehicle has merged in a side space on a merging point side of the at least one vehicle after the lane change of the at leas

Assignees

• Denso Corp

Inventors

• Yamashiro Takahisa

Classifications

• B62D15/0255

  Automatic changing of lane, e.g. for passing another vehicle · CPC title

• B60W50/00

  Details of control systems for road vehicle drive control not related to the control of a particular sub-unit {, e.g. process diagnostic or vehicle driver interfaces} · CPC title

• B60W2756/10

  Involving external transmission of data to or from the vehicle · CPC title

• G08G1/167

  Driving aids for lane monitoring, lane changing, e.g. blind spot detection · CPC title

• B60W2552/00

  Input parameters relating to infrastructure · CPC title