Platoon travel system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9799224-B2
Application number	US-201414249700-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 10, 2014
Priority date	Apr 17, 2013
Publication date	Oct 24, 2017
Grant date	Oct 24, 2017

Abstract

A platoon travel system organizes a platoon having plural platoon vehicles traveling in two vehicle groups, in which a preset inter-vehicle distance is reserved between each of the platoon vehicles. When a new vehicle joins in the platoon, the platoon travel system adjusts the inter-vehicle distance by decelerating, among all platoon vehicles, deceleration target vehicles that are the platoon vehicles behind a join position in the platoon, which are included in a latter one of the two vehicle groups.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A platoon travel system for organizing plural vehicles into platoon vehicles and performing a platoon travel of the platoon vehicles at a preset travel speed and a preset inter-vehicle distance from each other, the system comprising:
at least one processor located in an Engine Control Unit (ECU), the at least one processor is configured to:
(i) organize, in a platoon organization unit, a platoon by acquiring, from each of the plural vehicles, projection area information indicative of a projection area of each vehicle and (ii) position, from a front of the platoon, vehicles in a larger projection area vehicle first manner in which the vehicles are arranged in a descending order of the projection areas from the front of the platoon;
determine whether a particular departing vehicle is departing from the platoon;
determine whether a particular joining vehicle is joining in the platoon; and
adjust, in an inter-vehicle distance adjustment unit, an inter-vehicle distance between the platoon vehicles at a vehicle joining time and at a vehicle departure time; the vehicle joining time defined as when the particular joining vehicle is determined to be joining in the platoon; in the vehicle joining time, the at least one processor is configured to adjust the inter-vehicle distance to the preset inter-vehicle distance by controlling, to be decelerated, deceleration target vehicles in the platoon which are traveling behind a particular join position that is reserved for the particular joining vehicle; and the vehicle departure time defined as when the particular departing vehicle is determined to be departing from the platoon; in the vehicle departure time, the at least one processor is configured to adjust the inter-vehicle distance to the preset inter-vehicle distance by controlling, to be decelerated, deceleration target vehicles in the platoon which are traveling ahead of the particular departing vehicle.

2. The platoon travel system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
acquire, in a first acquisition unit, in each of the platoon vehicles, the inter-vehicle distance to a front vehicle, wherein
adjust, by the inter-vehicle distance adjustment unit, the inter-vehicle distance acquired by the first acquisition unit to the preset inter-vehicle distance.

3. The platoon travel system of claim 2 , further comprising:
a first transmission unit, in each of the platoon vehicles,
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: transmit, via the first transmission unit, in each of the platoon vehicles, the inter-vehicle distance acquired by the first acquisition unit to a just-ahead vehicle that is immediately ahead of a self-vehicle; and
detect, by a departure detection unit, in each of the platoon vehicles, the particular departing vehicle in the platoon, wherein

the inter-vehicle distance adjustment unit adjusts, by controlling, to be decelerated, a deceleration target vehicle which is the just-ahead vehicle that is detected by the departure detection unit as traveling immediately ahead of the particular departing vehicle, a transmitted inter-vehicle distance between the just-ahead vehicle of the particular departing vehicle and a just-behind vehicle that is immediately behind the particular departing vehicle which has been transmitted by the first transmission unit, to the preset inter-vehicle distance.

4. The platoon travel system of claim 2 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to
transmit, via a first transmission unit, in each of the platoon vehicles, the inter-vehicle distance acquired by the first acquisition unit to a just-ahead vehicle that is immediately ahead of a self-vehicle; and
detect, by a departure detection unit, in each of the platoon vehicles, t departing vehicle in the platoon, wherein
the inter-vehicle distance adjustment unit adjusts, by controlling, to be decelerated, the deceleration target vehicles in the platoon which are traveling ahead of the particular departing vehicle, a transmitted inter-vehicle distance between each of the platoon vehicles which has been transmitted by the first transmission unit, to the preset inter-vehicle distance.

5. The platoon travel system of claim 4 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to
adjust, by the inter-vehicle distance adjustment unit, when the inter-vehicle distance between the just-ahead vehicle of the particular departing vehicle and the just-behind vehicle of the particular departing vehicle becomes the preset inter-vehicle distance, the inter-vehicle distance between each of the platoon vehicles to the preset inter-vehicle distance by controlling a travel speed of each of the deceleration target vehicles to return to the preset travel speed.

6. The platoon travel system of claim 2 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to
detect, by a join-in detection unit, in each of the platoon vehicles, the particular join position in the platoon,
control, via the inter-vehicle distance adjustment unit to decelerate the deceleration target vehicles which are all vehicles in the platoon behind the particular join position detected by the join-in detection unit, the inter-vehicle distance between each of the platoon vehicles to the preset inter-vehicle distance while adjusting an inter-vehicle distance between a just-ahead vehicle immediately ahead of the particular join position and a just-behind vehicle that is immediately behind the particular join position to a join-in allow distance.

7. The platoon travel system of claim 3 , further comprising:
a second acquisition unit, in each of the platoon vehicles,
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
acquire, via the second acquisition unit, the inter-vehicle distance to a behind vehicle located behind the self vehicle, wherein

the inter-vehicle distance adjustment unit adjusts the inter-vehicle distance acquired by the second acquisition unit to the preset inter-vehicle distance.

8. The platoon travel system of claim 7 , further comprising:
a second transmission unit, in each of the platoon vehicles,
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
transmit, via the second transmission unit, in each of the platoon vehicles, the inter-vehicle distance acquired by the second acquisition unit to a just-behind vehicle that is immediately behind a self-vehicle; and
detect, via a join-in detection unit, in each of the platoon vehicles, the particular join position in the platoon, wherein

the inter-vehicle distance adjustment unit adjusts, by decelerating the deceleration target vehicle which is a just-behind position vehicle that is detected by the join-in detection unit as traveling immediately behind the particular join position, a transmitted inter-vehicle distance between a just-ahead in position vehicle and a just-behind join position vehicle to a join-in allow distance that allows the join-in of the particular joining vehicle.

9. The platoon travel system of claim 8 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to
adjust, by the inter-vehicle distance adjustment unit, by controlling to be decelerated, the deceleration target vehicles which are all vehicles in the platoon behind the particular join position, the transmitted inter-vehicle distance between each of the platoon vehicles, which has been transmitted by the second transmission unit, to the preset inter-vehicle distance while adjusting the transmitted inter-vehicle distance between the just-ahead join position vehicle and the just-behind join position vehicle to the join-in allow distance.

10. The platoon travel system of claim 9 , wherein the processor is furthe

Assignees

• Denso Corp

Inventors

• Okamoto Kazuya

Classifications

• G08G1/22 Primary

  Platooning, i.e. convoy of communicating vehicles · CPC title