Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Aisin Seiki Kabushiki Kaisha

Denso Corporation

Hiroaki Kataoka

Katsuhiko Iwazaki

Seiji Kawakami

Hisashi Satonaka

Tomohiko Endo

Yuu Tanaka

Yoshifumi Iwata

Toru Sugiyama

Yuichi Kubota

Hideyuki Iwakiri

Akira Matsui

Chumsamutr Rattapon

Satoru Niwa

Mitsuhiko Morita

Kazuma Hashimoto

Shioya Kageyama

Takashi Kojima

Yuji Okuda

Yoshiki Ninomiya

Tomoki Nagao

Quy Hung Nguyen Van

Shigeru Washino

Hiroshi Nakada

Arata Takahashi

Taisuke Hasegawa

Shintaro Iwa-Asa

Shoichiroh Morioka

Yoshifumi Int Prop Dep Iwata

Yuu Int Prop Dep Tanaka

A steering support device including: a torque applying device configured to apply control torque to a steering transmission system between a steering wheel and a steered wheel; a steering torque sensor provided in the steering transmission system between the steering wheel and the torque applying device; and a control unit configured to determine that the driver is not holding the steering wheel when the torque Ts detected by the steering torque sensor is less than the reference value Tsc. The control unit sets a reference value Tsc to a larger value when determining that torque is input to the steering torque sensor from the steered wheel side than when determining that torque is input to the steering torque sensor from the steering wheel side.

Vehicle steering support device

A driving supporter includes: an object-information obtainer that obtains object information relating to at least an object in an area; an environment obtainer that obtains a relative positional relationship between the own vehicle and the object located in the area and identified based on the object information obtained by the object-information obtainer; and a support inhibitor that inhibits driving support when an absolute value of a steering operation value representing a magnitude of a steering operation is greater than an inhibition threshold value. The support inhibitor includes a threshold-value determiner that determines the inhibition threshold value to a smaller value when the relative positional relationship is a specific relationship in which it is estimated that a steering operation in a direction in which the own vehicle avoids the object is to be performed, than when the relative positional relationship is not the specific relationship.

Lane keeping system responsive to steering input

A driving supporter includes a support inhibitor that inhibits support of driving when a steering-operation value is greater than a threshold value. The support inhibitor includes a threshold-value determiner that determines the threshold value to a value greater when a first object and a second object are present than when the first object is present, and the second object is absent. The first object has a relationship in which a relative positional relationship between the object and an own vehicle is a relationship in which a steering operation is estimated to be performed in a first direction in which the own vehicle avoids the object. The second object has a relationship in which the relative positional relationship is a relationship in which the steering operation is estimated to be performed in a second direction reverse to the first direction such that the own vehicle avoids the object.

Driving supporter

A lane keeping traveling support apparatus includes a driving support ECU. The driving support ECU is configured to inform a driver that the LDA control is being performed by causing the driver to have uncomfortable feeling by a movement of a steering wheel and a vehicle behavior when the LDA control is performed. This function is achieved by enhancing responsiveness of the LDA control.

Lane keeping traveling support apparatus

A driving supporter includes an environment obtainer and a support controller configured to control a supporting device to perform driving support such that an own vehicle travels along a target traveling line. The environment obtainer includes a relative-positional-relationship obtainer configured to obtain a relative positional relationship between the own vehicle and an object detected based on object information obtained by an object-information obtainer. The support controller includes an offset-target-traveling-line setter configured to set, when the relative positional relationship is a specific relationship in which it is estimated that a steering operation in a direction in which the own vehicle avoids the object is to be performed, the target traveling line to an offset position that is shifted in a direction identical to a direction of a steering operation from the target traveling line located when the relative positional relationship is not the specific relationship.

A vehicle driving assist apparatus of the invention does not execute a road end line departure prevention control when a next lane vehicle traveling in a next lane is acquired as a road end line and an amount of an operation input to a steering wheel of an own vehicle to cause the own vehicle to move into the next lane, is larger than or equal to a predetermined operation amount.

Vehicle driving assist apparatus

When switching from lane departure suppression control (LDA control) to lane keep assist control (LKA control), a self-vehicle is suppressed from deviating out of a traveling lane. A driving assist preferentially carries out the LKA control, but carries out the LDA control instead of the LKA control when there is a possibility that the self-vehicle may deviate out of the traveling lane under the LKA control. When the LDA control is returned to the LKA control after the lane departure avoidance operation of the self-vehicle is completed, the LDA control is continued while an angle between an orientation of the self-vehicle and the traveling lane is not a predetermined angle or less, and it is switched to the LKA control after the angle becomes the predetermined angle or less.

In-lane driving assist apparatus for a vehicle

A driving supporter is configured to perform support of driving such that an own vehicle drives within a lane. The driving supporter includes: a support inhibitor configured to inhibit the support of the driving when an absolute value of a steering operation value representing a magnitude of a steering operation performed by a driver is greater than an inhibition threshold value. The support inhibitor includes: a road-surface-unevenness obtainer configured to obtain a degree of unevenness of a road surface on which the own vehicle is running; and a road-surface-unevenness-dependent threshold-value determiner configured to determine the inhibition threshold value to a larger value when the degree of the unevenness of the road surface which is obtained by the road-surface-unevenness obtainer is large than when the degree of the unevenness of the road surface which is obtained by the road-surface-unevenness obtainer is small.

A vehicle driving assist apparatus of the invention executes an interpolation estimation process for estimating a road end line when the road end line becomes unable to be acquired and executes a road end line departure prevention control to prevent a vehicle from departing from the estimated road end line. The apparatus stops the interpolation estimation process and the road end line departure prevention control when a predetermined time elapses. When a last road end line extends toward an own vehicle traveling lane, the apparatus sets the predetermined time such that the predetermined time set when a road end line angle defined between extending directions of the last road end line and the own vehicle traveling lane is large, is smaller than the predetermined time set when the road end line angle is small.

A vehicle-data recorder records vehicle data into a storage when a recording condition is satisfied. The recording condition includes a condition that a steering-related value representing a state of a steering operation performed by a driver or a vehicle behavior caused by the steering operation is greater than or equal to a threshold value. The vehicle-data recorder includes: an object-information obtainer that obtains object information relating to an object in an area; and a threshold-value changer that changes the threshold value to a smaller value when a relative positional relationship between an own vehicle and the object located in the area and identified based on the obtained object information is a specific relationship in which it is estimated that a steering operation is to be performed in a direction in which the own vehicle avoids the object, than when the relative positional relationship is not the specific relationship.

Vehicle-data recorder

A lane keeping traveling support apparatus includes a driving support ECU. The driving support ECU is configured to to determine a lane departure prevention torque in such a manner that a magnitude of the lane departure prevention torque becomes smaller or to stop performing a lane departure prevention control, when the lane departure prevention control is performed in place of a lane keeping assist control and a specific operation of a steering wheel is performed by a driver so as to have a direction of an own vehicle head to a lane departure direction.

A driving support ECUdetects for a lane dividing line on a road surface which is travelled upon, by using an image which is taken by a cameraand which represents the road surface which is traveled upon and is in front of a vehicle, sets a virtual lane dividing line in a section in which no lane dividing line is drawn, performs a driving support by controlling the vehicle based on the lane dividing line and the virtual lane dividing line, and issues a warning when the vehicle deviates from the virtual lane dividing line. Further, the driving support ECUdetects a state of the vehicle, calculates information indicating the state as vehicle information, cancels the driving support when the vehicle information satisfies a predetermined cancel condition, and inhibits the warning when the driving support is canceled.

Driving support apparatus and driving support method

A steering assist device capable of appropriately reducing a steering load on a driver is provided. A steering assist device for assisting a steering operation of a driver who drives a vehicle, comprises: an auxiliary torque generation section for causing a steering device of the vehicle to generate an auxiliary torque that assists a steering force of the driver; a first torque control section for controlling the auxiliary torque so as to cause the vehicle to perform turning in accordance with a curvature of a travel lane in which the vehicle travels; a second torque control section for controlling the auxiliary torque so as to bring the position of the vehicle close to a center line of the travel lane; a lane change determination section for determining whether or not the vehicle is performing lane change; and a control suppression section for suppressing the control of the auxiliary torque by the second torque control section when it is determined that the vehicle is performing lane change.

Steering assist device

A lane departure prevention support apparatus comprises: imaging means for capturing an image of a lane boundary line which defines a traveling lane; vehicle position detecting means for recognizing the lane boundary line in a recognition area of captured image data to detect a host vehicle position within the traveling lane in a width direction; assisting means for performing driver assist using the recognition result of the lane boundary line; displaying means for displaying the recognition result of the lane boundary line; and recognition result display controlling means for displaying an unrecognized lane boundary line according to the host vehicle position, if one of left and right white lines is not recognized, wherein a display of the unrecognized lane boundary line is not such a display which indicates that the lane boundary line is not recognized.

Growing community of inventors

Susono, Japan

Hiroaki Kataoka