Denso Corporation

Hiromichi Tanaka

Mamoru Sawada

Minoru Okada

Takehito Fujii

Motoaki Kataoka

Mamoru Mabuchi

Tadashi Kamada

A vehicle control apparatus configured to perform driving aid control using map information stored in a storage, where the map information includes attribute information concerning roads on which a vehicle carrying the apparatus may travel and widths of the respective roads. In the vehicle control apparatus, a road recognizer is configured to recognize a travelled road that is a road on which the own vehicle is traveling. An information acquirer is configured to acquire the attribute information of the travelled road. An image acquirer is configured to acquire an image captured by the imager. A search range setter is configured to, using the attribute information acquired by the information acquirer, set a search range in the captured image for searching for a road border that is an edge or a demarcation line of the travelled road. A border recognizer is configured to recognize the road border in the search range.

Vehicle control apparatus

A driving assistance apparatus that performs accurate driving assistance in accordance with actual road environment is provided. An electronic control unit (ECU) acquires shape information and vehicular swept path information about a subject vehicle and a nearby vehicle, representing vehicles and movement thereof as rectangular solids. A three-dimensional space is formed as a vehicular swept path for the rectangular solid and a road map generated based on the formed three-dimensional space. A notification is provided if the subject vehicle runs outside a space. Control support is provided to return the subject vehicle to an area indicated as safe.

Driving assistance apparatus

A method and an apparatus for estimating behaviors of a vehicle are provided. At least two GPS antennas are located along a longitudinal axis of a vehicle so that speed vectors at the positions where the GPS antennas are located can be determined based on GPS signals received by the GPS antennas. The speed vectors are known to be estimated with high accuracy based on the GPS signals. The positions of the GPS antennas on the local coordinate system are estimated based on such highly accurate speed vectors, so that the estimated positions may also have high accuracy. Based on a line connecting these highly accurate positions of the GPS antennas, an inclination of the longitudinal axis of the vehicle is estimated. Use of the high-accuracy speed vectors enables high-accuracy estimation on the positions of the GPS antennas and the vehicle direction on the local coordinate system.

Method and apparatus for estimating behaviors of vehicle using GPS signals

A map display device includes a display for displaying map data, a position detector for detecting a position of a subject vehicle, a map data storage for storing the map data and a controller for processing the map data. The controller determines whether the subject vehicle is traveling outside of a road on a map displayed on the display based on the current position of the subject vehicle. The controller updates the map data upon receiving an affirmative response for confirmation of an update of a portion of the map data including a path of the current position of the subject vehicle on the map.

Map display device

In a state where a driver sees a region near a vehicle, a finally-requested output-shaft torque is set so that a response is hastened in a deceleration and slowed in an acceleration. Thereby, a vehicle takes a forward descending position in which the front end of the vehicle is descending, which gives a driver a sense of deceleration or a sense of turning. Further, this position causes a front wheel load acting on the ground to increase and a rear wheel load acting on the ground to decrease, in comparison to a normal position. This thereby makes it easier for the vehicle to decelerate when practically decelerating or turning, and further enables turning to slightly over-steer. A resultant vehicular kinetic characteristic becomes comparable with a sense that is expected by the driver.

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Tokai, Japan

Hiromichi Tanaka