Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Kenji Kodaka

Tomoyuki Shinmura

Yoichi Sugimoto

Shohei Matsuda

Yoshihiro Urai

Yoshiyuki Kuroba

Shoji Ichikawa

Makoto Otabe

Hideaki Nara

This drive control apparatus, includes: a traveling speed detection portion that detects a traveling speed of an own vehicle; an object detection portion that detects an object around an own vehicle and obtains an object detection result; a time-to-collision calculation portion that calculates time to when the object and the own vehicle collide against each other based on the traveling speed and the object detection result; and an alarm portion that raises an alarm to a driver based on the time to collision, in which the alarm portion: obtains reference alarm start time that is preset as a reference value for starting the alarm, and a predetermined distance that is preset as a minimum value of an error in distance perception of the driver; adds time obtained by dividing the predetermined distance by the traveling speed and raises the alarm to the driver.

Drive control apparatus

In a travel safety system for a vehicle: a preceding vehicle Vin a travel direction of a subject vehicle V is detected by a radar device; an overlap amount &#x3b4; (smaller one of &#x3b4;(L) and &#x3b4;(R)), at which the preceding vehicle Voverlaps a predicted course for the subject vehicle V, is calculated; and when time for which the over lap amount &#x3b4; exceeding a predetermined value exceeds a predetermined period, it is determined that there is a possibility that the subject vehicle V comes into contact with the preceding vehicle V, and a safety system comprising a warning or an automatic braking is actuated. Thus, if it is determined that there is a possibility of contact between the subject vehicle V and the preceding vehicle Vdue to course change of the subject vehicle V or the preceding vehicle, it is possible to prevent the safety system from being unnecessarily actuated to provide a sense of discomfort to a driver.

Travel safety system for vehicle

A collision avoiding system is provided to enhance a collision avoiding effect by stabilizing a vehicle behavior during automatic braking. Steering controlling apparatus includes not only an ordinary electric power steering control unit but also an active steering reaction calculating unit for driving a motor of a steering system to compensate for the influence of disturbances, if the vehicle is shocked by an unusual bounce from an uneven road or the like. When obstacle detecting apparatus such as a laser-radar detects an obstacle which requires operation of automatic braking, a control parameter changing unit receives the automatic braking activating signal to make a change in the control parameters for an active steering reaction control. As a result, the steering control apparatus controls steering to suppress the influence of the disturbances more substantially during automatic control of the vehicle than otherwise, so that the turbulence of the vehicle can be prevented to retain a sufficient braking force, thereby enhancing the collision avoiding effect.

Collision avoiding system for vehicles

A steering actuator is prevented from generating excess steering torque that gives an uncomfortable feeling to a driver who is holding a steering wheel when a collision between a vehicle and an oncoming vehicle is avoided by automatic steering by the actuator. When there is a possibility of a collision between the vehicle and an oncoming vehicle, the collision with the oncoming vehicle is avoided by supplying a lateral movement control current having a sinusoidal shape to the actuator of an electric power steering device to move the vehicle laterally. The yaw angle of the vehicle is detected by integrating the yaw rate simultaneously with the start of the lateral movement, and in order to return the vehicle attitude of the vehicle to its original state by converging the yaw angle to 0 in the final stage of the lateral movement, a yaw angle correction control current is superimposed on the lateral movement control current and supplied to the actuator. By using the current supplied to the actuator (that is, the steering torque generated by the actuator) as the steering target value for avoiding a collision instead of the steering angle, the actuator can be prevented from generating excess steering torque which gives an uncomfortable feeling to a driver.

Vehicle travel safety device

When a turning state of a subject vehicle is detected, the action timing of the contact avoidance support device is slower than when the turning state is not detected. When an action timing determining part estimates that there is the possibility of the subject vehicle coming into contact with the vehicle in front and a turning state of the subject vehicle is detected based on the output from a transversal acceleration sensor S a changing rate of the steering angle sensor S and a yaw rate sensor S a compensation interval calculating part calculates a compensation interval depending on the size of the detected turning state (the amount of the steering angle, the changing rate of the steering angle, and the transversal acceleration). The action timing of the brake actuator is slowed by this compensation interval.

Vehicle travel safety apparatus

The operational burden and uncomfortable feeling given to a driver by automatically restoring the disturbance in the vehicle attitude of a vehicle caused by a collision avoidance control, is reduced when avoiding a collision between the vehicle and an oncoming vehicle by automatic steering. When there is a possibility of a collision between the vehicle and an oncoming vehicle, the collision with the oncoming vehicle is avoided by supplying a lateral movement control current I having a sinusoidal shape to the actuator of the electric power steering device, to move the vehicle laterally. The yaw angle of the vehicle is detected by integrating the yaw rate simultaneously with the start of the lateral movement, and in order to return the vehicle attitude of the vehicle to its original state by converging the yaw angle to 0 in the final stage of the lateral movement, a yaw angle correction control current I is superimposed on the lateral movement control current I and supplied to the actuator. Thus, after avoiding a collision with the oncoming vehicle, the disturbance in the vehicle attitude can automatically be restored and the operational burden and uncomfortable feeling given to the driver can be reduced.

In a safety running system, a transverse travelling distance resulting when a subject vehicle travels to a current position of an oncoming vehicle is calculated based on the vehicle velocity and yaw rate of the subject vehicle, a relative transverse distance of the oncoming vehicle relative to a vehicle body axis of the subject vehicle is calculated based on a relative distance, relative velocity and relative angle between the subject vehicle and the oncoming vehicle detected by a radar information processor. When a relative transverse deviation obtained by subtracting the transverse travelling distance from the relative transverse distance resides within a range and that state continues to exist over a predetermined time period, it is judged that there is a collision possibility of the subject vehicle with the oncoming vehicle, and automatic steering is performed so as to avoid a collision.

Safety running system for vehicle

An integrated vehicle control system including: contact possibility determining means for determining whether a possibility of contact with an obstacle is great, first brake control means for controlling operation of the vehicle brake in response to the possibility of contact, vehicle behavior detecting means for detecting parameters such as the vehicle yaw rate, vehicle behavior control means for calculating a value such as the error between the detected yaw rate and a reference yaw rate and calculating a manipulated variable (braking force difference) such that the veerability of vehicle is enhanced, and second brake control means for controlling operation of the vehicle brake in response to the calculated manipulated variable. In the system, the vehicle behavior control means advances the timing of the calculation of the manipulated variable or increases the manipulated variable, when the possibility of contact is great, whereby effecting the vehicle behavior sufficient for avoiding an obstacle, while enhancing the vehicle veerability.

Integrated control system of vehicle

An integrated vehicle control system including: contact possibility determining means for determining whether a possibility of contact with an obstacle is great, first brake control means for controlling operation of the vehicle brake in response to the possibility of contact, vehicle behavior detecting means for detecting parameters such as the vehicle yaw rate, vehicle behavior control means for calculating a value such as the error between the detected yaw rate and a reference yaw rate and calculating a manipulated variable (braking force difference) to make vehicle behavior stable, and second brake control means for controlling operation of the vehicle brake in response to the calculated manipulated variable. In the system, the vehicle behavior control means advances the timing of the calculation of the manipulated variable or increases the manipulated variable, when the possibility of contact is great, whereby effecting the vehicle behavior sufficient for avoiding an obstacle, while ensuring stable vehicle behavior.

A lateral deviation &dgr;d which is a lateral distance between an intrinsic appropriate course R for a vehicle Ai and a contact position P at which the vehicle Ai will come into contact with an on-coming vehicle Ao, is calculated based on a relative angle &thgr;, a relative distance L and a relative speed Vs which are detected by a radar device, and based on a vehicle speed Vi of the vehicle Ai detected by vehicle speed sensors. When the lateral deviation &dgr;d is in a range of &dgr;dn<&dgr;d<&dgr;dx, it is determined that there is the possibility that the vehicle Ai will collide frontally with the on-coming vehicle Ao. The lateral deviation &dgr;d can be calculated based on the relative angle &thgr;, the relative distance L and the relative speed Vs provided in one cycle of transmission and reception of beam by the radar device. Therefore, the possibility of collision can be determined immediately at a time point when the on-coming vehicle Ao is recognized, without continuous detection of the correlation between the vehicle Ai and the on-coming vehicle Ao by the radar device.

A relative lateral deviation calculating device calculates a relative lateral deviation between a vehicle and an on-coming vehicle, based on the state of the on-coming vehicle detected by an object detecting device and a future locus of movement for the vehicle estimated by a movement locus estimating device. When the relative lateral deviation is in a predetermined range, a contact-possibility determining device determines that there is a possibility that the vehicle will come into contact with the on-coming vehicle. Even when the relative lateral deviation is not in the predetermined range, if a steering-state detecting device has detected an involuntary steering operation by a driver, a contact avoiding device increases the steering reaction force of the steering wheel to inhibit the steering operation by the driver in a direction for the vehicle to approach the on-coming vehicle.

A system for controlling behavior of a vehicle having a laser radar for detecting an obstacle present on a road on which the vehicle is traveling and operating the brake automatically to avoid contact with the obstacle, and having a power-assist steering actuator including an electric motor installed in the steering system. In the system, it is determined whether the vehicle is steered by the steering wheel as manipulated by the vehicle operator or the vehicle is steered by a force generated by the interplay between the tire and road due to the automatic braking and, when vehicle is steered by the force generated by the tire/road interplay, the electric motor of the steering actuator is controlled to drive in the direction to cancel the force, thereby preventing the vehicle behavior from degrading to deviate from the desired course of travel and preventing various disadvantages such as failure to achieve the desired obstacle detection necessary for an effective obstacle avoidance control.

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Wako, Japan

Kenji Kodaka