Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Satoshi Inoue

Shusaku Sugamoto

Shuhei Manabe

Takeshi Hamaguchi

Terumasa Endo

Satoshi Handa

Shintaro Saigo

Shintaro Inoue

Kazuhiko Nakashima

Kenji Marunaka

A vehicle steering assist device includes a steering assist ECU. The steering assist ECU calculates a target steering angle for driving the vehicle along the road, and a target steering guide torque that guides the driver's steering so that the actual steering angle becomes the target steering angle. The steering assist ECU controls the torque applying device so that the steering guide torque becomes the target steering guide torque. The steering assist ECU acquires at least one of information on the driving environment of the vehicle and information on the state of the driver, and calculates an index value indicating the necessity of the steering guide torque based on at least one of the pieces of information. The steering assist ECU corrects the target steering guide torque based on the index value so that the higher the need for the steering guide torque, the larger the target steering guide torque.

Vehicle steering assist device

When it is determined that there is no possibility of a driver performing a predetermined steering operation for moving a host vehicle in a lateral direction without involving a change in a final travel direction, a vehicle control device sets a steering reaction force to be greater than a standard reaction force. When it is determined that there is a possibility thereof, the vehicle control device sets the steering reaction force to be smaller than the standard reaction force, and sets an increase rate of the steering reaction force relative to an increase in the amount of steering operation from a predetermined point in time after it is determined that there is a possibility of the driver performing the predetermined steering operation and before the amount of steering operation in the predetermined steering operation becomes largest to be higher than an increase rate before the predetermined point in time.

Vehicle control device

In a vehicle steering assist device that includes an electric power steering device that generates a control torque that modifies a return torque for urging a steering wheel to a neutral position, a steering assist ECU that controls the control torque, and a surrounding information detecting device (camera sensor, radar sensor) that detects at least information in front of a vehicle, the control torque is controlled such that a ratio of a change amount of the modified return torque to a change amount of a steering operation amount at the start of avoidance steering decreases when an obstacle is detected in front of the vehicle by the surrounding information detecting device and the avoidance steering for the vehicle to avoid collision with the obstacle is determined to be required.

A control unit that controls a reaction force actuator that applies steering guide torque to a steering wheel: calculates, based on a curvature of a curve of a travel road in front of a vehicle detected by a camera sensor, a target steering angle for causing the vehicle to travel along the curve; calculates a target steering guide torque, based on a deviation between the target steering angle that was calculated a prediction time period earlier and an actual steering angle; adjusts a target steering guide torque such that the target steering guide torque becomes smaller as a probability that a driver performs steering operation to deviate from a lane becomes higher; and controls the reaction force actuator such that the steering guide torque becomes the target steering guide torque.

Vehicle steering guide torque control apparatus

A driving assistance system performs a driver-initiative normal driving assistance mode as a driving assistance for a vehicle. The system includes a reaction force characteristics change unit configured to change reaction force characteristics of the operation device, if it is determined that the operation amount of the driver is not included in the appropriate operation amount range in the normal driving assistance mode, an explicit risk determination unit configured to determine whether or not an explicit risk is present based on the external environment of the vehicle, and a driving assistance switching unit configured to switch a driving assistance for the vehicle from the normal driving assistance mode to a system-initiative risk avoidance assistance mode, if it is determined by the explicit risk determination unit that the explicit risk is present in the normal driving assistance mode.

Driving assistance system

A driving assistance apparatus predicts an appropriate operation amount which is an operation amount performed by a driver in correspondence with the external environment, and sets the appropriate operation amount range including the appropriate operation amount, an appropriate operation amount range including the appropriate operation amount, and changes the reaction force characteristics of the operation device when it is determined that the operation amount of the driver corresponding to the prediction time point of the appropriate operation amount is not included in the appropriate operation amount range.

Driving assistance apparatus

A seat control apparatus controls a seat of a vehicle in which an occupant of the vehicle sits. The seat control apparatus includes an occupant weight recognition unit; an occupant sitting state recognition unit configured to recognize an occupant sitting state including at least either of a grip force of the occupant and a load applied to the occupant; a lateral acceleration estimation unit configured to estimate a subsequent lateral acceleration of the vehicle; and a seat controller configured to control the seat. The seat has an occupant support adjustment portion including at least one of a first adjustment portion, a second adjustment portion, and a third adjustment portion. The seat controller calculates an adjustment amount of the occupant support adjustment portion and controls the occupant support adjustment portion in response to the calculated adjustment amount.

Seat control apparatus

A disclosed in-vehicle equipment control device 'S' includes input unitsandfor increasing and decreasing a set value of in-vehicle equipment, and a set value increase/decrease halting unitfor stopping the increase/decrease of the set value when the set value reaches a prescribed value after being increased and decreased by the input unitsand. Further, the in-vehicle equipment control device 'S' may further include a set value increase/decrease resuming unitfor resuming increasing or decreasing the set value when an input of the input unitoris continued after the increase or decrease of the set value is stopped by the set value increase/decrease halting unit

Growing community of inventors

Anjo, Japan

Satoshi Inoue