Denso Corporation

Shou Morikawa

Kazuyoshi Isaji

Naohiko Tsuru

A vehicle behavior control apparatus mounted in a vehicle to control steering of the vehicle. A virtual road outline, which is an outline of a drivable road region where the vehicle will travel, is determined on the basis of detection results from a location sensor. The virtual road outline is reconstructed as a sequence of road segments, such as straight road segments, and right- and left-hand curved road segments. When a current road segment where the vehicle is currently present is a right- or left-hand curved road segment, a subsequent road segment where the vehicle will be present subsequently is tentatively set to a straight road segment until the vehicle reaches the subsequent road segment. The steering angle is controlled so that a virtual-road boundary distance is adapted to a proper distance from the vehicle to a boundary of the virtual road outline situated in front of the vehicle.

Vehicle behavior control apparatus

A vehicle behavior control apparatus disposed in a subject vehicle performs a steering angle control of the subject vehicle. The apparatus acquires lead vehicle information transmitted from a lead vehicle to determine a virtual shape of a road (i.e., a virtual road shape) based on a travel locus of the lead vehicle. A virtual road border distance is calculated as a distance from the subject vehicle to a road border of a virtual curve road positioned straight in front of the subject vehicle. The apparatus, calculates an appropriate turn radius for travel along the virtual curve road and, based on the appropriate turn radius, calculates an appropriate distance from the subject vehicle to the virtual road border positioned in front of the subject vehicle. A steering unit then controls a steering angle of the subject vehicle by maintaining the virtual road border distance with the appropriate distance.

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Obu, Japan

Shou Morikawa