Denso Corporation

Takumi Uematsu

Mitsuhiro Tokimasa

Masaya Okada

Shunya Kumano

Michihiro Kuroki

Hiroaki Niino

Yohei Masui

Yuta Komoguchi

Naru Sugimoto

Tatsuya Namikiri

A vehicle control apparatus performs a following travel mode in which an own vehicle travels while following a followed vehicle ahead of the own vehicle. The apparatus includes a surrounding object detection section that acquires detection information regarding a surrounding object, a space determination section that uses the detection information to determine presence/absence of a free space located laterally to an own lane, a setting condition determination section that determines whether a first other vehicle having entered the own lane from the free space or a second other vehicle traveling ahead of a preceding vehicle having entered the free space from the own lane meets a setting condition for setting the first or second other vehicle as the followed vehicle, and an automated driving control section that sets the first or second other vehicle as the followed vehicle to perform the following travel mode if the setting condition is met.

Vehicle control apparatus

In a vehicle control apparatus, an entry determiner determines, while one of the following traveling mode and the constant-speed traveling mode is performed by the vehicle control apparatus, whether an entry condition is satisfied in response to determination that there is at least one other crossing vehicle. The entry condition enables the at least one other crossing vehicle to cross in front of the own vehicle to thereafter enter the enterable space without colliding with the own vehicle. An autonomous driving controller switches, upon the entry condition being determined to be satisfied, the performed one of the following traveling mode and the constant-speed traveling mode to a crossing mode that controls traveling of the own vehicle to ensure a predetermined space in front of the own vehicle. The predetermined space enables the at least one other crossing vehicle to cross in front of the own vehicle.

A vehicle control apparatus includes an intersection information detection section that detects information on an intersection, and includes a traveling route detection section that detects a traveling route of the vehicle and a cross road detection section that detects a cross road intersecting the traveling route, an operation detection section that detects a plan of operation of the vehicle at the intersection, a waiting position setting section that sets a waiting position where the vehicle is caused to wait at the intersection until the vehicle becomes possible to perform the operation, and a determination section that determines whether the vehicle can perform the operation by the time a traffic light on the traveling route at the intersection turns red. The waiting position setting section sets a position, where another vehicle is not hindered from traveling on the crossing road by the vehicle stopped at the waiting position, as the waiting position.

A road shape recognizer includes a peripheral information recognizer that recognizes at least two items of peripheral information based on an output of a periphery detector. A reliability assigner assigns a reliability level to each of the peripheral information. A point sequence generator generates and places a point sequence representing a shape of a road on which the own vehicle travels, based on at least two items of peripheral information and the reliability level. The point sequence generator generates and places a point sequence by generating and placing points one by one toward a distant place from a point located at a prescribed relative position to the own vehicle. The point sequence generator generates and places the next point corresponding to an amount of change in shape and a position of a point generated and placed at the end of the point sequence. The amount of change in shape is represented by the peripheral information and determined per section having a prescribed distance.

Road shape recognizer, autonomous drive system and method of recognizing road shape

In an apparatus for recognizing a road shape of a travel route of a first vehicle, a surrounding environment recognizer repeatedly recognizes, as surroundings information, at least shapes of roadside objects or travel histories of second vehicles that are vehicles other than the first vehicle, located around the first vehicle in a travel direction of the first vehicle. A sequence-of-point estimator repeatedly estimates, using the surroundings information, a reference line connecting a sequence of points that represent the road shape of the travel route in the travel direction of the first vehicle. A first lane boundary setter repeatedly sets a first lane boundary that is a boundary of a lane of the first vehicle, located at a first distance from the reference line to a respective one of the left and the right of the first vehicle in a vehicle-widthwise direction of the first vehicle.

Apparatus and method for recognizing road shapes

A reliability calculation apparatus calculates a reliability of a recognized object that is recognized as being present on a route on which a vehicle travels. The reliability of the recognized object is used for driving control of the vehicle. In the reliability calculation apparatus, a provisional reliability calculating unit determines a feature quantity of each of a plurality of recognized objects, selects a plurality of pairs of recognized objects from the plurality of recognized objects, determines a difference in feature quantity of each pair of recognized objects, and calculates a reliability that decreases as the difference in feature quantity increases as a provisional reliability of each pair of recognized objects. An integrated reliability calculating unit calculates an integrated reliability of each recognized object from the provisional reliabilities of the plurality of pairs of recognized objects.

Reliability calculation apparatus

A roadside object recognition apparatus recognizes a roadside object that is present on a travel route on which an own vehicle travels. The roadside object is used for driving control of the vehicle. In the roadside object recognition apparatus, a reflection point acquiring unit acquires, using a radar that emits electromagnetic waves, a reflection-point group of reflection points of the electromagnetic waves reflected by an object that is present on the travel route. An image acquiring unit acquires an image of the travel route using a camera. A reflection point correcting unit corrects the reflection-point group by removing an erroneous reflection point that is determined to be highly likely not to be a reflection point of a roadside object from the reflection-point group through image processing of the image. A shape recognizing unit recognizes a shape of the roadside object using the corrected reflection-point group.

Roadside object recognition apparatus

A neutral point detection device is applied to a steering control system that obtains a steering angle of a steering device of a vehicle as a detection value by a steering angle sensor, and controls the steering device by means of the detection value. The neutral point detection device includes a straight determination unit that determines whether a road on which the vehicle is traveling is straight, a straight traveling determination unit that determines whether the vehicle is travelling straight along the road, a steering angle acquisition unit that obtains the detection value of the steering angle sensor, and a detection unit that detects the neutral point of the steering angle sensor based on the detection value obtained by the steering angle acquisition unit, when the straight determination unit determines that the road is straight and the straight traveling determination unit determines that the vehicle is traveling straight along the road.

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Kariya, Japan

Takumi Uematsu