Nissan Motor Company Limited

Valeo Radar Systems, Inc.

Toshimichi Gokan

Yasuhisa Hayakawa

Tatsuya Suzuki

Daisuke Tanaka

Takeshi Sugano

Takuya Inoue

Masahiro Kobayashi

Osamu Fukata

Yonosuke Nishioku

Kazuo Tamaki

Akira Morimoto

Daisuke Oiki

Takeshi Yonezawa

Takashi Ashiduka

Kazutomo Otani

Boris Marie

A host vehicle has an automatic brake control that is executed for avoiding contact between the host vehicle and a pedestrian upon detecting a pedestrian is present in a forward position of the host vehicle using a front camera and a radar. In a driving assist control method, upon detecting an object in front of the host vehicle to be a pedestrian candidate based on an image signal from the front camera, execution of an automatic brake control is permitted with the detected pedestrian candidate as the control target. Thereafter, whether or not the pedestrian candidate detected by the front camera matches an object detected by the reflected waves from the millimeter wave radar is determined by comparison. Execution of the automatic brake control is continued or stopped based on the result of the comparison determination.

Vehicle driving assist control method and control device

A host vehicle is provided with external environment recognition sensors that acquire forward information to determine that a pedestrian is present in a forward position of the host vehicle using the external environment recognition sensors. In this pedestrian determination method, a front camera and a millimeter wave radar are provided as the external environment recognition sensors. When a pedestrian candidate is detected in a forward position of the host vehicle based on an image signal from the front camera, a matching area is set with the position of the detected pedestrian candidate as the center point. When the position of the object that is closest to the pedestrian candidate from among the plurality of objects detected by reflected waves from the millimeter wave radar is within the matching area thereby establishing a match, the pedestrian candidate is determined to be a pedestrian.

Pedestrian determination method and determination device

An air passage and two lines of cleaning liquid paths are provided in a nozzle, and the air passage is bifurcated into two lines of distal end portions. A secondary tank is provided upstream of the cleaning liquid paths. A distal end portion of a cleaning liquid path and the distal end portion of the air passage are merged. When a compressed air is supplied to the air passage, the resulting air flow makes the inside of the secondary tank to be negative pressure. Thus, the cleaning liquid can be made into the form of a mist, and is suctioned, and the cleaning liquid in the form of a mist and the compressed air are mixed, whereby it is possible to clean a lens surface and to reduce the amount of cleaning liquid used.

Cleaning device for vehicle-mounted camera

An air passage and two lines of cleaning liquid paths are provided in a nozzle, and the air passage is bifurcated into two lines of distal end portions. Then, a distal end portion of the cleaning liquid path and the distal end portion of the air passage are merged. Thus, if the compressed air is supplied to the air passage, the resulting air flow causes a negative pressure on the downstream side. This enables making a cleaning liquid into the form of a mist and suctioning it, and to mix the cleaning liquid in the form of a mist with the compressed air, whereby it is possible to clean the lens surface and to reduce the amount of the cleaning liquid used.

A travel control device includes ultrasonic obstacle detection sensors detecting an obstacle entering a rear side of a vehicle and a distance to the obstacle, and an image obstacle detection unit detecting the obstacle entering the rear side of the vehicle by using an image of the rear side. If a distance to the obstacle detected by the sensors is equal to or less than an activation threshold for warning, the travel control device issues a warning, and sets the activation threshold larger as the vehicle speed of the vehicle becomes high. If the vehicle is detected preparing to move rearward and the image obstacle detection unit detects the obstacle, the travel control device sets the activation threshold to a constant value regardless of the vehicle speed.

Travel control device and travel control method

An acceleration/deceleration erroneous operation determination device improves determination accuracy on whether or not a driver is erroneously performing an accelerator operation instead of a brake operation. A pedal opening degree by a driver and a continuation time for which the pedal opening degree is greater than an opening degree threshold value are detected. When the continuation time exceeds a time threshold value, it is determined that the driver is erroneously performing an accelerator operation instead of a brake operation. A vehicle speed of a vehicle, a rising gradient of a road surface, and an accelerator operation time operated by the driver are detected. The opening degree threshold value is made variable in accordance with the vehicle speed, the rising gradient, and the operation time. The time threshold value is made variable in accordance with the vehicle speed, the rising gradient, and the operation time.

Acceleration/deceleration erroneous operation determination device, erroneous operation acceleration suppression control device, and acceleration/deceleration erroneous operation determination method

A vehicle-mounted camera device that is mounted on a vehicle and captures a surrounding image from which lights are collected by a lens, in which the lens is set so as to have the surface having a contact angle less than or equal to 100&#xb0;, preferably less than or equal to 60&#xb0; so that water attached on the surface is made into a form of a film. For this reason, the surface of the lens has high hydrophilicity, and if water droplets are attached when it is raining, the water droplets extend over the surface of the lens to form a water film. Thus, if mud or other attached matter is attached on the surface of the lens, it is possible to remove the attached matter without delay, and it is possible to always keep the surface of the lens in a clean state.

Vehicle-mounted camera device

A nozzle for cleaning a lens surface of a camera includes a cleaning liquid path that guides a cleaning liquid to a discharge port and an air passage that guides a compressed air to a discharge port. Furthermore, a distal end portion of the cleaning liquid path and a distal end portion of the air passage are disposed so as to be proximate to each other, or are disposed so as to be merged with each other. Then, at the time of cleaning the lens surface, the compressed air is made intermittently jet from the discharge port, and the cleaning liquid is suctioned with the negative pressure occurring due to the jetting of the compressed air to make the cleaning liquid intermittently jet from the discharge port, thereby cleaning the lens surface.

Cleaning device for vehicle-mounted camera and method of cleaning vehicle-mounted camera

A travel controller carries out acceleration suppression control of suppressing acceleration of a vehicle depending on an accelerator manipulation amount based on a parking frame existing ahead in a driven direction of the vehicle. Then, the travel controller is configured to gradually release the acceleration suppression control when detecting that the vehicle is in a stop state while carrying out the acceleration suppression control. In addition, the travel controller is configured to hold a release state of the acceleration suppression control at the time of detection of the travel state, when the travel state detector detects that the vehicle is in a travel state while releasing the acceleration suppression control.

Vehicle acceleration suppression device

Based on a parking frame certainty degree indicative of a degree of certainty about a presence is a parking frame in the travel direction of the vehicle and a parking frame entering certainty degree indicative of a degree of certainty about whether the vehicle enters the parking frame, a total certainty degree indicative of a total degree of the certainty of the parking frame certainty degree and the parking frame entering certainty degree is calculated. Acceleration of the vehicle is controlled depending on a manipulation amount of an accelerator pedal manipulated by a drive to instruct a driving force and is suppressed in a higher suppression degree as the total certainty degree is higher. Furthermore, the acceleration of the vehicle is suppressed in a lower suppression degree as the vehicle speed of the vehicle is higher.

Vehicular acceleration suppression device and vehicular acceleration suppression method

A vehicle control device basically includes a first risk computation unit, a second risk computing unit and a first risk adjustment unit. The first risk computation unit calculates a first risk with respect to a nearby obstacle located in a nearby detection region near a host vehicle. The second risk computing unit calculates a second risk with respect to a remote obstacle located further from the nearby detection region. The first risk adjustment unit adjusts at least one of the first and the second risks to preferentially execute a warning or vehicle control based on one of the first risk or the second risk versus a warning or vehicle control based on the other of the first risk or the second risk based on an entry state of the host vehicle of entering a planned parking place, or an exit state of the host vehicle of exiting from a parking place.

Vehicle control apparatus including an obstacle detection device

A vehicle acceleration suppression device and a vehicle acceleration suppression method, capable of activating acceleration suppression control appropriately, include a travel controller configured to determine a type of the obstacle (such as a wall, another vehicle, an edge stone, or a natural thing) based on at least a first-time detection distance that is the distance between a vehicle and an obstacle detected for the first time and a height determination distance that is the distance between the vehicle and the obstacle detected when the obstacle is determined to be a tall obstacle. Then, acceleration suppression control is carried out in a control manner depending on the determined type of the obstacle when it is determined that the vehicle has approached the obstacle at an approach degree equal to or higher than a predefined approach degree based on the distance between the vehicle and the obstacle.

Vehicle acceleration suppression device and vehicle acceleration suppression method

A total certainty factor indicating a total degree of certainty of the parking frame certainty degree and the parking frame entering certainty degree is calculated based on a parking frame certainty degree indicating the degree of certainty that a parking frame is present in a travel direction of a vehicle, and a parking frame entering certainty degree indicating the degree of certainty that the vehicle enters the parking frame. When the total certainty factor is low, acceleration of the vehicle controlled according to an operation amount of an accelerator pedal for instructing a driving force by operation of a driver is suppressed with a low suppression degree, as compared with a case where the total certainty factor is high. Further, the acceleration of the vehicle is suppressed with a lower suppression degree as the vehicle speed of the vehicle is higher.

A travel control device includes a side obstacle detection unit, a rearward movement preparation detection unit, a warning unit, and a suppression unit. The side obstacle detection unit divides a range from a lateral side to a rear side of a vehicle into plural detection angle areas, and detects, for each of the plural detection angle areas, an obstacle entering the detection angle area and a distance to the obstacle. The warning unit provides warning about the obstacle. The suppression unit suppresses the warning by the warning unit, if the rearward movement preparation detection unit detects the vehicle preparing to move rearward and the detection angle area in which the obstacle is detected shifts from the rear side to the lateral side.

Vehicle rearward travel control device and method using lateral and rear detection areas

A travel control device includes a side obstacle detection unit which divides a range from a lateral side to a rear side of a vehicle into plural detection angle areas, and detects, for each of the plural detection angle areas, an obstacle entering the detection angle area; a rearward movement preparation detection unit which detects the vehicle preparing to move rearward; a warning control unit which provides warning about the obstacle if the distance to the obstacle is equal to or less than an activation threshold for the warning; and a threshold control unit which, if the obstacle is detected in one or more rear side areas among the plural detection angle areas, before being detected in the other detection angle areas, raises the activation threshold so that the timing of the warning becomes earlier.

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Machida, Japan

Toshimichi Gokan