Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Nissin Kogyo Co., Ltd.

Yoshihiro Urai

Yoichi Sugimoto

Shoji Ichikawa

Satoshi Hada

Shohei Matsuda

Hiroyuki Koike

Kenji Kodaka

Kazutoshi Tashima

Kenta Kawakami

Hideki Kubonoya

Toshio Yahagi

Jun Ochida

Shinichi Inagawa

Makoto Horiuchi

Makoto Otabe

Kazuhiko Mochizuki

Masaaki Myoi

Ryuji Horiuchi

In a vehicle driving assistance apparatus having an electric motor to impart steering torque to the driver and a driving control unit that conducts collision avoidance assistance control and other steering control including lane departure prevention control, power steering control and parking assistance control for providing assistance during parking of the vehicle, when a warning for alerting the driver is made by imparting torque to the steering wheel via the motor, the control input of the other steering control is suppressed, i.e. is reduced during either the first predetermined time before warning or the second predetermined time after warning. Owing to this configuration, the driver can be enabled to perceive the warning without fail even when another steering control is performed in parallel.

Vehicle driving assistance apparatus

In a vehicle safety driving apparatus, a predetermined steering torque is applied as the warning and a change amount of driver's steering torque relative to the applied predetermined steering torque is calculated, and a contact avoidance assistance operation is conducted in place of applying the predetermined steering torque when the calculated driver's steering force change amount is less than a set value. With this, it becomes possible to conduct more perceivable operation or vehicle control when it is estimated that the driver does not recognize it, thereby enabling to assist the contact avoidance appropriately.

Vehicle safety driving apparatus

This steering wheel retention state judging device includes: a torque application unit that applies a torque on a steering wheel of a vehicle, the steering wheel operated by a driver; an angle sensor that detects a steering angle of the steering wheel; and a steering wheel retention state judging unit that judges a retention state of the steering wheel by the driver based on the steering angle of the steering wheel when the torque is applied by the torque application unit.

Steering retention state judging device, driver wakefulness predicting device, and correct course keeping device

A vehicle departure determination apparatus includes: an object detection device which detects objects present in a direction of travel of a subject vehicle, and detects a relative position and relative speed of the objects and the subject vehicle; a running state detection device which detects a running state of the subject vehicle; a speed detection device which detects a speed of the subject vehicle; an oncoming vehicle determination device which determines whether any of the objects serving as oncoming vehicles for the subject vehicle are present, based on the relative speed detected by the object detection device, and the speed of the subject vehicle detected by the speed detection device; and a departure determination device which determines whether or not the subject vehicle has departed from an appropriate route for the subject vehicle, or the oncoming vehicle has departed from an appropriate route for the oncoming vehicle.

Subject and oncoming vehicle departure determination and collision avoidance apparatus

A travel safety apparatus for a vehicle, the apparatus includes: a first detector detecting an object in a first detection area; a second detector detecting the object in a second detection area; a braking device decelerating the vehicle; an alarm device which outputs an alarm to an occupant of the vehicle; a third detector measuring the traveling state of the vehicle; a collision determination device which determines a possibility of a collision between the vehicle and the object based on the traveling state; and a controller which operates at least one of the braking device and the alarm device when there is the possibility of collision, wherein the controller changes at least one of operation timing of the alarm device, operation timing of the braking device, and deceleration degree made by the braking device in accordance with whether or not the first detector and the second detector detect the object.

Travel safety apparatus for vehicle

A travel safety apparatus for a vehicle includes: a first object detector having a first detection area defined by a first detection angle; a second object detector having a second detection area defined by a second detection angle; a motion state determination unit; a collision determination unit determining whether there is possibility of collision of an object detected in at least one of the first detection area and the second detection area to the vehicle based on the motion state; a controller controlling the vehicle so that a collision is avoided; and an object identity determination unit determining whether the first object and the second object are identical, wherein when a first object detected in the first detection area and a second object detected in the second detection area are determined identical, the collision determination unit determines whether there is possibility of collision of the first object to the vehicle.

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 vehicle travel control system wherein a plurality of objects ahead of a subject vehicle are detected by a radar system. Data corresponding to the plurality of objects within a predetermined region is united into a target object corresponding to a large-sized vehicle. If one of the objects is in a region spaced forward a predetermined distance from a representative position of the target object, which is spaced leftwards in a direction toward at an estimated locus at a predetermined distance apart from a left end point of the representative position, which is spaced forward at a predetermined distance from the subject vehicle and which is included in the estimated locus of the subject vehicle, one of the objects is separated as a target object corresponding to a small-sized vehicle from the original target object to control the traveling of the subject vehicle relative to the small-sized vehicle within the estimated locus.

Vehicle travel control system

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 accuracy of determination of a possibility of collision of a vehicle with an object is enhanced without the shortening of a period for detection of the object by an object detecting apparatus. A collision-possibility determining device determines the presence or absence of a possibility of collision of the vehicle with the obstacle by comparing a future locus of movement of the obstacle determined by an obstacle locus determining device based on an output from a radar device, with a future locus of movement of the vehicle determined by a vehicle locus determining apparatus based on outputs from wheel speed sensors and a yaw rate sensor. The period of the detection conducted by the radar device providing data about the obstacle to the obstacle locus determining apparatus is 100 msec, but the obstacle locus determining apparatus, the vehicle locus determining apparatus and the collision-possibility determining apparatus carry out the determination of the possibility of collision at a determination period shorter than the detection period of 100 msec. Thus, it is possible to carry out the determination of the possibility of collision at the shorter determination period without use of a large-sized and expensive radar device, thereby enhancing the determination accuracy.

Obstacle detecting system

A system for controlling running safety of a vehicle having an alarm and an automatic braking system. A plurality of decelerations &agr;2n of an obstacle such as another vehicle present ahead on the road is predicted and corresponding manipulated variables &agr;1n (braking amount) to be supplied to the vehicle which indicate possible deceleration of the vehicle are determined. Then threshold values L&agr;2n for alarming and automatic braking are determined corresponding to the predicted deceleration and are successively compared with the distance to the obstacle. When the distance falls below any of the threshold values, alarming or automatic braking is effected to avoid contact with the obstacle, thereby making the system relatively simple and enabling operation to match the driver's expectations.

Vehicle safety running control system

When a radar device S,detects an object existing ahead of a vehicle in the movement direction of the vehicle, a determining device M,determines a possibility of contact of the vehicle with the object from the relative positional relationship between the vehicle and the object, based on the result of such detection. If it is determined there is the possibility of contact, an automatic braking device M,operates a vacuum booster,to carry out an automatic braking operation to avoid the contact of the vehicle with the object. When a braking-will detecting device M,detects a driver's braking will during the automatic braking operation by the automatic braking device M,, an emergency-degree presuming device M,presumes a degree of emergency in the driver's braking will, and the automatic braking device M,generates the braking force corresponding to the degree of emergency to assist in the braking operation of the driver. This enables a smooth switch-over from the avoidance of the contact by the automatic braking operation to the avoidance of the contact by the driver's braking operation, and a high braking force assisted by the automatic braking operation can be generated to effectively avoid the contact.

Braking control system for vehicle

In a vehicle safety running system, while a contact probability estimation section estimates that there is a probability that a subject vehicle comes into contact with an object and an automatic braking section performs automatic braking, when the driver voluntarily performs a steering operation to avoid the contact, an automatic braking cancellation gradient is calculated based on the contact probability detected with the contact probability estimation section and the steering operation amount detected with the steering operation amount detection section, whereby automatic braking is cancelled at a speed corresponding to the automatic braking cancellation gradient so calculated. When the contact is easily avoided through the steering operation, the automatic braking cancellation gradient is set large so as to cancel automatic braking quickly, while when the contact is difficult to be avoided, the automatic braking cancellation gradient is set small so as to cancel automatic braking moderately.

Vehicle safety running system

A vehicle travel safety device carries out automatic braking in order to prevent a subject vehicle from coming into contact with an object, and proximate expansion of an air bag is reliably prevented. When there is a possibility of a subject vehicle coming into contact with an object, automatic braking is carried out in order to prevent the contact. If a seat belt wear state sensor detects that an occupant is not wearing a seat belt and an air bag expansion possibility estimating means estimates that there is a possibility of an air bag expanding, by means of an automatic braking means, the deceleration rate of the automatic braking is reduced so that the occupant is prevented from moving forwards due to the inertia accompanying the braking and causing proximate expansion. When the speed of the subject vehicle at the time when automatic braking is started is high, the relative speed between the subject vehicle and the object at the time when automatic braking is started is high. Thus, the time taken for the subject vehicle to come into contact with the object is short or the speed of the subject vehicle at which it will come into contact with the object is high. Therefore, the air bag expansion possibility estimating means estimates that there is a possibility of the air bag expanding.

Vehicle travel safety device

A system for controlling safety running of a vehicle, including obstacle detecting means such as a laser radar for detecting an obstacle (e.g., other vehicle) present ahead on a course of travel of the vehicle, and operating means for operating a braking system of the vehicle to avoid contact with the obstacle. In the system, if it is found that the obstacle detected by the obstacle detecting means is lost, the operating means operates the braking system based on at least an estimated possibility of contact or degree of certainty of obstacle. With the arrangement, the system can appropriately cope with a situation in which an obstacle, once detected, is lost during braking operation, without degrading the driving feeling or comfort and without causing the vehicle driver to experience annoyance, while ensuring obstacle avoidance without fail.

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Wako, Japan

Yoshihiro Urai