Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Automatic route guidance vehicle
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-22
2001-10-09
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Automatic route guidance vehicle
C701S096000, C701S116000, C340S903000, C340S435000, C340S436000, C180S168000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06301530
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic following travel system wherein, among a plurality of queued vehicles, a leading vehicle positioned at the front is operated by an operator, and the following vehicles positioned behind the leading vehicle automatically follow the leading vehicle so as to travel in a procession.
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application Nos. 11-177530, and 11-177531, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is commonly known, systems have been proposed wherein small electric vehicles are used in common by a plurality of users in a defined region, and thereby, efficient use of the vehicles is achieved, and by means of this, problems such as congestion and insufficient space are relieved, and a saving in resources and energy, as well as a reduction of environmental contamination, are achieved.
In other words, dedicated parking area, related ports, are established at a number of places within a limited region, and users are able to freely borrow vehicles from these ports, and furthermore, after the use of the vehicles, the vehicles may be returned to the ports. By means of this, users are able to employ the vehicles only when they are required. Furthermore, if there are a large number of ports, it is not necessary to search for parking spaces or to park along the side of the road, and it is thus possible to alleviate congestion.
However, in such a system, as a result of the locations of the ports or the like, there are concerns that vehicles may become concentrated at some ports, while at other ports, vehicles will become insufficiently available.
Techniques have been proposed for moving a plurality of vehicles efficiently between ports so as to easily remedy this imbalance of vehicles between ports (for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication, No. Hei 5-170008). In this technique, among a plurality of queued vehicles, only the leading vehicle, which is positioned at the front, is manually operated by an operator, and the operation of the succeeding vehicles is automatically controlled based on data relating to the driving operations of the leading vehicle which is transmitted from the leading vehicle. By means of this, driving is controlled so that the succeeding vehicles trace the same track as the leading vehicle, and as a result, a state is realized in which a series of vehicles travel in such a manner as to form a procession with the leading vehicle in the front (processional travel). At this time, because the operation of the succeeding vehicles is automatically controlled, unmanned operation is possible, and it is possible to reduce the number of humans involved.
When traveling in a procession, each succeeding vehicle may control its accelerator, brake, and steering so as to simply trace the track of the leading vehicle. However, even when the leading vehicle and the succeeding vehicles are the same vehicle type, the coordinates for specifying the track, which are stored in the respective vehicles, may gradually come to differ from each other, depending on the road conditions, the difference in traveled distance, and an error which may arise in the control of the travel by the sensors. However accurate the control for tracing the track of the leading vehicle is made, there is the problem that the real travel tracks may be different between the leading vehicle and the succeeding vehicles because of differences in coordinates.
To solve this problem, techniques have been proposed for controlling all the vehicles to travel according to the same coordinate system. This technique comprises: calculating the difference in the coordinates, based on the track information of the leading vehicle, which is obtained by communication between the vehicles (hereinafter referred to as vehicle-to-vehicle communication), and on the radar information obtained by an object vehicle; and transforming the track (position) information of the object vehicle to the track information in the coordinate system set in the leading vehicle.
Next is a description of the technique for transforming the track information of the succeeding vehicle to the track information in the coordinate system set in the leading vehicle.
The leading vehicle and the succeeding vehicles are electric vehicles
1
shown in FIG.
8
. Electric energy from a battery
2
is supplied to a motor
4
controlled by a power train ECU
3
, and the motor
4
rotates wheels
5
to drive the vehicle.
As shown in
FIG. 8
, the electric vehicle
1
is fitted with a laser radar
6
in the center of the front bumper capable of wide angle scanning, and a reflector
7
in the center of the rear bumper, which is a plate with a mirror finish for reflecting the radar waves emitted by a laser radar
6
of a succeeding vehicle.
When the electric vehicle
1
travels, the succeeding vehicle can pick up the location of the reflector
7
of the preceding vehicle in real time using the laser radar
6
of the succeeding vehicle, and can therefore detect the location of the preceding vehicle (the distance from the preceding vehicle) and its direction in real time.
The electric vehicle
1
has a speed sensor and a yaw rate sensor, which are not shown, and recognizes its traveling direction and track in the coordinate system set in the electric vehicle.
A vehicle to vehicle antenna
8
for radio communication between the electric vehicles
1
(vehicle to vehicle communication) is installed in the roof of the electric vehicle
1
. The respective vehicles can recognize the positions and tracks of the other vehicles by vehicle-to-vehicle communication using the vehicle-to-vehicle antenna
8
(the positions and tracks of the other vehicles in the coordinate systems stored in the respective vehicles). The coordinate systems in the respective vehicles are initialized so that the origins are set to a specified port for the electric vehicles
1
.
In
FIG. 9
, two electric vehicles
1
travel as the leading vehicle
1
′ and the succeeding vehicle
1
″. In
FIG. 9
,
fB is the distance from the center of gravity G
2
of the succeeding vehicle
1
″ to the laser radar
6
which is the laser measurement point,
bF is the distance from the center of gravity G
1
of the leading vehicle
1
′ to the reflector
7
,
Lx(t
1
) is the component in the traveling direction of the succeeding vehicle
1
″ between the laser radar
6
of the succeeding vehicle
1
″ and the reflector
7
of the leading vehicle
1
′ at a time t
1
, and
Ly(t
1
) is the component in the direction perpendicular to the traveling direction of the succeeding vehicle
1
″ between the laser radar
6
of the succeeding vehicle
1
″ and the reflector
7
of the leading vehicle
1
′ at the time t
1
.
Further, reference characters are defined as follows:
GF is the coordinate system of the leading vehicle,
GB is the coordinate system of the succeeding vehicle,
XF(t
1
) is the X-coordinate of the center of gravity of the leading vehicle
1
′ in the GF coordinate system at the time t
1
,
YF(t
1
) is the Y-coordinate of the center of gravity of the leading vehicle
1
′ in the GF coordinate system at the time t
1
,
&thgr;F(t
1
) is the yaw angle of the leading vehicle
1
′ in the GF coordinate system at the time t
1
,
XB(t
1
) is the X-coordinate of the center of gravity of the succeeding vehicle
1
″ in the GB coordinate system at the time t
1
,
YB(t
1
) is the Y-coordinate of the center of gravity of the succeeding vehicle
1
″ in the GB coordinate system at the time t
1
, and
&thgr;B(t
1
) is the yaw angle of the succeeding vehicle
1
″ in the GB coordinate system at the time t
1
.
The coordinates {X′F(t
1
), Y′F(t
1
)} of the radar measurement point (reflector
7
) of the leading vehicle
1
′ in the GF coordinate system at the time t
1
are given by:
X′F
(
t
1
)
=XF
(
t
1
)
−bF
×cos &thgr;
F
(
Arent Fox Kintner & Plotkin & Kahn, PLLC
Arthur Gertrude
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Honda Giken Kobgyo Kabushiki Kaisha
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