Motor vehicles – With device for programmably operating vehicles steerable...
Reexamination Certificate
1997-12-17
2001-01-09
Schwartz, Christopher P. (Department: 3613)
Motor vehicles
With device for programmably operating vehicles steerable...
Reexamination Certificate
active
06170591
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an automatic steering apparatus for a vehicle, to automatically park the vehicle without a driver's steering operation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An automatic steering apparatus is known which utilizes an actuator of a known electrically powered steering apparatus, and is adapted to automatically carry out the back parking and longitudinal parking of a vehicle by controlling the actuator on the basis of the relation between the distance of movement of the vehicle and the steering angle which are stored in advance. Such an apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 3-74256 and 4-55168.
An automatic steering apparatus, which is used when a vehicle is put into a garage and is adapted to predict the travel path of the vehicle on the basis of the output from a steering wheel angle sensor, to detect the distance between the vehicle and an obstacle on the basis of the output from a distance sensor provided on a corner portion of the vehicle, to show a travel path of the vehicle and the position of an obstacle on a display, and to give the driver an alarm when the distance between the vehicle and the obstacle is less than a predetermined amount, is already known from Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-278477.
In the apparatus of the type disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 3-74256 and 4-55168, a vehicle moves from a starting position to a parking position through a locus of movement stored in advance. Therefore, when the starting position is not the stored position, or when an obstacle exists on the locus of movement of the vehicle, the automatic parking control operation cannot be continued due to the interference of the obstacle with the vehicle. Even when the automatic parking control operation can be resumed by only slightly correcting the starting position and locus of movement, it is necessary in the conventional apparatuses to restart the automatic parking control operation from the beginning or to stop the automatic parking control operation, whereby the function of the apparatus cannot be fully utilized in some cases.
The apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-278477 mentioned above is applied to the parking of a vehicle by the driver's voluntary steering operation, and not to automatic parking control operation. Moreover, this apparatus is adapted to only caution the driver on the basis of the distance between the vehicle and an obstacle, and does not judge whether the vehicle can be parked or not.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been accomplished in view of these facts, and the object is to accurately judge whether or not automatic parking control operation can be carried out when an obstacle exists on the locus of movement of the vehicle, and thereby enable the parking of the vehicle to be accomplished easily and reliably.
To achieve this object, according to the present invention, a judging means judges whether the execution of an automatic steering control operation can be continued on the basis of the content stored in a storage means when the automatic steering control operation by a control means is interrupted. Consequently the driver can decide accurately, on the basis of the results of the judgment, whether the automatic parking control operation is to be continued, or whether the parking of the vehicle is to be tried again after the vehicle is returned to the original position along the path previously taken by the vehicle, thereby completing parking of the vehicle in a minimum period of time with minimum labor.
In the present invention, the storage means stores the locus of movement of a vehicle as a wheel steering angle with respect to the traveling distance of the vehicle, so that a predetermined locus of movement can always be secured even when the vehicle speed varies during automatic steering control operation.
According to the present invention, when the judging means judges that the execution of the automatic steering control operation is impossible, an informing means informs the driver of the impossibility, so that the driver can select another parking method instead of continuing the execution of the automatic steering control operation.
According to the present invention, when the judging means judges that the automatic steering operation cannot be continued, the judging means further judges whether the resuming of the automatic steering control operation due to a change of the automatic steering control operation starting position can be accomplished, or whether the resuming of the automatic steering control operation due to a change of the locus of movement of the vehicle can be accomplished, on the basis of the content stored in the storage means. When the resuming of the automatic steering control operation can be effected, the parking of the vehicle can be completed in a minimum period of time with minimum labor by resuming the same operation, and, when the resuming of the automatic steering control operation is impossible, this operation can be stopped.
According to the present invention, the judging means starts judging whether or not the automatic steering control operation can be resumed when the driver operates a switch means, so that the judging of the possibility of the resumption of the automatic steering control operation can be done according to the intention of the driver.
According to the present invention, the control means guides the vehicle to the position in which the automatic steering control operation can be resumed when the judging means judges that the resumption of the automatic steering control operation is possible, so that the driver can resume the automatic steering control operation easily.
According to the present invention, the vehicle can be guided reliably to the position in which the automatic steering control operation can be resumed since the guide path along which the vehicle is guided to the intended position, is stored in advance in the storage means.
According to the present invention, an informing means informs the driver of the position in which the resumption of the automatic steering control operation becomes possible or the traveling path to this position when the judging means judges that the resumption of the automatic steering control operation is possible, so that the driver can move the vehicle reliably to the position.
According to the present invention, the vehicle can be guided reliably to the position in which the resumption of the automatic steering control operation becomes possible since such a position or a traveling path to the position is stored in advance in the storage means.
According to the present invention, the judging means judges that the automatic steering control operation can be resumed when the remaining distance of movement of the vehicle, at the point where the automatic steering control operation is interrupted, in the direction of advance of the vehicle which is stored in the storage means is not greater than a predetermined level, so that judgment whether the resuming of the automatic steering control operation can be done or can be carried out accurately.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4735274 (1988-04-01), Good
patent: 4931930 (1990-06-01), Shyu
patent: 5742141 (1998-04-01), Czekaj
patent: 5793631 (1998-08-01), Ito
patent: 62-278477 (1987-12-01), None
patent: 3-74256 (1991-03-01), None
patent: 4-55168 (1992-02-01), None
PATENT ABSTRACTS OF JAPAN, vol. 1995, No. 6 Jul. 31, 1995 & JP 07 081604, Mar. 28, 1995.
Sakai Katsuhiro
Shimizu Yasuo
Arent Fox Kitner Plotkin & Kahn PLLC
Bartz C. T.
Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Schwartz Christopher P.
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