Communications: electrical – Land vehicle alarms or indicators – External alarm or indicator of movement
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-07
2002-03-12
Hofsass, Jeffery (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Land vehicle alarms or indicators
External alarm or indicator of movement
C340S902000, C340S539230, C340S475000, C701S023000, C701S026000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06356189
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lighting control apparatus (for controlling a light such as a turn signal light, headlights, etc.) for an automatic following travel system wherein a leading vehicle is operated by an operator, and vehicles automatically follow the leading vehicle (hereinafter referred to as “following vehicles”).
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application Nos. 11-00651, and 11-103392, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, automatic following travel systems have been proposed wherein a leading vehicle is operated by an operator, and following vehicles automatically follow the leading vehicle. These automatic following travel systems reduce labor required to drive the second and succeeding vehicles.
In the conventional automatic following travel system, a driver manually turns on or off turning signal lights by himself to turn right or left at a crossing, or to change traffic lanes.
The conventional automatic following travel system, however, has the following problems.
When turning right or left or changing traffic lanes while one or more vehicles automatically follow a single leading vehicle in such a manner as to form a line, the driver in the leading vehicle turns on the turn signal lights, and the turn signal lights flashes on and off, but the turn signal lights of the unmanned following vehicles are not turned on.
Therefore, pedestrians or drivers in oncoming vehicles cannot know the behavior of the entire line and of the respective individual following vehicles. Further, a driver in a vehicle behind the line cannot anticipate that the last vehicle in the line may start turning right or left or changing traffic lanes.
When it becomes dark, positioning lights for making other persons aware of the positions of the vehicles themselves, and headlights that cast light on the road ahead of the vehicles must be turned on. The operations for turning on or off the positioning lights and the headlights are manually carried out by the driver.
This may be true when turning on or off other lights such as hazard lights for making following vehicles aware of the vehicles stopped due to an emergency, or stop lights for making the following vehicles aware of the braking of the leading vehicle.
The lighting control device of the conventional automatic following travel system has the following problem.
When the vehicles travel in line at night, a driver in the leading vehicle must go to all the following vehicles to turn on the headlights. In particular, this is a burden on the driver when there are a number of the following vehicles. Further, it takes much time to prepare for the travel in line before the starting of the vehicles.
Since the following vehicles are automatically driven in an unmanned manner, the headlights need not be lighted to cast light on the road even at night. However, while the headlights are not lighted, pedestrians or drivers in oncoming vehicles may miss the following vehicles when the vehicles traveling in line turn at a crossing. To avoid this, the headlights of the following vehicles should be always lighted when the vehicles travel in line.
When the vehicles travel close to each other while maintaining a short distances from each other, the respective following vehicles travel after their preceding vehicles normally at the interval of three or four meters, and the headlights simply throw light on the rear of the respective preceding vehicles and do not make pedestrians, etc., aware of the vehicles. That is, it wastes energy to always light the headlights to ensure the visibility when the vehicles turn a crossing, and this waste of energy is serious for the vehicle of the automatic following travel system which uses batteries as the driving sources.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a lighting control system for an automatic following travel system which can turn on or off a light of unmanned following vehicles, corresponding to an on-off action of a light of manned leading vehicle, when the vehicles are traveling in line.
It is therefore another object of the present invention to provide a lighting control system for an automatic following travel system which can appropriately change a timing for turning on the lighting device of the following vehicle or can turn off the light if necessary, and can lengthen the life of the light.
In a first aspect of the present invention, in the lighting control apparatus of present invention for an automatic following travel system in which a leading vehicle (
1
,
101
) is operated by an operator, and at least one following vehicle (
2
,
102
) automatically follows the leading vehicle, the leading vehicle comprises a light operating device (e.g., a turn signal switch
12
, or a lighting switch
112
) for turning on or off a light (such as turn signal lights, headlights, positioning lights, hazard lights, and stop lights) of the leading vehicle, and a transmitter (radio communicator
20
, or
120
) for transmitting information indicating the operation of the light operating device, and the following vehicle comprises: a receiver (radio communicator
20
, or
120
) for receiving the information from the transmitter; and a light operating device (turn signal operating device
23
, or lighting operating device
123
) for producing an operation signal for turning on or off a light of the following vehicle, based on the information received by the receiver.
When a driver in the leading vehicle turns on the light such as the turn signal light, or headlights, the operation information is sent via the transmitter to the following vehicle. Based on the information received by the receiver, the following vehicle produces the operation signal for turning on the light corresponding to the light of the leading vehicle which has been turned on. Thus, corresponding to the operation by the driver in the leading vehicle, the corresponding light is flashed on and off.
Then, when a driver in the leading vehicle turns off the light, the operation information is sent via the transmitter to the following vehicle. Based on the information received by the receiver, the following vehicle produces the operation signal for turning off the light corresponding to the light of the leading vehicle which has been turned off. Thus, corresponding to the operation by the driver in the leading vehicle, the corresponding light is turned off.
In a second aspect of the present invention, the light is a turn signal light, and the light operating device is a turn signal operating device (
23
).
When a driver in the leading vehicle turns on the turn signal light, the operation information is sent via the transmitter to the following vehicle. Based on the information received by the receiver, the following vehicle produces the operation signal for turning on the light corresponding to the light of the leading vehicle which has been turned on. Thus, corresponding to the turn signal operation by the driver in the leading vehicle, the turn signal light on the same side is flashed on and off.
Then, when a driver in the leading vehicle turns off the turn signal light, the operation information is sent via the transmitter to the following vehicle. Based on the information received by the receiver, the following vehicle produces the operation signal for turning off the light corresponding to the light of the leading vehicle which has been turned off. Thus, corresponding to the turn signal operation by the driver in the leading vehicle, the turn signal light on the same side is turned off.
According to the invention, the turn signal lights of the following vehicles are turned on or off, corresponding to the on-off action of the turn signal light of the leading vehicle. Therefore, pedestrians or drivers in oncoming vehicles can easily see the movement of the entire line of the vehicles and the respective individual following vehicles. Further, a driver in a vehicle be
Blackman William D.
Carrier Joseph P.
Carrier Blackman & Associates P.C.
Hofsass Jeffery
Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
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