Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Vehicle subsystem or accessory control
Reexamination Certificate
2002-08-30
2004-02-10
Marc-Coleman, Marthe Y. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Vehicle subsystem or accessory control
C701S042000, C701S043000, C180S040000, C340S438000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06691008
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a steering control apparatus for a vehicle that recognizes travel partitioning lines on a road based on images obtained by photography using a camera, and performs steering control such that the vehicle travels along the travel partitioning lines.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as in the steering control apparatus for a vehicle disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2001-10519, a steering control apparatus for a vehicle is known that, by performing image processing on images obtained from a vehicle-mounted camera that photographs a travel route, detects lines on the road (for example, travel partitioning lines such as white lines) and provides assistance to the steering torque input by a driver such that the vehicle is made to travel along these lines.
In this steering control apparatus for a vehicle settings are made such that, based on the amount of change in the steering torque input by the driver and on an amount of lateral slippage from a line on the road to the vehicle position, it is determined whether the driver is performing the driving action intentionally. Moreover, in accordance with the result of the determination as to whether the driving action is intentional, it is decided whether it is possible to output a warning or to provide assistance to the steering torque.
However, in a steering control apparatus for a vehicle according to the above related art, when calculating the amount of change in the steering torque input by the driver, firstly, measurement of the temporal change in the steering torque over a predetermined sampling period (for example, over several seconds) is started, and whether the driving action is intentional is determined after the temporal change amount in the steering torque within this sampling period has been calculated. Therefore, the problem exists that it is not possible to determine whether the driving action is intentional during this sampling period. Namely, if the time required to determine whether the driver is driving intentionally is lengthened, then the concern arises that appropriate steering control that corresponds to the intention of the driver cannot be performed during the period that this determination processing is continuing.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention was conceived in view of the above circumstances and it is an object thereof to provide a steering control apparatus for a vehicle that enables appropriate steering control to be performed by rapidly and accurately determining whether a driver is intentionally performing a driving action when performing steering control such that a vehicle travels along recognized travel partitioning lines.
In order to solve the above problems and achieve the objects of the present invention, the first aspect of the present invention is a steering control apparatus for a vehicle, comprising: an actuator (for example, the motor
20
in the embodiment described below) that drives a steering mechanism (for example, the manual steering power generating mechanism
16
in the embodiment described below) capable of steering wheels (for example, the steering wheels
19
and
19
in the embodiment described below) of the vehicle; a torque detector (for example, the torque sensor
22
in the embodiment described below) that detects steering torque input by a driver; a travel route recognizing section (for example, the camera
25
and the image recognition processing section
26
in the embodiment described below) that recognizes a travel route of the vehicle; and a steering assistance section (for example, the EPS control apparatus
24
in the embodiment described below) that outputs a signal that drives the actuator such that the vehicle travels along the travel route recognized by the travel route recognizing section, wherein the steering control apparatus for a vehicle is provided with: a steering torque change state calculation section (for example, step S
04
in the embodiment described below) that calculates one of a moving integral value of an amount of change in the steering torque detected by the torque detector and a moving integral value of a squared value of an amount of change in the steering torque detected by the torque detector; a driving intention determination section (for example, steps S
05
to S
10
in the embodiment described below) that determines whether there has been a decrease in the driving intention of the driver based on a result of a calculation by the steering torque change state calculation section; a notification section (for example, the warning apparatus
34
in the embodiment described below) that outputs a warning to the driver; and an execution section (for example, the LKAS control apparatus
23
in the embodiment described below) that executes at least one of stopping the driving of the actuator by the steering assistance section and outputting the warning by the notification section when it is determined by the driving intention determination section that there has been a decrease in the driving intention.
According to the steering control apparatus for a vehicle having the above structure, for example, in a processing sequence that is executed at regular predetermined intervals, the steering torque change state calculation section calculates the absolute value of the difference between the previous value of the steering torque from the previous processing that was detected by the torque detector and the current value of the steering torque in the current processing that is detected by the torque detector, and stores each one as time series data. The driving intention determination section determines whether there has been a decrease in the driving intention of the driver in accordance with a moving integral value that is obtained by adding absolute values of the above differences or squared values of the above differences that have been stored for a predetermined number of times in the past up until the current processing.
Namely, it is possible to calculate a moving integral value of an amount of change in the steering torque detected by the torque detector, or to calculate a moving integral value of the squared value of the amount of change in the steering torque simply by using straightforward and rapid processing that entails simply adding a new data calculated in the current processing to the time series data for the past stored previously. In addition, it is possible to determine immediately whether there has been a decrease in the driving intention of the driver based on these moving integral values. Furthermore, it is possible to determine simply and accurately whether there has been a decrease in the driving intention of the driver.
Moreover, in the steering control apparatus for a vehicle of the present invention, the driving intention determination section may determine that there has been a decrease in the driving intention when a state in which the result of a calculation by the steering torque change state calculation section is less than or equal to a predetermined value continues for a predetermined time or longer.
According to the steering control apparatus for a vehicle having the above described structure, the driving intention determination section does not determine that there has been a decrease in the driving intention simply when the result of a calculation by the steering torque change state calculation section is equal to or less than a predetermined value, but makes this determination when this state has continued over a predetermined time or longer. As a result, it is possible to reliably determine whether there has been a decrease in the driving intention, and to perform even more appropriate steering control.
The second aspect of the present invention is a steering control apparatus for a vehicle, comprising: an actuator (for example, the motor
20
in the embodiment described below) that drives a steering mechanism (for example, the manual steering power generating
Ishida Shinnosuke
Kondo Satoshi
Tanaka Jun
Arent Fox Kintner & Plotkin & Kahn, PLLC
Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Marc-Coleman Marthe Y.
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