Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Relative location – Collision avoidance
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-16
2001-07-03
Louis-Jacques, Jacques H. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Relative location
Collision avoidance
C701S300000, C701S096000, C340S903000, C340S904000, C340S435000, C340S436000, C342S070000, C342S071000, C342S072000, C180S167000, C180S169000, C180S272000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06256584
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a travel safety system for a vehicle, which is designed to prevent a vehicle from coming into contact with an on-coming vehicle by use of an object detecting means such as a radar device and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Travel safety systems for vehicles are already known from Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No.7-14100. The system described in this Japanese Publication is designed, so that when there is a possibility of the vehicle traveling into an on-coming lane to collide with an on-coming vehicle, a warning for alerting a driver for a spontaneous collision-avoiding operation, is emitted, or the vehicle is braked automatically, thereby avoiding the collision of the vehicle with the on-coming vehicle.
For example, a driver may operate a steering wheel involuntarily in some cases, while he or she is operating a switch for an audio device, or while he or she is driving the vehicle inattentively, whereby the vehicle may enter the on-coming lane. When the driver'consciousness is not concentrated on the driving of the vehicle, as described above, even if the driver tries to avoid the collision by a normal warning or by an automatic steering operation, there is a possibility that the response of the driver himself or herself to the warning or the automatic steering operation is too late, whereby the collision avoiding operation is not in time for avoidance of the collision, as compared with a case where the driver's consciousness is concentrated on the driving of the vehicle.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to reliably prevent contact of the vehicle with the on-coming vehicle due to the involuntary steering operation by the driver.
To achieve the above object, according to a first aspect and feature of the present invention, there is provided a travel safety system for a vehicle, comprising an object detecting means for detecting an object existing in the direction of movement of the vehicle, a movement locus estimating means for estimating a future locus of movement for the vehicle, and a relative lateral deviation calculating means for calculating a relative lateral deviation between the vehicle and an on-coming vehicle, based on the result of detection by the object detecting means and the future locus of movement for the vehicle. A contact-possibility determining means determines whether there is a possibility that the vehicle will come into contact with the on-coming vehicle, based on the relative lateral deviation calculated by the relative lateral deviation calculating means, and a steering-state detecting means for detecting the involuntary steering operation by the driver in the direction for the vehicle to approach the on-coming vehicle. The determining means determines that there is a possibility of contact, when the relative lateral deviation is in a predetermined range, and determines that there is a possibility of contact, when the relative lateral deviation is not in the predetermined range but the steering-state detecting means has detected the involuntary steering operation by the driver in the direction for the vehicle to approach the on-coming vehicle.
With the above arrangement, the relative lateral deviation calculating means calculates the relative lateral deviation between the vehicle and the on-coming vehicle, based on the state of the on-coming vehicle detected by the object detecting means and the future locus of movement for the vehicle estimated by the movement locus estimating means. When the relative lateral deviation is in the predetermined range, the contact-possibility determining means determines that there is a possibility that the vehicle will come into contact with the on-coming vehicle. Even when the relative lateral deviation is not in the predetermined range, the contact-possibility determining means determines that there is a possibility that the vehicle will come into contact with the on-coming vehicle, if the steering-state detecting means has detected the involuntary steering operation by the driver in the direction for the vehicle to approach the on-coming vehicle. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the vehicle from coming into contact with the on-coming vehicle due to the involuntary steering operation by the driver.
According to a second aspect and feature of the present invention, the travel safety system for the vehicle further includes a contact avoiding means for automatically carrying out a contact avoiding operation, when the relative lateral deviation is not in the predetermined range and the steering-state detecting means has detected the involuntary steering operation by the driver in the direction for the vehicle to approach the on-coming vehicle.
With the above arrangement, when the contact-possibility determining means determines that there is a possibility that the vehicle will come into contact with the on-coming vehicle, the contact avoiding means carries out the contact avoiding operation automatically. Therefore, it is possible to reliably prevent the vehicle from coming into contact with the on-coming vehicle due to the involuntary steering operation by the driver in the direction for the vehicle to approach the on-coming vehicle.
According to a third aspect and feature of the present invention, the contact avoiding means inhibits the involuntary steering operation by the driver in the direction for the vehicle to approach the on-coming vehicle.
With the above arrangement, when the contact-possibility determining means determines that there is a possibility that the vehicle will come into contact with the on-coming vehicle, the contact avoiding means inhibits the involuntary steering operation by the driver in the direction for the vehicle to approach the on-coming vehicle. Therefore, it is possible to reliably prevent the vehicle from coming into contact with the on-coming vehicle due to the involuntary steering operation.
According to a fourth aspect and feature of the present invention, the contact avoiding means ensures that as the degree of approach of the vehicle to the on-coming vehicle due to the involuntary steering operation by the driver becomes larger, the steering assisting force generated by the steering device is corrected to be decreased.
With the above arrangement, as the degree of approach of the vehicle to the on-coming vehicle due to the involuntary steering operation by the driver becomes larger, the steering assisting force generated by the steering device is decreased. Therefore, the steering reaction force received by the driver is increased to reliably inhibit the steering operation in the direction for the vehicle to approach the on-coming vehicle.
According to a fifth aspect and feature of the present invention, the contact avoiding means ensures that as the relative distance between the vehicle and the on-coming vehicle becomes smaller, or as the relative speed between the vehicle and the on-coming vehicle becomes larger, the steering assisting force generated by the steering device is corrected to be decreased.
With the above arrangement, as the relative distance between the vehicle and the on-coming vehicle becomes smaller, or as the relative speed between the vehicle and the on-coming vehicle becomes larger, the steering assisting force generated by the steering device is decreased. Therefore, when it is believed that the possibility of contact is higher, the steering reaction force received by the driver is increased to reliably inhibit the steering operation in the direction for the vehicle to approach the on-coming vehicle.
According to a sixth aspect and feature of the present invention, the steering-state detecting means detects the involuntary steering operation by the driver, when the time-variation rate in steering torque and the time-variation rate in steering angle input to the steering wheel by the driver, are equal to or smaller than predetermined values.
With the above arrangement, when the time-variation rat
Kodaka Kenji
Shinmura Tomoyuki
Arent Fox Kitner Plotkin & Kahn
Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Louis-Jacques Jacques H.
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