JP6326990B2 - Vehicle driving support device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle driving support device that supports a driving operation of a driver driving a vehicle.

  Various driving support devices that support the driving operation of a driver are known. For example, Patent Document 1 predicts the possibility that a vehicle will collide with another vehicle ahead, and outputs a warning when the possibility of a collision is high. Devices that automatically decelerate and stop when the risk of collision is high are also widely known. Moreover, in patent document 1, the determination threshold value which determines the possibility of collision at the time of traffic congestion is made low.

JP 2011-113286 A

  According to Patent Literature 1, since the determination threshold value of the collision possibility becomes low at the time of traffic jam, it is suppressed that an alarm is output at the time of traffic jam even though the possibility of collision is not actually high. However, since the judgment threshold is not lowered unless there is a traffic jam, the driver can recognize an obstacle in a state where there is no traffic jam, and even when a driving operation for collision avoidance can be performed even if an alarm is not output, An alarm may be output. Therefore, there is a possibility that the driver feels annoying the output alarm.

  Even when there is a traffic jam, the risk of a collision is not necessarily low when the driver is performing an operation other than a driving operation (hereinafter, other things) during traveling. However, in Patent Document 1, since the threshold for determining the possibility of collision is lowered during a traffic jam, there is a possibility that the output of the alarm is delayed.

  In addition, even when the driving assistance control content is deceleration control, the driver feels bothered and cares about other things when the deceleration control is performed even though the driver is planning to perform the deceleration operation. Although it is possible that the driver's deceleration operation may be delayed, it is not preferable that the deceleration control is delayed.

  As described above, in the conventional driving support device, the driver can concentrate on driving, and the driving support control is performed even when the driving support control does not need to be executed, which may cause trouble for the driver. there were. In addition, the driver is distracted by other things, and the driving support control may be delayed when the driving support control at an early stage is necessary.

  The present invention has been made based on this situation, and the object of the present invention is to reduce the annoyance caused by the execution of the driving support control while reducing the delay of the driving support control. The object is to provide a driving support device for a vehicle.

  The above object is achieved by a combination of the features described in the independent claims, and the subclaims define further advantageous embodiments of the invention. Reference numerals in parentheses described in the claims indicate a correspondence relationship with specific means described in the embodiments described later as one aspect, and do not limit the technical scope of the present invention. .

To achieve the above object, the present invention is used in a vehicle, and a driver of the vehicle determines an other event that is an operation other than a driving operation performed while the vehicle is running. The driving support execution device (80) determines the execution condition for executing the driving support control based on other matters determined by the driving unit, and the driving condition is determined by the condition determining unit. A condition notifying unit (170) for notifying the execution device, and an extraordinary load estimating unit (130) for estimating an extraordinary load, which is a load of a driver by performing an extra, based on an extra event determined by the extra event determining unit ), And the other-things load estimation unit decides the other-things load based on the time required to do other things and the amount of movement to do other things. Even if the time required for Even if the load is high and the amount of action to do other things is the same, the other things load is determined so that the other things load becomes higher as the time required to do other things is longer. as other events load things load estimator has estimated high, as the driving support control is easily performed, a vehicular driving support apparatus which is characterized that you change the execution condition.

  According to the present invention, other things that the driver is performing while the vehicle is traveling are determined, and the execution conditions for executing the driving support control are determined based on the other things. As a result, when the driver is not focused on other things and can concentrate on driving, the driving support control is difficult to execute. Reduced. In addition, when the driver is concerned about other things, the driving support control is executed easily, so that the driving support control is less likely to be delayed.

1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a driving support system 1 including a driving support device 100 to which the present invention is applied. It is a block diagram which shows the function of the driving assistance apparatus 100 of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the process of the condition determination part 160 of FIG. It is a figure explaining the determination method of other things load in the modification 1. FIG.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the driving support system 1 includes an input device 10, a driver's seat camera 20, an in-vehicle sensor 30, an out-of-vehicle sensor 40, a wireless communication unit 50, a position detection unit 60, a map storage unit 70, and a surrounding monitoring device. 80, a display unit 90, a speaker 92, and a vehicle driving support device (hereinafter referred to as a driving support device) 100. The driving support system 1 is mounted on a vehicle (not shown), and each component included in the driving support system 1 can transmit and receive signals to and from each other via an in-vehicle LAN 94.

  The input device 10 is in a position where a driver sitting in the driver's seat of the vehicle can perform an input operation. Specifically, the input device 10 is one or both of an input device that can be input by hand, such as a touch panel superimposed on a screen, a mechanical switch, and an input device that can input voice, that is, a microphone. The driver inputs an execution condition for the peripheral monitoring device 80 to execute control from the input device 10, or other event specifying information for specifying other events that the driver is trying to perform or that the driver is currently performing. Enter. Information input from the input device 10 is output to the driving support device 100.

  The driver seat camera 20 is installed at a position where the driver seat in the passenger compartment can be imaged. The driver's seat camera 20 is controlled by the driving support device 100 and images the driver sitting in the driver's seat.

  The in-vehicle sensor 30 is a sensor that detects various kinds of information in the vehicle, and includes a sensor that detects the traveling state of the vehicle and a sensor that detects the state of the driver. Sensors that detect the running state of the vehicle include a vehicle speed sensor, a steering sensor, an accelerator opening sensor, and the like. Sensors that detect the state of the driver include a heart rate sensor that detects the heart rate, a seating sensor that detects that the driver is seated in the driver's seat, and the like.

  The vehicle exterior sensor 40 is a sensor that detects a state outside the vehicle. The outside sensor 40 is, for example, a radar or an ultrasonic sensor, and detects the inter-vehicle distance from the preceding vehicle and the positions of surrounding vehicles other than the preceding vehicle.

  The wireless communication unit 50 performs wireless communication with the outside of the vehicle and acquires road traffic information, weather, and the like around the current position. The position detection unit 60 includes, for example, a GNSS receiver used in a GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) that detects the position of its own device based on radio waves from a satellite. Based on the signal received by the GNSS receiver, the current position is detected. This current position is used for determining a range for acquiring road traffic information.

  The map storage unit 70 stores road map data. This road map data includes road type data such as highways and general roads, and road width data.

  The surroundings monitoring device 80 is a device that monitors the situation around the vehicle and executes driving support control for the driver when an execution condition is satisfied. There may be one or more surrounding monitoring devices 80. Examples of the driving support control to be executed include alarm output and braking control. Specifically, when the vehicle distance detected using the outside sensor 40 is less than or equal to the set value, control that outputs an alarm from the display unit 90 or the speaker 92 (hereinafter, vehicle distance alarm control), or the detected vehicle distance is the speed. There is a control (hereinafter referred to as automatic brake control) that automatically activates the brake when it becomes less than the automatic brake operation distance determined based on the above. The periphery monitoring device 80 corresponds to the driving support execution device in the claims.

  The driving support device 100 is a computer that includes a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, and the like, and the driving support device 100 executes the program stored in the ROM while using the temporary storage function of the RAM. It functions as each part shown in FIG. Note that some or all of the functions performed by the driving support apparatus 100 may be configured by hardware using one or a plurality of ICs.

  Next, functions of the driving support device 100 will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, the driving support device 100 includes a driver condition specifying unit 110, an other thing determining unit 120, an other thing load estimating unit 130, a driver state estimating unit 140, a traveling state estimating unit 150, a condition determining unit 160, a condition A notification unit 170 is provided.

  When the input device 10 is operated and the driver inputs an execution condition for the periphery monitoring device 80 to execute the driving support control, the driver condition specifying unit 110 acquires the execution condition input by the driver. Then, the execution condition input by the driver is output to the condition determining unit 160 as the execution condition specified by the driver.

  The other thing determination unit 120 determines the contents of other things that the driver is or is trying to perform while traveling. In addition, other things are operations other than the driving operation performed by the driver during traveling, and the driving operation here includes not only the movement of hands and feet, but also watching. In addition, this driving operation means an operation necessary for avoiding a failure in the current driving and the latest driving after the current driving. Therefore, the operation of seeing a car or a person existing in the road ahead or its surroundings is a driving operation, but the operation of seeing a sign is included in other things.

  The other thing determination unit 120 includes an other thing acquisition unit 121 and an other thing estimation unit 122. The other thing acquisition unit 121 acquires other thing specifying information from the input device 10 when the driver receives the above-described other thing specifying information from the input device 10. The other matter specifying information is, for example, the name of another matter. Since the input device 10 includes a microphone, for example, when the driver utters “sensitivity UP” because he / she xx, the other matter acquisition unit 121 analyzes the content of the utterance and acquires the other matter specifying information. Alternatively, when a list of a plurality of other matters stored in advance is displayed on the display unit 90 together with the other matter numbers, the other matter numbers input to the input device 10 become the other matter specifying information. The list is displayed on the display unit 90 by the other matter acquisition unit 121, for example. Since the other thing acquisition unit 121 determines the contents of other things from the other thing specifying information input by the driver, even if the other things that the driver is about to perform are determined, the contents of other things can be determined.

  The other thing estimation part 122 estimates the content of the other thing which the driver is performing by analyzing the image of the driver contained in the image which the driver's seat camera 20 imaged. There are various other things that the driver performs while the vehicle is running, for example, taking a container held in a drink holder and drinking a drink. In this other case, if it can be determined from the driver's image that the driver has reached the drink holder, the other matter estimation unit 122 takes the container held in the drink holder and drinks the drink. Presume that you are doing. As another example, the driver's line of sight is sequentially determined from the driver's image, and when the driver's line of sight is directed to the side of the vehicle, it is estimated that the driver is doing something other than looking aside. The other-thing estimation unit 122 may estimate the contents of other things while the vehicle is running or while the power is on, but the estimation is performed when the driver indicates that he / she wants to do other things. May start. For example, when a specific message such as “sensitivity UP” or “watching” is uttered, it is determined that the driver has indicated that he / she wants to do other things.

  The other-thing load estimation unit 130 estimates a driver load (hereinafter, other-things load) due to other things based on the contents of the other things determined by the other-things determination unit 120. In the present embodiment, this other load is expressed as the time required to perform other things.

  In order to determine this time, a storage unit (not shown) in the driving support device 100 stores a correspondence relationship that determines the time required to perform other things according to the contents of other things. The other thing load estimation unit 130 determines the time required to perform other things from the correspondence and the contents of other things determined by the other thing determination unit 120.

  The driver state estimation unit 140 estimates whether the state of mind and body of the driver is a state where appropriate driving can be performed. These are estimated from the speed and frequency of the steering wheel operation, the change in the change rate of the accelerator opening, the driver's line of sight, the heart rate of the driver, and the like. The speed and frequency of steering operation are determined using the steering angle detected by the steering sensor. The accelerator opening is obtained from an accelerator opening sensor. The driver's line of sight is determined by analyzing the image captured by the driver's seat camera 20. The heart rate of the driver is obtained from a heart rate sensor.

  For example, when the speed of the steering wheel operation is high, the frequency is high, and the accelerator opening greatly changes within a short time, the driver state is assumed to be a state in which appropriate driving is difficult. On the other hand, it is assumed that the driver is in a state where it is difficult to perform appropriate driving even when the steering wheel operation frequency is low, that is, when there is a long time without a fixed time or when there is a long time when the accelerator opening does not change. . In addition, when the driver's line of sight is long from the front of the vehicle, when the heart rate is high, or when the seating sensor cannot detect that the driver is seated in the driver's seat, the driver state is appropriate. Assume that it is difficult to drive.

  Furthermore, the driver state estimation unit 140 may estimate whether the driver is in an appropriate driving state in consideration of the driver's age, the driver's physical condition, and the driver's concentration on driving. The age of the driver is determined from, for example, a face recognition from an image captured by the driver's seat camera 20 to identify the driver, and the correspondence between the identified driver and the driver and age stored in advance. The physical condition of the driver is determined from the heart rate, for example. The degree of concentration of the driver for driving is determined from, for example, the driver's line-of-sight direction and the line-of-sight movement frequency.

  The traveling state estimation unit 150 estimates the current traveling state of the vehicle. The traveling state includes a state of the vehicle itself and a state around the vehicle. The traveling state estimation unit 150 includes a vehicle state estimation unit 151 that estimates the state of the vehicle itself, and a traveling environment estimation unit 152 that estimates a state around the vehicle.

  Examples of the state of the vehicle itself estimated by the vehicle state estimation unit 151 include a vehicle speed and a steering angle. These are acquired from a vehicle speed sensor and a steering sensor, which are in-vehicle sensors 30.

  The state around the vehicle estimated by the traveling environment estimation unit 152 includes the degree of congestion around the vehicle, the type of road on which the vehicle is traveling, the road width, and the like. The degree of surrounding congestion is estimated using a radar or an ultrasonic sensor that is the outside sensor 40. Alternatively, the wireless communication unit 50 may be used to acquire probe information indicating the position of another vehicle and the degree of traffic congestion on the road from outside the vehicle, and use these to estimate the degree of congestion around the vehicle. The road type and road width are determined from the current position detected by the position detection unit 60 and the road map data stored in the map storage unit 70.

  The condition determining unit 160 determines an execution condition for the periphery monitoring device 80 to perform driving support. The processing of the condition determining unit 160 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

  In step S1, it is determined whether the driver has specified execution conditions. When the execution condition is specified from the driver condition specifying unit 110, the driver specifies the execution condition (S1: YES), and the process proceeds to step S2.

  In step S <b> 2, the execution condition specified by the driver condition specifying unit 110 is set as an execution condition to be executed by the periphery monitoring device 80 as it is. When the execution condition is not specified from the driver condition specifying unit 110, the determination result of step S1 is NO. In this case, the process proceeds to step S3.

  In step S <b> 3, it is determined whether or not the other thing load estimation unit 130 estimates the other thing load. If the other load is not estimated (S3: NO), the process proceeds to step S6. In step S6, the execution condition is not changed, and it is determined to maintain the execution condition when other things are not performed. When the other thing load is estimated (S3: YES), it progresses to step S4.

  In step S4, it is determined whether or not the reliability of the driving support control is low. The state where the reliability of the driving support control is low is, for example, when there are many surrounding vehicles or when the surrounding object detection accuracy is lowered due to rain, snow, fog, nighttime, or the like. Further, when the braking distance required until the stop determined from the vehicle speed and the road surface condition exceeds the distance that the vehicle outside sensor 40 can detect the object, the reliability of the driving support control is low. Whether or not the reliability of the driving support control is low is determined from the driving state estimated by the driving state estimation unit 150 and information used by the driving state estimation unit 150 for estimating the driving state.

  Note that the driving support control may be in a low reliability state even when the driver is in a state where it is difficult for the driver to perform appropriate driving without performing other things. If the driver is in a state where it is difficult to carry out proper driving even though other things are not being done, if the driving support control with higher accuracy is not performed, the reliability of the driving support control is said to be reliable. I can't say that.

  When it is determined that the reliability of the driving support control is low (S4: YES), the process proceeds to step S5. In step S <b> 5, the display unit 90 corresponding to the notification unit and the speaker 92 are notified from one or both of them that attention should be paid to driving. Then, it progresses to step S6 mentioned above. Therefore, when it is determined that the reliability of the driving support control is low, the execution condition when the other things are not performed is maintained even if the other things load is estimated.

  If it is determined that the reliability of the driving support control is not low (S4: NO), the process proceeds to step S7. In step S <b> 7, the execution condition is determined based on the other thing load estimated by the other thing load estimating unit 130. Specifically, in this embodiment, the other-things load is represented by the time required to do other things. Therefore, the execution condition is determined so that the driving support control is executed more quickly than the time required for performing other things than the execution condition before estimating the other things load.

  For example, when using inter-vehicle distance alarm control as an example of driving support control, the distance is calculated by multiplying the time required to do other things by multiplying the current vehicle speed, and that distance is the threshold for alarm output. Increase the distance. Also in the automatic brake control, the automatic brake working distance is increased by a distance obtained by multiplying the time required for performing other things by the current vehicle speed. Therefore, it becomes easier to perform driving support control such as an alarm and automatic brake operation than when the load of other things is not estimated. In other words, when the other-things load is not estimated, the driving support control is less likely to be performed than when the other-things load is estimated.

  In step S8, the execution conditions determined in step S7 are corrected based on the driver state estimated by the driver state estimation unit 140 and the traveling state estimated by the traveling state estimation unit 150.

  When it is estimated that the driver state is difficult to perform appropriate driving, the execution condition is corrected so that driving support control is executed earlier. For example, in the inter-vehicle distance alarm control and the automatic brake control, the inter-vehicle distance and the automatic brake operating distance for outputting the alarm are further increased. The degree of increase may be a constant value, or may be a value according to the driver state if the driver state is quantitatively determined.

  The correction based on the running state is as follows. As described above, the traveling state includes a vehicle state and a traveling environment. If the vehicle state and the traveling environment estimated by the vehicle state estimating unit 151 and the traveling environment estimating unit 152 are the vehicle state and the traveling environment in which the driving operation is required quickly, the driving support control is executed early. Correct the execution conditions.

  For example, when the vehicle speed is high and the steering angle is large, the driving operation is required early, so the execution condition is corrected so that the driving support control is executed early. Conversely, when the vehicle speed is low and the steering angle is small, the execution condition is corrected so that the execution of the driving control is relatively delayed as compared with the case where the vehicle speed is high and the steering angle is large.

  Also, if the surrounding congestion level, road type, and road width, which are driving environments, are high enough to be judged as congested, if the road type is an expressway, or if the road width is wide Corrects the execution condition so that the execution of the operation control is delayed.

  Returning to FIG. The condition notification unit 170 notifies the periphery monitoring device 80 that uses the execution condition of the execution condition determined by the condition determination unit 160. The periphery monitoring device 80 notified of the execution condition determines whether to execute the driving support control using the execution condition.

<Effect of embodiment>
As described above, according to the present embodiment described above, the other matter determination unit 120 determines other things that the driver is performing while the vehicle is traveling. Then, the condition determination unit 160 determines an execution condition under which the driving support control is executed based on the determined other matters.

  In this way, when it can be estimated that the driver can concentrate on driving because the driver is not doing anything else, the driving support control is executed because it becomes difficult to execute the driving support control. The troublesomeness due to is reduced. In addition, when the driver is distracted by other things, it becomes an execution condition that facilitates driving support control. Therefore, it is less likely that the driving support control is delayed.

  Further, in this embodiment, when it is determined that the driving state is a state in which the reliability of the driving support control is low (S4: YES), even if the other load is estimated, the execution condition is set to other things. The conditions are maintained when not performed (S6). Therefore, it is possible to prevent the driver from performing other things until the reliability of the driving support control is low. In addition, since the driver is informed that the driver should concentrate on driving (S5), the driver can recognize that the driver should concentrate on driving.

  As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described, this invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, The following modification is also contained in the technical scope of this invention, Furthermore, the summary other than the following is also included. Various modifications can be made without departing from the scope.

<Modification 1>
The other-things load estimation part 130 of the above-mentioned embodiment represented the other-things load with the time required to do other things. However, in the first modification, the other-things load estimation unit 130 determines the other-things load from the time required to perform other things and the amount of movement of other things. The movement amount means a movement amount by which the driver moves a part of the body such as hands, eyes, and face when performing other things.

  With reference to FIG. 4, a method for determining the other load in the first modification will be described. The vertical axis in FIG. 4 is the time required to do other things, and the time is longer as it goes upward. The horizontal axis is the amount of motion to do other things, and the amount of motion is greater on the left side.

  As shown in FIG. 4, for example, the other thing A is an action of drinking a drink, the other thing B is an action of looking at a road sign, and the other thing C is an action of looking at a destination signboard. Event D is an operation of opening the bread bag. The other thing A is an action that uses one hand and moves the line of sight, and has a larger amount of movement than the other things B and C that do not use the hand. Other thing D is an action that requires both hands, and the amount of movement is larger than that of other thing C. Since the other matters B and C are only movements of the line of sight, the movement amount is small. In the first modification, it is considered that the longer the time for performing other things and the larger the amount of operation, that is, the higher the other-side load in FIG.

  In the first modification, the correspondence between the operation load determined based on this idea and other things is stored in a predetermined storage unit. Then, the extraordinary load estimating unit 130 determines the extraordinary load from the correspondence and the contents of the extraneous matter estimated by the extraordinary matter determining unit 120.

  Other things with a large amount of movement tend to take a long time to keep the line of sight away from the front of the vehicle. On the other hand, there are many cases where the amount of movement is small, and even if the time is long, the driving operation can be performed to some extent, such as occasionally being able to see the front of the vehicle. Therefore, as in the first modification, a more appropriate other load can be determined by determining the other load in consideration of the operation amount.

  Since the other-affiliate load is not represented by time, unlike the above-described embodiment, the driving support control is executed earlier than the execution condition before estimating the other-affiliate load by a time that represents the other-affected load. It cannot be changed to run. Therefore, in the first modification, a relationship and a table that determine the degree of changing the execution condition based on the magnitude of the other load are determined in advance. Then, the execution condition is changed by using the other load actually determined and the relationship and table which are determined in advance.

<Modification 2>
In the above-described embodiment, the execution condition determined from the other-affected load is corrected based on the driver state and the running state. May be an execution condition to be notified.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1: Driver assistance system, 10: Input device, 20: Driver's seat camera, 30: In-vehicle sensor, 40: Outside sensor, 50: Wireless communication part, 60: Position detection part, 70: Map storage part, 80: Perimeter monitoring apparatus , 90: display unit, 92: speaker, 94: in-vehicle LAN, 100: driving support device, 110: driver condition designation unit, 120: other-affairs determination unit, 121: other-affairs acquisition unit, 122: other-things estimation unit, 130 : Other things load estimation unit, 140: driver state estimation unit, 150: travel state estimation unit, 151: vehicle state estimation unit, 152: travel environment estimation unit, 160: condition determination unit, 170: condition notification unit

Claims (4)

Used in vehicles,
Other matter determination unit (120) for determining other things that are operations other than the driving operation performed while the vehicle driver is driving the vehicle;
The other events determination unit based on the other events determined, condition determining unit driving support execution unit (80) determines the execution condition for executing the driving support control and (160),
A condition notifying unit (170) for notifying the driving support execution device of the execution condition determined by the condition determining unit ;
A miscellaneous load estimation unit (130) for estimating a miscellaneous load that is a load of the driver by performing the miscellaneous based on the miscellaneous determined by the miscellaneous matter determining unit ,
The other-things load estimation unit is configured to determine the other-things load based on a time required to perform the other-things and an operation amount for performing the other-things. Even if the required time is the same, the more the amount of operation to perform the other thing, the higher the other thing load, and the time required to perform the other thing even if the operation amount to perform the other thing is the same The other load is determined such that the longer the is, the higher the other load is.
The condition determining unit is configured as other events load estimator other events heavy load estimated such that said driving support control is easily performed, the vehicle driving assist characterized that you change the execution condition apparatus. In claim 1,
The said other thing determination part determines the said other thing based on the image of the said driver which the driver's seat camera (20) which images the said driver images, The driving assistance device for vehicles characterized by the above-mentioned. In claim 1 or 2,
The other matter determining unit determines the other matter based on other matter specifying information for specifying the other thing input by the driver using an input device (10) installed in a passenger compartment of the vehicle. A vehicle driving support device characterized by the above. In any one of claims 1 to 3
A running state estimating unit (150) for estimating the running state of the vehicle;
When the driving state estimated by the driving state estimating unit is a preset driving state in which the reliability of driving support by the driving support execution device is low, the other matter determining unit may Even if the execution condition is determined, the execution condition is determined as a condition when the other things are not performed, and the notification unit (90, 92) provided in the passenger compartment of the vehicle is used for driving. A vehicle driving support device that outputs a notification of what should be concentrated.

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