• 专利附录
  • 专利说明
  • 权利要求
  • 类似技术
  • 同族专利
  • 引用文献
  • 法律状态
  • 优先权
    • 专利摘要:
    A system for determining whether it is for safety reason suitable to let a group of motor vehicles operate in a platoon formation comprises on board each vehicle (1) in said group sensors (6-8, 11) configured to detect if the road the vehicle is driving on is suitable for platooning and a wireless interface (4) configured to communicate wirelessly with the wireless interfaces of the other motor vehicles of this group to transmit data collected by the sensors of the vehicle to the other vehicles. A processor unit (12) is arranged on board each vehicle to process data from said sensors (6-8, 11), to determine whether it is for safety reason suitable to let said group of vehicles operate in a platoon formation.
    公开号:SE1650879A1
    申请号:SE1650879
    申请日:2016-06-21
    公开日:2017-12-22
    发明作者:Alam Assad
    申请人:Scania Cv Ab；
    IPC主号:
    专利说明:

    A SYSTEM FOR OPERATION OF A GROUP OF MOTORVEHICLES TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a system configured to determinewhether it is for safety reason suitable to let a group of motor vehicles, operate in a platoon formation.
    The invention also relates to a motor vehicle used in such a systemand a method for determining whether it is for safety reason suit- able to let a group of motor vehicles operate in a platoon formation.
    BACKGROUND ART lt is known that for motor vehicles in general the air drag of thevehicle is proportional to the square of the vehicle's velocity, whichmeans that already a smaller speed reduction of the vehicle mayreduce the air drag and by that the fuel consumption of the vehicleconsiderably. Additionally, especially for heavy wheeled motor ve-hicles, such as trucks or buses, a noticeable reduction of air dragmay be obtained by staying close to a preceding such vehicle, butthis advantage is there for any motor vehicle and the invention isnot restricted to any type of motor vehicle and is also applicable to for instance passenger cars.
    Adaptive cruise control (ACC) increasingly available in especiallytrucks enables both said possibilities for reducing air drag and bythat fuel consumption by utilizing radar, lidar and/or camera infor- mation of the vehicles to operate in a so-called platoon formation, which is a vehicle train with a number of vehicles travelling muchcloser to one another than would be possible if a reacting distancefor human reaction were needed. Known such systems do alreadyprovide for a substantial reduction of the consumption of fuel ofthe motor vehicles when operating in a platoon formation, but fu-ture systems entailing vehicle-to-vehicle communication will ena-ble a more informed and advanced control that in turn will facilitatea smaller inter-vehicle spacing with maintained safety resulting in a possibility to reduce the fuel consumption even more.
    However, operating a group of motor vehicles in a platoon for-mation might not always be suitable due to safety related precau-tions. The road on which the vehicles in a said group are travellingmight be slippery (wet or icy), the vehicles brake system might beworn out and/or the preceding vehicle might behave irrationally,which are a number of reasons for making operation in a platoonformation unsuitable, and all such reasons are here to be inter-preted to be covered by the definition “the road the vehicle is driv-ing on is unsuitable for platooning”. Thus, a system configured todetermine whether it is for safety reason suitable to let a group ofmotor vehicles operate in a platoon formation is of great im-portance to have when it is decided to drive a group of motor ve-hicles that way.
    US 2015/O127189 A1 discloses a system of the type defined in theintroduction in which information from cameras and maps is usedto decide whether a lead vehicle of a platoon formation is drivingin a way violating traffic regulations, and if that is the case the operation in a platoon formation will be interrupted. However, this system does not consider the state of the road, so that platooning may be continued when it is really not suitable.
    SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to provide a system of thetype defined in the introduction being improved in at least some aspect with respect to such systems already known.
    This object is according to the invention obtained by providingsuch a system with the features listed in the characterizing part of appended patent claim 1.
    By having on board each vehicle in the group operating in a pla-toon formation a processor unit configured to process data fromthe sensors on board the vehicles of the group to determinewhether it is for safety reason suitable to let the group of vehiclesoperate in a platoon formation it will be possible to ensure thatplatooning is conducted on roads, i.e. at conditions, suitable foroperation in a platoon formation and only then. Thus, the proces-sor unit will thanks to the wireless communication of the motorvehicles of said group with each other consider data from sensorsof all the vehicles in said group for determining whether operatingin a platoon formation is suitable or not resulting in reliable con- clusions made as a basis for said determination.
    According to an embodiment of the invention the system compriseson board each vehicle in said group a member configured tothrough said wireless interface thereof send out a warning signal to be received by the wireless interface of the other vehicles of said group if the processor unit of any of the vehicles of the groupdetermines that it is for safety reason not suitable to let said groupof vehicles operate in a platoon formation. This ensures that pla-tooning is interrupted as soon as there exist any circumstancemaking platooning unsuitable. lt is then advantageous that saidmember is configured to also convey a warning signal, such as asound, haptic, displayed signal, etc., to the driver of the vehicle towhich the member belongs, which is in accordance with anotherembodiment of the invention and ensures that operating in a pla-toon formation is interrupted as soon as deemed unsuitable and every driver of vehicles of the group will be aware thereof.
    According to another embodiment of the invention an automaticcontroller for the platooning operation of said group on board eachvehicle of said group is configured to automatically enforce alarger spacing between the vehicles of said group upon receipt ofdata from said processor unit informing about a determination thatit is for safety reason not suitable to let the group of vehicles op-erate in a platoon formation with the existing spacing but with asaid larger spacing. This means that operation in a platoon for-mation may be continued and fuel be saved in spite of the fact thatthe processor unit has determined that the platooning carried outis unsuitable but would be suitable by enlarging the spacing be- tween the vehicles.
    According to another embodiment of the invention an automaticcontroller for the platooning operation of said group on board eachvehicle of said group is configured to turn into a deactivated stateupon receipt of data from said processor unit informing about a determination that it is for safety reason not suitable to let the group of vehicles operate in an automatic platoon formation withany size of spacing between the vehicles so as to interrupt saidoperation of the group in a platoon formation. Thus, this systemensures that automatic platooning is really interrupted as soon asit is for safety reason not suitable irrespectively of the size of thespacing between the vehicles. This may for instance be the casewhen a road surface is very slippery and the conditions so that thevehicles have to drive slowly. The driver may, however, still man-ually control the vehicle to drive at a short distance to a precedingvehicle, although perhaps not recommendable after having re- ceived a warning signal that this is not suitable.
    According to another embodiment of the invention said sensors onboard the vehicles of said group comprises sensors configured todetect whether the surface of the road is suitable for platooning,such as an angular velocity sensor in the tires used to measureslip and a camera used to detect if the road is wet, icy or snowy.This ensures that platooning operation will not be carried out if the surface of the road is not suitable for platooning.
    According to another embodiment of the invention said sensors onboard the vehicles of said group comprises sensors, such as radarand camera, configured to detect the behaviour of the vehicle infront of the respective vehicle in said platooning formation by de-tecting whether that vehicle is driving smoothly and in a controlledmanner or irrationally as a measure of whether the road the vehicleis driving on is suitable for platooning. This ensures that platoon-ing operation will be interrupted would any of the vehicles of saidgroup start to behave irrationally, such as would one of the drivers not act as supposed to.
    According to another embodiment of the invention said sensors onboard the vehicles of said group comprises sensors configured to,through wireless communication, receive road data in the form ofdata from a data base, such as map information or informationfrom other vehicles that have trave|ed over the road segment thevehicles are driving on in the past, or data from a local weatherstation. Considering such road data when determining whether theroad is suitable for operating the vehicles in a platoon formation adds to the reliability of said determination.
    A motor vehicle configured to be included in a group of such vehi-cles operating in a platoon formation according to the present in-vention is defined in the appended claim directed to such a motorvehicle. Such a motor vehicle may when included in a group ofother such vehicles reliably operate in a platoon formation only when this is really suitable.
    A method for determining whether it is for safety reason suitableto let a group of motor vehicles operate in a platoon formation isaccording to the invention provided by the combination of featureslisted in the appended independent method claim. The advantagesof this method and embodiments thereof appear clearly from the above discussion of the system according to the present invention.
    The invention also relates to a computer program, a computer pro-gram product and an electronic control unit having the features ofthe claims directed to a computer program, a computer program product and an electronic control unit, respectively.
    Other advantageous features as well as advantages of the present invention appear from the description following below.
    BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS With reference to the appended drawings, below follows a specificdescription of embodiments of the invention cited as examples. lnthe drawings: Fig 1 is a schematic view illustrating a group of trucks oper-ating in a platoon formation to which a system and amethod according to the invention may be applied, Fig 2 is a schematic view of a motor vehicle according to thepresent invention being a part of a system for determin-ing whether it is for safety reasons suitable to let agroup of motor vehicles operate in a platoon formationaccording to the present invention in operation, Fig 3 is a flow chart illustrating the steps carried out in amethod according to an embodiment of the invention,and Fig 4 is a schematic view illustrating an electronic control unit for implementing a method according to the invention.
    DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THEINVENTION Fig 1 illustrates schematically a number of heavy wheeled motorvehicles 1 in the form of trucks, i.e. heavy wheeled motor vehicles,operating in a platoon formation 2, i.e. a vehicle train, by beingdriven with a mutual spacing 3 in the order of 5 m - 15 m resultingin a substantial reduction of fuel consumption for each vehicle fol-lowing upon another vehicle. Embodiments of the present inven-tion will now be described for this type of driving of the vehicles without any intention to restrict the invention thereto.
    Fig 2 illustrates schematically one of the vehicles shown in Fig 1,and each of the vehicles operating in the platoon formation hasthe features now disclosed with reference to Fig 2. Thus, the ve-hicle has a wireless interface 4 configured to communicate wire-lessly with the wireless interfaces of the other motor vehicles, forexample through wifi, telecom, Bluetooth or IR. The vehicle hasalso an automatic controller 5 for the platooning operation of thegroup of vehicles in question using said wireless interface for con- trolling the vehicles to maintain the desired mutual spacing.
    The vehicle has sensors configured to detect if the road the vehicleis driving on is suitable for platooning, and these sensors includeson one hand sensors configured to detect whether the surface ofthe road is suitable for platooning, such as an angular velocitysensor 6 in the tires used to measure a slip and a camera 7 usedto detect if the road is wet, icy or snowy, and on the other hand sensors 8 configured to, through wireless communication, receive road data from a data base 9, such as map information or infor-mation from other vehicles that have travelled over the road seg-ment the vehicles are driving on in the past, or data from a localweather station 10. On board the vehicle are also sensors, suchas radar 11 and the camera 7, configured to detect the behaviourof the vehicle in front of the respective vehicle in a said platoonformation for detecting whether that vehicle is driving smoothlyand in a controlled manner or irrationally as a measure of whether the road the vehicle is driving on is suitable for platooning.
    Data from all these sensors are through said wireless interface 4wirelessly transmitted between the vehicles of said group so thata processor unit 12 in each vehicle receives all these data and isconfigured to process these data to determine whether it is forsafety reason suitable to let the group of vehicles operate in aplatoon formation. The result of such a processing may be thatthere is no reason to interrupt said operation in a platoon for-mation, it is not suitable but still acceptable to continue the pla-tooning carried out and the driver may decide whether this shallbe done or not, it is not acceptable to continue the platooning car-ried out but platooning with a larger spacing would be acceptableor platooning is not acceptable at all. ln the first of these four al-ternatives nothing will happen, or a green light may be turned onin the respective vehicle. The second alternative may for instanceresult in a yellow light signal for making the respective driveraware of the situation. Each vehicle has a member 13 configuredto wirelessly to the other vehicles of the group send out a warningsignal if the processor unit 12 of any of the vehicles of the groupof vehicles determines that it is for safety reason not suitable to let the group of vehicles operate in a platoon formation, which is the case for said third and fourth alternatives. The member maythen also convey a warning signal as a sound, haptic, displayedsignal or in any other way attracting the attention of the driver of the vehicle.
    Simultaneously with the transmitting of the warning signal the au-tomatic controller 5 will in the case of the third alternative auto-matically enforce a larger spacing between the vehicles of saidgroup, and in case of the fourth alternative turn into a deactivatedstate so as to interrupt the operation of the group in an automatic platoon formation.
    Fig 3 illustrates a flow chart of a method according to an embodi-ment of the present invention carried out for determining whetherit is for safety reason suitable to let a group of motor vehicles op-erate in a platoon formation. Each step of the method is carriedout by each said vehicle of said group, and the method is startedwith the step S1 of detecting if the road the vehicle is driving on issuitable for platooning. lt is continued with the step S2 of communi-cating the result of this detection to the other vehicles of saidgroup, whereupon in a step S3 the road condition data detectedare processed. ln a step S4 the following question is asked: ls itfor safety reason suitable to let the group of vehicles operate in aplatoon formation When the answer to this question is no, themethod is continued with the step S5 of sending out a warning sig-nal and a step S6 of asking the question may platooning be carriedout with a larger spacing between the vehicles . lf the answer tothis question is yes it is continued with the step S7 of automatically enforcing a larger spacing between the vehicles, and if the answer 11 to this question is no, the control of the automatic platooning op-eration is deactivated in a step S8. The method is carried out con-tinuously since the conditions may change. This is the reason forreturning to step S1 after reaching step S4, step S7 and step S8. ltis for instance possible that platooning with a larger spacing ispossible but this is then changed because the conditions get worse and step S8 has then to be carried out.
    Computer program code for implementing a method according tothe invention is with advantage included in a computer programwhich can be read into the internal memory of a computer, e.g. theinternal memory of an electronic control unit of a motor vehicle.Such a computer program is with advantage provided via a com-puter program product comprising a data storage medium whichcan be read by a computer and which has the computer programstored on it. Said data storage medium is for example an opticaldata storage medium in the form of a CD ROM disc, a DVD discetc., a magnetic data storage medium in the form of a hard disc, adiskette, a cassette tape etc., or a flash memory or a memory ofthe ROM, PROM, EPROM or EEPROM type. Fig. 4 illustrates veryschematically an electronic control unit 14 comprising an execu-tion means 15, e.g. a central processor unit (CPU), for executionof computer software. The execution means 15 communicates witha memory 16, e.g. of the RAM type, via a data bus 17. The controlunit 14 comprises also a non-transitory data storage medium 18,e.g. in the form of a flash memory or a memory of the ROM, PROM,EPROM or EEPROM type. The execution means 15 communicateswith the data storage medium 18 via the data bus 17. A computer program comprising computer program code for implementing a 12 method according to the invention, e.g. in accordance with the em-bodiment illustrated in Fig. 3 is stored on the data storage medium18.
    The invention is of course in no way restricted to the embodimentsdescribed above, since many possibilities for modifications thereofare likely to be obvious to one skilled in the art without having toderivate from the scope of invention defined in the appended claims.
    权利要求:
    Claims (14)
    [1] 1. A system configured to determine whether it is for safety rea- son suitable to let a group of motor vehicles (1) operate in a platoon formation (2), the system comprising on board each vehicle in said group: ø sensors (6-8, 11) configured to detect if the road the vehicleis driving on is suitable for platooning, and o a wireless interface (4) configured to communicate wire-lessly with the wireless interfaces of the other motor vehi-cles of said group to transmit data collected by said sensorsof the vehicle to the other vehicles, characterized in that the system further comprises on board each vehicle in said group a processor unit (12) configured to process data from said sensors on board the vehicles of said group to determine whether it is for safety reason suitable to let said group of vehicles operate in a platoon formation.
    [2] 2. A system according to claim 1, characterized in that it com-prises on board each vehicle (1) in said group a member (13)configured to through said wireless interface (4) thereof sendout a warning signal to be received by the wireless interface(4) of the other vehicles of said group if said processor unit(12) of any of the vehicles of said group determines that it isfor safety reason not suitable to let said group of vehicles op- erate in a platoon formation.
    [3] 3. A system according to claim 2, characterized in that said member (13) is configured to also convey a warning signal, 14 such as a sound, haptic, displayed signal, etc., to the driverof the vehicle to which the member (13) belongs..
    [4] 4. A system according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that anautomatic controller (5) for the platooning operation of saidgroup on board each vehicle of said group is configured toautomatically enforce a larger spacing (3) between the vehi-cles (1) of said group upon receipt of data from said processorunit (12) informing about a determination that it is for safetyreason not suitable to let the group of vehicles operate in aplatoon formation with the existing spacing but with a said larger spacing.
    [5] 5. A system according to any of claims 2-4, characterized in thatan automatic controller (5) for the platooning operation of saidgroup on board each vehicle (1) of said group is configured toturn into a deactivated state upon receipt of data from saidprocessor unit (12) informing about a determination that it isfor safety reason not suitable to let the group of vehicles op-erate in an automatic platoon formation with any size of spac-ing between the vehicles so as to interrupt said operation of the group in a platoon formation.
    [6] 6. A system according to any of the preceding claims, charac-terized in that said sensors on board the vehicles of saidgroup comprises sensors configured to detect whether thesurface of the road is suitable for platooning, such as an an-gular velocity sensor (6) in the tires used to measure slip and a camera (7) used to detect if the road is wet, icy or snowy.
    [7] 7. A system according to any of preceding claims, characterizedin that said sensors on board the vehicles of said group com-prises sensors, such as radar (11) and camera (7), configuredto detect the behaviour of the vehicle in front of the respectivevehicle in said platooning formation by detecting whether thatvehicle (1) is driving smoothly and in a controlled manner orirrationally as a measure of whether the road the vehicle is driving on is suitable for platooning.
    [8] 8. A system according to any of the preceding claims, charac- terized in that said sensors on board the vehicles of saidgroup comprises sensors (8) configured to, through wirelesscommunication, receive road data in the form of data from adata base (9), such as map information or information fromother vehicles that have travelled over the road segment thevehicles are driving on in the past, or data from a local weather station (10).
    [9] 9. A motor vehicle configured to be included in a group of such vehicles (1) operating in a platoon formation (2), the motor vehicle comprising: o sensors (6-8, 11) configured to detect if the road the vehicleis driving on is suitable for platooning, and o a wireless interface (4) configured to communicate wire-lessly with the wireless interfaces of the other motor vehi-cles of said group to transmit data collected by said sensorsof the vehicle to the other vehicles, characterized in that the vehicle further comprises a proces- sor unit (12) configured to process data from said sensors (6- 8, 11) on board vehicles of said group to determine whether it 16 is for safety reason suitable to let said group of vehicles op- erate in a platoon formation.
    [10] 10. A method for determining whether it is for safety reason suit-able to let a group of motor vehicles (1) operate in a platoonformation (2) comprising the following steps carried out byeach vehicle of said group: a) detecting if the road the vehicle is driving on is suitable forplatooning, b) communicating wirelessly with the other vehicles of saidgroup for transmitting road condition data detected to theother vehicles, and c) processing said road condition data detected so as to de-termine whether it is for safety reason suitable to let said group of vehicles operate in a platoon formation.
    [11] 11. A method according to claim 10, characterized in that it com-prises the further steps ofd) sending out a warning signal wirelessly to the other vehiclesof said group,e) conveying a warning signal to the driver of the vehiclethrough sound, haptic, displayed signal, etc., andf)automatically enforcing a larger spacing (3) between the ve-hicles in said group or deactivating the control of the pla-tooning operation,if and how steps d) - f) are carried out depends upon the result of the determination in said processing step.
    [12] 12. A computer program comprising computer program code for causing a computer to implement a method according to claim
    [13] 13.
    [14] 14. 17 10 or 11 when the computer program is executed in the com- puter. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory datastorage medium (18) which can be read by a computer and onwhich the program code of a computer program according to c|aim 12 is stored. An electronic control unit (14) of a motor vehicle comprisingan execution means (15), a memory (16) connected to the ex-ecution means and a non-transitory data storage medium (18)which is connected to the execution means (15) and on whichthe computer program code of a computer program according to c|aim 12 is stored.
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    同族专利:
    公开号 | 公开日
    DE102017005449A1|2017-12-21|
    SE540159C2|2018-04-17|
    BR102017012456A2|2018-01-09|
    引用文献:
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    DE102012208256A1|2012-05-16|2013-11-21|Continental Teves Ag & Co. Ohg|Method and system for autonomously tracking a follower vehicle on the track of a Leader vehicle|
    法律状态:
    优先权:
    申请号 | 申请日 | 专利标题
    SE1650879A|SE540159C2|2016-06-21|2016-06-21|A system and a method for determining whether it is suitableto operate in a platoon formation|SE1650879A| SE540159C2|2016-06-21|2016-06-21|A system and a method for determining whether it is suitableto operate in a platoon formation|
    DE102017005449.5A| DE102017005449A1|2016-06-21|2017-06-07|System for operating a group of motor vehicles|
    BR102017012456-8A| BR102017012456A2|2016-06-21|2017-06-12|SYSTEM FOR OPERATING A GROUP OF MOTOR VEHICLES|
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