US-12617466-B2 - Vehicle driving assist device, vehicle, vehicle driving assist method, and storage medium

US12617466B2US 12617466 B2US12617466 B2US 12617466B2US-12617466-B2

Abstract

A vehicle driving assist device includes a processor that controls a steering reaction force to be applied to a steering operation performed by a driver of a vehicle. The processor acquires a size of an intersection when the driver intends the vehicle to turn right or left at the intersection. The processor sets a steering angle of the vehicle necessary for the vehicle to turn right or left at the intersection as a guide steering angle based on the size of the intersection. The processor controls the steering reaction force based on a difference between the guide steering angle and an actual steering angle.

Inventors

Shintaro SAIGO
Kentaro Hamada
Keigo MIYAMA
Takeshi Hamaguchi
Shusaku Sugamoto

Assignees

TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20240319
Priority Date: 20230427

Claims (12)

1 . A vehicle driving assist device comprising a processor configured to control a steering reaction force to be applied to a steering operation performed by a driver of a vehicle, wherein the processor is configured to: acquire a longitudinal size of an intersection with respect to the vehicle when the driver intends the vehicle to turn right or left at the intersection, wherein the longitudinal size is acquired based an intersection entrance distance and an intersection exit distance; acquire a size of the intersection based on the longitudinal size; set a steering angle of the vehicle necessary for the vehicle to turn right or left at the intersection as a guide steering angle based on the size of the intersection; and control the steering reaction force based on a difference between the guide steering angle and an actual steering angle.
2 . The vehicle driving assist device according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to: when the driver intends the vehicle to turn left at the intersection of a first kind including two or more possible left-turn roads that the vehicle is allowed to enter by turning left and which of the possible left-turn roads the driver intends the vehicle to enter by turning left is unknown, acquire the size of the intersection based on a possible left-turn road farthest from the vehicle out of the possible left-turn roads; and when the driver intends the vehicle to turn right at the intersection of a second kind including two or more possible right-turn roads that the vehicle is allowed to enter by turning right and which of the possible right-turn roads the driver intends the vehicle to enter by turning right is unknown, acquire the size of the intersection based on a possible right-turn road farthest from the vehicle out of the possible right-turn roads.
3 . The vehicle driving assist device according to claim 2 , wherein the processor is configured to: when the driver starts to turn the vehicle to left at the intersection of the first kind, control on the steering reaction force is started based on the difference between the guide steering angle and the actual steering angle, and then a first possible left-turn road that the driver intends the vehicle to enter by turning left is identified, control the steering reaction force based on a difference between the actual steering angle and the guide steering angle that is set under an assumption that the vehicle is to enter the first possible left-turn road; and when the driver starts to turn the vehicle to right at the intersection of the second kind, control on the steering reaction force is started based on the difference between the guide steering angle and the actual steering angle, and then a first possible right-turn road that the driver intends the vehicle to enter by turning right is identified, control the steering reaction force based on a difference between the actual steering angle and the guide steering angle that is set under an assumption that the vehicle is to enter the first possible right-turn road.
4 . The vehicle driving assist device according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to: acquire a lateral size of the intersection with respect to the vehicle; and acquire the size of the intersection based on the lateral size.
5 . The vehicle driving assist device according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to set the guide steering angle to be smaller as the intersection is smaller.
6 . A vehicle comprising: the vehicle driving assist device according to claim 1 ; a steering wheel; and a reaction force actuator, wherein the reaction force actuator is configured to apply the steering reaction force controlled by the processor to the steering operation when a force of the steering operation performed by the driver is applied to the steering wheel.
7 . A vehicle driving assist method for controlling a steering reaction force to be applied to a steering operation performed by a driver of a vehicle, the vehicle driving assist method comprising: acquire a longitudinal size of an intersection with respect to the vehicle when the driver intends the vehicle to turn right or left at the intersection, wherein the longitudinal size is acquired based an intersection entrance distance and an intersection exit distance; acquiring a size of the intersection based on the longitudinal size; setting a steering angle of the vehicle necessary for the vehicle to turn right or left at the intersection as a guide steering angle based on the size of the intersection; and controlling the steering reaction force based on a difference between the guide steering angle and an actual steering angle.
8 . A non-transitory storage medium storing instructions that are executable by one or more processors and that cause the one or more processors to perform functions for controlling a steering reaction force to be applied to a steering operation performed by a driver of a vehicle, wherein the functions comprise: acquiring a longitudinal size of an intersection with respect to the vehicle when the driver intends the vehicle to turn right or left at the intersection, wherein the longitudinal size is acquired based an intersection entrance distance and an intersection exit distance; acquiring a size of the intersection based on the intersection; setting a steering angle of the vehicle necessary for the vehicle to turn right or left at the intersection as a guide steering angle based on the size of the intersection; and controlling the steering reaction force based on a difference between the guide steering angle and an actual steering angle.
9 . The vehicle driving assist device according to claim 1 , wherein the intersection entrance distance is a distance between an entrance of the intersection and the vehicle, and the intersection exit distance is a distance between the vehicle and an exit of the intersection.
10 . The vehicle according to claim 6 , wherein the intersection entrance distance is a distance between an entrance of the intersection and the vehicle, and the intersection exit distance is a distance between the vehicle and an exit of the intersection.
11 . The vehicle driving assist method according to claim 7 , wherein the intersection entrance distance is a distance between an entrance of the intersection and the vehicle, and the intersection exit distance is a distance between the vehicle and an exit of the intersection.
12 . The non-transitory storage medium according to claim 8 , wherein the intersection entrance distance is a distance between an entrance of the intersection and the vehicle, and the intersection exit distance is a distance between the vehicle and an exit of the intersection.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2023-073265 filed on Apr. 27, 2023, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. BACKGROUND 1. Technical Field The present disclosure relates to a vehicle driving assist device, a vehicle, a vehicle driving assist method, and a storage medium. 2. Description of Related Art There is known a vehicle driving assist device configured to assist a driver's operation on a steering wheel (steering operation) when the driver drives a vehicle along a curved road. The device acquires the curvature radius of the curved road and, when the curvature radius is small, that is, when the curved road is a sharply curved road, adjusts a steering reaction force to be applied to the steering wheel so that the driver can easily turn the steering wheel (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2022-188735 (JP 2022-188735 A)). When the vehicle travels along a curved road, that is, when there is only one road where the vehicle can travel, the vehicle driving assist device described above can control the steering reaction force based on the curvature radius of that road. When there are two or more roads where the vehicle can travel as in a case where the vehicle is at an intersection, that is, there are two or more roads where the vehicle can travel by turning right or left, however, the device cannot determine the curvature radius of a traveling road where the vehicle is to travel. As a result, the device cannot apply, to the steering wheel operation (steering operation), the steering reaction force that allows the driver to smoothly perform the steering wheel operation to turn the vehicle right or left. SUMMARY The present disclosure provides a vehicle driving assist device that can apply, to a steering operation, a steering reaction force that allows a driver to smoothly perform the steering operation even in a situation where the driver turns the vehicle to the right or left at an intersection. A vehicle driving assist device according to one aspect of the present disclosure includes a processor configured to control a steering reaction force to be applied to a steering operation performed by a driver of a vehicle. The processor is configured to acquire a size of an intersection when the driver intends the vehicle to turn right or left at the intersection, set a steering angle of the vehicle necessary for the vehicle to turn right or left at the intersection as a guide steering angle based on the size of the intersection, and control the steering reaction force based on a difference between the guide steering angle and an actual steering angle. With the vehicle driving assist device, the guide steering angle can be set by using the size of the intersection even in the situation where the driver turns the vehicle to the right or left at the intersection. Therefore, a steering reaction force that allows the driver to smoothly perform the steering operation can be applied to the steering operation. The processor may be configured to, when the driver intends the vehicle to turn left at the intersection of a first kind including two or more possible left-turn roads that the vehicle is allowed to enter by turning left and which of the possible left-turn roads the driver intends the vehicle to enter by turning left is unknown, acquire the size of the intersection based on a possible left-turn road farthest from the vehicle out of the possible left-turn roads. In this case, the processor may be configured to, when the driver intends the vehicle to turn right at the intersection of a second kind including two or more possible right-turn roads that the vehicle is allowed to enter by turning right and which of the possible right-turn roads the driver intends the vehicle to enter by turning right is unknown, acquire the size of the intersection based on a possible right-turn road farthest from the vehicle out of the possible right-turn roads. With the vehicle driving assist device, the steering reaction force that allows the driver to smoothly perform the steering operation can be applied to the steering operation even in the situation where the driver turns the vehicle to the right or left at the intersection including a plurality of possible left-turn roads or a plurality of possible right-turn roads. The processor may be configured to, when the driver starts to turn the vehicle to left at the intersection of the first kind, control on the steering reaction force is started based on the difference between the guide steering angle and the actual steering angle, and then a first possible left-turn road that the driver intends the vehicle to enter by turning left is identified, control the steering reaction force based on a difference between the actual steering angle and the guide steering angle that is set under an assumption that the vehicle is to enter the first possible left-turn road. In this ca