US-20260125043-A1 - CONTROL APPARATUS FOR VEHICLES

US20260125043A1US 20260125043 A1US20260125043 A1US 20260125043A1US-20260125043-A1

Abstract

In a control apparatus configured to control a control target included in a vehicle in accordance with a predetermined travel plan of the vehicle, control circuitry is configured to cause the control apparatus to: (I) Determine a command parameter that controls the control target such that the control target operates in accordance with the travel plan, (II) Execute, independently from the travel plan, independent control that determines an acceptable condition that defines an acceptable range of the control parameter, and (III) Change, in response to determination that the command parameter determined by the control circuitry conflicts with the acceptable condition, the command parameter so as to satisfy the acceptable condition.

Inventors

Mitsuharu HIGASHITANI
Noriaki Ikemoto

Assignees

DENSO CORPORATION

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20251031
Priority Date: 20241106

Claims (12)

1 . A control apparatus configured to control a control target included in a vehicle in accordance with a predetermined travel plan of the vehicle, the control apparatus comprising: control circuitry configured to cause the control apparatus to: determine a command parameter that controls the control target such that the control target operates in accordance with the travel plan; execute, independently from the travel plan, independent control that determines an acceptable condition that defines an acceptable range of the control parameter; and change, in response to determination that the command parameter determined by the control circuitry conflicts with the acceptable condition, the command parameter so as to satisfy the acceptable condition.
2 . The control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein: the independent control includes safety-related control configured to ensure safe travel of the vehicle; the control target is a power source for propulsion of the vehicle installed in the vehicle; and the control circuity is configured to cause the control apparatus to operate the power source in accordance with the determined control parameter to adjust a speed of the vehicle.
3 . The control apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein: the control circuity is configured to cause the control apparatus to: determine whether execution of cruise control that automatically controls the speed of the vehicle has been instructed by an occupant of the vehicle; and determine the command parameter that controls the power source such that the power source operates in accordance with the travel plan in response to determination that execution of the cruise control that automatically controls the speed of the vehicle has been instructed by the occupant of the vehicle.
4 . The control apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein: the safety-related control includes at least one of: collision avoidance control configured to prevent a collision of the vehicle; inter-vehicle distance control configured to maintains a predetermined distance between the vehicle and a preceding vehicle; slip traction control configured to suppress slipping of one or more wheels of the vehicle; and pre-curve deceleration control configured to decelerate the vehicle before entering a curve.
5 . The control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein: the independent control includes regulation-related control configured to cause the vehicle to travel in compliance with traffic laws and regulations; the control target is a power source for propulsion of the vehicle installed in the vehicle; and the control circuity is configured to cause the control apparatus to operate the power source in accordance with the determined control parameter to adjust a speed of the vehicle.
6 . The control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein: the travel plan is a plan that causes (i) a speed of the vehicle and (ii) one or more other physical quantities other than the speed of the vehicle to transition in accordance with the travel plan; the control target is a power source for propulsion of the vehicle installed in the vehicle; and the control circuity is configured to cause the control apparatus to: operate the power source in accordance with the determined control parameter to adjust the speed of the vehicle; switch whether to determine the command parameter that controls the power source such that the power source operates in accordance with the determined control parameter; and cause the one or more other physical quantities to transition in accordance with the travel plan independently of whether to determine the command parameter that controls the power source such that the power source operates in accordance with the determined control parameter.
7 . The control apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein: the control circuity is configured to cause the control apparatus to determine the command parameter that controls the power source such that the power source operates in accordance with the travel plan in response to determination that a predetermined manual operation of an interface unit connected to the control apparatus has occurred by an occupant of the vehicle.
8 . The control apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein: the control circuity is configured to cause the control apparatus to switch whether to determine the command parameter in accordance with a type of a road on which the vehicle is scheduled to travel.
9 . The control apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein: the control circuity is configured to cause the control apparatus to switch whether to determine the command parameter in accordance with a surface condition of a road on which the vehicle is scheduled to travel.
10 . The control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein: the independent control include protection-related control for protecting one or more protected devices installed in the vehicle.
11 . A program product for controlling a control target included in a vehicle in accordance with a predetermined travel plan of the vehicle, the program product comprising: a non-transitory storage medium; and computer-program instructions stored in the non-transitory storage medium, the computer-program instructions causing a processor to: determine a command parameter that controls the control target such that the control target operates in accordance with the travel plan; execute, independently from the travel plan, independent control that determines an acceptable condition that defines an acceptable range of the control parameter; and change, in response to determination that the command parameter determined by the control circuitry conflicts with the acceptable condition, the command parameter so as to satisfy the acceptable condition.
12 . A method of controlling a control target included in a vehicle in accordance with a predetermined travel plan of the vehicle, the method comprising: determining a command parameter that controls the control target such that the control target operates in accordance with the travel plan; executing, independently from the travel plan, independent control that determines an acceptable condition that defines an acceptable range of the control parameter; and changing, in response to determination that the command parameter determined by the control circuitry conflicts with the acceptable condition, the command parameter so as to satisfy the acceptable condition.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This present application is based on and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2024-194470 filed on November 6, 2024, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to control apparatuses for automatically controlling a control target included in a vehicle. BACKGROUND Japanese Patent Publication No. 4952268 discloses a travel control plan generation device. This travel control plan generation device is a vehicle control apparatus capable of generating a travel control plan (hereinafter also referred to as a “travel plan”) that enables the vehicle to automatically travel in a manner reflecting the driver’s driving preferences. Specifically, the travel control plan generation device receives, via a priority input unit, the priority level of each of the driver’s driving preferences, and sets, in a parameter value setting unit, values of travel control plan generation parameters according to the input priorities. Then, the travel plan generation device genets, based on the travel control plan generation parameters reflecting the driver’s driving preferences, a travel plan in a plan generation unit. SUMMARY The travel control plan generation device disclosed in the patent publication generates a travel plan as set forth above. When the amount of information required for generating the travel plan is small, the travel plan can be generated by a control apparatus installed in the vehicle, without utilizing external computational resources. However, in recent years, as the market introduction of electric vehicles and the like has accelerated, there has been an increasing demand for long-term travel plans from the viewpoint of energy management. In such a case, because the travel plan is a long-term plan, an enormous amount of computation is required to generate the travel plan. Therefore, there is a trend toward placing computational resources for generating the travel plan outside the vehicle, such as in a cloud environment. Consequently, it becomes necessary to appropriately coordinate the function for generating and executing the travel plan with other functions, such as safety systems, which are given higher priority than the execution of the travel plan. As a result of detailed studies conducted by the inventors, the above circumstances have been found. In view of the above circumstances, the present disclosure seems to provide control apparatuses, each of which is capable of appropriately coordinating, while executing a determined travel plan, (i) independent control prior to the travel plan and (ii) the travel plan. An exemplary aspect of the present disclosure provides a control apparatus configured to control a control target included in a vehicle in accordance with a predetermined travel plan of the vehicle. The control apparatus includes control circuitry configured to cause the control apparatus to determine a command parameter that controls the control target such that the control target operates in accordance with the travel plan. The control circuitry configured to cause the control apparatus to execute, independently from the travel plan, independent control that determines an acceptable condition that defines an acceptable range of the control parameter. The control circuitry configured to cause the control apparatus to change, in response to determination that the command parameter determined by the control circuitry conflicts with the acceptable condition, the command parameter so as to satisfy the acceptable condition. The above configuration of the control apparatus makes it possible to, when the command parameter determined to control the control target such that the control target operates in accordance with the travel plan conflicts with the acceptable condition determined by the independent control, give higher priority to the independent control than the travel plan. Accordingly, the above configuration of the control apparatus properly coordinates the independent control, which has higher priority, and the travel plan while executing the travel plan. Where reference characters are used in parentheses for various elements throughout the present disclosure, such characters are provided merely as an example of the correspondence between the elements and the specific structures in the embodiments described later. The present disclosure is therefore not limited by the use of such reference characters. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Other aspects of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following description of embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: FIG. 1 is a side view schematically illustrating a vehicle according to the first embodiment; FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically illustrating typical components installed in the vehicle illustrated in FIG. 1 and typical components of a cloud that is communicably connected