US-20260125076-A1 - CONTROL APPARATUS FOR VEHICLES

US20260125076A1US 20260125076 A1US20260125076 A1US 20260125076A1US-20260125076-A1

Abstract

A control apparatus operates a control target included in a vehicle that travels along a scheduled travel route and automatically controls, based on an operation of the control target, a predetermined physical quantity so as to bring the predetermined physical quantity closer to a control target value, thus adjusting energy consumption of the vehicle. In the control apparatus, a storage stores, in advance, at least one waypoint located on the scheduled travel route and a waypoint-corresponding target value associated with the at least one waypoint. Control circuitry causes the control apparatus to determine whether the vehicle has reached the at least one waypoint, and determine the waypoint-corresponding target value as the control target value in response to determination that the vehicle has reached the at least one waypoint.

Inventors

Hiroshi Yoshida
Mitsuharu HIGASHITANI
Noriaki Ikemoto

Assignees

DENSO CORPORATION

Dates

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

Claims (9)

1 . A control apparatus configured to operate a control target included in a vehicle that travels along a scheduled travel route and to automatically control, based on an operation of the control target, a predetermined physical quantity so as to bring the predetermined physical quantity closer to a control target value, thus adjusting energy consumption of the vehicle, the control apparatus comprising a storage configured to store, in advance, at least one waypoint located on the scheduled travel route and a waypoint-corresponding target value associated with the at least one waypoint; and control circuitry configured to cause the control apparatus to: determine whether the vehicle has reached the at least one waypoint; and determine the waypoint-corresponding target value as the control target value in response to determination that the vehicle has reached the at least one waypoint.
2 . The control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein: the at least one waypoint comprises multiple waypoints located on the scheduled travel route; the storage is configured to store, in advance, each of the multiple waypoints located on the scheduled travel route and the waypoint-corresponding target value associated with each of the multiple waypoints; and the control circuitry is configured to cause the control apparatus to: determine whether the vehicle has reached one of the multiple waypoints; and determine, in response to determination that the vehicle has reached one of the multiple waypoints, the waypoint-corresponding target value associated with the one of the multiple waypoints as the control target value.
3 . The control apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein: next index information is stored in the control apparatus, the next index information representing a waypoint that the vehicle is scheduled to reach next; the control circuitry is configured to cause, in response to determination that the vehicle has reached an arbitrary waypoint in the multiple waypoints, the control apparatus to: update the next index information to an index value associated with a next waypoint next to the arbitrary waypoint when a predetermined update condition is satisfied, the predetermined update condition being that (I) the vehicle has reached a previous waypoint, which precedes the arbitrary waypoint on the scheduled travel route; and (II) the next index information matches an index value associated with the arbitrary waypoint.
4 . The control apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein: the control circuitry is configured to cause, in response to determination that the vehicle has reached the arbitrary waypoint in the multiple waypoints, the control apparatus to: update, upon determination that traveling of the vehicle has continued at least for a predetermined limit up to the arbitrary waypoint, the next index information to the index value associated with the next waypoint independently of the predetermined update condition; and determine the waypoint-corresponding target value associated with the arbitrary waypoint as the control target value.
5 . The control apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein: a case where traveling of the vehicle has continued at least for the predetermined limit up to the arbitrary waypoint refers to a situation in which the vehicle is determined to have reached one of the multiple waypoints arranged along the scheduled travel route in a scheduled order at least a predetermined number of times while the traveling of the vehicle travel is being continued.
6 . The control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein: the control circuitry is configured to cause the control apparatus to determine whether the vehicle has reached one of the multiple waypoints in response to determination that a current position of the vehicle enters a predetermined determination range that includes the one of the waypoints.
7 . The control apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein: next index information is stored in the control apparatus, the next index information representing a waypoint that the vehicle is scheduled to reach next; the control circuitry is configured to cause the control apparatus to: update, in response to determination that the vehicle has reached each waypoint, reached index information to an index value associated with the corresponding waypoint; determine, in response to determination that the vehicle has reached an arbitrary waypoint in the multiple waypoints, whether the reached index information matches the next index information; update, in response to determination that the reached index information matches the next index information, the next index information to an index value associated with a next waypoint next to the arbitrary waypoint; and determine, in response to determination that the reached index information matches the next index information, the waypoint-corresponding target value associated with the arbitrary waypoint as the control target value.
8 . A program product for a vehicle that travels along a scheduled travel route, 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 whether the vehicle has reached at least one waypoint located on the scheduled travel route; read, from a storage in which the at least one waypoint and a waypoint-corresponding target value are stored to be associated with one another, the waypoint-corresponding target value in response to determination that the vehicle has reached the at least one waypoint; determine the waypoint-corresponding target value as a control target value; operate a control target included in the vehicle; and automatically control, based on an operation of the control target, a predetermined physical quantity so as to bring the predetermined physical quantity closer to the control target value, thus adjusting energy consumption of the vehicle.
9 . A method of controlling a vehicle that travels along a scheduled travel route, the method comprising: determining whether the vehicle has reached at least one waypoint located on the scheduled travel route; reading, from a storage in which the at least one waypoint and a waypoint-corresponding target value are stored to be associated with one another, the waypoint-corresponding target value in response to determination that the vehicle has reached the at least one waypoint; determining the waypoint-corresponding target value as a control target value; operating a control target included in the vehicle; and automatically controlling, based on an operation of the control target, a predetermined physical quantity so as to bring the predetermined physical quantity closer to the control target value, thus adjusting energy consumption of the vehicle.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This present application is based on and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2024-194469 filed on November 6, 2024, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to control apparatuses for vehicles. BACKGROUND Japanese Patent Publication No. 3664219 discloses a navigation apparatus. The navigation apparatus disclosed in the patent publication detects coordinates of a current position of a vehicle, and calculates a linear line that passes through detected coordinates of a destination and is orthogonal to a detected vehicle’s azimuth direction at the destination. Then, the navigation apparatus calculates a distance between the linear line and the current position of the vehicle as a distance from the current position of the vehicle to the destination. The patent publication describes that the vehicle can properly decelerate when approaching the destination. SUMMARY In recent years, there has been a growing demand for extending the cruising range of vehicles while maintaining occupant comfort. To address this demand, automatic control technologies for appropriately adjusting the energy consumption of vehicles have become increasingly important. However, although prior art documents, such as the patent publication, relate to automatic control of vehicles, they do not disclose techniques for dynamically adjusting vehicle energy consumption to optimize the cruising range. The inventors of the present disclosure have found the above circumstances. In view of the above circumstances, the present disclosure seems to provide control apparatuses for a vehicle, each of which is capable of dynamically adjusting energy consumption of the vehicle in accordance with the vehicle’s travel progress on a scheduled travel route. An exemplary aspect of the present disclosure provides a control apparatus. The control apparatus is configured to operate a control target included in a vehicle that travels along a scheduled travel route and to automatically control, based on an operation of the control target, a predetermined physical quantity so as to bring the predetermined physical quantity closer to a control target value, thus adjusting energy consumption of the vehicle. The control apparatus includes a storage configured to store, in advance, at least one waypoint located on the scheduled travel route and a waypoint-corresponding target value associated with the at least one waypoint. The control apparatus includes control circuitry configured to cause the control apparatus to determine whether the vehicle has reached the at least one waypoint, and determine the waypoint-corresponding target value as the control target value in response to determination that the vehicle has reached the at least one waypoint. This configuration of the control apparatus adjusts the physical quantity at the at least one waypoint, making it possible to dynamically adjust energy consumption of the vehicle in accordance with a travel progress of the vehicle along the scheduled travel route. That is, the control apparatus is capable of dynamically adjusting energy consumption of the vehicle in accordance with how far the vehicle has traveled along the scheduled travel route, making it possible to achieve both the securing of occupant comfort and the reduction of energy consumption of the vehicle. 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 block diagram schematically illustrating an input/output system to/from a control apparatus of a vehicle according to the first embodiment; FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view illustrating a first situation where a vehicle is traveling in accordance with a scheduled travel route on which multiple waypoints are located according to the first embodiment; FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a correlation between (i) each multiple waypoint, (ii) a corresponding index ID, and (iii) a corresponding target vehicle speed; FIG. 4 is a flowchart schematically illustrating a control routine to be carried out by a control apparatus according to the first embodiment; FIG. 5 is a schematic plan view illustrating a second situation where the vehicle is traveling on the scheduled travel route on which the multiple waypoints are located according to the first embodiment; FIG. 6 is a schematic plan view, which corresponds to FIG. 2, used to describe a method of determining whether the vehicle has reached