US-20260125077-A1 - AUTOMATIC DRIVING DEVICE AND VEHICLE CONTROL METHOD

US20260125077A1US 20260125077 A1US20260125077 A1US 20260125077A1US-20260125077-A1

Abstract

An automatic driving device generates a control plan for autonomously driving a vehicle using map data. The automatic driving device determines an acquisition status of the map data. The automatic driving device generates the control plan using the map data. The automatic driving device changes the control plan according to the acquisition status of the map data.

Inventors

Jingyu XIANG
Hiroyuki Ohsawa

Assignees

DENSO CORPORATION

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20260105
Priority Date: 20200708

Claims (13)

1 . An automatic driving device that generates a control plan for autonomously driving a vehicle using map data, the automatic driving device comprising; at least one processor; and at least one memory storing computer readable code, wherein the computer readable code, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to: manage a storing status of the map data stored on the at least one memory; generate the control plan using the map data; determine whether the map data stored on the at least one memory is defective; and generate the control plan to perform automatic driving control to continue automatic driving of the vehicle without using the map data provided from a map server upon determining that the map data is defective.
2 . The automatic driving device according to claim 1 , wherein when performing the automatic driving control without using the map data, the computer readable code further causes the at least one processor to: generate, in real time, an instant map that is a map showing a driving environment in front of the vehicle based on sensing information provided from a surrounding monitoring sensor mounted on the vehicle; and continue the automatic driving using the instant map.
3 . The automatic driving device according to claim 2 , wherein the computer readable code further causes the at least one processor to change a behavior of the vehicle depending on whether a map distance in which the instant map is generated is equal to or greater than a specified distance.
4 . The automatic driving device according to claim 2 , wherein the computer readable code further causes the at least one processor to: continue the automatic driving when the map distance of the instant map is equal to or greater than the specified distance; and start MRM (Minimal Risk Maneuver) when the map distance of the instant map is less than the specified distance.
5 . The automatic driving device according to claim 4 , wherein the MRM is performed for (i) autonomously driving the vehicle to a safe location and stopping the vehicle or (ii) stopping the vehicle within a currently traveling lane.
6 . The automatic driving device according to claim 4 , wherein the MRM is performed for braking the vehicle for stop, and the specified distance is set to have a value greater than a braking distance necessary for the vehicle to stop by the MRM.
7 . The automatic driving device according to claim 2 , wherein a traveling speed is more restricted when the map distance is less than the specified distance than when the map distance is equal to or greater than the specified distance.
8 . The automatic driving device according to claim 1 , wherein the computer readable code further causes the at least one processor to: acquire, from the map server, map data related to a road on which the vehicle is scheduled to travel; store the map data on the at least one memory; and further reduce an upper limit of a traveling speed of the vehicle during the automatic driving when performing the automatic driving control without using the map data provided from the map server than when performing the automatic driving control using the map data provided from the map server.
9 . The automatic driving device according to claim 1 , wherein when performing the automatic driving control without using the map data provided from the map server, the computer readable code further causes the at least one processor to perform deceleration in response to a cut-in of another vehicle or a crossing of a pedestrian detected by a surrounding monitoring sensor while adopting trajectory of a preceding vehicle as a travel path of the vehicle.
10 . The automatic driving device according to claim 1 , wherein the computer readable code further causes the at least one processor to: determine whether the map data stored on the at least one memory is consistent with a real world by comparing sensing information provided from a surrounding monitoring sensor mounted on the vehicle with the map data; and determine that the map data is defective when the map data is not consistent with the real world.
11 . The automatic driving device according to claim 1 , wherein the computer readable code further causes the at least one processor to: acquire map data from the map server; store the map data on the at least one memory; and determine that the map data is defective when a portion of the map data necessary for continuing the automatic driving is not stored on the at least memory.
12 . The automatic driving device according to claim 1 , wherein the computer readable code further causes the at least one processor to: acquire map data related to a road on which the vehicle is scheduled to travel; store the map data on the at least one memory; generate the control plan for autonomously driving the vehicle using the map data stored on the at least one memory when the map data stored on the at least one memory is not defective; and generate the control plan without using the map data provided from the map data when the map data stored on the at least one memory is defective.
13 . A vehicle control method for autonomously driving a vehicle using map data, comprising managing a storing status of the map data on at least one memory; and generating a control plan for the vehicle using the map data, wherein the method further comprises: determining whether the map data stored on the at least one memory is defective; and generating the control plan to perform automatic driving control to continue automatic driving without using the map data provided from a server upon determining that the map data is defective.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS The present application is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 18/061,138 filed on Dec. 2, 2022, which is a continuation application of International Patent Application No. PCT/JP2021/025514 filed on Jul. 6, 2021, which designated the U.S. and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2020-117903 filed on Jul. 8, 2020. The entire disclosures of all of the above applications are incorporated herein by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to an automatic driving device that generates a control plan for an automatic driving vehicle using map data. BACKGROUND An automatic driving device that generates, in automatic driving, a travel plan, in other words, a control plan of a vehicle using a mathematical formula model called a Responsibility Sensitive Safety (RSS) model and map data has been proposed. A planner, which is a functional block for formulating the control plan in the RSS model, calculates a potential accident liability value for each of a plurality of control plans using the map data, and adopts the control plan in which the potential accident liability value falls within an allowable range. The potential accident liability value is a parameter that indicates the degree of responsibility of the subject vehicle when an accident occurs between the subject vehicle and a surrounding vehicle existing around the subject vehicle. The potential accident liability value is a value that takes into account whether or not inter-vehicle distance between the subject vehicle and the surrounding vehicle is shorter than a safe distance determined based on road structure or the like. SUMMARY The present disclosure provides an automatic driving device generates a control plan for autonomously driving a vehicle using map data. The automatic driving device determines an acquisition status of the map data. The automatic driving device generates the control plan using the map data. The automatic driving device changes the control plan according to the acquisition status of the map data. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS The features and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent from the following detailed description made with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings: FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing an overall configuration of an automatic driving system. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of an in-vehicle system. FIGS. 3A to 3C are diagrams each showing an example of an icon image indicating an acquisition status of map data. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of an automatic driving device 20. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining operation of a map management unit. FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining operation of a consistency determination unit. FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the consistency determination unit. FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining a map non-acquisition handling process. FIG. 9 is a flowchart for explaining an inconsistency handling process. FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining operation of a control planning unit when a concept of degree of urgency is applied. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a modification of contents of emergency action for each degree of urgency. FIG. 12 is a flowchart for explaining emergency action termination process. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a processing flow utilizing stored map data. FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of a processing flow for re-downloading map data on a condition that the stored map data and the real world are inconsistent. FIG. 15 is a diagram showing another example of a processing flow utilizing the stored map data. FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example of a processing flow for changing a set value of an upper limit speed used in a control plan depending on whether or not the map data used in the control plan is stored map data. FIG. 17 is a diagram showing an example of a processing flow for notifying a determination result of consistency between map data and the real world. FIG. 18 is a diagram showing an example of a processing flow for changing control according to distance at which an instant map can be generated. FIG. 19 is a diagram showing an example of a processing flow for executing a handover request based on approaching a capturing prohibited area or distribution prohibited area. DETAILED DESCRIPTION For example, the RSS model assumes that the vehicle holds the map data. When the vehicle holds the latest map data for all areas, it is less likely that the potential accident liability value cannot be calculated due to map deficiencies such as missing or deteriorated map data. However, it is difficult from the viewpoint of data capacity and communication frequency for the vehicle to keep map data of all areas in the latest state at all times. Due to such concern, it is assumed that the vehicle downloads and uses a partial map, which is a m