JP2009276115A - Operation control device for on-vehicle radar, and control method therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an operation control device for on-vehicle radar and a control method therefor, when the vehicle present position is in a domain and a facility, where there is a malfunctioning risk of radar. <P>SOLUTION: A domain having a malfunctioning risk is preserved, and the vehicle's present position is detected, and it is determined whether the present position is in a domain having a malfunctioning risk of the radar. When it is determined that the present position is in the domain having a malfunctioning risk, radar functions ares suspended. Furthermore, radar operating state is displayed, and the display of the radar operation state is switched according to whether the present position is in a domain which has malfunctioning risk. Then, the domain and the facility having a malfunctioning risk are updated. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an on-vehicle radar operation control device and a control method thereof, and more particularly, to an on-vehicle radar operation control device and a control method thereof when the current position of a vehicle is in a region where the radar may malfunction. .

  There is a system that detects the position of surrounding vehicles and obstacles using a radar and presents an alarm to a user based on the position information. A radar generally includes a transmission / reception antenna, repeatedly radiates a beam from a transmission antenna, and receives a reflected beam reflected by a target (target) by a reception antenna. Thereafter, the radar signal analyzer measures the distance based on the time difference between the received wave and the transmitted wave, or calculates the distance and speed from the change in frequency. When a plurality of transmission / reception antennas are provided, the direction of the target is calculated by calculating the specific gravity of the reflection intensity at each transmission / reception antenna.

  FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram of an FM-CW radar used as a vehicle-mounted radar (Patent Document 1). The FM-CW radar performs FM modulation on the transmission signal of the CW radar (Continuous Wave Rader) and transmits it, and receives the reflected wave from the target. That is, the frequency variable oscillator 1 changes the oscillation frequency (the center frequency is f0) according to the input voltage, and the FM modulation unit 2 generates the FM modulation voltage and inputs it to the frequency variable oscillator 1. The directional coupler 3 inputs a triangular wave FM modulated signal output from the variable frequency oscillator 1 to the transmitting antenna 4 and the reflected signal receiving side. The transmitting antenna 4 radiates the FM modulated signal toward the target, and the receiving antenna 5 receives the reflected signal that has been reflected back by the target. The mixer 6 mixes the reflected signal (received signal) and the transmission signal and outputs a beat signal between the two signals, and the signal processing unit 7 detects the beat signal frequency to detect the distance R to the target and the relative to the target. Calculate the velocity V.

Assuming that FM is performed by repeating a triangular wave, the relationship between the frequency and time of the transmission signal is as shown by the solid line in FIG. 6, and it is assumed that the object from a target at a predetermined distance (assuming that it is stationary). The relationship between the frequency of the reflected signal and time is indicated by a dotted line in FIG. As a result, the beat signal frequency fr between the transmission signal and the reflected signal is shown in FIG. 7, and the distance to the target can be calculated by measuring the beat signal frequency. That is, if FM repetition frequency is fm and FM frequency shift width is Δf, the beat signal frequency fr between the reflected signal and the transmission signal from the target at distance R is given by
fr = 4R ・ fm ・ Δf / c (c is the speed of light) (1)
Given in.

The above is a case where the target is stationary, but when the target is moving, the relationship between the frequency of the transmission signal and the reception signal versus time is as shown in FIG. 8 due to the Doppler effect. That is, as shown in FIG. 9, the beat signal frequency fr is obtained by superimposing the Doppler frequency fd on the beat signal frequency fr in the case of a fixed target. Since the direction alternately changes between positive and negative every modulation cycle, the beat signal frequency fb when the target is moving is given by the following equation.
fb = fr−fd (if negative) (2)
fb = fr + fd (if positive) (3)
However,
fd = 2V ・ f0 / c (V is the relative speed to the target) (4)
Therefore, if fb (positive) and fb (negative) are added and divided by 2 for each modulation cycle, fr, that is, the distance R to the target is obtained, and fb (positive) is subtracted from fb (positive). Dividing by 2 gives fd, that is, the relative velocity V.
JP 2007-93542 A

  Although the distance R to the target and the relative speed V can be measured based on the above principle, the in-vehicle radar may not be able to correctly measure the distance and speed in a radio interference area such as an airport or a base. This is because the operation of the in-vehicle radar is impaired due to the influence of the radar used by the facility at the airport, the SDF base, the US military base, and the vicinity thereof. For this reason, there is a problem that the driver is not aware of this even though the in-vehicle radar is malfunctioning in such areas, and in the worst case, the in-vehicle radar malfunctions despite the presence of obstacles. As a result, obstacles could not be detected, leading to contact accidents.

  As described above, an object of the present invention is to prevent accidents by presenting to the driver an area where the in-vehicle radar may malfunction, and displaying the operation state of the in-vehicle radar.

The present invention relates to an on-vehicle radar operation control device and a control method therefor when the current position of a vehicle exists in an area where the radar malfunctions.
An on-vehicle radar operation control device according to the present invention includes a malfunction information storage unit that stores a region and facility where a radar may malfunction, a current position detection unit that detects a current position of a vehicle, and the current position is the A control unit that determines whether or not the current position is within the malfunctioning area, and that performs control to stop the function of the radar when the current position is determined to be within the malfunctioning area.

  The on-vehicle radar operation control apparatus according to the present invention further includes a display unit that displays an operation state of the radar function, the control unit displays the operation state of the radar on the display unit, and the current position is If it is within the area, the display indicates that the radar function is stopped, and if it is not within the area, the display indicates that the radar function is in operation. To do.

  The on-vehicle radar operation control apparatus according to the present invention further includes a display unit that displays an operation state of the radar function, the control unit displays the operation state of the radar on the display unit, and the current position is If it is within the area, the display indicates that the radar function is stopped, and if it is not within the area, the display indicates that the radar function is in operation. To do.

  The on-vehicle radar operation control apparatus according to the present invention further includes an update unit that updates a region and a facility where the radar may malfunction, and the malfunction information storage unit includes a region where the radar malfunctions by the update unit and Memorize new facilities.

The said update part of the operation control apparatus of the vehicle-mounted radar of this invention acquires update information by a storage medium or communication.
The vehicle-mounted radar operation control device of the present invention is mounted on a navigation device, and the control unit determines whether or not the current position is within a predetermined distance from the facility. Controls to display the area on the display unit.

  The method for controlling the operation of an on-vehicle radar according to the present invention includes a step of storing a region and a facility that may malfunction, a step of detecting a current position of the vehicle, and whether or not the current position is within a region where the radar malfunctions. And a step of stopping the function of the radar when it is determined that the current position is within the region.

  The method for controlling the operation of an on-vehicle radar according to the present invention further includes a step of displaying an operation state of the radar function, and if the current position is within the region, the radar function is stopped. And a display for indicating that the function of the radar is in operation when not in the area.

The on-vehicle radar operation control method of the present invention further includes a step of updating a region and a facility where the radar may malfunction.
The on-vehicle radar operation control method of the present invention further includes a step of determining whether the current position is within a predetermined distance from the facility, and displaying the area when the current position is within the predetermined distance. ing.

  According to the present invention, a strong electric field area that may cause a malfunction of the in-vehicle radar is stored, the area is displayed when the current position of the vehicle approaches the area, and the radar is displayed when the vehicle enters the area. Since the display of the radar operation state is switched, the driver can know the area where the radar operation cannot be guaranteed, and the radar operation state can also be confirmed on the display.

(A) Outline of the Present Invention FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory view of the present invention. 11 is a display screen, 12 is a vehicle mark indicating the current position of the vehicle, 13 is a strong electric field facility, 14 is a radar malfunctioning area due to a strong electric field, 15 is an operation ON icon indicating a radar normal operation state, and 16 is a radar operation OFF icon. is there.

  As shown in FIG. 1A, when the own vehicle current position 12 exists outside a predetermined distance from the strong electric field facility 13, an operation ON icon 15 is displayed. Next, when the own vehicle current position 12 is within a predetermined distance from the strong electric field facility 13 as shown in FIG. 1B, a malfunctioning area 14 is displayed. Next, as shown in FIG. 1C, when the current position 12 of the vehicle enters the malfunctioning area 14, control is performed to stop the function of the on-vehicle radar (not shown) and the operation OFF icon 16 Is displayed. After that, when moving outside the malfunctioning area 14, control is performed so that the radar function operates, and an operation ON icon 15 is displayed, and malfunctioning occurs when it is outside the predetermined distance from the strong electric field facility 13. The area 14 is hidden.

  Conventionally, in a strong electric field facility and its surroundings, the driver does not know that the vehicle-mounted radar does not accurately capture the target, and in the worst case, a contact accident has occurred. The radar can be disabled, the user can be alerted to that effect, and a contact accident can be prevented in advance.

(B) Embodiment FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a navigation apparatus in which the vehicle-mounted radar of the present invention can be mounted.
A map recording medium (CD, DVD, HDD, etc.) 21 records map data and can be read as necessary. The map data includes a road layer used for guidance route search and map matching, a background layer for displaying objects on the map, and a character layer for displaying characters such as city names on the map. As will be described later with reference to FIG. 3, the malfunction area database 22 stores strong electric field facilities and malfunction areas where the radar cannot accurately capture the target. The operation unit 23 is used to operate the navigation device, and includes a remote controller, operation hard keys, and the like.

  The GPS receiver 24 receives position information sent from a GPS satellite and measures the absolute current position of the vehicle. The autonomous navigation sensor 25 includes an angle sensor (not shown) such as a gyro that detects the rotation angle of the vehicle and a distance sensor (not shown) that generates a pulse at every predetermined travel distance, and autonomously presents the vehicle. The position can be estimated.

  The map buffer 26 stores map data read from the map recording medium. The control unit 27 is (1) calculation control of the current position of the vehicle, (2) map readout control for reading out map data around the vehicle, (3) guidance route search processing to the destination, and (4) the present invention described later. The operation control of the in-vehicle radar. The map drawing unit 28 generates a map image using the map data read into the map buffer 26 and writes it into the VRAM 29. The reading unit 30 cuts out a predetermined image portion from the VRAM 29 in accordance with an instruction from the control unit 27, and combines the images. Input to the unit 31.

  The guidance route memory 32 records the guidance route information to the destination searched by the control unit 27, that is, the position data of all the nodes constituting the guidance route from the departure point to the destination. The guide route drawing unit 33 generates a guide route screen using the guide route information, inputs it to the image composition unit 31, and highlights it on the map image. The operation screen generation unit 34 generates various menu screens (operation screens) under the control of the control unit 27 and inputs them to the image composition unit 31. The mark generation unit 35 stores (1) the database 22 under the control of the control unit 27. The erroneous operation area (2) is generated and is input to the image composition unit 31. The vehicle position mark, the cursor, and the icon representing the operation state of the in-vehicle radar of the present invention are generated. The touch panel display device 36 displays the image generated by the image composition unit 31. The alarm unit 37 generates an alarm when an obstacle is detected by the radar, and when the current position of the host vehicle enters the radar malfunction region, the control unit 27 controls the fact that the vehicle has entered the malfunction region. To the user.

  As the in-vehicle radar 38, for example, an FM-CW (Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave) in-vehicle millimeter wave radar module can be adopted. The radar 38 includes a driving circuit 39a, a radar control unit 39 including a signal processing unit 39b, a radio wave beam transmitting unit 40a that transmits a radio beam by a driving signal from the driving circuit 39a, and a reflected radio wave that receives a reflected radio wave from an object. A transmission / reception circuit 40 having a receiving unit 40b and a beam scanning antenna 41 for scanning a beam are provided.

  The malfunction area update unit 42 updates the malfunction area stored in the malfunction area database 22. For example, it can be updated by communication means (not shown) such as Bluetooth or wireless LAN, or can be updated by a storage medium (not shown) such as CD or DVD.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the malfunction region database 22. The name of the strong electric field facility that emits a radio wave strong enough that the in-vehicle radar 38 cannot operate normally, the position data of the facility, and the radar operating normally. A malfunction area that is assumed to be impossible is stored. The malfunctioning area is specified by a radius centered on the position of the strong electric field facility. The malfunctioning area may be specified by a rectangular shape centering on the strong electric field facility. In such a case, the rectangular area is specified by position data of two points on the diagonal line. Further, an area where the radar malfunctions actually around the strong electric field facility may be measured and the area specifying data may be stored.

FIG. 4 is an operation processing flow of the navigation apparatus provided with the on-vehicle radar, and will be described below according to the processing flow.
The control unit 27 operates the radar 38 normally and displays a map around the vehicle position on the touch panel display device 36 as shown in FIG. 1A, and also displays the vehicle mark 12 and the radar operation ON icon 15 in the surroundings. The control unit 27 determines whether or not the current position is within a predetermined distance from the strong electric field facility (step S402). If the current position is within the predetermined distance, the control unit 27 proceeds to step S403. move on.

  If it is determined in step S402 that the current position is within a predetermined distance from the strong electric field facility, the control unit 27 displays the malfunction area 14 as shown in FIG. 1B (step S403). The control unit 27 generates and displays the radar malfunction area 14 based on the data stored in the malfunction area database 22 shown in FIG.

Next, the control unit 27 calculates the current position of the vehicle by the GPS receiver 24 and the autonomous navigation sensor 25 (step S404), and the current position exists in the radar malfunction area 14 stored in the malfunction area database 22. (Step S405), if it is outside the radar malfunction region, repeat the processing from step S402, and if it is within the malfunction region 14, proceed to step S406.

  If it is determined in step S405 that the area is within the malfunctioning area 14, the control unit 27 stops the function of the on-vehicle radar and turns on the operation displayed on the touch panel display device 36 as shown in FIG. The icon 15 is switched to the operation OFF icon 16, and the malfunction warning unit 37 warns that the host vehicle is in the malfunction area 14 (step S406). In order to stop the function of the in-vehicle laser, at least one of (1) prohibiting the operation of the drive circuit 39a and (2) ignoring the input signal from the signal processing unit 39b. One control.

  Thereafter, the control unit 27 detects the current position of the vehicle by the GPS receiver 24 and the autonomous navigation sensor 25 (step S407), and determines whether the current position still exists in the malfunction area (step S408). If it exists in the malfunction region 14, the process returns to step S406, and if it is outside the malfunction region 14, the process proceeds to step S409.

  If it is determined in step S408 that the region is outside the malfunction region 14, the control unit 27 operates the radar normally and switches the operation OFF icon 16 displayed on the touch panel display device 36 to the operation ON icon 15. (Step S409), and the malfunctioning area 14 on the map is hidden (step S410).

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, a strong electric field region, that is, a radar malfunction region is stored, and if the current position of the vehicle is within the region, the radar is disabled and the operation state of the radar is displayed. Therefore, it is possible to alert the driver that the in-vehicle radar is not accurately capturing the target, and to prevent inadvertent accidents.

  In the present embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to a navigation apparatus has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to an on-vehicle radar apparatus. Can be obtained.

It is a schematic explanatory drawing of this invention. It is a block diagram of the navigation apparatus carrying the operation control apparatus of the vehicle-mounted radar of this invention. It is explanatory drawing of the malfunction area | region database 22 of this invention. It is an operation | movement processing flow of the vehicle-mounted radar by the control part 27 of this invention. It is a schematic block diagram of the conventional vehicle-mounted radar. It is a related figure of the frequency and time of the transmission signal of the conventional vehicle-mounted radar. It is a beat signal frequency fr between a transmission signal and a reflection signal of a conventional in-vehicle radar. It is a related figure of the frequency versus time of the transmission signal and reception signal by the Doppler effect of the conventional vehicle-mounted radar. This is the beat signal frequency fr of a conventional in-vehicle radar.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Display screen of navigation apparatus 12 Current position of own vehicle 13 Strong electric field facility 14 Radar malfunction area 15 Radar normal state icon 16 Radar malfunction state icon 22 Malfunction area database 24 GPS receiver 25 Autonomous navigation sensor 27 Controller 35 Various mark generator 37 Alarm unit 38 Radar 39 Radar control unit 39a Drive circuit 39b Signal processing unit 40 Transmission / reception circuit 40a Radio wave beam transmission unit 40b Reflected radio wave reception unit 41 Beam scanning antenna 42 Malfunction area update unit

Claims (9)

In the on-vehicle radar operation control device,
A malfunction information storage unit for storing areas and facilities where the radar may malfunction;
A current position detector for detecting the current position of the vehicle;
Determining whether or not the current position is within the malfunction area, and when determining that the current position is within the malfunction area, a control unit that performs control to stop the function of the radar; and
An on-vehicle radar operation control device comprising: Furthermore, a display unit for displaying the operating state of the radar function is provided.
The control unit displays the operating state of the radar on a display unit, and when the current position is within the region, displays that the radar function is stopped. 2. The on-vehicle radar operation control device according to claim 1, wherein control is performed so as to perform display indicating that the function of the radar is in operation when no radar is present. In addition, an update unit that updates the area and facility where the radar may malfunction,
The in-vehicle radar operation control device according to claim 2, wherein the malfunction information storage unit newly stores a region and a facility where the radar malfunctions by the updating unit.   4. The on-vehicle radar operation control device according to claim 3, wherein the update unit acquires update information through a storage medium or communication. The vehicle-mounted radar operation control device according to claim 4 is mounted on a navigation device,
The control unit determines whether the current position is within a predetermined distance from the facility, and controls to display the region on the display unit when the current position is within the predetermined distance;
A navigation device characterized by the above. In the on-vehicle radar operation control method,
Storing areas and facilities that may malfunction,
Detecting the current position of the vehicle;
Determining whether the current position is within an area where the radar malfunctions;
If it is determined that the current position is within the region, stopping the radar function;
An on-vehicle radar operation control method comprising: A step of displaying an operating state of the radar function;
When the current position is within the region, a display indicating that the radar function is stopped is displayed. When the current position is not within the region, a display indicating that the radar function is operating. The steps to do,
The vehicle radar operation control method according to claim 6, further comprising:   The operation control method for an on-vehicle radar according to claim 7, further comprising a step of updating a region and a facility where the radar may malfunction. A step of determining whether the current position is within a predetermined distance from the facility, and displaying the area when the current position is within the predetermined distance;
The operation control method of the on-vehicle radar according to claim 8.

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