Disclosure of Invention
The invention mainly aims to provide an automatic driving Coordination (Coordination) system, which aims to realize the running of a motorcade formed by high-order self-driving and low-order self-driving, can realize the running of the motorcade with lower running cost, and can be applied to mass-connection transportation or commercial wharf transportation.
The invention relates to an automatic driving coordination system which is applied to a full-automatic driving motorcade, the full-automatic driving motorcade comprises a front vehicle and a rear vehicle, the front vehicle advances along a specified driving route, the rear vehicle follows the rear of the front vehicle, and the automatic driving coordination system comprises:
a leading vehicle control device disposed on the leading vehicle and comprising:
a step-type driving information collecting unit;
the front guide vehicle communication unit comprises a workshop communication module and a mobile communication module; and
a front vehicle decision control unit electrically connected with the advanced driving information collection unit and the front vehicle communication unit;
a rear vehicle control device disposed on the rear vehicle and including:
a simplified driving information collecting unit;
the rear vehicle communication unit comprises a vehicle-to-vehicle communication module and a mobile communication module, and the vehicle-to-vehicle communication module of the rear vehicle communication unit is connected with the vehicle-to-vehicle communication module of the front vehicle communication unit for bidirectional data transmission; and
the rear vehicle decision control unit is electrically connected with the simplified driving information collection unit and the rear vehicle communication unit; and
and the server is connected with the mobile communication module of the front vehicle communication unit and the mobile communication module of the rear vehicle communication unit for respectively carrying out bidirectional data transmission.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a control method of the above-mentioned automatic driving coordination system, comprising:
the front vehicle decision control unit receives rear vehicle running information, the rear vehicle decision control unit receives front vehicle running information, and the server receives the rear vehicle running information and the front vehicle running information;
the rear vehicle decision control unit controls the rear vehicle according to the driving information of the front vehicle.
According to the automatic driving Coordination control system and the method, the front vehicle control device, the rear vehicle control device and the server mutually communicate the driving information to achieve the Coordination control (Coordination) effect, so that a fleet becomes a full-automatic driving fleet, and the labor cost can be reduced; on the other hand, the rear vehicle control device adopts a low-cost simplified driving information collecting unit, so that the rear vehicle in the motorcade can follow the vehicle based on low running cost.
Detailed Description
The automatic driving coordination system of the present invention can be applied to a full-automatic driving fleet, please refer to fig. 1, the full-automatic driving fleet includes a front guiding vehicle 10 and at least one rear vehicle, fig. 1 takes two rear vehicles as an example, which are respectively a first rear vehicle 11 and a second rear vehicle 12, the front guiding vehicle 10 and the rear vehicles 11, 12 advance along a designated driving route, the first rear vehicle 11 follows behind the front guiding vehicle 10, the second rear vehicle 12 follows behind the first rear vehicle 11. It should be noted that the leading vehicle 10 and the trailing vehicles 11 and 12 that are driven by the system fully automatically are also called unmanned vehicles (unmanned cars), that is, the leading vehicle 10 and the trailing vehicles 11 and 12 are all driven by the system fully automatically, and human drivers are not involved in driving the leading vehicle 10 and the trailing vehicles 11 and 12.
Referring to fig. 1 and 2, an embodiment of the automatic driving coordination system of the present invention includes a front vehicle control device 20, at least one rear vehicle control device 30, and a server 40, wherein the front vehicle control device 20 is disposed on the front vehicle 10, the rear vehicle control device 30 is disposed on the rear vehicles 11, 12, that is, each of the rear vehicles 11, 12 is equipped with the rear vehicle control device 30, the server 40 is a remote server or a cloud server disposed in a machine room or an office, the server 40 can set the designated driving route, and can monitor and control the driving status of the full-automatic driving fleet.
The leading vehicle control device 20 comprises a step-type driving information collecting unit 21, a leading vehicle communication unit 22 and a leading vehicle decision control unit 23; the leading vehicle communication unit 22 includes a car-to-car communication module 221 and a mobile communication module 222; the leading vehicle decision Control Unit 23 can be an Electronic Control Unit (ECU) electrically connected to the advanced driving information collection Unit 21 and the leading vehicle communication Unit 22. The rear vehicle control device 30 includes a simplified driving information collecting unit 31, a rear vehicle communication unit 32 and a rear vehicle decision control unit 33; the rear vehicle communication unit 32 includes a cabin communication module 321 and a mobile communication module 322; the vehicle-to-vehicle communication module 321 of the rear vehicle communication unit 32 wirelessly connects the vehicle-to-vehicle communication module 221 of the front vehicle communication unit 22 for bidirectional data transmission, wherein the vehicle-to- vehicle communication modules 221 and 321 may be Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC), or in other embodiments, the communication modules 221 and 321 may be directly or indirectly connected to each other through a fourth-generation mobile communication technology (4G), a fifth-generation mobile communication technology (5G) or a further next-generation mobile communication technology; the rear decision control unit 33 can be an Electronic Control Unit (ECU) electrically connected to the simplified driving information collecting unit 31 and the rear communication unit 32. The server 40 connects the mobile communication module 222 of the leading vehicle communication unit 22 and the mobile communication module 322 of the trailing vehicle communication unit 32 for bidirectional data transmission, respectively.
The mobile communication Module 222 of the leading vehicle communication unit 22 and the mobile communication Module 322 of the trailing vehicle communication unit 32 can be connected to the internet through the fourth generation mobile communication technology (4G), the fifth generation mobile communication technology (5G) or a further advanced second generation mobile communication technology, for example, each mobile communication Module 222, 322 can be installed with a Subscriber Identity Module card (SIM card) provided by a telecommunications carrier to connect to the internet, and establish a connection with the server 40 through the internet.
Therefore, the front vehicle control device 20 and the rear vehicle control device 30 are connected with each other, the server 40 is also connected with the front vehicle control device 20 and the rear vehicle control device 30, and the time interval for the front vehicle control device 20 and the rear vehicle control device 30 to transmit information can be hundreds of milliseconds through the mutual communication of the traveling information among the front vehicle control device 20, the rear vehicle control device 30 and the server 40, so that the Coordination (Coordination) effect is achieved, and the traveling can be smoother, more comfortable and safer based on lower operation cost.
Referring to fig. 3, the advanced driving information collection Unit 21 may include a Three-Dimensional Light Detection And Ranging (3-D LiDAR)211, a two-Dimensional LiDAR 212, a camera 213, a Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) module 214, And an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) 215. The three-dimensional optical radar 211 may be installed on a roof of the leading vehicle 10, the two-dimensional optical radar 212 may be installed around the leading vehicle 10, and the camera 213 may be installed inside or outside the leading vehicle 10, and may detect the surrounding environment in the front, in the lateral direction, or in the rear direction through the three-dimensional optical radar 211, the two-dimensional optical radar 212, and the camera 213, and provide the detected surrounding environment information 216 to the leading vehicle decision control unit 23. The real-time dynamic positioning module 214 can position the absolute positioning coordinates of the leading vehicle 10 and provide the absolute positioning coordinates to the leading vehicle decision control unit 23, and in addition, the inertia measurement module 215 includes a gyroscope and an accelerometer, which can be used to measure the attitude (attitude) of the leading vehicle 10 and provide the attitude to the leading vehicle decision control unit 23, so that the leading vehicle decision control unit 23 can combine the absolute positioning coordinates and the attitude to obtain the absolute positioning information 217 of the leading vehicle 10. The leading vehicle decision control unit 23 can store a map information 218, and the map information 218 can be downloaded from the server 40 through the mobile communication module 222. The lead vehicle decision control unit 23 CAN be electrically connected to an On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) or Controller Area Network Bus (CAN Bus) of the lead vehicle 10 to retrieve vehicle dynamic information 219, such as vehicle speed, steering wheel angle, vehicle distance or acceleration.
The server 40 can transmit a designated driving route to the leading vehicle decision control unit 23, and the leading vehicle decision control unit 23 goes to a destination according to the designated driving route. The leading vehicle decision control unit 23 can determine whether the leading vehicle 10 is traveling on the specified driving route according to the surrounding environment information 216, the absolute positioning information 217 and the map information 218.
In the rear vehicle control device 30, compared with the advanced driving information collecting unit 21, the simplified driving information collecting unit 31 has a higher composition and function than the simplified driving information collecting unit 31, so the manufacturing cost and price of the simplified driving information collecting unit 31 are lower than those of the advanced driving information collecting unit 21. For example, the simplified driving information collecting unit 31 includes relatively few or simple functions, such as four or less than four of the two-dimensional optical radar 311, the camera 312, the low-cost real-time dynamic positioning module 313 and the inertia measurement module 314, wherein the low-cost real-time dynamic positioning module 313 has a lower price and lower functions than the real-time dynamic positioning module 214 of the advanced driving information collecting unit 21.
In an embodiment of the present invention, referring to fig. 4, the simplified driving information collecting unit 31 includes a two-dimensional optical radar 311, a camera 312, a low-cost real-time dynamic positioning module 313 and an inertia measuring module 314, the two-dimensional optical radar 311 may be disposed at the position with the best sensing effect of the first rear vehicle 11, such as the periphery, and faces the rear of the front vehicle 10 for detection, and similarly, the two-dimensional optical radar 311 may also be disposed at the position with the best sensing effect of the second rear vehicle 12, such as the periphery, and faces the rear of the first rear vehicle 11 for detection. The two-dimensional optical radar 311 in combination with the camera 312 may generate ambient environment information 315 for the rear vehicle decision control unit 33 to receive, the low-cost real-time dynamic positioning module 313 and the inertia measurement module 314 are used by the rear vehicle decision control unit 33 to determine a relative positioning information 316, for example, the low-cost real-time dynamic positioning module 313 generates positioning coordinates of the first rear vehicle 11, the inertia measurement module 314 measures an attitude (attitude) of the first rear vehicle 11, the rear vehicle decision control unit 33 can receive the absolute positioning information 217 of the leading vehicle 10 through the vehicle-to-vehicle communication module 321 or the mobile communication module 322 thereof, and compare the absolute positioning information 217 of the leading vehicle 10 with the positioning coordinates and the posture of the first rear vehicle 11 to obtain the relative positioning information 316, and in addition, the coordinate information generated by the two-dimensional optical radar 311 can also be used to determine the relative positioning information 316 (described later). The rear vehicle decision control unit 33 can receive a map information 317, and the map information 317 can be received from the front vehicle decision control unit 23 or the server 40. The rear vehicle decision control unit 33 CAN be electrically connected to an On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) or a Controller Area Network Bus (CAN Bus) of the first rear vehicle 11 to acquire vehicle dynamic information 318, such as a vehicle speed, a steering wheel angle, a vehicle distance or an acceleration.
As described above, the leading vehicle driving information (i.e. the ambient environment information 216, the absolute positioning information 217, the map information 218, and the vehicle dynamic information 219) collected by the leading vehicle decision control unit 23 can be shared by the leading vehicle decision control unit 23 to the trailing vehicle decision control unit 33 and the server 40; and each piece of shared front vehicle driving information carries a front vehicle local time. In this way, the rear vehicle decision control unit 33 and the server 40 can obtain the time point corresponding to the driving information of the leading vehicle 10, and the rear vehicle decision control unit 33 can calculate the information transmission time difference (i.e. the rear vehicle local time minus the front vehicle local time corresponding to the received driving information of the leading vehicle 10) as the basis of the decision control. It should be noted that the leading local time and the trailing local time are synchronized at the same time. Similarly, the rear vehicle decision control unit 33 can share the rear vehicle driving information with the rear vehicle local time to the front vehicle decision control unit 23 and the server 40, and the front vehicle decision control unit 23 can calculate the information transmission time difference.
Therefore, referring to the schematic view of the decision control flow of the leading vehicle decision control unit 23 shown in fig. 5, the collection and determination of the vehicle information are performed first (step S01), and the collected driving information may include the surrounding environment information 216, the absolute positioning information 217, the map information 218, the vehicle dynamic information 219, and the following vehicle driving information 300 of the leading vehicle 10; when it is judged as normal information (step S02) or abnormal information (step S03), the leading vehicle decision control unit 23 performs control strategy judgment (step S04), wherein when it is judged that there is abnormal information, abnormal processing is further performed at the time of performing the control strategy judgment (step S04'); after the control strategy determination is performed, the vehicle control of the leading vehicle 10 is performed (step S05).
Similarly, referring to the schematic flow chart of the decision control means of the rear vehicle decision control unit 33 shown in fig. 6, information collection and judgment are first performed (step S11), and the collected driving information may include the ambient environment information 315, the vehicle dynamic information 318, the map information 317, the relative positioning information 316, and the leading vehicle driving information 200 of the first rear vehicle 11; when it is judged as normal information (step S12) or abnormal information (step S13), the rear decision control unit 33 performs control strategy judgment (step S14), wherein when it is judged that there is abnormal information, abnormal processing is further performed at the time of performing the control strategy judgment (step S14'); after the control strategy judgment is executed, the vehicle control of the first rear vehicle 11 is performed (step S14).
Referring to the first vehicle 13 and the second vehicle 14 shown in fig. 7, the second vehicle 14 follows behind the first vehicle 13, so that the second vehicle 14 is a rear vehicle, and the first vehicle 13 may be a front vehicle or another rear vehicle, where the first vehicle 13 is a front-leading vehicle for example. The second vehicle 14 is equipped with the rear vehicle control device 30 as described above, and the two-dimensional optical radar 311 of the simplified vehicle information collecting unit 31 can detect the rear of the first vehicle 13 (including the rear bumper 130) to obtain the relative coordinates of the second vehicle 14 with respect to the rear profile of the first vehicle 13, so that the rear vehicle decision control unit 33 can obtain the left-side coordinate 131, the right-side coordinate 132 and the center coordinate 133 of the rear bumper 130 of the first vehicle 13. The rear vehicle decision control unit 33 of the second vehicle 14 can receive the absolute positioning information 217 of the first vehicle 13, so that the relative positioning information 316 of the second vehicle 14 relative to the first vehicle 13 can also be obtained by performing coordinate transformation operation according to the absolute positioning information 217 of the first vehicle 13 and the center coordinates 133.
On the other hand, the rear vehicle decision control unit 33 can estimate the variation of the contour of the first vehicle 13 according to the coordinates 131, 132, 133 to determine whether the first vehicle 13 has a turning motion. The first distance L1 between the second vehicle 14 and the left side of the rear bumper 130 of the first vehicle 13 can be estimated by using the relative positioning information 316 of the second vehicle 14 and the left side coordinates 131, the second distance L2 between the second vehicle 14 and the right side of the rear bumper 130 of the first vehicle 13 can be estimated by using the relative positioning information 316 of the second vehicle 14 and the right side coordinates 132, and the third distance L3 between the first vehicle 13 and the second vehicle 14 can be obtained by using the relative positioning information 316 of the second vehicle 14 and the center coordinates 133.
If the rear decision control unit 33 of the second vehicle 14 determines that the first distance L1 is equal to the second distance L2, it means that the second vehicle 14 and the first vehicle 13 keep moving straight; if the first distance L1 is different from the second distance L2, it represents that the first vehicle 13 is turning. For example, referring to fig. 8, the variation amounts of the first distance L1 and the second distance L2 are directly related to the steering angle β of the first vehicle 13, and when the first distance L1 is greater than the second distance L2, which represents that the first vehicle 13 turns to the right, the rear decision control unit 33 of the second vehicle 14 can know the relative dynamics of the second vehicle 14 and the first vehicle 13, and accordingly perform the corresponding vehicle control. Thus, the following vehicle can follow the vehicle efficiently only by using the low-cost compact traveling information collecting unit 31.
Referring to fig. 2 and 9, although the leading vehicle decision control unit 23 controls the leading vehicle 10 to move forward according to the specified driving route a, in practice, the leading vehicle 10 has a physical deviation during the driving process, so that an error Δ d exists between the actual driving route B of the leading vehicle 10 and the specified driving route a. Referring to fig. 10, after receiving the absolute positioning information 217 and the specified driving route a (step S20), the leading vehicle decision control unit 23 determines whether the error Δ d between the absolute positioning information 217 and the specified driving route a is greater than a leading vehicle correction threshold (step S21), which may be, for example, 1 meter. If so, the leading vehicle decision control unit 23 generates a leading vehicle correction information to perform vehicle control according to the leading vehicle correction information (step S22), for example, the absolute positioning information 217 may be subtracted from the coordinates of the specified driving route a, if the subtraction result is a negative value, it may represent that the absolute positioning information 217 is more right than the specified driving route a, the leading vehicle decision control unit 23 may control the leading vehicle to correct to the left, and the leading vehicle correction information includes a turning angle to the left; on the contrary, if the absolute positioning information 217 is left compared to the designated driving route a, the leading vehicle decision control unit 23 can control the leading vehicle to correct to the right, and the leading vehicle correction information includes a turning angle to the right. In addition, the leading vehicle decision control unit 23 also transmits the leading vehicle local time, the leading vehicle correction information, the specified driving route a, and the absolute positioning information 217 to the trailing vehicle decision control unit 33 (step S23).
Referring to fig. 11, for the rear vehicle decision making control unit 33, when the rear vehicle decision making control unit 33 receives the local time of the leading vehicle, the correction information of the leading vehicle, the specified driving route a and the absolute positioning information 217 (step S30), a rear vehicle correction information is calculated accordingly (step S31), for example, the rear vehicle decision making control unit 33 can subtract the local time of the rear vehicle and the received local time of the leading vehicle to obtain a time difference, which represents that after the time length of the time difference, the first rear vehicle 11 needs to be located at an expected arrival position, which is the received absolute positioning information 217; at this time, the rear vehicle decision control unit 33 compares the predicted arrival position with its map information 317 and the designated driving route a, and generates the rear vehicle correction information including the steering angle for moving the first rear vehicle 11 from the relative position information 316 to the predicted arrival position. After the rear vehicle correction information is generated, determining whether the rear vehicle correction information is greater than a rear vehicle correction threshold (step S32), wherein the rear vehicle correction threshold may be, for example, 10 degrees; if so, performing vehicle control based on the rear vehicle correction information (step S33); if not, the current driving route of the rear vehicle is not corrected. Thus, if the first rear vehicle 11 is a passenger vehicle, the first rear vehicle 11 can be prevented from being excessively corrected to cause the rear vehicle to deflect and cause discomfort to passengers.
In summary, the present invention achieves Coordination (Coordination) by communicating the driving information among the front vehicle control device 20, the rear vehicle control device 30 and the server 40, and the rear vehicle control device 30 employs the simplified driving information collecting unit 31 with lower cost, so that the rear vehicle in the fleet can follow the vehicle based on lower operation cost.