Apparatus and method for controlling a distance between traveling vehicles and actuating a warning device and a recording medium for storing related program

• Main Authors: TERAMURA EIJI, ISOGAI AKIRA, NOZAWA TOYOHITO, NISHIMURA TAKAO, KATO HISANAO, SAKAI NORIHIKO
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 17.05.2005
• Edition: 7
• Subjects: ARRANGEMENT OF BRAKING ELEMENTS ON VEHICLES IN GENERAL; ARRANGEMENT OR MOUNTING OF PLURAL DIVERSE PRIME-MOVERS INVEHICLES; ARRANGEMENT OR MOUNTING OF PROPULSION UNITS OR OFTRANSMISSIONS IN VEHICLES; ARRANGEMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH COOLING, AIR INTAKE, GASEXHAUST OR FUEL SUPPLY OF PROPULSION UNITS, IN VEHICLES; AUXILIARY DRIVES FOR VEHICLES; BLASTING; BRAKE CONTROL SYSTEMS OR PARTS THEREOF, IN GENERAL; COMBUSTION ENGINES; CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE ORDIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; CONTROLLING; CONTROLLING COMBUSTION ENGINES; ENGINEERING ELEMENTS AND UNITS; GEARING; GENERAL MEASURES FOR PRODUCING AND MAINTAINING EFFECTIVEFUNCTIONING OF MACHINES OR INSTALLATIONS; HEATING; HOT-GAS OR COMBUSTION-PRODUCT ENGINE PLANTS; INSTRUMENTATION OR DASHBOARDS FOR VEHICLES; LIGHTING; MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; PORTABLE DEVICES FOR PREVENTING UNWANTED MOVEMENT OFVEHICLES; REGULATING; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TOTHE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT; SIGNALLING; SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLING OR REGULATING NON-ELECTRIC VARIABLES; THERMAL INSULATION IN GENERAL; TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS; TRANSPORTING; VEHICLE BRAKE CONTROL SYSTEMS OR PARTS THEREOF; VEHICLE MODIFICATIONS TO FACILITATE COOLING OF BRAKES; VEHICLES IN GENERAL; VEHICLES, VEHICLE FITTINGS, OR VEHICLE PARTS, NOT OTHERWISEPROVIDED FOR; WEAPONS

Recognition result of an objective recognized as a preceding vehicle is analyzed to judge whether this objective is correctly detected as a vehicle or not. A relative acceleration is calculated based on a relative speed corresponding to the objective when analysis result shows properness of this objective as a vehicle. The relative acceleration is set to 0 when analysis result shows improperness of the objective. An inter-vehicle control amount is corrected based on the obtained relative acceleration. The distance between the preceding vehicle and the controlled vehicle is controlled based on the corrected inter-vehicle control amount.