# US 12,181,883 B2 · Vehicle control device and vehicle control method

> Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt

- Number: US 12,181,883 B2
- Document ID: US12181883B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 18/090,220
- Filed: 2022-12-28
- Published: 2023-05-04
- Granted: 2024-12-31
- Earliest claimed: 2016-02-29
- Assignees: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
- Applicants: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
- Inventors: Toshiyuki Matsubara; Masaki Matsunaga; Kenichiro Aoki; Yoshinori Watanabe; Ryuta Hashimoto
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12181883B2

## CPC

- B60W 30/095: Predicting travel path or likelihood of collision
- G05D 1/646: Following a predefined trajectory, e.g. a line marked on the floor or a flight path
- B60W 10/04: including control of propulsion units
- B60W 10/18: including control of braking systems
- B60W 10/20: including control of steering systems
- B60W 30/00: Purposes of road vehicle drive control systems not related to the control of a particular sub-unit, e.g. of systems using conjoint control of vehicle sub-units
- B60W 30/18163: {Lane change; Overtaking manoeuvres}
- B60W 60/001: {Planning or execution of driving tasks}
- B60W 60/0016: {of the vehicle or its occupants}
- G05D 1/00: Control of position, course, altitude or attitude of land, water, air or space vehicles, e.g. using automatic pilots (drive control systems specially adapted for autonomous road vehicles B60W60/00)
- G05D 1/24: Arrangements for determining position or orientation
- B60W 2420/403: Image sensing, e.g. optical camera
- B60W 2420/408: Radar; Laser, e.g. lidar
- B60W 2520/10: Longitudinal speed
- B60W 2520/105: Longitudinal acceleration
- B60W 2520/125: Lateral acceleration
- B60W 2520/14: Yaw
- B60W 2552/15: Road slope, i.e. the inclination of a road segment in the longitudinal direction
- B60W 2552/30: Road curve radius
- B60W 2554/80: Spatial relation or speed relative to objects
- B60W 2554/802: Longitudinal distance
- B60W 2554/804: Relative longitudinal speed
- B60W 2555/20: Ambient conditions, e.g. wind or rain
- B60W 2556/50: of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
- B60W: CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE OR DIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TO THE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT
- G05D: SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLING OR REGULATING NON-ELECTRIC VARIABLES

## Abstract

A vehicle control device includes a scene determination unit determining whether or not a current traveling scene is a traveling-restricted scene, an order setting unit setting priorities corresponding to a restriction with respect to driving behaviors previously classified for different purposes in a case where it is determined that the traveling scene is the traveling-restricted scene and setting priorities with respect to the plurality of driving behaviors in a case where it is not determined that the traveling scene is the traveling-restricted scene, a traveling plan generating unit generating traveling plans corresponding to the plurality of priority-set driving behaviors, an executability determination unit determining executability of each of the plurality of generated driving behaviors, a traveling plan selection unit selecting the traveling plan corresponding to the driving behavior with the highest priority, and a traveling control unit controlling the traveling of the host vehicle based on the traveling plan.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A vehicle control device comprising:
at least one processor configured to:
acquire a surrounding situation of a host vehicle based on data received from at least one of an external sensor or a camera configured to detect the surrounding situation;
determine whether a current traveling scene of the host vehicle is a traveling-restricted scene based on the acquired surrounding situation of the host vehicle, wherein the traveling-restricted scene includes at least one of the following types of traveling-restricted scenes: a slow car-present scene, a branching scene and a lane-reduced scene;
based upon the determination that the current traveling scene is at least one of the types of traveling-restricted scenes, set a priority order for each of a plurality of driving behaviors with respect to each other, wherein the plurality of driving behaviors include: lane keeping priority, lane change priority, evacuation priority, and emergency stop priority, wherein the priority order is set according to a data table predetermined in advance for each of the types of traveling-restricted scenes;
based on which type of the traveling-restricted scene is present, generate a plurality of traveling plans respectively corresponding to the plurality of driving behaviors according to the priority order;
determine executability of each of the plurality of driving behaviors based on the surrounding situation;
select the traveling plan corresponding to the driving behavior with a highest priority among the driving behaviors determined to be executable from among the plurality of traveling plans that have been generated; and
control the traveling of the host vehicle based on the traveling plan that has been selected.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein the traveling-restricted scene is the slow car-present traveling restricted scene based on a determination that a preceding vehicle in front of the host vehicle has a speed lower than a target vehicle speed of the host vehicle by at least a vehicle speed threshold, and an inter-vehicle distance of the preceding vehicle in front of the host vehicle is less than a predetermined inter-vehicle distance.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein the traveling-restricted scene is the branching scene based on a determination that the host vehicle is traveling in a target direction and a branch is present in front of the host vehicle.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein the traveling-restricted scene is the lane-reduced scene based on a determination that the host vehicle is traveling in a target direction and a lane in front of the host vehicle is discontinuous.

### Claim 5

An electronic device-implemented vehicle control method comprising:
acquiring a surrounding situation of a host vehicle based on data received from at least one of an external sensor or a camera configured to detect the surrounding situation;
determining whether a current traveling scene of the host vehicle is a traveling-restricted scene based on the acquired surrounding situation of the host vehicle, wherein the traveling-restricted scene includes at least one of the following types: a slow car-present scene, a branching scene and a lane-reduced scene;
based upon the determination that the current traveling scene is at least one of the types of traveling-restricted scenes, setting a priority order for each of a plurality of driving behaviors with respect to each other, wherein the plurality of driving behaviors include: lane keeping priority, lane change priority, evacuation priority, and emergency stop priority, wherein the priority order is set according to a data table predetermined in advance for each of the types of traveling-restricted scenes;
based on which type of the determined traveling-restricted scene is present, generating a plurality of traveling plans respectively corresponding to the plurality of driving behaviors according to the priority order;
determining executability of each of the plurality of driving behaviors based on the surrounding situation;
selecting the traveling plan corresponding to the driving behavior with a highest priority among the driving behaviors determined to be executable from among the plurality of traveling plans that have been generated; and
controlling the traveling of the host vehicle based on the traveling plan that has been selected.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The electronic device-implemented vehicle control method according to claim 5, wherein the traveling-restricted scene is the slow car-present traveling restricted scene based on a determination that a preceding vehicle in front of the host vehicle has a speed lower than a target vehicle speed of the host vehicle by at least a vehicle speed threshold, and an inter-vehicle distance of the preceding vehicle in front of the host vehicle is less than a predetermined inter-vehicle distance.

### Claim 7 (depends on 5)

The electronic device-implemented vehicle control method according to claim 5, wherein the traveling-restricted scene is the branching scene based on a determination that the host vehicle is traveling in a target direction and a branch is present in front of the host vehicle.

### Claim 8 (depends on 5)

The electronic device-implemented vehicle control method according to claim 5, wherein the traveling-restricted scene is the lane-reduced scene based on a determination that the host vehicle is traveling in a target direction and a lane in front of the host vehicle is discontinuous.

### Claim 9

A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer-executable code, which, when executed by a processor, causes a processor to perform:
acquiring a surrounding situation of a host vehicle based on data received from at least one of an external sensor or a camera configured to detect the surrounding situation;
determining whether a current traveling scene of the host vehicle is a traveling-restricted scene based on the acquired surrounding situation of the host vehicle, wherein the traveling-restricted scene includes at least one of the following types: a slow car-present scene, a branching scene and a lane-reduced scene;
based upon the determination that the current traveling scene is at least one of the types of traveling-restricted scenes, setting a priority order for each of a plurality of driving behaviors with respect to each other, wherein the plurality of driving behaviors include: lane keeping priority, lane change priority, evacuation priority, and emergency stop priority, wherein the priority order is set according to a data table predetermined in advance for each of the types of traveling-restricted scenes;
based on which type of the determined traveling-restricted scene is present, generating a plurality of traveling plans respectively corresponding to the plurality of driving behaviors according to the priority order;
determining executability of each of the plurality of driving behaviors based on the surrounding situation;
selecting the traveling plan corresponding to the driving behavior with a highest priority among the driving behaviors determined to be executable from among the plurality of traveling plans that have been generated; and
controlling the traveling of the host vehicle based on the traveling plan that has been selected.

### Claim 10 (depends on 9)

The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 9, wherein the traveling-restricted scene is the slow car-present traveling restricted scene based on a determination that a preceding vehicle in front of the host vehicle has a speed lower than a target vehicle speed of the host vehicle by at least a vehicle speed threshold, and an inter-vehicle distance of the preceding vehicle in front of the host vehicle is less than a predetermined inter-vehicle distance.

### Claim 11 (depends on 9)

The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 9, wherein the traveling-restricted scene is the branching scene based on a determination that the host vehicle is traveling in a target direction and a branch is present in front of the host vehicle.

### Claim 12 (depends on 9)

The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 9, wherein the traveling-restricted scene is the lane-reduced scene based on a determination that the host vehicle is traveling in a target direction and a lane in front of the host vehicle is discontinuous.