# US 2013/0158830 A1 · Leading Vehicle Detecting Apparatus And Inter-Vehicular Control Apparatus Using Leading Vehicle Detecting Apparatus > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2013/0158830 A1 - Document ID: US20130158830A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 13/713,087 - Filed: 2012-12-13 - Published: 2013-06-20 - Earliest claimed: 2011-12-14 - Assignees: Denso Corporation - Inventors: Jin Kurumisawa; Tatsuya Namikiri - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20130158830A1 ## CPC - B60K 31/00: Vehicle fittings, acting on a single sub-unit only, for automatically controlling vehicle speed, i.e. preventing speed from exceeding an arbitrarily established velocity or maintaining speed at a particular velocity, as selected by the vehicle operator - B60W 50/0097: {Predicting future conditions} - B60W 10/06: including control of combustion engines - B60W 10/18: including control of braking systems - B60W 2420/408: Radar; Laser, e.g. lidar - B60W 2520/14: Yaw - B60W 2520/28: Wheel speed - B60W 2552/30: Road curve radius - B60K: ARRANGEMENT OR MOUNTING OF PROPULSION UNITS OR OF TRANSMISSIONS IN VEHICLES; ARRANGEMENT OR MOUNTING OF PLURAL DIVERSE PRIME-MOVERS IN VEHICLES; AUXILIARY DRIVES FOR VEHICLES; INSTRUMENTATION OR DASHBOARDS FOR VEHICLES; ARRANGEMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH COOLING, AIR INTAKE, GAS EXHAUST OR FUEL SUPPLY OF PROPULSION UNITS IN VEHICLES - 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 ## Abstract A leading vehicle detecting apparatus and inter-vehicular control apparatus which can reduce delay in deciding accurately whether or not the own vehicle is following a particular leading vehicle are provided. The leading vehicle detecting apparatus includes: a signal acquiring section that acquires position signals outputted from a position detecting section that detects the position of the leading vehicle, and detection signals outputted from state detecting sections that detect a state of an own vehicle cruising line; a storage section storing in advance a probability map showing the probability of the own vehicle following the leading vehicle, based on distance from an expected cruising line of the own vehicle to leading vehicle the position; and a calculating section that calculates the expected cruising line based on is the detection signals, and judges whether the own vehicle is following the leading vehicle based on the expected cruising line, position signals, and probability map. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A leading vehicle detecting apparatus, wherein the leading vehicle detecting apparatus may be mounted in a vehicle and judges therein whether or not an own vehicle is traveling such as to follow a preceding vehicle traveling ahead of the own vehicle in a same traffic lane, including: a signal acquiring section that acquires both a position signal outputted from a position detecting section which detects a position of the preceding vehicle and a detected signal outputted from a state detecting section which detects a state of a present cruising line in which the own vehicle is traveling; a storage section that stores in advance a probability map that assigns a probability regarding whether or not the own vehicle is following the leading vehicle on the basis of a distance from an expected cruising line of the own vehicle and the position of the leading vehicle; and a calculating section that calculates the expected cruising line on the basis of the detection signal, and judges whether or not the own vehicle is following the leading vehicle on the basis of the calculated expected cruising line, the position signal, and the probability map. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The leading vehicle detecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage section accumulates and stores therein the position signals of the preceding vehicle that have been discretely acquired; the calculating section determines a follow probabilities for the plurality of position signals on the basis of i) the plurality of position signals having differing elapsed times after acquisition, ii) the expected cruising line calculated on the basis of the detection signal acquired most recently, and iii) the probability map when judging whether or not the own vehicle is following the preceding vehicle on the basis of the expected cruising line, the position signals and the probability map, and then judges whether or not the own vehicle is following the preceding vehicle on the basis of a combined probability that is calculated from the determined plurality of follow probabilities. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The leading vehicle judging apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the probability map sets the follow probability relatively high when the distance from the expected cruising line to the position of the preceding vehicle is within a predetermined range, and sets the follow probability relatively low when the distance exceeds the predetermined range; and in the probability map corresponding to positional information of which the elapsed time after acquisition is relatively long, the predetermined range is set to be narrower than that in the probability map corresponding to positional information of which the elapsed time after acquisition is relatively short. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The leading vehicle detecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage section stores in advance therein a plurality of kinds of probability maps based on the traveling speed of the own vehicle; the calculating section selects the probability map for the traveling speed of the own vehicle among the plurality of kinds of probability maps on the basis of an inputted signal of the traveling speed of the own vehicle, and then judges whether or not the own vehicle is following the leading vehicle using the selected probability map. ### Claim 5 (depends on 2) The leading vehicle detecting apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the storage section stores in advance therein a plurality of kinds of probability maps based on the traveling speed of the own vehicle; the calculating section selects the probability map for the traveling speed of the own vehicle among the plurality of kinds of probability maps on the basis of an inputted signal of the traveling speed of the own vehicle, and then judges whether or not the own vehicle is following the leading vehicle using the selected probability map. ### Claim 6 (depends on 3) The leading vehicle detecting apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the storage section stores in advance therein a plurality of kinds of probability maps based on the traveling speed of the own vehicle; the calculating section selects the probability map for the traveling speed of the own vehicle among the plurality of kinds of probability maps on the basis of an inputted signal of the traveling is speed of the own vehicle, and then judges whether or not the own vehicle is following the leading vehicle using the selected probability map. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The leading vehicle detecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the expected cruising line calculated by the calculating section includes transition curves. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) An inter-vehicular control apparatus, wherein the inter-vehicular apparatus may be mounted in a vehicle and controls thereby the distance between an own vehicle and a leading vehicle, when the own vehicle is following the leading vehicle traveling in the same traffic lane as the own vehicle, among the vehicles traveling ahead of the own vehicle, including: i) the leading vehicle detecting apparatus according to claim 1; and ii) a control section which controls the inter-vehicular distance to be within a predetermined range by controlling the traveling speed of the own vehicle on the basis of the inter-vehicular distance from the leading vehicle, the distance being judged by the leading vehicle detecting apparatus to the own vehicle. ### Claim 9 A leading vehicle judging method, wherein the leading vehicle judging method judges whether or not an own vehicle is traveling such as to follow a preceding vehicle traveling ahead of the own vehicle in a same traffic lane, the method including: acquiring both a position signal outputted from a position detecting section which detects a position of the preceding vehicle and a detected signal outputted from a state detecting section which detects a state of a present cruising line in which the own vehicle is traveling; storing in advance a probability map that assigns a probability regarding whether or not the own vehicle is following the leading vehicle on the basis of a distance from an expected cruising line of the own vehicle and the position of the leading vehicle; and calculating the expected cruising line on the basis of the detection signal, and judges whether or not the own vehicle is following the leading vehicle on the basis of the calculated expected cruising line, the position signal, and the probability map. ### Claim 10 (depends on 9) An inter-vehicular control method, wherein the inter-vehicular method is executed in vehicles and controls thereby the distance between an own vehicle and a leading vehicle when the own vehicle is following the leading vehicle traveling in the same traffic lane as the own vehicle among the vehicles traveling ahead of the own vehicle, the method including: i) judging the leading vehicle according to claim 9; and ii) controlling the inter-vehicular distance to be within a predetermined range by controlling the traveling speed of the own vehicle on the basis of the inter-vehicular distance from the leading vehicle, the distance being judged by the preceding step i).