Patent ID: 11970163
Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 0:
1. A vehicle control device comprising:
a camera configured to repeatedly capture an image of a landscape in front of a vehicle;
a yaw rate sensor configured to detect a yaw rate of said vehicle;
an actuator configured to change a steered angle of a steered wheel of said vehicle; and
a control unit, comprising at least one processor and memory storing computer instructions, said computer instructions configured, when executed by said at least one processor, cause said control unit to:
obtain, based on said image captured by said camera, a relative position of said vehicle in a lane width direction with respect to a lane in which said vehicle is traveling and a yaw angle with respect to an extension direction of said lane;
start, when a lane change assist start condition is established, lane change assist control to drive said actuator based on said obtained relative position and said obtained yaw angle in such a manner that said vehicle changes lanes from an original lane in which the own vehicle is traveling to a target lane which is adjacent to said original lane;
interrupt said lane change assist control and start first yaw angle return control in place of said lane change assist control, when a predetermined first interruption condition is established, said first yaw angle return control being a control to drive said actuator in such a manner that an actual yaw angle of said vehicle is returned to an initial yaw angle that is a yaw angle of when said lane change assist control is started;
calculate an estimated yaw angle change amount based on said yaw rate detected by the yaw rate sensor and a predetermined time length;
calculate a value based on said yaw angle obtained using said image captured by said camera and said calculated estimated yaw angle change amount; and
end said first yaw angle return control when said calculated value becomes equal to said initial yaw angle.