Patent ID: 9202379
Filing Date: 2015-12-01
Classification: G08G

Abstract:
1. A convoy travel apparatus for a self vehicle executed on a processor, the apparatus comprising: a follow travel control unit configured to guide the self vehicle to follow a preceding vehicle based on information transmitted from the preceding vehicle, the preceding vehicle and at least one follower vehicle making up a convoy of traveling vehicles; an in-convoy vehicle identification unit configured to identify each of all vehicles except the self vehicle in a self convoy as an in-convoy vehicle; an order identification unit configured to determine an order of the self vehicle in the self convoy based on the information obtained from other vehicles; a distance calculator configured to calculate a leader vehicle distance, based on the information from the other vehicles, between the self vehicle and a leader vehicle of the self convoy and a tail vehicle distance between the self vehicle and a tail vehicle traveling at a tail end of the self convoy; a convoy information transmitter configured to transmit, to the other vehicles, convoy information including the leader vehicle distance, the tail vehicle distance, a current position of the self vehicle, and a travel direction of the self vehicle; a parallel travel determination unit configured to determine, when the self vehicle is the leader vehicle of the self convoy, whether the self convoy and an object convoy are traveling in parallel with each other in an in-parallel travel state, based on the convoy information of the self convoy that at least includes the tail vehicle distance between the self vehicle in the self convoy and the tail vehicle traveling at the tail end of the self convoy, the current position of the self vehicle, and the travel direction of the self vehicle and the convoy information of the object convoy transmitted from an external vehicle that does not belong to the self convoy and belongs to the object convoy, the convoy information of the object convoy including a current position, a travel direction, a leader vehicle distance between the external vehicle and a leader vehicle of the object convoy and a tail vehicle distance of the external vehicle between the external vehicle and a tail vehicle traveling at a tail end of the object convoy; and a parallel travel resolver configured to resolve the in-parallel travel state of the self convoy and the object convoy by controlling a behavior of the self vehicle when the parallel travel determination unit determines that the two convoys are in the in-parallel travel state.