JPH06211069A - Gear change instruction device for vehicle transmission - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] Prohibit shifting instructions during cruise control. [Structure] Shift determining means 1 for determining that a shift should be performed based on a running state of a vehicle, and the shift determining means 1
A transmission for a vehicle equipped with a display means 2 for displaying that a shift should be made based on an output signal from the vehicle and a constant speed traveling control means 3 for controlling the driving state of the vehicle so as to maintain the selected vehicle speed. The indicator device is a detecting means 4 for detecting that the constant speed traveling control means 3 is controlling, and the detecting means 4 is for detecting that the constant speed traveling control means 3 is controlling. If the display means 2
And a prohibition means 5 for prohibiting the display of the gear shift instruction by.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a gear shift instructing device for instructing that a gear should be shifted in a vehicle equipped with a manual transmission, and in particular, it is equipped with a constant speed traveling device for controlling the vehicle speed to maintain a constant vehicle speed. The present invention relates to a gear shift instruction device in a moving vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a vehicle equipped with a manual transmission, basically any gear can be selected. Therefore, by delaying the upshift until the engine speed becomes high, the driving force can be increased. There is a high degree of freedom in driving, such as excellent driving. On the other hand, the engine may run at a high engine speed even though it is not intended, and as a result, the fuel efficiency may deteriorate. As a device for avoiding such an inconvenience, a device for informing a driver by a display device such as a lamp that an upshift should be made has been conventionally developed.

This is, for example, when a region determined by the throttle opening and the vehicle speed is set for each shift speed, and it is detected that the actual traveling state has changed from the low speed region to the high speed region. The indicator lights up to inform the driver that an upshift is to be performed, and the shift according to this is made to reduce the delay of the shift, that is, the driving with the engine speed increased as much as possible to improve the fuel efficiency. Is intended. That is, when the vehicle speed becomes relatively high with respect to the set shift speed, the control device judges this and prompts the driver to perform an upshift.

On the other hand, recently, cruise control has come to be performed even in a vehicle equipped with a manual transmission (see, for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 1-125232). This is a device that electrically controls the throttle opening so as to maintain the vehicle speed set based on the switch operation.If equipped with this device, the overall gear shifting operation including accelerator operation will be reduced. , The driving of the vehicle becomes easy.

[0005]

However, even in a vehicle equipped with a manual transmission capable of performing cruise control, it is conceivable to mount the above-described gear shift instructing device in order to prevent deterioration of fuel consumption due to delay in gear shifting. If the cruise control and the shift instruction control are performed independently of each other, the following inconvenience occurs. That is, the cruise control automatically controls the throttle opening and the like so as to maintain the set vehicle speed and makes it unnecessary for the driver to perform a gear shift operation. On the other hand, it is a device that prompts the driver to positively perform a gear shift operation. Therefore, if a gear shift instruction is controlled during cruise control, it is necessary to positively perform an unnecessary operation, which gives the driver a feeling of discomfort. Or it will confuse the driver.

Further, since it is common to adopt that the clutch is released as one of the conditions for canceling the cruise control, the shift command is issued during the cruise control as described above, and the shift is executed in accordance with the command. When,
Cruise control is canceled each time, and it becomes necessary to set the cruise control again.
There is the inconvenience of frequent setting and release of cruise control.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to make cruise control and gear change instruction control compatible without causing any particular trouble.

[0008]

The present invention is characterized in that it has the structure shown in FIG. 1 in order to achieve the above object. That is, the present invention is a shift determining means 1 for determining that a shift should be performed based on the running state of the vehicle, and a display means 2 for displaying that a shift should be performed based on an output signal from the shift determining means 1. In the shift instruction device for a vehicle transmission, which comprises a constant speed traveling control means 3 for controlling the driving state of the vehicle so as to maintain the selected vehicle speed, the constant speed traveling control means 3 controls the vehicle. And a prohibiting means 5 for prohibiting the display of the shift instruction by the display means 2 when the detecting means 4 detects that the control by the constant speed traveling control means 3 is being performed. It is characterized by that.

[0009]

The vehicle targeted by the present invention is controlled by the constant speed traveling control means 3 so as to maintain the set vehicle speed, which is achieved by controlling the throttle opening, for example. Further, the gear shift judging means 1 judges that the gear should be shifted based on the difference between the target gear and the actually set gear, and if the judgment is established, the output signal is used to display. Means 2 indicates that a shift should be made.

Since the shift judging means 1 judges the target shift speed and the gear should be changed based on the running state of the vehicle such as the throttle opening and the vehicle speed, the constant speed running control means 3 maintains the vehicle speed. Thus, for example, when the throttle opening is controlled to decrease, the gear shift determination means 1 determines that the upshift should be performed, but this is detected when the constant speed traveling control means 3 is controlling. The means 4 detects it, and accordingly, the prohibiting means 5 prohibits the instruction of the gear shift through the display means 2. The prohibition control by the prohibiting means 5 includes not only prohibition of display but also prohibition of shift determination itself.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, in which a manual transmission 11 is connected to an engine 10. This engine 10 has a throttle valve (not shown) so as to maintain the vehicle speed set by a switch operation.
The engine is capable of constant speed traveling control (cruise control) for controlling the opening degree of the vehicle, and an electronic control unit (ECU) 12 for executing the control is provided. The electronic control unit 12 is mainly composed of a central processing unit (CPU), a storage unit (RAM, ROM) and an input / output interface, and has a vehicle speed SPD, a throttle opening TA, a brake ON / OFF signal, Clutch ON / OFF signal, neutral switch ON /
Various signals such as an OFF signal are input.

This constant speed traveling control is similar to that known in the prior art, and electrically controls the throttle valve based on the deviation between the actual vehicle speed and the vehicle speed set by the switch operation during traveling. The control is to maintain the vehicle speed at a substantially constant level. The control for canceling the cancellation is performed based on the traveling state, and an example thereof is as shown in FIG. That is, the vehicle is in the constant speed traveling control (auto cruise control) (step 1), the brake is off (not in the braking state) (step 2), and the clutch is on (the clutch is engaged) (step 3). , If the conditions of not being neutral (step 4) are satisfied, constant speed traveling control is performed, and if any of these conditions is not satisfied, constant speed traveling control is stopped (cancelled). (Step 5).

A gear shift instructing device for instructing an upshift of the manual transmission 11 is also provided. This is provided with an electronic control unit (hereinafter, tentatively referred to as SIL-ECU) 13 for gear shift instruction, and an indicator 15 provided at an appropriate position on an instrument panel 14. The SIL
The ECU 13 is mainly composed of a central processing unit (CPU), a storage device (RAM, ROM), and an input / output interface, and includes a vehicle speed SPD, a throttle opening TA, an idle switch ON / OFF signal, and a brake switch. ON / OFF signal, engine speed NE
, And various signals such as a detection signal of the actual gear set by the manual transmission 11 are input.

The control performed by this gear shift instruction device is basically the same as the conventionally known control.
The example is as follows. That is, FIG. 4 shows a control routine of the gear shift instruction, which is not idling (idle OFF) (step 10), the vehicle speed is 15 km / h or more (step 11), and the engine speed is 1200 rpm or more. (Step 1
2) The vehicle is not in rapid acceleration (step 13), the throttle opening TA is more than 3 ° and less than 80 ° (step 14), braking is not in progress (step 15), and reverse is not in progress (step 16). ), It is not during gear shifting (step 17), and it is not at the highest speed (step 1)
8) The vehicle speed SPD is greater than TASPD (step 1
Indicator (SIL) when each condition of 9) is satisfied
15 is turned on (step 20), and if any one of the conditions is not satisfied, the indicator 15 is turned off (step 21). Here, TASPD is a parameter that indicates the vehicle speed SPD that prompts an upshift in accordance with the throttle opening TA. As an example, when the throttle opening TA is taken as the horizontal axis and the vehicle speed is taken as the vertical axis, Is represented by a straight line rising to the right.

The electronic control unit 12 and the SIL-ECU 13 for the constant speed traveling control described above are connected so as to transmit a signal indicating that the constant speed traveling control is being executed to the SIL-ECU 13. This is because the output of the gear shift instruction is prohibited during the constant speed traveling control. That is, the throttle opening and the vehicle speed may change depending on the road surface condition even when the constant speed traveling control is performed, and accordingly, the lighting condition of the indicator 15 may be satisfied.
This is because the constant-speed traveling control has an original purpose of eliminating the need for a shift operation and an accelerator operation, and therefore it is inconsistent to give a shift command together with this.

An example of a control routine for prohibiting the lighting of the indicator 15 is as shown in FIG. 5, and the lighting condition of the indicator 15 described above is satisfied (step 20) and the cruise control is not in operation (step 2).
1 "no"), indicator 15 is illuminated (step 22), otherwise, ie step 20
If the result of the determination is "No", or if the result of the determination in step 21 is "Yes", the indicator 15 is not turned on, and the shift instruction is substantially prohibited. Therefore, it is possible to avoid the contradiction that the driver should be prompted to change gears despite performing the constant speed traveling control.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and the conditions for canceling the constant speed traveling control and the lighting conditions of the indicators may be conditions other than the conditions shown in the above embodiments.

[0018]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By executing the constant speed running control, it is possible to prevent the driver from giving a gear shift instruction in a situation where he / she thinks that the driver does not need a gear shift operation, and can prevent the driver from feeling uncomfortable and confused. .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a control routine for canceling cruise control.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of a shift instruction control routine.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a control routine for prohibiting shift instruction control accompanying cruise control.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 gear shift judging means 2 display means 3 constant speed traveling control means 4 detecting means 5 prohibiting means

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A shift determining means for determining that a shift should be performed based on a running state of a vehicle, and a display means for displaying that a shift should be performed based on an output signal from the shift determining means are selected. In a shift instruction device for a vehicle transmission, comprising: a constant speed traveling control means for controlling a driving state of a vehicle so as to maintain a vehicle speed, a detecting means for detecting that the control by the constant speed traveling control means is being performed. And a prohibiting means for prohibiting the display of the shift instruction by the display means when the detecting means detects that the control by the constant speed traveling control means is being performed. Gear change instruction device.