Method and device for recognizing marked hazard areas and/or construction areas in the region of lanes

• US 10,148,917 B2
• Filed: 07/10/2013
• Issued: 12/04/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG (Continental AG), Conti Temic Microelectronic GmbH (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG (Continental AG), Conti Temic Microelectronic GmbH (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Hegemann, Stefan, Komar, Matthias, Lueke, Stefan
• Primary Examiner(s): Volentine, Rebecca A
• Application Number:
  US14/417,931
• Publication Number:
  US 20150189244A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,973 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/005 specially adapted for viewing traffic-lights
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/302 combining image information with GPS information or vehicle data, e.g. vehicle speed, gyro, steering angle data
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/8093 for obstacle warning
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3691 Retrieval, searching and output of information related to real-time traffic, weather, or environmental conditions arrangements for giving variable traffic instructions G08G1/09
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/867 Combination of radar systems with cameras
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/161 Decentralised systems, e.g. inter-vehicle communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 for receiving images from a single remote source

Abstract

In order to recognize hazard areas and/or construction areas on a roadway, an environment sensor produces detected environment data regarding objects indicating the hazard areas and/or construction areas. A traffic light system is detected in the environment data, position data of the traffic light system is determined, an environment scenario is determined from the environment data and is compared with a reference model of the environment scenario. If the reference model does not indicate the presence of a traffic light system, or indicates a traffic light system having position data differing from the position data of the detected traffic light system, then it is concluded that the detected traffic light system is a traffic light system identifying a hazard and/or construction area.

Claims

1. A method of recognizing a road hazard area or a road construction area on a roadway along which a vehicle is driving, comprising the steps:

detecting an actual traffic light system along the roadway, from environment data produced by at least one environment sensor of the vehicle,

determining actual positional data of the actual traffic light system, from the environment data,

determining an environment scenario by classifying an environment configuration represented by features detected in the environment data,

determining a reference model pertaining to the environment scenario, wherein the reference model indicates whether an expected traffic light system exists in the reference model, and when the expected traffic light system does exist in the reference model then the reference model provides reference positional data regarding an expected position of the expected traffic light system, and

when the reference model does not include the expected traffic light system or indicates that the reference positional data of the expected traffic light system differs from the actual positional data of the actual traffic light system, then based at least thereon as a prerequisite, concluding that the actual traffic light system is a temporary traffic light system located at and identifying a road hazard area or a road construction area.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of determining the reference model comprises creating the reference model from navigation-based information.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising performing an object classification of the environment data regarding construction area-specific or hazard area-specific features of the actual traffic light system, to provide additional information as a further prerequisite for concluding that the actual traffic light system is the temporary traffic light system located at and identifying the road hazard area or the road construction area.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of determining the reference model comprises generating the reference model from digital map data of a network of transport routes stored in a navigation database, wherein the digital map data comprise construction area information.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising additionally using information in the environment data regarding a course of a lane on the roadway or recognized lane information as a further prerequisite for concluding that the actual traffic light system is the temporary traffic light system located at and identifying the road hazard area or the road construction area.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising additionally using information in the environment data regarding recognized road signs on the roadway as a further prerequisite for concluding that the actual traffic light system is the temporary traffic light system located at and identifying the road hazard area or the road construction area.

7. A device for carrying out the method according to claim 1, comprising

said environment sensor, which comprises a camera system, configured and arranged to detect the actual traffic light system on the roadway, and

hardware that is connected to said camera system,

wherein said hardware comprises a memory which stores the reference model pertaining to the environment scenario, and

wherein said hardware further comprises an object detection and evaluation unit which is configured to determine the actual positional data of the actual traffic light system, to determine the environment scenario from the environment data, and to generate the conclusion about the detected traffic light system.

8. The device according to claim 7, further comprising object detection software that can be executed by said object detection and evaluation unit to recognize whether the actual traffic light system includes a battery housing or a photovoltaic panel.

9. The device according to claim 7, further comprising a vehicle navigation system producing navigation based information from which the reference model is generated.

10. The device according to claim 7, further comprising a digital map database including construction area information from which the reference model is generated.

11. A vehicle system comprising the device according to claim 7, and a motor vehicle, a hybrid vehicle or an electric vehicle on which the device is mounted.

16. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a step:

when the reference model indicates that the expected traffic light system exists in the reference model, and that the reference positional data of the expected traffic light system corresponds to the actual positional data of the actual traffic light system, then based thereon, concluding that the actual traffic light system is not a temporary traffic light system located at and identifying the road hazard area or the road construction area but instead is a normal permanent traffic light system of the roadway.

17. The method according to claim 1, further comprising performing object detection on the environment data and therein detecting a battery housing or a photovoltaic panel on the actual traffic light system as another prerequisite for concluding that the actual traffic light system is the temporary traffic light system located at and identifying the road hazard area or the road construction area.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein the actual positional data identifies an actual position of the actual traffic light system with respect to and relative to other features of the roadway detected in the environment data, and the reference positional data identifies the expected position of the expected traffic light system with respect to and relative to other features in the reference model.

12. A method of automatically recognizing a road hazard area or a road construction area on a roadway along which a vehicle is driving, comprising steps:

a) with at least one environment sensor of the vehicle, producing environment data regarding an environment on the roadway;

b) evaluating the environment data to detect an actual traffic light system on the roadway;

c) evaluating the environment data to determine actual position data of a position of the actual traffic light system;

d) from the environment data determining an environment scenario by classifying an environment configuration represented by features of the environment;

e) determining or obtaining a reference model that represents previously acquired reference information pertaining to the environment scenario, wherein the reference information indicates whether an expected traffic light system exists in the reference model and provides reference position data regarding an expected position of the expected traffic light system when the expected traffic light system exists in the reference model;

f) when the reference information does not indicate that the expected traffic light system exists in the reference model, then in response thereto as a prerequisite, generating a conclusion that the actual traffic light system is a temporary traffic light system identifying the road hazard area or the road construction area on the roadway; and

g) when the reference information indicates that the expected traffic light system exists in the reference model, then comparing the reference position data with the actual position data, and when the reference position data differs from the actual position data then in response thereto as a prerequisite, generating the conclusion that the actual traffic light system is the temporary traffic light system identifying the road hazard area or the road construction area on the roadway.

13. The method according to claim 12, further comprising a step:

h) when the reference information indicates that the expected traffic light system exists in the reference model, then comparing the reference position data with the actual position data, and when the reference position data corresponds to the actual position data then in response thereto generating a conclusion that the actual traffic light system is not a hazard or construction light system identifying the road hazard area or the road construction area on the roadway but instead is a normal permanent traffic light system of the roadway.

14. The method according to claim 12, wherein said steps f) and g) further comprise performing object detection on the environment data and therein detecting a battery housing or a photovoltaic panel on the actual traffic light system as another prerequisite for generating the conclusion that the actual traffic light system is the temporary traffic light system identifying the road hazard area or the road construction area on the roadway.

15. The method according to claim 12, wherein the actual position data identifies the position of the actual traffic light system with respect to and relative to other features of the roadway detected in the environment data, and the reference position data identifies the expected position of the expected traffic light system with respect to and relative to other features in the reference model.

19. The method according to claim 12, wherein the step e) of determining or obtaining the reference model comprises selecting the reference model that pertains to the environment scenario from among a plurality of different reference models previously stored in a memory.