Method and device for managing slot parking of motor vehicles

• US 20040020699A1
• Filed: 06/21/2003
• Published: 02/05/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intellitech Coproration
• Original Assignee: Intellitech Coproration
• Inventors: Gueydan, Guillaume, Zalila, Zyed
• Granted Patent: US 6,948,729 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 180/204
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2201/10 Automatic or semi-automatic parking aid systems
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 15/028 Guided parking by providing commands to the driver, e.g. acoustically or optically
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 15/0285 Parking performed automatically
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2015/935 for measuring the contour, e.g. a trajectory of measurement points, representing the boundary of the parking space
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/72 Electric energy management in electromobility

Abstract

A method and a device for slot parking of a mobile vehicle (1), the slot parking (15) includes positioning (19,22), locking (23,25), unlocking (26,27) and realigning (28,29) phases, the method using elements to evaluate available parking space relative to immediate surroundings. The method consists in: retrieving quantitative input values from sensors, which are transformed or not into gradual qualitative input values; determining on the basis of qualitative rules operating instructions which supply gradual qualitative output data and quantitative output data, which are transformed into quantitative output data to control the vehicle actuators. The invention is useful for parking any type of powered vehicles whereof the wheel can be locked on a common axle, and can be used on public roads, private parking lots or production sites of companies.

Claims

1. A method for managing the slot parking of a mobile vehicle (1) which can be used to park any type of motorized vehicle, the wheels of a common axle of which can be locked, with respect to the immediate surroundings (3) which may be found on public roads, private parking lots and production sites of enterprises, said slot parking (15) consisting of at least two phases, namely a locking phase (23, 25) and a reverse-locking phase (26, 27), and possibly of two other phases, namely a positioning phase (19, 22) which precedes the two locking and reverse-locking phases and a realignment phase (28, 29) which follows the reverse-locking phase, said method using measurement sensors (36) for measuring distance, orientation and speed which make it possible to evaluate (10) the space available (2) with respect to the immediate surroundings (3) so as to perform the parking maneuver, the latter being carried out by operating on the speed, the direction of travel and the relative lock of the wheels of the vehicle,

characterized in that, in order to carry out parking (15):

the input data originating from the measurement sensors (36) which provide quantitative values are retrieved,

some of these quantitative input values are translated into gradual qualitative input values,

on the basis of qualitative rules, operating instructions are determined which provide gradual qualitative output data and quantitative output data,

these gradual qualitative output data are transformed into quantitative output data,

the actuators of the vehicle (1) are controlled as a function of the quantitative output data obtained.

2. The method for managing the slot parking of a mobile vehicle (1), as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the slot parking operation (15) is performed in real time by retrieving the input data from the sensors (36) at each instant and by controlling the actuators also at each instant during the entire progress of the maneuver.

3. The method for managing the slot parking of a mobile vehicle (1), as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the first positioning phase is carried out by administering the lateral position of the vehicle with respect to immediate obstacles, and to do this:

the lateral position of the vehicle is monitored on the basis of four measurement data from the sensors, two quantitative data, viz the direction of travel and a result of a first test (test

     1), and two gradual qualitative data, viz the heading of the vehicle (1) and the relative lateral distance (dlatavr) with respect to the lateral position instruction,

the operating instruction for the relative lock (4) of the wheels which takes a gradual qualitative value which is transformed into a quantitative value is processed and determined, the determination of the operating instruction being effected using qualitative rules of determination of the lateral position monitor,

the wheel lock is acted upon as a function of the instructions obtained.

4. The method for managing the slot parking of a mobile vehicle (1), as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the first positioning phase (19, 22) is carried out by administering, in parallel with the lateral position, the longitudinal position of the vehicle with respect to immediate obstacles (3), and to do this:

the longitudinal position of the vehicle with respect to immediate obstacles is monitored on the basis of three measurement data from the sensors, two quantitative data, viz the result of the first test (test

     1) and the direction of travel, and a gradual qualitative data item which is the relative longitudinal distance (dlavr) with respect to the longitudinal position instruction,

two quantitative output instructions, viz the speed and the direction of travel, are processed and determined using qualitative rules of determination of the longitudinal position monitor,

the speed and the direction of travel are acted upon as a function of the instructions obtained.

5. The method for managing the slot parking of a mobile vehicle (1), as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the second locking phase (23, 25) of the vehicle is carried out once the first positioning phase (19, 22) is concluded, and to do this:

the lock is monitored on the basis of three measurement data from the sensors (36), two gradual qualitative data, viz the heading of the vehicle and the back right distance (ddar) with respect to the edge of the parking zone and a quantitative data item which is the result of a second test (test

     2),

three output instructions, two quantitative outputs, viz the speed instruction and the direction of travel instruction, and a gradual qualitative output which is the relative lock of the wheels, are processed and determined using qualitative rules of determination of the lock monitor,

the gradual qualitative output is transformed into a quantitative output, the wheel lock, the speed and the direction of travel of the vehicle are acted upon as a function of the instructions obtained.

6. The method for managing the slot parking of a mobile vehicle (1), as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the third reverse-locking phase (26, 27) is carried out once the second locking phase (23, 25) is concluded, and to do this:

the reverse-lock of the wheels is monitored on the basis of four measurement data from the sensors (36), two quantitative data, viz the result of a third test (test 3) and the direction of travel, and two gradual qualitative data, viz the heading of the vehicle and the distance to the back vehicle (dar),

three output instructions, two quantitative outputs, viz the speed and the direction of travel of the vehicle, and a gradual qualitative output, viz the relative lock of the wheels, are then processed and determined using qualitative rules of determination of reverse lock,

the gradual qualitative output is transformed into a quantitative output,

the wheel lock, the speed and the direction of travel of the vehicle are then acted upon as a function of the instructions obtained.

7. The method for managing the slot parking of a mobile vehicle (1), as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the fourth phase of realignment (28, 29) of the vehicle is carried out once the third reverse-locking phase (26, 27) is concluded, and to do this:

the realignment is monitored on the basis of five measurement data from the sensors (36), two quantitative data, viz the result of a fourth test (test

     4) and the direction of travel of the vehicle, and three gradual qualitative data, viz the distance to the back vehicle (dar), the distance to the front vehicle (dav) and the heading of the vehicle,

three output instructions, two quantitative outputs, viz the speed and the direction of travel of the vehicle, and a gradual qualitative output which is the relative lock of the wheels, are processed and determined using qualitative rules of determination of the longitudinal monitor and of the lateral monitor of realignment,

the gradual qualitative output is transformed into a quantitative output,

the wheel lock, the direction of travel and the speed of the vehicle are then acted upon as a function of the instructions obtained.

8. The method for managing the slot parking of a mobile vehicle (1), as claimed in claims 1 and 7, characterized in that, when the realignment phase (28, 29) has terminated, a fifth test (test 5) (30) for validating the parking (15) is performed and:

if the test is validated, the parking (15) is concluded,

if the test is non validated, the locking phase (23, 25), reverse-locking phase (26, 27) and realignment phase (28, 29) is repeated.

9. The method for managing the slot parking of a mobile vehicle (1), as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that two safety tests (31, 32) are performed in parallel while carrying out the four parking phases:

for the first safety test (31), a check verifies that the operator performs no action on the control members of the vehicle (1),

for the second safety test (32), a check verifies the distance to the front vehicle (dav) and the distance to the back vehicle (dar) so as to ensure that the surrounding obstacles (3) are not modified,

if the safety test 1 (31) is not validated, then a transient halting (33) of the vehicle is performed, followed by a test of halting (34) of the maneuver,

if the test of halting (34) is then validated by the driver, the parking (15) maneuver is completely halted (35),

and in parallel if the safety test 2 (32) is validated, the parking maneuver is completely halted (35),

otherwise the maneuver is continued.

10. A device (39) for managing the slot parking of a mobile vehicle (1), which implements the method of claim 1, characterized in that it comprises:

measurement sensors (36) for measuring the distance of the vehicle (1) with respect to surrounding obstacles (3), speeds sensors, direction of travel sensors and vehicle orientation sensors,

a computer (42) which retrieves the quantitative data from the measurement sensors and transforms the input data into gradual qualitative values and into quantitative values, processes and determines output instructions which have gradual qualitative values and quantitative values and transforms these output instructions into quantitative values,

actuators which act on the movements of the vehicle (1) as a function of the quantitative output values transmitted by the computer (42) or an output interface (41) which transmits visual and/or audible and/or kinesthetic information to the driver to guide him in his maneuver.