Vehicle position recognizing device and vehicle position recognizing method

• US 20060233424A1
• Filed: 01/26/2006
• Published: 10/19/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.), Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.), Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Nakamura, Motohiro, Nakamura, Masaki, Miyajima, Takayuki
• Application Number:
  US11/339,681
• Publication Number:
  US 20060233424A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/05 Geographic models
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/73 using feature-based methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/588 Recognition of the road, e.g. of lane markings; Recognition of the vehicle driving pattern in relation to the road

Abstract

A vehicle position recognition apparatus includes an image information capturing unit for capturing image information for at least the surface of a road picked up by an imaging device mounted on the vehicle; a feature-of-road information acquiring unit for acquiring information identifying ground objects around the imaged position from stored map information; an image information recognizing unit for recognition of images corresponding to the ground objects included in the image information; and a vehicle position pinpointing unit for pinpointing the position of the vehicle transverse of the road based on the acquired feature-of-road information and the position of the image of the ground object in the image formation which has been recognized by the image information recognizing unit.

Claims

1. A vehicle position recognition apparatus comprising:

image information capturing means for capturing image information for an imaged area, including at least the surface of a road, picked up by an imaging device mounted on the vehicle;

feature-of-road information acquiring means for acquiring feature-of-road information relating to at least one ground object within the imaged area from stored map information;

image information recognizing means for image recognition processing of the captured image information, to recognize an image of the at least one ground object included in the captured image information; and

vehicle position pinpointing means for pinpointing the position of the vehicle widthwise of the road, based on the acquired feature-of-road information, and on the position of the recognized at least one ground object within the captured image information.

2. The vehicle position recognition apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said vehicle position pinpointing means pinpoints the transverse position of the vehicle by comparing (1) the position in said image information of the image of the at least one ground object which has been recognized by the image information recognizing means with (2) the position information for the object corresponding to said at least one ground object included in the feature-of-road information.

3. The vehicle position recognition apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image information recognizing means extracts image candidates for said at least one ground object from the captured image information, compares the extracted image candidates with the feature-of-road information, and recognizes one image candidate having the highest consistency with the feature-of-road information as the image of said at least one ground object.

4. The vehicle position recognition apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising:

vehicle position estimating means for estimating the position of the vehicle widthwise of the road, based on information from one or both of (1) vehicle information acquiring means for acquiring information from the vehicle relating to a route currently traveled by the vehicle, and (2) previous route acquiring means for acquiring information relating to routes previously traveled by the vehicle;

wherein said vehicle position pinpointing means pinpoints the position of the vehicle widthwise of the road using the estimation of said vehicle position estimating means.

5. The vehicle position recognition apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the feature-of-road information includes position information for the at least one ground object, and at least one of shape information and color information for the at least one ground object.

6. The vehicle position recognition apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said vehicle position pinpointing means pinpoints the position of the vehicle along the length of the road based on the feature-of-road information acquired by the feature-of-road information acquiring means, and the position in the image information of the image of said at least one ground object which has been recognized by said image information recognizing means.

7. The vehicle position recognition apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said feature-of-road information acquiring means acquires, from map information stored in a map information database provided in a navigation device, the feature-of-road information in the neighborhood of a position acquired, when image information is captured by the imaging device, by position information acquiring means provided in the navigation device.

8. The vehicle position recognition apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said at least one ground object includes paint markings on the road surface.

9. The vehicle position recognition apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image information capturing means repeatedly captures the image information picked up by the imaging device mounted on the vehicle at a predetermined time interval.

10. A vehicle position recognition apparatus comprising:

image information capturing means for capturing image information including at least the surface of a road picked up by an imaging device mounted on a vehicle;

feature-of-road information acquiring means for acquiring feature-of-road information relating to at least one ground object, in the vicinity of the area represented by the captured image information, from map information stored as information correlated with each of multiple different positions across the width of the road;

image information recognizing means for image recognition processing of the captured image information, and for recognizing an image corresponding to the at least one ground object included in the captured image information; and

vehicle position pinpointing means for pinpointing the position of the vehicle widthwise of the road on the basis of an item of the acquired feature-of-road information having the highest consistency with the captured image information, from among items of feature-of-road information for each of the multiple different widthwise positions, and taking that position represented by the item of feature-of-road information of highest consistency, as the actual position of the vehicle widthwise of the road.

11. The vehicle position recognition apparatus according to claim 10 further comprising:

vehicle position estimating means for estimating the position of the vehicle widthwise of the road, based on information from one or both of (1) vehicle information acquiring means for acquiring information from the vehicle relating to a route currently traveled by the vehicle, and (2) previous route acquiring means for acquiring information relating to routes previously traveled by the vehicle;

wherein said vehicle position pinpointing means determines the order of comparison of the items of feature-of-road information for the widthwise positions based on the estimation by said vehicle position estimating means.

12. The vehicle position recognition apparatus according to claim 10 further comprising:

vehicle position estimating means for estimating the position of the vehicle widthwise of the road, based on information from one or both of (1) vehicle information acquiring means for acquiring information from the vehicle relating to a route currently traveled by the vehicle, and (2) previous route acquiring means for acquiring information relating to routes previously traveled by the vehicle;

wherein said vehicle position pinpointing means pinpoints the position of the vehicle widthwise of the road using the estimation by said vehicle position estimating means.

13. The vehicle position recognition apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the feature-of-road information includes position of the at least one ground object, and at least one of shape information and color information for the at least one ground objects.

14. The vehicle position recognition apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said vehicle position pinpointing means pinpoints the position of the vehicle along the length of the road based on the feature-of-road information acquired by the feature-of-road information acquiring means, and the position in the image information of the image of the at least one ground object which has been recognized by said image information recognizing means.

15. The vehicle position recognition apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said feature-of-road information acquiring means acquires, from map information stored in a map information database provided in a navigation device, the feature-of-road information in the neighborhood of a position acquired, when image information is captured by the imaging device, by position information acquiring means provided in the navigation device.

16. A vehicle position recognition apparatus comprising:

image information capturing means for capturing image information including at least the surface of a road picked up by an imaging device mounted on a vehicle;

image information recognizing means for image recognition processing of the captured image information, and for recognizing an image of at least one ground object included in the captured image information;

vehicle position estimating means for estimating the position of the vehicle widthwise of the road, based on information from one or both of (1) vehicle information acquiring means for acquiring information from the vehicle relating to a route currently traveled by the vehicle, and (2) previous route acquiring means for acquiring information relating to routes previously traveled by the vehicle; and

vehicle position pinpointing means for pinpointing the position of the vehicle based on the position of the image corresponding to the at least one ground object which has been recognized by said image information recognizing means, and on the estimation by said vehicle position estimating means.

17. A vehicle position recognizing method comprising:

capturing image information including at least the surface of a road, said image information having been picked up by an imaging device mounted on a vehicle;

acquiring feature-of-road information relating to at least one ground object in the vicinity of the area represented by the captured image information from stored map information;

image recognition processing the captured image information to recognize an image corresponding to the at least one ground object included in the captured image information; and

pinpointing the position of the vehicle widthwise of the road, based on the acquired feature-of-road information, and on the position of the image, within the captured image information, which has been recognized in said image recognition processing.

18. A vehicle position recognizing method comprising:

capturing image information including at least the surface of a road, said image information having been picked up by an imaging device mounted on a vehicle;

acquiring items of feature-of-road information relating to at least one ground object, in the vicinity of the area represented by the captured image information, from map information stored as items of information for each of multiple different positions traversing the width of the road;

image recognition processing the captured image information to recognize an image of an object corresponding to the at least one ground object; and

pinpointing the position of the vehicle widthwise of the road on the basis of identification of one item of feature-of-road information having the highest consistency, among the acquired items of feature-of-road information, with the position in the captured image information of the image which has been recognized in said image information recognition processing, and taking the position corresponding to the identified item of feature-of-the-road information as the position of the vehicle widthwise of the road.

19. A vehicle position recognizing method comprising:

capturing image information including at least the surface of a road, said image information having been picked up by an imaging device mounted on a vehicle;

image recognition processing the captured image information to recognize the image of at least one ground object included in the captured image information;

estimating the position of the vehicle widthwise of the road based on information from one or both of (1) information acquired from the vehicle relating to a route currently traveled by the vehicle, and (2) information relating to routes previously traveled by the vehicle; and

pinpointing the position of the vehicle widthwise of the road, based on the position in the captured image information of the image of the at least one ground object which has been recognized in the image recognition processing, and on the estimated position.