Parking assistance system and parking assistance method

• US 20070146164A1
• Filed: 10/23/2006
• Published: 06/28/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Original Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Inventors: Schneider, Marcus, Lee, Wei-Chia, Schmid, Dirk, Schaaf, Gunther
• Granted Patent: US 7,786,896 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/932.200
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/161 Decentralised systems, e.g. inter-vehicle communication
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/168 Driving aids for parking, e.g. acoustic or visual feedback on parking space

Abstract

A parking assistance system for outputting parking instructions to the driver of a vehicle has a sensor device which is designed for performing a parking space measurement on the basis of parking space limits and generating parking space information on the basis of the parking space measurement; a program-controlled device which calculates the driving trajectory to be traveled on the basis of the parking space information generated and calculates a time to collision and/or a distance to collision, within which the vehicle will presumably collide with one of the parking space limits, from the parking space information generated and the calculated driving trajectory; and a warning signal transducer which generates a warning signal if the calculated period of time is less than a first limit value and/or the calculated distance to collision is less than a second limit value.

Claims

1. A parking assistance system of a motor vehicle for outputting parking instructions, comprising:

a sensor device that performs a parking space measurement on the basis of parking space limits and generates parking space information as a function of the parking space measurement;

a program-controlled device which calculates a driving trajectory to be traveled by the vehicle for the parking maneuver on the basis of the parking space information generated and calculates a time to collision and/or a distance to collision within which the vehicle will presumably collide with one of the parking space limits, basing this calculation on the parking space information generated as well as on the the calculated driving trajectory; and

a warning signal transducer that generates a warning signal if the calculated time to collision is less than a first limit value and/or the calculated distance to collision is less than a second limit value.

2. The parking assistance system as recited in claim 1, further comprising a memory unit in which the parking space information generated by the sensor device is storable.

3. The parking assistance system as recited in claim 1, further comprising a vehicle speed sensor which is connected to the program-controlled device, and which measures the current vehicle speed of the vehicle and outputs a vehicle speed signal corresponding to the current vehicle speed, and the program-controlled device additionally takes into account the vehicle speed signal output by the vehicle speed sensor to calculate the time to collision.

4. The parking assistance system as recited in one of claim 1, further comprising a sensor device for measuring the actual distance from the vehicle to a parking space limit.

5. The parking assistance system as recited in claim 4, wherein the program-controlled device has a comparator device which compares the parking space information generated with the information measured by the sensor device for measuring the actual distance of the vehicle from a parking space limit and, as a function thereof, outputs a comparative signal indicating whether the sensor device for measuring the actual distance from a parking space limit is active or inactive.

6. The parking assistance system as recited in claim 5, further comprising a status signal transducer is provided, which outputs a sensor status signal if the signal output by the comparator device indicates that the sensor device is not active.

7. The parking assistance system as recited in claim 5, wherein the warning signal transducer contains a display which outputs a visual warning signal having at least two urgency levels and/or a loudspeaker that outputs an acoustic warning signal having at least two urgency levels.

8. The parking assistance system as recited in claim 7, wherein the program-controlled device contains:

a first calculation unit which calculates the time to collision on the basis of the parking space information generated by the sensor device for implementing a parking space measurement,

a second calculation device which calculates the distance to collision on the basis of the actual distance measured by the sensor device for measuring the actual distance from the parking space limit; and

an evaluation device which evaluates the time to collision and the distance to collision and outputs an urgency signal that corresponds to the time to collision and the distance to collision and has the corresponding urgency level.

9. The parking assistance system as recited in claim 1, wherein the sensor device has near-range sensors corresponding to ultrasonic sensors, for measuring the lateral distance of the vehicle from the parking space limit.

10. The parking assistance system as recited in claim 1, wherein the program-controlled device includes a limit value determination device which determines the first limit value, taking into account a response time of the driver and a speed-dependent stopping time.

11. A parking assistance method for outputting parking instructions for a motor vehicle, comprising:

(a) measuring a parking space on the basis of parking space limits and generating parking space information as a function of the parking space measurement;

(b) calculating a driving trajectory to be traveled by the vehicle for the parking maneuver on the basis of the parking space information generated;

(c) calculating a time to collision or a distance to collision from the parking space information and the calculated driving trajectory; and

(d) outputting a warning signal if the calculated period of time is less than a first limit value and/or the calculated distance to collision is less than a second limit value.