APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING TRAVEL SPEED OF VEHICLE

• US 20090157273A1
• Filed: 11/26/2008
• Published: 06/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hyundai Motor Company (Hyundai Motor Group)
• Original Assignee: Hyundai Motor Company (Hyundai Motor Group)
• Inventors: Kim, Ryuk, Ryu, Je Hun
• Application Number:
  US12/323,526
• Publication Number:
  US 20090157273A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/70
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2201/08 Lane monitoring; Lane Keeping Systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2201/089 using optical detection
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2210/32 Vehicle surroundings
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2420/403 Image sensing, e.g. optical camera
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/20 Road profile, i.e. the change in elevation or curvature of a plurality of continuous road segments
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/30 Road curve radius
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/0098 Details of control systems ensuring comfort, safety or stability not otherwise provided for

Abstract

Disclosed herein is an apparatus and method for controlling the travel speed of a vehicle using information about a road or at least one portion thereof ahead of the vehicle. The apparatus includes a forward image sensor for photographing a forward road or portion(s) thereof, acquiring image data, and extracting information about the forward road or portion(s) from the image data using a Kalman filter. A control unit calculates a target speed required for the vehicle to travel using the forward road information. With the apparatuses and methods, vehicle safety and driving comfort can be improved.

Claims

1. An apparatus for controlling a travel speed of a vehicle, comprising:

a forward image sensor for photographing a road or at least a portion thereof ahead of the vehicle, acquiring image data, and extracting information about the forward road from the image data using a Kalman filter;

a control unit for calculating a speed required for the vehicle to travel using the forward road portion information; and

a driving unit for controlling a travel operation of the vehicle depending on the calculated vehicle speed.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the forward road information is a vehicle lateral offset from a center of a lane, a curvature of the road, a relative heading angle, a road width, and a camera tilt angle, which are extracted from lane-dividing lines of the image data and point coordinates of the lane-dividing lines, or any combination thereof.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the forward image sensor calculates a matrix, which includes parameters of the forward road information, from a gain matrix to which a weight, set in consideration of noise and probability, is applied, and calculates an error covariance matrix on the basis of both an error which actually occurs in a current calculation result and statistically estimated parameters of the forward road information in a subsequent stage, thus acquiring the forward road portion information.

4. A method of controlling a travel speed of a vehicle, comprising:

acquiring image data of a road or at least a portion thereof ahead of the vehicle;

extracting lane-dividing lines from the image data;

extracting point coordinates of the lane-dividing lines from the extracted lane-dividing lines;

calculating information about the forward road or portion thereof using the point coordinates of the lane-dividing lines;

determining a target speed of the vehicle using the calculated forward road portion information; and

controlling a travel operation of the vehicle depending on the determined target speed.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the calculating the information about the road or portion thereof is performed using a Kalman filter.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein the information about the road or portion thereof is a vehicle lateral offset from a center of a lane, a curvature of the road, a relative heading angle, a road width, and a camera tilt angle, which are extracted from the lane-dividing lines of the image data and point coordinates of the lane-dividing lines, or any combination thereof.