COLLISION AVOIDANCE ASSISTING SYSTEM FOR VEHICLE

• US 20100201509A1
• Filed: 02/03/2010
• Published: 08/12/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: HARA, Yoshitaka, Koga, Masashi, Hosoda, Yuji
• Granted Patent: US 8,576,055 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/435
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes

Abstract

A collision avoidance assisting system for a vehicle, for expecting a risk of colliding upon a moving object (or a moving obstacle), including a pedestrian, more correctly, but without annoying a driver, excessively, by estimating the risk to be excessively high, comprises a moving object detecting means for detecting a moving object existing on periphery of the vehicle; a footway boundary detecting means for detecting a position and a configuration of a footway boundary object on periphery of the vehicle; a risk estimation means for estimating a risk that the moving object detected by said moving object detecting means collides on the vehicle; and an alarm means for calling an attention to a driver of the vehicle, upon basis of the risk of collision estimated by the risk estimation means, wherein the risk of collision between the moving object, which is detected by the moving object detecting means, and that vehicle is estimated by taking at least the position information of the moving object, the position information of the footway boundary object and conditions of the circumferences thereof.

Claims

1. A collision avoidance assisting system for a vehicle, comprising:

a moving object detecting means, which is configured to detect a moving object existing on periphery of the vehicle;

a footway boundary detecting means, which is configured to detect a position and a configuration of a footway boundary object on periphery of said vehicle;

a risk estimation means, which is configured to estimate a risk that the moving object detected by said moving object detecting means collides on said vehicle;

an alarm means, which is configured to call an attention to a driver of said vehicle, upon basis of the risk of collision estimated by said risk estimation means; and

further

a positional relationship analyzing means, which is configured to output at least a relative distance between said moving object and said footway boundary object and a relative distance between said moving object and said vehicle, from position information of the moving object, which is detected by said moving object detecting means, and position/configuration information of the footway boundary object, which is detected by said footway boundary object detecting means, wherein

said risk estimation means estimates the risk of collision between the moving object, which is detected by said moving object detecting means, and said vehicle, at least from the relative distance between said moving object and said footway boundary object, which is outputted from said positional relationship analyzing means, and the relative distance between said moving object and said vehicle, which is outputted from said positional relationship analyzing means.

2. The collision avoidance assisting system for a vehicle, as described in the claim 1, wherein

said positional relationship analyzing means further outputs a relative distance between said vehicle and said footway boundary object, too, and

said risk estimation means estimates the risk of collision between the moving object, which is detected by said moving object detecting means, and said vehicle, also including the relative distance between said vehicle and said footway boundary object, which is outputted from said positional relationship analyzing means, in addition to the relative distance between said moving object and said footway boundary object and the relative distance between said moving object and said vehicle, which are outputted from said positional relationship analyzing means.

3. The collision avoidance assisting system for a vehicle, as described in the claim 1, wherein

said footway boundary detecting means further outputs a height of said footway boundary object, too, and

said risk estimation means estimates the risk of collision between the moving object, which is detected by said moving object detecting means, and said vehicle, also including the height of said footway boundary object, which is outputted from said footway boundary detecting means, in addition to the relative distance between said moving object and said footway boundary object and the relative distance between said moving object and said vehicle, which are outputted from said positional relationship analyzing means.

4. The collision avoidance assisting system for a vehicle, as described in the claim 1, further comprising a risk estimation parameter memory means, which is configured to memorize a risk estimation parameter therein, and said risk estimation parameter memory means changes said risk estimation parameter depending on a maintenance condition, including at least one of a driving capacity of said vehicle, a weather and a road.

5. The collision avoidance assisting system for a vehicle, as described in the claim 3, wherein said footway boundary detecting means has an object attribute discrimination function for detecting an attribute, including either one of a king or a material of the footway boundary object on periphery of said vehicle, and said risk estimation means estimates the risk of collision between the moving object, which is detected by said moving object detecting means, and said vehicle, depending on the attribute of said footway boundary object, which is detected by the object attribute discrimination function provided by said footway boundary detecting means.

6. The collision avoidance assisting system for a vehicle, as described in the claim 5, wherein the object attribute discrimination function provided by said footway boundary detecting means is for detecting the height of said footway boundary object, in addition to either one of the king or the material of the object including the footway boundary object, whereby estimating the risk of collision between the moving object, which is detected by said moving object detecting means, and said vehicle, depending on the detected height of said footway boundary object.

7. The collision avoidance assisting system for a vehicle, as described in the claim 1, wherein as the footway boundary object on periphery of said vehicle to be detected by said footway boundary detecting means is included a road facility, including any one of a road edge difference, or a guardrail, or a hedge, or a division line by a white line, and further said footway boundary detecting means detects the position and the configuration of said footway boundary object, and said positional relationship analyzing means has a moving object/footway boundary distance calculation means for calculating a distance between the moving object and the footway boundary, a moving object/vehicle distance calculation means for calculating a distance between the moving object and the vehicle, and a vehicle/footway boundary distance calculation means for calculating a distance between the vehicle and the footway boundary.

8. The collision avoidance assisting system for a vehicle, as described in the claim 7, further comprising a video obtaining means for obtaining video information around the moving object, which exists on periphery of the vehicle, wherein said moving object/footway boundary distance calculation means determines on whether the moving object is on a footway or not, with using the video information obtained by said video obtaining means, when said distance between the footway boundary is near to zero (0), and corrects said distance between the moving object and the footway boundary depending upon a result of said determination.

9. The collision avoidance assisting system for a vehicle, as described in the claim 1, wherein said moving object detecting means further comprises a moving object moving direction detecting means for detecting a moving direction of the moving object, which is detected by said moving object detecting means, and said risk estimation means estimates the risk of collision between the moving object, which is detected by said moving object detecting means, and said vehicle, depending on the moving direction of said moving object, which is detected by said moving object moving direction detecting means.