Location-Determining Device in a Motor Vehicle and Information Merging Method

• US 20130184990A1
• Filed: 09/07/2011
• Published: 07/18/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Continental Teves AG & Company HG (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Stahlin, Ulrich
• Granted Patent: US 10,209,073 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/469
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 11/04 Mounting of cameras operative during drive; Arrangement of controls thereof relative to the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/35 Constructional details or hardware or software details of the signal processing chain
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/45 by combining measurements of signals from the satellite radio beacon positioning system with a supplementary measurement

Abstract

The invention relates to a location-determining device in a motor vehicle which comprises at least one receiver device for receiving position signals and time signals for a multiplicity of satellites assigned to a global navigation system and a location-calculating module for calculating location information on the basis of received position data and time data. The location-Determining device is distinguished by the fact that the at least one receiver device is structurally integrated into the housing of an optical sensor unit, wherein the housing is arranged in a passenger compartment in a region of an upper edge of a windscreen, and wherein the housing does not have more than a single connection to a vehicle data bus and not more than a single connection to a vehicle energy supply.

Claims

1. A location determining device (101) in a motor vehicle, comprising at least one reception apparatus (102) for receiving position and time signals from a multiplicity of satellites associated with a global navigation system, and a location calculation module for calculating location information from the received position and time signals, wherein the at least one reception apparatus (102) is physically integrated in the housing (114) of an optical sensor unit (106),

wherein the housing (114) is arranged in a region of an upper boundary of a windshield in a passenger space of the motor vehicle, and

wherein the housing (114) has no more than a single first connection (113) to an existing vehicle data bus type and no more than a single second connection (115) to a vehicle power supply.

2. The device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising in that the location calculation module is physically integrated in the housing.

3. The device as claimed in claim 2, further comprising in that the location calculation module is coupled to an image processing module of the optical sensor unit (106) at a data level, wherein the location calculation module and the image processing module are fused to form a common electronic computation module.

4. The device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising in that the optical sensor unit (106) is a mono or a stereo camera module (106), or a laser scanner and is part of a driver assistance system.

5. The device as claimed in claim 1 further comprising at least one of a GPS module, a Galileo module, a GLONASS module, a Compass module or a SBAS module.

6. The device as claimed in claim 1 further comprising in that the windshield is not metalized in the region of the optical sensor unit (106) and is not metalized in the region of the at least one reception apparatus (102).

7. The device as claimed in claim 1 further comprising in that the optical sensor unit (106) has at least one stray light protection element (110, 111) and the at least one reception apparatus (102) is physically integrated in the stray light protection element (110, 111).

8. The device as claimed in claim 1 further comprising in that the at least one reception apparatus (102) is physically integrated in a connecting section (109) for two mono camera modules (107, 108) which form the a stereo camera module (106).

9. An information fusion method for a location determining device in a motor vehicle, comprising the steps of:

providing at least one reception apparatus used to receive position and time signals from a multiplicity of satellites associated with a global navigation system (31),

calculating location information from the received position and time signals by means of a location calculation algorithm (32),

capturing image information or interval information by means of an optical sensor unit (33),

processing the image information or the interval information by means of an image processing algorithm (34), and

connecting at least the at least one reception apparatus (102) and the optical sensor unit (106) to a vehicle data bus by means of a common first connection (113) and to a vehicle power supply by means of a common second connection (115).

10. The method as claimed in claim 9, further comprising providing a location calculation module of the location determining device (101), which performs of a location calculation algorithm, and connecting to the vehicle data bus by means of the second common connection (115) and to the vehicle power supply by means of the first common connection (113).

11. The method as claimed in claim 10, further comprising performing the image processing algorithm and the location calculation algorithm by a common electronic computation module, the location calculation module and an image processing module (104) of the optical sensor unit (106), which electronic computation module performs the image processing algorithm, are fused to form the common electronic computation module.

12. The method as claimed in claim 9 further comprising

in that location information calculated by the location calculation algorithm, and using time derivations from the location information, to improve processing of the image information by means of the image processing algorithm.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12, further comprising using additionally driving dynamics sensor information to improve processing of the image information by means of the image processing algorithm.

14. The method as claimed in claim 9 further comprising in that the location information is validated or corrected by means of processed image information.

15. The method as claimed in claim 9, further comprising in that the processed image information is used to determine prevailing reception conditions for the position and time signals, and processing and matching the position and time signals to the prevailing reception conditions.