VEHICLE TRAVEL PATH GENERATING APPARATUS

• US 20140200801A1
• Filed: 01/14/2014
• Published: 07/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Tsuruta, Tomohiko, Ueda, Yusuke, Hatoh, Takeshi, Kondoh, Takayuki, Inoue, Naoya, Niknejad, Hossein Tehrani, Mita, Seiichi
• Granted Patent: US 9,796,378 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/400
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/00 Input parameters relating to objects
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/4026 Cycles
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/4029 Pedestrians
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/4041 Position
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2555/00 Input parameters relating to exterior conditions, not covered by groups B60W2552/00, B60W2554/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/00 Purposes of road vehicle drive control systems not related to the control of a particular sub-unit, e.g. of systems using conjoint control of vehicle sub-units
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/08 Active safety systems predicting or avoiding probable or impending collision or attempting to minimise its consequences
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/10 Path keeping cruise control for automatically following a preceding vehicle B60W30/165
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/12 Lane keeping
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 60/001 Planning or execution of driving tasks

Abstract

When a travel path is to be generated for a vehicle, road surface lines (white lines, etc.) delimiting the traffic lane of the vehicle, and also external objects in the vehicle environment, are detected and registered as respective obstacles. Specific points are defined at appropriate locations on each obstacle, and the travel path is generated by connecting respective mid-point positions between opposed pairs of specific points, each pair defined on respective ones of an opposed (left-side, right-side) pair of the registered obstacles.

Claims

1. A travel path generation apparatus for installation on a host vehicle, comprising:

lane boundary line recognition means for identifying straight or curved lane boundary lines delimiting a traffic lane of the host vehicle;

obstacle registering means for registering, as respective obstacles, the lane boundary lines identified by the lane boundary line recognition means;

specific point setting means for defining specific points at respective positions on the registered obstacles, the specific points being located at positions which must be avoided by the host vehicle; and

travel path generating means for generating a travel path for the host vehicle as a path connecting successive mid-point positions or other inter-point positions between opposed pairs of the specific points, each of the pairs being respectively located on mutually opposed ones of the obstacles.

2. The travel path generation apparatus as claimed in claim 1, comprising object detection means for detecting objects located in the environment of the host vehicle;

wherein the obstacle registering means registers, as respective obstacles, the objects detected by the object detection means.

3. The travel path generation apparatus as claimed in claim 2 wherein:

the obstacle registering means registers, in place of each of the detected objects, a virtual object having external dimensions larger than the external dimensions of the detected object, and registers the virtual object as an obstacle, and

an extent to which the dimensions of the virtual object are increased, in relation to the corresponding detected object, is determined in accordance with the type of the corresponding detected object.

4. The travel path generation apparatus as claimed in claim 2, comprising:

impassable location specifying means for specifying an impassable location as a location which is within the traffic lane of the host vehicle, is between a pair of opposed ones of the obstacles, and cannot be traversed by the host vehicle,

command receiving means for receiving a command from a user or autonomous or semi-autonomous control system of the host vehicle designating that one of the opposed pair of obstacles is to be driven over by the host vehicle, and

obstacle registration contents alteration means for responding to the reception of the command by deleting a first one of the opposed pair of obstacles from registration in the obstacle registering means.

5. The travel path generation apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the obstacle registration contents alteration means is further responsive to the reception of the command for setting a virtual lane boundary line opposite a second one of the opposed pair of obstacles, the virtual lane boundary line being positioned for permitting the host vehicle to pass between the second one of the pair of opposed obstacles and the virtual lane boundary line.

6. The travel path generation apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein the obstacle registration contents alteration means sets the position of the virtual lane boundary line in accordance with a type of the second one of the opposed obstacles.

7. The travel path generation apparatus as claimed in claim 5, comprising means for detecting a condition quantity of the host vehicle, wherein the obstacle registration contents alteration means sets the position of the virtual lane boundary line in accordance with a condition of the host vehicle as expressed by the condition quantity.

8. The travel path generation apparatus as claimed in claim 1, comprising:

object detection means for detecting objects located in the environment of the host vehicle,

impassable location specifying means for specifying an impassable location as a location that is within the traffic lane of the host vehicle and is between an opposed pair of the obstacles, and which cannot be traversed by the host vehicle,

command receiving means for receiving a command from a user or autonomous or semi-autonomous control system of the host vehicle designating that the host vehicle is to follow a specific preceding vehicle, the specific preceding vehicle being a vehicle which avoids the pair of opposed obstacles, and

obstacle registration contents alteration means for responding to the command from the user or autonomous or semi-autonomous control system by deleting a specific one of the pair of opposing obstacle from registration in the obstacle registration means, the specific obstacle being selected as the closer one of the pair of opposed obstacles to the preceding vehicle.

9. The travel path generation apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the impassable location specifying means specifies an impassable location as a location at which the separation distance between a pair of opposed obstacles is less than a specific width value, the specific width value being the sum of the width of the host vehicle and a predetermined margin.

10. The travel path generation apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the specific point setting means determines the respective positions of the specific points in each of the opposed pairs of the specific points such as to maximize a separation between boundaries of the generated travel path.