Lane Departure Judgment Apparatus, Lane Departure Warning Apparatus and Vehicle Control System Using the Same

• US 20150336510A1
• Filed: 06/17/2013
• Published: 11/26/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Clarion Co., Ltd. (Faurecia SA)
• Original Assignee: Clarion Co., Ltd. (Faurecia SA)
• Inventors: IMAI, Masato, TAKEMURA, Masayuki, MURAMATSU, Shoji
• Granted Patent: US 10,625,675 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/10 characterised by the type of camera system used
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/804 for lane monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30256 Lane; Road marking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/73 using feature-based methods
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/167 Driving aids for lane monitoring, lane changing, e.g. blind spot detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 for receiving images from a single remote source

Abstract

A lane departure judgment apparatus is configured to detect a lane-dividing line based on image information output from an image-capturing device that acquires an image of an area outside a vehicle, and to judge whether or not departure of the vehicle from the lane-dividing line occurs based on a distance between the vehicle and the lane-dividing line, wherein when an angle of the vehicle with respect to the lane-dividing line thus detected is constant, the distance between the vehicle and the lane-dividing line to be used to judge whether or not departure of the vehicle occurs is changed according to whether the vehicle is being driven on a road having a lane-dividing width that is greater than a predetermined width or on a road having a lane-dividing width that is smaller than a predetermined width.

Claims

1. A lane departure judgment apparatus configured to detect a lane-dividing line based on image information output from an image-capturing device that acquires an image of an area outside a vehicle, and to judge whether or not departure of the vehicle from the lane-dividing line occurs based on a distance between the vehicle and the lane-dividing line, wherein:

when an angle of the vehicle with respect to the lane-dividing line thus detected is constant, the distance between the vehicle and the lane-dividing line to be used to judge whether or not departure of the vehicle occurs is changed according to whether the vehicle is being driven on a road having a lane-dividing width that is greater than a predetermined width or on a road having a lane-dividing width that is smaller than a predetermined width.

2. The lane departure judgment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

when the angle of the vehicle with respect to the lane-dividing line thus detected is constant and the vehicle departs from the lane-dividing line, time to judge vehicle departure is early when the vehicle is driven on a road having a lane-dividing width that is greater than a predetermined width as compared with a case in which the vehicle is being driven on a road having a lane-dividing width that is smaller than a predetermined width.

8. A lane departure warning apparatus comprising:

a lane departure judgment apparatus according to claim 1; and

a warning output unit that outputs a warning signal which indicates lane departure based on a departure judgment result obtained by the departure judgment apparatus.

9. A vehicle control system comprising:

a lane departure warning apparatus according to claim 8; and

a warning issuing unit that issues a warning based on an output result of a warning signal output from the lane departure warning apparatus.

3. A lane departure judgment apparatus configured to detect a lane-dividing line based on image information output from an image-capturing device that acquires an image of an area outside a vehicle, and to judge whether or not departure of the vehicle from the lane-dividing line occurs based on a distance between the vehicle and the lane-dividing line, wherein:

when an angle of the vehicle with respect to the lane-dividing line thus detected is constant, the distance between the vehicle and the lane-dividing line to be used to judge whether or not departure of the vehicle occurs is changed according to whether the vehicle is being driven on a road having a radius of curvature that is greater than a predetermined radius of curvature or on a road having a radius of curvature that is smaller than a predetermined radius of curvature.

4. The lane departure judgment apparatus according to claim 3, wherein:

when the angle of the vehicle with respect to the lane-dividing line thus detected is constant and the vehicle departs from the lane-dividing line, time to judge vehicle departure is early when the vehicle is driven on a road having a radius of curvature that is greater than a predetermined radius of curvature as compared with a case in which the vehicle is being driven on a road having a radius of curvature that is smaller than a predetermined radius of curvature.

5. A lane departure judgment apparatus comprising:

a lane-dividing line detection unit that detects a lane-dividing line based on image information output from an image-capturing device that acquires an image of an area outside a vehicle;

a distance calculation unit that calculates a distance between the lane-dividing line and an optical axis of the image-capturing device for each of predetermined periods;

a yaw angle calculation unit that calculates a yaw angle of the vehicle with respect to the lane-dividing line; and

a departure judgment unit that corrects the yaw angle calculated by the yaw angle calculation unit based on a road parameter which represents characteristics of a road on which the vehicle is being driven, and that judges departure of the vehicle from the lane-dividing line based on the corrected yaw angle and the distance between the lane-dividing line and the optical axis calculated by the distance calculation unit.

6. The lane departure judgment apparatus according to claim 5, wherein:

the departure judgment unit corrects the yaw angle based on at least one from among a lane width of the road and a radius of curvature of the road, which are each configured as the road parameter.

7. The lane departure judgment apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising:

a fluctuation calculation unit that calculates, in a time-series manner, variance of the distance between the lane-dividing line and the optical axis calculated by the distance calculation unit, wherein;

the departure judgment unit corrects the yaw angle calculated by the yaw angle calculation unit based on the road parameter and the variance calculated by the fluctuation calculation unit, and judges the departure of the vehicle based on the corrected yaw angle and the distance between the lane-dividing line and the optical axis calculated by the distance calculation unit.