AUTOMATIC DRIVING SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATICALLY DRIVEN VEHICLE

• US 20160144857A1
• Filed: 11/24/2015
• Published: 05/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Ohshima, Hiroaki
• Granted Patent: US 10,005,458 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2420/403 Image sensing, e.g. optical camera
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2420/408 Radar; Laser, e.g. lidar
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/045 Occupant permissions
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2555/20 Ambient conditions, e.g. wind or rain
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2555/60 Traffic rules, e.g. speed limits or right of way
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/30 Auxiliary equipments
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2900/00 Indexing codes relating to the purpose of, or problem solved of road vehicle drive control systems not otherwise provided for in groups B60W30/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/06 Automatic manoeuvring for parking
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/02 related to ambient conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/082 Selecting or switching between different modes of propelling
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 60/0059 Estimation of the risk associated with autonomous or manual driving, e.g. situation too complex, sensor failure or driver incapacity
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/04 using optical or ultrasonic detectors
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/056 with provision for distinguishing direction of travel
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/144 on portable or mobile units, e.g. personal digital assistant [PDA]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/146 where the parking area is a limited parking space, e.g. parking garage, restricted space
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/207 with respect to certain areas, e.g. forbidden or allowed areas with possible alerting when inside or outside boundaries

Abstract

An automatic driving system for an automatically driven vehicle. In the system, a travel direction acquirer is configured to acquire travel direction information that is information indicative of whether or not each of lanes in a parking lot is unidirectional. In addition, in the system, an allowance determination unit is configured to, if determining, based on the travel direction information acquired by the travel direction acquirer, that each of the lanes in the parking lot is unidirectional, allow automatic driving of the automatically driven vehicle.

Claims

1. An automatic driving system for an automatically driven vehicle, comprising:

a travel direction acquirer configured to acquire travel direction information that is information indicative of whether or not each of lanes in a parking lot is unidirectional; and

an allowance determination unit configured to, if determining, based on the travel direction information acquired by the travel direction acquirer, that each of the lanes in the parking lot is unidirectional, allow automatic driving of the automatically driven vehicle.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein

the travel direction acquirer is configured to acquire, as the travel direction information, a rule for travel directions of the lanes in the parking lot and travel directions in which vehicles actually travel in the lanes in the parking lot, and

the allowance determination unit is configured to, if determining, based on the rule for the travel directions included in the travel direction information, that each of the lanes in the parking lot is unidirectional, and if determining, based on the travel directions in which the vehicles actually travel included in the travel direction information, that the travel directions in which the vehicles actually travel in the lanes in the parking lot coincide with the travel directions of the lanes in the parking lot defined by the rule, allow automatic driving of an automatically driven vehicle.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising an empty bay value acquirer configured to acquire an empty bay value that is a number of empty bays in the parking lot or a ratio of the number of empty bays to a total number of bays in the parking lot,

wherein the allowance determination unit is configured to, if the empty bay value is less than a predetermined allowable reference value, disallow automatic driving of the automatically driven vehicle.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a mobile device carried by a user of the automatically driven vehicle, the mobile device being configured to transmit an automatic driving instruction signal for instructing the automatically driven vehicle to start automatic driving,

wherein the mobile device is configured to include a location of the mobile device in the automatic driving instruction signal, and transmit the automatic driving instruction signal including the location of the mobile device, and

the allowance determination unit is configured to, if determining, based on the travel direction information acquired by travel direction acquirer, that each of lanes in the parking lot is unidirectional, and if a travel path for the automatically driven vehicle to reach a location of the user is successfully set up, allow automatic driving of the automatically driven vehicle in the parking lot.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the allowance determination unit is configured to, if the parking lot is outdoors and if the weather in the parking lot is rainy, foggy or snowy, disallow automatic driving.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a mobile device carried by a user of the automatically driven vehicle, the mobile device being configured to transmit an automatic driving instruction signal for instructing the automatically driven vehicle to start automatic driving, wherein the mobile device is configured to include a location of the mobile device in the automatic driving instruction signal, and transmit the automatic driving instruction signal including the location of the mobile device;

a vehicle location detector mounted in the automatically driven vehicle, the vehicle location detector being configured to detect a location of the automatically driven vehicle; and

a distance determiner configured to, based on the location of the mobile device included in the automatic driving instruction signal transmitted by the mobile device and the location of the automatically driven vehicle detected by the vehicle location detector, determine a distance between the mobile device and the automatically driven vehicle,

wherein the allowance determination unit is configured to, if the distance between the mobile device and the automatically driven vehicle determined by the distance determiner is greater than a predetermined allowable distance threshold, disallow automatic driving of the automatically driven vehicle.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a mobile device carried by a user of the automatically driven vehicle, the mobile device being configured to transmit an automatic driving instruction signal for instructing the automatically driven vehicle to start automatic driving; and

a transmitter mounted in the automatically driven vehicle, the transmitter being configured to, if the allowance determination unit has determined to disallow automatic driving of the automatically driven vehicle, transmit a disallowance signal indicative of automatic driving of the automatically driven vehicle being disallowed,

wherein the mobile device comprises;

a receiver configured to receive the disallowance signal; and

a display configured to, upon receipt of the disallowance signal at the receiver, display that automatic driving of the automatically driven vehicle has been disallowed.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an electronic key pre-registered as a device via which the automatically driven vehicle can be remote-operated;

a mobile communication device pre-registered as a device that belongs to a user of the automatically driven vehicle; and

an authentication unit configured to authenticate the electronic key and the mobile communication device,

wherein the allowance determination unit is configured to, if, as an additional condition for allowing automatic driving of the automatically driven vehicle, the authentication of the electronic key and the mobile communication device by the authentication unit has succeeded, allow automatic driving of the automatically driven vehicle.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the authentication unit comprises:

a primary authentication unit configured to, if determining that a distance between the electronic key and the mobile communication device is equal to or less than a mobile distance defined such that, if the distance between the electronic key and the smartphone is equal to or less than the mobile distance, it can be assumed that both the electronic key and the smartphone are communicable with each other and carried by the user, determine that the electronic key and the mobile communication device are pre-registered with each other; and

a secondary authentication unit mounted in the automatically driven vehicle, the secondary authentication unit being configured to, upon receipt of a signal indicating that the authentication processed in the primary authentication unit has succeeded from either one of the electronic key and the mobile communication device, determine that authentication of the electronic key and the mobile communication device has succeeded.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein

a primary communication device that is one of the electronic key and the mobile communication device comprises a transmitter configured to transmit an automatic driving instruction signal including a signal indicative of the primary communication device being pre-registered with the system, and

the authentication unit is configured to, upon receipt of the automatic driving instruction signal at a receiver mounted in the automatically driven vehicle, transmit a confirmation signal to a secondary communication device that is the other of the electronic key and the mobile communication device, and if the receiver has received a response signal transmitted from the secondary communication device in response to the confirmation signal, determine that authentication of the electronic key and the mobile communication device has succeeded.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a warning unit configured to sound an alert prior to the automatically driven vehicle starting to move to ensure that persons around the automatically driven vehicle in the parking lot are aware that automatic driving is started.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a mobile device carried by a user of the automatically driven vehicle, the mobile device being configured to transmit an automatic driving instruction signal for instructing the automatically driven vehicle to start automatic driving; and

an automatic-driving controller configured to, during automatic driving of the automatically driven vehicle, sequentially determine whether or not the communication with the mobile device is interrupted, and if it is determined that the communication with the mobile device is interrupted, stop automatic driving of the automatically driven vehicle.