TRAFFIC LANE GUIDANCE SYSTEM FOR VEHICLE AND TRAFFIC LANE GUIDANCE METHOD FOR VEHICLE

• US 20160238404A1
• Filed: 10/08/2014
• Published: 08/18/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: OKADA, Hiroki, NEYAMA, Ryo
• Granted Patent: US 9,851,216 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 15/021 Determination of steering angle
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3446 Details of route searching algorithms, e.g. Dijkstra, A*, arc-flags, using precalculated routes
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3658 Lane guidance

Abstract

A lane guidance system for a vehicle for guiding a vehicle to a recommended lane in which the vehicle is recommended to run out of traffic lanes included in a route from a first point to a second point through the use of an output unit mounted on the vehicle includes: a calculating unit that calculates a predicted value of an occurrence probability of sudden lane change as information indicating the occurrence probability of sudden lane change when the vehicle runs in sections corresponding to a plurality of links; a setting unit that sets the recommended lane on the basis of the predicted value; and a generating unit that generates guidance information for the recommended lane and that outputs the guidance information to the output unit.

Claims

1. A traffic lane guidance system for a vehicle for guiding a vehicle to a recommended lane in which the vehicle is recommended to run out of traffic lanes included in a route from a current point of the vehicle as a first point to a destination point of the vehicle as a second point through the use of a guidance information output unit mounted on the vehicle, comprising:

a predicted value calculating unit that calculates a predicted value of an occurrence probability of sudden lane change as information indicating the occurrence probability of sudden lane change when the vehicle runs in sections corresponding to a plurality of links, which are set by connecting a plurality of nodes corresponding to traffic lanes in a traveling direction of the vehicle and a direction intersecting the traveling direction of the vehicle, for each of the plurality of links on the basis of statistical information acquired from a plurality of vehicles and an information quantity of the statistical information;

a recommended lane setting unit that sets the recommended lane on the basis of the predicted value calculated by the predicted value calculating unit; and

a guidance information generating unit that generates guidance information for the recommended lane set by the recommended lane setting unit and that outputs the generated guidance information to the guidance information output unit, and

wherein the predicted value calculating unit sets an addition value, which is added to the predicted values of the occurrence probability of sudden lane change in the links set by connecting the plurality of nodes in the direction intersecting the traveling direction of the vehicle, to be greater than an addition value added to the predicted values in the links set by connecting the plurality of nodes in the traveling direction of the vehicle, and

wherein the recommended lane setting unit sets the recommended lane on the basis of the predicted values of the occurrence probability of sudden lane change to which the addition value is added.

2. The traffic lane guidance system for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the recommended lane setting unit sets the traffic lane included in the route in which the total sum of the predicted values of the occurrence probability of sudden lane change is minimized in the route from the first point to the second point.

3. The traffic lane guidance system for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the recommended lane setting unit sets the traffic lane included in the route in which the total sum of the predicted values of the occurrence probability of sudden lane change is minimized under the condition not including the link in which the predicted value is greater than a predetermined threshold value in the route from the first point to the second point as the recommended lane.

4. The traffic lane guidance system for a vehicle according to claim 2, wherein the recommended lane setting unit determines the traffic lane included in the route in which the total sum of the predicted values of the occurrence probability of sudden lane change is minimized by applying a Dijkstra'"'"'s algorithm to the predicted value of the occurrence probability of sudden lane change calculated for each link included in the route from the first point to the second point.

5. The traffic lane guidance system for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the recommended lane setting unit sets the traffic lane included in the route in which the number of links set by connecting the plurality of nodes in the direction intersecting the traveling direction of the vehicle is minimized under the condition not including the link in which the predicted value is greater than a predetermined threshold value in the route from the first point to the second point as the recommended lane.

7. The traffic lane guidance system for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the predicted value calculating unit is able to set a weighting value for the addition value and gradually increases the weighting value set for the addition value as a distance from a point, at which a steering operation frequency of the vehicle is greater than a predetermined threshold value, decreases in the route from the first point to the second point.

8. The traffic lane guidance system for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the predicted value calculating unit determines a second addition value which is different from a first addition value as the addition value to be added to the predicted values of the occurrence probability of sudden lane change when the addition value is the first addition value and sets the second addition value, when an appropriateness of personal driving characteristics for sections corresponding to the links is relatively high, to be smaller than that when the appropriateness is relatively low, and

wherein the recommended lane setting unit sets the recommended lane on the basis of the predicted values of the occurrence probability of sudden lane change to which the first addition value and the second addition value are added.

9. The traffic lane guidance system for a vehicle according to claim 8, wherein the predicted value calculating unit classifies information acquired from the plurality of vehicles as information of elements of personal driving characteristics into a plurality of driving characteristic information groups, classifies information of elements of lane characteristics into a plurality of lane characteristic information groups, and sets the second addition value to be added to the predicted values of the occurrence probability of sudden lane change, when an appropriateness of the driving characteristic information groups and the lane characteristic information groups is relatively high, to be smaller than that when the appropriateness is relatively low.

10. The traffic lane guidance system for a vehicle according to claim 8, wherein the predicted value calculating unit determines a third addition value which is different from the first addition value and the second addition value as the addition value to be added to the predicted values of the occurrence probability of sudden lane change and sets the third addition value, when the an appropriateness of vehicle characteristics for sections corresponding to the links is relatively high, to be smaller than that when the appropriateness is relatively low, and

wherein the recommended lane setting unit sets the recommended lane on the basis of the predicted values of the occurrence probability of sudden lane change to which the first addition value, the second addition value, and the third addition value are added.

11. The traffic lane guidance system for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the nodes include a plurality of positions spaced in the traveling direction of the vehicle in the traffic lanes of a route portion between neighboring points of intersection in the route from the first point to the second point.

6. (canceled)

12. A traffic lane guidance method for a vehicle of guiding a vehicle to a recommended lane in which the vehicle is recommended to run out of traffic lanes included in a route from a current point of the vehicle as a first point to a destination point of the vehicle as a second point through the use of a guidance information output unit mounted on the vehicle, comprising:

calculating a predicted value of an occurrence probability of sudden lane change as information indicating the occurrence probability of sudden lane change when the vehicle runs in sections corresponding to a plurality of links, which are set by connecting a plurality of nodes corresponding to traffic lanes in a traveling direction of the vehicle and a direction intersecting the traveling direction of the vehicle, for each of the plurality of links on the basis of statistical information acquired from a plurality of vehicles and an information quantity of the statistical information;

setting the recommended lane on the basis of the calculated predicted value of the occurrence probability of sudden lane change; and

generating guidance information for the set recommended lane and that outputs the generated guidance information to the guidance information output unit

wherein when calculating the predicted value, an addition value, which is added to the predicted values of the occurrence probability of sudden lane change in the links set by connecting the plurality of nodes in the direction intersecting the traveling direction of the vehicle, is set to be greater than an addition value added to the predicted values in the links set by connecting the plurality of nodes in the traveling direction of the vehicle, and

wherein when setting the recommended lane, the recommended lane is set on the basis of the predicted values of the occurrence probability of sudden lane change to which the addition value is added.