PARKING ASSISTANCE DEVICE AND VEHICLE PROVIDED WITH SUCH A DEVICE

• US 20170158239A1
• Filed: 04/03/2015
• Published: 06/08/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Commissariat a L'Energie Atomique (AES Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Commissariat a L'Energie Atomique (AES Corporation)
• Inventors: DHOME, Yoann, BURGER, Brice, SAYD, Patrick
• Granted Patent: US 10,442,465 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2201/10 Automatic or semi-automatic parking aid systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 8/1708 for lorries or tractor-trailer combinations
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 13/06 for backing a normally drawn trailer
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 15/0285 Parking performed automatically
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 22/025 Differential odometers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9314 Parking operations
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/024 in combination with a laser lasers per se H01S
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0246 using a video camera in combination with image processing means
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0257 using a radar radar systems designed for anti-collision purposes between land vehicles or between land vehicle and fixed obstacles G01S13/931
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0276 using signals provided by a source external to the vehicle involving a plurality of vehicles G05D1/0287; automatically controlling vehicle speed responsive to externally generated signals B60K31/0058

Abstract

A device capable of equipping a vehicle comprises: a first sensor placed on the side of the vehicle facing the entrance of the space, the sensor, which may be a lidar, makes distance and orientation measurements of said vehicle with respect to the space based on the reconstruction of a cloud of points belonging to the surface of said walls; a series of sensors placed on the lateral sides of the vehicle to measure the distance from the sides to the lateral walls of the parking space, these sensors possibly being ultrasound or optical; processing means calculating the position and the relative orientation of the vehicle with respect to the walls as a function of the measurements by the various sensors and as a function of the various parking phases.

Claims

1. A device for assisting with the parking of a vehicle within a parking space provided with at least one lateral wall having longitudinally distributed geometric features said, device being capable of equipping a vehicle, comprising at least:

a first sensor placed on the side of said vehicle facing the entrance of said space, the measuring beam of said sensor scanning said space, said sensor making measurements of the distance and orientation of said vehicle with respect to said space based on the reconstruction of a cloud of points belonging to the surface of said walls;

a series of sensors placed on the lateral sides of said vehicle that are intended to measure the distance from said sides to said lateral walls, the measuring beams of said sensors scanning said inner walls;

processing means calculating the position and the relative orientation of said vehicle with respect to said walls in at least three separate phases;

a phase of approaching said space in which, said walls being scanned by the measuring beam of said first sensor, the relative position and orientation are calculated with respect to the position and orientation of a general form of said walls deduced from said cloud;

a phase of entering said space in which the position and the relative orientation are at least calculated with respect to the position and orientation of simple geometric forms deduced from said cloud, as a function of said geometric features;

a phase of advancing into said space in which the processing means calculate a relative position and orientation by comparing said cloud with a memorized model of said walls and calculate another position and another relative orientation based on the distance measurements made by the sensors of said series;

said processing means comprising a data fusion module that carries out spatio-temporal filtering of the relative position and orientation calculations produced from the various sensors, the calculations thus filtered giving information on the position and orientation of said vehicle in order to control its movement.

2. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said first sensor is a lidar sensor.

3. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said first sensor is formed from at least one video sensor.

4. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said first sensor is a radar sensor.

5. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sensors of said series are ultrasound sensors.

6. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sensors of said series are optical telemetry sensors.

7. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the spatio-temporal filtering is carried out using a Kalman filter.

8. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the spatio-temporal filtering is carried out using a Monte Carlo method.

9. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processing means calculate a relative position and orientation from the distance measurements made by the sensors of said series during the entry phase.

10. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processing means calculate a relative position and orientation by comparing said cloud with a memorized model by means of an algorithm for estimating the transformation between clouds of points.

11. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the measurements obtained by said first sensor are sampled in a first period and the measurements obtained from the sensors of said series are sampled in a second period, the position and orientation calculations being carried out within one period.

12. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sensors of said series are positioned with increasing spacing between two consecutive sensors, starting from the side bearing said first.

13. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processing means carry out consistency checks in time and space between the successive calculations of relative position and orientation obtained from measurements by said first sensor, and between the successive calculations of relative position and orientation obtained from measurements by the sensors of said series, the consistent calculations being delivered to said data fusion module.

15. The device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising at least one odometer, placed on a wheel of the vehicle, the processing means carrying out the estimation of the movement speed vector of said vehicle based on wheel speed measurements produced by the odometer, said estimation producing an estimate of the position and orientation of said vehicle that is taken into account by the data fusion module so as to define the position and relative orientation of said vehicle in order to control its movement.

16. A vehicle comprising a monitoring and control system for assisting with driving, wherein it is equipped with a device as claimed in claim 1, said system providing information on the positions and orientation of said vehicle to said monitoring and control system.

17. The vehicle as claimed in claim 16, wherein it is automatically driven.

18. The vehicle as claimed in claim 16, wherein it is composed of a cab and a trailer, said sensors being placed on said trailer.

14. (canceled)

19. (canceled)

20. (canceled)