METHOD AND DEVICE FOR LOCALIZING A VEHICLE IN ITS SURROUNDINGS

• US 20170248962A1
• Filed: 10/13/2015
• Published: 08/31/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Original Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Inventors: Hasberg, Carsten, Nordbruch, Stefan
• Granted Patent: US 10,520,949 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/065 by reducing the computational load on the digital processor of the control computer
• 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 2552/50 Barriers
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/53 Road markings, e.g. lane marker or crosswalk
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/00 Input parameters relating to objects
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2555/60 Traffic rules, e.g. speed limits or right of way
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/65 Data transmitted between vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/04 Traffic conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 60/001 Planning or execution of driving tasks
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/42 Determining position
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0246 using a video camera in combination with image processing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/56 exterior to a vehicle by using sensors mounted on the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096791 where the origin of the information is another vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

A method and a device for localizing a vehicle in its surroundings, the vehicle having surround sensors, which at first times detect views of the surroundings using the surround sensors as sensor views and supply these to an evaluation unit, and having a communication interface, via which at second times current surroundings data regarding the current surroundings of the vehicle are transmitted to the evaluation unit, and the localization of the vehicle occurs in that in the evaluation unit the surroundings data, which were detected by the surround sensors at first times, and the temporally corresponding surrounding data, which were transmitted via the communication interface, are superimposed on one another. If it is detected that features in the surroundings data detected by the sensors and/or features in the surroundings data supplied via the communication interface occur multiple times in the data pertaining to one point in time and these represent one or multiple objects, these are transmitted only once to the evaluation device and, for a repeated occurrence of the features in the data pertaining to one point in time, only the positional data of the repeatedly occurring object are transmitted anew.

Claims

1-11. -11. (canceled)

12. A method for localizing a vehicle in its surroundings, the vehicle having surround sensors, which detect views of the surroundings at first times using the surround sensors and supply these to an evaluation unit, the method comprising:

transmitting, via a communication interface of the vehicle, current surroundings data to the evaluation unit at second times regarding the current surroundings of the vehicle and the localization of the vehicle occurring in that in the evaluation unit the surroundings data, which were detected by the surround sensors at first times, and the temporally corresponding surroundings data, which were transmitted via the communication interface, are superimposed on one another;

wherein features in the surroundings data detected by the sensors and/or features in the surroundings data supplied via the communication interface, which occur multiple times in the data belonging to one point in time and represent one or multiple objects, are transmitted only once and, in the event of a repeated occurrence of the features in the data pertaining to one point in time, only the positional data of the repeatedly occurring object are transmitted anew.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the features existing multiple times in a sensor view are pedestrian crosswalk stripes, guardrail sections, guardrail posts, broken lane markings, delineator posts, and/or direction arrows on the roadway.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the frequently and regularly occurring features in the sensor data are ascertained using a filter adapted to one or multiple objects.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the first times and the second times are identical.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the localization of the vehicle is a highly precise localization to move the vehicle autonomously or in an automated manner in the current vehicle surroundings, independently without driver intervention.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein a GPS signal and/or a differential GPS signal is used.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the surroundings data are detected by a sensor system, which includes at least one of a radar sensor system, a lidar sensor system, a video sensor system, an ultrasonic sensor system, and a combination of the sensor types.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the current surroundings data, which are transmitted via the communication interface to the vehicle, are surroundings data that were detected by vehicle sensor systems of vehicles that traveled the same vehicle surroundings previously and that are still up-to-date.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the current surroundings data are items of information that were detected and provided by sensor systems of vehicles that previously detected the same vehicle surroundings.

21. The method of claim 12, wherein the communication interface is a mobile telephone connection or a digital broadcasting network or a vehicle-to-infrastructure network or a vehicle-to-vehicle network or an interface to a navigation system, or an interface to a data cloud.

23. The method of claim 12, wherein the frequently and regularly occurring features in the sensor data are ascertained using a filter adapted to one or multiple objects, using a comb filter.

24. The method of claim 12, wherein the communication interface is a mobile telephone connection or a digital broadcasting network or a vehicle-to-infrastructure network or a vehicle-to-vehicle network or an interface to a navigation system, having a digital map stored in the vehicle, or an interface to a data cloud.

22. A device for localizing a vehicle in its surroundings, the vehicle having surround sensors, which at first times detect views of the surroundings using surround sensors and supply the views to an evaluation unit, comprising:

a communication interface, via which at second times current surroundings data regarding the current surroundings of the vehicle are transmitted to the evaluation unit, and the localization of the vehicle occurring in that in the evaluation unit the surroundings data, which were detected at first times by the surround sensors, and the surroundings data, which were transmitted via the communication interface, are superimposed on one another;

wherein the evaluation unit is configured to detect whether features in the surroundings data detected by the sensors and/or features in the surroundings data supplied via the communication interface occur multiple times in the data pertaining to one point in time and represent one or multiple objects, and are transmitted only once, and, in the event of a repeated occurrence of the features in the data pertaining to one point in time, only the positional data of the repeatedly occurring object are transmitted anew.