METHOD FOR ACQUIRING TRANSVERSE-POSITION INFORMATION OF A MOTOR VEHICLE ON A CARRIAGEWAY AND MOTOR VEHICLE

• US 20180024238A1
• Filed: 01/27/2016
• Published: 01/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Audi AG (Volkswagen AG)
• Original Assignee: Audi AG (Volkswagen AG)
• Inventors: KHLIFI, Rachid
• Granted Patent: US 10,641,892 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 2552/05 Type of road, e.g. motorways, local streets, paved or unpaved roads
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2555/80 Country specific, e.g. driver age limits or right hand drive
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/12 Lane keeping
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/867 Combination of radar systems with cameras
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/87 Combinations of radar systems, e.g. primary radar and secondary radar
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/028 Miniaturisation, e.g. surface mounted device [SMD] packaging or housings
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/411 Identification of targets based on measurements of radar reflectivity G01S7/415 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30256 Lane; Road marking

Abstract

Method for acquiring transverse-position information of a motor vehicle (10) on a roadway (16), wherein radar data describing at least part of the roadway (16) are acquired by at least one radar sensor (1) of the motor vehicle (10), environmental features describing the location of a roadway boundary are detected and localized in the radar data by evaluation, from these, a course of the roadway boundaries of the roadway (16) and lateral distances (24) of the motor vehicle (10) with respect to the lane boundaries are determined, and the transverse-position information is determined as, or as a function of, the lateral distances (24) of the motor vehicle (10) from the roadway boundaries.

Claims

1. A method for acquiring transverse-position information of a motor vehicle on a roadway wherein radar data describing at least part of the roadway is acquired by at least one radar sensor of the motor vehicle, environmental features describing the location of a roadway boundary are detected and localized in the radar data by evaluation, from these, a course of the roadway boundaries of the roadway and lateral distances of the motor vehicle with respect to the roadway boundaries are determined, and the transverse-position information is determined as, or as a function of, the lateral distances of the motor vehicle from the roadway boundaries, wherein a radar sensor with a semiconductor chip implementing the radar transceiver is used as the at least one radar sensor, and, as environment features, a transition from the road surface to another surface is detected and localized, wherein, as transverse-position information, a lane assignment of the motor vehicle is determined, taking into additional consideration further information describing the number of traffic lanes of the roadway, wherein roadway division information derived from digital map data and including section information describing the presence and/or the width and/or the location of a part of the roadway not used as a traffic lane is taken into consideration as additional information.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein guide rails and/or guide posts and/or a curbstone and/or a roadside structure and/or plants are, in addition, detected as an environmental features and localized.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein several radar sensors, in particular, eight radar sensors, are used, which cover the surroundings of the motor vehicle over a complete angular range of 360°

.

4. The method according to claim 1 wherein a semiconductor chip, in the form of a CMOS chip, is used.

5. The method according to claim 4 wherein a digital signal processor and/or a control unit of the radar sensor is also implemented by the semiconductor chip, and/or the semiconductor chip and an antenna arrangement of the radar sensor are implemented as a package.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein the at least one radar sensor is operated with a frequency bandwidth of more than 1 GHz, in particular, 4 GHz, and/or in a frequency range of 77 to 81 GHz.

7. The method according to claim 1 wherein roadway division information derived from digital map data of a navigation system (25), and/or, in particular, a country-specific lane assignment width is taken into account as additional information.

9. The method according to claim 7 wherein the roadway division information includes the number of lanes.

10. The method according to claim 9 wherein a roadway width is determined from the lateral distances and a width of the motor vehicle stored in the motor vehicle and/or from the distance of the roadway boundaries, wherein a plausibility check is carried out comparing the roadway widths determined from the radar data with each other, and/or a plausibility check is made of the number of lanes and/or the lane width as plausibility check values by obtaining comparison values from the roadway width, the section information (if available), and the other plausibility check value in each case, and/or intervals of the roadway width are assigned to the lanes at least partially on the basis of roadway division information, wherein the lane assignment is made on the basis of the position of the motor vehicle along the roadway width, as known from the lateral distances.

11. The method according to claim 7 wherein at least one transversely offset motor vehicle detected in the radar data is taken into account in determining the lane assignment.

12. The method according to claim 1 wherein determining the transverse-position information is restricted to at least one type of road, in particular, freeways.

13. The method according to claim 1 wherein the transverse-position information is used for conducting a plausibility check on a lane assignment on the basis of the camera data of a camera and/or as a fallback level in the event of camera failure.

14. A vehicle having at least one radar sensor and one control device designed to perform a process in accordance with claim 1.

8. (canceled)