DRIVING ASSISTANCE APPARATUS

• US 20190107841A1
• Filed: 10/08/2018
• Published: 04/11/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: SASAJIMA, Koji
• Granted Patent: US 10,459,448 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/00 Purposes of road vehicle drive control systems not related to the control of a particular sub-unit, e.g. of systems using conjoint control of vehicle sub-units
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3641 Personalized guidance, e.g. limited guidance on previously travelled routes
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0061 for transition from automatic pilot to manual pilot and vice versa
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0088 characterized by the autonomous decision making process, e.g. artificial intelligence, predefined behaviours using knowledge based models G06N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0221 involving a learning process
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning

Abstract

A driving assistance apparatus includes: a registration processing unit configured to register, as an assistance location, an assistance location candidate detected as a location at which driving assistance for an own vehicle is necessary if the assistance location candidate satisfies a registration condition; and a region segmentation unit configured to set a first activity region in which an activity frequency of the own vehicle is estimated to be relatively high and a second activity region in which an activity frequency of the own vehicle is estimated to be relatively low. In a case where the assistance location candidate falls in the second activity region, the registration processing unit relaxes the registration condition compared to a case of falling in the first activity region (the assistance location candidate).

Claims

1. A driving assistance apparatus comprising:

a location detection unit configured to detect, as an assistance location candidate, a location at which driving assistance for an own vehicle is necessary in a driving area of the own vehicle;

a registration processing unit configured to register the assistance location candidate as an assistance location if the assistance location candidate detected by the location detection unit satisfies a registration condition;

a driving assistance unit configured to provide driving assistance to the own vehicle at the assistance location registered by the registration processing unit; and

a region segmentation unit configured to segment the driving area to set a first activity region in which an activity frequency of the own vehicle is estimated to be relatively high and a second activity region in which the activity frequency of the own vehicle is estimated to be relatively low, wherein

in a case where the assistance location candidate falls in the second activity region, the registration processing unit relaxes the registration condition compared to a case of falling in the first activity region.

2. The driving assistance apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the registration condition is that a number of times the assistance location candidate has been detected or a number of times the assistance location candidate has been passed through exceeds a threshold with regard to a same vehicle or user, and

the registration processing unit relaxes the registration condition by making the threshold smaller in a case where the assistance location candidate falls in the second activity region than in a case of falling in the first activity region.

3. The driving assistance apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

when adding a new assistance location while a number of registrations of the assistance locations falling in the first activity region has reached an upper limit, the registration processing unit performs a registration process for deleting the assistance location at which an execution frequency of driving assistance is lowest.

4. The driving assistance apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

when adding a new assistance location while a number of registrations of the assistance locations falling in the second activity region has reached an upper limit, the registration processing unit performs a registration process for deleting the assistance location farthest from a position of the first activity region.

5. The driving assistance apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a time acquisition unit configured to acquire time information during traveling of the own vehicle, wherein

the region segmentation unit varies setting of the first activity region or the second activity region in accordance with the time information acquired by the time acquisition unit.