Driver assistance system for a vehicle
First Claim
1. A method of facilitating steering of a vehicle by tracking a contrived centre line of a road, said vehicle being provided with a steering system, and said contrived centre line being a centre line between lane markings defining a lane boundary on said road, comprising:
- applying a steering bias to the steering system in such a manner as to assist the driver in tracking said contrived centre line, and as the vehicle approaches a lane boundary, producing an audio signal to alert the driver of possible lane boundary infringement, in which the audio signal gives the illusion of originating from an area of the lane boundary infringement.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A video camera or equivalent sensor is mounted on a vehicle and used to detect the lane markings on the road (usually the white painted lines). An associated signal processor (11) estimates the vehicle'"'"'s lateral position in relation to the lane markings. An electric motor (4) coupled to the steering mechanism (1) is used to provide a torque input to the steering which may either assist or oppose the steering torque from the driver. The processor (11) is designed to assist the driver to maintain the vehicle'"'"'s lane position by holding the vehicle at a set-point using a biasing torque. This simulates the effect of the lane being cambered upwards towards the lane edges. However the driver is able to override or cancel the effect if the driver applied steering torque exceeds a prescribed torque threshold.
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Citations
17 Claims
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1. A method of facilitating steering of a vehicle by tracking a contrived centre line of a road, said vehicle being provided with a steering system, and said contrived centre line being a centre line between lane markings defining a lane boundary on said road, comprising:
applying a steering bias to the steering system in such a manner as to assist the driver in tracking said contrived centre line, and as the vehicle approaches a lane boundary, producing an audio signal to alert the driver of possible lane boundary infringement, in which the audio signal gives the illusion of originating from an area of the lane boundary infringement. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method of facilitating steering of a vehicle by tracking a contrived centre line of a road, said vehicle being provided with a steering system, and said contrived centre line being a centre line between lane markings defining a lane boundary on said road, comprising:
detecting said lane markings defining said lane boundary on said road, calculating a position of said contrived centre line based upon said lane markings, and then applying a steering bias to the steering system in such a manner as to assist the driver in tracking said contrived centre line, and as the vehicle approaches a lane boundary, producing an audio signal to alert the driver of possible lane boundary infringement, in which the audio signal gives the illusion of originating from an area of the lane boundary infringement. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17)
Specification