Object detecting system for vehicle

• US 6,125,191 A
• Filed: 05/16/1996
• Issued: 09/26/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Ishiyama, Mahito, Mashimo, Hiroshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Chang, Jon
• Assistant Examiner(s): Patel, Jayanti K.
• Application Number:
  US08/648,860
• Time in Patent Office: 1,594 Days
• Field of Search: 180/169, 342/70, 342/71, 342/72, 342/118, 340/435, 340/933, 340/943, 340/988, 348/118, 348/135, 348/142, 348/148, 364/423.098, 364/424.033, 364/167.07, 364/174, 382/104, 382/106, 382/107, 382/288, 382/291
• US Class Current: 382/104
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/42 Simultaneous measurement of distance and other co-ordinates indirect measurement G01S17/46
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/93271 in the front of the vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/255 Detecting or recognising potential candidate objects based on visual cues, e.g. shapes
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/08 Detecting or categorising vehicles

Abstract

An object detecting system for a vehicle detects an object based on output data from a distance sensor mounted on the vehicle. The distance sensor is capable of detecting a distance between the subject vehicle and the object along longitudinal and lateral directions of the subject vehicle. The output data from the distance sensor is associated on XY coordinates having a Y axis indicative of the longitudinal direction of the subject vehicle and an X axis indicative of the lateral direction with the respect to the subject vehicle in a coordinate developing device. The number of output data from the distance sensor which are located in a plurality of cells, defined by dividing the XY coordinates at predetermined distances in the X-axis and Y-axis directions and the XY coordinates for every cell, are output as cell information from a cell dividing device. In an object discerning device, the same labels or identifiers are assigned to the cells adjacent to one another, based on the cell information output from the cell dividing device, and barycentric position coordinates for every label are determined. Thus, it is possible to shorten the time required for a proximity determining process, while avoiding a reduction in accuracy of the coordinates of the object.

Claims

1. An object detecting system for a vehicle, comprising:

a distance sensor mounted on the vehicle and capable of detecting a distance between the subject vehicle and the object, which is located ahead of the subject vehicle, along longitudinal and lateral directions of the subject vehicle, based on transmission of a signal toward the object, which is ahead of the subject vehicle, and reception of a reflected signal from the object, so as to detect the object based on output data from the distance sensor;

a coordinate developing means for associating said output data from said distance sensor on XY coordinates having a Y-axis indicative of a longitudinal direction and an X axis indicative of a lateral direction with respect to the subject vehicle;

a cell dividing and counting means for dividing said XY coordinates in directions of the X and Y axes at predetermined distances into a plurality of cells of equal size, for counting a number of the output data located in each of the cells and for outputting the XY coordinates and the number of the data for every cell as cell information; and

an object discerning means for assigning same identifiers to cells which are adjacent to one another and include therein data on said object, based on said cell information output from said cell dividing means and for determining X and Y coordinates of the barycentric positions for every identifier by the following equations;

space="preserve" listing-type="equation">X=(X1·

N1+X2·

N2+ . . . +Xn·

Nn)/N

space="preserve" listing-type="equation">Y=(Y1·

N1+Y2·

N2+ . . . +Yn·

Nn)/N

wherein X1, X2, . . . Xn denote X coordinates of cells in which data on said object are present, Y1, Y2, . . . Yn denote Y coordinates of said cells, N1, N2, . . . Nn denote the number of data in each cell, and N denotes the sum of the number of data present in the cells.

2. An object detecting system according to claim 1, wherein said cell information is represented by X coordinate, Y coordinate and number of data.

3. A object detecting system according to claim 1, wherein said object discerning means determines a width in said X-axis direction for every identifier.

4. An object system according to claim 3, wherein said object discerning means outputs discernment information represented as the barycentric position X-coordinate, barycentric position Y-coordinate and width in X-axis direction.

5. An object detecting system according to claim 4, further comprising motion determining means for determining relative speed of an object with respect to said vehicle.

6. An object detecting system according to claim 5, wherein a predicted range is defined ahead of a relative speed vector from each of the barycentric position coordinates obtained last time, and if barycentric position coordinates obtained this time are within the predicted ranges, the same object is determined.

7. An object detecting system according to claim 1, further comprising motion determining means for determining relative speed of an object with respect to said vehicle.

8. An object detecting system according to claim 7, wherein a predicted range is defined ahead of a relative speed vector from each of the barycentric position coordinates obtained last time, and if barycentric position coordinates obtained this time are within the predicted ranges, the same object is determined.

9. An object detecting system according to claim 1, wherein in calculating said Y coordinate of the barycentric position, a preset number of data is selected from data in said plurality of cells corresponding to said identifier and used for the calculation of the Y coordinate of the barycentric position.

10. An object detecting system according to claim 9, wherein said selected present number of data are closer to the subject vehicle than non-selected data.