Lane recognition apparatus for vehicle

• US 6,823,241 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2001
• Issued: 11/23/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Mouri, Hiroshi, Shirato, Ryota
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Thu V.
• Application Number:
  US09/951,499
• Publication Number:
  US 20020042668A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,166 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701/23, 701/30, 701/25-28, 701/93, 701/98, 701/117-119, 701/122, 701/205, 701/300-301, 382/104, 382/162, 382/165, 382/173, 382/175, 382/181, 382/190, 382/199, 382/201, 382/203, 382/276, 382/287, 340/435-437, 342/70-71, 342/454-458, 180/167-169
• US Class Current: 701/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2201/08 Lane monitoring; Lane Keeping Systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2201/089 using optical detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/44 Local feature extraction by analysis of parts of the pattern, e.g. by detecting edges, contours, loops, corners, strokes or intersections; Connectivity analysis, e.g. of connected components
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/443 by matching or filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/588 Recognition of the road, e.g. of lane markings; Recognition of the vehicle driving pattern in relation to the road

Abstract

A lane recognition apparatus for a vehicle is comprised of an image picking-up section which picks up a road image in front of the vehicle, a lane-marker candidate-point detecting section which detects coordinate values of a plurality of lane marker candidate points from the road image, and a road model parameter calculating section which estimates a road model parameter representative of a road shape in front of the vehicle and a vehicle state quantity of the vehicle using an extended Kalman filter, on the basis of the coordinate values of the lane marker candidate points.

Claims

1. A lane recognition apparatus for a vehicle, comprising:

an image picking-up section picking up a road image in front of the vehicle;

a lane-marker candidate-point detecting section detecting coordinate values of a plurality of lane marker candidate points from the road image;

a steering angle detecting section detecting a steering angle of the vehicle, wherein a state equation of an extended Kalman filter uses a change of the vehicle state quantity caused by the steering angle and a vehicle speed; and

a road model parameter calculating section estimating a road model parameter representative of a road shape in front of the vehicle and a vehicle state quantity of the vehicle using the extended Kalman filter, on the basis of the coordinate values of the lane marker candidate points, the road model parameter calculating section identifying whether a yaw angle or lateral displacement of the vehicle state quantity is caused by the steering angle, wherein a state equation of the extended Kalman filter uses a change of the vehicle state quantity caused by the steering angle.

2. The lane recognition apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the road model parameter calculating section estimates the state quantity of disturbance so as to maintain preferable properties of following up a quick behavior of the vehicle at the input of the steering angle.

3. The lane recognition apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the road model parameter estimates the state quantity of disturbance so as to prevent the steering angle from generating an error.

4. A lane recognition apparatus for a vehicle, comprising:

a camera picking up a road image in front of the vehicle;

a steering angle sensor for detecting a steering angle of the vehicle; and

a processor coupled to the camera and the steering angle sensor, the processor being configured to,

calculate coordinate values of a plurality of lane marker candidate points from the road image,

identify whether a yaw angle or lateral displacement of the vehicle state quantity is caused by the steering angle from the detecting steering angle, and

estimate a road model parameter representative of a road shape in front of the vehicle and a vehicle state quantity from an extended Kalman filter and the coordinate values of the lane marker candidate points, wherein a state equation of the extended Kalman filter uses a change of the vehicle state quantity caused by the steering angle when the yaw angle or lateral displacement of the vehicle state quantity is caused by the steering angle from the detecting steering angle.