Parking assist apparatus

• US 7,526,368 B2
• Filed: 08/27/2004
• Issued: 04/28/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd. (Aisin Corp.), Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Iwazaki, Katsuhiko, Tanaka, Yuu, Matsui, Akira, Satonaka, Hisashi, Kataoka, Hiroaki, Sugiyama, Toru, Kubota, Yuichi, Endo, Tomohiko, Iwakiri, Hideyuki, Kawakami, Seiji
• Primary Examiner(s): Camby; Richard M.
• Application Number:
  US10/927,819
• Publication Number:
  US 20050049767A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,705 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701/36, 701/23, 701/41, 701/45, 701/117, 701/224, 701/300, 701/301, 701/302, 348/113, 348/116, 348/119, 180/204, 180/271, 280/282
• US Class Current: 701/36
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2201/10 Automatic or semi-automatic parking aid systems
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 15/0285 Parking performed automatically

Abstract

A parking assist apparatus performs a guidance of a vehicle toward a target parking position, even after the guidance has been canceled. The target parking position is set in accordance with an operation applied to a target parking position designation display that is displayed on a screen showing a periphery of the vehicle. It is determined whether a cancellation condition of canceling the guidance of the vehicle toward the target parking position is established. A memory continuously holds target parking position information even after the cancellation condition is established.

Claims

1. A parking assist apparatus for guiding a vehicle toward a target parking position, comprising:

target parking position setting means for setting the target parking position in accordance with an operation applied to a target parking position designation display that is displayed on a screen showing a periphery of said vehicle; and

cancellation condition determining means for determining whether a cancellation condition of canceling a guidance of said vehicle toward the target parking position is established,

wherein;

said target parking position setting means is capable of setting an absolute position represented by a target parking position information held by a memory holding means as a new target parking position;

said memory holding means is adapted to continuously hold said target parking position information regarding the absolute position of the target parking position set by said target parking position setting means after the cancellation condition is established;

characterized by the parking assist apparatus further comprising;

path computation determining means adapted to determine, in a state where the cancellation condition is established and the guidance of said vehicle is stopped and said vehicle is stopped at a stop position, whether or not a path from the stop position to the absolute position is defined by computation; and

screen controlling means adapted to shift the screen to an initial screen when the path is not defined by computation, and to a setting screen for setting the target parking position when the path is defined by computation.

2. The parking assist apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said memory holding means is adapted to hold the target parking position information of said absolute position after the cancellation condition is established and until resetting of the target parking position is performed by said target parking position setting means.

3. The parking assist apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said memory holding means is adapted such that the holding of the target parking position information by said memory holding means is canceled when a movement of said vehicle exceeding a certain distance is detected after the cancellation condition is established.

4. The parking assist apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said target parking position setting means is capable of setting the absolute position represented by the target parking position information held by said memory holding means as a new target parking position.

5. The parking assist apparatus as claimed in claim 4, further comprising screen controlling means for controlling contents displayed on the screen when the guidance of said vehicle is stopped due to an establishment of the cancellation condition so that the contents displayed on the screen is changed in accordance with a result of computation of a path from a current position of said vehicle to the new target parking position.

6. The parking assist apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein the screen controlling means shifts the screen to an initial screen when the path is not defined by computation.

7. The parking assist apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein the screen controlling means shifts the screen to a setting screen for setting the target parking position when the path is defined by computation.

8. The parking assist apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein the screen controlling means shifts the screen to a setting screen for setting the target parking position when the path is defined by computation.

9. The parking assist apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the holding of the target parking position information by said memory holding means is cancelled when a movement of said vehicle is detected after the cancellation condition is established.