Vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus and traveling control system incorporating the apparatus

• US 7,742,864 B2
• Filed: 08/29/2003
• Issued: 06/22/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Subaru Corp.
• Original Assignee: Fuji Jukogyo KK (Subaru Corp.)
• Inventors: Sekiguchi, Hiroyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran; Khoi H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mancho; Ronnie
• Application Number:
  US10/651,489
• Publication Number:
  US 20040098196A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,489 Days
• Field of Search: 701/36, 701/1, 701/39, 701/96, 701/29, 701/213, 701/117, 701/93, 701/30, 701/301, 340/438, 340/435, 340/436, 340/903, 180/168, 180/169, 213/36, 382/104, 342/70, 342/54
• US Class Current: 701/96
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 31/0008 including means for detecting potential obstacles in vehicle path
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/00 Input parameters relating to objects
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/4041 Position
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/4044 Direction of movement, e.g. backwards
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/802 Longitudinal distance
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/86 Combinations of lidar systems with systems other than lidar, radar or sonar, e.g. with direction finders
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/931 of land vehicles

Abstract

A vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus inputs signals indicative of images from a stereoscopic camera, a vehicle speed, a steering wheel angle and a yaw rate and estimates a traveling path of an own vehicle according to vehicle forward information and traveling conditions of the own vehicle. The apparatus establishes a traveling region A according to this traveling path and further establishes a traveling region B based on at least either of the traveling region A and road information. It is judged whether a detected solid object is a preceding vehicle or a tentative preceding vehicle according to the state of existence of the object in the traveling regions A, B and the preceding vehicle is outputted to a traveling control unit.

Claims

1. A vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus comprising:

vehicle traveling condition detecting means for detecting traveling conditions of a vehicle;

vehicle forward information detecting means for detecting vehicle forward information including at least road configuration and solid objects moving ahead of the vehicle, the road configuration including lane marker data ahead of the vehicle;

vehicle traveling path estimating means for estimating a traveling path of the vehicle according to at least either of the road configuration and the detected vehicle traveling conditions;

first judgment region establishing means for establishing a width based on the estimated vehicle traveling path as a first judgment region in the road ahead of the vehicle;

second judgment region establishing means for establishing a width wider than the first judgment region and based on the lane marker data as a second judgment region in the road ahead of the vehicle; and

preceding vehicle identifying means for identifying that a solid object ahead of the vehicle is a preceding vehicle when the solid object currently exists within the first judgment region and the solid object has existed in either the first judgment region or the second judgment region for more than a threshold time period.

2. A traveling control system for controlling travel of a vehicle, wherein the vehicle is provided with the vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, and the travel of the vehicle is controlled to follow the preceding vehicle such that the intervehicle distance between the vehicle and the preceding vehicle is kept generally constant.

3. The vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the preceding vehicle identifying means identifies the preceding vehicle when the solid object is within a specified distance from the vehicle, and

wherein the specified distance is larger when the speed of the vehicle is higher.

4. The vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first judgment region and the second judgment region are established when it is judged that the solid object is a forward moving object moving in the same direction as the vehicle.