Cooperative sensor-sharing vehicle traffic safety system

• US 7,994,902 B2
• Filed: 02/25/2009
• Issued: 08/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Southwest Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Southwest Research Institute
• Inventors: Bouraoui, Reda Laurent, Curtis, Joshua J., Avery, Paul A.
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAM, TOAN NGOC
• Application Number:
  US12/392,753
• Publication Number:
  US 20100214085A1
• Time in Patent Office: 895 Days
• Field of Search: 340/435, 340/436, 340/903, 340/904, 340/905, 701/300, 701/301, 701/213
• US Class Current: 340/435
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/161 Decentralised systems, e.g. inter-vehicle communication

Abstract

A method and system for using vehicle-to-vehicle cooperative communications for traffic collision avoidance. One vehicle detects a “situation”, such as a pedestrian within the crosswalk, where an “offending object” is in or near a roadway feature, which could result in a collision. The detecting vehicle informs a second vehicle via wireless communications, of the detecting vehicle'"'"'s GPS location, the GPS location of the detected object, and the GPS location of the roadway feature, i.e., a crosswalk boundary. Additional data about the “offending object” can include its speed and heading. A receiving vehicle receives this data and takes appropriate avoidance action.

Claims

1. A method of cooperatively sharing traffic safety sensor data between vehicles for avoidance of a pedestrian-vehicle collision in a crosswalk, comprising:

using a detection sensor of a detecting vehicle to detect a pedestrian in or proximate to the crosswalk;

determining a relative position of the pedestrian in a coordinate system relative to the detecting vehicle;

using GPS equipment of the detecting vehicle to determine at least a GPS location of the detecting vehicle;

accessing data stored in memory of the detecting vehicle to determine GPS crosswalk boundary data;

using the GPS crosswalk boundary data and the GPS location of the detecting vehicle to determine a global location of the pedestrian;

defining a crosswalk path of the pedestrian;

using communications equipment of the detecting vehicle, communicating the following data to a receiving vehicle;

the GPS location of the detecting vehicle, the GPS crosswalk boundary data, and the global position of the pedestrian;

repeating the communicating step for as long as the pedestrian is in the crosswalk path;

using communications equipment of the receiving vehicle to receive the data; and

using processing equipment of the receiving vehicle to evaluate the relevance of the data to collision avoidance between the receiving vehicle and the pedestrian.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the detection sensor is a LIDAR sensor.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the detection sensor is a vision sensor.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the communications units of the detecting vehicle and the receiving vehicle are implemented with the Dedicated Short Range Communications standard.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting vehicle further determines and communicates the pedestrian'"'"'s velocity and heading.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting vehicle further communicates a timestamp.