Lane recognition apparatus for vehicle, vehicle thereof, and lane recognition program for vehicle

• US 8,391,555 B2
• Filed: 02/17/2009
• Issued: 03/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Sakamoto, Yosuke
• Primary Examiner(s): Chu, Randolph I
• Assistant Examiner(s): BLOOM, NATHAN J
• Application Number:
  US12/378,509
• Publication Number:
  US 20090245582A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,477 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382103-104, 382/108, 382153-154, 382/181, 382190-191, 382/195, 382/199, 382/203, 382/206, 382224-225, 382/254, 382260-261, 382/264, 382/276, 382281-283, 382286-287, 348/61, 348113-116, 348118-119, 348/143, 348148-149, 348/169, 701 23- 28
• US Class Current: 382/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/56 relating to colour
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast

Abstract

A lane recognition apparatus for the vehicle includes: a lane mark detection image acquisition device which acquires an image divided into a first image region composed of pixels having pixel values supposed to be image portions of a lane mark defining the lane and a second image region composed of other pixels from a color image of a road; a clustering device which divides the first image region into subregions each composed of adjacent pixels; a color determination device which determines a color of the subregions; a lane recognition device which performs line component extraction for each group, considering the subregions determined to have the same color as a single group, and recognizes a line position of the lane defined by the lane mark from the extracted line component; and a vehicle equipment control device which controls equipment of a subject vehicle according to the lane recognition result.

Claims

1. A lane recognition apparatus for a vehicle which recognizes a lane along which a vehicle is traveling from a color image of a road acquired via an imaging device mounted on the vehicle, comprising:

a lane mark detection image acquisition device which acquires a lane mark detection image, which is divided into a first image region composed of pixels having pixel values supposed to be image portions of a lane mark defining the lane and a second image region composed of other pixels, from the color image of the road acquired via the imaging device;

a clustering device which performs clustering in which the first image region of the lane mark detection image is divided into subregions each composed of adjacent pixels;

a color determination device which determines a color of the subregions of the first image region obtained by the division in the clustering;

a lane recognition device which performs line component extraction for each group, considering the subregions determined to have the same color by the color determination device as a single group, and recognizes a line position of the lane defined by the lane mark from the extracted line component;

a type determination device which determines the type of the lane mark defining the lane recognized from the line component on the basis of a distribution state of the subregions, which exist in the vicinity of the line component, constituting the group from which the line component is extracted; and

a vehicle equipment control device which controls equipment of the vehicle according to a recognition result of the lane recognition device,

wherein the vehicle equipment control device controls the equipment of the vehicle at least according to the line position of the lane recognized by the lane recognition device and the type of the lane mark defining the lane.

2. The lane recognition apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the lane recognition device recognizes the color of the subregions constituting the group from which the line component is extracted as the color of the lane mark defining the lane recognized from the line component; and

the vehicle equipment control device controls the equipment of the vehicle at least according to the line position of the lane recognized by the lane recognition device and the color of the lane mark defining the lane.

3. The lane recognition apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the lane recognition device excludes a subregion whose predetermined direction width is outside a predetermined range set according to the width of the lane mark corresponding to the predetermined direction from an object of the line component extraction among the subregions.

4. The lane recognition apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a kernel setting device which sets a kernel having a size whose predetermined direction width is within a predetermined range greater than the predetermined direction width of the image portion of the lane mark for the color image acquired via the imaging device;

a smoothing device which smoothes the acquired color image by filtering using the smoothing kernel of the size set by the kernel setting device;

a change degree calculation device which calculates a change degree of a pixel value of each pixel of the acquired color image for the color image smoothed by the smoothing device; and

a pixel value replacement device which replaces a pixel value of a pixel, whose change degree is equal to or less than a predetermined value, of the acquired color image with a predetermined constant value,

wherein the lane mark detection image acquisition device acquires the color image, which is obtained by the replacement of the pixel values by the pixel value replacement device, as the lane mark detection image.

5. The lane recognition apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a kernel setting device which sets a kernel having a size whose predetermined direction width is within a predetermined range greater than the predetermined direction width of the image portion of the lane mark for the color image acquired via the imaging device;

a smoothing device which acquires a luminance image having pixel values representing luminance and a saturation image having pixel values representing saturation, which are calculated from color components of the acquired color image and smoothes the luminance image and the saturation image by filtering using the smoothing kernel of the size set by the kernel setting device;

a change degree calculation device which calculates a change degree of a pixel value of each pixel of the acquired luminance image to the luminance image smoothed by the smoothing device and a change degree of a pixel value of each pixel of the acquired saturation image to the saturation image smoothed by the smoothing device; and

a pixel value replacement device which replaces a pixel value of a pixel, whose change degree calculated from the luminance image is equal to or less than a predetermined value and whose change degree calculated from the saturation image is equal to or less than a predetermined value, of the acquired color image with a predetermined constant value,

wherein the lane mark detection image acquisition device acquires the color image, which is obtained by the replacement of the pixel values by the pixel value replacement device, as the lane mark detection image.

6. The lane recognition apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the equipment selects and outputs one of a plurality of types of information calling for attention to a driver of the vehicle and the vehicle equipment control device selects the information calling for attention output to the driver by using the equipment according to the recognition result of the lane recognition device.

7. The lane recognition apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the equipment makes a change among a plurality of traveling controls of the vehicle and the vehicle equipment control device makes the change among the traveling controls of the vehicle by using the equipment according to the recognition result of the lane recognition device.

10. The lane recognition apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the type determination device calculates a ratio between a length of a line segment from the nearest place to the vehicle to the farthest place from the vehicle of the subregions and a total sum of lengths of each subregion, and determines the type of the lane mark to be a solid line if the calculated ratio is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, and determines the type of the lane mark to be a broken line if the calculated ratio is less than the predetermined value.

11. The lane recognition apparatus according to claim 4, wherein a horizontal size of the kernel is set to a value that decreases as a distance from the vehicle increases.

12. The lane recognition apparatus according to claim 5, wherein a horizontal size of the kernel is set to a value that decreases as a distance from the vehicle increases.

8. A vehicle equipped with an imaging device and having a function of recognizing a lane along which the vehicle is traveling from a color image of a road acquired via the imaging device, comprising:

a lane mark detection image acquisition device which acquires a lane mark detection image, which is divided into a first image region composed of pixels having pixel values supposed to be image portions of a lane mark defining the lane and a second image region composed of other pixels, from the color image of the road acquired via the imaging device;

a clustering device which performs clustering in which the first image region of the lane mark detection image is divided into subregions each composed of adjacent pixels;

a color determination device which determines a color of the subregions of the first image region obtained by the division in the clustering;

a lane recognition device which performs line component extraction for each group, considering the subregions determined to have the same color by the color determination device as a single group, and recognizes a line position of the lane defined by the lane mark from the extracted line component;

a type determination device which determines the type of the lane mark defining the lane recognized from the line component on the basis of a distribution state of the subregions, which exist in the vicinity of the line component, constituting the group from which the line component is extracted; and

a vehicle equipment control device which controls equipment of the vehicle according to a recognition result of the lane recognition device,

wherein the vehicle equipment control device controls the equipment of the vehicle at least according to the line position of the lane recognized by the lane recognition device and the type of the lane mark defining the lane.

9. A lane recognition system for a vehicle including a computer processor and a non-transitory computer readable medium for storing computer instructions which causes the computer processor to recognize a lane along which a vehicle is traveling from a color image of a road acquired via an imaging device mounted on the vehicle, the computer instructions having functions of causing the computer processor to perform:

lane mark detection image acquisition for acquiring a lane mark detection image, which is divided into a first image region composed of pixels having pixel values supposed to be image portions of a lane mark defining the lane and a second image region composed of other pixels, from the color image of the road acquired via the imaging device;

clustering for dividing the first image region of the lane mark detection image into subregions each composed of adjacent pixels;

color determination for determining a color of the subregions of the first image region obtained by the division in the clustering;

lane recognition for performing line component extraction for each group, considering the subregions determined to have the same color by the color determination as a single group, and recognizing a line position of the lane defined by the lane mark from the extracted line component;

type determination which determines the type of the lane mark defining the lane recognized from the line component on the basis of a distribution state of the subregions, which exist in the vicinity of the line component, constituting the group from which the line component is extracted; and

vehicle equipment control for controlling equipment of the vehicle according to a result of the lane recognition,

wherein the vehicle equipment control controls the equipment of the vehicle at least according to the line position of the lane recognized by the lane recognition and the type of the lane mark defining the lane.

13. A lane recognition apparatus for a vehicle which recognizes a lane along which a vehicle is traveling from a color image of a road acquired via an imaging device mounted on the vehicle, comprising:

a lane mark detection image acquisition device which acquires a lane mark detection image, which is divided into a first image region composed of pixels having pixel values supposed to be image portions of a lane mark defining the lane and a second image region composed of other pixels, from the color image of the road acquired via the imaging device;

a clustering device which performs clustering in which the first image region of the lane mark detection image is divided into subregions each composed of adjacent pixels;

a color determination device which determines a color of the subregions of the first image region obtained by the division in the clustering;

a lane recognition device which performs line component extraction for each group, considering the subregions determined to have the same color by the color determination device as a single group, and recognizes a line position of the lane defined by the lane mark from the extracted line component;

a kernel setting device which sets a kernel having a size whose predetermined direction width is within a predetermined range greater than the predetermined direction width of the image portion of the lane mark for the color image acquired via the imaging device;

a smoothing device which smoothes the acquired color image by filtering using the smoothing kernel of the size set by the kernel setting device;

a change degree calculation device which calculates a change degree of a pixel value of each pixel of the acquired color image for the color image smoothed by the smoothing device;

a pixel value replacement device which replaces a pixel value of a pixel, whose change degree is equal to or less than a predetermined value, of the acquired color image with a predetermined constant value; and

a vehicle equipment control device which controls equipment of the vehicle according to a recognition result of the lane recognition device,

wherein the lane mark detection image acquisition device acquires the color image, which is obtained by the replacement of the pixel values by the pixel value replacement device, as the lane mark detection image.

14. The lane recognition apparatus according to claim 13, wherein a horizontal size of the kernel is set to a value that decreases as a distance from the vehicle increases.

15. A lane recognition apparatus for a vehicle which recognizes a lane along which a vehicle is traveling from a color image of a road acquired via an imaging device mounted on the vehicle, comprising:

a lane mark detection image acquisition device which acquires a lane mark detection image, which is divided into a first image region composed of pixels having pixel values supposed to be image portions of a lane mark defining the lane and a second image region composed of other pixels, from the color image of the road acquired via the imaging device;

a clustering device which performs clustering in which the first image region of the lane mark detection image is divided into subregions each composed of adjacent pixels;

a color determination device which determines a color of the subregions of the first image region obtained by the division in the clustering;

a lane recognition device which performs line component extraction for each group, considering the subregions determined to have the same color by the color determination device as a single group, and recognizes a line position of the lane defined by the lane mark from the extracted line component;

a kernel setting device which sets a kernel having a size whose predetermined direction width is within a predetermined range greater than the predetermined direction width of the image portion of the lane mark for the color image acquired via the imaging device;

a smoothing device which acquires a luminance image having pixel values representing luminance and a saturation image having pixel values representing saturation, which are calculated from color components of the acquired color image and smoothes the luminance image and the saturation image by filtering using the smoothing kernel of the size set by the kernel setting device;

a change degree calculation device which calculates a change degree of a pixel value of each pixel of the acquired luminance image to the luminance image smoothed by the smoothing device and a change degree of a pixel value of each pixel of the acquired saturation image to the saturation image smoothed by the smoothing device;

a pixel value replacement device which replaces a pixel value of a pixel, whose change degree calculated from the luminance image is equal to or less than a predetermined value and whose change degree calculated from the saturation image is equal to or less than a predetermined value, of the acquired color image with a predetermined constant value; and

a vehicle equipment control device which controls equipment of the vehicle according to a recognition result of the lane recognition device,

wherein the lane mark detection image acquisition device acquires the color image, which is obtained by the replacement of the pixel values by the pixel value replacement device, as the lane mark detection image.

16. The lane recognition apparatus according to claim 15, wherein a horizontal size of the kernel is set to a value that decreases as a distance from the vehicle increases.