Method of determining drive lane using steering wheel model

• US 8,401,787 B2
• Filed: 01/19/2012
• Issued: 03/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Korea Aerospace Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Korea Aerospace Research Institute
• Inventors: Lee, Eunsung, Heo, Moonbeom, Nam, Giwook, Sim, Eunsup, Kang, Wooyong
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kong, Sze-Hon
• Application Number:
  US13/354,276
• Publication Number:
  US 20120283941A1
• Time in Patent Office: 425 Days
• Field of Search: 701/33.1, 701/469, 701/472
• US Class Current: 701/472
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/05 Type of road, e.g. motorways, local streets, paved or unpaved roads
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/10 Historical data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/12 Lane keeping
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3658 Lane guidance

Abstract

Provided is a method of determining a drive lane using a steering wheel model. The method includes a step S100 of preparing a precise digital map having an accuracy capable of differentiating a road lane; a step S200 of estimating a vehicle location on a road using GPS information; a step S300 of checking whether the vehicle location information is normal using a difference between variation in the azimuth angle of the vehicle obtained by using the GPS information and variation in the azimuth angle of the vehicle obtained by using the steering wheel model; and a step S500 of determining and outputting a drive lane occupied by a running vehicle.

Claims

1. A method of determining a drive lane using a steering wheel model, comprising:

a step (S100) of providing a digital map including first road lane information;

a step (S200) of estimating a first road lane where a vehicle is currently located using GPS information;

a step (S300) of (i) obtaining a current azimuth angle Ψ

_k+1^DR of the vehicle using a previous azimuth angle of the vehicle Ψ

_k^GPS that is obtained by using the GPS information and an azimuth angle variation Δ

Ψ

_k+1^veh of the vehicle obtained by using a steering wheel model, and (ii) checking whether the first road lane information is normal using a difference between a current azimuth angle Ψ

_k+1^GPS of the vehicle obtained by using the GPS information and the current azimuth angle Ψ

_k+1^DR of the vehicle;

if the first road lane information is normal, a step (S500) of determining and outputting the first road lane information as a drive lane where the vehicle is currently located without a compensating step (S400); and

if the first road lane information is abnormal, performing the compensating step (S400) to update the first road lane information into compensated second road lane information and performing the step (S500) to determine and output the second road lane information as the drive lane where the vehicle is currently located,

wherein the azimuth angle variation of the vehicle (Δ

Ψ

_k+1^veh), which is obtained by using the steering wheel model, is calculated by the following Equations 2 and 3;

Ψ

_k+1^veh=Ω

_Z×

t, 

 

Equation 2

wherein Δ

Ψ

_k+1^veh is the azimuth angle variation of the vehicle obtained by using the steering wheel model, Ω

_Z a rotational angular velocity of the vehicle, and t is time, and

2. The method of claim 1, wherein an azimuth angle variation Δ

Ψ

_k+1^GPS of the vehicle obtained by using the GPS information is calculated by the following Equation 1;

Δ

Ψ

_k+1^GPS=Ψ

_k+1^GPS−

Ψ

_k^GPS, 

 

Equation 1

wherein Δ

Ψ

_k+1^GPS is the azimuth angle variation of the vehicle obtained by using the GPS information, Ψ

_k+1^GPS is a the current azimuth angle of the vehicle obtained by using the GPS information, and Ψ

_k^GPS is the previous azimuth angle of the vehicle obtained by using the GPS information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein, in the compensating step (S400), an azimuth angle Ψ

_k+1^DL of the vehicle with respect to a given road lane is calculated by the following Equation 6, and the compensating step is performed according to the following Equations 6-9;

Ψ

_k+1^DL=Ψ

_k+1^DR−

Ψ

_k+1^L, 

 

Equation 6

wherein Ψ

_k+1^L is a road lane azimuth angle of the vehicle,

Ψ

_k+1^DL<

−

T₁, 

 

Equation 7

wherein T₁ is a given threshold value,

−

T₁≦

Ψ

_k+1^DL<

T₁, 

 

Equation 8

and

T₁≦

Ψ

_k+1^DL. 

 

Equation 9

4. The method of claim 3, wherein, when it is necessary to move from the drive lane to the right or to the left based on a result of the compensating step (S400), but if there is no lane on the right or on the left, the step (S300) and the step (S400) are repeated.

5. A method of determining a drive lane using a steering wheel model, comprising:

a step (S100) of providing a digital map including first road lane information;

a step (S200) of estimating a first road lane where a vehicle is currently located using GPS information;

a step (S300) of (i) obtaining an azimuth angle variation Δ

Ψ

_k+1^GPS of the vehicle obtained by using the GPS information and an azimuth angle variation Δ

Ψ

_k+1^veh of the vehicle obtained by using the steering wheel model, and (ii) checking whether the first road lane information is normal using a difference between the azimuth angle variation Δ

Ψ

_k+1^GPS of the vehicle obtained by using the GPS information and the azimuth angle variation Δ

Ψ

_k+1^veh of the vehicle obtained by using the steering wheel model;

if the first road lane information is normal, a step (S500) of determining and outputting the first road lane information as a drive lane where the vehicle is currently located without a compensating step (S400); and

if the first road lane information is abnormal, performing the compensating step (S400) to update the first road lane information into compensated second road lane information and performing the step (S500) to determine and output the second road lane information as the drive lane where the vehicle is currently located,

wherein the step of checking whether the first road lane information is normal comprises;

a step of determining the first road lane information is normal if the left side of Equation 4 is greater than or equal to a first given threshold value T, and

a step of determining the first road lane information is abnormal if the left side of Equation 4 is less than the first given threshold value T,

|Δ

Ψ

_k+1^GPS−

Δ

Ψ

_k+1^veh|≧

T, 

 

Equation 4

wherein Δ

Ψ

_k+1^GPS is calculated by the following Equation 1;

Δ

Ψ

_k+1^GPS=Ψ

_k+1^GPS−

Ψ

_k^GPS, 

 

Equation 1

wherein Δ

Ψ

_k+1^GPS is the azimuth angle variation of the vehicle obtained by using the GPS information, Ψ

_k+1^GPS is the current azimuth angle of the vehicle obtained by using the GPS information, and Ψ

_k^GPS is the previous azimuth angle of the vehicle obtained by using the GPS information,

wherein the second road lane information is a left lane of the first road lane information if the following Equations 5-7 are satisfied;

Ψ

_k+1^DR=Ψ

_k^GPS+Δ

Ψ

_k+1^veh, 

 

Equation 5

Ψ

_k+1^DL=Ψ

_k+1^DR−

Ψ

_k+1^L, 

 

Equation 6

wherein Ψ

_k+1^L is a road lane azimuth angle of the vehicle,

Ψ

_k+1^DL<

−

T₁, 

 

Equation 7

wherein T₁ is a given threshold value, and

wherein the second road lane information is the same as the first road lane information if the following Equations 8 is satisfied;

−

T₁≦

Ψ

_k+1^DL<

T₁, 

 

Equation 8

and

wherein the second road lane information is a right lane of the first road lane information if the following Equations 9 is satisfied;

T₁≦

Ψ

_k+1^DL. 

 

Equation 9