Exceptional road-condition warning device, system and method for a vehicle

• US 9,047,773 B2
• Filed: 05/07/2012
• Issued: 06/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
• Inventors: Chen, Syuan-Yi, Lin, Yu-Hui, Chang, Chih-Tang, Lei, Ying-Chieh
• Primary Examiner(s): Swarthout, Brent
• Application Number:
  US13/465,035
• Publication Number:
  US 20130154854A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,121 Days
• Field of Search: 340/905, 340/995.13, 340/436, 701/414, 701/451
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096741 where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/164 Centralised systems, e.g. external to vehicles

Abstract

An exceptional road-condition warning device, system and method for a vehicle are provided. The system includes an information processing device and a display device. The display device provides real-time and advance warning information to a driver of the vehicle. The system may notice the driver and passenger in advance to respond to an exceptional road condition before the vehicle approaches the occurring place of the road condition through a back-end cooperative self-learning mechanism. The back-end cooperative self-learning mechanism may collect the exceptional road conditions from different vehicles and update the database automatically to maintain the accuracy. The back-end cooperative self-learning mechanism further shares the information stored in the database with the databases installed in the vehicles by a bidirectional communication manner to update the information inside the database of the vehicles for the information processing device.

Claims

1. A warning system for a vehicle, the warning system comprising a back-end system and at least one exceptional road-condition warning device for a vehicle, wherein

the back-end system comprises

a storage device, storing a traffic information database, wherein the traffic information database is used for storing exceptional road-condition warning event information;

and

a cooperative self-learning unit, receiving one or more exceptional road-condition events transmitted from the at least one exceptional road-condition warning device, and determining whether to modify the exceptional road-condition warning event information and further update the content of the traffic information database; and

each of the at least one exceptional road-condition warning device comprises

an advance sensing and warning unit, obtaining vehicle positioning information and obtaining the exceptional road-condition warning event information from the traffic information database, and comparing a plurality of warning locations corresponding to the exceptional road-condition warning event information with the vehicle positioning information, so as to judge whether to generate a warning signal corresponding to the exceptional road-condition warning event information,

wherein the determining whether to modify the exceptional road-condition warning event information comprises;

judging whether a portion of the exceptional road-condition warning event information corresponding to the received exceptional road-condition events exists, and if not, calculating a confidence count corresponding to the exceptional road-condition events;

if another one of the exceptional road-condition events which is the same as the exceptional road-condition events is received again, further adjusting the confidence count corresponding to the exceptional road-condition events; and

judging whether the confidence count is higher than a confidence threshold, and if yes, adding the portion of the exceptional road-condition warning event information corresponding to the exceptional road-condition events.

2. The warning system according to claim 1, wherein the exceptional road-condition warning device further comprises:

a real-time sensing and warning unit, obtaining vehicle dynamic data, and analyzing the vehicle dynamic data in real time to judge whether a current driving state and a driving environment match a definition of the exceptional road-condition events, and if yes, transmitting the exceptional road-condition events to the back-end system.

3. The warning system according to claim 2, wherein conditions for judging whether the current driving state and the driving environment match the definition of the exceptional road-condition events comprise road surface bumps, frequent braking, abrupt turning, or occurrence of an environment different from normal vehicle driving environment.

4. The warning system according to claim 2, wherein the real-time sensing and warning unit comprises:

a vehicle dynamics analyzing unit, receiving sensing data, and accordingly obtaining the vehicle dynamic data by analyzing the sensing data; and

an exceptional road-condition recognizing unit, recognizing whether the vehicle dynamic data is the exceptional road-condition events in real time.

5. The warning system according to claim 4, further comprising a sensor, dynamically sensing the vehicle in real time, so as to obtain the current driving state and the driving environment of the vehicle.

6. The warning system according to claim 5, wherein the sensor comprises a gyro or an accelerometer.

7. The warning system according to claim 5, wherein a result of dynamically sensing the driving state of the vehicle in real time comprises triaxial acceleration, angular velocity, steering angle, engine speed, vehicle speed, or a combination thereof.

8. The warning system for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the back-end system further comprises:

a real-time event receiving module, receiving and transmitting the exceptional road-condition events to the cooperative self-learning unit.

9. The warning system according to claim 8, wherein the real-time event receiving module obtains the exceptional road-condition events through wireless communication with the exceptional road-condition warning device of the vehicle.

10. The warning system according to claim 1, wherein the exceptional road-condition warning device further comprises a display device, receiving the warning signal, and accordingly displaying the warning signal.

11. The warning system according to claim 1, wherein the advance sensing and warning unit comprises

a storage device, storing a warning location database, wherein the warning location database comprises the exceptional road-condition event information;

and

a warning location comparing unit, obtaining the exceptional road-condition event information and the vehicle positioning information from the warning location database, and comparing the plurality of warning locations corresponding to the exceptional road-condition event information with the vehicle positioning information, so as to judge whether to generate the warning signal.

12. The warning system according to claim 11, further comprising a vehicle positioning information generating device, obtaining the vehicle positioning information for the vehicle.

13. The warning system according to claim 12, wherein the vehicle positioning information generating device is a Global Positioning System (GPS).

14. The warning system according to claim 11, wherein the back-end system further comprises a database real-time update unit, capable of accessing the traffic information database, and

the exceptional road-condition warning device further comprises a database update interface, wirelessly connected to the database real-time update unit, updating the exceptional road-condition event information stored in the warning location database in synchronization with the traffic information database through the database real-time update unit.

15. A warning method for a vehicle, comprising:

receiving one or more exceptional road-condition events, so as to determine whether to add exceptional road-condition warning event information stored in a traffic information database;

transmitting the exceptional road-condition warning event information; and

obtaining vehicle positioning information and obtaining the exceptional road-condition warning event information from the traffic information database, and comparing a plurality of warning locations corresponding to the exceptional road-condition warning event information with the vehicle positioning information, so as to judge whether to generate a warning signal corresponding to the exceptional road-condition events,

wherein the step of determining whether to add the exceptional road-condition warning event information comprises;

judging whether a portion of the exceptional road-condition warning event information corresponding to the received exceptional road-condition events exists, and if not, calculating a confidence count corresponding to the exceptional road-condition events;

if another one of the exceptional road-condition events which is the same as the exceptional road-condition events is received again, further adjusting the confidence count corresponding to the exceptional road-condition events; and

judging whether the confidence count is higher than a confidence threshold, and if yes, adding the portion of the exceptional road-condition warning event information corresponding to the exceptional road-condition events.

16. The warning method according to claim 15, further comprising:

performing a real-time sensing procedure to obtain vehicle dynamic data; and

recognizing whether the vehicle dynamic data is the exceptional road-condition events, and if yes, transmitting the exceptional road-condition events.

17. The warning method according to claim 16, wherein the real-time sensing procedure comprises:

receiving sensing data, and obtaining the vehicle dynamic data by analyzing the sensing data; and

recognizing the vehicle dynamic data, and analyzing the vehicle dynamic data in real time to judge whether a current driving state and a driving environment match a definition of the exceptional road-condition events, and if yes, transmitting the exceptional road-condition events.

18. The warning method according to claim 17, wherein conditions for judging whether the current driving state and driving environment match the definition of the exceptional road-condition events comprise road surface bumps, frequent braking, abrupt turning, or occurrence of an environment different from normal vehicle driving dynamics.

19. The warning method according to claim 17, further comprising a sensor dynamically sensing the vehicle in real time, so as to obtain the current driving state and the driving environment of the vehicle.

20. The warning method according to claim 19, wherein the sensor comprises a gyro or an accelerometer.

21. The warning method according to claim 19, wherein a result of dynamically sensing the driving state of the vehicle in real time by the sensor comprises triaxial acceleration, angular velocity, steering angle, engine speed, vehicle speed, or a combination thereof.

22. The warning method according to claim 15, wherein the exceptional road-condition warning event information are classified into a plurality of types, each of the types has a corresponding confidence threshold, and the warning signal have different corresponding information according to different types of the exceptional road-condition warning event information.

23. The warning method according to claim 15, wherein the exceptional road-condition warning event information is obtained from the exceptional road-condition events transmitted by a plurality of vehicles that have previously passed by a location corresponding to the vehicle positioning information in the same driving direction.

24. A warning system for a vehicle, the warning system comprising a back-end system and at least one exceptional road-condition warning device for a vehicle, wherein

the back-end system comprises

a storage device, storing a traffic information database, wherein the traffic information database is used for storing exceptional road-condition warning event information;

and

a cooperative self-learning unit, receiving one or more exceptional road-condition events transmitted from the exceptional road-condition warning devices, and determining whether to modify the exceptional road-condition warning event information and further update the content of the traffic information database; and

each of the exceptional road-condition warning devices comprises

an advance sensing and warning unit, obtaining vehicle positioning information and obtaining the exceptional road-condition warning event information from the traffic information database, and comparing a plurality of warning locations corresponding to the exceptional road-condition warning event information with the vehicle positioning information, so as to judge whether to generate a warning signal corresponding to the exceptional road-condition warning event information,

wherein the determining whether to modify the exceptional road-condition warning event information comprises;

for each of the received exceptional road-condition events, adjusting a confidence count corresponding to the exceptional road-condition events; and

judging whether the confidence count is lower than a confidence threshold, and if yes, deleting a portion of the exceptional road-condition warning event information corresponding to the exceptional road-condition events.

25. The warning system according to claim 24, wherein the determining whether to modify the exceptional road-condition warning event information further comprises:

if the confidence count is higher than the confidence threshold, further obtaining a warning event valid time corresponding to the exceptional road-condition events based on time at which the exceptional road-condition events is received; and

comparing the warning event valid time with a valid time threshold, and if the warning event valid time is larger than the valid time threshold, deleting the portion of the exceptional road-condition warning event information corresponding to the exceptional road-condition events.

26. A warning method for a vehicle, comprising:

receiving one or more exceptional road-condition events, so as to determine whether to delete exceptional road-condition warning event information stored in a traffic information database;

transmitting the exceptional road-condition warning event information; and

obtaining vehicle positioning information and obtaining the exceptional road-condition warning event information from the traffic information database, and comparing a plurality of warning locations corresponding to the exceptional road-condition warning event information with the vehicle positioning information, so as to judge whether to generate a warning signal corresponding to the exceptional road-condition events,

wherein the determining whether to delete the exceptional road-condition warning event information comprises;

for each of the received exceptional road-condition events, adjusting a confidence count corresponding to the exceptional road-condition events; and

judging whether the confidence count is lower than a confidence threshold, and if yes, deleting a portion of the exceptional road-condition warning event information corresponding to the exceptional road-condition events.

27. The warning method according to claim 26, wherein the step of determining whether to delete the exceptional road-condition warning event information further comprises:

if the confidence count is higher than the confidence threshold, further obtaining a warning event valid time corresponding to the exceptional road-condition events based on time at which the exceptional road-condition events is received; and

comparing the warning event valid time with a valid time threshold, and if the warning event valid time is larger than the valid time threshold, deleting a portion of the exceptional road-condition warning event information corresponding to the exceptional road-condition events.