Apparatus and method for controlling driving device of self-driving vehicle

• US 9,360,867 B2
• Filed: 02/13/2015
• Issued: 06/07/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Industry Academic Cooperation Foundation
• Original Assignee: Industry Academic Cooperation Foundation
• Inventors: Ju, Da Young, Lee, Sangho
• Primary Examiner(s): Cheung, Calvin
• Assistant Examiner(s): Martinez Borrero, Luis A
• Application Number:
  US14/622,741
• Publication Number:
  US 20150234382A1
• Time in Patent Office: 480 Days
• Field of Search: 701/23, 701/24, 701/25, 701/28, 701/2, 701/14, 701/302, 701/37, 701/41, 701/42, 701/469, 701/470, 701/36, 701/3
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 7/003 Transmission of data between radar, sonar or lidar systems and remote stations
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/021 specially adapted to land vehicles

Abstract

Provided are an apparatus and method for controlling a driving device of a self-driving vehicle, the apparatus includes, a data converting unit receiving sensor data from at least one sensor of the self-driving vehicle, and converting a format of the sensor data into a predefined format to generate integrated data, a driving control message generating unit determining a driving control response for controlling the driving device of the self-driving vehicle according to the integrated data to generate a driving control message that has a pre-defined common format, and a driving command signal generating unit converting a format of the driving control message into a message format corresponding to the driving device of the self-driving vehicle to generate a driving command signal.

Claims

1. An apparatus for controlling a driving device of a self-driving vehicle, the apparatus comprising:

a sensor database that is constructed with a format information of each of predetermined different sensors capable of grasping a location of a vehicle or recognizing obstacles around a vehicle, and with format conversion table which is set in correspondence with the format information of the each of the predetermined different sensors;

at least one sensor installed at the self-driving vehicle to grasp a location of the self-driving vehicle or recognize obstacles around the self-driving vehicle, each of the at least one sensor being configured to output sensor data comprising an identification information of the sensor outputting the sensor data; and

at least one processor in communication with the sensor database and the at least one sensor, and configured to;

a receive the sensor data from each of the at least one sensor;

extract the identification information from the sensor data by searching for the identification information which is included in a bit stream of the sensor data;

extract format information and format conversion table corresponding to the extracted identification information from the sensor database;

convert a format of the sensor data into a predefined format using the extracted format information and format conversion table to generate integrated data having the predefined format;

determine a driving control response for controlling the driving device of the self-driving vehicle according to the integrated data to generate a driving control message that has a predefined common format; and

convert a format of the driving control message into a message format corresponding to the driving device of the self-driving vehicle to generate a driving command signal.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the sensor database is constructed with the format information of each of the predetermined different sensors of an identical type, which perform the same function.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to:

convert the format of the driving control message into the message format corresponding to the driving device using driving command format conversion table which is set in correspondence with pre-determined driving device.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a driving device database that is constructed with driving command format conversion table which is set in one-to-one correspondence with each of a plurality of driving devices.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the at least one processor is configured to:

extract device identification information of the driving device from a message provided from the driving device at the time of initial connection with the driving device, and

convert the format of the driving control message into the message format corresponding to the driving device using the driving command format conversion table of the driving device corresponding to the extracted device identification information.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the integrated data comprises an identification number representing a sensor type, a time stamp for message synchronization, a data size, and raw data measured by the at least one sensor.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the at least one processor is configured to:

synchronize the integrated data using the time stamp to output the synchronized integrated data.

8. An apparatus for controlling a driving device of a self-driving vehicle, the apparatus comprising:

a sensor database that is constructed with a format information of each of predetermined different sensors capable of grasping a location of a vehicle or recognizing obstacles around a vehicle, and with format conversion table which is set in correspondence with the format information of the each of the predetermined different sensors;

at least one sensor installed at the self-driving vehicle to grasp a location of the self-driving vehicle or recognize obstacles around the self-driving vehicle, each of the at least one sensor being configured to output sensor data comprising an identification information of the sensor outputting the sensor data; and

at least one processor in communication with the sensor database and the at least one sensor, and configured to;

receive the sensor data from each of the at least one sensor;

extract the identification information from the sensor data by searching for the identification information which is included in a bit stream of the sensor data;

extract format information and format conversion table corresponding to the extracted identification information from the sensor database;

convert a format of the sensor data into a predefined format using the extracted format information and format conversion table to generate integrated data having the predefined format; and

determine a driving control response for controlling the driving device of the self-driving vehicle according to the integrated data to generate a driving control message that has a pre-defined common format.

9. An apparatus for controlling a driving device of a self-driving vehicle, the apparatus comprising:

a driving device database that is constructed with driving command format conversion table which is set in one-to-one correspondence with each of a plurality of predetermined different driving devices capable of decelerating or accelerating a vehicle, or controlling a steering mechanism of a vehicle;

at least one driving device installed at the self-driving vehicle to decelerate or accelerate the self-driving vehicle, or control the steering mechanism of the self-driving vehicle; and

at least one processor in communication with the driving device database and the at least one driving device;

wherein each of the at least one driving device is configured to send a message comprising a device identification information of the driving device sending the message to the at least one processor at the time of initial connection with the at least one processor, and

the at least one processor is configured to;

receive the message from each of the at least one driving device at the time of initial connection with the driving device;

extract the device identification information from the message provided from the at least one driving device;

extract the driving command format conversion table corresponding to the extracted device identification information from the driving device database;

determine a driving control response for controlling the driving device of the self-driving vehicle using sensor data provided from at least one sensor of the self-driving vehicle, to generate a driving control message that has a predefined common format; and

convert a format of the driving control message into a message format corresponding to the driving device of the self-driving vehicle using the extracted driving command format conversion table to generate a driving command signal.

10. A method for controlling a driving device of a self-driving vehicle, the method comprising:

receiving sensor data from each of at least one sensor of the self-driving vehicle by at least one processor, the at least one sensor being installed at the self-driving vehicle to grasp a location of the self-driving vehicle or recognize obstacles around the self-driving vehicle, each of the at least one sensor being configured to output sensor data comprising an identification information of the sensor outputting the sensor data;

extracting the identification information from the sensor data by at least one processor, by searching for the identification information which is included in a bit stream of the sensor data;

extracting format information and format conversion table corresponding to the extracted identification information from a sensor database by at least one processor, the sensor database being constructed with a format information of each of predetermined different sensors capable of grasping a location of a vehicle or recognizing obstacles around a vehicle, and with format conversion table which is set in correspondence with the format information of the each of the predetermined different sensors;

converting a format of the sensor data into a predefined format using the extracted format information and format conversion table by at least one processor to generate integrated data having the predefined format;

determining a driving control response for controlling the driving device of the self-driving vehicle according to the integrated data by at least one processor to generate a driving control message that has a pre-defined common format; and

converting a format of the driving control message into a message format corresponding to the driving device of the self-driving vehicle by at least one processor to generate a driving command signal.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the generation of the driving command signal comprises converting a format of the driving control message into the message format corresponding to the driving device using driving command format conversion table which is set in correspondence with a pre-determined driving device.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the generation of the driving command signal comprises:

extracting device identification information of the driving device from a message provided from the driving device at the time of initial connection with the driving device;

reading driving command format conversion table of the driving device corresponding to the extracted device identification information from a driving device database; and

converting the format of the driving control message into the message format corresponding to the driving device using the driving command format conversion table.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising synchronizing the integrated data using a time stamp of the integrated data by at least one processor,

wherein the determination of the driving control response comprises:

determining the driving control response according to the synchronized integrated data to generate the driving control message.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program causing a computer to execute control process for a driving device of a self-driving vehicle, the control process comprising:

accepting sensor data from each of at least one sensor of the self-driving vehicle, the at least one sensor grasping a location of the self-driving vehicle or recognizing obstacles around the self-driving vehicle, each of the at least one sensor outputting sensor data comprising an identification information of the sensor outputting the sensor data;

extracting the identification information from the sensor data by searching for the identification information which is included in a bit stream of the sensor data;

extracting format information and format conversion table corresponding to the extracted identification information from a sensor database, the sensor database being constructed with a format information of each of predetermined different sensors capable of grasping a location of a vehicle or recognizing obstacles around a vehicle, and with format conversion table which is set in correspondence with the format information of the each of the predetermined different sensors;

converting a format of the sensor data into a predefined format using the extracted format information and format conversion table to generate integrated data having the predefined format;

determining a driving control response for controlling the driving device of the self-driving vehicle according to the integrated data to generate a driving control message that has a pre-defined common format; and

converting a format of the driving control message into a message format corresponding to the driving device of the self-driving vehicle to generate a driving command signal.