Method and control unit for robustly detecting a lane change of a vehicle

• US 9,592,829 B2
• Filed: 08/06/2010
• Issued: 03/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Original Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Inventors: Roelke, Volker, Rentschler, Tobias
• Primary Examiner(s): Ratcliffe, Luke
• Assistant Examiner(s): RODRIGUEZ, VICENTE M
• Application Number:
  US13/390,706
• Publication Number:
  US 20120206708A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,412 Days
• Field of Search: 356/4.01
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/12 Lane keeping
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 15/025 Active steering aids, e.g. helping the driver by actively influencing the steering system after environment evaluation B62D1/28 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 15/0255 Automatic changing of lane, e.g. for passing another vehicle

Abstract

A method for detecting a lane change of a vehicle or for providing a curvature of a target line for lane guidance of a vehicle is described, the method including a step of receiving a first piece of traffic lane information which represents an optically detected first traffic lane boundary adjacent to or in front of a left-hand vehicle side and/or receiving a second piece of traffic lane information which represents an optically detected second lane boundary adjacent to or in front of a right-hand vehicle side. The method further includes a step of detecting a lane change if the first and/or the second piece(s) of traffic lane information represent(s) a traffic lane boundary which is less than a predetermined lateral distance to a vehicle side, or ascertaining a curvature of a desired target line for lane guidance of a vehicle from the first piece of traffic lane information weighted using a first weighting factor and the second piece of traffic lane information weighted using a second weighting factor, on the basis of a correlation observation.

Claims

1. A method for providing a curvature of a desired target line for a lane guidance of a vehicle, comprising:

receiving, by an optical sensor, at least one of a first piece of traffic lane information, which represents an optically detected first traffic lane boundary one of next to or in front of a left-hand vehicle side, and a second piece of traffic lane information, which represents an optically detected second traffic lane boundary one of next to or in front of a right-hand vehicle side; and

ascertaining, by an analyzing unit, a curvature of the desired target line for lane guidance of the vehicle from at least one of the first piece of traffic lane information weighted using a first weighting factor, and the second piece of traffic lane information weighted using a second weighting factor;

wherein, in the step of ascertaining;

the curvature of the desired target line is based on an addition of a first curvature weighted using the first weighting factor and of a second curvature weighted using the second weighting factor, the first curvature being derivable from the first piece of traffic lane information, and the second curvature being derivable from the second piece of traffic lane information, and

based on a comparison between (i) a correlation value that represents the first curvature from the first piece of traffic lane information and the second curvature from the second piece of traffic lane information and (ii) a predefined correlation threshold value, one of (a) an identical value is and (b) different values are used for the first weighting factor and the second weighting factor.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein in the step of ascertaining, if the comparison indicates that the correlation value exceeds the predefined correlation threshold value, the an identical value is used for the first weighting factor and the second weighting factor.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein if the correlation value is less than the predefined correlation threshold value, in the step of ascertaining, the different values are used for the first weighting factor and the second weighting factor, one of the first weighting factor and the second weighting factor for which the associated traffic lane information having a smaller averaged curvature derivative value from the curvature derivative values over multiple time intervals preceding a point in time of ascertainment being assigned a greater value.

4. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein if the correlation value is in a predefined correlation threshold value range, in the step of ascertaining, the different values are used for the first weighting factor and the second weighting factor, one of the first weighting factor and the second weighting factor being assigned a value

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein, in the step of ascertaining, the one of the first weighting factor or the second weighting factor associated with the first piece of traffic lane information or the second piece of traffic lane information which has a lower curvature characteristic than the other piece of traffic lane information is assigned a greater value.

6. A method for providing a curvature of a desired target line for a lane guidance of a vehicle, comprising:

receiving, by an optical sensor, at least one of a first piece of traffic lane information, which represents an optically detected first traffic lane boundary one of next to or in front of a left-hand vehicle side, and a second piece of traffic lane information, which represents an optically detected second traffic lane boundary one of next to or in front of a right-hand vehicle side; and

ascertaining, by an analyzing unit, a curvature of the desired target line for lane guidance of the vehicle from at least one of the first piece of traffic lane information weighted using a first weighting factor, and the second piece of traffic lane information weighted using a second weighting factor;

wherein;

in the step of ascertaining, the curvature of the desired target line is based on an addition of a first curvature weighted using the first weighting factor and of a second curvature weighted using the second weighting factor, the first curvature being derivable from the first piece of traffic lane information, and the second curvature being derivable from the second piece of traffic lane information, and

in the step of receiving, at least one of a third piece of traffic lane information, which represents an optically detected third traffic lane boundary to a left of the first traffic lane boundary is received and a fourth piece of traffic lane information, which represents an optically detected fourth traffic lane boundary to the right of the second traffic lane boundary is received, and in the step of ascertaining the curvature of the desired target line is ascertained from at least one of the third piece of traffic lane information weighted using a third weighting factor and from the fourth piece of traffic lane information weighted using a fourth weighting factor.