Apparatus and method for controlling vehicle using vehicle communication

• US 9,834,212 B2
• Filed: 07/16/2015
• Issued: 12/05/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HL Mando Corporation (Halla Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mando Corporation
• Inventors: Park, Man Bok
• Primary Examiner(s): Edwards, Jerrah
• Assistant Examiner(s): ALSOMIRI, MAJDI A
• Application Number:
  US14/801,668
• Publication Number:
  US 20160016585A1
• Time in Patent Office: 873 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2420/403 Image sensing, e.g. optical camera
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/4041 Position
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/804 Relative longitudinal speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/65 Data transmitted between vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/12 Lane keeping
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal

Abstract

The present invention relates to a technology of controlling a vehicle using vehicle communication, and more particularly, to a technology of receiving, from an object vehicle or an infrastructure device, object vehicle surrounding information or infrastructure device surrounding information including lane information from the viewpoint of the object vehicle or lane information from the viewpoint of the infrastructure device, and then detecting the object vehicle on the basis of the received object vehicle surrounding information and the received infrastructure device surrounding information, thereby performing vehicle controls such as lane change assistance and lane change control.

Claims

1. An apparatus for controlling a subject vehicle, the apparatus comprising:

a communication unit included in the subject vehicle and receiving, from an object vehicle, object vehicle surrounding information including lane information from a viewpoint of the object vehicle, through wireless communication;

a measurement unit measuring vehicle information of the subject vehicle;

an object vehicle detection unit detecting a location and a speed of the object vehicle, using the object vehicle surrounding information received from the object vehicle through the wireless communication and the vehicle information of the subject vehicle; and

a vehicle control unit controlling an operation of the subject vehicle using information on the location and the speed of the object vehicle,

wherein the lane information from the viewpoint of the object vehicle corresponds to one or more parameters including a coefficient of an equation indicating a linear shape of a lane in an orthogonal coordinate system in which a location of the object vehicle is configured to be an original point and a heading direction of the object vehicle is configured to be an orthogonal axis.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the lane information from the viewpoint of the object vehicle is information derived from a lane inclusion image photographed by an imaging device installed in the object vehicle.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the object vehicle surrounding information comprises one or more of relative distance information between the object vehicle and the subject vehicle, relative location information of the subject vehicle, heading angle information of the object vehicle, and relative heading angle information of the object vehicle and the subject vehicle.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the object vehicle detection unit calculates the location of the object vehicle, using lane information from the viewpoint of the object vehicle, the relative location information of the subject vehicle included in the object vehicle surrounding information, a heading direction of the object vehicle, and a heading direction of the subject vehicle.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the object vehicle detection unit calculates the location of the object vehicle, by shifting the lane information from the viewpoint of the object vehicle by a difference between the heading direction of the object vehicle and the heading direction of the subject vehicle and changing the relative location information of the subject vehicle to a reference point.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the vehicle control unit performs a Lane Keeping Assistance (LKA) function of actively controlling a steering system such that the subject vehicle is driven within a current lane, on the basis of the information on the location and the speed of the object vehicle.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the vehicle control unit performs a Lane Departure Warning (LDW) function of performing a warning when a probability that the subject vehicle deviates from a current lane is high, on the basis of the information on the location and the speed of the object vehicle.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the vehicle control unit performs a Lane Change Assistance (LCA) function of outputting, to a surrounding object vehicle, a lane change display signal indicating lane change when the subject vehicle changes a current lane thereof , on the basis of the information on the location and the speed of the object vehicle.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a display control unit making a control to equally display a size of the subject vehicle and distinguishably display a size and a color of the object vehicle on the basis of a relative distance between the object vehicle and the subject vehicle.

10. An apparatus for controlling a subject vehicle, the apparatus comprising:

a communication unit included in the subject vehicle and receiving, from an object vehicle, object vehicle surrounding information including lane information from a viewpoint of the object vehicle, through wireless communication;

a measurement unit measuring vehicle information of the subject vehicle;

an object vehicle detection unit detecting a location and a speed of the object vehicle, using the object vehicle surrounding information received from the object vehicle through the wireless communication and the vehicle information of the subject vehicle;

a vehicle control unit controlling an operation of the subject vehicle using information on the location and the speed of the object vehicle; and

a lane information conversion unit converting first lane information from the viewpoint of the object vehicle into second lane information from a viewpoint of the subject vehicle, using the received object vehicle surrounding information of the object vehicle and the vehicle information of the subject vehicle measured by the measurement unit,

wherein the lane information conversion unit comprises;

a reference point conversion unit converting a first reference point (x0, y0), which is the center of the object vehicle, into a second reference point (xr, yr), which is the center of the subject vehicle, using the relative distance information between the object vehicle and the subject vehicle, the relative location information, the heading angle information of the object vehicle, and the relative heading angle information of the object vehicle and the subject vehicle; and

a lane information calculation unit calculating the second lane information on a second coordinate system obtained by configuring the second reference point to be an original point and rotating, by a relative heading angle (θ

r), the first lane information on a first coordinate system in which the first reference point is configured to be an original point.

11. A method of controlling a subject vehicle, the method comprising:

receiving, by the subject vehicle, object vehicle surrounding information of an object vehicle including lane information from a viewpoint of the object vehicle, through wireless communication, from the object vehicle;

measuring vehicle information of the subject vehicle;

detecting a location and a speed of the object vehicle, using the object vehicle surrounding information received from the object vehicle through the wireless communication and the measured vehicle information of the subject vehicle; and

controlling an operation of the subject vehicle using information on the location and the speed of the object vehicle,

wherein the lane information from the viewpoint of the object vehicle corresponds to one or more parameters including a coefficient of an equation indicating a linear shape of a lane in an orthogonal coordinate system in which a location of the object vehicle is configured to be an original point and a heading direction of the object vehicle is configured to be an orthogonal axis.

12. A method of controlling a subject vehicle, the method comprising:

receiving, by the subject vehicle, object vehicle surrounding information of an object vehicle including lane information from a viewpoint of the object vehicle, through wireless communication, from the object vehicle;

measuring vehicle information of the subject vehicle;

converting first lane information from the viewpoint of the object vehicle into second lane information from a viewpoint of the subject vehicle, using the received object vehicle surrounding information of the object vehicle and the measured vehicle information of the subject vehicle; and

controlling an operation of the subject vehicle, relating to a lane, using the converted second lane information of the subject vehicle,

wherein the converting the first lane information from the viewpoint of the object vehicle into the second lane information from the viewpoint of the subject vehicle comprises converting a first reference point (x0, y0), which is the center of the object vehicle, into a second reference point (xr, yr), which is the center of the subject vehicle, using the relative distance information between the object vehicle and the subject vehicle, the relative location information, the heading angle information of the object vehicle, and the relative heading angle information of the object vehicle and the subject vehicle; and

calculating the second lane information on a second coordinate system obtained by configuring the second reference point to be an original point and rotating, by a relative heading angle (θ

r), the first lane information on a first coordinate system in which the first reference point is configured to be an original point.