Lane change control system

• US 9,884,645 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2016
• Issued: 02/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Fujii, Satoshi, Nishiguchi, Haruhiko, Arakawa, Ryohsaku, Kubota, Daisuke, Oshida, Kei
• Primary Examiner(s): Dager, Jonathan M
• Application Number:
  US15/365,180
• Publication Number:
  US 20170151982A1
• Time in Patent Office: 433 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/20 including control of steering systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2420/403 Image sensing, e.g. optical camera
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/00 Input parameters relating to objects
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/4026 Cycles
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/4029 Pedestrians
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/801 Lateral distance
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2720/12 Lateral speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2720/125 Lateral acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/18163 Lane change; Overtaking manoeuvres
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 15/0255 Automatic changing of lane, e.g. for passing another vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/24 Classification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/44 Local feature extraction by analysis of parts of the pattern, e.g. by detecting edges, contours, loops, corners, strokes or intersections; Connectivity analysis, e.g. of connected components
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/764 using classification, e.g. of video objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/58 Recognition of moving objects or obstacles, e.g. vehicles or pedestrians; Recognition of traffic objects, e.g. traffic signs, traffic lights or roads
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/588 Recognition of the road, e.g. of lane markings; Recognition of the vehicle driving pattern in relation to the road

Abstract

When an object detected by a lane marking/object detection section has been determined to be an object present in an adjacent lane change target lane or in the vicinity of the adjacent lane, lane change control is performed to reduce a predetermined maximum lateral acceleration Aymax′ or maximum lateral velocity Vymax′ according to the lane width Lob of the adjacent lane.

Claims

1. A lane change control system comprising:

a surrounding environment acquisition section configured to acquire image data of a surrounding environment at least in front of a vehicle;

a lane marking/object detection section configured to detect a lane marking and an object in the surrounding environment based on the acquired image data of the lane marking and the object and obtain information regarding the object;

a lane change controller configured to perform lane changing of the vehicle to a target position in a lane change target lane by controlling a predetermined lateral acceleration or lateral velocity according to the lane marking and object detected, the lane change target lane being defined by an adjacent lane boundary on a side of the vehicle and a distant lane boundary on an opposite side; and

an object determination section configured to determine whether or not the object detected in the surrounding environment is present in the lane change target lane or in the vicinity of the lane change target lane such that the object has a part which projects into the lane change target lane beyond the distant lane boundary, wherein

the lane change controller is configured to set the target position between the part of the detected object and the adjacent lane boundary and to reduce the predetermined lateral acceleration or lateral velocity for the lane change control in cases in which the part of the detected object has been determined to be present in the lane change target lane.

2. The lane change control system of claim 1, wherein

the information regarding the object comprises a type of the object, the object determination section being further configured to classify the detected object by the type, and

the lane change controller changes a reduction ratio of the lateral acceleration or the lateral velocity according to the classified type of the detected object.

3. The lane change control system of claim 2, wherein

the object determination section is further configured to determine whether the type of the detected object is a person or an object other than a person according to the information regarding the object, and

the lane change controller changes the reduction ratio to be smaller in cases in which the type of the detected object is a person, as compared to cases in which the type of the object is an object other than a person.

4. The lane change control system of claim 3, wherein

the object determination section is further configured to determine, when the type is a person, whether the type of the person is a pedestrian or a person riding a bicycle, and

the lane change controller changes the reduction ratio to be smaller in cases in which the detected person is a person riding a bicycle, as compared to cases in which the person is a pedestrian.

5. The lane change control system of claim 1, wherein the predetermined lateral acceleration or lateral velocity is set to a smaller value the narrower a lane change target lane width.

6. The lane change control system of claim 2, wherein

the object determination section is further configured to determine whether the type of the detected object is a stationary vehicle and whether the stationary vehicle is a type of a vehicle considered to have a possibility that an occupant gets out from the vehicle or a type of a vehicle considered to have no possibility that an occupant gets out from the vehicle,

the lane change controller changes the reduction ratio to be smaller in cases in which the detected object has been determined to be a stationary vehicle present in the lane change target lane or in the vicinity of the lane change target lane and considered to have a possibility that an occupant gets out from the vehicle, as compared to cases in which the object has been determined to be a stationary vehicle considered to have no possibility that an occupant gets out from the vehicle.