LANE RECOGNITION DEVICE, VEHICLE, LANE RECOGNITION METHOD, AND LANE RECOGNITION PROGRAM

• US 20100110193A1
• Filed: 11/01/2007
• Published: 05/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Kobayashi, Sachio
• Application Number:
  US12/513,425
• Publication Number:
  US 20100110193A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/149
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/10 Path keeping cruise control for automatically following a preceding vehicle B60W30/165
• 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

A lane recognition device recognizes a lane along which a vehicle travels by detecting a lane mark provided on the road to define the lane, from an image of the road acquired via an image acquisition device mounted on the vehicle. The lane recognition device is equipped with an object detection unit which detects an object other than the lane mark existing ahead of the vehicle, and a lane mark detection unit which detects the lane mark on the basis of the data from which the area corresponding to the object detected by the object detection unit is removed. By doing so, when recognizing the lane along which the vehicle travels by detecting the lane mark from the image of the road, the recognition accuracy of the lane is improved by appropriately removing influence of the object other than the lane mark captured in the image of the road.

Claims

1. A lane recognition device which recognizes a lane along which a vehicle is traveling by detecting a lane mark on the road defining the lane, from an image of the road acquired via an imaging device mounted on the vehicle, comprising:

an object detection unit which detects an object other than the lane mark existing ahead of the vehicle; and

a lane mark detection unit which detects the lane mark on the basis of data obtained by removing the area corresponding to the object detected by the object detection unit from data related to the image of the road.

2. The lane recognition device according to claim 1, wherein the lane mark detection unit executes a removal process which removes the area corresponding to the object detected by the object detection unit to the acquired data of the image of the road, and detects the lane mark by providing a filtering process to the data of the image subjected to the removal process.

3. The lane recognition device according to claim 1, wherein the lane mark detection unit executes a removal process which removes the area corresponding to the object detected by the object detection unit to the data obtained by providing filtering process to the acquired image of the road, and detects the lane mark on the basis of the data subjected to the removal process.

4. The lane recognition device according to claim 1, wherein the lane mark detection unit comprises a lane mark type recognition unit which recognizes the type of the lane mark on the basis of the data obtained by providing the filtering process to the acquired image of the road, and a removal determination unit which determines whether or not to execute the removal process on the basis of the recognition result of the lane mark type recognition unit, and

in the case where the removal determination unit determines that the removal process should be executed, the lane mark detection unit executes the removal process which removes the area corresponding to the object detected by the object detection unit to the data obtained by providing filtering process to the acquired image of the road, and detects the lane mark on the basis of the data subjected to the removal process.

5. The lane mark recognition device according to claim 1, wherein the object detection unit detects the object other than the lane mark on the basis of a detection result by a distance sensor mounted on the vehicle.

6. The lane mark recognition device according to claim 1, wherein the object detection unit detects the object by providing the filtering process to the acquired image.

7. The lane recognition device according to claim 6, wherein the object detection unit provides an optical flow process to the acquired image as the filtering process, calculates a change amount of a relative position of the object to the vehicle within the image, and detects the object whose calculated change amount of the relative position is smaller than a predetermined value as the object other than the lane mark.

8. The lane recognition device according to claim 6, wherein the object detection unit provides an edge extraction process to two images acquired time-continuously via the imaging device as the filtering process, calculates a change amount of a position between the object within the two images, and detects the object whose calculated change amount of the position is smaller than a predetermined value as the object other than the lane mark.

9. The lane recognition device according to claim 6, comprising an object determination unit which determines whether or not the object is the lane mark on the basis of the standard of the lane mark on the road,

wherein the object detection unit executes the process which detects the object other than the lane mark by providing the filtering process to the acquired image, and determines, from candidates of the object other than lane mark detected as a result of the process, the candidate determined not as a lane mark by the object determination unit as the object other than the lane mark.

10. A vehicle to which the lane recognition device according to claim 1 is mounted.

11. A lane recognition method which recognizes a lane along which a vehicle is traveling by detecting a lane mark on the road defining the lane, from an image of the road acquired via an imaging device mounted on the vehicle, comprising the steps of:

an object detection step which detects an object other than the lane mark existing ahead of the vehicle; and

a lane mark detection step which detects the lane mark on the basis of data obtained by removing the area corresponding to the object detected in the object detection step from data related to the image of the road.

12. A lane recognition program which makes a computer execute the process which recognizes a lane along which a vehicle is traveling by detecting a lane mark on the road defining the lane, from an image of the road acquired via an imaging device mounted on the vehicle, comprising the functions of making the computer execute the process of:

an object detection process which detects an object other than the lane mark existing ahead of the vehicle; and

a lane mark detection process which detects the lane mark on the basis of data obtained by removing the area corresponding to the object detected in the object detection step from data related to the image of the road.