METHOD AND CONTROL UNIT FOR ROBUSTLY DETECTING A LANE CHANGE OF A VEHICLE

• US 20120206708A1
• Filed: 08/06/2010
• Published: 08/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Original Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Inventors: Roelke, Volker, Rentschler, Tobias
• Granted Patent: US 9,592,829 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 356/4.01
• 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

1-13. -13. (canceled)

14. A method for recognizing a traffic lane change of a vehicle, the method comprising:

receiving 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 traffic lane boundary one of next to or in front of a right-hand vehicle side; and

detecting a traffic lane change if at least one the first piece of traffic lane information and the second piece of traffic lane information represent a traffic lane boundary which is less than a predetermined lateral distance to a vehicle side.

16. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein in the detecting, at least one of i) a traffic lane change is recognized when a vehicle side is no longer in a lateral corridor to a traffic lane boundary which is represented by at least one of the first piece of traffic lane information and the second piece of traffic lane information, and ii) the traffic lane change is recognized if an absolute value of a lateral distance between the vehicle side and the traffic lane boundary represented by at least one of the first piece of traffic lane information and the second piece of traffic lane information exceeds a predetermined distance threshold value.

17. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein in the step of detecting, a traffic lane change is recognized if during continuous evaluation of a lateral distance between the traffic lane boundary, which is represented by at least one of the first piece of traffic lane information and the second piece of traffic lane information, and a vehicle side, a sudden change in the lateral distance of the traffic lane boundary to the vehicle side is recognized.

18. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein in the step of detecting the traffic lane change is recognized when the recognized sudden change in the lateral distance of the traffic lane boundary to the vehicle side occurs within a predetermined time period or a distance traveled, after one of the traffic lane boundary represented by at least one of the first piece of traffic lane information and the second piece of traffic lane information had dropped below a predetermined distance, or after a vehicle side is no longer in the lateral corridor to the traffic lane boundary.

19. The method as recited in claim 16, wherein in the step of detecting the traffic lane change is recognized after a predefined distance threshold value has been exceeded if an absolute value of the lateral distance between the vehicle side and the traffic lane boundary represented by at least one of the first piece of traffic lane information and the second piece of traffic lane information is in a corridor range which includes distance values to the vehicle side that are less than the predetermined distance threshold value.

20. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein in the step of receiving, at least one of i) 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, and ii) a fourth piece of traffic lane information which represents an optically detected fourth traffic lane boundary to a right of the second traffic lane boundary, is received, and in the step of detecting, a higher reliability value is assigned to at least one of the first piece of traffic lane information and the second piece of traffic lane information than to at least one of the third piece of traffic lane information and the fourth piece of traffic lane information, the traffic lane change being detected when a sum of the reliability values of a traffic lane information taken into account in detecting is greater than a predefined reliability threshold value.

26. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein 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.

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

receiving 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 traffic lane boundary one of next to or in front of a right-hand vehicle side; and

ascertaining a curvature of a 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.

21. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein in the step of ascertaining, the curvature of the target line is ascertained 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.

22. The method as recited in claim 21, wherein in the step of ascertaining, an identical value is used for the first weighting factor and the second weighting factor if a correlation value between the curvature from the first piece of traffic lane information and the curvature from the second piece of traffic lane information exceeds a predefined correlation threshold value.

23. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein if a correlation value between the curvature from the first piece of traffic lane information and the curvature from the second piece of traffic lane information is less than a predefined correlation threshold value, in the step of ascertaining, 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.

24. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein if a correlation value between the curvature from the first piece of traffic lane information and the curvature from the second piece of traffic lane information is in a predefined correlation threshold value range, in the step of ascertaining, 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

25. The method as recited in claim 15, 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.

27. A control unit for recognizing a traffic lane change of a vehicle, the control unit configured to receive 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 traffic lane boundary one of next to or in front of a right-hand vehicle side, and detect a traffic lane change if at least one the first piece of traffic lane information and the second piece of traffic lane information represent a traffic lane boundary, which is less than a predetermined lateral distance to a vehicle side.

28. A computer readable storage medium storing a computer program including program code for recognizing a traffic lane change of a vehicle, the program code, when executed by a control unit, causing the control unit to perform the steps of:

receiving 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 traffic lane boundary one of next to or in front of a right-hand vehicle side; and

detecting a traffic lane change if at least one the first piece of traffic lane information and the second piece of traffic lane information represent a traffic lane boundary which is less than a predetermined lateral distance to a vehicle side.