Vehicle departure detecting device

• US 7,532,981 B2
• Filed: 05/26/2006
• Issued: 05/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Kataoka, Hiroaki, Iwazaki, Katsuhiko, Rattapon, Chumsamutr, Kawakami, Seiji
• Primary Examiner(s): Zanelli; Michael J.
• Application Number:
  US11/887,535
• Publication Number:
  US 20090030613A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,082 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 701/300
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/12 Lane keeping
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/167 Driving aids for lane monitoring, lane changing, e.g. blind spot detection

Abstract

Lane width information Winf acquired by a traffic lane detector is retrieved (step S1); when a value of the lane width information Winf is within a predetermined range of change amount relative to a lane width output Wout_old at a previous time step, i.e., not less than (Wout_old+Wdec) nor more than (Wout_old+Winc), Winf is used directly as the lane width output Wout (steps S5→S9→S11→S8); when the value of lane width information Winf is off the predetermined range, i.e., less than (Wout_old+Wdec), (Wout_old+Wdec) is outputted as the lane width output value Wout (steps S5→S9→S10→S8); when the value of lane width information Winf exceeds (Wout_old+Winc), (Wout_old+Winc) is outputted as the lane width output Wout (steps S5→S6→S8).

Claims

1. A vehicle deviation determining apparatus comprising:

traffic lane detecting means for detecting a traffic lane of a road on which a host vehicle is driving;

deviation determining means for determining whether the host vehicle will deviate from the traffic lane, based on a positional relation between the traffic lane and the host vehicle; and

means for detecting a vehicle speed,

wherein the traffic lane detecting means detects the traffic lane at a predetermined position, and wherein when a change amount per predetermined time of a lane width of the detected traffic lane exceeds a threshold, the traffic lane detecting means sets a lane width in the traffic lane so that the change amount does not exceed the threshold,

wherein the deviation determining means determines whether the host vehicle will deviate from the traffic lane, based on the lane width thus set, and

wherein the traffic lane detecting means sets the threshold larger at a high vehicle speed than at a low vehicle speed.

2. A vehicle deviation determining apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when a position of one edge of the traffic lane is not detected, the traffic lane detecting means sets a predetermined lane width as the lane width in the traffic lane.

3. A vehicle deviation determining apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the traffic lane detecting means sets the threshold in a case where the lane width of the traffic lane increases, different from that in a case where the lane width of the traffic lane decreases.

4. A vehicle deviation determining apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the traffic lane detecting means sets the threshold larger in a case where the lane width of the traffic lane increases, than in a case where the lane width of the traffic lane decreases.

5. A vehicle deviation determining apparatus comprising:

traffic lane detector that detects a traffic lane ahead a host vehicle;

deviation determiner that determines whether the host vehicle will deviate from the traffic lane, based on a positional relation between the traffic lane and the host vehicle; and

vehicle speed detector that detects a vehicle speed of the host vehicle,

wherein when a change amount per predetermined time of a lane width of the detected traffic lane exceeds a threshold, die traffic lane detector sets a lane width of the traffic lane so that the change amount does not exceed the threshold,

wherein the deviation determiner determines whether the host vehicle will deviate from the traffic lane, based on the lane width thus set, and

wherein the traffic lane detector sets the threshold larger at a high vehicle speed than at a low vehicle speed.

6. A vehicle deviation determining apparatus according to claim 5, wherein when a position of one edge of the traffic lane is not detected, the traffic lane detector sets a predetermined lane width as the lane width of the traffic lane.

7. A vehicle deviation determining apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the traffic lane detector sets the threshold in a ease where the lane width of the traffic lane increases, different From that in a case where the lane width of the traffic lane decreases.

8. A vehicle deviation determining apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the traffic lane detector sets the threshold larger in a case where the lane width of the traffic lane increases, than in a case where the lane width of the traffic lane decreases.