Apparatus and method for cooperative autonomous driving between vehicle and driver

• US 9,063,543 B2
• Filed: 09/11/2013
• Issued: 06/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: An, Kyoung-Hwan, Han, Woo-Yong
• Primary Examiner(s): Algahaim, Helal A
• Assistant Examiner(s): PATEL, SHARDUL D
• Application Number:
  US14/023,873
• Publication Number:
  US 20140244096A1
• Time in Patent Office: 650 Days
• Field of Search: 701/24, 701/45, 701/93, 701/97, 701/98, 340/575, 340/576
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 28/06 responsive to incapacity of driver
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0095 Automatic control mode change
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/225 Direction of gaze
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/229 Attention level, e.g. attentive to driving, reading or sleeping
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/20 Road profile, i.e. the change in elevation or curvature of a plurality of continuous road segments
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2756/10 Involving external transmission of data to or from the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/08 Interaction between the driver and the control system
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/087 where the control system corrects or modifies a request from the driver
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 60/0051 from occupants to vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 60/0053 from vehicle to occupant
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 60/0055 only part of driving tasks shifted to occupants
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 60/0059 Estimation of the risk associated with autonomous or manual driving, e.g. situation too complex, sensor failure or driver incapacity
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 60/007 Emergency override Handing over between remote control and on-board control or handing over between remote control arrangements G05D1/227
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0055 with safety arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0061 for transition from automatic pilot to manual pilot and vice versa

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for performing cooperative autonomous driving between a vehicle and a driver. For this, a cooperative autonomous driving apparatus according to the present invention includes a driver state determination unit for determining a state of a driver and calculating the state of the driver as a risk index. An autonomous driving control unit classifies section characteristics of respective sections included in a path to a destination corresponding to the driver based on section data stored in a database (DB), and controls autonomous driving of a vehicle in which the driver is riding, based on a driving environment recognized for the path to the destination corresponding to the driver. A driving control determination unit determines driving modes of the respective sections included in the path based on the state of the driver and the section characteristics.

Claims

1. A cooperative autonomous driving apparatus comprising:

a driver state determination unit for determining a state of a driver and calculating the state of the driver as a driver risk index, wherein the driver state determination unit provides the driver risk index to a driving control determination unit;

an autonomous driving control unit for classifying section characteristics of respective sections included in a path to a destination based on section data stored in a database and controlling autonomous driving of a vehicle in which the driver is riding, based on a driving environment of the path to the destination, wherein the autonomous driving control unit provides the section characteristics of the respective sections to the driving control determination unit;

the driving control determination unit for determining driving modes of the respective sections included in the path based on the driver risk index provided by the driver state determination unit and the section characteristics provided by the autonomous driving control unit; and

an autonomous driving data processing unit for, after the vehicle has moved to a subsequent section from a previous section, calculating an autonomous driving risk index for the subsequent section, performing comparison with respect to the calculated autonomous driving risk index, for the subsequent section and a previously stored autonomous driving risk index for the subsequent section, and updating the autonomous driving risk index for the subsequent section based on a result of the comparison.

2. The cooperative autonomous driving apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the driving modes of the sections includes one of a manual mode, a cooperative driving mode, an emergency driving mode for a failure in autonomous driving, and an emergency driving mode for non-reaction of the driver, and the cooperative driving mode includes a driver-leading cooperative driving mode and an autonomous driving-leading cooperative driving mode.

3. The cooperative autonomous driving apparatus of claim 1, wherein the driving control determination unit is capable of changing a current driving mode to another driving mode corresponding to the state of the driver and the section characteristics in a section in which the vehicle is traveling.

4. The cooperative autonomous driving apparatus of claim 1, further comprising the autonomous driving data processing unit for, after the vehicle has moved to the subsequent section, reclassifying the section characteristics in the previous section using an autonomous driving risk index of the previous section calculated based on the driving environment of the previous section, and updating the section data stored in the database based on the reclassified section characteristics of the previous section.

5. The cooperative autonomous driving apparatus of claim 4, wherein the autonomous driving data processing unit is configured to, after the vehicle has moved to the subsequent section, set a previous section to a cooperative driving possible section if the autonomous driving risk index of the previous section is greater than a preset driving possible risk index and is less than a preset driving impossible risk index.

6. The cooperative autonomous driving apparatus of claim 4, wherein the autonomous driving data processing unit is configured to, after the vehicle has moved to the subsequent section, set a previous section to an autonomous driving impossible section if the autonomous driving risk index of the previous section is greater than a preset driving impossible risk index.

7. The cooperative autonomous driving apparatus of claim 4, wherein the autonomous driving data processing unit is configured to, after the vehicle has moved to the subsequent section, set a previous section to an autonomous driving possible section if the autonomous driving risk index of the previous section is less than a preset driving possible risk index.

8. The cooperative autonomous driving apparatus of claim 4, wherein the autonomous driving data processing unit is configured to update a the previously stored autonomous driving risk index of the subsequent section to the calculated autonomous driving risk index of the subsequent section if the calculated autonomous driving risk index of the subsequent section is greater than the previously stored autonomous driving risk index of the subsequent section.

9. The cooperative autonomous driving apparatus of claim 1, wherein the driver state determination unit determines a dozing state or an inattentive state of the driver using an eyetracker for tracking eye blinking or line of sight of the driver.

10. The cooperative autonomous driving apparatus of claim 1, wherein the driver state determination unit determines an inattentive state of the driver by checking whether a nomadic device or a device in the vehicle has been used.

11. The cooperative autonomous driving apparatus of claim 1, wherein the driver state determination unit comprises a risk index determination module for converting the state of the driver into a numerical risk index.

12. The cooperative autonomous driving apparatus of claim 1, further comprising the autonomous driving data processing unit for, before the vehicle has moved to the subsequent section, calculating an autonomous driving risk index for the previous section, performing comparison with respect to the calculated autonomous driving risk index for the previous section and a previously stored autonomous driving risk index for the previous section, and updating the autonomous driving risk index for the previous section based on a result of the comparison.

13. A cooperative autonomous driving method comprising:

determining, by a driver state determination unit, a state of a driver and calculating the state of the driver as a driver risk index;

classifying, by an autonomous driving control unit, section characteristics of respective sections included in a path to a destination based on section data stored in a database;

determining, by a driving control determination unit, driving modes of the respective sections included in the path based on the state of the driver and the section characteristics;

controlling, by the autonomous driving control unit, autonomous driving of a vehicle in which the driver is riding, based on a driving environment recognized for the path to the destination;

after the vehicle has moved to a subsequent section from a previous section, calculating, by an autonomous driving data processing unit, an autonomous driving risk index for the subsequent section;

performing comparison with respect to the calculated autonomous driving risk index for the subsequent section and a previously stored autonomous driving risk index for the subsequent section; and

updating the autonomous driving;

risk index for the subsequent section based on a result of the comparison.

14. The cooperative autonomous driving method of claim 13, wherein each of the driving modes of the sections includes one of a manual mode, a cooperative driving mode, an emergency driving mode for a failure in autonomous driving, and an emergency driving mode for non-reaction of the driver, and the cooperative driving mode includes a driver-leading cooperative driving mode and an autonomous driving-leading cooperative driving mode.

15. The cooperative autonomous driving method of claim 13, wherein determining the driving modes of the sections is configured to be capable of changing a current driving mode to another driving mode corresponding to the state of the driver and the section characteristics in a section in which the vehicle is traveling.

16. The cooperative autonomous driving method of claim 13, further comprising after controlling the autonomous driving of the vehicle in which the driver is riding:

after the vehicle has moved to the subsequent section, reclassifying, by the autonomous driving data processing unit, the section characteristics of the previous section using an autonomous driving risk index of the previous section calculated based on the driving environment of the previous section, and updating the section data stored in the database based on the reclassified section characteristics of the previous section.

17. The cooperative autonomous driving method of claim 16, wherein updating the section data is configured to, after the vehicle has moved to the subsequent section, set a previous section to a cooperative driving possible section if the autonomous driving risk index of the previous section is greater than a preset driving possible risk index and is less than a preset driving impossible risk index.

18. The cooperative autonomous driving method of claim 16, wherein updating the section data is configured to, after the vehicle has moved to the subsequent section, set a previous section to an autonomous driving impossible section if the autonomous driving risk index of the previous section is greater than a preset driving impossible risk index.

19. The cooperative autonomous driving method of claim 16, wherein updating the section data is configured to, after the vehicle has moved to the subsequent section, set a previous section to an autonomous driving possible section if the autonomous driving risk index of the previous section is less than a preset driving possible risk index.

20. The cooperative autonomous driving method of claim 16, wherein updating the section data is configured to update a previously stored autonomous driving risk index of the subsequent section to the calculated autonomous driving risk index of the subsequent section if the calculated autonomous driving risk index of the subsequent section is greater than the previously stored autonomous driving risk index of the subsequent section.

21. The cooperative autonomous driving method of claim 13, further comprising after controlling the autonomous driving of the vehicle in which the driver is riding:

before the vehicle has moved to the subsequent section, calculating, by an autonomous driving data processing unit, an autonomous driving risk index for the previous section;

performing comparison, with respect to the calculated autonomous driving risk index for the previous section and a previously stored autonomous driving risk index for the previous section; and

updating the autonomous driving risk index for the previous section based on a result of the comparison.