Autonomous vehicle driving system and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10235885-B2
Application number	US-201715405956-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 13, 2017
Priority date	Jan 29, 2016
Publication date	Mar 19, 2019
Grant date	Mar 19, 2019

Abstract

Disclosed are an autonomous vehicle driving system and method that increase probability that a signal of a traffic light will be recognized by using map information built in an autonomous vehicle driving system and a traffic light infrastructure, determine which travel route is allowed according to a camera recognition result and signal information delivered through V2X communication (traveling is allowed from which entrance lane to which exit lane), and enable an autonomous driving vehicle and a traffic light infrastructure to exchange intersection passage route information in order to allow the autonomous driving vehicle to efficiently pass through an intersection.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An autonomous vehicle driving system comprising:
an autonomous driving device installed in a vehicle and configured, when there is a traffic light in front while the vehicle is driving autonomously, to receive traffic light signal information and map information regarding a travel location over a network, map the received map information to prestored map information, and perform autonomous driving along a predetermined route when the received traffic light signal information corresponding to its own travel route information is a traveling allowed signal; and
a server configured to transmit the map information regarding the travel location and the traffic light signal information to the autonomous driving device over the network, receive information regarding a passage route at an intersection or a crosswalk where the traffic light is located from the autonomous driving device, analyze possibility of autonomous driving vehicles colliding according to the received passage route information, and control a signal of the traffic light at the intersection or crosswalk according to a result of the analysis.

2. The autonomous vehicle driving system of claim 1 , wherein when the traffic light signal information is not received from the server, the autonomous driving device determines whether the signal of the traffic light is a traveling allowed signal by using a camera installed in the vehicle.

3. The autonomous vehicle driving system of claim 1 , wherein the autonomous driving device and the server transmit or receive data through vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication.

4. The autonomous vehicle driving system of claim 1 , wherein the server receives information regarding travel routes from autonomous driving devices installed in a plurality of autonomous driving vehicles, recognizes vehicles near the intersection or crosswalk where the traffic light is located according to the received travel route information of the autonomous driving devices, compares the number of travel routes with the number of recognized vehicles, and determines whether all of the vehicles traveling at the crosswalk or intersection are autonomous driving vehicles.

5. The autonomous vehicle driving system of claim 4 , wherein when all of the vehicles traveling at the crosswalk or intersection are autonomous driving vehicles, the server determines whether the travel routes of the autonomous driving vehicles will lead to collisions with each other and controls the signal of the traffic light according to a result of the determination.

6. The autonomous vehicle driving system of claim 1 , wherein the autonomous driving device comprises:
a driving environment recognition unit configured to recognize an obstacle and a travelable area of the route while the vehicle is traveling autonomously and create obstacle recognition information and travelable area information;
a traffic light signal recognition unit configured to recognize a signal state of the traffic light from a forward-direction image of the travel route;
a receiver configured to receive traffic light signal information of the intersection or crosswalk where the traffic light is located and information regarding a map of surroundings of the intersection or crosswalk from the server through V2X communication;
a transmitter configured to transmit the travel route information to the server through V2X communication according to the map information corresponding to its own location information;
a traffic light signal determination unit configured to determine a current state of the traffic light according to the traffic light signal information received through the receiver or the traffic light signal state information recognized by the traffic light signal recognition unit;
a map merging unit configured to merge the map information, driving environment information, and the information regarding a map of surroundings of the intersection or crosswalk received from the server through the receiver to create a map of the travel route; and
a driving situation determination and route planning unit configured to determine a driving situation according to the map mapped by the map merging unit, the location information, and the traffic light signal state determined by the traffic light signal determination unit, plan a local route according to the driving situation, and generate a control signal for controlling autonomous driving of the vehicle.

7. The autonomous vehicle driving system of claim 6 , wherein the autonomous driving device further comprises:
a global route planning unit configured to calculate a global route from an origin to a destination that is set by a user using the map information and provide information regarding the calculated global route to the transmitter;
a location recognition unit configured to acquire global location information using the map information and a location of the vehicle obtained through GPS and provide the acquired global location information to the driving situation determination and route planning unit; and
a driving environment recognition unit configured to recognize the obstacle and the travelable area on the travel route and provide the driving environment information including obstacle recognition information and travelable area information to the map merging unit.

8. The autonomous vehicle driving system of claim 7 , wherein the driving environment information including the obstacle recognition information and the travelable area information is recognized using information obtained with a camera, a radar, and a LiDAR installed in the vehicle.

9. The autonomous vehicle driving system of claim 1 , wherein the server comprises:
an image acquisition unit configured to acquire an image of vehicles traveling near the intersection or crosswalk where the traffic light is located;
a traffic light controller configured to control a signal state of the traffic light of the intersection or crosswalk according to a provided control signal and create signal state information of the traffic light;
an intersection passage route transceiver configured to receive intersection passage route information from the autonomous driving device through V2X communication and transmit the received intersection passage route information to an autonomous driving device of a nearby vehicle through V2X communication;
a map-linked signal information providing unit configured to create lamp-specific signal information and maneuvering allowed section information using the traffic light signal state information and nearby-road map information created by the traffic light controller;
an intersection map providing unit configured to broadcast the traffic light signal state information and an intersection road network structure to autonomous driving devices through V2X communication using the nearby-road map information; and
an intersection passage coordinator configured to analyze the number of vehicles traveling near the intersection using the acquired image, analyze possibility of collision between the autonomous driving vehicles using the intersection passage route information received through the intersection passage route transceiver, and provide a control signal for controlling the signal of the traffic light at the intersection or crosswalk to the traffic light controller according to a result of the analysis.

10. The autonomous vehicle driving system of claim 9 , wherein the intersection passage coordinator determines whether all of the vehicles passing through the intersection are autonomous driving vehicles by using the number of vehicles traveling near the intersection obtained through the acquired image and the number of pieces of the intersection passag

Assignees

• Electronics & Telecommunications Res Inst

Inventors

• An Kyoung Hwan
• Han Woo Yong

Classifications

• G08G1/166 Primary

  for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes · CPC title

• G08G1/07 Primary

  Controlling traffic signals · CPC title

• G05D1/0088

  characterized by the autonomous decision making process, e.g. artificial intelligence, predefined behaviours (using knowledge based models G06N5/00) · CPC title

• G08G1/096783

  where the origin of the information is a roadside individual element · CPC title

• G08G1/164

  Centralised systems, e.g. external to vehicles · CPC title