Lane departure avoidance system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11254308-B2
Application number	US-201716086476-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 7, 2017
Priority date	Mar 22, 2016
Publication date	Feb 22, 2022
Grant date	Feb 22, 2022

Abstract

A lane departure avoidance system includes: a recognition unit that recognizes a road edge of the road, and recognizes an outer line as a dividing line drawn on a road-edge side of a lane closest to the road edge; and an assist implementation unit that provides, within an area including the lane closest to the road edge and extending to the road edge, a forbidden position over which a vehicle is forbidden from going toward the road edge, and implements traveling assistance such that the vehicle does not go over the forbidden position. The system includes a shoulder width calculation unit that calculates, as a shoulder width, a width from the outer line to the road edge. The wider the shoulder width calculated by the shoulder width calculation unit is, the closer the forbidden position is set to the road edge by the assist implementation unit.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A lane departure avoidance system comprising:
an in-vehicle camera that captures an image of a road ahead of a vehicle;
a road edge recognition unit that recognizes a road edge of the road from the image captured by the in-vehicle camera;
an outer line recognition unit that recognizes, from the image captured by the in-vehicle camera, an outer line as a dividing line drawn on a road-edge side of a lane closest to the road edge; and
an assist implementation unit that provides, within an area including the lane closest to the road edge and extending to the road edge, a forbidden position over which the vehicle is forbidden from going toward the road edge, and implements traveling assistance such that the vehicle does not go over the forbidden position, wherein
the vehicle includes an electric power steering that controls a traveling direction of the vehicle in accordance with output from a motor,
the traveling assistance is implemented, controlling the traveling direction of the vehicle in a direction that causes the vehicle to move back into the lane using the electric power steering,
the lane departure avoidance system includes a shoulder width calculation unit that calculates, as a shoulder width, a width from the outer line recognized by the outer line recognition unit to the road edge recognized by the road edge recognition unit,
the wider the shoulder width calculated by the shoulder width calculation unit is, the closer the forbidden position is set to the road edge by the assist implementation unit, and
an output from the motor is calculated based on the forbidden position such that the narrower the shoulder width calculated by the shoulder width calculation unit is, the stronger the output from the motor is made by the assist implementation unit in the traveling assistance.

2. The lane departure avoidance system according to claim 1 , wherein
when the outer line is not recognized by the outer line recognition unit, the shoulder width calculation unit calculates that the shoulder width is zero.

3. The lane departure avoidance system according to claim 1 , wherein
when the shoulder width calculation unit calculates that the shoulder width is zero, the assist implementation unit provides the forbidden position inside the lane closest to the road edge.

4. The lane departure avoidance system according to claim 1 , wherein
in a case where the forbidden position is provided between the outer line and the road edge, the assist implementation unit sets an upper limit on a distance from the forbidden position to the outer line.

5. The lane departure avoidance system according to claim 1 , comprising
a lateral velocity calculation unit that calculates a lateral velocity of the vehicle that approaches the outer line in a lateral direction orthogonal to the traveling direction of the vehicle, wherein
the assist implementation unit provides an assist start position further inside the lane closest to the road edge than the forbidden position, and implements the traveling assistance when the vehicle moves toward the road edge over the assist start position, and
the higher the lateral velocity calculated by the lateral velocity calculation unit is, the further inside the lane closest to the road edge the assist start position is set by the assist implementation unit.

6. The lane departure avoidance system according to claim 1 , wherein
the assist implementation unit provides the assist start position further inside the lane closest to the road edge than the forbidden position, and implements the traveling assistance when the vehicle moves toward the road edge over the assist start position, and
the wider the shoulder width calculated by the shoulder width calculation unit is, the closer the assist start position, which is provided further inside the lane closest to the road edge than the forbidden position, is set to the outer line by the assist implementation unit.

7. A lane departure avoidance system comprising:
an in-vehicle camera that captures an image of a road ahead of a vehicles;
a road edge recognition unit that recognizes a road edge of the road from the image captured by the in-vehicle camera;
an outer line recognition unit that recognizes, from the image captured by the in-vehicle camera, an outer line as a dividing line drawn on a road-edge side of a lane closest to the road edge; and
an assist implementation unit that provides an assist start position inside the lane, and when the vehicle moves toward the outer line over the assist start position, implements traveling assistance such that the vehicle moves back into the lane over the assist start position, wherein
the vehicle includes an electric power steering that controls a traveling direction of the vehicle in accordance with output from a motor,
the traveling assistance is implemented, controlling the traveling direction of the vehicle in a direction that causes the vehicle to move back into the lane using the electric power steering,
the lane departure avoidance system includes a shoulder width calculation unit that calculates, as a shoulder width, a width from the outer line recognized by the outer line recognition unit to the road edge recognized by the road edge recognition unit,
the wider the shoulder width calculated by the shoulder width calculation unit is, the closer the assist start position is set to the outer line by the assist implementation unit, and
an output from the motor is calculated based on the assist start position relative such that the narrower the shoulder width calculated by the shoulder width calculation unit is, the stronger the output from the motor is made by the assist implementation unit in the traveling assistance.

Assignees

• Denso Corp

Inventors

• Oka Kazumichi

Classifications

• B62D15/025 Primary

  Active steering aids, e.g. helping the driver by actively influencing the steering system after environment evaluation (B62D1/28 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G08G1/16

  Anti-collision systems (road vehicle drive control systems for predicting or avoiding probable or impending collision otherwise than by control of a particular sub-unit B60W30/08) · CPC title

• B60R21/00

  Arrangements or fittings on vehicles for protecting or preventing injuries to occupants or pedestrians in case of accidents or other traffic risks (safety belts or body harnesses in vehicles B60R22/00; seats constructed to protect the occupant from the effect of abnormal g-forces, e.g. crash or safety seats, B60N2/42; energy-absorbing arrangements for hand wheels for steering vehicles B62D1/11; energy-absorbing arrangements for vehicle steering columns B62D1/19) · CPC title

• G06V20/588

  Recognition of the road, e.g. of lane markings; Recognition of the vehicle driving pattern in relation to the road · CPC title

• G06K9/00798

  Physics · mapped topic