Assisting the driving of an automotive vehicle when approaching a speed breaker

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11420633-B2
Application number	US-201816755687-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 23, 2018
Priority date	Oct 24, 2017
Publication date	Aug 23, 2022
Grant date	Aug 23, 2022

Abstract

A driving assistance method for a motor vehicle (1) when approaching a speed bump comprises, according to the invention: detecting and tracking at least one other moving vehicle (41) in front of the motor vehicle (1) based on processing images captured by a camera (10) on board the motor vehicle (1); establishing a temporal profile of the estimated distance between the motor vehicle (1) and the at least one detected and followed other moving vehicle (41); detecting an anomaly area in the temporal profile; and estimating a distance dbump between the motor vehicle (1) and a speed bump (3) on the basis of the estimated distance between the motor vehicle (1) and the at least one other vehicle (41) at a time separate from the times corresponding to the detected anomaly area.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A driving assistance method for a motor vehicle when approaching a speed bump, comprising:
detecting and tracking at least one other moving vehicle in front of the motor vehicle based on processing images captured by a camera on board said motor vehicle;
establishing a temporal profile of the estimated distance between said motor vehicle and said at least one detected and followed other moving vehicle;
detecting an anomaly area in said temporal profile; and
estimating a distance d bump between said motor vehicle and a speed bump on the basis of a distance between the motor vehicle and said at least one other vehicle, estimated at a time t bump separate from the times corresponding to the detected anomaly area.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the distance d bump is estimated using the relationship
d bump =D ( t bump )− d parc

wherein D(t bump ) is the distance between the motor vehicle and said at least one other vehicle estimated at said time t bump , and d parc corresponds to the distance covered by the motor vehicle starting from said time t bump .

3. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the detection and tracking step comprises detecting and tracking at least one other vehicle traveling in the same direction as said motor vehicle, and wherein said time t bump is chosen before a time corresponding to the start of the detected anomaly area.

4. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the detection and tracking step comprises detecting and tracking at least one other vehicle traveling in the opposite direction to said motor vehicle, and wherein said time t bump is chosen after a time corresponding to the end of the detected anomaly area.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising: correcting a position of said motor vehicle with respect to a high-definition geographical map on board said motor vehicle on the basis of a position of a marker corresponding to said speed bump and pre-recorded in said map, and of the estimated distance d bump .

6. The method as claimed in claim 5 , wherein an elevational movement of said motor vehicle is estimated on the basis of an inertial sensor on board said motor vehicle.

7. The method as claimed in claim 5 , wherein an elevational movement of said motor vehicle is estimated on the basis of analyzing optical flows over a plurality of successive image portions captured by said on-board camera.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising: estimating an elevational movement of said motor vehicle, and wherein said distance d bump is estimated only if no elevational movement greater than a predefined threshold and concomitant with a time corresponding to the detected anomaly area is estimated.

9. A driving assistance system for a motor vehicle when approaching a speed bump, comprising an on-board processing module configured to perform the method as claimed in claim 1 .

Assignees

• Valeo Schalter & Sensoren Gmbh

Inventors

• Garnault Alexandre
• Heitzmann Thomas

Classifications

• B60W2556/50

  of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data · CPC title

• B60W2556/40

  High definition maps · CPC title

• B60W30/16

  Control of distance between vehicles, e.g. keeping a distance to preceding vehicle · CPC title

• B60W2554/801

  Lateral distance · CPC title

• B60W2552/35

  Road bumpiness, e.g. potholes · CPC title