Method and control unit for operating an automated longitudinal and/or lateral guidance function of a vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11830258-B2
Application number	US-201917292629-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 28, 2019
Priority date	Nov 23, 2018
Publication date	Nov 28, 2023
Grant date	Nov 28, 2023

Abstract

A control unit and method for an autonomous and/or semi-autonomous ego vehicle are provided. The control unit is configured to determine a course of an ego lane, referred to as the behavioral ego lane, within which the ego vehicle is driving, based on driving trajectories of a plurality of vehicles within an environment of the ego vehicle. The control unit is configured to operate an automated longitudinal and/or lateral guidance function of the ego vehicle in dependence of the course of the behavioral ego lane.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A control unit for an autonomous and/or semi-autonomous ego vehicle, wherein the control unit is configured to:
determine a course of a behavioral ego lane within which the ego vehicle is driving based on driving trajectories of a plurality of vehicles within an environment of the ego vehicle;
operate an automated longitudinal and/or lateral guidance function of the ego vehicle in dependence of the course of the behavioral ego lane;
determine trajectory data regarding the driving trajectories of the plurality of vehicles;
cluster the driving trajectories within each of a sequence of segments of a road that the ego vehicle is driving on to determine a sequence of shapes of the road for the sequence of segments, wherein
the cluster of driving trajectories is determined by one or more of:
lateral distance between the driving trajectories being below a predefined threshold,
a heading angle deviation between the driving trajectories, or
a longitudinal distance before reaching a particular lateral divergence between the driving trajectories; and

determine the course of the behavioral ego lane based on the sequence of shapes of the road.

2. The control unit of claim 1 , wherein
the longitudinal and/or lateral guidance function comprises a vehicle following function, which is configured to perform the longitudinal and/or lateral guidance of the ego vehicle in dependence of a target vehicle driving within the behavioral ego lane in front of the ego vehicle; and
the control unit is further configured to:
determine a target trajectory of the target vehicle;
compare the target trajectory to the course of the behavioral ego lane; and
operate the vehicle following function in dependence of the comparison of the target trajectory with the course of the behavioral ego lane.

3. The control unit of claim 2 , wherein the control unit is further configured to:
determine values of one or more deviation parameters indicative of an extent of deviation of the target trajectory from the course of the behavioral ego lane; and
operate the vehicle following function in dependence of the values of the one or more deviation parameters.

4. The control unit of claim 3 , wherein the one or more deviation parameters comprise:
a lateral offset between the target trajectory and the course of the behavioral ego lane; and/or
an angle between the target trajectory and the course of the behavioral ego lane.

5. The control unit of claim 2 , wherein the control unit is further configured to:
determine whether the target trajectory deviates from the course of the behavioral ego lane by more than a deviation threshold; and
interrupt the vehicle following function with regards to the target vehicle, when it is determined that the target trajectory deviates from the course of the behavioral ego lane by more than the deviation threshold.

6. The control unit of claim 5 , wherein the control unit is further configured to:
determine a confidence measure indicative of:
(i) a confidence that the course of the behavioral ego lane corresponds to an actual course of a lane of a road that the ego vehicle is driving on; and/or
(ii) a confidence and/or an unambiguousness with which the behavioral ego lane has been determined; and

determine the deviation threshold in dependence of the confidence measure, such that the deviation threshold increases when the confidence measure decreases and/or such that the deviation threshold decreases when the confidence measure increases.

7. The control unit of claim 1 , wherein the control unit is further configured to:
determine lane sensor data indicative of lane markings of a lane of a road that the ego vehicle is driving on;
determine a course of a sensed ego lane based on the lane sensor data; and
perform lateral guidance of the ego vehicle in dependence of the course of the sensed ego lane and in dependence of the course of the behavioral ego lane, to provide a lane keeping function.

8. The control unit of claim 7 , wherein the control unit is further configured to:
compare the course of the sensed ego lane with the course of the behavioral ego lane; and
operate the lane keeping function in dependence of the comparison of the course of the sensed ego lane and the course of the behavioral ego lane.

9. The control unit of claim 8 , wherein the control unit is further configured to:
determine whether the course of the sensed ego lane deviates from the course of the behavioral ego lane by more than a deviation threshold; and
interrupt the lane keeping function based on the sensed ego lane and/or perform the lane keeping function based on the behavioral ego lane, when it is determined that the course of the sensed ego lane deviates from the course of the behavioral ego lane by more than the deviation threshold.

10. A control unit for an autonomous and/or semi-autonomous ego vehicle, wherein the control unit is configured to:
determine a course of a behavioral ego lane within which the ego vehicle is driving based on driving trajectories of a plurality of vehicles within an environment of the ego vehicle;
operate an automated longitudinal and/or lateral guidance function of the ego vehicle in dependence of the course of the behavioral ego lane;
determine a course of a road along a sequence of segments of the road, based on a sequence of shapes of the road for the sequence of segments;
determine a lane configuration of the road by comparing a total number of driving trajectories covered by each of a plurality of candidate lane configurations and selecting a first candidate lane configuration covering a greater number of driving trajectories than a second candidate lane configuration as the determined lane configuration;
assign the plurality of vehicles to one or more different adjacent lanes of the determined lane configuration of the road, wherein
one of the different adjacent lanes is the behavioral ego lane; and
determine the course of the behavioral ego lane based on the course of the road.

11. A method for operating an automated longitudinal and/or lateral guidance function of an ego vehicle, comprising:
determining a course of a behavioral ego lane within which the ego vehicle is driving, based on driving trajectories of a plurality of vehicles within an environment of the ego vehicle;
operating the automated longitudinal and/or lateral guidance function of the ego vehicle in dependence of the course of the behavioral ego lane; determining trajectory data regarding the driving trajectories of the plurality of vehicles;
clustering the driving trajectories within each of a sequence of segments of a road that the ego vehicle is driving on to determine a sequence of shapes of the road for the sequence of segments, comprising:
determining a first cluster for a first segment of the sequence of segments that includes less than a majority of driving trajectories of the first segment and
determining a second cluster for a second, adjacently preceding segment of the sequence of segments that includes a majority of driving trajectories of the second segment.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein
the first cluster and second cluster are determined based on one or more driving trajectories of the second cluster of driving trajectories including the majority of driving trajectories of the second, adjacently preceding segment are not continued without interruption by a majority of driving trajectories of the first cluster of the driving trajectories of the first segment.

Assignees

• Bayerische Motoren Werke Ag

Inventors

• Campanale Vincenzo
• Gonzalez Orland
• Mehmedovic Almir
• Mehringer Josef
• Pietruska Christoph
• Stump Andreas

Classifications

• G06V20/588 Primary

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

• B60W30/12

  Lane keeping · CPC title

• B60W30/165

  Automatically following the path of a preceding lead vehicle, e.g. "electronic tow-bar" · CPC title

• B60W40/04 Primary

  Traffic conditions · CPC title

• B60W40/06

  Road conditions · CPC title