Electronic control device, control method, and automatic driving system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12195034-B2
Application number	US-202017615964-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 1, 2020
Priority date	Jun 5, 2019
Publication date	Jan 14, 2025
Grant date	Jan 14, 2025

Abstract

An electronic control device is mounted on a vehicle and executes automatic driving control using a plurality of pieces of map information. Each piece of the map information includes one or more pieces of partial data corresponding to a predetermined geographical area and being information of a predetermined attribute related to a road of the predetermined geographical area. The electronic control device includes a storage unit that stores one or more pieces of the map information, a specification unit that specifies the map information corresponding to a traveling position of the vehicle, and a control unit that determines a control method of the vehicle at a traveling position of the vehicle according to the partial data included in the map information specified by the specification unit.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An electronic control device that is mounted on a vehicle and executes automatic driving control using a plurality of pieces of map information,
wherein each piece of the map information includes one or more pieces of partial data corresponding to a predetermined geographical area and being information of a predetermined attribute related to a road of the predetermined geographical area,
the electronic control device comprising:
a processor in communication with the electronic control device, the processor comprising:
a storage circuit that stores one or more pieces of the map information;
a specification circuit that determines
a respective map information from among the plurality of pieces of map information corresponding to a traveling position of the vehicle, the traveling position comprising a current position of the vehicle, and
a content level of the respective map information; and

a control circuit that determines a control method of the automatic driving control of the vehicle at the traveling position of the vehicle according to the partial data included in the map information specified by the specification circuit,

wherein
a simultaneous acquisition number of the pieces of partial data is determined based on communication quality information in the predetermined geographical area during traveling, and the map information is acquired based on the simultaneous acquisition number,
the content level of the respective map information is based upon the communication quality information, and
the electronic control device executes the automatic driving control based upon an association of the content level with the control method.

2. The electronic control device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a communication circuit that acquires the partial data from outside the vehicle by wireless communication.

3. The electronic control device according to claim 1 , wherein
a priority of acquiring partial data is determined according to a distance from the current position of the vehicle during traveling to the predetermined geographical area and a type of the partial data corresponding to the predetermined geographical area, and the map information is acquired according to the priority.

4. The electronic control device according to claim 1 , wherein
the predetermined attribute related to the road includes at least one of a lane center line, a road boundary line, and a traffic light.

5. A control method executed by an electronic control device that is mounted on a vehicle and executes automatic driving control using a plurality of pieces of map information,
wherein each piece of the map information includes one or more pieces of partial data corresponding to a predetermined geographical area and being information of a predetermined attribute related to a road of the predetermined geographical area, and
wherein the electronic control device includes a storage unit in which one or more pieces of the map information are stored,
the control method comprising:
determining a respective map information from among the plurality of pieces of map information corresponding to a traveling position of the vehicle, the traveling position comprising a current position of the vehicle, and
a content level of the respective map information; and
determining a control policy of the automatic driving control of the vehicle at the traveling position of the vehicle according to the partial data included in the specified map information,
wherein
a simultaneous acquisition number of the pieces of partial data is determined based on communication quality information in the predetermined geographical area during traveling, and the map information is acquired based on the simultaneous acquisition number,
the content level of the respective map information is based upon the communication quality information, and
the electronic control device executes the automatic driving control based upon an association of the content level with the control policy.

6. The control method according to claim 5 , further comprising:
acquiring the partial data from outside the vehicle by wireless communication.

7. The control method according to claim 5 , wherein
a priority of acquiring partial data is determined according to a distance from the current position of the vehicle during traveling to the predetermined geographical area and a type of the partial data corresponding to the predetermined geographical area, and the map information is acquired according to the priority.

8. The control method according to claim 5 , wherein
the predetermined attribute related to the road includes at least one of a lane center line, a road boundary line, and a traffic light.

9. An automatic driving system comprising:
an electronic control device that is mounted on a vehicle and executes automatic driving control using a plurality of pieces of map information; and
a server that communicates with the electronic control device via wireless communication,
wherein each piece of the map information includes one or more pieces of partial data corresponding to a predetermined geographical area and being information of a predetermined attribute related to a road of the predetermined geographical area,
wherein the electronic control device includes:
a processor in communication with the electronic control device, the processor comprising:
an in-vehicle communication circuit that transmits, to the server, a travel route that is information on a route on which the vehicle will travel, and receives map distribution plan information that is information on the partial data related to the travel route;
a storage circuit that stores one or more pieces of the map information;
a map acquisition execution circuit that acquires the partial data from outside the vehicle based on the map distribution plan information and stores the partial data in the storage circuit;
a specification circuit that determines
a respective map information from among the plurality of pieces of map information corresponding to a traveling position of the vehicle, the traveling position comprising a current position of the vehicle, and
a content level of the respective map information; and

a control circuit that determines a control policy of the automatic driving control of the vehicle at the traveling position of the vehicle according to the partial data included in the map information specified by the specification circuit,

wherein
a simultaneous acquisition number of the pieces of partial data is determined based on communication quality information in the predetermined geographical area during traveling, and the map information is acquired based on the simultaneous acquisition number,
the content level of the respective map information is based upon the communication quality information, and
the electronic control device executes the automatic driving control based upon an association of the content level with the control policy, and
wherein the server includes:
a map information database that includes a data size of information of a predetermined attribute regarding the road of the predetermined geographical area and information of the route for the predetermined geographical area; and
a map distribution planning circuit that creates the map distribution plan information based on the travel route received from the electronic control device and the map information database.

Assignees

• Hitachi Astemo Ltd

Inventors

• Mashimo Daisuke
• Sato Akihiko
• AMPO Keisuke

Classifications

• G01C21/3896

  Transmission of map data from central databases · CPC title

• G01C21/3815

  Road data · CPC title

• G01C21/387

  Organisation of map data, e.g. version management or database structures · CPC title

• B60W2556/40

  High definition maps · CPC title

• B60W2556/50

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