Driving lane detection device and driving lane detection method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016238705-A1
Application number	US-201615017543-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 5, 2016
Priority date	Feb 16, 2015
Publication date	Aug 18, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A driving lane detection device of the present disclosure includes: an object detector, a vehicle detector, and a driving lane detector. The object detector generates object data relating to a distance and direction from the vehicle to an object and a movement direction of the object based on one or more reflection waves that are a radar signal transmitted by a radar device and reflected by the one or more object. The vehicle detector detects each object as at least one of a parallel-running vehicle running in a same direction as the vehicle or an oncoming vehicle running in an opposite direction to the vehicle, based on the object data. The driving lane detector detects a driving lane based on the distance and direction from the vehicle to at least one of the detected parallel-running and the detected oncoming vehicles and lane information on at least one of lane widths and a number of lanes of a road on which the vehicle is running.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A driving lane detection device mountable in a vehicle, comprising:
an object detector that generates object data that is information relating to a distance from the vehicle to each of one or more objects, a direction from the vehicle to each of the one or more objects, and a movement direction of each of the one or more objects, based on one or more reflection waves that are a radar signal transmitted by a radar device and reflected by the one or more objects; a vehicle detector that detects each of the one or more objects as at least one of a parallel-running vehicle or an oncoming vehicle, based on the generated object data, the parallel-running vehicle being another vehicle that is running on a lane in a same direction as the vehicle and the oncoming vehicle being another vehicle that is running on a lane in an opposite direction to the vehicle; and a driving lane detector that detects a driving lane of the vehicle based on the distance from the vehicle to at least one of the detected parallel-running vehicle and the detected oncoming vehicle, the direction from the vehicle to at least one of the detected parallel-running vehicle and the detected oncoming vehicle, and lane information relating to at least one of lane widths and a number of lanes of a road on which the vehicle is running.

2 . The driving lane detection device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a data accumulator that accumulates therein the lane information and map data; a GPS positioning unit that generates position data of the vehicle by measuring a position of the vehicle; and a lane information acquirer that specifies the road on which the vehicle is running based on the generated position data of the vehicle and the map data accumulated in the data accumulator, reads out lane information corresponding to the specified road within the lane information from the data accumulator, and supplies the lane information to the driving lane detector.

3 . The driving lane detection device according to claim 1 , wherein
the vehicle detector performs the vehicle detection again after elapse of a predetermined period in a case where neither the parallel-running vehicle nor the oncoming vehicle is detected.

4 . The driving lane detection device according to claim 1 , wherein
the driving lane detector performs the driving lane detection of the vehicle again after elapse of a predetermined period in a case where the driving lane of the vehicle is not detected based on the distance and the direction from the vehicle to at least one of the parallel-running vehicle and the oncoming vehicle and the lane information.

5 . The driving lane detection device according to claim 1 , further comprising an object tracker that generates tracking data by continuously collecting the generated object data,
the driving lane detector detects the driving lane of the vehicle by further using the generated tracking data in a case where the driving lane of the vehicle is not detected based on the distance and the direction from the vehicle to at least one of the parallel-running vehicle and the oncoming vehicle and the lane information.

6 . The driving lane detection device according to claim 1 , further comprising a steering wheel turning detector that detects turning of a steering wheel of the vehicle, the tuning being equal to or larger than a predetermined angle, wherein
the steering wheel turning detector determines that the vehicle has switched lanes in a case where turning of the steering wheel equal to or larger than the predetermined angle is detected and where the vehicle is running in a same direction as the driving lane on which the vehicle runs before detection of the turning of the steering wheel, and the driving lane detector performs driving lane detection of the vehicle again in a case where it is determined that the vehicle has switched lanes.

7 . The driving lane detection device according to claim 2 , wherein
in a case where the lane information acquirer specifies the road on which the vehicle is running, and reads out road information corresponding to the specified road within the lane information from the data accumulator, and where the information includes information indicating that the specified road has a median strip, the vehicle detector detects each of the one or more objects as the parallel-running vehicle; and the driving lane detector detects the driving lane of the vehicle based on the distance and the direction from the vehicle to the parallel-running vehicle and the read out road information.

8 . A method for detecting a driving lane of a vehicle, comprising:
receiving one or more reflection waves that are a radar signal transmitted by a radar device and reflected by one or more objects; generating object data that is information relating to a distance from the vehicle to each of the one or more objects, a direction from the vehicle to each of the one or more objects, and a movement direction of each of the one or more objects based on the received one or more reflection waves; detecting each of the one or more objects as at least one of a parallel-running vehicle or an oncoming vehicle, based on the generated object data, the parallel-running vehicle being another vehicle that is running on a lane in a same direction as the vehicle and the oncoming vehicle being another vehicle that is running on a lane in an opposite direction to the vehicle; and detecting a driving lane of the vehicle based on the distance from the vehicle to at least one of the detected parallel-running vehicle and the detected oncoming vehicle, the direction from the vehicle to at least one of the detected parallel-running vehicle and the detected oncoming vehicle, and lane information relating to at least one of lane widths and a number of lanes in a road on which the vehicle is running.

Assignees

• Panasonic Ip Man Co Ltd

Inventors

• Mukai Hirohito
• Yui Tomohiro
• Kawai Yoshinao

Classifications

• B60W2555/00

  Input parameters relating to exterior conditions, not covered by groups B60W2552/00, B60W2554/00 · CPC title

• B60W2556/50

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

• G01S2013/9322

  using additional data, e.g. driver condition, road state or weather data · CPC title

• G01S13/931 Primary

  of land vehicles · CPC title

• G01S2013/93274

  on the side of the vehicles · CPC title