Autonomous Driving Vehicle and Autonomous Driving System

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016282874-A1
Application number	US-201315032972-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 8, 2013
Priority date	Nov 8, 2013
Publication date	Sep 29, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

In an autonomous driving system in which a plurality of autonomous driving vehicles drive under the control by occlusion control, such a situation is prevented that a vehicle is disabled to drive by a failure of an external world sensor for recognizing an obstacle and stops in an occlusion region thereby to obstruct advancement of overall succeeding vehicles to remarkably degrade the efficiency of the overall transportation work. In the autonomous driving system of the present invention, an autonomous driving vehicle which detects an obstacle or a driving road by a sensor and performs autonomous driving includes sensor state evaluation means configured to evaluate a state of performance degradation of the sensor, speed and steering angle control value setting means configured to provide limit values to the driving speed and the steering angle based on a state of performance degradation of the sensor, and movement obstacle evaluation means configured to evaluate an influence on movement of other vehicles when the vehicle stops at a position at present. When the sensor suffers from performance degradation, the vehicle stops after it drives within the set limit values to the speed and the steering angle to a point at which the vehicle does not obstruct movement of other vehicles.

First claim

1 . An autonomous driving vehicle which autonomously drives with an external world recognition sensor, comprising:
map information storage means configured to store map information of a driving path of the vehicle therein; sensor state evaluation means configured to evaluate a state of performance degradation of a sensor; movement obstacle evaluation means configured to evaluate, from a position at present of the vehicle and the map information, an influence on movement of other vehicles when the vehicle stops at the position; and speed limit value setting means configured to set a limit value to a speed when the vehicle drives in response to a result of the evaluation of the sensor state evaluation means; and wherein, when the result of the evaluation of the sensor state evaluation means is within a first range, if a result of the evaluation of the movement obstacle evaluation means is without a second range, then a speed limit value is set based on the result of the evaluation of the sensor state evaluation means and then driving is continued within a range of the limit value.

2 . The autonomous driving vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein
the speed limit value setting means performs control of a steering angle; and, when the result of the evaluation of the sensor state evaluation means is within the first range, if the result of the evaluation of the movement obstacle evaluation means is without the second range, a steering angle limit value is set based on the result of the evaluation of the sensor state evaluation means and then driving is continued within a range of the limit value.

3 . The autonomous driving vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein,
when the result of the evaluation of the movement obstacle evaluation means is within the second range, the vehicle is stopped.

4 . The autonomous driving vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein
a detection area of the sensor is divided into a plurality of divisional areas and a weight is set individually to the areas and an evaluation value based on dirt of the sensor or a degree of failure is calculated for each of the areas, and the result of the evaluation by the sensor state evaluation means is obtained using a value obtained by adding a value obtained by weighting corresponding to the area to the evaluation value.

5 . The autonomous driving vehicle according to claim 2 , wherein,
when the result of the evaluation of the sensor state evaluation means satisfies a predetermined condition, the vehicle moves to a destination which is outside an occlusion section using a value of the set limit value of the steering angle.

6 . The autonomous driving vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein,
when the result of the evaluation of the sensor state evaluation means in a state in which the result satisfies a predetermined condition, a notification of the state is issued to an external control center, and route information to a destination transmitted from the control center is received.

7 . An autonomous driving system for performing control by occlusion control to move a plurality of autonomous driving vehicles by a sensor, the vehicle comprising:
sensor state evaluation means configured to detect a state of performance degradation of the sensor; rule storage means configured to store a rule which prescribes a motion to be performed by the vehicle based on a result of the evaluation of the sensor state evaluation means; and rule execution means configured to perform a motion in accordance with the rule in response to the result of the sensor state evaluation means; the sensor state evaluation means, rule storage means and rule execution means being provided on the vehicle; wherein the vehicle or the control center includes:
map information storage means configured to store map information; and
occlusion section decision means configured to decide whether or not a position at present of the own vehicle is within an occlusion section based on positional information of the own vehicle; and
the rule of the rule storage means includes a motion for setting a limit value to a speed at least based on the result of the evaluation of the sensor state evaluation means such that, when the result of the evaluation of the sensor state evaluation means satisfies a predetermined condition, if the position at present of the own vehicle is within the occlusion section, the limit value to the speed set in the rule is set and the vehicle drives within the set speed range to the outside of the occlusion section.

8 . The autonomous driving system according to claim 7 , wherein
rule creation means configured to create the rule is provided in the control center; and the rule created by the rule creation means is transmitted from the control center to and utilized by an autonomous driving vehicle.

9 . The autonomous driving system according to claim 7 , wherein
a detection area of the sensor is divided into a plurality of divisional areas and a weight is set individually to the areas and an evaluation value based on dirt of the sensor or a degree of failure is calculated for each of the areas, and the result of the evaluation by the sensor state evaluation means is obtained using a value obtained by adding a value obtained by weighting corresponding to the area to the evaluation value.

10 . The autonomous driving system according to claim 7 , wherein,
when the result of the evaluation of the sensor state evaluation means satisfies a predetermined condition, a notification of the satisfaction is issued to the control center, and the control center searches for a destination on the outside of the occlusion section and transmits route information to the destination to the vehicle.

11 . The autonomous driving system according to claim 7 , wherein,
when the result of the evaluation of the sensor state evaluation means satisfies a predetermined condition, the vehicle drives to a destination on the outside of the occlusion section using a value of a limit value to a steering angle set by the rule execution means.

12 . The autonomous driving system according to claim 7 , wherein,
when a destination is to be selected by the control center, a suitable place is selected from the map information and a section which is not the occlusion section is newly provided to update the map information and then route information to the destination in the section is transmitted to the vehicle.

13 . The autonomous driving system according to claim 7 , wherein
sensor state storage means configured to store a history of a value evaluated by the sensor state evaluation means at predetermined intervals is provided and a next delimitation time point is predicted based on route information transmitted from the control center at a predetermined timing; an evaluation value at the delimitation time point is estimated from the history of the evaluated value; when the estimated value exceeds a range set in advance, a maintenance request is transmitted to the control center; and the control center transmits route information to a position at which maintenance can be performed to the vehicle.

Assignees

• Hitachi Ltd

Inventors

• Kurata Kenichirou
• Morizane Hiroto
• Matsuo Shigeru

Classifications

• G05D1/0223 Primary

  involving speed control of the vehicle (vehicle fittings for automatically controlling, i.e. preventing speed from exceeding an arbitrarily established velocity or maintaining speed at a particular velocity, as selected by the vehicle operator B60K31/00) · CPC title

• G05D1/0088

  characterized by the autonomous decision making process, e.g. artificial intelligence, predefined behaviours (using knowledge based models G06N5/00) · CPC title

• G01S17/89

  for mapping or imaging · CPC title

• G01S13/931

  of land vehicles · CPC title

• G01S17/931

  of land vehicles · CPC title