System for creating a vehicle surroundings model

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020033153-A1
Application number	US-201916441247-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 14, 2019
Priority date	Jul 25, 2018
Publication date	Jan 30, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

System for creating a surroundings model of a motor vehicle, which is or can be connected with:
at least one navigation unit, which is equipped to provide information about the instantaneous position of the vehicle and information about at least one segment of road in front of the vehicle in time and space, wherein the navigation unit provides the information in a digital map format and/or in absolute position information, at least one interface, which is equipped to communicate with at least one object to be merged in the surroundings of the vehicle, wherein the information received by the interface includes absolute position information on the at least one object to be merged, and/or at least one sensor unit, which is equipped to detect at least one object to be merged in the surroundings of the vehicle, wherein the at least one sensor unit is additionally equipped to provide relative position information on the at least one object to be merged relative to the vehicle, wherein the system is equipped to ascertain the geometry of a segment of road in front of the vehicle by using the information supplied by the at least one navigation unit about the segment of road in front of the vehicle, wherein the system is equipped to merge the absolute position information and/or the relative position information on the at least one object to be merged with information provided by the at least one navigation unit in the digital map format to create a vehicle surroundings model based on the geometry of the road thereby ascertained.

First claim

1 . A system ( 120 ) for creating a surroundings model of a motor vehicle ( 10 ), which is or can be connected with:
at least one navigation unit ( 130 ), which is equipped to provide information about the instantaneous position of the vehicle and information about at least one segment of road in front of the vehicle ( 10 ) in time and space, wherein the navigation unit ( 130 ) provides the information in a digital map format and/or in absolute position information, at least one interface ( 140 ), which is equipped to communicate with at least one object ( 14 , 22 , 24 ) to be merged in the surroundings of the vehicle, wherein the information received by the interface ( 140 ) includes absolute position information on the at least one object ( 14 , 22 , 24 ) to be merged, and/or at least one sensor unit ( 110 ), which is equipped to detect at least one object ( 14 , 22 , 24 ) to be merged in the surroundings of the vehicle, wherein the at least one sensor unit ( 110 ) is additionally equipped to provide relative position information on the at least one object ( 14 , 22 , 24 ) to be merged relative to the vehicle ( 10 ), wherein the system ( 120 ) is equipped to ascertain the geometry of a segment of road in front of the vehicle ( 10 ) by using information supplied by the at least one navigation unit ( 130 ) about the segment of road in front of the vehicle, wherein the system ( 120 ) is equipped to merge the absolute position information and/or the relative position information on the at least one object ( 14 , 22 , 24 ) to be merged with information provided by the at least one navigation unit ( 130 ) in the digital map format to create a vehicle surroundings model based on the geometry of the road thereby ascertained.

2 . The system ( 120 ) according to claim 1 , wherein the information in a digital map format is information in a path/offset format.

3 . The system ( 120 ) according to claim 1 , wherein the system ( 120 ) is equipped to transform the relative or absolute position information on the object ( 14 , 22 , 24 ) to be merged into information in the digital map format and/or wherein the system is equipped to transform the relative or absolute position information on the object ( 14 , 22 , 24 ) to be merged and the information in the digital map format into a predefined coordinate format.

4 . The system ( 120 ) according to claim 1 , wherein the system ( 120 ) is equipped to ascertain absolute position information from the relative position information on the at least one object ( 14 , 22 , 24 ) to be merged.

5 . The system ( 120 ) according to claim 4 , wherein the system ( 120 ) is equipped to ascertain the absolute position information based on the distance and additional information with respect to the segment of road and/or the object ( 14 , 22 , 24 ) to be merged if the relative position information is limited to the distance from the object ( 14 , 22 , 24 ) to be merged.

6 . The system ( 120 ) according to claim 1 , wherein the system ( 120 ) is equipped to ascertain one or more geometry points (G) whose absolute position information and/or whose position in the digital map format is/are known by using the information provided by the at least one navigation unit ( 30 ) for ascertaining the geometry of the road.

7 . The system ( 120 ) according to claim 2 , wherein the system ( 120 ) is equipped to ascertain the offset of the object ( 14 , 22 , 24 ) to be merged by merging the information about the instantaneous position of the vehicle ( 10 ) in the digital map format and the absolute or relative position information on the object ( 14 , 22 , 24 ) to be merged.

8 . The system ( 120 ) according to claim 7 , wherein the system ( 120 ) is equipped to ascertain the offset of the object ( 14 , 22 , 24 ) to be merged by using the geometry point (G) thereby ascertained or the geometry points (G) thereby ascertained.

9 . The system ( 120 ) according to claim 1 , wherein the system ( 120 ) is equipped to ascertain at least one node point (S) whose absolute or relative position information and/or whose position in the digital map format is/are known by using the information provided by the at least one navigation unit ( 130 ) for ascertaining the geometry of the road.

10 . The system ( 120 ) according to claim 9 , wherein the system ( 120 ) is equipped to estimate the geometry of the segment of road between the object ( 14 , 22 , 24 ) to be merged and the node point (S) closest to the object ( 14 , 22 , 24 ) to be merged, wherein the system ( 120 ) is additionally equipped to estimate the distance (d) between the object ( 14 , 22 , 24 ) to be merged and the node point (S) based on the estimated geometry of that segment of road.

11 . The system ( 120 ) according to claim 10 , wherein the system ( 120 ) is equipped to ascertain the offset between the node point (S) and the object ( 14 , 22 , 24 ) to be merged based on the estimated distance (d).

12 . The system ( 120 ) according to claim 10 , wherein the system ( 120 ) is equipped to estimate the course of the segment of road based on information detected by at least one or the at least one sensor unit ( 110 ) and/or based on information provided by at least one or the at least one interface ( 140 ).

13 . The system ( 120 ) according to claim 1 , wherein the system ( 120 ) is equipped to ascertain whether the object ( 14 , 22 , 24 ) to be merged is located on the same path or in the same lane ( 12 ) as the vehicle ( 10 ).

14 . The system ( 120 ) according to claim 1 , wherein the system ( 120 ) is equipped to ascertain information in the digital map format of an object ( 14 , 22 , 24 ) to be merged whose absolute position information is known by means of a relative displacement vector starting from the instantaneous absolute position information on the vehicle ( 10 ).

15 . A vehicle ( 10 ) comprising a system ( 120 ) according to claim 1 .

16 . A method for creating a surroundings model of a vehicle, wherein the method comprises the steps:
providing information about the instantaneous position of the vehicle ( 10 ) and information about at least one segment of road in front of the vehicle ( 10 ) in time and space, wherein the information is provided in a digital map format and/or in absolute position information, communicating with at least one object to be merged in the surroundings of the vehicle, wherein the received information comprises absolute position information on the at least one object ( 14 , 22 , 24 ) to be merged and/or detecting at least one object to be merged in the surroundings of the vehicle, wherein relative position information on the at least one object ( 14 , 22 , 24 ) to be merged is provided relative to the vehicle ( 10 ), ascertaining the geometry of a segment of road in front of the vehicle ( 10 ) by using the information about the segment of road in front of the vehicle ( 10 ), said information being provided by the at least one navigation unit, merging, based on the geometry of the road thereby ascertained, the absolute position information and/or the relative position information on the at least one object ( 14 , 22 , 24 ) to be merged with the information in the digital map format to create a vehicle surroundings model.

17 . The method according to claim 16 , wherein the information in a digital map format is information in a path/offset format.

18 . The method according to claim 16 , wherein the method comprises at least one of the steps:
transforming the relative or absolute position information on the object ( 14 ,

Assignees

• Zf Active Safety Gmbh

Inventors

• Schneider Georg
• Muller Thomas

Classifications

• G01C21/32 Primary

  Structuring or formatting of map data · CPC title

• G01S19/14

  specially adapted for specific applications · CPC title

• G01S19/51 Primary

  Relative positioning · CPC title

• G06F17/13

  Differential equations (using digital differential analysers G06F7/64) · CPC title

• G01C21/367 Primary

  Details, e.g. road map scale, orientation, zooming, illumination, level of detail, scrolling of road map or positioning of current position marker · CPC title