Method for a driver assistance application

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9481374-B2
Application number	US-201314646153-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 19, 2013
Priority date	Nov 20, 2012
Publication date	Nov 1, 2016
Grant date	Nov 1, 2016

Abstract

A driver assistance system with improved fault tolerance and a method for the same are provided. An actuator control variable for a reduced driver assistance application with reduced functionality is a calculated in a second control unit in case of unavailability of an actuator control variable for the main driver assistance application with full functionality as determined by a first control unit.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for a driver assistance system, said method comprising:
with at least one sensor unit, detecting surroundings and producing corresponding sensor data;
with a first control unit, calculating a surroundings model based on the sensor data, calculating a first control variable for a first driver assistance application, and transmitting a first control signal in accordance with the first control variable;
with a second control unit, calculating a second control variable for a reduced second driver assistance application and a second control signal based on the sensor data;
with the second control unit, determining a third control signal when a current value of the first control signal is not available, wherein a value of the second control signal is used for the third control signal, or the third control signal is calculated based on the second control signal and a last transmitted value of the first control signal, or the surroundings model is transmitted to the second control unit and the third control signal is calculated based on the surroundings model; and
actuating an actuator of the driver assistance system dependent on the first control signal when the current value of the first control signal is available, and actuating the actuator dependent on the third control signal when the current value of the first control signal is not available.

2. The method according to claim 1 , characterized in that less computing time is needed for the calculating of the second control variable for the reduced second driver assistance application by the second control unit as compared to the calculating of the first control variable for the first driver assistance application by the first control unit because fewer control cases are considered in the reduced second driver assistance application than in the first driver assistance application.

3. The method according to claim 2 , characterized in that the reduced second driver assistance application does not include any comfort requirements.

4. The method according to claim 1 , characterized in that the calculating of the second control variable for the reduced second driver assistance application is performed at least twice, using respective data from different sensor units among the at least one sensor unit and/or using different calculation algorithms to respectively produce two of said second control variables, and wherein the calculating of the second control signal is based on the two second control variables.

5. The method according to claim 1 , characterized in that the at least one sensor unit comprises a processor configured to perform preprocessing of the sensor data, wherein the preprocessing includes object and free space detection, and wherein the sensor data is transmitted to the first control unit and the second control unit after the preprocessing.

6. The method according to claim 5 , characterized in that the preprocessing comprises calculating object or free space information twice respectively in accordance with a first algorithm and a different second algorithm to respectively produce redundant first and second informations, then checking the redundant first and second informations for plausibility for use by the first control unit, and then further processing and using only one of the first information or the second information for the actuating of the actuator.

7. A driver assistance system for performing the method according to claim 1 , comprising:
the at least one sensor unit configured to perform the detecting of the surroundings;
the first control unit configured to perform the calculating of the surroundings model, and to perform the calculating of the first control variable, and to perform the transmitting of the first control signal;
the actuator and an actuator control unit configured to perform the actuating of the actuator; and
the second control unit configured to perform the calculating of the second control variable and the second control signal, and to perform the determining of the third control signal, wherein the second control unit is disposed in the sensor unit or in the actuator control unit.

8. A method of operating a driver assistance system of a vehicle including at least one sensor unit, a first control unit, an actuator, and a second control unit, wherein the method comprises:
with the at least one sensor unit, detecting surroundings of the vehicle and producing corresponding sensor data;
with the first control unit, attempting to calculate a surroundings model based on the sensor data, attempting to calculate a first control variable for a first driver assistance application based on the surroundings model when the surroundings model is available, and attempting to produce a first control signal dependent on and in accordance with the first control variable when the first control variable is available;
with the second control unit, based on at least some of the sensor data calculating a second control variable for a second driver assistance application having reduced functionality compared to the first driver assistance application, and producing a second control signal dependent on and in accordance with the second control variable;
when the first control signal is not available, then with the second control unit producing a third control signal, wherein the producing of the third control signal comprises a first feature of using a value of the second control signal for the third control signal, or a second feature of calculating the third control signal based on the second control signal and a last transmitted value of the first control signal, or a third feature of providing the surroundings model from the first control unit to the second control unit and calculating the third control signal based on the surroundings model; and
actuating the actuator dependent on the first control signal when the first control signal is available, and actuating the actuator dependent on the third control signal when the first control signal is not available.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein less computing time is needed for calculating the second control variable for the second driver assistance application than for calculating the first control variable for the first driver assistance application because fewer control cases are considered in the second driver assistance application than in the first driver assistance application.

10. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the second driver assistance application does not include any driver comfort requirements and the first driver assistance application includes at least one driver comfort requirement.

11. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the at least one sensor unit includes at least two different sensor units that are different from one another, wherein the second control unit comprises or is incorporated in an actuator control unit of the driver assistance system, wherein the calculating of the second control variable for the second driver assistance application is performed in the actuator control unit at least twice to produce at least two of the second control variables respectively using the respective sensor data from the at least two different sensor units and/or using at least two different calculation algorithms, and wherein the second control signal is calculated based on the at least two second control variables.

12. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the at least one sensor unit includes a processor configured to preprocess the sensor data, wherein the method further comprises preprocessing the sensor data including performing object detection and free space detection of the se

Assignees

• Conti Temic Microelectronic Gmbh

Inventors

• Grewe Ralph
• Hegemann Stefan
• Fischer Marc
• Adomat Rolf

Classifications

• B60W2555/00

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

• B60W2050/0215

  Sensor drifts or sensor failures · CPC title

• B60W2050/0006

  Digital architecture hierarchy · CPC title

• B60W50/029 Primary

  Adapting to failures or work around with other constraints, e.g. circumvention by avoiding use of failed parts · CPC title

• B60W2554/00

  Input parameters relating to objects · CPC title