Method and control unit for robustly detecting a lane change of a vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9592829-B2
Application number	US-201013390706-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 6, 2010
Priority date	Aug 21, 2009
Publication date	Mar 14, 2017
Grant date	Mar 14, 2017

Abstract

A method for detecting a lane change of a vehicle or for providing a curvature of a target line for lane guidance of a vehicle is described, the method including a step of receiving a first piece of traffic lane information which represents an optically detected first traffic lane boundary adjacent to or in front of a left-hand vehicle side and/or receiving a second piece of traffic lane information which represents an optically detected second lane boundary adjacent to or in front of a right-hand vehicle side. The method further includes a step of detecting a lane change if the first and/or the second piece(s) of traffic lane information represent(s) a traffic lane boundary which is less than a predetermined lateral distance to a vehicle side, or ascertaining a curvature of a desired target line for lane guidance of a vehicle from the first piece of traffic lane information weighted using a first weighting factor and the second piece of traffic lane information weighted using a second weighting factor, on the basis of a correlation observation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for providing a curvature of a desired target line for a lane guidance of a vehicle, comprising:
receiving, by an optical sensor, at least one of a first piece of traffic lane information, which represents an optically detected first traffic lane boundary one of next to or in front of a left-hand vehicle side, and a second piece of traffic lane information, which represents an optically detected second traffic lane boundary one of next to or in front of a right-hand vehicle side; and
ascertaining, by an analyzing unit, a curvature of the desired target line for lane guidance of the vehicle from at least one of the first piece of traffic lane information weighted using a first weighting factor, and the second piece of traffic lane information weighted using a second weighting factor;
wherein, in the step of ascertaining:
the curvature of the desired target line is based on an addition of a first curvature weighted using the first weighting factor and of a second curvature weighted using the second weighting factor, the first curvature being derivable from the first piece of traffic lane information, and the second curvature being derivable from the second piece of traffic lane information, and
based on a comparison between (i) a correlation value that represents the first curvature from the first piece of traffic lane information and the second curvature from the second piece of traffic lane information and (ii) a predefined correlation threshold value, one of (a) an identical value is and (b) different values are used for the first weighting factor and the second weighting factor.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein in the step of ascertaining, if the comparison indicates that the correlation value exceeds the predefined correlation threshold value, the an identical value is used for the first weighting factor and the second weighting factor.

3. The method as recited in claim 2 , wherein if the correlation value is less than the predefined correlation threshold value, in the step of ascertaining, the different values are used for the first weighting factor and the second weighting factor, one of the first weighting factor and the second weighting factor for which the associated traffic lane information having a smaller averaged curvature derivative value from the curvature derivative values over multiple time intervals preceding a point in time of ascertainment being assigned a greater value.

4. The method as recited in claim 2 , wherein if the correlation value is in a predefined correlation threshold value range, in the step of ascertaining, the different values are used for the first weighting factor and the second weighting factor, one of the first weighting factor and the second weighting factor being assigned a value

W
1

=

W
0

+


R


·

(

0.5
-

W
0

)

R

ma
⁢

⁢
x

for which the associated traffic lane information has a smaller average curvature derivative value from the curvature derivative values over multiple time intervals preceding the point in time of ascertainment, and the other one of the first weighting factor and the second weighting factor is assigned the value
W N1 =1 −W 1 ,

where R represents the correlation coefficient, W 0 a weighting value for a correlation coefficient equal to zero, and R max an upper limit of the correlation coefficient.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein, in the step of ascertaining, the one of the first weighting factor or the second weighting factor associated with the first piece of traffic lane information or the second piece of traffic lane information which has a lower curvature characteristic than the other piece of traffic lane information is assigned a greater value.

6. A method for providing a curvature of a desired target line for a lane guidance of a vehicle, comprising:
receiving, by an optical sensor, at least one of a first piece of traffic lane information, which represents an optically detected first traffic lane boundary one of next to or in front of a left-hand vehicle side, and a second piece of traffic lane information, which represents an optically detected second traffic lane boundary one of next to or in front of a right-hand vehicle side; and
ascertaining, by an analyzing unit, a curvature of the desired target line for lane guidance of the vehicle from at least one of the first piece of traffic lane information weighted using a first weighting factor, and the second piece of traffic lane information weighted using a second weighting factor;
wherein:
in the step of ascertaining, the curvature of the desired target line is based on an addition of a first curvature weighted using the first weighting factor and of a second curvature weighted using the second weighting factor, the first curvature being derivable from the first piece of traffic lane information, and the second curvature being derivable from the second piece of traffic lane information, and
in the step of receiving, at least one of a third piece of traffic lane information, which represents an optically detected third traffic lane boundary to a left of the first traffic lane boundary is received and a fourth piece of traffic lane information, which represents an optically detected fourth traffic lane boundary to the right of the second traffic lane boundary is received, and in the step of ascertaining the curvature of the desired target line is ascertained from at least one of the third piece of traffic lane information weighted using a third weighting factor and from the fourth piece of traffic lane information weighted using a fourth weighting factor.

Assignees

• Roelke Volker
• Rentschler Tobias
• Bosch Gmbh Robert

Inventors

• Roelke Volker
• Rentschler Tobias

Classifications

• B62D15/0255

  Automatic changing of lane, e.g. for passing another vehicle · CPC title

• B60W30/12 Primary

  Lane keeping · CPC title

• B62D15/025

  Active steering aids, e.g. helping the driver by actively influencing the steering system after environment evaluation (B62D1/28 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B60W40/072 Primary

  Curvature of the road · CPC title