Method for mapping the surroundings of a vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9910149-B2
Application number	US-201013499410-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 13, 2010
Priority date	Oct 2, 2009
Publication date	Mar 6, 2018
Grant date	Mar 6, 2018

Abstract

A method for mapping surroundings of a vehicle, objects in the surroundings of the vehicle being detected with the aid of sensors and particular detected objects being described by two coordinate points and also by a position fuzziness assigned to the particular coordinate point, the coordinate points and the position fuzziness values being stored in an interface in the form of data which may be accessed by driver assistance systems of the vehicle. A method is also described for ascertaining the collision probability of a vehicle with an object, in which the surroundings of the vehicle are initially mapped using the method for mapping the surroundings of a vehicle, a travel path to be traveled by the vehicle is ascertained in a subsequent step, and the degree of overlap between the object and the travel path and also the collision probability are finally determined, taking the position fuzziness into account.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for mapping surroundings of a vehicle, the method comprising:
detecting objects in the surroundings of the vehicle with the aid of sensors, wherein a detected object of the detected objects is described by two coordinate points and two position fuzziness values, wherein the two coordinate points represent opposite boundaries of the detected object, wherein each of the two position fuzziness values is determined separately, and wherein each coordinate point of the two coordinate points is associated with one distinct position fuzziness value of the two position fuzziness values determined separately; and
storing the two coordinate points and the two position fuzziness values in an interface in the form of data which may be accessed by a driver assistance system of the vehicle; and
creating a mapping of the surroundings of the vehicle based, at least in part, on the two coordinate points and the two position fuzziness values, wherein the created mapping is used to determine a collision probability of the vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein an indication of whether each of the two coordinate points describes an actual end of a line segment is additionally defined when the line segment is marked by the two coordinate points.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein a Cartesian coordinate system having a central point of a rear axle as the origin is used as a reference coordinate system.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein an abscissa of the Cartesian coordinate system is oriented in a direction of travel and an ordinate of the Cartesian coordinate system is oriented perpendicularly thereto along the rear axle.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the two coordinate points that represent opposite boundaries of the detected object are connected by a line segment that represents a delimiting line of the detected object.

6. A method for ascertaining a collision probability of a vehicle with an object, the method comprising:
(a) mapping surroundings of the vehicle by performing the following:

detecting objects in the surroundings of the vehicle with the aid of sensors, wherein a detected object of the detected objects is described by two coordinate points and two position fuzziness values, wherein the two coordinate points represent opposite boundaries of the detected object, and wherein each coordinate point of the two coordinate points is associated with one position fuzziness value of the two position fuzziness values; and
storing the two coordinate points and the two position fuzziness values in an interface in the form of data which may be accessed by a driver assistance system of the vehicle;
(b) ascertaining a travel path to be traveled by the vehicle; and
(c) determining a degree of overlap between the object and the travel path and a collision probability, taking the position fuzziness values into account, wherein only an ordinate coordinate of the coordinate point of the object is taken into account to determine the degree of overlap.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein each position fuzziness value of the two position fuzziness values is described by a Gaussian distribution.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein only the coordinate point of the object, which is located closest to the travel path, is used to determine the degree of overlap if both coordinate points which describe the object are located on the same side of the travel path.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein a collision probability of 100% is assumed if the two coordinate points of the object are located on different sides of the travel path or if one coordinate point of the two coordinate points is located in the travel path.

10. The method of claim 6 , wherein the vehicle is brought to a stop before it reaches the position of the object in the event of a collision probability of at least 30%.

11. The method of claim 6 , wherein the two coordinate points that represent opposite boundaries of the detected object are connected by a line segment that represents a delimiting line of the detected object.

12. A method for ascertaining a collision probability of a vehicle with an object, the method comprising:
(a) mapping surroundings of the vehicle by performing the following:

detecting objects in the surroundings of the vehicle with the aid of sensors, wherein a detected object of the detected objects is described by two coordinate points and two position fuzziness values, and wherein each coordinate point of the two coordinate points is associated with one position fuzziness value of the two position fuzziness values; and
storing the two coordinate points and the two position fuzziness values in an interface in the form of data which may be accessed by a driver assistance system of the vehicle;
(b) ascertaining a travel path to be traveled by the vehicle; and
(c) determining a degree of overlap between the object and the travel path and a collision probability, taking the position fuzziness values into account,
wherein side delimitations of the travel path are determined by a trajectory of a front vehicle corner and a trajectory of a side point of the vehicle that is on an opposite side of the front vehicle corner and that is located on a point of the side of the vehicle where the side of the vehicle intersects a straight line extending from a rear axle of the vehicle in a direction of the rear axle.

Assignees

• Pampus Christian
• Schmid Dirk
• Scherl Michael
• Urban Werner
• Fehse Meike
• Zimmermann Uwe
• Schoenherr Michael
• Bosch Gmbh Robert

Inventors

• Pampus Christian
• Schmid Dirk
• Scherl Michael
• Urban Werner
• Fehse Meike
• Zimmermann Uwe
• Schoenherr Michael

Classifications

• B60W50/14

  Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention · CPC title

• G01S2013/93275

  in the bumper area · CPC title

• G01S13/931 Primary

  of land vehicles · CPC title

• G01S2013/932

  using own vehicle data, e.g. ground speed, steering wheel direction · CPC title

• B62D15/0285

  Parking performed automatically · CPC title