Method, apparatus and system for detecting narrow road

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-RE47834-E
Application number	US-201715655411-A
Country	US
Kind code	E1
Filing date	Jul 20, 2017
Priority date	Nov 22, 2013
Publication date	Feb 4, 2020
Grant date	Feb 4, 2020

Abstract

A method for detecting a narrow road includes calculating relative heights of points from a distance measuring sensor to a ground based on distance information. A left boundary point and a right boundary point, at which a difference in relative heights from adjacent points becomes maximal, are acquired. A road boundary line of a driving road is acquired based on the left boundary point and the right boundary point depending on a movement trajectory of the vehicle when a difference in relative heights at the left boundary point and the right boundary point is more than or equal to a reference value. A road width of the driving road is calculated based on the road boundary line. It is detected whether the driving road of the vehicle is a narrow road based on the road width.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for detecting a narrow road, comprising:
receiving, from a distance measuring sensor, distance information of points on a ground line at which a vertical surface in a driving direction of vehicle meets a ground;
calculating a relative height of the points from the distance measuring sensor to the ground based on the distance information;
acquiring a plurality of left boundary point points and a plurality of right boundary point points at which a difference in relative heights from adjacent points among the points becomes maximal;
acquiring a road boundary line lines of a driving road of the vehicle based on the left boundary point points and the right boundary point points depending on a movement trajectory of the vehicle when a difference in relative heights at one of the left boundary point points and one of the right boundary point points is more than or equal to a reference value;
calculating a road width of the driving road based on the acquired road boundary line lines of the driving road; and
determining that the driving road of the vehicle is a narrow road when the road width of the driving road is less than or equal to a reference road width,
wherein the acquiring of the road boundary lines includes:
transforming coordinates of the left boundary points and the right boundary points in a local coordinate system into coordinates in a global coordinate system based on the position of the vehicle depending on the movement trajectory of the vehicle; and
generating the road boundary lines by connecting the coordinates of the left boundary points and connecting the coordinates of the right boundary points in the global coordinate system.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a moving speed of the vehicle and steering information of the vehicle; and
calculating the movement trajectory of the vehicle based on the moving speed of the vehicle and the steering information of the vehicle.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the calculating of the movement trajectory of the vehicle includes:
acquiring a position and a heading angle of the vehicle over time, based on the moving speed of the vehicle and the steering information of the vehicle; and
calculating the movement trajectory of the vehicle based on the position and heading angle of the vehicle over time.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the calculating of the relative height includes calculating the relative height of the points from the distance measuring sensor to the ground based on a mounting height and a mounting angle of the distance measuring sensor and the distance information.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the acquiring of the road boundary line includes:
transforming coordinates of the left boundary point and the right boundary point in a local coordinate system into coordinates in a global coordinate system based on the position of the vehicle depending on the movement trajectory of the vehicle; and generating the road boundary line by connecting the coordinates of the left boundary point and connecting the coordinates of the right boundary point in the global coordinate system.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the road width is a minimum distance between the a left boundary line and the a right boundary line of the road boundary line lines.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
informing a driver of the vehicle that a driving section is a narrow road section, when the narrow road is detected.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
displaying a road shape of the detected narrow driving road of the vehicle based on the road boundary line lines, when the driving road of the vehicle is determined as the narrow road is detected.

9. A non-transitory computer readable recording medium, comprising computer executable instructions which control, when exeucted by a processor, cause the processor to perform the a method of claim 1 comprising:
receiving, from a distance measuring sensor, distance information of points on a ground line at which a vertical surface in a driving direction of a vehicle meets a ground;
calculating a relative height of the points from the distance measuring sensor to the ground based on the distance information;
acquiring a plurality of left boundary points and a plurality of right boundary points at which a difference in relative heights from adjacent points among the points becomes maximal;
acquiring road boundary lines of a driving road of the vehicle based on the left boundary points and the right boundary points depending on a movement trajectory of the vehicle when a difference in relative heights at one of the left boundary points and one of the right boundary points is more than or equal to a reference value;
calculating a road width of the driving road based on the acquired road boundary lines of the driving road; and
determining that the driving road of the vehicle is a narrow road when the road width of the driving road is less than or equal to a reference road width,
wherein the acquiring of the road boundary lines includes:
transforming coordinates of the left boundary points and the right boundary points in a local coordinate system into coordinates in a global coordinate system based on the position of the vehicle depending on the movement trajectory of the vehicle; and
generating the road boundary lines by connecting the coordinates of the left boundary points and connecting the coordinates of the right boundary points in the global coordinate system.

10. An apparatus for detecting a narrow road, comprising:
a processor; and
a memory in which at least one instruction to be executed by the processor is stored,
wherein, when the at least one instruction is executed by the processor, the processor is configured to:
a relative height calculation unit configured to calculate relative heights of points from a distance measuring sensor to a ground based on distance information of the points on a ground line at which a vertical surface in a driving direction of a vehicle received from the distance measuring sensor meets the ground;
a protruding determination unit configured to acquire a left boundary point and a right boundary point at which a difference in relative heights from adjacent points among the points is maximal and determine whether the difference in the relative heights at the left boundary point and the right boundary point is more than or equal to a reference value;
a road boundary line acquisition unit configured to acquire a road boundary line of a driving road of the vehicle based on the left boundary point and the right boundary point depending on a movement trajectory of the vehicle;
a road width calculation unit configured to calculate a road width of the driving road based on the acquired road boundary line of the driving road; and
a narrow road detection unit configured to determine whether the road width of the driving road is less than or equal to a reference road width and detect that the driving road of the vehicle is a narrow road when the road width of the driving road is less than or equal to the reference road width,

wherein the processor is further configured to transform coordinates of the left boundary point and the right boundary point in a local coordinate system into coordinates in a global coordinate system based on the position of the vehicle depending on the movement trajectory of the vehicle and generate the road boundary line in the global coordinate system.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , further comprising wherein the processor is further configured to:
a movement trajectory modeling unit configured to calculate the movement trajectory of the veh

Assignees

• Hyundai Motor Co Ltd
• Kia Motors Corp

Inventors

• Shin Ki Cheol
• Lee Chang Jae
• Jung Ee Suk

Classifications

• B60W40/06 Primary

  Road conditions · CPC title

• B60W2520/10

  Longitudinal speed · CPC title

• B60W2552/20

  Road profile, i.e. the change in elevation or curvature of a plurality of continuous road segments · CPC title

• B60W40/072

  Curvature of the road · CPC title

• G01S17/42

  Simultaneous measurement of distance and other co-ordinates (indirect measurement G01S17/46) · CPC title