JP6509361B2 - Parking support device and parking support method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a technology for supporting parking of a vehicle.

  BACKGROUND In recent years, a parking assistance device that supports parking operations has been used so that even a beginner who is not familiar with parking can safely perform a parking operation. The parking assist device is to select an optimal parking space from among a plurality of parkable spaces to teach the driver or to guide a guidance route to the optimal parking space.

  For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a parking assistance device that calculates the presence / absence of a touch and the number of steerings for each parkable space, and instructs the driver by voice a parking space with no contact and a minimum number of steerings. . Further, Patent Document 2 discloses a method of calculating the presence or absence of a touch and the number of times of steering in the parking assistance device of Patent Document 1.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-187596 Unexamined-Japanese-Patent No. 5-2422

  Because the processing of the parking support system is complicated and advanced, it is important for the driver to properly teach the contents of the processing to the proper cooperation between the parking support system and the driver, and the realization of safe parking. It is.

  The current parking assistance is often used in semi-automatic driving where the driver carries out a parking operation based on parking guidance to an optimal parking space taught by the parking assistance device. Therefore, it is expected that the driver can easily understand the reason for judging that the parking space instructed by the parking assistance device is optimal with a sufficient amount of information.

  However, in Patent Document 1, only the voice is taught by voice to which parking space to be parked, so the driver does not sufficiently communicate to the driver why the parking space should be parked, and the driver uses the parking assist device. There was a problem that it was difficult to judge whether it is acceptable to carry out parking along the intention of

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a driver with an understanding of the reason why a specific parking space is optimal in parking assistance for teaching the optimal parking space to the driver. .

Parking assist apparatus according to the present invention comprises a captured image acquisition unit that acquires the captured image of surroundings of the vehicle from a camera mounted on the vehicle, the available parking space specifying unit for specifying a parking possible space from the captured image, a vehicle parked a guide route calculating unit for calculating a guide route for parking the vehicle can space, and determines the parking difficulty determining unit parking difficulty is difficulty of parking in a parking possible space by the induction paths, parking difficulty the basis, the recommended parking space specifying unit configured to specify a recommended parking space from the available parking space, the recommended parking space, and a parking space teaching section for teaching the driver of the vehicle with the parking difficulty by the guidance route, parking difficulty The degree determination unit determines that the degree of difficulty of parking is higher as the movement distance between the steerings until the parking of the vehicle is completed along the guidance route is shorter .

Parking assist method according to the present invention, a guide route to get the captured image of the surroundings of the vehicle from a camera mounted on the vehicle to identify available parking space from the captured image, the vehicle is parked in the parking cars available space calculated, to determine the parking difficulty is difficulty of parking in a parking possible space by the induction path, to identify a recommended parking space from the available parking space based on the parking difficulty, the recommended parking space, the parking by the guidance route teach the driver of the vehicle with difficulty, the shorter the moving distance between the steering to complete the parking of the vehicle along a guidance route, increasing determining a parking difficulty.

Parking assist apparatus according to the present invention comprises a captured image acquisition unit that acquires the captured image of surroundings of the vehicle from a camera mounted on the vehicle, the available parking space specifying unit for specifying a parking possible space from the captured image, a vehicle parked a guide route calculating unit for calculating a guide route for parking the vehicle can space, and determines the parking difficulty determining unit parking difficulty is difficulty of parking in a parking possible space by the induction paths, parking difficulty the basis, the recommended parking space specifying unit configured to specify a recommended parking space from the available parking space, the recommended parking space, and a parking space teaching section for teaching the driver of the vehicle with the parking difficulty by the guidance route, parking difficulty degree determination unit, as the moving distance between the steering to complete the parking of the vehicle along a guidance route is short, you increase determined parking difficulty. Therefore, the driver can determine whether or not to park in the recommended parking space with reference to the parking difficulty.

Parking assist method according to the present invention, a guide route to get the captured image of the surroundings of the vehicle from a camera mounted on the vehicle to identify available parking space from the captured image, the vehicle is parked in the parking cars available space calculated, to determine the parking difficulty is difficulty of parking in a parking possible space by the induction path, to identify a recommended parking space from the available parking space based on the parking difficulty, the recommended parking space, the parking by the guidance route teach the driver of the vehicle with difficulty, the shorter the moving distance between the steering to complete the parking of the vehicle along a guidance route, increasing determining a parking difficulty. Therefore, the driver can determine whether or not to park in the recommended parking space with reference to the parking difficulty.

  The objects, features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent from the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a parking assistance device according to a first embodiment and the periphery thereof. It is a flowchart which shows the whole operation | movement of a parking assistance apparatus. It is a figure which shows the hardware constitutions of a parking assistance apparatus. It is a figure explaining the detection method of parking possible space. It is a figure explaining the detection method of parking possible space. It is a figure explaining the detection method of parking possible space. It is a flow chart which shows evaluation processing of parking possible space. It is a figure explaining the calculation method of the guidance course to a parking possible space. It is a figure explaining the calculation method of the number of times of steering. It is explanatory drawing of a parking difficulty. It is a flow chart which shows specific processing of recommendation parking space. It is a figure which shows a head unit and an instrument panel. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of recommended parking space. It is a figure which shows the creation method of the bird's-eye view displayed on an instrument panel. It is a figure which shows the example of a display when a driver selects another parking possible space. The block diagram of the parking assistance apparatus comprised by the combination of a vehicle-mounted apparatus and a server is shown. It is a block diagram which shows the parking assistance apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 2, and the structure of the periphery of it. It is a figure which shows the image of a preference database. It is a flowchart which shows the whole operation | movement of a parking assistance apparatus. It is a flowchart which shows the acquisition process of the driver | operator's preference information by a personal identification part. It is a figure which shows the registration screen of a driver | operator's preference information. It is a figure which shows the registration screen of a driver | operator's preference information. It is a flowchart which shows the calculation process of the preference matching degree by a preference matching degree calculation part. It is a flowchart which shows the outline | summary of the recommendation parking space identification process by a recommendation parking space identification part. It is a flowchart which shows the selection process of a recommended parking space 1st candidate. It is a flowchart which shows the selection process of a recommended parking space 2nd candidate. It is a flow chart which shows selection processing of recommendation parking space. It is a figure which shows the example of teaching of the recommended parking space in a parking space teaching part. It is a figure which shows the example of teaching of the recommended parking space in a parking space teaching part. FIG. 16 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a parking assistance device according to a modification of the second embodiment and the periphery thereof. FIG. 16 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a parking assistance device according to a modification of the second embodiment and the periphery thereof.

<A. Embodiment 1>
<A-1. Overall configuration>
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a parking assistance apparatus 101 according to the first embodiment and the periphery thereof, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an overall operation of the parking assistance apparatus 101.

  The parking assistance device 101 includes a photographed image acquisition unit 11, a distance calculation unit 12, a parking available space identification unit 13, a parking available space evaluation unit 14, a recommended parking space identification unit 17, and a parking space teaching unit 18.

  The photographed image acquiring unit 11 acquires a photographed image of the image photographing unit 41 (step S11), and outputs the photographed image to the distance calculating unit 12. Here, the image photographing unit 41 is a camera using, for example, a CCD area sensor or the like, which is mounted on the vehicle 30 and photographs the rear of the vehicle 30.

  The distance calculation unit 12 calculates distance data from the photographed image of the image photographing unit 41 (photographed image of a predetermined area including the parking space) to the object, and transmits the calculated data to the parkable space specifying unit 13.

  The parkable space identification unit 13 identifies the parkable space using the distance data calculated by the distance calculation unit 12 (step S12), and outputs information on the parkable space to the parking available space evaluation unit 14.

  The parking available space evaluation unit 14 evaluates each parking available space (step S13), and outputs the evaluation result to the recommended parking space identification unit 17. The parkable space evaluation unit 14 includes a guidance route calculation unit 15 that calculates a guidance route to the parking available space, and a parking difficulty determination unit 16 that determines the parking difficulty of the parking available space, and the evaluation here Is the calculation of the guidance route and the determination of the parking difficulty.

  The recommended parking space identifying unit 17 identifies the optimum parking available space as a recommended parking space based on the evaluation result of each parking available space (step S14), and outputs information on the recommended parking space to the parking space teaching unit 18 .

  The parking space teaching unit 18 teaches a recommended parking space (step S15).

  FIG. 3 shows the hardware configuration of the parking assistance device 101. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, the parking assistance device 101 is realized by the processor 51, the memory 52, and the receiving unit 53. Processor 51 is stored in memory 52 such as RAM (Random Access Memory) for distance calculation unit 12, parking available space identification unit 13, parking available space evaluation unit 14, recommended parking space identification unit 17, and parking space teaching unit 18 By executing the program, it is realized as a function of the processor 51. However, these may be realized, for example, in cooperation with a plurality of processors 51. In addition, the photographed image acquisition unit 11 is realized by the reception unit 53.

<A-2. Configuration of each part>
The distance calculation unit 12 calculates distance data to the object for each direction from the image data of the captured image acquired by the captured image acquisition unit 11 and transmits the calculated data to the parking available space identification unit 13. The calculated distance data is represented by data of distance R and azimuth θ. An ECU is assumed as a device for calculating the distance.

  The parking available space identification unit 13 converts the distance data received from the distance calculation unit 12 into an xy orthogonal coordinate system. The x axis and the y axis are orthogonal to each other, and the origin of these axes is the center of the angle of view of the CCD area sensor.

FIGS. 4 to 6 are diagrams for explaining the process for specifying the parking available space by the parking available space identification unit 13 (step S12 in FIG. 2). As shown in FIG. 4, when the vehicle is already parked in some of the parking spaces of the parking lot, the parking available space identification unit 13 identifies a vacant space among the parking spaces, that is, a parking available space. The distance data of the xy Cartesian coordinate system indicates the distance between the vehicle and the already parked vehicle. The parking space identification unit 13 performs the least squares method on the distance data to obtain x = A ₁ · y + B ₁ . Furthermore, the second least squares method is performed on distance data satisfying x <A ₁ · y + B ₁ to obtain x = A ₂ · y + B ₂ , which is taken as the front boundary of the parking space.

Next, the left and right edges are detected with respect to the front boundary of the parking space by the method shown in FIG. Specifically, the distance [Delta] x _i between the distance data and the parking space front boundary line drawn by the formula (1).

Here, x _i = R _i · cos (θ _i ), y _i = R _i · sin (θ _i ). Next, the threshold value Th is set to, for example, 0.6 m, and the distance data is scanned, and if Δx _{i −1} > Th and Δx _i ≦ Th, then the ith coordinate is the right edge coordinate, Δx _i−1 ≦ Th and If ΔX _i > Th, the ith coordinate is detected as the left edge coordinate.

Next, the left and right edges of the parking space are projected onto the front boundary of the parking space to calculate the center coordinates and width of the empty parking space (see FIG. 6). Assuming that the right edge coordinate after projection is (Gx ₁ (i), GY ₁ (i)) and the left edge coordinate after projection is (Gx ₂ (i), GY ₂ (i)), the center of each empty parking space The coordinates GX (i), GY (i), and the width W (i) can be calculated by the equations (2) to (4).

  Then, the width W (i) of the empty parking space is compared with the vehicle width WC, and if W (i)> WC + β, the empty parking space is detected as the parking available space. If W (i) ≦ WC + β, it is determined that the empty parking space is not a parking available space. Here, β is a clearance.

  The parking available space evaluation unit 14 includes a guidance route calculation unit 15 that calculates a guidance route to each parking available space, and a parking difficulty determination unit 16 that determines the parking difficulty of each parking available space. And it evaluates about each parking possible space specified by the parking possible space specific part 13. FIG.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the evaluation process (step S13 in FIG. 2). First, the parking available space evaluation unit 14 determines whether the evaluation for all the parking available spaces is completed (step S131), and if it is not completed, the guidance route is calculated for the unrated parking available spaces (step S132). And the number of steerings until parking completion is calculated (step S133).

  The guidance route calculation unit 15 calculates a guidance route to each parking available space using the equation of state of equation (5).

  Here, α indicates the steering angle of the vehicle, L indicates the wheel base of the vehicle 30, (x, y) indicates the position of the vehicle, and θ indicates the attitude angle of the vehicle (see FIG. 8). Further, in this equation, the number of updates of α from the initial state to the induction completion state corresponds to the number of steerings (see FIG. 9).

  Next, the parking difficulty determination unit 16 calculates the parking difficulty of each parking available space (step S134). FIG. 10 is an explanatory view of the parking difficulty level. FIGS. 10 (a) and 10 (b) show the guidance route when parking in the parkable space, and three times in any of the examples shown in FIGS. 10 (a) and 10 (b). Parking is completed by the number of steering maneuvers. However, in the case of FIG. 10A, since the movement distance between each steering is shorter than in the case of FIG. 10B, a precise parking operation is required. Specifically, an error in the simulation becomes large due to excessive depression of the accelerator or delayed depression of the brake, and as a result, there is a high possibility that the parking failure will occur, and therefore it can be said that the parking difficulty is high.

  Therefore, the parking difficulty level determination unit 16 calculates the parking difficulty level evaluation value C by the sum of reciprocals of the movement distance between the steerings (equation (6)).

  Here, N indicates the number of steerings, and dist (i) indicates the movement distance from the i-th steering to the i + 1-th steering. The parking difficulty level evaluation value C indicates a larger value as the movement distance between the steerings is shorter. When the number of times of steering is three, C = 1 / (1 → second moving distance) + 1 / (2 → third moving distance).

  Here, since the vehicle stop position in the first steering varies depending on the driver, it is considered that the movement distance from the first steering to the second steering includes a large error. Therefore, the travel distance of the steering 1 → the second time may be excluded from the calculation of the parking difficulty C. The parking difficulty level evaluation value C in that case is expressed by equation (7).

  When evaluation (calculation of a guidance route, calculation of a parking difficulty level evaluation value) is completed for all the parking available spaces, the evaluation processing of the parking available space ends.

  FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing identification processing of the recommended parking space by the recommended parking space identification unit 17 (step S14 of FIG. 2). Hereinafter, the process of specifying the recommended parking space will be described with reference to FIG. First, the recommended parking space identifying unit 17 determines whether the process has been completed for all the parkable spaces (step S141). If there is an unprocessed parking available space, the following process is performed for the parking available space. First, it is determined whether the parking difficulty level evaluation value C is less than a predetermined upper limit (step S142). If the parking difficulty level evaluation value C is equal to or higher than the predetermined upper limit value, the process returns to step S141, and if lower than the predetermined upper limit value, the upper limit value is updated with the parking difficulty level evaluation value C (step S143). Then, the parking available space is determined as a recommended parking space (step S144). By performing this process for all the available parking spaces, the available parking space with the smallest parking difficulty evaluation value C is finally determined as the recommended parking space.

  The parking space teaching unit 18 teaches a recommended parking space using the head unit 32 and the instrument panel 33 in front of the steering wheel 31 shown in FIG. 12 (step S15 in FIG. 2). As shown in FIG. 13A, the head unit 32 displays a recommended parking space superimposed on the camera image at the rear of the vehicle captured by the image capturing unit 41. In addition, the parking difficulty when parking to the recommended parking space along the guidance route is displayed together with the recommended parking space. Here, the parking difficulty is classified into five levels from the parking difficulty evaluation value C, and the parking difficulty is indicated in five levels. Therefore, the driver can determine whether to park in the recommended parking space with reference to the parking difficulty. The instrument panel 33 displays a bird's-eye view of the vehicle and the parking space as shown in FIG. In this bird's-eye view, parking available spaces (1) and (2) are shown, of which parking available space (1) is determined as a recommended parking space, and a guidance route to that is shown. The driver can see this display and understand the driving operation for parking to the recommended parking section.

  In addition, the parking space teaching unit 18 detected “two places where parking can be performed. (1) requires 3 steerings and the parking difficulty is 2. Unless there is a specific reason ((1) You may output a voice like "Recommend parking to 1)" etc.

  In addition, the bird's-eye view image shown to FIG. 13B can be created based on the distance data obtained from the distance calculation part 12, as shown in FIG. FIG. 14 (a) shows distance data obtained from the distance calculation unit 12, and FIG. 14 (b) shows a bird's-eye view used for displaying the instrument panel 33. FIG.

  Since the teaching is performed as described above, the driver can determine whether or not to park in the recommended parking space after knowing the number of steering times and parking difficulty of the recommended parking space presented. In the example of FIG. 13, when the driver wants to park in a place other than the recommended parking space, for example, the user can select the parking available space (2) by an operation such as touching the screen or pressing a specific switch. Also good. An example of the screen display in that case is shown in FIG. FIG. 15A shows a display example of the head unit 32, and FIG. 15B shows a display example of the instrument panel 33. In this case, as shown in FIG. 15A, the parking available space (2) is displayed as the selected parking space, and the number of steerings and the degree of difficulty of the parking available space (2) are displayed on the head unit 32. Further, as shown in FIG. 15 (b), the guidance route to the parking available space (2) is displayed on the instrument panel 33 in a bird's-eye view. Then, from the speakers mounted on the vehicle, "two places where parking can be detected were detected. (2) Three steerings are required, and the moving distance between the steerings is short, so careful operation is necessary, so the parking difficulty level is It is 3. If there is no reason in particular, parking is recommended to (1).

<A-3. Modified example>
In the above description, the processor 51 of FIG. 3 is stored in the memory 52 or the like for the distance calculation unit 12, the parking available space identifying unit 13, the parking available space evaluating unit 14, the recommended parking space identifying unit 17 and the parking space teaching unit 18 It is realized by operating according to the software program. However, instead of this, the distance calculation unit 12, the parking available space identification unit 13, the parking available space evaluation unit 14, the recommended parking space identification unit 17, and the parking space teaching unit 18 realize the operation by an electric circuit of hardware. It may be realized by a signal processing circuit. Software distance calculation unit 12, parking available space identification unit 13, parking available space evaluation unit 14, recommended parking space identification unit 17, parking space teaching unit 18, hardware distance computation unit 12, parking available space identification unit 13, As a concept combining the parking available space evaluation unit 14, the recommended parking space identification unit 17 and the parking space teaching unit 18, the word “processing circuit” can be used instead of the word “part”.

  In FIG. 1, the entire configuration of the parking assistance device 101 has been described as being mounted on the vehicle 30, but each configuration is shared not only with the on-vehicle device but also with a portable terminal such as a smartphone or PDA, a server, etc. Also good. FIG. 16 is a block diagram of the parking assistance device 101 configured as a combination of the in-vehicle device and the server. In FIG. 16, the photographed image acquisition unit 11 and the parking space teaching unit 18 are configured by an on-vehicle device, and the distance calculation unit 12, the parking available space identification unit 13, the parking available space evaluation unit 14 and the recommended parking space identification unit 17 are servers. It is configured.

<A-4. Effect>
The parking assistance device 101 according to the first embodiment includes a captured image acquisition unit 11 that acquires a captured image of the surroundings of the vehicle from a camera mounted on the vehicle, and a parkable space identification unit that identifies a parkable space from the captured image. 13 and a guidance route calculation unit 15 that calculates a guidance route for parking the vehicle in the parkable space, and a parking difficulty determination unit 16 that determines the difficulty of parking in the parking available space by the guidance route as the parking difficulty And a recommended parking space identifying unit 17 for identifying a recommended parking space from the parking available space, and a parking space teaching unit 18 for teaching the recommended parking space to the driver of the vehicle along with the parking difficulty according to the guidance route. Therefore, the driver can determine whether to park in the recommended parking space based on the degree of parking difficulty.

  In addition, the parking difficulty determination unit 16 calculates the sum of reciprocals of the movement distances between the respective steerings until the parking of the vehicle is completed along the guidance route, and determines the parking difficulty based on the sum. As the movement distance between the steerings is shorter, there is a high possibility that the parking failure will occur due to a slight deviation of the timing of the parking operation, and in such a case, the parking difficulty can be determined high.

  In addition, the parking difficulty level determination unit 16 excludes the reciprocal of the movement distance between the first steering and the second steering along the guidance route from the calculation of the sum, so that the vehicle stop position at the first steering can be obtained. It is possible to exclude the error and accurately determine the parking difficulty.

  Further, when the image capturing unit 41 is a camera for capturing the rear of the vehicle, the captured image of the camera can be displayed on the head unit 32 at the time of backward parking, so it is easy to perform parking while viewing the image.

  In addition, the parking assistance method according to the first embodiment acquires a captured image of the surroundings of the vehicle from a camera mounted on the vehicle, identifies a parkable space from the captured image, and parks the vehicle in the parkable space. The guidance route is calculated, the difficulty of parking to the parking available space by the guidance route is determined as the parking difficulty, the recommended parking space is specified from the parking available space, and the recommended parking space is the vehicle along with the parking difficulty by the guidance route Teach the driver of Therefore, the driver can determine whether to park in the recommended parking space based on the degree of parking difficulty.

<B. Second Embodiment>
<B-1. Configuration>
FIG. 17 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the parking assistance apparatus 102 according to the second embodiment. In addition to the configuration of the parking assistance device 101 according to the first embodiment, the parking assistance device 102 includes a personal identification unit 19, a preference database 20, and a preference matching degree calculation unit 21.

  An image of the preference database 20 is shown in FIG. In the preference database 20, driver preference data is registered. The driver preference data includes a set of a driver image (face image or fingerprint image), a driver name and a driver preference (a plurality of settings can be made and the higher the priority is, the higher the priority is). As in a general database, data can be added, deleted, or corrected, but driver preferences are limited to those that can be evaluated by a preference matching degree calculation unit 21 described later. The driver can freely select from among the limited driver preference data.

  Although an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) is assumed as a device for the preference database 20, a cloud or a server may be used instead of the device. Although driver image data is assumed to be a bitmap, a lossless compressed image format such as PNG may be used for capacity reduction. The driver preference data can be expressed in integer type. This is because, as described above, the driver preference data is limited. For example, driver preference data may be pre-divided such as "I do not want to park next to a luxury car: 1" and "I want to park in the shade: 2". Because it is possible to associate with an integer.

  The personal identification unit 19 identifies the driver, and refers to the preference database 20 to acquire driver preference information.

  The preference matching degree calculation unit 21 calculates a preference matching degree of each parking available space by an image recognition algorithm based on the image data received from the photographed image acquisition unit 11 and the preference information received from the personal identification unit 19.

<B-2. Operation>
FIG. 19 is a flowchart showing an overall operation of the parking assistance device 102. The parking assistance apparatus 102 acquires a captured image (step S21), specifies a parking available space (step S22), and evaluates the parking available space (step S23). These steps are similar to those of the parking assistance device 101 according to the first embodiment.

  Next, the personal identification unit 19 acquires driver's preference information (step S24). FIG. 20 is a flowchart showing acquisition processing of the driver's preference information by the personal identification unit 19. The personal identification unit 19 first acquires driver information when acquiring driver preference information (step S241). Although authentication by image recognition such as face authentication and fingerprint authentication is generally used as a method of acquiring driver information, authentication by a SIM card built in a smartphone may be used. In the case of face authentication, a face image of the driver may be taken by a camera 34 attached to the upper part of the instrument panel 33, and the taken image may be transmitted to the personal identification unit 19. In the case of fingerprint authentication, a fingerprint image of the driver may be acquired by a fingerprint acquisition sensor attached to the handle 31, and the fingerprint image may be transmitted to the personal identification unit 19. In the case of the authentication by the SIM card, the SIM card may be inserted into the SIM card slot attached to the handle 31 and the personal information may be transmitted to the personal identification unit 19.

  Next, the personal identification unit 19 collates the driver information with the information registered in the preference database 20, and there is preference information matching the driver information, that is, whether or not the preference information of the driver is registered. It is determined (step S242). If the driver's preference information is registered as a result of the collation, the preference information is acquired (step S244) and transmitted to the preference matching degree calculation unit 21. If the driver's preference information is not registered, the preference information is newly registered in the preference database 20 (step S243), and the preference information is acquired (step S244).

  FIG. 21 shows a registration screen of the driver's preference information displayed on the instrument panel 33. When the driver's preference information is already registered in the preference database 20, the preference information is displayed on the instrument panel 33. On the other hand, if the preference information of the driver is not yet registered in the preference database 20, a screen for prompting registration of the preference information is displayed on the instrument panel 33. For a photograph of the driver's face, a photographed image of the camera 34 installed above the instrument panel 33 is used.

  Note that preference information can not be registered redundantly. If duplicate registration is attempted, as shown in FIG. 22, the pop-up display rises and a warning is given to the driver.

  Referring back to FIG. 19, in step S25, the preference matching degree calculation unit 21 calculates the preference matching degree for each parking available space based on the preference information acquired in step S24. FIG. 23 is a flowchart showing the process of calculating the degree of preference coincidence by the degree of preference coincidence calculation unit 21. The preference matching degree calculation unit 21 determines whether the preference matching degree has been calculated for all pieces of preference information (step S251).

  If there is preference information for which the preference matching degree has not been calculated, the preference matching degree is calculated for the preference information (step S252). The preference matching degree calculation unit 21 executes an image recognition algorithm on the captured image acquired by the captured image acquisition unit 11, and determines how much each parking available space matches the driver's preference. Here, the reason why image recognition is used to calculate the degree of preference matching is that humans mainly determine their preferences based on information from vision. For example, if the driver preference is "do not want to park next to a luxury car", the vehicle models of all the detected vehicles are specified to calculate the degree of preference coincidence. If the driver's preference is "I want to park in the shade", a region darker than the surroundings is specified to calculate the degree of preference matching. If the driver's preference is "do not want to park next to a large car", the character of the license plate of the car is recognized to specify the car type, and the degree of preference coincidence is calculated. Thus, the preference matching degree calculation unit 21 is implemented with an image recognition algorithm for calculating the preference matching degree corresponding to each piece of preference information.

  The degree of preference matching is normalized with a value of 0.0 to 1.0. If it is 0.0, it is not matched at all, and if it is 1.0, it is completely matched. If the image recognition fails and the preference matching degree can not be calculated (step S253: No), the preference matching degree is set to 99 (step S254).

  The calculated preference matching degree is transmitted to the recommended parking space identifying unit 17. When the calculation of the preference matching degree is completed for all the preference information (step S251: Yes), the preference matching degree calculation processing ends.

  Referring back to FIG. 19, after the preference matching degree is calculated, the recommended parking space identifying unit 17 identifies a recommended parking space (step S26). In the first embodiment, the recommended parking space identifying unit 17 identifies the one having the lowest parking difficulty as the recommended parking space, but in the second embodiment, considering the degree of preference coincidence and the number of steerings in addition to the parking difficulty. Identify the recommended parking space.

  FIG. 24 is a flowchart showing an outline of recommended parking space identification processing by the recommended parking space identification unit 17. The recommended parking space identification process will be described below. The recommended parking space identifying unit 17 first selects one having a high degree of preference agreement as a recommended parking space first candidate from the parking available space (step S261). Next, the recommended parking space first candidate is selected as the recommended parking space second candidate from among the recommended parking space first candidates (step S262). Then, from the recommended second parking space candidates, the one with the lowest degree of parking difficulty is determined as the recommended parking space (step S263).

  FIG. 25 is a flowchart showing selection processing of a recommended parking space first candidate (step S261 in FIG. 24). Hereinafter, selection processing of the recommended parking space first candidate will be described. The recommended parking space identifying unit 17 determines whether or not the selection process of the recommended parking space first candidate has been completed for all the parkable spaces (step S2611). Perform the processing of That is, it is determined whether the driver's preference information exists (step S2612). If the preference information does not exist, the parkable space under processing is registered as a recommended parking space first candidate (step S2613), and the process returns to step S2611.

  If the preference information is present, it is determined whether or not the preference matching degree determination process has been completed for all the existing preference information (step S2614). If the preference matching degree determination process has not been completed, the process advances to step S 2615 for the unjudged preference information.

  In step S2615, it is determined whether or not the degree of preference match is equal to or greater than the threshold, and if the degree of preference match is equal to or greater than the threshold, the parkable space under processing is registered as a recommended parking space first candidate (step S2616). ). If the degree of preference matching is less than the threshold, the process returns to step S2614. If there is other unprocessed preference information, the degree of preference matching is determined for the preference information (step S2615). Therefore, when the preference match degree of the parking available space is equal to or higher than the threshold with respect to any preference information, the parking available space is selected as a recommended parking space first candidate.

  If the above processing is completed about all the parking possible spaces (Step S2611: Yes), selection processing of a recommendation parking space first candidate is ended. According to the above process, all the available parking spaces are selected as the recommended first parking space candidates when the preference information does not exist, and when the preference information exists, the degree of preference coincidence with any one of the preference information is equal to or more than the threshold The available parking space is selected as a recommended parking space first candidate.

  FIG. 26 is a flowchart showing selection processing of a recommended second parking space candidate (step S262 in FIG. 24). Hereinafter, the selection processing of the selection processing of the second recommended parking space candidate will be described. The recommended parking space identification unit 17 determines whether the process of selecting the recommended second parking space candidate has been completed for all the recommended first parking space candidates (step S2621). The following processing is performed for the first space candidate. That is, it is determined whether the number of times of steering of the first recommended parking space candidate is equal to or less than the upper limit value (step S2622). Here, the initial value of the upper limit value of the number of steerings is set in advance. If the number of steerings is equal to or less than the upper limit value, the upper limit value is updated with the number of steerings of the recommended parking space first candidate (step S2623), and the recommended parking space first candidate is selected as the recommended parking space second candidate (step S2624), the process returns to step S2621.

  On the other hand, if the number of steerings is equal to or more than the upper limit value, the process returns to step S2621 as it is. Then, when the selection process of the recommended second parking space candidate is completed for all the first recommended parking space candidates, the process of selecting the second recommended parking space candidate is ended. According to the above process, the recommended parking space first candidate having the smallest number of steerings is selected as the recommended parking space second candidate.

  FIG. 27 is a flowchart showing selection processing of a recommended parking space (step S263 in FIG. 24). Hereinafter, identification processing of the recommended parking space will be described. The recommended parking space identifying unit 17 determines whether a second candidate for a recommended parking space exists (step S2631). If the second recommended parking space candidate does not exist, the processing is ended without selecting the recommended parking space. If the recommended second parking zone candidate exists, it is judged whether or not the specification process of the recommended parking space is completed for all the recommended second recommended parking space candidates (step S2632). The following processing is performed for the parking space second candidate. That is, it is determined whether the parking difficulty level evaluation value of the second recommended parking space candidate is less than the upper limit (step S2633). Here, the initial value of the upper limit of the parking difficulty level evaluation value is set in advance. If the parking difficulty level evaluation value is equal to or more than the upper limit value, the process returns to step S2632. On the other hand, if the parking difficulty evaluation value is less than the upper limit, the upper limit is updated with the parking difficulty evaluation value of the second recommended parking space candidate (step S2634), and the second recommended parking space candidate is recommended (Step S2635), and the process returns to step S2632.

  In addition, the parking difficulty level evaluation value of each parking available space is obtained by the parking difficulty level determination unit 16, and the details thereof are as described in the first embodiment.

  When the process of identifying the recommended parking space is completed for all the second recommended parking space candidates, the process of identifying the recommended parking space ends. By the above processing, the second recommended parking space candidate having the smallest parking difficulty evaluation value is specified as the recommended parking space.

  28 and 29 are diagrams showing an example of teaching the recommended parking space in the parking space teaching unit 18. FIG. 28 shows the teaching of the recommended parking space when the driver's preference is "I do not want to park next to a luxury car". The parking space teaching unit 18 teaches a recommended parking space using the head unit 32 and the instrument panel 33 in front of the steering wheel 31 (see FIG. 12). FIG. 28 (a) shows the display screen of the head unit 32, and FIG. 28 (b) shows the display screen of the instrument panel 33. As shown in FIG. The instrument panel 33 displays a bird's eye view showing a recommended parking section, a guidance route, and a vehicle. In FIG. 28 (b), the parking available space is shown by (1) and (2), but (2) does not match the driver's preference because a luxury car is parked next to it. Therefore, (1) is taught as a recommended parking space. In addition, the head unit 32 displays a camera image of the recommended parking space superimposed on the camera image at the rear of the vehicle captured by the image capturing unit 41, and further displays the number of steerings “3 times” and the degree of parking difficulty “3”. Ru. In addition, the parking space teaching unit 18 detected one possible parking space that matches the driver's preference "I do not want to park next to a luxury car" from the speakers mounted on the vehicle. (1) requires three steering maneuvers. The parking difficulty is 3 because the movement distance before and after steering is short. " In this way, the driver knows that the presented recommended parking space matches his own preference "I do not want to park next to a luxury car", but the parking difficulty level is high, and then the recommended parking space It can be determined whether or not parking should be made.

  FIG. 29 shows the teaching of the recommended parking space when the driver's preference is "I want to park in the shade". 29 (a) shows the display screen of the head unit 32, and FIG. 29 (b) shows the display screen of the instrument panel 33 as in FIG. In FIG. 29 (b), the parking available space is indicated by (1) and (2), but (1) does not match the driver's preference because it is not shaded. Therefore, (2) is taught as a recommended parking space. In addition, the head unit 32 displays a camera image of the recommended parking space superimposed on the camera image of the rear of the vehicle captured by the image capturing unit 41 and displays the number of steerings “3 times” and the degree of parking difficulty “2”. Ru. In addition, the parking space teaching unit 18 detected one possible parking space that matches the driver's preference "I want to park in the shade" from the speakers mounted on the vehicle. (2) requires three steering maneuvers. It outputs the voice that parking difficulty is 2 ". As a result, the driver knows that the presented recommended parking space conforms to his / her preference for "parking in the shade" and the parking difficulty is not high, and whether or not to park in the recommended parking space It can be judged.

<B-3. Modified example>
In the above description, the image photographing unit 41 has been described as a camera for photographing the rear of the vehicle 30. However, since the image capturing unit 41 only needs to be able to capture the parking space, it may be a camera that captures the front or side of the vehicle 30 instead of the rear. When the image capturing unit 41 is a camera that captures the rear of the vehicle 30, the captured image of the camera can be displayed on the head unit 32 when parking backward, so it is easy to park while viewing the image. There is an advantage.

  Further, as in the parking assistance device 103 shown in FIG. 30, the image capturing unit 41 may be a combination of a camera that captures the rear of the vehicle 30 and a camera that captures the front of the vehicle 30. The arrow from the image capturing unit 41 to the captured image acquisition unit 41 added in FIG. 30 is not shown. In this case, since information of the recommended parking space can be superimposed on the image in front of the vehicle and displayed on the head unit 32 when parking forward, the recommended parking can be easily understood in either case of forward parking or backward parking Space information can be presented to the driver. In addition, using a camera that shoots in multiple directions has the advantage of being able to quickly and accurately acquire an image of the parking space.

  Further, as in the parking assistance device 104 shown in FIG. 31, the image capturing unit 41 may be a combination of a camera that captures the rear of the vehicle 30 and a camera that captures the side (right and left) of the vehicle 30. By photographing the side of the vehicle 30, a bird's-eye view on the instrument panel 33 can be created with high accuracy, and calculation of preference matching degree by image recognition can be performed with high accuracy.

<B-4. Effect>
The parking support apparatus 102 according to the second embodiment includes, in addition to the configuration of the parking support apparatus 101 according to the first embodiment, a personal authentication unit 19 (a preference acquisition unit) that acquires a preference for a parking space of a driver of a vehicle. And a preference matching degree calculation unit 21 for calculating a preference matching degree indicating how much the parkable space matches the preference based on the photographed image, and the recommended parking space identifying unit 17 is capable of parking based on the preference matching degree Identify the recommended parking space from space. Therefore, it is possible to teach a recommended parking space tailored to the driver's preference.

  Further, the recommended parking space specifying unit 17 specifies the recommended parking space from the parking available space where the degree of preference coincidence is equal to or more than the threshold, and the preference coincidence degree calculation unit 21 fails in the calculation of the degree of preference coincidence. Force is set to a value above the threshold. Therefore, even if the preference matching degree can not be calculated because of failure in image recognition or the like, it is possible to specify a recommended parking space.

  In addition, the parking space teaching unit 18 teaches the preference that is the basis for identifying the recommended parking space specifying the recommended parking space when teaching the recommended parking space to the driver of the vehicle. Therefore, the driver can determine whether or not to park in the recommended parking space after knowing the preference on which the recommended parking space is specified.

  In addition, since the above preference includes at least either shading or that the vehicle of a particular vehicle type is not parked adjacently, it is possible to teach a recommended parking space that matches such preference.

  In addition, the parking assistance device 102 includes a preference database 20 in which preferences regarding the parking space of the driver of the vehicle are stored in advance. Then, the personal identification unit 19 (the preference acquisition unit) acquires, from the preference database 20, the preference relating to the parking space of the driver of the vehicle. Therefore, preference can be acquired without having to be input by the user each time.

  In addition, when the image photographing unit 41 is a camera for photographing the rear and front of the vehicle, information on the recommended parking space can be superimposed on the image in front of the vehicle and displayed on the head unit 32 when parking forward. It is possible to present the driver with information on the recommended parking space in an easy-to-understand manner in either forward or backward parking. In addition, by taking pictures in multiple directions, it is possible to obtain an image of the parking space quickly and accurately.

  In addition, when the image photographing unit 41 is a camera for photographing the rear of the vehicle, in addition to being able to create a bird's eye view on the instrument panel 33 with high accuracy, it is possible to calculate preference matching degree by image recognition with high accuracy. .

  In the present invention, within the scope of the invention, each embodiment can be freely combined, or each embodiment can be appropriately modified or omitted.

  Although the present invention has been described in detail, the above description is an exemplification in all aspects, and the present invention is not limited thereto. It is understood that countless variations not illustrated are conceivable without departing from the scope of the present invention.

  11 taken image acquisition unit, 12 distance calculation unit, 13 parking space specification unit, 14 parking space evaluation unit, 15 guidance route calculation unit, 16 parking difficulty determination unit, 17 recommended parking space identification unit, 18 parking space teaching unit , 19 personal identification unit, 20 preference database, 21 preference matching degree calculation unit, 30 vehicles, 31 handles, 32 head units, 33 instrument panels, 34 cameras, 41 image capturing units, 51 processors, 52 memories, 53 receiving units 101, 102, 103, 104 Parking assistance device.

Claims (15)

A photographed image acquisition unit for acquiring a photographed image of the surroundings of the vehicle from a camera mounted on the vehicle;
A parking available space identification unit that identifies a parking available space from the photographed image
A guidance route calculation unit that calculates a guidance route for parking the vehicle in the parking available space;
A parking difficulty determination unit that determines a parking difficulty that is a difficulty of parking in the parking available space by the guidance route;
A recommended parking space identification unit that identifies a recommended parking space from the parking available space based on the parking difficulty level;
A parking space teaching unit that teaches the driver of the vehicle with the recommended parking space along with the parking difficulty according to the guidance route;
Equipped with
The parking difficulty determination unit determines the parking difficulty to be higher as the moving distance between each steering until the parking of the vehicle is completed along the guidance route is shorter.
Parking assistance device. The parking difficulty determination unit calculates a sum of reciprocals of movement distances between the respective steerings to complete parking of the vehicle along the guidance route, and determines the parking difficulty based on the sum.
The parking assistance device according to claim 1. The parking difficulty determination unit determines the parking difficulty by excluding an index based on the movement distance between the first and second steering along the guidance route.
The parking assistance apparatus of Claim 1 or 2. The recommended parking space identification unit identifies the recommended parking space from the parking available space based on the number of steerings along the guidance route and the parking difficulty level.
The parking assistance apparatus of any one of Claim 1 to 3. The parking space teaching unit teaches the driver of the vehicle the guidance route used for the determination of the parking difficulty in the parking difficulty determination unit.
The parking assistance apparatus of any one of Claim 1 to 4. The parking space teaching unit teaches the driver of the vehicle the number of steerings that has contributed to the determination of the parking difficulty in the parking difficulty determination unit.
The parking assistance device according to claim 4. A preference acquisition unit that acquires a preference for a parking space of a driver of the vehicle;
And a preference matching degree calculation unit that calculates a degree of preference matching that indicates how closely the parkable space matches the preference based on the photographed image.
The recommended parking space identification unit identifies the recommended parking space from the parking available space based also on the preference matching degree.
The parking assistance apparatus of any one of Claim 1 to 6. The recommended parking space identifying unit identifies the recommended parking space from the parking available space where the preference matching degree is equal to or greater than a threshold, and the preference matching degree calculation unit fails in the calculation of the preference matching degree. Force the preference match to be set to a value above the threshold,
The parking assistance device according to claim 7. When teaching the recommended parking space to the driver of the vehicle, the parking space teaching unit teaches the preference that has become the basis for specifying the recommended parking space identification unit.
The parking assistance apparatus of Claim 7 or 8. The preference at least includes either shade or that vehicles of a particular vehicle type are not parked adjacent to each other.
The parking assistance apparatus of Claim 9. The system further comprises a preference database in which preferences regarding the parking space of the driver of the vehicle are stored in advance;
The preference acquisition unit acquires a preference for a parking space of a driver of the vehicle from the preference database.
Parking assist apparatus according to any one of claims 7 10. The camera captures the back of the vehicle,
The parking assistance apparatus of any one of Claims 1-11. The camera also captures the front of the vehicle.
The parking assistance device according to claim 12. The camera also captures the side of the vehicle.
The parking assistance device according to claim 12 or 13. Acquire a captured image of the surroundings of the vehicle from a camera mounted on the vehicle,
Identify the parking available space from the photographed image,
Calculate a guidance route for parking the vehicle in the parkable space;
Determining a parking difficulty level, which is a difficulty level of parking in the parking available space by the guidance route;
Identify a recommended parking space from the parking available space based on the parking difficulty level,
Instructing the driver of the vehicle of the recommended parking space together with the degree of difficulty of parking along the guidance route,
As the movement distance between the respective steerings until the parking of the vehicle is completed along the guidance route is shorter, the parking difficulty is determined to be higher.
Parking assistance method.

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