JPH09156437A - Warning device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To surely report a possibility of contact to a driver when an alarm is required in response to the road state and traffic state. SOLUTION: A lane presence judgment section 5 detects the white line of the adjacent lane and judges whether the adjacent lane exists or not based on the rear side image data obtained by an image pickup section 3. An obstacle detection section 7 detects an obstacle in the rear side region and calculates the moving speed of the obstacle and the distance from a vehicle itself. A travel state detection section 9 detects whether the vehicle is presently changing the course or not. An overall judgment section 11 outputs the output indication signal when a winker switch is turned on, when the adjacent lane exists in the indicating direction of the winker switch, and when there is a possibility of contact with another vehicle or the obstacle. A warning section 13 reports that the vehicle has a possibility of contact to a driver via a sound or a display in response to the output indication signal.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an alarm device adaptable to a safety device, and more particularly to monitoring an obstacle existing in a rear side area of a vehicle to prevent the vehicle from coming into contact with the obstacle. , An alarm device for alarming a driver as necessary.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an alarm device for monitoring a rear side region of a vehicle to detect an obstacle and issuing an alarm when necessary, for example, "Vehicle described in JP-A-2-287799" is disclosed. Anti-collision device "is known.

In this alarm device, a traveling lane on the road is identified by using a road image taken by a vehicle-mounted camera and behind a predetermined distance, a monitoring area is set in the recognized traveling lane, and the set monitoring area is set. It detects whether or not there is a following vehicle. Next, when the own vehicle operates the turn indicator to change the course based on the traveling speed of the own vehicle and the position of the other vehicle, an alarm is issued when there is a risk of contact with the other vehicle. This has the advantage that the person can be warned when changing routes.

[0004]

However, in the conventional alarm device, the alarm is usually issued when an obstacle is detected in the monitoring area while the turn signal is ON.
For example, when leaving a highway, even if it is not necessary to give an alarm because there is no left lane, after turning on the turn signal, a laser radar or the like is used to detect side obstacles such as side walls. There is a risk that it will give an alarm.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide an alarm device capable of reliably notifying a driver when an alarm is required depending on road conditions or traffic conditions. It is in.

[0006]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
In order to solve the above problems, lane presence / absence determining means for determining the presence / absence of adjacent lanes, path detecting means for detecting the path of the host vehicle, and obstacle detecting means for detecting an obstacle behind the host vehicle. Warning judgment means for judging whether or not a predetermined warning level is exceeded based on the results of the lane presence / absence judgment means, the route detection means and the obstacle detection means, and the driver based on the judgment result of the warning judgment means. The gist is to have an alarm means for issuing an alarm.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the predetermined value is determined based on the result of determining the presence or absence of the adjacent lane, the result of detecting the course of the own vehicle and the result of detecting the obstacle on the rear side of the own vehicle. By determining whether or not the warning level is exceeded, the driver is alerted when it is determined that the predetermined warning level is exceeded.

In order to solve the above problems, the lane presence / absence determining means includes an image pickup means for picking up an image of a vehicle peripheral area, and an image processing means for processing an image picked up by the image pickup means. The point is to have ,.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the peripheral area of the vehicle is imaged and the imaged image is processed.
It has the function of determining the presence or absence of adjacent lanes.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that the route detecting means has a pointing direction judging means for judging a pointing direction of a turn signal indicator.

According to the third aspect of the invention, the direction of the host vehicle is detected by determining the pointing direction of the turn signal.

[0012] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the route detecting means includes a lane discriminating means for discriminating a lane in which the vehicle is traveling, and the vehicle deviating from the lane. Deviation determination means for determining whether or not
It is a gist to have.

According to the fourth aspect of the invention, the course of the host vehicle is determined by determining the lane in which the host vehicle is traveling and determining whether the host vehicle deviates from the lane. Has the action of detecting.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the lane discrimination means includes an image pickup means for picking up an image of a vehicle peripheral area, and an image processing means for processing an image picked up by the image pickup means. It is a gist to have.

According to the fifth aspect of the invention, there is an effect that the lane in which the vehicle is traveling is discriminated by imaging the vehicle peripheral area and processing the captured image.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the gist of the invention of claim 6 is that the obstacle detecting means is a radar.

According to the sixth aspect of the invention, the use of the radar has an effect of detecting an obstacle behind the vehicle.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the gist of the seventh aspect of the present invention is that the obstacle detecting means picks up an image of the rear side and performs image processing.

According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, the rear side obstacle is detected by imaging the rear side and performing image processing.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the alarm judging means detects the obstacle and the course when the lane presence / absence judging means judges that there is an adjacent lane. When the means determines that there is an obstacle in the course of the vehicle, the gist is to determine that the predetermined warning level has been exceeded.

According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, when it is determined that there is an adjacent lane and it is determined that there is an obstacle in the course of the vehicle, it is determined that the predetermined warning level has been exceeded. Have.

[0022]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. (First Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an alarm device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, an alarm device 1 is a CCD camera provided in a vehicle,
An image pickup unit 3 that obtains black and white or color image data by picking up an image of a vehicle surrounding area, a lane presence / absence decision unit 5 that decides a lane marking line by processing the image data, and decides a driving lane on the road. Contact between an obstacle detection unit 7 that detects an obstacle on the rear side of the vehicle, a traveling state detection unit 9 that monitors the ON / OFF state of a blinker switch to determine a course change such as a lane change, and an obstacle The overall determination unit 11 for determining the possibility of contact and the alarm unit 13 for notifying the driver of the presence or absence of contact by sound or display.

Next, the basic operation of the alarm device 1 will be described with reference to FIG. First, based on the rear side image data obtained by the image pickup unit 3, the lane presence / absence determination unit 5 detects the white line of the adjacent lane and determines whether or not the adjacent lane exists. On the other hand, the obstacle detection unit 7 detects an obstacle in the rear side area and calculates the moving speed of the obstacle and the distance from the host vehicle. Note that the obstacle detection unit 7 may detect an obstacle by using ultrasonic waves or by performing image processing on the rear side image data in addition to the laser radar, for example.

Next, the traveling state detecting section 9 detects whether or not the vehicle is currently trying to change its course. Next, in the comprehensive judgment unit 11, when the turn signal switch is in the ON state, when there is an adjacent lane in the direction indicated by the turn signal switch, and when there is a possibility of contact with another vehicle or an obstacle. , And outputs an output instruction signal to the alarm unit 13. The alarm unit 13 notifies the driver by sound or display that the vehicle may come into contact with the driver according to the output instruction signal from the comprehensive determination unit 11. In other cases, the driver is not notified.

Next, the detailed operation of the alarm device 1 will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. It is assumed that the processing described in this flowchart is executed by the comprehensive judgment unit 11 once every 50 ms. First, in step S10, the image capturing unit 3 captures an image on the rear side and captures image data. Next, step S
At 20, the adjacent lane detection processing is performed by the lane presence / absence determining unit 5 as shown in FIG.

Now, turning to FIG. 3, in step S210, the lane presence / absence determining unit 5 determines the vicinity of a position left and right apart from the own vehicle by a certain distance corresponding to the road width in the image data of the rear side area. At, a differential process is performed to search for a pixel corresponding to a part of the lane marker that is an edge point. Next, in step S220, a small window is set near the pixel. In step S230, if a right lane of the host vehicle is detected in the set window, a straight line that rises to the right is applied, and if a lane is to the left, a straight line that rises to the left is applied. Create a Hough plane with sides as parameter space. Next, in step S240, the maximum value in the Hough plane is searched, and if the maximum value is equal to or greater than the preset threshold value, the linear equation is determined according to the address of the pixel. Next, in step S250, when this linear expression is obtained, it is determined that an adjacent lane exists in that direction, and the determination result is passed to the subsequent processing.

Next, returning to FIG. 2, in step S40, the obstacle detecting section 7 detects an obstacle in the rear side area and calculates the moving speed of the obstacle and the distance from the host vehicle. Next, in step S50, the traveling state detection unit 9 determines whether or not the operation state of the blinker switch for turning the course is ON. If the operation state of the blinker switch is ON, the process proceeds to step S70, while if not, the process proceeds to step S60.

Next, in step S60, the comprehensive judgment unit 1
Reference numeral 1 controls the output command signal to be turned off to mute the buzzer of the alarm unit 13 or turn off the indicator. On the other hand, in step S70, when the operation state of the blinker switch is ON, the left and right pointing directions are determined. If the turn signal switch is pointing to the right, it is determined in step S80 whether or not there is a right adjacent lane. Next, step S9
At 0, in order to detect the possibility of contact with another vehicle or an obstacle, it is determined whether or not there is an obstacle on the right side of the vehicle based on the detection result from the obstacle detection unit 7.

On the other hand, if the turn signal switch indicates the leftward direction, it is determined in step S100 whether or not there is a left adjacent lane. Next, in step S110, in order to detect the possibility of contact with another vehicle or an obstacle, it is determined whether or not there is an obstacle on the left side of the vehicle based on the detection result from the obstacle detection unit 7.

Here, if the judgment results in steps S80 to S110 are that there is a right adjacent lane and there is an obstacle on the right side of the vehicle, or if there is a left adjacent lane and there is an obstacle on the left side of the vehicle, In step S120, the relative speed ΔV between the own vehicle and the obstacle is determined based on the moving speed of the obstacle and the distance from the own vehicle as the detection result from the obstacle detecting unit 7.
, ΔV ≠ 0 (Equation 1) is determined.

Next, when the relative speed ΔV between the host vehicle and the obstacle is not "0", in step S120, the safety time T is used and 0 ≤ distance / relative speed <T (Equation 2) Determine if there is. The safety time T is a time in which the own vehicle can move to the next operation before the obstacle or another vehicle reaches the own vehicle.

Here, if the distance / relative speed is within the range satisfying the expression 2, there is a possibility that the own vehicle may come into contact with an obstacle or another vehicle, so the routine proceeds to step S150. on the other hand,
If the distance / relative velocity is not within the range that satisfies Equation 2,
Since there is no possibility that your vehicle will come into contact with obstacles or other vehicles,
Proceed to step S60.

On the other hand, when the relative speed ΔV between the host vehicle and the obstacle is "0", it is determined in step S140 whether the distance <D (formula 3) is satisfied using the safety distance D. To do. The safe distance D is a safe distance even if the host vehicle changes lanes when the relative speed is "0" (km / h).

Here, the distance of the obstacle from the host vehicle is expressed by Equation 3
If it is within the range that satisfies the above condition, there is a possibility that the own vehicle may come into contact with an obstacle or another vehicle, so the routine proceeds to step S150. On the other hand, if the distance is not within the range that satisfies Expression 3,
Since there is no possibility that your vehicle will come into contact with obstacles or other vehicles,
Proceed to step S60. In step S150, the comprehensive determination unit 11 controls the output command signal to be ON, and causes the alarm unit 13 to sound the buzzer or light the indicator.

By determining the presence or absence of the adjacent lane in this way, it is possible to eliminate the notification of the possibility of contact due to blinker operation in the direction where there is no adjacent lane, as is often the case when leaving an expressway. Therefore, the complexity of the alarm can be suppressed. Further, when the rear side image is captured using the camera, the image data input to the lane presence / absence determining unit 5 and the obstacle detecting unit 7 can be shared.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of an alarm device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
In the figure, the alarm device 1 is characterized in that it has a host vehicle position detection unit 15 for measuring the position of the host vehicle in the traveling lane and a lane presence / absence determination unit 17 for determining the presence / absence of an adjacent lane.

Next, the basic operation of the alarm device 1 will be described with reference to FIG. First, based on the image data of the rear side area obtained by the image pickup unit 3, the own vehicle position detection unit 15 recognizes the traveling lane of the own vehicle by using, for example, the traveling lane recognition method, and the traveling lane is detected. The position of the vehicle is calculated and the deviation from the driving lane is detected. As a method of recognizing a traveling lane performed by the own vehicle position detection unit 15, a search is performed by focusing on temporal continuity of the image and predicting a road width, a region where the traveling lane exists, an inclination on the image, and the like. There is known a method described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-36878, which recognizes a traveling lane by reducing an area.

Further, the obstacle detecting section 7 detects obstacles in the rear side area and calculates the speed of the obstacle and the distance from the host vehicle. Note that the obstacle detecting unit 7 may detect obstacles by ultrasonic waves or image processing in addition to, for example, a laser radar, as in the first embodiment. On the other hand, the lane presence / absence determining unit 17 determines whether or not there is an adjacent lane.

Next, in the comprehensive judgment section 11, when the own vehicle deviates from the traveling lane, when there is an adjacent lane in that direction, and when there is a possibility of contact with another vehicle or an obstacle. For example, an output instruction signal is output to the alarm unit 13. The alarm unit 13 notifies the driver that the vehicle may come into contact with a sound or a display according to the output instruction signal from the comprehensive determination unit 11.

Next, the detailed operation of the alarm device 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. Note that the processing described in this flowchart is performed by the comprehensive judgment unit 11 for 50 ms in the same manner as that described in the first embodiment.
Shall be executed in one cycle. First, in step S310, the image on the rear side is captured by the image capturing unit 3 and the image data is captured. Next, in step S320,
As shown in FIG. 3, the lane presence / absence determining unit 17 performs an adjacent lane detection process. Since the adjacent lane detection process executed by the lane presence / absence determining unit 17 is described in steps S210 to S250 in the first embodiment,
Here, it is omitted.

Next, in step S330, the own vehicle position detection unit 15 is based on the image data picked up by the image pickup unit 3.
Measures the position of the vehicle in the driving lane. Next, in step S340, the obstacle detection unit 7 detects an obstacle in the rear side area and calculates the moving speed of the obstacle and the distance from the host vehicle. Next, in step S350, it is determined whether or not the deviation from the traveling lane has been detected by the vehicle position detection unit 15. If the departure position from the traveling lane is detected by the host vehicle position detection unit 15, the process proceeds to step S370. If not, the process proceeds to step S360.

Next, in step S360, the comprehensive judgment unit 11 turns off the output command signal to turn off the buzzer of the alarm unit 13 or turn off the indicator. On the other hand, in step S370, when the deviation from the traveling lane is detected by the vehicle position detection unit 15, the left and right deviation directions are determined. When the departure direction indicates the right direction, it is determined in step S380 whether there is a right adjacent lane.
Next, in step S390, in order to detect the possibility of contact with another vehicle or an obstacle, it is determined whether or not there is an obstacle on the right side of the vehicle based on the detection result from the obstacle detection unit 7.

On the other hand, when the departure direction indicates the left direction, it is determined in step S400 whether there is a left adjacent lane. Next, in step S410, in order to detect the possibility of contact with another vehicle or an obstacle, it is determined whether or not there is an obstacle on the left side of the vehicle based on the detection result from the obstacle detection unit 7.

Here, if the judgment results in steps S380 to S410 are that there is a right adjacent lane and there is an obstacle on the right side of the vehicle, or if there is a left adjacent lane and there is an obstacle on the left side of the vehicle, In step S420, the relative speed Δ between the own vehicle and the obstacle is detected based on the moving speed of the obstacle and the distance from the own vehicle as the detection result from the obstacle detecting unit 7.
It is determined whether V is ΔV ≠ 0 (Equation 4).

Next, when the relative speed ΔV between the host vehicle and the obstacle is not "0", in step S420, the safety time T is used to satisfy 0 ≤ distance / relative speed <T (equation 5). Determine if there is. The safety time T is a time in which the own vehicle can move to the next operation before the obstacle or another vehicle reaches the own vehicle.

If the distance / relative speed is within the range satisfying the expression 5, there is a possibility that the own vehicle may come into contact with an obstacle or another vehicle, so the routine proceeds to step S450. on the other hand,
If the distance / relative speed is not within the range that satisfies Equation 5,
Since there is no possibility that your vehicle will come into contact with obstacles or other vehicles,
Proceed to step S360.

On the other hand, when the relative speed ΔV between the host vehicle and the obstacle is "0", it is determined in step S440 whether or not distance <D (equation 6) using the safety distance D. To do. The safe distance D is a safe distance even if the host vehicle changes lanes when the relative speed is "0" (km / h).

Here, the distance of the obstacle from the own vehicle is expressed by the equation 6
If it is within the range that satisfies the above condition, there is a possibility that the own vehicle may come into contact with an obstacle or another vehicle, so the routine proceeds to step S450. On the other hand, if the distance is not within the range that satisfies Equation 6,
Since there is no possibility that your vehicle will come into contact with obstacles or other vehicles,
Proceed to step S360. In step S450, the overall judgment unit 11 controls the output command signal to be ON, and causes the alarm unit 13 to sound the buzzer or light the indicator.

As described above, by judging the departure of the vehicle from the traveling lane, the driver can be alerted without depending on the blinker state. Therefore, even if you forget to operate the blinker when changing lanes due to the driver's carelessness,
A warning can be given accurately.

[0050]

As described above, according to the present invention as set forth in claim 1, the result of determining the presence or absence of an adjacent lane, the result of detecting the route of the own vehicle, and the obstacle on the rear side of the own vehicle. Based on the result of detecting an object, it is judged whether the warning level is exceeded, and if it is judged that the warning level is exceeded, the driver is alerted. It is possible to reliably notify the driver of the possibility of contact when an alarm is required.

Further, according to the present invention as set forth in claim 2, since the presence or absence of the adjacent lane is discriminated by taking an image of the vehicle peripheral region and processing the taken image. When there is a lane, an alarm can be issued to surely notify the driver of the possibility of contact.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the course of the host vehicle is detected by determining the pointing direction of the turn indicator, so that when the turn indicator is operated. If necessary, the driver can be informed of the possibility of contact.

According to the present invention of claim 4, the lane in which the vehicle is traveling is discriminated, and it is discriminated whether or not the vehicle deviates from the lane. Therefore, when the host vehicle deviates from the lane, the driver can be notified of the possibility of contact.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the lane in which the vehicle is traveling is discriminated by imaging the vehicle peripheral area and processing the captured image. The image data used when detecting an obstacle can also be used.

Further, according to the present invention of claim 6, the radar is used to detect the obstacle on the rear side of the vehicle, so that the visibility such as heavy fog or heavy rain is deteriorated. The obstacle on the rear side can be detected even when the user is standing.

Further, according to the present invention as set forth in claim 7, the rear side obstacle is detected by picking up the image of the rear side and performing image processing, so that the obstacle can be accurately detected. Can be detected.

Further, according to the present invention of claim 8, when it is determined that there is an adjacent lane and it is determined that there is an obstacle in the course of the vehicle, it is determined that there is a possibility of contact. Therefore, when there is a possibility of contact with another vehicle or an obstacle when there is an adjacent lane regardless of whether or not the vehicle deviates from the traveling lane, the driver can be notified of the possibility of contact. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an alarm device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a flowchart for explaining a detailed operation of the alarm device 1 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a flowchart for explaining a detailed operation of a lane presence / absence determination unit 5.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of an alarm device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flowchart for explaining a detailed operation of the alarm device 1 according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 3 Imaging unit 5 Lane presence / absence determination unit 7 Obstacle detection unit 9 Running state detection unit 11 General determination unit 13 Warning unit

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A lane presence / absence determining unit for determining the presence / absence of an adjacent lane, a route detecting unit for detecting a route of the own vehicle, an obstacle detecting unit for detecting an obstacle on a rear side of the own vehicle, Warning judging means for judging whether or not a predetermined warning level is exceeded based on the results of the lane presence / absence judging means, the route detecting means and the obstacle detecting means, and an alarm to the driver from the judgment result of the warning judging means. An alarm device comprising: an alarm means for performing the alarm. 2. The lane presence / absence determining means includes image pickup means for picking up an image of a vehicle peripheral area, and image processing means for processing an image picked up by the image pickup means. Alarm device. 3. The alarm device according to claim 1, wherein the route detection means has a pointing direction determination means for determining a pointing direction of a turn signal indicator. 4. The route detecting means includes a lane determining means for determining a lane in which the vehicle is traveling and a deviation determining means for determining whether or not the vehicle is deviating from the lane. Claim 1 characterized by having.
Or the alarm device described in 2. 5. The alarm according to claim 4, wherein the lane discrimination means includes an image pickup means for picking up an image of a vehicle peripheral area, and an image processing means for processing an image picked up by the image pickup means. apparatus. 6. The alarm device according to claim 1, wherein the obstacle detecting means is a radar. 7. The obstacle detecting means captures a rear portion and performs image processing.
The alarm device described. 8. The warning determination means determines that there is an obstacle in the route of the vehicle by the obstacle detection means and the route detection means when the lane presence / absence determination means determines that there is an adjacent lane. The alarm device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that it is judged that the predetermined alarm level has been exceeded.