WO2016012190A1

WO2016012190A1 - Pothole identification in a vehicle

Info

Publication number: WO2016012190A1
Application number: PCT/EP2015/064423
Authority: WO
Inventors: Bernhard Uhrmeister
Original assignee: Continental Teves Ag & Co. Ohg
Priority date: 2014-07-25
Filing date: 2015-06-25
Publication date: 2016-01-28
Also published as: DE102014214729A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for creating a digital map as the basis for a driver assistance system which is configured to assist a driver in negotiating road damage (60), said method comprising: detecting road damage (60) on a road (13) having a vehicle (2); detecting the position (22) of the vehicle (2) when the road damage (60) is detected; and entering map information (58) on the digital map, on which the detected road damage (60) is associated with the detected position (22).

Description

Pothole detection in the vehicle

The invention relates to a method for creating a digital map as a basis for a driver assistance system, which is set up to assist a driver in dealing with road damage, a method for assisting a driver of a vehicle when dealing with road damage based on a method according to any one of The above claims created digital map, a control device for carrying out the method and a vehicle with the control device.

From WO 2011/098 333 AI it is known to use different sensor sizes in a vehicle in order to improve existing sensor sizes or to generate new sensor sizes and thus to increase the detectable information.

It is the task to improve the use of several sensor sizes to increase information. The object is solved by the features of the independent claims. Preferred further developments are subject of the dependent claims from ^¬.

According to one aspect of the invention, a method of creating a digital map as a basis for a driver assistance system configured to assist a driver in dealing with road damage comprises the steps of detecting a road damage to the road with a vehicle, detecting a position of the vehicle, when the road damage is detected and entering the map information into the digital map in which the detected road damage is associated with the detected position.

The specified method is based on the consideration that the road damage, or even road damage called, can have a significant share of the wear of safety-related parts of the vehicle. Concave or convex road damage, for example in the form of potholes, cracks, Hubbein, or The like are difficult to recognize for the driver of the vehicle. In addition, the mechanical stress caused by road damage to the vehicle increases with increasing speed.

Here the specified method with the consideration attacking me to produce vehicles on the road a map of the road damage, so that following vehicles based on the emerged ^¬ recorded road damage and can avoid these if necessary. In this way, the wear on

Not only are vehicles noticeably reduced, the generated map also represents a significant safety benefit because the failure of safety-related parts of the vehicle is reduced and the driver on the road is less surprised by the road damage.

In a development, the specified method comprises the step of sending the card information to a database in which the digital map is stored. In principle, this database can be stored at any point, including in the vehicle and thus provides the map information for retrieval. If the vehicle returns to a position where road damage has already been detected, the next time the vehicle reacts to road damage. The vehicle learns the road damage.

In an additional development of the specified method, the transmission of the card information takes place wirelessly. In this way, the card information can be forwarded to a central database, in addition to the already explained

In addition, advantages also allow third parties to retrieve the data independently of the vehicle data capturing the map data. On the one hand, these may be other vehicles, which therefore do not first have to detect the road damage as they pass, in order to learn it. Much more important, however, is the ability to use the identified road damage for general information purposes, for example, on the part of authorities that then analyze the road damage and care work on the Could better plan roads based on map information.

In a further development of the specified method, the position of the vehicle is detected by a global navigation satellite system called GNSS, such as GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, etc. respectively. Because a GNSS absolutely detects the position of the vehicle, it is possible to provide the acquired map information to third parties, who can then evaluate the map information in the manner explained above.

According to another aspect of the invention, a method for assisting a driver of a vehicle when dealing with road damage based on a digital map created by one of the aforementioned methods, comprises the steps of detecting a vehicle position of the vehicle and outputting a signal when the vehicle position is in a predetermined one Area around a map position belongs to a card information stored on the digital map.

In a further development, the specified method comprises the step of issuing a warning to the driver based on the output signal. The warning sensitizes the driver to the road damage and allows him to adjust his driving behavior accordingly.

In another embodiment, the specified method comprises the step of reducing a speed of the vehicle based on the output signal. This is particularly advantageous for two-wheeled vehicles, such as motorcycles, because in this way the rider of the motorcycle may be prevented from falling off track due to the road damage associated with excessive speed.

In yet another development, the specified method comprises the step of intervention in the vehicle such that the map position belonging to the map information can be pre-determined. the area of the detected vehicle position is bypassed by the vehicle. In this way damage to the vehicle can be effectively avoided by the road damage. This might also be of economic interest, as it would make vehicles less susceptible to road damage and further delay roadworks that would be needed, resulting in less public money for road-improvement work.

The aforementioned intervention in the vehicle could take an active steering system of the vehicle doing that today's production vehicles is standard so that the Rea ^¬ capitalization of the specified process would be almost cost-neutral to implement.

According to a further aspect of the invention, a control device is set up to perform one of the specified methods.

In a development of the specified control device, the specified device has a memory and a processor. In this case, one of the specified methods is stored in the form of a computer program in the memory and the processor is provided for carrying out the method when the computer program is loaded from the memory into the processor.

According to a further aspect of the invention, a computer program comprises program code means for performing all the steps of one of the specified methods when the computer program is executed on a computer or one of the specified devices.

According to a further aspect of the invention a computer program product comprises a program code which is stored on a data carrier and the compu ^¬ terlesbaren, when executed on a data processing device, carries out one of the methods specified. In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a vehicle includes a specified controller. The above-described characteristics, features and advantages of this invention, as well as the manner in which they are achieved, will become clearer and more clearly understood in connection with the following description of the exemplary embodiments, which are explained in more detail in conjunction with the drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a vehicle on a road, Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a fusion sensor in the vehicle of Fig. 1, and

Fig. 3 shows a schematic diagram of the vehicle of Fig. 1 on the road in a schematic view.

In the figures, the same technical elements are provided with the same reference numerals and described only once.

Reference is made to Fig. 1, which shows a schematic diagram of a vehicle 2 with a chassis 4, which is carried on wheels 6 in a direction indicated in Fig. 4 driving direction 5 mobile. In the vehicle 2, a fusion sensor 8 is arranged.

The fusion sensor 8 receives in the present embodiment, via a known GNSS receiver 10, position data 12 of the vehicle 2, which among other things describe an absolute position of the vehicle 2 on a roadway 13. In addition to the absolute position, the position data 12 from the GNSS receiver 10 can additionally also describe a speed of the vehicle 2. The location data 12 from the GNSS receiver 10 in the present embodiment is derived in a manner known to those skilled in the art from a GNSS signal 14 transmitted by a GNSS satellite in the GNSS receiver 10 via a GNSS antenna 16 is received and hence referred to below as GNSS location data 12. For details, refer to the relevant literature. The fusion sensor 8 is designed in a manner to be described to increase the information content of the GNSS position data 12 derived from the GNSS signal 14. This is on the one hand necessary because the GNSS signal 14 have a very low Sig nal ^¬ / noise band gap and may be very inaccurate. On the other hand, the GNSS signal 14 is not always available.

In the present embodiment, the vehicle 2 for this purpose has an inertial sensor 18 which detects driving dynamics data 20 of the vehicle 2. These include known to a longitudinal acceleration, a lateral acceleration and a Vertikalbeschleu ^¬ nigung and a roll rate, a pitch rate and a yaw rate of the vehicle 2. This vehicle dynamics data 20 is used in the present embodiment, in order to increase the information content of the GNSS position data 12 and, for example, to specify the position and the speed of the vehicle 2 on the roadway 13. The specified location data 22 can then be used by a navigation device 24 even if the GNSS signal 14 is not available at all under a tunnel, for example.

To further increase the information content of

In the present embodiment, GNSS position data 12 can optionally also be used to include further motion sensor sensors in the form of wheel speed sensors 26, which detect the wheel speeds 28 of the individual wheels 6 of the vehicle 2.

Furthermore, the vehicle 2 is known per se

Level sensors 30 on each wheel 6, with which a ride height 32 at each wheel 6 of the vehicle can be detected in a conventional manner.

Reference is made to Fig. 2, which shows a schematic diagram of the fusion sensor 8 of Fig. 1. ^

The measurement data already mentioned in FIG. 1 enter into the fusion sensor 8. The fusion sensor 8 should output the precise position data 22. The basic idea is to transfer the information from the GNSS position data 12 to the vehicle dynamics data 20 from the

Inertialsensor 18 into a filter 44 and thus a signal / noise band spacing in the GNSS position data 12 of the GNSS receiver 10 or the vehicle dynamics data 18 from the

Increase inertial sensor 20. For this purpose, the filter can indeed be designed as desired, a Kalman filter solves this task most effectively with a comparatively low computing resource. Therefore, the filter 44 should preferably be a Kalman filter 44 below.

The caiman filter 44 is fed with the more precise position data 22 of the vehicle 2 and comparison position data 48 of the vehicle 2. The more precise position data 22 are generated in the present embodiment in a strapdown algorithm 50, known for example from DE 10 2006 029 148 A1, from the vehicle dynamics data 20. They contain more precise position information about the vehicle 2, but also other position data about the vehicle 2, such as its speed, its acceleration and its heading. In contrast, the comparison position data 48 are obtained from a model 52 of the vehicle 2, which is initially fed from the GNSS receiver 10 with the GNSS position data 12. From this GNSS position data 12, the comparison position data 48 which contains the same information as the specified position data 22 is then determined in the model 52. The specified position data 22 and the comparison position data 48 differ only in their values.

The Kalman filter 30 calculates, based on the refined position data 22 and the comparison position data 48, a error budget 54 for the refined position data 22 and a error budget 56 for the comparison position data 48. A failure budget shall be understood herein as a total error in a signal consisting of several Single errors in the acquisition and transmission of the signal composed. In the GNSS signal 14 and With the GNSS position data 12, a corresponding error budget can be composed of errors in the satellite orbit, the satellite clock, the remaining refraction effects and errors in the GNSS receiver 10.

The error budget 54 of the refined location data 22 and the error budget 56 of the comparison location data 48 are then supplied according to the strapdown algorithm 50 and the model 52 for correcting the specified location data 22 and the comparison location data 48, respectively. This means that the PRÄZI ^¬ terraced position data 22 and the comparison location data are adjusted for their mistakes iteratively 48th

The fusion filter 8 can thus determine a very precise position of the vehicle on the road 13 based on the previously described fusion of the sensor data. This precise position is to be used in the following manner to create a digital map information card 58, from which road damage shown in Fig. 3 in the form of potholes 60 on the road 13 can be seen.

For this purpose, the height levels 32 from the height sensors 30 are used. In principle, various sensors, such as the inertial sensor 18 would be used for the method described below, but with the

Height sensors 30 the best results are achieved.

If the vehicle 2 passes over a pothole 60, then this is detected in the fusion sensor 8. For this purpose, a pothole detection device 62 is present in the fusion sensor 8, which evaluates the height levels 32 from the individual level sensors 30. Exceeds a change of at least one of the detected height levels 32 a predetermined predetermined change 64, then it can be concluded that a pothole 60. Optionally, in the detection of potholes 60 all

Height sensors 30 are included together, for example so that only ge ^¬ joined to a blow hole 60, when another in at least one Level sensor 30 no change in the ride height 32 is detected.

The pothole recognition device 62 may as a result issue any of the existence of the detected pothole toward ^¬-setting information. This information may merely be boolean, that is, indicate that a pothole 60 is present. Alternatively or additionally, the pothole detection device 62 can further measure the detected pothole 60 and output data describing the pothole 60 as further information. In the present embodiment, for the sake of simplicity, it should be assumed that the pothole detection device 62 merely outputs that a pothole 60 exists.

In an allocation device 66, the detected pothole 60 is then linked with the specified position data 22 at which the pothole 60 was detected. In this case, to further increase the information, the position of the level sensor 30 on the vehicle 2 can be taken into account, on the basis of which

Pothole 60 was detected. A corresponding coordinates ^¬ transformation of the position data 22 is well known and will not be described further for brevity. The detected pothole 60 linked to the specified position data 22 can then be transmitted as the map information 58, for example via a mobile radio antenna 68, to a data provider who provides the map information 58 to third parties, for example via a mobile mast 70 shown in FIG.

The vehicle 2 can also use the map information 58 collected in this way for its own journey, which will be explained in more detail with reference to FIG. 3.

Travels the vehicle 2 on the road 13, for example, from a starting point 72 to a destination point 74 between which Schlaglö ^¬ cher 60 already by the vehicle 2 itself at a previous Ride or by other, not shown vehicles were detected, then around each of these potholes 60, a predetermined protection area 76 can be defined, within which the

Vehicle 2 must respond to avoid the pothole. Of these protection areas 76, only one is shown in FIG. 3 for the sake of clarity. The individual protection areas 76 do not have to be constant, but can also be defined, for example, as a function of the speed. Now receives the vehicle 2 via the mobile mast 70

Pothole 60 indicating map information 58 and enters one of the predetermined protection areas 76, then the vehicle 2, for example, automatically adjust by an intervention in his steering system not shown his route 78 and avoid the corresponding pothole 60.

Alternatively, the Dodge but also the driver of

Vehicle 2 can be made aware of the pothole based on the map information 58 only by an audible, visual and / or haptic warning signal when it enters the corresponding protection area 76.

Claims

claims

A method of creating a digital map as a basis for a driver assistance system configured to assist a driver in dealing with road damage (60), comprising:

Detecting a road damage (60) on a road (13) with a vehicle (2);

Detecting a position (22) of the vehicle (2) when the road damage (60) is detected; and

Entering map information (58) into the digital map in which the detected road damage (60) is associated with the detected position (22).

2. The method of claim 1, comprising sending the card information (58) to a database (70) in which the digital card is stored.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the sending of the card information (58) is wireless.

The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein detecting the position (60) of the vehicle is based on a global satellite navigation system (10).

5. A method for assisting a driver of a vehicle (2) when handling road damage (60) based on a digital map created by a method according to any one of the preceding claims, comprising:

- Detecting a vehicle position (22) of the vehicle (2), and

Outputting a signal when the vehicle position (22) lies in a predetermined area (76) about a map position associated with map information (58) stored in the digital map.

6. The method of claim 5, including issuing a warning to the driver based on the output signal.

7. The method of claim 5 or 6, comprising reducing a speed of the vehicle (2) based on the issued out ^¬ signal.

8. The method according to any one of the preceding claims 5 to 7, comprising engaging the vehicle (2) such that the card position to the map information (58) is bypassed in the predetermined range (76) of the detected vehicle position from the vehicle (2).

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the intervention via an active steering system of the vehicle (2).

A control device (8) arranged to perform a method according to any one of the preceding claims.