CN112026754A

CN112026754A - Auxiliary device for a vehicle, vehicle comprising same, and corresponding method and medium

Info

Publication number: CN112026754A
Application number: CN201910404082.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 唐帅
Original assignee: Audi AG
Current assignee: Audi AG
Priority date: 2019-05-14
Filing date: 2019-05-14
Publication date: 2020-12-04

Abstract

The invention provides an auxiliary device for a vehicle, a vehicle comprising the auxiliary device, and a corresponding method and medium. The method comprises the following steps: identifying an object occupying an emergency lane in front of the vehicle; predicting an occupied zone associated with the object based on information related to the object; assessing a risk to the vehicle based on the predicted occupied zone; and providing an output for the vehicle based on the assessed risk to the vehicle. By using the scheme of the invention, risk assessment can be carried out in advance aiming at potential secondary collision accidents, and output is correspondingly provided according to the assessment result so as to trigger proper operation or response, so that the vehicle can be facilitated to carry out risk avoidance operation in time, and the safety of running on the road is improved.

Description

Auxiliary device for a vehicle, vehicle comprising same, and corresponding method and medium

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a vehicle, and more particularly, to an assist apparatus and method for a vehicle and a vehicle including the assist apparatus.

Background

How should a human driver or an autonomous vehicle do when looking at a vehicle on a highway in a front emergency lane on the highway while driving on the highway to avoid the risk that could be caused by the vehicle movement seen, its doors open, or a person walking around it?

CN103632573A discloses an accident notification system for preventing 2-time collision accidents, in which an accident occurrence is identified from the speed, acceleration and information on the position of a vehicle, the speed and acceleration are analyzed to determine an impact to identify whether or not a vehicle is stopped due to the impact, etc., and the fact of the accident is communicated to surrounding vehicles in case of determining that there is an accident.

There is no solution in the prior art for scenarios where there is an object occupying an emergency lane in front of a traveling vehicle.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to provide a solution for the situation that an object occupying an emergency lane exists in front of a traveling vehicle, so as to improve the safety of the vehicle running on a highway.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an assist apparatus for a vehicle, including:

an identification unit configured to identify an object occupying an emergency lane ahead of the vehicle;

a prediction unit configured to: predicting an occupied zone associated with the object based on information related to the object;

a risk assessment unit configured to: assessing a risk to the vehicle based on the predicted occupied zone; and

an output unit configured to: providing an output for the vehicle based on the assessed risk to the vehicle,

wherein the vehicle or the auxiliary device includes an information acquisition unit for acquiring information related to the object.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle including:

the above-described auxiliary device; and

the information acquisition unit is used for acquiring the information,

wherein the information acquisition unit is included in the auxiliary device or is located outside the auxiliary device.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an assistance method for a vehicle, the method including:

identifying an object occupying an emergency lane in front of the vehicle;

predicting an occupied zone associated with the object based on information related to the object;

assessing a risk to the vehicle based on the predicted occupied zone; and

providing an output for the vehicle based on the assessed risk to the vehicle.

According to yet another aspect of the invention, there is provided a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the above-described assistance method to be performed.

By using the scheme of the invention, the existence of occupied objects such as vehicles and the like on the emergency lane in front of the vehicle running on the highway can be detected, risk assessment is carried out in advance aiming at potential secondary collision accidents, and output is correspondingly provided according to the assessment result so as to trigger proper operation or response, so that the vehicle is facilitated to carry out danger avoiding operation in time, the occurrence of the secondary collision accidents is prevented, and the safety of running on the highway is improved.

Drawings

Non-limiting and non-exhaustive embodiments of the present invention are described by way of example with reference to the following drawings, in which:

fig. 1 is a diagram schematically showing an auxiliary device according to an embodiment of the invention used for a vehicle;

fig. 2 is a diagram schematically showing an auxiliary device according to another embodiment of the invention for a vehicle;

fig. 3 is a flowchart schematically illustrating an assistance method for a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

Fig. 1 schematically shows an auxiliary device 100 according to an embodiment of the invention for a vehicle 10.

The assistance device 100 includes an identification unit 101, a prediction unit 102, a risk assessment unit 103, and an output unit 104. The prediction unit 102 is communicatively coupled with the recognition unit 101, the risk assessment unit 103 is communicatively coupled with the prediction unit 102, and the output unit 104 is communicatively coupled with the risk assessment unit 103.

The identification unit 101 may be configured to identify objects occupying an emergency lane located in front of the vehicle 10. The prediction unit 102 may be configured to: based on the information related to the object, an occupied zone associated with the object is predicted. The risk assessment unit 103 may be configured to: based on the predicted occupied zone, a risk to the vehicle 10 is assessed. The output unit 104 is configured to: based on the assessed risk to the vehicle 10, an output is provided for the vehicle 10.

Also shown in fig. 1 is an information acquisition unit 105 that may optionally be included in the auxiliary device 100. That is, the information acquisition unit 105 may be an integral part of the auxiliary device 100. In this case, the information acquisition unit 105 may include a sensor, or may be connected to a sensor provided on the vehicle 10, thereby performing information capture by means of the sensor.

It should be noted that, instead of being a component of the auxiliary device 100, the information acquisition unit may be a component of the vehicle 10 itself, i.e., outside the auxiliary device 100, as shown in fig. 2. In this case, the information acquisition unit 105 may include a sensor provided on the vehicle 10, whereby information capturing is performed by means of the sensor.

The sensors may include cameras, radar, lidar or any other suitable sensor, or a combination thereof.

In any of the above cases, optionally, the information acquisition unit 105 may alternatively or additionally be configured with one or more of the following:

the information acquisition unit is configured to be suitable for connecting to and acquiring from a source inside and/or outside the vehicle 10 capable of providing GNSS position and map data, wherein the connection between the information acquisition unit and said source may be a wired connection, or a wireless connection-for example via a mobile network or Wi-Fi or the like;

the information acquisition unit is configured and adapted to communicate with other vehicles, for example via a mobile network or Wi-Fi or the like, whereby information acquisition takes place by means of said other vehicles;

the information acquisition unit is configured and adapted to communicate with available infrastructure, e.g. via a mobile network, whereby information acquisition takes place by means of said infrastructure, e.g. surveillance cameras or the like.

The information acquisition unit 105 is adapted to acquire information of an object in front of the vehicle 10.

The identification unit 101 may be communicatively coupled with the information acquisition unit 105, obtain information from the information acquisition unit 105, and identify an object occupying an emergency lane in front of the vehicle 10 based thereon.

In addition, the prediction unit 102 may be communicatively coupled with the information acquisition unit 105, obtain information related to the object from the information acquisition unit 105 in response to the recognition unit 101 recognizing the object, and perform prediction according to the obtained information related to the object.

Alternatively, the prediction unit 102 may not be directly coupled with the information acquisition unit 105, but communicate with the information acquisition unit 105 via the recognition unit 101.

Generally, the object occupying the emergency lane may be another vehicle, such as a faulty vehicle waiting for processing or an accident vehicle, etc.

Taking the example that the object occupying the emergency lane is another vehicle, the information related to the object acquired by the information acquisition unit 105 may include, but is not limited to, one or more of the following — for convenience of description, the another vehicle is also referred to as "vehicle of interest" hereinafter:

-position information, shape information and/or size information of the vehicle of interest;

-a speed of the vehicle of interest;

-the type of vehicle of interest, such as a car, van, ambulance, police car, etc.;

-persons or objects around the vehicle of interest, such as pedestrians, construction barrier settings, triangular warning signs, broken parts of the vehicle (e.g. broken tyres), etc.;

-an illumination state of the vehicle of interest, such as a headlight activation state of the vehicle of interest.

For example, when it is determined that the vehicle of interest covers the emergency lane from the position information, the shape information, and/or the size information of the vehicle of interest obtained from the information obtaining unit, etc., the recognition unit 101 may recognize that the vehicle of interest occupies the emergency lane.

For another example, when the speed of the vehicle of interest obtained from the information obtaining unit is less than 10km/h, the identification unit 101 may identify that the vehicle of interest occupies an emergency lane.

For another example, when the information obtained from the information obtaining unit indicates that a triangular warning board, a broken component, a traffic police, and a person getting on or off the vehicle exist around the vehicle of interest, the identifying unit 101 may identify that the vehicle of interest occupies an emergency lane.

As described above, the prediction unit 102 may predict the occupied area of the emergency lane from the information related to the recognized object obtained from the information acquisition unit. The predicted occupied zone may include an occupied zone that is physically actually occupied by the object, and may include a potential occupied zone that is caused by potential movement associated with the object. The potential movement associated with the object may be estimated or predicted by the prediction unit 102 based on information related to the object. The predicted occupied zone may be the occupied zone of an emergency lane, or may be the occupied zone of other lanes, such as adjacent lanes.

Continuing with the example where the identified object is another vehicle ("vehicle of interest"), the aforementioned potential movement associated with the object may include one or more of:

-potential movement of a vehicle of interest;

potential movement of a component of the vehicle of interest, such as a door or other component of the vehicle of interest;

potential movements of persons around the vehicle of interest, such as police, boarding and disembarking persons, etc.

For example, predicting the occupied zone may optionally include predicting the likelihood and likely movement of the vehicle of interest. For example, the likelihood of the vehicle of interest moving may be determined based on objects surrounding the vehicle of interest. In addition, the moving direction of the vehicle of interest may be predicted based on the speed and/or lighting state of the vehicle of interest, the acceleration thereof may be determined based on the type of the vehicle of interest, the potential movement of the vehicle of interest and the occupied zone caused by the potential movement may be predicted based on the speed, acceleration, and moving direction of the vehicle of interest.

Alternatively, predicting the occupied zone may include predicting a likelihood of a door opening of the vehicle of interest and a size of a likely door opening area. For example, the likelihood of a door of the vehicle of interest being open may be determined based on the speed of the vehicle of interest. Additionally, the size of the likely door opening area may be determined based on the type, size, and shape of the vehicle of interest, and the resulting occupied zone predicted.

Alternatively, predicting the occupied zone may include predicting the likelihood of the presence of a pedestrian around the vehicle of interest and the location and size of the likely pedestrian movement area. For example, a classification of the scene in which the vehicle of interest is located, such as police inspection, breakdown, passenger loading, arrival, etc., may be determined based on all available information related to the vehicle of interest. In addition, the presence of pedestrians and the location and size of possible pedestrian movement areas around the vehicle of interest can be predicted based on the scene classification, and the occupied zones resulting therefrom can be predicted.

In one embodiment, the predicted occupied zones may include one or more of the following:

occupied zones i. occupied zones caused by the vehicle of interest itself, including potential occupied zones caused by predicted potential movement of the vehicle;

a potential occupied zone resulting from a predicted possible opening of a door of the vehicle of interest;

a potential occupied zone resulting from predicted movement of potential personnel around the vehicle of interest.

It is possible that the vehicle 10 may be driven by a human driver or in an autonomous driving mode. As desired, an output may be provided, for example, via output unit 104, to present to a driver of vehicle 10 or to provide a predicted occupied zone to an autonomous driving system of vehicle 10. Although not shown, the prediction unit 102 may be directly communicatively coupled with the output unit 104, as desired.

The risk assessment unit 103 may be communicatively coupled with the information acquisition unit 105, from which information required for performing a risk assessment is acquired, as will be described below.

The risk assessment unit 103 may assess risk to the vehicle 10 based on the predicted occupied zone in a variety of ways. For example, the risk assessment unit 103 may perform risk assessment in one or a combination of manner 1 and manner 2 described below.

According to the aspect 1, the risk assessment unit 103 estimates an overlap between the travel region of the vehicle 10 and the predicted occupied region, and assesses the risk to the vehicle 10 based on the estimated overlap.

For example, the risk assessment unit 103 may obtain information of the position, speed, acceleration, steering angle, and the like of the vehicle 10 from the information acquisition unit 105, and predict the travel area of the vehicle 10 based on the information; calculating an overlap between the travel zone and the predicted occupied zone of the vehicle 10; the risk to the vehicle 10 is evaluated based on the calculated overlap.

According to one possible embodiment, in the case where the predicted occupied zones include two or more of the above-described three occupied zones — occupied zone i, occupied zone ii, and occupied zone iii, the same or different weight may be given to each of the occupied zones, and in addition, the weight given to each of the occupied zones may be given to the overlap of the travel zone of the vehicle 10 and each of the occupied zones; in this way, the sum of the products of each overlap and the corresponding weight may be calculated as a risk to the vehicle 10. For example, the occupied zone iii may optionally be given the highest weight. Here, a larger sum may indicate a higher risk, and a smaller sum may indicate a lower risk.

Alternatively or additionally, for each occupied zone, in the case of a driving zone of the vehicle 10 with which it has an overlap, an overlap percentage may be calculated which is equal to the ratio between the size of the overlap and the size of the occupied zone. Such a percentage of overlap may be used in a suitable manner to calculate a risk to the vehicle 10.

According to the manner 2, the risk assessment unit 103 determines one or more occupied lanes in which the predicted occupied zone is located, and assesses the risk to the vehicle 10 based on the positional relationship between the region occupied by the predicted occupied zone in each of the occupied lanes and the lane in which the vehicle 10 is located. For example, the lane in which the vehicle 10 is traveling may be determined based on the position of the vehicle 10; determining one or more occupied lanes where the predicted occupied area is located and the size of the area occupied in each occupied lane; the risk to the vehicle 10 is determined based on the distance between the driving lane in which the vehicle 10 is located and the occupied zone of each of the occupied lanes determined. Here, a longer distance may indicate a lower risk, and a shorter distance may indicate a higher risk.

Alternatively, a plurality of, e.g. 5, different risk levels may be set, e.g. representing an extremely low risk, a medium risk, a high risk, respectively an extremely high risk. Based on the determined risk to the vehicle 10, a corresponding risk level may be determined.

The determined risk level may be output, e.g., via the output unit 104, as desired.

Based on the assessed risk to the vehicle 10, the output unit 104 may provide a corresponding output for the vehicle. The output provided may be various forms of output, for example, may be a command to trigger some operation or response (e.g., a command to trigger automatic control of the vehicle), or may be some information for presentation (e.g., a determined risk level) or a message (e.g., a warning message indicating a hazard), etc.

For example, if the risk of the assessment is extremely low (e.g., zero), the output unit 104 may provide an output to trigger a visual or audio output indicating the extremely low risk, e.g., via a display screen or speaker of the vehicle. In this manner, the driver of the vehicle 10 may not be concerned about a vehicle occupying an emergency lane ahead.

If the assessed risk is high and requires the necessary action or response, the output unit 104 may provide an output for the vehicle 10 accordingly, depending on the particular risk and/or situation.

For example, the output unit 104 may provide an output to trigger visual and/or audible warnings of different intensity levels, thereby alerting the driver of the vehicle 10. Alternatively, the output unit 104 may provide an output to trigger automatic control of the vehicle, such as steering (lane change), braking (deceleration or parking), and the like. Alternatively, the output unit 104 may provide an output to trigger a car-to-car warning of surrounding vehicles connected to the vehicle 10. Alternatively, the output unit 104 may provide an output to trigger a warning of the vehicle 10 to the outside, such as making a horn of the vehicle 10 sound, flashing headlights of the vehicle 10, or the like. Alternatively, in the case of autonomous driving, the output unit 104 may provide an output to trigger an autonomous driving system of the vehicle 10, such as a Highway autonomous driving system (Highway Pilot), to make a decision, or to trigger a take-over request under autonomous driving.

Fig. 3 schematically shows an assistance method 200 for a vehicle according to an embodiment of the invention. The assistance method may be implemented using the assistance device of the invention as described above.

In step S201, an object occupying an emergency lane ahead of the vehicle is identified.

After step S201, the process proceeds to step S202.

In step S202, an occupied zone associated with the object is predicted based on the information related to the object.

After step S202, the process proceeds to step S203.

In step S203, a risk to the vehicle is evaluated based on the predicted occupied zone.

After step S203, the process proceeds to step S204.

In step S204, an output for the vehicle is provided based on the assessed risk to the vehicle.

Each of the above-described identifying step S201, predicting step S202, risk assessing step S203 and outputting step S204 may be performed by a respective unit of the assisting apparatus of the present invention, as described above in connection with fig. 1 and 2. In addition, various operations and details as described above in connection with the units of the auxiliary device of the present invention may be included or embodied in the auxiliary method of the present invention.

Although the invention has been described above with reference to a vehicle occupying an emergency lane, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the invention is applicable to other situations where a vehicle occupies an emergency lane.

It should be understood that the various elements of the auxiliary device of the present invention may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or a combination thereof. The units may be embedded in a processor of the computer device in a hardware or firmware form or independent of the processor, or may be stored in a memory of the computer device in a software form for being called by the processor to execute operations of the units. Each of the units may be implemented as a separate component or module, or two or more units may be implemented as a single component or module.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the schematic diagrams of the auxiliary devices shown in fig. 1 and 2 are merely illustrative block diagrams of partial structures associated with aspects of the present invention and do not constitute limitations of computer apparatus, processors or computer programs embodying aspects of the present invention. A particular computer device, processor or computer program may include more or fewer components or modules than shown in the figures, or may combine or split certain components or modules, or may have a different arrangement of components or modules.

In one embodiment, a computer device is provided comprising a memory and a processor, the memory having stored thereon computer instructions executable by the processor, the computer instructions, when executed by the processor, instructing the processor to perform the steps of the auxiliary method of the invention. The computer device may broadly be a server, a vehicle mounted terminal, or any other electronic device having the necessary computing and/or processing capabilities. In one embodiment, the computer device may include a processor, memory, a network interface, a communication interface, etc., connected by a system bus. The processor of the computer device may be used to provide the necessary computing, processing and/or control capabilities. The memory of the computer device may include non-volatile storage media and internal memory. An operating system, a computer program, and the like may be stored in or on the non-volatile storage medium. The internal memory may provide an environment for the operating system and the computer programs in the non-volatile storage medium to run. The network interface and the communication interface of the computer device may be used to connect and communicate with an external device through a network. Which computer program, when being executed by a processor, carries out the steps of the auxiliary method of the invention.

The invention may be implemented as a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a processor, causes the steps of the method of the invention to be performed. In one embodiment, the computer program is distributed across a plurality of computer devices or processors coupled by a network such that the computer program is stored, accessed, and executed by one or more computer devices or processors in a distributed fashion. A single method step/operation, or two or more method steps/operations, may be performed by a single computer device or processor or by two or more computer devices or processors. One or more method steps/operations may be performed by one or more computer devices or processors, and one or more other method steps/operations may be performed by one or more other computer devices or processors. One or more computer devices or processors may perform a single method step/operation, or perform two or more method steps/operations.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that all or part of the steps of the assistance method of the present invention may be instructed to be performed by associated hardware such as a computer device or a processor through a computer program, which may be stored in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, and which when executed causes the steps of the assistance method of the present invention to be performed. Any reference herein to memory, storage, databases, or other media may include non-volatile and/or volatile memory, as appropriate. Examples of non-volatile memory include read-only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (prom), electrically programmable ROM (eprom), electrically erasable programmable ROM (eeprom), flash memory, magnetic tape, floppy disk, magneto-optical data storage device, hard disk, solid state disk, and the like. Examples of volatile memory include Random Access Memory (RAM), external cache memory, and the like.

The respective technical features described above may be arbitrarily combined. Although not all possible combinations of features are described, any combination of features should be considered to be covered by the present specification as long as there is no contradiction between such combinations.

While the present invention has been described in connection with the embodiments, it is to be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing description and drawings are merely illustrative and not restrictive of the broad invention, and that this invention not be limited to the disclosed embodiments. Various modifications and variations are possible without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Claims

1. An assist device for a vehicle, comprising:

2. The assistance device of claim 1, wherein the occupied zones comprise potential occupied zones caused by potential movement associated with the object.

3. The assistance apparatus of claim 2, wherein the object comprises another vehicle, the potential movement associated with the object comprising at least one of: potential movement of the other vehicle, potential movement of a component of the other vehicle, potential movement of a person around the other vehicle.

4. The assistance device of claim 1, wherein the risk assessment unit is further configured to:

estimating an overlap between a driving zone and a predicted occupied zone of the vehicle and assessing a risk to the vehicle based on the estimated overlap; and/or

Determining one or more occupied lanes in which the predicted occupied zones are located, and evaluating the risk to the vehicle based on a positional relationship between an area occupied by the predicted occupied zones in each of the occupied lanes and the lane in which the vehicle is located.

5. A vehicle, comprising:

the assistance device according to any one of claims 1-4; and

the information acquisition unit is used for acquiring the information,

6. An assistance method for a vehicle, comprising:

identifying an object occupying an emergency lane in front of the vehicle;

assessing a risk to the vehicle based on the predicted occupied zone; and

providing an output for the vehicle based on the assessed risk to the vehicle.

7. The assistance method of claim 6, wherein the occupied zones comprise potential occupied zones caused by potential movement associated with the object.

8. The assistance method according to claim 7, wherein the object comprises another vehicle, the potential movement associated with the object comprising at least one of: potential movement of the other vehicle, potential movement of a component of the other vehicle, potential movement of a person around the other vehicle.

9. The assistance method of claim 6, wherein assessing risk to the vehicle based on the predicted occupied zone comprises:

10. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the auxiliary method according to any one of claims 6 to 9 to be performed.