EP3883832A1

EP3883832A1 - Device and method for warning a driver of a vehicle

Info

Publication number: EP3883832A1
Application number: EP19779393.8A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Michael Kopp
Original assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
Current assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
Priority date: 2018-11-22
Filing date: 2019-09-18
Publication date: 2021-09-29
Also published as: WO2020104083A1; US11345279B2; US20210316660A1; KR20210091796A; DE102018219976A1; JP2022507916A; CN113165645A

Abstract

The invention relates to a device and a method for warning a driver of a vehicle (2), said vehicle (2) having one or more environmental sensors (4, 5, 6), which detect objects (3) in the surroundings of the vehicle, and an evaluation device being provided, in which a model of the surroundings is created from the detection (7) of the object by the one or more environmental sensors (4, 5, 6). Also provided is an actuator system (9, 10) which informs the driver of objects (3) identified in the model of the surroundings, said system (9, 10) for informing the driver receiving spatial warning information and the driver being informed of the position of the object (3) by haptic feedback.

Description

description

title

Device and method for warning a driver of a vehicle

The present invention relates to a device and a method for warning a driver of a vehicle, wherein the vehicle has one or more environment sensors that detect objects in the vehicle environment and an evaluation device is provided in which an environment model is generated from the object detections of the one or more environment sensors and an actuator system is provided which informs the driver of recognized objects of the environment model, in that the actuator system contains spatial warning information for the driver information and the driver is haptically informed of the position of the object.

State of the art

DE 10 2014 226 744 A1 discloses a method for outputting a warning via a lane departure warning system for a vehicle, in which a hazard level associated with a driving situation of the vehicle is read in and in a further step depending on the hazard level

Intensity of a warning signal for warning a driver of the vehicle is set. The warning signal is generated with the intensity set in the setting step.

Disclosure of the invention

The essence of the present invention is to provide a device and an associated method with which an actuator system for driver information can be specified, which contains spatial warning information and which informs the driver haptically about the position or the direction of the object. According to the invention, this is solved by the features of the independent claims. Advantageous further developments and refinements result from the subclaims.

It is advantageously provided that the evaluation device is set up to use the environment model to determine relative positions and / or the

To determine the spatial direction of the detected objects with respect to the vehicle. The relative position can be specified, for example, within an X-Y coordinate system, the coordinate origin being within the vehicle. The spatial direction of the detected objects can be, for example, the azimuth angle of the detected object with respect to the vehicle's longitudinal axis. The spatial direction can then be specified with an angle value between 0 ° and 360 °.

In addition to the object coordinates relative to your own vehicle or the object direction to your own vehicle, alternatively or additionally, other variables can be used to create the environment model, which can either be measured directly using the environment sensors or which can be determined from existing measurement variables. For example, the relative speed of the objects can either be measured directly or calculated from the time derivative of the distance values of the objects to your own vehicle. In addition to the relative speed, other variables such as the object size, the

Object backscatter cross section, the object surface quality or any other measurable value can be used.

It is furthermore advantageous that the actuator system for driver information consists of a large number of vibration actuators in the driver's seat and / or in the steering wheel.

Furthermore, it can be advantageous that the actuator signals for driver information are designed such that a large number of vibration actuators in the driver's seat and / or in the steering wheel can be activated or deactivated individually and / or their intensity and / or frequency can be controlled in a variable manner. For example, several, for example 10 or 12, can be located in the floor area of the driver's seat

Vibration actuators must be installed, these on the left and right side Distribute the seat frame between the front seat end and the rear seat end. In this way, haptic directional information can be communicated to the driver who is sitting in the driver's seat by actuating a vibration actuator or a plurality of adjacent vibration actuators.

As an alternative to the vibration actuators in the driver's seat and / or in the steering wheel or in combination with the vibration actuators in the driver's seat and / or in the steering wheel, vibration actuators in the accelerator pedal and / or in the brake pedal and / or in an armrest of the driver's seat and / or in the neck support of the Provide driver's seat, which can also be individually activated, deactivated and / or changed in their vibration frequency or with a

Vibration patterns can be controlled. This makes it possible to intuitively point the driver to different driving situations, for example by only vibrating the headrest or by vibrating only the left or right armrest of the driver's seat.

Advantageously, it is also possible to activate vibration actuators at several installation locations, for example in order to particularly emphatically point out a particularly critical driving situation.

It is also advantageous that the control of the plurality of

Vibration actuators in the driver's seat and / or in the steering wheel take place in such a way that, due to the activated actuators, a vibration of the seat or the steering wheel is generated, which informs the driver haptically with regard to the direction, corresponding to the spatial position of the recognized object. If the vibration actuator in the seat or in the steering wheel is activated in the direction or several neighboring actuators are activated in the direction in which an object in the vehicle's surroundings was detected with respect to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, the driver can also be informed of the directional information intuitively in addition to a special surrounding situation, without that the driver has to read an optical display or has to wait for an acoustic announcement to end and thus from the

Driving is distracted.

It is also advantageous that the one or more environment sensors consists of one or more radar sensors, one or more

Ultrasonic sensors, one or more lidar sensors, one or more Video sensors or a combination thereof. Advantageously, so many sensors are installed around the vehicle that the surrounding area of the vehicle is detected completely or at least in an angle range of interest. Areas can be different or the same

Sensor types are covered or angular ranges are covered by different sensors so that one redundancy and one

Plausibility check of the object detection can be carried out.

As an alternative to the sensor types listed or in combination, a car-to-X interface can also be provided as the environment sensor. Using such a car-to-x interface, data can be received from sensors outside the vehicle and processed like data obtained by the company's own sensors. For example, environment sensors of other vehicles driving in the vehicle environment can make the data of their environment sensors available via the Car-to-X interface. For this purpose, a transmission from vehicle to vehicle can take place or, by interposing a data transmission service, this data can be transmitted from the further vehicle to a data server and in a further step can be transmitted from the data server to one's own vehicle. It is also conceivable, additionally or alternatively, to use data from environment sensors that are stationary

Infrastructure facilities are attached and, for example, monitor the lane of motorways or provide property data at road junctions. This data can also be transferred to the vehicle via the Car-to-X interface.

Furthermore, data can optionally also be transmitted into the vehicle via the Car-to-X interface, which originate from an environment model and were determined in a data server by collecting object data in the environment of the vehicle and were combined to form a traffic environment model. Such environment model data can also be used as input data for the function according to the invention.

Furthermore, it is advantageous that the driver's information regarding the direction of the objects is output to the vibration actuators, when objects are newly recognized, that a movable object in the

Vehicle environment overtaking your own vehicle, it is recognized that a moving object in the vehicle environment is overtaken by the own vehicle, it is recognized that there is a risk to the own vehicle from a moving object in the vehicle environment, a critical approach of a moving object to the own vehicle is detected, or a

Combination of these environmental situations is recognized. In general, the driver should always be informed of the direction of an object if the surrounding situation changes or changes in such a way that it cannot be ensured that the driver has recognized this changed surrounding situation.

Furthermore, it is advantageous that the actuators are actuated with different frequencies and / or are actuated by means of different vibration patterns for different environmental situations. The different vibration patterns can be designed such that sequences of switch-on and switch-off signals follow one another, similar to a binary code or a Morse code, a variation in the intensity of the vibration or, for example, depending on the hazard or the size of the object

Vibration frequency of the actuator is controlled. This makes it possible to intuitively inform the driver of different environmental situations and to point out the degree of danger or the type of object recognized.

The method can be implemented, for example, in software or hardware or in a mixed form of software and hardware, for example in a control unit.

The approach presented here also creates a distance controller which is designed to carry out, control or implement the steps of a variant of the method presented here in corresponding devices.

The distance controller can be an electrical device with at least one

Computing unit for processing signals or data, at least one storage unit for storing signals or data, and at least one interface and / or a communication interface for reading or outputting data that are embedded in a communication protocol. The computing unit can be, for example, a signal processor, a so-called System-Asic or a microcontroller for processing sensor signals and outputting data signals depending on the sensor signals. The storage unit can be, for example, a flash memory, an EPROM or a magnetic storage unit. The interface can be used as a sensor interface for reading in the sensor signals from a sensor and / or

Actuator interface for outputting the data signals and / or control signals to an actuator. The communication interface can be designed to read in or output the data wirelessly and / or via line. The interfaces can also be software modules that are present, for example, on a microcontroller alongside other software modules.

Also advantageous is a computer program product or computer program with program code, which can be stored on a machine-readable carrier or storage medium, such as a semiconductor memory, a hard disk memory or an optical memory, and for carrying out, implementing and / or controlling the steps of the method according to one of the above

described embodiments is used, in particular if the program product or program on a computer, a

programmable controller or similar device is executed.

It is pointed out that some of the possible features and advantages of the invention are described herein with reference to different embodiments as a method for controlling a distance and as a distance controller. One skilled in the art will recognize that the features can be suitably combined, adjusted, or exchanged to further

Embodiments of the invention to arrive.

Brief description of the drawings

Exemplary embodiments of the invention are described below with reference to

Drawings explained. Show it FIG. 1 shows a schematic plan view of a driving situation to explain the device and the method according to the invention, FIG. 2 shows a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of the

device according to the invention and

Figure 3 is a schematic flow diagram to explain the

inventive method.

Embodiments of the invention

FIG. 1 shows a top view of a multi-lane road 1, on which one's own vehicle 2 is moving at the speed V _eg0 . Another vehicle 3, which is perceived as a surrounding object and moves at the speed Vi, travels in the lane to the right. Own vehicle 2 is equipped with one or more environment sensors 4, 5, 6, for example in the embodiment shown with two front sensors 4 on the left and right front vehicle corners, one in the area of the vehicle

Windshield arranged further environment sensor 5, which can for example be designed as a video camera and two rear sensors 6, which are each attached to the left and right rear corner of the vehicle. Using these environment sensors 4, 5, 6, the vehicle can monitor the entire environment and recognize objects in the vehicle environment with regard to their distance and their relative speed. The number and arrangement of the environment sensors can be varied and is not limited to the exemplary embodiment shown. The sensors 4, 5, 6 can also be designed as different sensors, for example in such a way that some of the sensors as radar sensors, another part as lidar sensors

Ultrasonic sensors or in any other combination. The rear right rear sensor 6 detects the approaching further

Vehicle 3, which is located in the adjacent lane of multi-lane road 1 and is traveling at a higher speed Vi than one's own vehicle 2 at speed V _eg0 . As a result, the other vehicle 3 approaches the own vehicle 2, is at a certain point in the so-called blind spot of the own vehicle 2 and will probably overtake the own vehicle 2 in the future. The right rear The rear sensor 6 detects the other vehicle 3 by means of the object detection 7 and sends this object information to an evaluation device 20

For reasons of clarity was not shown in Figure 1. In this

Evaluation device 20 determines the relative position of the further vehicle 3 to the own vehicle 2 or the azimuthal direction of the further vehicle 3 to the longitudinal axis of the own vehicle 2 and generates signals for the haptic driver warning. For this purpose, there are, for example, four on the driver's seat 8 in the driver's vehicle 2 in the area of the vehicle attachment

Vibration actuators 9, 10 attached. These vibration actuators 9, 10 can be activated and deactivated individually and can be controlled individually and with different frequencies, different vibration patterns. Since the other vehicle 3 was detected in the right rear area of the own vehicle 2, the rear right vibration actuator 10 is activated and the other three vibration actuators 9 remain inactive. This gives the driver the information that the vibration on the right rear corner of the

Vehicle seat 8, a vehicle in the area right behind the own vehicle 2 was detected. Furthermore, it is possible for the vibration pattern or a vibration frequency to correspond to the risk posed by the

Driving situation or on the basis of the size or speed of the other vehicle 3 provide the driver of the own vehicle 2 with further information. The representation of the vehicle seat 8 by means of four

Vibration actuators 9, 10 are only shown as examples. It is thus possible to install a lot more vibration actuators, for example 12 or even more, on the vehicle seat, so that an even finer resolution of the warning direction is made possible by activating the corresponding vibration actuator on the vehicle seat or in which several, for example adjacent, vibration actuators 9, 10 can be activated on the vehicle seat.

A schematic block diagram is shown in FIG. This shows an evaluation device 20 which has an input circuit 21. Input signals 25 can be fed to the evaluation device 20 by means of the input circuit 21. These input signals 25 originate, among other things, from environment sensors 4, 5, 6, which can be designed, for example, as radar sensors, video sensors, lidar sensors or ultrasound sensors. These Environment sensors are on the front of the vehicle, on the rear of the vehicle as well

if necessary attached to the sides of the vehicle and can monitor the entire vehicle environment. The same spatial areas are advantageously monitored by different types of environment sensors, so that one

Plausibility check and redundancy of the object detection is ensured. The environment sensors 4, 5, 6 can, for example, have their own control unit in which object detections and signal processing take place and which supply 20 object lists to the evaluation device 20 as input signals 25. Alternatively or in combination, it is possible that raw sensor signals as

Input signals 25 are fed to the processing device 20 and the evaluation of the raw signals takes place in the evaluation device 20.

The input signals 25 fed to the input circuit 21 are fed via a data exchange device 26, which can be implemented as a bus system, for example, to a calculation device 27, in which the method according to the invention runs, for example, as software and determines an environment model 37 from the input signals, from the environment model 37 Relative positions of the detected objects 3 or azimuthal directions of the further objects 3 are determined and these are fed as output signals via the data exchange device 26 to an output circuit 28. By means of the output circuit 28, output signals 29 from the evaluation device 20 are arranged downstream

Actuators 9, 10, 30 output. The output signals 29 are

For example, output to vibration actuators 30, which are installed on the steering wheel of the own vehicle 20. This makes it possible to use the steering wheel or

To put parts of the steering wheel in vibration and to inform the driver of a direction and an environmental situation by means of a vibration frequency, a vibration pattern, and the vibration of the steering wheel section, so that the driver is intuitively informed about the environmental situation. Furthermore, as an alternative or in addition, an output signal 29 can be output to seat actuators 9, 10, these seat actuators consisting of a plurality of vibration actuators and the driver being able to be informed of the surrounding situation by means of their individual control by means of vibration patterns and vibration frequencies.

In Figure 3 is a schematic block diagram of the invention

Procedure illustrated. This starts in step 35 by starting the process, for example when the ignition of the driver's own vehicle 2 is activated or when a specific driver assistance function is activated which is integrated in the vehicle 2. In the subsequent processing step 36, object data are read in from the environmental sensors 4, 5, 6 or read in from local control devices of these local environmental sensors 4, 5, 6. In the subsequent step 37, objects, object positions and their azimuthal directions to one's own vehicle 2 are determined. When using different

Environment sensor systems, for example radar and ultrasound or radar and video or video and lidar or another combination, in this step 36 it is additionally possible to merge sensor data in which the object data

Different types of sensors are entered in a common environment model 37 and the objects are checked for plausibility. In the subsequent step 38, the environment model of step 37 is evaluated and ascertained whether there is a special environment situation, in particular a specific driving situation of one's own vehicle 2 with the other objects 3. For example, a determination is made as to whether a newly recognized object 3 has been detected, whether another object 3 is overtaking or will soon overtake one's own vehicle 2, whether one's own vehicle 2 is overtaking or will overtake another object, a dangerous approach of one's own vehicle 2 to another object 3 or to another situation in which the driver should be informed about other objects 3 in the vehicle environment. From the

Detection of such environmental situations can be assigned special frequency patterns to the situations or special vibration patterns can be assigned and output signals 29 can be generated, which are output in the following step 39 by the evaluation device 20 to the downstream actuators 9, 10, 30. In this case, a single vibration actuator can be activated or several, in particular neighboring, vibration actuators can be activated in order to inform the driver of directional information. Furthermore, the

Vibration actuators are controlled with regard to a vibration pattern or are controlled by means of a different vibration frequency, so that the driver can also be intuitively informed of the specific surrounding situation and its criticality with regard to the driver's own traffic situation. After the output signals 29 have been output to the downstream actuators 9, 10, 30, the method according to the invention is continued with step 36, in which steps 36 to 39 are run through again and, due to the interim change in the environment model 37 and the associated change in the environment situation, other vibration actuators with different frequencies and / or different patterns are to be controlled.

Claims

Expectations

1. Device for warning a driver of a vehicle (2),

the vehicle (2) having one or more environment sensors (4, 5, 6) that detect objects (3) in the vehicle environment,

an evaluation device (20) is provided which consists of the

Object detections (7) of the one or more environment sensors (4, 5, 6) generate an environment model (37),

an actuator system (9, 10, 30) is provided, which informs the driver of recognized objects (3) of the environment model (37),

characterized,

that the actuators (9, 10, 30) provide spatial information to the driver

Contains warning information

by haptically informing the driver of the position (7) of the object (3).

2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the

Evaluation device (20) from the environment model (37) relative positions and / or the spatial direction of the detected objects (3) with respect to the vehicle (2) are determined.

3. Device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the actuator system (4, 5, 6) for driver information from a variety of

Vibration actuators (9, 10, 30) in the driver's seat (8) and / or in the steering wheel and / or in the accelerator pedal and / or in the brake pedal and / or in the armrest and / or in the neck support of the driver's seat.

4. The device according to claim 3, characterized in that the

Control of the plurality of vibration actuators (9, 10, 30) in the driver's seat (8) and / or in the steering wheel and / or in the accelerator pedal and / or in the brake pedal and / or in the armrest and / or in the neck support of the driver's seat in such a way that due to the activated actuators (9, 10, 30) Vibrating the seat (8) or the steering wheel or in the accelerator pedal or in the brake pedal or in the armrest or in the neckrest of the driver's seat is generated, which informs the driver haptically with respect to the direction, corresponding to the spatial position of the detected object (3).

5. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized

characterized in that the one or more environment sensors (4, 5, 6)

- one or more radar sensors,

- one or more ultrasonic sensors,

- one or more lidar sensors,

- one or more video sensors,

one or more environment sensors of other vehicles, the data of which are received via a car-to-x interface in the vehicle (2),

- One or more stationary environment sensors that are part of the

Are traffic infrastructure and their data are received via a Car-To-X interface in the vehicle (2),

an environment model consisting of data from a data cloud that is received via a car-to-x interface in the vehicle (2),

- or a combination of these

consist.

6. method for warning a driver of a vehicle,

wherein objects (3) in the vehicle surroundings are detected by means of one or more environment sensors (4, 5, 6),

by means of an evaluation device (20) which generates an environment model (37) from the object detections (7),

depending on the detected objects of the environment model, actuator signals (29) are generated which inform the driver of the detected objects (3),

characterized,

that an actuator system (9, 10, 30) is activated which can convey to the driver haptic information relating to a spatial direction and the actuator system (9, 10, 30) is controlled by the actuator signals (29) in such a way that the driver is informed haptically about the position of the object (3).

7. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that the

Environment model (37) from the output signals (25) of the environment sensors (4,

5, 6) is determined and the relative position and / or the spatial direction of the detected objects (3) with respect to the vehicle (2) are determined.

8. The method according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that the

Actuator signals (29) for driver information are designed such that a large number of vibration actuators (9, 10, 30) in the driver's seat (8) and / or in the steering wheel and / or in the accelerator pedal and / or in the brake pedal and / or in an armrest of the driver's seat and / or individually in the headrest of the driver's seat

- can be activated or deactivated and / or

- Can be varied in intensity and / or frequency

are controllable.

9. The method according to any one of claims 6 to 8, characterized in that the control of the plurality of vibration actuators (9, 10, 30) in the driver's seat (8) and / or in the steering wheel is such that a vibration of the seat (8) and / or the steering wheel and / or in the accelerator pedal and / or in the brake pedal and / or in an armrest of the driver's seat and / or in the headrest of the driver's seat, which the driver recognized with respect to the direction, corresponding to the spatial position (7) of the driver Object (3), informed.

10. The method according to any one of claims 6 to 9, characterized in that the information of the driver regarding the direction (7) of the objects (3) is informed if

Objects (3) are newly recognized,

- it is recognized that a moving object (3) overtakes its own vehicle (2) in the vehicle environment, - it is recognized that a moving object (3) in the vehicle surroundings is overtaken by one's own vehicle (2),

- it is recognized that the vehicle (2) is endangered by a moving object (3) in the vehicle surroundings,

- A critical approach of a moving object (3) to your own

Vehicle (2) is recognized,

- or a combination of these environmental situations is recognized.

11. The method according to any one of the preceding claims 6 to 10, characterized in that the actuators (9,

10, 30) with

- Different frequencies and / or

- by means of different vibration patterns

can be controlled.