JP2010167932A - Travel supporting device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a travel supporting device capable of surely giving an alarm when one's own vehicle is at high risk in getting out of a driving lane. <P>SOLUTION: In alarm control processing, a lane boundary is recognized by executing image-recognition processing on a road image input from a car-mounted camera, thereby determining a distance (DTLB) between the lane boundary and one's own vehicle (S110-S130). If the DTLB is equal to or less than the predetermined DTLB threshold value (S150; YES), the alarm (LDW) is given (S190) when intentional operation is not performed by a driver (S160; NO), and when a lane change of one's own vehicle is determined to be dangerous based on the target information input from a radar system (S180; YES). Consequently, the LDW is given regardless of the intentional operation by the driver when there is risk in getting out of the driving lane due to driver's carelessness. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a driving support device that supports safe driving by giving an alarm when the host vehicle leaves a driving lane.

  Conventionally, by performing image recognition processing on image data captured by an in-vehicle camera, a lane boundary on the traveling lane with respect to the host vehicle is recognized, and a distance between the lane boundary and the host vehicle is equal to or less than a predetermined distance threshold. In some cases, if there is no request for suppression described below, a Lane Departure Warning (Lane Departure Warning) that immediately determines that the vehicle is likely to deviate from the lane boundary without intention of the driver. (Hereinafter abbreviated as LDW) devices are known.

  Here, the suppression request means that when the driver's intentional driving operation (hereinafter referred to as intentional operation) is detected, the host vehicle is leaving the driving lane according to the driver's intention (or lane departure) This is a control command for prohibiting the activation of the LDW (see Non-Patent Document 1, for example). Further, specifically, the intentional operation is a generic term for an operation of a steering wheel (hereinafter abbreviated as a steering operation) and a lane change operation for turning on a winker.

  On the other hand, when a lane change operation (ie, a blinker operation) by the driver is detected, the vehicle approaches a predetermined distance from the rear on the adjacent lane on the side indicated by the blinker operation based on target information obtained from the on-vehicle radar device. There is known a lane change warning (Lane Change Warning; hereinafter abbreviated as LCW) device that immediately issues an alarm when another vehicle (hereinafter referred to as a target vehicle) is detected (see Non-Patent Document 2, for example). .

JIS D 0804, Japanese Industrial Standard, 2007/7/20 ISO 17387, International Organization for Standardization, 2008

  By the way, when a driving support system configured by linking an LDW device and an LCW device is mounted on a vehicle, both functions of these devices are realized. When leaving, it is expected that either a lane departure warning (LDW) or a lane change warning (LCW) will surely occur and the safety will be greatly improved.

  However, in such a driving support system, it is difficult to specify how much steering operation with a certain amount of operation can be considered as a lane change operation, that is, steering operation and lane change. Since the operations cannot be easily associated with each other, there is a possibility that no warning is generated when the driver tries to change the lane only by the steering operation without operating the turn signal.

  Specifically, in the driving support system, when the LDW device side detects the steering operation, it is assumed that the driver has performed an intentional operation, and a suppression request is made. Therefore, a lane departure warning (LDW) ) Is prohibited and the blinker operation is not detected in the first place on the LCW device side, so the lane change warning (LCW) is not activated.

  In other words, in the conventional driving support system, when the driver tries to change the lane only by the steering operation with carelessness such as the driver forgetting to check the rear vehicle when changing the lane, an alarm is generated even if the target vehicle is detected. Since this is not done, there is a problem that it does not cover all the dangers that can occur when the host vehicle leaves the driving lane.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a travel support device that can reliably issue an alarm when the risk of the host vehicle leaving a travel lane is high.

  The driving support device according to claim 1, which is an invention made to achieve the above object, is a device that supports a safe driving by giving an alarm when the host vehicle leaves the driving lane, and acquires a target. The means acquires the target information on the traveling lane and the adjacent lane for the own vehicle, and the operation detecting means detects the driving operation performed by the driver of the own vehicle. The target information is information indicating a lane division line on a traveling lane, a feature indicating a road edge, the presence of a rear vehicle on an adjacent lane, and the like.

  Then, based on the target information acquired by the target acquisition unit, the DTLB calculation unit recognizes a lane boundary that represents the boundary line of the traveling lane, and calculates a DTLB that represents the distance between the lane boundary and the host vehicle. Further, the information generation means changes the lane based on the target information acquired by the target acquisition means and the driving operation detected by the operation detection means based on the relative relationship between the rear vehicle and the host vehicle located on the adjacent lane. Generating margin information indicating safety at the time.

  Here, the lane departure warning means determines that the driving operation is not a predetermined intentional operation based on the detection result by the operation detecting means when the DTLB calculated by the DTLB calculating means is equal to or less than a preset DTLB threshold. In this case, and based on the margin information generated by the information generating means, the gist is to issue an alarm when it is determined that the lane change of the host vehicle is dangerous. The intentional operation is a generic term for a steering operation and a lane change operation for turning on the winker to the lane boundary side.

  In the driving support device configured as described above, when the warning condition is satisfied that the own vehicle has a high possibility of deviating from the lane boundary (hereinafter, the possibility of deviation), the driver's intention is If a specific driving operation (intentional operation) is not performed, an alarm is issued. In addition, if there is a danger of departure from the lane due to the presence of a rear vehicle, an alarm (LDW) is issued regardless of whether there is an intentional operation. I do.

  In other words, in the driving support device of the present invention, when the driver tries to change the lane only by the steering operation with carelessness such as the driver forgetting to confirm the rear side at the time of changing the lane (and when the suppression request is made). However, since the LDW is activated when a rear vehicle that makes the lane change dangerous is detected, it is possible to reliably issue an alarm when the risk of the host vehicle leaving the traveling lane is high.

  In the driving support device according to the present invention, when the driving operation detected by the operation detecting means is a steering operation as described in claim 2, the intentional operation includes the steering operation with a preset operation amount. It is desirable to be specified as wheel operation.

  In this case, if the steering operation is very small, it can be regarded as a detection error rather than an intentional operation by the driver, and therefore the determination accuracy due to the suppression request can be improved.

  In the driving support device of the present invention, when the driving operation detected by the operation detecting unit is a winker operation, the margin information generated by the information generating unit is determined by the winker operation. It may be information indicating safety when the own vehicle changes lanes to the instructed side. When the lane change warning means detects the turn signal operation via the operation detection means, when it is determined that the lane departure of the own vehicle is dangerous based on the margin information generated by the information generation means. It is desirable to issue a warning (LCW).

  That is, in the driving support device configured as described above, when a lane change operation (blinker operation) is performed, if there is a danger in the lane change due to the presence of a rear vehicle, the above warning condition (that is, the possibility of departure). Regardless of this, the LCW is activated, so that an alarm can be given at an earlier timing than the LDW, and the lane change can be weighted with sufficient margin for the driver.

The block diagram which shows the structure of the driving assistance apparatus 1 to which this invention was applied. The flowchart which shows the detail of the alarm control process which CPU of the control part 10 performs.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

<Configuration of lane departure warning device>
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a driving support apparatus 1 to which the present invention is applied.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the travel support device 1 is mounted on a vehicle speed sensor 2 that detects the travel speed of a vehicle (hereinafter referred to as the host vehicle) on which the device 1 is mounted, and on the front side of the host vehicle, for example. In-vehicle camera 3 that outputs image data that captures a landscape including a driving lane in front of the vehicle, a radar device 4 for detecting another vehicle located within a predetermined detection range behind the host vehicle, and driving of the host vehicle A steering torque sensor 5 for detecting a steering torque amount applied to a steering wheel (hereinafter abbreviated as steering) Sg when operated by a person, and a winker switch (hereinafter abbreviated as winker SW) 6 for detecting an operating state of the winker. Yes.

  The radar device 4 is configured as, for example, a so-called “millimeter wave radar” of the FMCW method. Specifically, by transmitting and receiving a frequency-modulated millimeter wave band radar wave, another vehicle (rear vehicle) traveling in the adjacent lane with respect to the traveling lane of the host vehicle is detected, and based on the detection result Then, target information relating to the rear vehicle is created, and the target information is output to the control unit 10 described later.

  In addition, the driving support device 1 includes a steering torque application unit 7 that applies a weak steering torque for warning to the steering Sg in a direction to avoid lane departure, a buzzer generation unit 8 that generates a warning buzzer, and a warning lamp. A meter display unit 9 for lighting on and a control unit 10 for executing various processes based on the inputs from the sensors / switches 2 to 6 and controlling the alarm generation units 7 to 9. I have.

  The control unit 10 is configured around a well-known microcomputer including a CPU, ROM, RAM, I / O, a bus line, and the like. Among these, the CPU uses a RAM as a work area to store a program stored in the ROM. Based on this, the alarm control process described in detail below is executed. The ROM stores camera parameters (internal parameters and external parameters) of the in-vehicle camera 3. Camera parameters are specified in advance by well-known camera calibration. Among them, internal parameters are based on the camera's focal length, etc., and external parameters are based on the camera's mounting position, orientation, etc. Point to.

<Alarm control processing>
Next, FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing details of alarm control processing executed by the CPU of the control unit 10. This process is started when the driving support device 1 is turned on, and is repeatedly executed at a predetermined control period until the power (or the IG switch of the vehicle) is turned off.

  First, when this process is started, in S110, the image data input from the in-vehicle camera 3 and the target information input from the radar device 4 are stored in the RAM, so that the forward lane is included in the imaging range. An image and target information are acquired.

  In subsequent S130, it is determined whether or not the driver has performed a winker operation based on the detection result of the winker SW6. If an affirmative determination is made here, the process proceeds to S170, and if a negative determination is made, the process proceeds to S140. .

  In S130, a process for recognizing the relative position of a lane marking on the traveling lane or a feature indicating the end of the road with respect to the host vehicle based on the front image acquired in S110 and the camera parameters stored in the ROM ( Image recognition processing). For the image recognition process, a known image processing method such as edge detection or pattern detection is used.

  In subsequent S140, a lane boundary representing the boundary line of the traveling lane is determined based on the relative position of the lane marking line, the feature object, etc. recognized in S130, and the distance (Distance To Lane Boundary) between the lane boundary and the host vehicle is determined. ; Hereinafter abbreviated as DTLB) in the RAM. Note that the lane boundary refers to a boundary line determined by, for example, a center line of a lane line or a feature other than the lane line. Specifically, the distance between the front wheel outer side on the lane boundary side and the lane boundary in the host vehicle is used for DTLB.

  In the subsequent S150, the DTLB stored in S140 is compared with a DTLB threshold set in advance so that it can be considered that the host vehicle is likely to depart from the lane boundary, and is DTLB equal to or less than the DTLB threshold? If the determination is negative, an affirmative determination is made here, the process proceeds to S160, and if a negative determination is made, the present process is terminated.

  Note that the DTLB threshold of the present embodiment is an angle between the traveling direction of the host vehicle and the lane boundary based on the lane boundary determined in S140 and the camera parameters stored in the ROM (hereinafter referred to as a lane yaw angle). ) And then, based on the lane yaw angle and the detection result of the vehicle speed sensor 2, a departure speed representing the speed at which the vehicle approaches the lane boundary is calculated. More specifically, an estimated time (Time To Line Crossing; hereinafter abbreviated as TTLC) fixed in advance so that the driver can avoid a lane departure is multiplied by the calculated departure speed.

  In S160, based on the detection result of the steering torque sensor 5, it is determined whether or not the amount of steering torque applied to the steering Sg is equal to or greater than a predetermined operation threshold value. If it is determined that a correct driving operation (hereinafter referred to as an intentional operation) has been performed, the process proceeds to S170. If a negative determination is made, the process proceeds to S190. The intentional operation is a general term that includes not only the operation of the steering wheel Sg but also the aforementioned lane departure operation.

  In S170, based on the target information acquired in S110, depending on the relative relationship between the rear vehicle (hereinafter referred to as the target vehicle) on the adjacent lane on the side specified by S120 or S160 (by turn signal operation or steering operation) and the host vehicle. Then, margin information representing a level (hereinafter referred to as margin) that does not require the driver to pay attention when the vehicle changes lanes is generated. The margin of the present embodiment is that the smaller the relative speed of the target vehicle relative to the own vehicle (for example, the lower the approaching speed of the target vehicle or the farther the target vehicle is from the own vehicle), the more the own vehicle. Is set based on the correlation between the two (relative distance and relative speed) so as to indicate a larger value as the relative distance of the target vehicle to the vehicle increases (that is, as the target vehicle is farther from the host vehicle). .

  In subsequent S180, based on the margin information generated in S170, it is determined whether or not the margin is below a preset margin threshold that allows the vehicle to safely change lanes. If it is determined, it is considered dangerous if the host vehicle leaves the driving lane, and the process proceeds to S190. If a negative determination is made, it is determined that the host vehicle is safe even if the vehicle leaves the driving lane, and this process is performed. finish.

  In S190, an alarm is generated via each of the alarm generation units 7 to 9, and this process is terminated. Specifically, a command for adding a weak steering torque for warning to the steering Sg in a direction opposite to the lane boundary, a command for generating a warning buzzer, and a command for lighting a warning lamp on the meter Is output to the corresponding alarm generation unit among the steering torque application unit 7, the buzzer generation unit 8, and the meter display unit 9.

  In the above embodiment, S110 is the target acquisition means, the steering torque sensor 5 and the turn signal SW6 are the operation detection means, S170 is the information generation means, S140 is the DTLB calculation means, S160 to S190 are the lane departure warning means, and S120 and S170. S190 corresponds to the lane change warning means.

<Effect>
As described above, in the driving support device 1 of the present embodiment, when it is determined that the host vehicle is likely to depart from the lane boundary (probability of deviating), the lane departure is not intended by the driver. The alarm (corresponding to the LDW) is generated regardless of whether or not the vehicle is intended and whether the vehicle is dangerous due to the presence of the target vehicle.

  Therefore, in the driving assistance device 1 of this embodiment, when leaving the driving lane inadvertently, regardless of whether there is an intentional operation (operation of the steering wheel Sg or winker) by the driver, it is always a situation that involves danger. Since the LDW is activated, it is possible to reliably issue an alarm when there is a high risk that the host vehicle will leave the traveling lane.

  Moreover, in the driving assistance device 1, when a lane change operation (blinker operation) is performed by the driver, it is immediately determined whether there is a high risk at the time of lane change based on the margin information regardless of the possibility of departure. When the risk is high, an alarm (corresponding to LCW) is generated. Therefore, according to the driving assistance device 1, since the LCW is activated at an alarm timing earlier than the LDW when the danger at the time of lane change is high, the lane change can be weighted with a margin for the driver.

  In the alarm control process, when a steering operation with a steering torque amount equal to or greater than a preset reference threshold value is detected, if it is determined that the risk at the time of lane change is high based on the margin information, the LCW is immediately performed. However, in this case, it is difficult to specify the operation threshold value so that it can be regarded as a lane change operation, and as a result, the LCW may be activated even during normal times when the lane change operation is not performed. Sex remains.

  For this reason, in driving support device 1, while limiting the lane change operation which should be detected in order to generate LCW based on margin information to the turn signal operation by a driver, the above-mentioned possibility is excluded and driving is performed. When the steering operation by the person is detected, if there is a high possibility that the own vehicle will depart from the driving lane, LDW is generated based on the margin information. Therefore, according to the driving support device 1, the warning (LCW and LDW) is surely activated at the time of a dangerous lane change without forcibly associating the steering operation with the lane change operation. Can be improved.

[Other Embodiments]
As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described, this invention is not limited to the said embodiment, In the range which does not deviate from the summary of this invention, it is possible to implement in various aspects.

  For example, in the driving support apparatus 1 of the above embodiment, an alarm buzzer is generated as an audible alarm, an alarm lamp is generated as a visual alarm, and an alarm steering torque is generated as a tactile alarm. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and a warning sound or image may be output in conjunction with a navigation device or the like, or the steering Sg may be vibrated.

  In addition, the travel support device 1 of the above embodiment includes the in-vehicle camera 3 and the radar device 4 in order to recognize the lane boundary and to acquire target information behind the vehicle, but is not limited thereto. You may provide the sonar apparatus which uses an ultrasonic wave, and may be comprised by either the vehicle-mounted camera 3 which images the vehicle back, or the radar apparatus 4 which also detects the vehicle front. Note that these are not essential components, and those included in other in-vehicle devices may be used.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Driving assistance device, 2 ... Vehicle speed sensor, 3 ... In-vehicle camera, 4 ... Radar device, 5 ... Steering torque sensor, 6 ... Winker SW, 7 ... Steering torque application part, 8 ... Buzzer generation part, 9 ... Meter display part 10: Control unit.

Claims (3)

Target acquisition means for acquiring target information on the driving lane and the adjacent lane for the host vehicle;
Operation detecting means for detecting a driving operation performed by a driver of the host vehicle;
DTLB calculating means for recognizing a lane boundary representing a boundary line of the traveling lane based on the target information acquired by the target acquiring means and calculating a DTLB representing a distance between the lane boundary and the host vehicle;
Based on the target information acquired by the target acquisition means and the driving operation detected by the operation detection means, the safety at the time of lane change is determined by the relative relationship between the rear vehicle located on the adjacent lane and the own vehicle. Information generating means for generating margin information representing sex,
When the DTLB calculated by the DTLB calculating means is equal to or less than a preset DTLB threshold, when it is determined that the driving operation is different from a predetermined intentional operation based on a detection result by the operation detecting means; and Lane departure warning means for giving a warning when it is determined that the lane change of the host vehicle is dangerous based on the margin information generated by the information generating means;
A driving support apparatus comprising: The driving operation detected by the operation detecting means is a steering wheel operation,
The driving support device according to claim 1, wherein the intentional operation is the steering wheel operation with a preset operation amount. The driving operation detected by the operation detecting means is a winker operation,
The margin information generated by the information generating means represents safety when the host vehicle changes lanes to the side indicated by the turn signal operation,
A lane change alarm that issues a warning when it is determined that the lane change of the host vehicle is dangerous based on the margin information generated by the information generation means when the turn signal operation is detected via the operation detection means The travel support apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means.

Images