JP2023156608A - Parking support control device - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a parking support control device capable of smoothly executing parking support control without using an expensive arithmetic processing device.SOLUTION: A parking support control device executes automatic detection of an empty parking space around a vehicle 1 and automatic parking support control to automatically guide the vehicle 1 to the detected parking space. In automatically detecting the parking space, a CPU 21 of a parking support ECU 2: determines whether or not the vehicle 1 has possibility to park on the basis of positional information through a satellite of a GPS 5 and travel information about a travel state of the vehicle 1 without continuously detecting the parking space while the vehicle is traveling; and starts the automatic detection of the parking space when determining that the vehicle is in a state showing the possibility to park.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

The present invention relates to a parking assistance control device that performs parking assistance control to assist a vehicle in parking in a parking space.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is a parking support control device that assists a driver in driving when parking a vehicle in a parking space. For example, the parking assist control device described in Patent Document 1 displays an overhead image of the surroundings of the vehicle on a display based on image data from a front camera, a rear camera, and left and right side cameras, and moves forward while maintaining the current steering angle. The trajectory of the front wheels of the vehicle when the vehicle moves backward, and the trajectory of the rear wheels of the vehicle when the vehicle moves backward are displayed superimposed on the bird's-eye view image. In the bird's-eye view of the area around the vehicle, vacant parking spaces are also displayed by detecting the white lines of parking spaces. Therefore, the user can check the positional relationship between the front and rear wheels of the vehicle and the vacant parking space on the display, making it easier to park the vehicle in the vacant parking space.

Patent No. 5477515

By the way, in this type of parking assistance control device, for example, when searching for a parking space, white lines are detected by performing image processing on camera image data, but when performing parking assistance, white lines are detected. In addition to detection processing, various processing is required, such as image processing to display an overhead image of the surroundings of the vehicle on a display, and processing to derive the trajectory of the front and rear wheels based on the steering angle. It may take some time to activate the support system.

Therefore, it may be possible to perform search processing for vacant parking spaces and other arithmetic processing before the parking assistance system is activated to shorten the time required until the parking assistance system is activated. However, if such processing is attempted to be performed before the parking assistance system is activated, an expensive arithmetic processing device is required, resulting in an increase in cost.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a parking assistance control device that can smoothly perform parking assistance control without using an expensive arithmetic processing device.

In order to achieve the above object, the parking assistance control device according to the present invention provides a parking assistance control device that performs parking assistance control to assist the own vehicle in parking in a parking space. and parking assistance control means that performs the parking assistance control. At least one of the information is acquired, and based on at least one of the acquired first information and second information, it is determined whether or not there is a possibility that the own vehicle is parked, and it is possible that the own vehicle is parked. The parking assistance control means starts detecting the parking space at a timing when it is determined that the parking space is in a suitable situation, and the parking assistance control means performs the parking assistance control on the parking space detected by the parking space detection means. (Claim 1).

Further, the first information includes at least one of the amount of braking of the own vehicle and the speed of the own vehicle,
The second information may include at least one of position information based on satellite communication and navigation map information of the own vehicle (Claim 2).

Further, the parking assistance control means may start the parking assistance control when an operation to start the parking assistance control is performed by an occupant after the parking space detection means starts detecting the parking space. Claim 3).

According to the invention of claim 1, the parking space detecting means starts detecting a parking space in a situation where there is a possibility of parking even when the own vehicle is running, so the parking space detecting means starts detecting a parking space even when the own vehicle is running, so that the parking space detecting means does not wait until parking assist control is actually started. The waiting time can be shortened. In addition, because the detection of the parking space is started at the timing when it is determined that there is a possibility that the own vehicle is in a situation where there is a possibility of parking, the detection of parking spaces is The load on the means can be reduced, and the arithmetic device used in the parking space detection means can be constructed at low cost.

According to the invention of claim 2, since the first information includes at least one of the amount of braking of the own vehicle and the vehicle speed, it is possible to easily determine whether or not there is a possibility that the own vehicle will be parked. Moreover, since the second information includes at least one of position information based on satellite communication and navigation map information of the own vehicle, it can be easily determined whether or not there is a possibility that the own vehicle will be parked.

According to the invention of claim 3, since the parking assist control is started when the occupant performs an operation to start the parking assist control, it is possible to determine whether or not to perform the parking assist control according to the occupant's intention, and usability is improved. .

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a vehicle control device according to an embodiment of the present invention. 2 is a flowchart showing the driving support control process of FIG. 1. FIG.

A vehicle control device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. Note that FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a vehicle control device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing driving support control processing.

(Electrical configuration of vehicle)
A parking assistance control device according to an embodiment of the present invention performs parking assistance control to support driving operations when parking a vehicle 1 in a parking space. A brake pedal position sensor 4 that detects the amount of depression of the brake, a GPS 5 that provides position information of the vehicle 1 from satellites, a vehicle speed sensor 6 that detects the speed of the vehicle 1, and a steering system of the vehicle 1. A steering angle sensor 7 that detects the angle, a navigation device 8 that guides the occupant to the destination, an accelerator actuator 9, a brake actuator 10, a steering actuator 11, a shift position sensor 12, and a parking assist activation switch 13. Equipped with.

Vehicle 1 is an automobile that uses an engine as a driving source. The power from the engine is transmitted to the left and right drive wheels via the transmission. The transmission may be a continuously variable transmission, a stepped automatic transmission, or a manual transmission. Further, it may be an electric vehicle or a hybrid vehicle that uses an electric motor as a driving source.

The parking support ECU 2 performs parking support control to support driving operations when the vehicle 1 parks in a parking space, and includes a CPU 21 that performs various controls and calculations, various programs, and position information (coordinates) from the GPS 5. ) includes a memory 22 for storing various data including traveling position information of the vehicle 1 linked to the vehicle 1. The CPU 21 of the parking support ECU 2 performs (i) automatic detection of parking spaces around the vehicle 1, (ii) automatic steering when parking the vehicle 1 in an empty parking space, and (iii) parking the vehicle 1 in an empty parking space. Controls are performed such as automatic acceleration/deceleration when parking the vehicle 1 in a vacant parking space, and (iv) automatic shift switching when parking the vehicle 1 in an empty parking space. In this embodiment, description will be focused on (i) automatic detection of parking spaces.

The cameras 3 are for recognizing the surrounding situation of the vehicle 1, and in this embodiment, a front camera that acquires a front image of the vehicle 1, a rear camera that acquires a rear image of the vehicle 1, and a rear camera that acquires a rear image of the vehicle 1. It is composed of a right camera that captures a right image and a left camera that captures a left image of the vehicle 1. Each camera transmits the acquired image data to the CPU 21 of the parking assistance ECU 2.

The brake pedal position sensor 4 is a sensor that detects the amount of depression of the brake pedal, and detects the amount of depression of the brake pedal by, for example, detecting the amount of movement of a specific portion of a shaft in the brake cylinder. Information regarding the amount of depression of the brake pedal is output to the parking assist ECU 2.

The vehicle speed sensor 6 detects the speed of the vehicle 1, generates a pulse signal synchronized with the rotation of the wheels, and outputs it to the parking assist ECU 2. The CPU 21 of the parking assistance ECU 2 calculates the vehicle speed of the vehicle 1 based on the frequency of the pulse signal (vehicle speed signal) output from the vehicle speed sensor 6. Note that the calculation of the vehicle speed may be performed by the CPU of another ECU, and the parking assistance ECU 2 may obtain information regarding the vehicle speed via the communication bus.

The steering angle sensor 7 detects the angle of the steering wheel, and a detection signal from the sensor 7 is output to the CPU 21 of the parking assist ECU 2.

Position information of the vehicle 1 transmitted from the satellite of the GPS 5 is input to the CPU 21 of the parking assistance ECU 2. In this embodiment, the position information is determined by the CPU 21 of the parking assistance ECU 2 to determine whether the vehicle 1 is traveling on a general roadway or on a road other than a general roadway (for example, a traffic lane in a parking lot). used for. Note that the position information of the vehicle 1 transmitted from the GPS 5 satellites is also supplied to the navigation device 8.

The navigation device 8 includes a memory (not shown) for storing map information, and compares the location information of the vehicle 1 transmitted from the GPS 5 satellites with the location information linked to each point in the map. , the traveling position of the vehicle 1 is displayed on a map on the display. In this embodiment, the CPU 21 of the parking assistance ECU 2 uses navigation map information acquired from the navigation device 8 (a map storing each point (coordinate) on the map and the road type linked to each point). Based on the information), it is determined whether the road type stored in association with the point in the navigation map information that matches the position information from the GPS 5 corresponds to "road."

The shift position sensor 12 detects the shift range position of the vehicle 1, and a detection signal from the sensor 12 is output to the CPU 21 of the parking assist ECU 2.

The parking assistance activation switch 13 is for activating parking assistance control to be described later, and an activation signal is input to the CPU 21 of the parking assistance ECU 2. When the activation signal is input, the CPU 21 of the parking assistance ECU 2 starts parking assistance control, which will be described later, on condition that a predetermined parking assistance activation condition is satisfied.

The predetermined parking assistance activation condition is a condition that defines the driving situation of the vehicle 1 necessary to start automatic parking control, and includes, for example, (A) the vehicle 1 being stopped; (B) the shift range. (C) The steering wheel is not turning (the steering angle is within a predetermined range). The parking assistance ECU 2 determines whether the vehicle 1 is stopped based on, for example, the output value from the vehicle speed sensor 6 or the amount of brake depression. Further, the CPU 21 of the parking assist ECU 2 determines whether the shift range is in the "D range" based on the detection signal from the shift position sensor 12. Further, the CPU 21 of the parking assist ECU 2 determines whether the steering wheel is turning, based on a detection signal from the steering angle sensor 7, for example.

The accelerator actuator 9 operates the accelerator pedal, and when receiving a control signal from the parking assist ECU 2, operates the accelerator pedal so that the amount of operation corresponds to the control signal.

The brake actuator 10 operates the brake pedal, and when receiving a control signal from the parking assist ECU 2, operates the brake pedal so that the amount of operation corresponds to the control signal.

The steering actuator 11 operates the steering, and when receiving a control signal from the parking assist ECU 2, operates the steering so that the steering angle corresponds to the control signal.

(Parking assist control)
As described above, the parking assistance control controlled by the CPU 21 of the parking assistance ECU 2 includes automatic detection of parking spaces around the vehicle 1 and automatic parking control (parking control) for guiding the vehicle 1 to the detected empty parking space. including.

Automatic detection of a parking space is performed by the parking support ECU 2 based on image data output from the camera 3. For example, the CPU 21 of the parking assistance ECU 2 determines the presence or absence of obstacles around the vehicle 1 and divides parking spaces based on image data from the front camera, rear camera, right camera, and left camera of the camera 3. Detect white lines. The white line is detected, for example, by edge detection based on image data. Note that parking spaces may be detected using an ultrasonic sensor such as a sonar or a laser radar in addition to a camera. In this way, it becomes possible to detect cases where the white line is too thin to be detected or parking spaces in parking lots where there are no white lines dividing the parking spaces.

In this embodiment, among the parking assistance controls, the automatic parking control is started when the parking assistance activation switch 13 is turned on while a predetermined parking assistance activation condition is met. Even before the parking assistance activation conditions are met, if the CPU 21 of the parking assistance ECU 2 determines that there is a possibility that the vehicle 1 will be parked, the automatic detection will be performed based on the image data of the camera 3. Start automatic detection of vacant parking spaces.

Here, when the CPU 21 of the parking assistance ECU 2 determines that there is a possibility that the vehicle 1 will be parked,
(i) The road type stored in the memory 22 corresponds to "road" in association with the acquired position information from the GPS 5.
(ii) Among the navigation map information stored in the navigation device 8, the road type of the point (position) that matches the position information from the GPS 5 corresponds to "road."
(iii) The vehicle speed of the vehicle 1 is a speed Vs (for example, 10 km/h or less) at which the vehicle 1 is about to stop.
(iv) The amount of depression of the brake is greater than or equal to a preset threshold.
This is a case where all conditions (i) to (iv) are satisfied.

Note that the conditions for determining that there is a possibility that the vehicle 1 will be parked are not limited to satisfying all of (i) to (iv), and can be changed as appropriate. For example, if there is no navigation device 8, it may be determined that there is a possibility that the vehicle 1 will be parked when all of the conditions (i), (iii), and (iv) are satisfied. In addition, when the own vehicle speed is equal to or less than the speed on the verge of stopping Vs and the amount of brake depression is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value without determining whether or not the vehicle 1 is traveling on a roadway ((iii) and (iv)) It may be determined that there is a possibility that the vehicle 1 will be parked when the following conditions are met. Conversely, when at least one of the conditions (i) and (ii) for determining the road type on which the vehicle 1 travels is satisfied, it is determined that the vehicle 1 may be parked. Good too.
Furthermore, it may be determined that there is a possibility that the vehicle 1 will be parked when any one of the conditions (i) to (iv) is satisfied.

The automatic parking control includes (a) deriving a route from the current position of the vehicle 1 to the detected vacant parking space, (b) controlling automatic acceleration and deceleration necessary to move the vehicle 1 along the derived route, (c) Automatic shift switching control when switching the vehicle 1 from front running to rear running. Note that if the automatic parking space detection results show that there are multiple empty parking spaces around the vehicle 1, the route leading to the empty parking space can be derived by asking the occupant to indicate the desired empty parking space on the display, for example. It is preferable that the vehicle is selected and a route leading to the selected parking space is derived.

The route to the parking space is derived using a predetermined algorithm based on, for example, the positional relationship between the current position of the vehicle 1 and the parking space in which the vehicle 1 is to be parked, the situation around the vehicle 1, and the like. The positional relationship between the parking space to be parked and the vehicle 1 and the surrounding situation of the vehicle 1 can be recognized by the front camera, rear camera, right camera, and left camera that constitute the camera 3.

After deriving the route to the vacant parking space, the CPU 21 of the parking assistance ECU 2 performs automatic acceleration/deceleration control and automatic shift switching control to cause the vehicle 1 to automatically travel along the route from the current position. For example, assume that the vehicle 1 is driven from the current position to a predetermined switching position in the forward run, and then automatically travels to a target parking space in the rear run.

In this case, first, the parking assist ECU 2 activates the accelerator actuator 9, the brake actuator 10, and the steering actuator 11 in order to automatically move the vehicle 1 forward at a predetermined speed and acceleration/deceleration to the switching position according to the derived route. Control. When the vehicle 1 reaches the switching position and stops, the parking assist ECU 2 performs shift switching control to automatically switch the shift range from "D range (drive range)" to "R range (reverse range)". After the shift range is switched to the "R range", the accelerator actuator 9 and the brake actuator are activated in order to automatically drive the vehicle 1 backward at a predetermined speed and acceleration/deceleration to the target parking space according to the derived route. 10. Control the steering actuator 11.

(Parking support control processing)
Next, an example of the parking assistance control process by the CPU 21 of the parking assistance ECU 2 described above will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 2.

The CPU 21 of the parking assistance ECU 2 determines whether the driving state of the vehicle 1 does not satisfy the parking assistance activation condition (step S1). The parking assistance activation conditions are (A) the vehicle 1 is stopped, (B) the shift range is in the "D range", and (C) the steering wheel is not turned (the steering angle is at a predetermined angle). At least all of (A) to (C) must be met.

When it is determined that the driving state of the vehicle 1 does not satisfy the parking assistance activation condition, the CPU 21 of the parking assistance ECU 2 updates the position stored in the memory 22 based on the position information of the vehicle 1 transmitted from the satellite of the GPS 5. Based on the traveling position information (including the type information of the road on which the vehicle 1 is traveling) linked to the information, it is determined whether the road type on which the vehicle 1 is currently traveling is "road" (step S2). Here, if the CPU 21 of the parking assistance ECU 2 determines that the road type is not a "roadway" (NO in step S2), the process proceeds to step S3. On the other hand, if it is determined that the road type is a "road" (YES in step S2), the processes in step S1 and step S2 are repeated.

In step S3, the CPU 21 of the parking assistance ECU 2 determines whether the current position of the vehicle 1 corresponds to the "roadway" based on the navigation map information acquired from the navigation device 8 and the position information acquired from the satellite of the GPS 5. Determine. If the CPU 21 of the parking support ECU 2 determines that the road type is not a "roadway" (NO in step S3), the process proceeds to step S4. On the other hand, if it is determined that the road type is "road" (YES in step S3), the processes of steps S1 to S3 are repeated.

In step S4, the CPU 21 of the parking assist ECU 2 determines whether the vehicle speed of the vehicle 1 is equal to or lower than a predetermined speed Vs (for example, 10 Km/h) as a speed on the verge of stopping, based on the output value from the vehicle speed sensor 6. Determine whether When the CPU 21 of the parking assistance ECU 2 determines that the vehicle speed of the vehicle 1 is equal to or lower than the near-stop speed Vs (YES in step S4), the process proceeds to step S5. On the other hand, if it is determined that the vehicle speed of the vehicle 1 is not equal to or lower than the near-stop speed Vs (NO in step S4), the processes of steps S1 to S4 are repeated.

In step S5, the CPU 21 of the parking assist ECU 2 determines whether the amount of depression of the brake pedal is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold based on the detection signal from the brake pedal position sensor 4. If it is determined that the amount of depression of the brake pedal is equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold (YES in step S5), the CPU 21 of the parking assist ECU 2 determines that there is a possibility that the vehicle 1 will be parked, and places an empty space around the vehicle 1. Automatic detection of whether or not there is a parking space is started (step S6). In this case, by detecting the white lines dividing the parking spaces based on image data transmitted at predetermined intervals from each of the front camera, rear camera, right camera, and left camera that make up the camera 3, each parking space is Separate. Then, by determining whether another vehicle is parked in each divided parking space, a vacant parking space is searched. Note that automatic parking space detection is performed at predetermined intervals after the detection is started.

In step S5, if the CPU 21 of the parking assist ECU 2 determines that the amount of depression of the brake pedal is not equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold (NO in step S5), the processes of steps S1 to S5 are repeated.

After starting automatic parking space detection, the CPU 21 of the parking assistance ECU 2 determines whether the parking assistance activation switch 13 has been turned on (step S7). If it is determined that the parking assistance activation switch 13 has not been turned on (NO in step S7), the processes from step S1 to step S7 are repeated until the parking assistance activation switch 13 is turned on.

If it is determined in step S7 that the parking assistance activation switch 13 has been turned on (YES in step S7), the CPU 21 of the parking assistance ECU 2 will detect a vacant parking spot when the above-mentioned predetermined parking assistance activation condition is satisfied. Parking control for automatically driving the vehicle 1 toward the space is started (step S10), and the process is ended.

In step S1, if it is determined that the parking assistance activation condition is satisfied (NO in step S1), the CPU 21 of the parking assistance ECU 2 determines whether or not the parking assistance activation switch 13 has been turned on (step S8). If it is determined that the start switch 13 has been turned on (YES in step S8), the image data is transmitted at predetermined intervals from each of the front camera, rear camera, right camera, and left camera that make up the camera 3. , starts automatic detection of vacant parking spaces around the vehicle 1 (step S9), starts parking control after the automatic detection ends (step S10), and ends the process. On the other hand, if the CPU 21 of the parking assistance ECU 2 determines in step S8 that the parking assistance activation switch 13 has not been turned on (NO in step S8), the process returns to step S1.

Therefore, according to the above-described embodiment, automatic detection of vacant parking spaces is not always performed in the parking assistance control, and therefore, compared to conventional driving assistance control devices that automatically detect vacant parking spaces at all times while driving. Therefore, the load placed on the arithmetic unit (CPU 21 of the parking assistance ECU 2) required for parking assistance control can be reduced. In addition, a configuration that constantly detects vacant parking spaces not only requires high computational processing power of the CPU, but also requires a large memory capacity, making the ECU for parking assistance control expensive. On the other hand, in this embodiment, it is determined whether or not there is a possibility that the vehicle 1 will be parked, and if there is a possibility that the vehicle 1 will be parked, an empty parking space is detected. Therefore, an inexpensive configuration is possible without using an expensive ECU. Parking assistance control can be achieved with

In addition, in a parking assist control device configured with an inexpensive CPU whose processing power is not so high, if automatic detection of empty parking spaces around the vehicle 1 is started after the parking assist activation switch is turned on, the detection It takes time for the parking assist control system to complete, reducing the usability of the parking assist control system. However, in this embodiment, the CPU 21 of the parking assistance ECU 2 determines whether or not there is a possibility that the vehicle 1 will be parked, and if it is determined that there is a possibility that the vehicle 1 will be parked, the parking assistance activation switch 13 is turned on. Automatic detection of empty parking spaces around the vehicle 1 is started even before the parking space is started. Therefore, the time required from when the parking assistance activation switch 13 is turned on until the detection of an empty parking space is completed can be shortened, and a smooth transition can be made to automatic parking control in which the vehicle 1 is automatically guided to an empty parking space.

In addition, the road type in the memory 22 (step S2 in FIG. 2) linked to the position information transmitted from the GPS 5 satellite, and the road type ( Step S3 in FIG. 2) is a parameter suitable for estimating the current position of the vehicle 1, and the vehicle speed (step S4 in FIG. 2) and the amount of brake depression (step S5 in FIG. 2) are parameters suitable for estimating the current position of the vehicle 1. This is a suitable parameter for determining the running condition of the vehicle. Therefore, by using these parameters, the CPU 21 of the parking assistance ECU 2 can easily determine whether there is a possibility that the vehicle 1 will be parked.

Furthermore, whether or not there is a possibility that the vehicle 1 will be parked can also be determined using at least one of these four parameters. In this case as well, since automatic detection of vacant parking spaces around the vehicle 1 is not always performed while the vehicle is running, parking assistance control can be performed with an inexpensive configuration.

Furthermore, since the automatic parking control is not started unless the occupant turns on the parking assistance activation switch 13, the presence or absence of the parking assistance control can be determined according to the occupant's intention, improving usability.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and various changes can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, in the parking assistance control device according to the embodiments described above, the vehicle 1 When guiding a car to an empty parking space, the system was configured to automatically control all steering operations, accelerator operations, brake operations, and shift range switching. It may be configured to be automatically controlled.

Further, instead of the navigation device 8, for example, a display audio may be provided, and the navigation map information may be acquired by cooperation between the city display audio and a navigation application of a mobile phone.

Further, the present invention can be employed in various parking assistance control devices that perform parking assistance control including automatic detection of vacant parking spaces and automatic parking control that automatically parks a vehicle in the detected vacant parking spaces. .

3: Camera (parking space detection means)
21: CPU (parking space detection means, parking support control means)

Claims (3)

In a parking assistance control device that performs parking assistance control to assist the own vehicle in parking a parking space,
Parking space detection means for detecting available parking spaces around the host vehicle;
Parking assistance control means that performs the parking assistance control;
Equipped with
The parking space detection means includes:
acquiring at least one of first information regarding the driving status of the own vehicle and second information regarding the position information of the own vehicle;
Determining whether or not the vehicle is likely to be parked based on at least one of the acquired first information and second information;
Start detecting the parking space at the timing when it is determined that there is a possibility that the own vehicle is parked;
The parking assistance control device is characterized in that the parking assistance control means performs the parking assistance control on the parking space detected by the parking space detection means. The first information includes at least one of the amount of braking of the own vehicle and the speed of the own vehicle,
The parking assistance control device according to claim 1, wherein the second information includes at least one of position information based on satellite communication and navigation map information of the own vehicle. The parking assistance control means starts the parking assistance control when an operation to start the parking assistance control is performed by an occupant after the parking space detection means starts detecting the parking space. The parking assistance control device according to item 1 or 2.

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