JP4845716B2 - Vehicle parking assist device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a parking assist device for a vehicle having imaging means for imaging the surroundings of the vehicle.

The distance sensor mounted on the vehicle detects the size of the parking space and the distance to the vehicle with respect to the parking space, first determines whether the parking is possible based on the size of the vehicle and the size of the parking space, and then stops the vehicle. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-259542 discloses whether the vehicle is parked in the parking space when the vehicle is moved at the minimum turning radius and the determination result as to whether or not parking is possible is notified by an image and voice. .
JP-A-9-180100

  By the way, the above-mentioned conventional one only determines whether or not parking is possible from the size of the vehicle and the size of the parking space or from the stop position of the vehicle and the minimum turning radius of the vehicle before the driver starts the parking operation. Since the driver cannot confirm the relationship of the vehicle position to the parking space as an image on the display device after actually starting the parking operation, the driver can be concerned about the safety of the left and right rear of the vehicle In addition to the above, there is a problem that it is expensive because it requires a laser radar and a photo sensor as a distance sensor.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a parking assist device that can easily park a parking frame by a driver's steering operation while confirming an image on a display device at a low cost. To do.

To achieve the above object, according to the invention described in claim 1, in the parking assist apparatus for a vehicle having an imaging means for imaging the surroundings of the vehicle, an image captured by the pre-Symbol imaging unit from the vehicle upper An image conversion means for converting to a bird's-eye view image, a parking frame image creation means for creating a parking frame image corresponding to a predetermined parking frame set in a fixed positional relationship with respect to the vehicle on the side of the vehicle, and the bird's-eye view Parking frame image superimposing means for superimposing the parking frame image on the image, display means for displaying the overhead image with the parking frame image superimposed, and the parking frame image displayed on the display means as the vehicle moves It is stored and command means capable command, the overhead image obtained by superimposing the parking frame image in the parking assist beginning the starting parking assistance when it comes to a position overlapping with the parking space in moving the overhead image Te An image storage means, referenced to the time of the parking assist starting, the vehicle position calculating means for calculating the vehicle position after the parking assist start, after the parking assistance start, the parking of the image storage means stores the overhead image obtained by superimposing a frame image, the vehicle in which said and a vehicle image superimposing means for displaying sequentially superimposed to the display means an image of the vehicle position calculated in the vehicle position calculating means A parking assistance device is proposed.

  The television camera 11 of the embodiment corresponds to the image pickup means of the present invention, the system start switch 12 of the embodiment corresponds to the command means of the present invention, and the monitor 16 of the embodiment corresponds to the display means of the present invention. Correspondingly, the second vehicle image superimposing means M10 of the embodiment corresponds to the vehicle image superimposing means of the present invention.

According to the configuration of the first aspect, the image conversion means converts the image captured by the imaging means into an overhead view image from the upper part of the vehicle, and the parking frame image creation means is in a certain positional relationship with respect to the vehicle on the side of the vehicle. A parking frame image corresponding to a predetermined parking frame to be set is created, the parking frame image superimposing means superimposes the parking frame image on the overhead image, and the display means displays the overhead image with the parking frame image superimposed. The person can guide the vehicle to the parking start position where the parking frame image matches the parking space of the overhead image while viewing the image on the display means. When the driver operates the command means at this parking start position to command the start of parking support, the image storage means stores an overhead image on which the parking frame image at the start of parking support is superimposed, and after parking support is started The image of the vehicle position calculated by the vehicle position calculation unit is sequentially superimposed on the overhead image obtained by superimposing the parking frame image stored by the image storage unit and displayed on the display unit. Therefore, the driver can surely guide the vehicle to the parking space simply by performing a steering operation so that the vehicle position image on the display means is within the parking frame image. Parking can be performed easily, and an imaging means such as a television camera can be used as a sensor, so that it is inexpensive.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  1 to 7 show an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a vehicle parking assistance device, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a situation around a parking space, and FIG. 3 is parking. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a monitor image before the start of parking support, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a monitor image at the start of parking support, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a monitor image after the start of parking support, and FIG. FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the subroutine of the image processing step of FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle parking assistance device detects a television camera 11 that captures the surroundings of the vehicle, a system start switch 12 that is pressed when the driver starts parking assistance, and a shift position of the transmission. A shift position sensor 13, a steering angle sensor 14 for detecting the steering angle of the steering wheel, a wheel speed sensor 15 for detecting a wheel speed, a monitor 16 shared with a navigation system, etc., and an electronic control unit to which they are connected 17.

  The electronic control unit 17 includes a distortion removing unit M1, an image converting unit M2, a parking frame image creating unit M3, a parking frame image superimposing unit M4, a host vehicle image creating unit M5, and a first host vehicle image superimposing unit M6. A start determination means M7, an own vehicle position calculation means M8, an image storage means M9, a second own vehicle image superimposing means M10, a switching means M11, and a display control means M12.

  A signal from the television camera 11 is inputted to the distortion removing means M1, a signal from the system start switch 12 is inputted to the start determining means M7, and a shift position sensor 13 and a steering angle sensor 14 are inputted to the own vehicle position calculating means M8. And the signal from the wheel speed sensor 15 is input, the signal from the wheel speed sensor 15 is input to the display control means M12, and the display control means M12 outputs an image signal to the monitor 16.

  Next, the operation when the subject vehicle V is parked in parallel in the parking space 21 formed between a plurality of other vehicles V1, V2, V3... Parked on the left side of the road (see FIG. 2) will be described.

When the wheel speed (vehicle speed) detected by the wheel speed sensor 15 is equal to or higher than a predetermined value (for example, 10 km / h), the parking assist device does not operate and no image is displayed on the monitor 16 or a navigation system or the like. An image is displayed. When the wheel speed is less than the predetermined value, a video around the host vehicle V is picked up by the TV camera 11 mounted on the host vehicle V, and the distortion and peripheral distortion are removed from the image by the distortion removing unit M1. After that, the image conversion unit M2 converts the image to an overhead image viewed downward from above. The parking frame image superimposing means M4 superimposes an image of the parking frame 22 created by the parking frame image creating means M3 on the side of the vehicle and set in a fixed positional relationship with the vehicle on the overhead image. The first vehicle image superimposing means M6 superimposes the image of the own vehicle V created by the own vehicle image creating means M5 on the overhead image.

FIG. 3 shows an image of the monitor 16 when the wheel speed becomes less than the predetermined value. On the monitor 16, the image of the host vehicle V and the image of the virtual parking frame 22 are superimposed and displayed on the bird's-eye view image of the other vehicles V 1 and V 2 and the bird's-eye view image of the parking space 21 captured by the television camera 11. The image of the host vehicle V and the image of the parking frame 22 are in a certain positional relationship, and these images move with respect to the images of the other vehicles V1, V2 and the image of the parking space 21 as the host vehicle V moves. . The positional relationship between the image of the host vehicle V and the image of the parking frame 22 is set such that the host vehicle V is positioned in front of the parking space 21 when the host vehicle V starts parking assist control. The

  As shown in FIG. 4, when the driver guides and stops the vehicle V at a position where the image of the parking frame 22 of the monitor 16 overlaps the parking space 21 (parking support start position) and operates the system start switch 12, The start determination means M7 determines the start of parking assistance. The overhead image on which the image of the parking frame 22 is superimposed by the parking frame image superimposing means M4 is stored in the image storage means M9 while being sequentially updated. When the start determination means M7 determines the start of parking assistance, At that time, the image stored in the image storage means M9 is fixed. That is, after the parking assistance is started, the image of the parking frame 22 does not move with respect to the overhead image even if the host vehicle V moves, and is fixed at the position shown in FIG.

When the parking assist is started, the vehicle position calculating means M8 includes a shift position sensor 13, based on the output of the steering angle sensor 14 and wheel speed sensor 15, the parking assist after the start of its own to the time of parking assistance start as a reference Car position is calculated sequentially. Since it cannot be determined from the output of the wheel speed sensor 15 whether the host vehicle V is moving forward or backward, it is determined from the output of the shift position sensor 13 whether the vehicle is moving forward or backward. The second own vehicle image superimposing means M10 is fixed to the image storage means M9 at the own vehicle position calculated by the own vehicle position calculating means M8, the image of the own vehicle V created by the own vehicle image creating means M5. It superimposes on the bird's-eye view image and the image of the parking frame 22. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, the image output from the second vehicle image superimposing means M10 is such that the image of the vehicle V sequentially moves with respect to the fixed overhead image and the image of the parking frame 22.

  The switching means M11 outputs the image from the first vehicle image superimposing means M6 to the display control means M12 before the start judging means M7 judges the start of parking assistance, and the start judging means M7 judges the start of parking assistance. After that, the image from the second vehicle image superimposing means M10 is output to the display control means M12. The display control means M12 displays an image from the switching means M11 on the monitor 16 when the wheel speed of the host vehicle V output from the wheel speed sensor 15 is less than the predetermined value.

  The above operation will be further described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.

  First, when the parking assistance is started by turning on the system start switch 12 in step S1 of the flowchart of FIG. 6, the shift position, steering angle and wheel are detected from the shift position sensor 13, the steering angle sensor 14 and the wheel speed sensor 15 in step S2. The speed is read, the vehicle position is calculated in step S3, the vehicle position displayed on the monitor 16 is determined in step S4, and then the image displayed on the monitor is processed in step S5. On the other hand, if the system start switch 12 is not operated in step S1, the steps S2 to S4 are skipped and the image displayed on the monitor 16 is processed in step S1. Then, the steps S1 to S5 are repeated until the system start switch 12 is turned off or the ignition switch is turned off in step S6.

  FIG. 7 shows a subroutine of step S5 in the flowchart of FIG. 6. If the wheel speed is less than 10 km / h in step S11 and the system start switch 12 is not turned on in step S12, the television camera is displayed in step S13. 11, the image of the television camera 11 is converted into an overhead image in step S14, and the image of the parking frame 22 in which the vehicle V is parked is superimposed on the overhead image in step S15. In step S16, the overhead image on which the image of the parking frame 22 is superimposed is stored in the image storage means M9 while being sequentially updated. In step S17, the image of the vehicle V is further superimposed on the image.

  On the other hand, when the system start switch 12 is turned on in step S12 and parking assistance is started, the image stored in the image storage means M9 at that time is fixed and the image of the vehicle V moving to that image is displayed. Is superimposed. In step S19, the image created in step S17 or the image created in step S18 is displayed on the monitor 16.

  Thus, the driver guides the vehicle V so that the image of the parking frame 22 displayed on the monitor 16 matches the image of the parking space 21 where the vehicle V is to be parked, and the image of the parking frame 22 is When it coincides with the image of the parking space 21, the system start switch 12 is operated to start parking assistance. When parking assistance is started, the image of the vehicle V moves relative to the image of the parking frame 22 while the image of the parking frame 22 remains fixed even if the vehicle V moves. The vehicle V can be surely parked in the parking space 21 simply by performing a steering operation so as to guide the image of the vehicle V in the image. Therefore, even a driver with low skill can easily perform parallel parking, and the television camera 11 can be used as a sensor, so that the driver is inexpensive.

  The embodiments of the present invention have been described above, but various design changes can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.

  For example, in the embodiment, parallel parking has been described as an example, but the present invention can also be applied to left back parking and right back parking.

The block diagram which shows the whole structure of the parking assistance apparatus of a vehicle The figure which shows the situation around the parking space The figure which shows the picture of the monitor before parking assistance start The figure which shows the picture of the monitor at the time of parking assistance start The figure which shows the image of the monitor after parking assistance start Flow chart explaining the operation of parking support Flowchart of image processing step subroutine of FIG.

11 TV camera (imaging means)
12 System start switch (command means)
16 Monitor (display means)
21 parking spaces
22 Parking frame M2 Image converting means M3 Parking frame image creating means M4 Parking frame image superimposing means M8 Own vehicle position calculating means M9 Image storage means M10 Second own vehicle image superimposing means (own vehicle image superimposing means)

Claims (1)

In a vehicle parking assistance apparatus having an imaging means (11) for imaging the surroundings of the vehicle ,
Image converting means for converting the image captured by the pre-Symbol image pickup means (11) to the overhead view image from the vehicle upper and (M2),
A parking frame image creation means (M3) for creating a parking frame image corresponding to a predetermined parking frame (22) set in a fixed positional relationship with respect to the vehicle on the side of the vehicle ;
Parking frame image superimposing means (M4) for superimposing the parking frame image on the overhead image;
Display means (16) for displaying the overhead image on which the parking frame image is superimposed;
Command means capable of commanding parking support start when the parking frame image displayed on the display means (16) moves with the movement of the vehicle and reaches a position overlapping the parking space (21) in the overhead view image. (12)
Image storage means (M9) for storing the bird's-eye view image on which the parking frame image is superimposed at the start of parking support;
Referenced to when the parking assistance start, the vehicle position calculating means for calculating the vehicle position after the parking assistance starting (M8),
After the parking support is started, the image of the vehicle position calculated by the vehicle position calculation unit (M8) is sequentially superimposed on the overhead view image on which the parking frame image stored by the image storage unit (M9) is superimposed. A vehicle parking assistance device comprising: a host vehicle image superimposing unit (M10) for displaying on the display unit (16).

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