JP7173748B2 - Route generation device and automatic driving system - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a route generation device that generates information about a vehicle route, and an automatic driving system.

Currently, technologies for automatically driving vehicles are actively being developed. In automatic driving control, the route information that the vehicle (self-vehicle) should follow is generated with high accuracy, including the driving lane, etc., and the vehicle is automatically driven to the destination according to the route information (for example, Patent Document 1 reference). As an example, highly accurate route information can be generated by receiving rough route information from a navigation system and performing data matching on this rough route information with high precision map data.

The rough route information provided by the navigation system is provided from the navigation system to the high-definition map generation ECU when the automatic driving system is activated or when the route is changed (rerouted) according to the progress of the vehicle. In that case, even if there is already obtained high-precision route data related to the old route, it is necessary to regenerate new high-precision route data by matching the newly obtained route information with the high-precision map data again. be. Newly obtained route information is received in a predetermined distance unit (for example, 7 km unit), but due to the large amount of data, it takes time to regenerate high-precision route data, and as a result, the processing cannot be completed in time. At the time of rerouting, it may be necessary to continue traveling according to the old route information.

WO2016/042978

An object of the present invention is to provide a route generation device and an automatic driving system that enable smooth execution of automatic driving even when new route information is obtained.

In order to solve the above problems, a route generation device according to the present invention obtains absolute position coordinates of a vehicle obtained from a GNSS system, and estimates a relative position of the vehicle based on the absolute position coordinates. a position estimation unit; a route information conversion unit that receives first route information and matches the first route information with high-precision map data to convert the first route information into second route information; a map information output unit that outputs map information based on the relative position, the high-precision map data, and the second route information; When the first route information is newly obtained, the route information conversion unit converts the first data string to The newly obtained first route information is converted into the second route information prior to the second data string, which is the part other than the first data string.

Further, an automatic driving system according to the present invention includes a first control unit that controls automatic driving of a vehicle, and a second control unit that generates high-precision map data for automatic driving and route data of the vehicle. . The second control unit acquires the absolute position coordinates of the vehicle acquired from the GNSS system, and an own vehicle position estimation unit that estimates the relative position of the vehicle based on the absolute position coordinates, and the first route information. a route information conversion unit that receives and converts the first route information into second route information by matching the first route information with high-definition map data; the relative position, the high-definition map data; A map information output unit for outputting map information based on the second route information. When the first route information is newly obtained, the route information conversion unit converts the first data string to The newly obtained first route information is converted into the second route information prior to the second data string, which is the part other than the first data string.

ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, even when route information is newly obtained, the route generation apparatus and automatic driving system which made it possible to perform automatic driving smoothly can be provided.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS It is a block diagram explaining the structure of the automatic driving system which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a schematic diagram explaining an outline of operation of an automatic operation system of a 1st embodiment. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an outline of preceding route conversion; 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of a route information conversion unit 17; FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the first embodiment;

Hereinafter, this embodiment will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the accompanying drawings, functionally identical elements may be labeled with the same numbers. It should be noted that although the attached drawings show embodiments and implementation examples in accordance with the principles of the present disclosure, they are for the purpose of understanding the present disclosure and are in no way used to interpret the present disclosure in a restrictive manner. is not. The description herein is merely exemplary and is not intended to limit the scope or application of this disclosure in any way.

Although the present embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the present disclosure, other implementations and configurations are possible without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. It is necessary to understand that it is possible to change the composition/structure and replace various elements. Therefore, the following description should not be construed as being limited to this.

[First embodiment]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of an automatic driving system according to the first embodiment. This automatic driving system includes a high-precision map ECU 10 (HD MAP ECU, second control unit) as a route generation device, an automatic driving ECU 20 (AD ECU, first control unit) that manages various controls related to automatic driving, and a communication module. 30. The high-precision map ECU 10 is installed in a vehicle (not shown) to be automatically driven, and is an arithmetic control unit that functions as a route generation device that generates information regarding the route.

The high-precision map ECU 10 and the automatic driving ECU 20 can be connected by, for example, Ethernet, which is a well-known communication standard. Further, the automatic driving ECU 20 and the communication module 30 can be connected to an external device (not shown) by a communication standard such as CAN, LIN, MOST, FlexRay, or a combination thereof. The listed communication standards are examples and are not intended to be limiting.

The automatic driving ECU 20 outputs IVI (In-Vehicle Infotainment) route information for automatic driving to the high-precision map ECU 10, and generates in the high-precision map ECU 10 based on the IVI route information and the high-precision map data. It is a control unit that executes automatic operation control using more detailed route information. The IVI route information is generated by a vehicle-mounted navigation system (not shown), and includes information such as the latitude and longitude of multiple points along the route between the current location and the destination.

The high-precision map ECU 10 includes, for example, a gyro/acceleration sensor 11, a GNSS receiver 12, a map updating unit 13, a high-precision map data storage unit 14, a vehicle position estimation unit 15, and a map information output unit 16. , and the route information conversion unit 17 .

The gyro/acceleration sensor 11 is a detector that measures angular velocity, acceleration, and/or speed of the vehicle. The GNSS receiver 12 is a receiver that acquires the absolute position coordinates of the vehicle from the GNSS system. The map update unit 13 receives update data for the high-precision map from the outside via the communication module 30 and updates the high-precision map data. The high-precision map data storage unit 14 is a data holding unit that stores updated high-precision map data.

The vehicle position estimation unit 15 (locator) estimates the current absolute position of the vehicle based on the absolute position coordinates of the vehicle acquired by the GNSS receiver 12, and the angular velocity, acceleration, vehicle speed, etc. acquired by the gyro / acceleration sensor 11. is used to estimate the relative position of the vehicle with reference to the absolute position coordinates. Then, the vehicle position estimation unit 15 executes a map matching process for correcting the calculated vehicle position using the high-precision map data stored in the high-precision map data storage unit 14, and calculates the corrected vehicle position as follows: It is output to the map information output unit 16 and the automatic driving ECU 20 together with the direction of the vehicle and detection information of the sensor. In addition, the own vehicle position estimation unit 15 also receives vehicle information related to the vehicle to be automatically driven and image information (camera recognition result) captured by a camera mounted on the vehicle from the automatic driving ECU 20, and estimates the relative position. can also be used for

The map information output unit 16 outputs the high-precision map data read from the high-precision map data storage unit 14, the relative position of the vehicle estimated by the vehicle position estimation unit 15, and the details obtained by the route information conversion unit 17. According to the route information, high-precision map information for automatic driving is generated and output toward the automatic driving ECU 20 . The high-precision map information for automatic driving includes, for example, the position of the vehicle (own vehicle position), lane information, signboard information, sign information, curve information, gradient information, and the like.

The route information conversion unit 17 converts IVI route information (first route information) obtained from the automatic driving ECU 20 and high-precision map data obtained from the high-precision map data storage unit 14, as schematically shown in FIG. Data matching is performed with the link/node data included in the IVI route information, and according to the result, detailed route information (second route information), which is route information with higher accuracy than the IVI route information, is generated and output to the automatic driving ECU 20. do. The route information conversion unit 17 also acquires information on the position of the vehicle from the vehicle position estimation unit 15, and reflects the information on the position of the vehicle in the detailed route information.

When a route change is instructed, the route information conversion unit 17 converts the detailed route information after the reroute based on the IVI route information updated by the route change (reroute) based on the updated IVI route information. to generate. At this time, the route information conversion unit 17 executes preceding route conversion processing, which will be described below, in order to smoothly reflect the rerouted route in automatic driving.

An overview of the preceding route conversion processing will be described with reference to FIG.
As indicated by symbol (a) in FIG. 3 , when rerouting is performed, the automatic driving ECU 20 acquires IVI route information regarding the route after rerouting. The IVI information includes point sequence data regarding the latitude and longitude of multiple points along the route. If all point sequence data from the current location to the destination or one unit of data forming the route information (for example, data for 7 km) are collectively route-converted, the route conversion process takes time, The route conversion process cannot be completed before reaching the branch point of the rerouted route, and as a result, it may be necessary to continue traveling on the old route before the reroute. As an example, if new detailed route data is to be obtained by collectively converting data for 7 km, the conversion process may take several seconds, and the process may not be completed in time for the branch point of the route.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, only part of the data (advance route data) in the IVI route information after reroute is subjected to route conversion in advance to generate advanced detailed route information. The preceding route data can be, for example, data including data of a plurality of links and a plurality of nodes in the vicinity of the vehicle's current position and included in the direction of travel. When the route conversion is completed for the data of a plurality of links and nodes, and the new route data is obtained in the automatic driving ECU 20, the automatic driving control can be smoothly continued along the new route. The residual IVI route information can be data-converted during operation of the vehicle according to the preceding detailed route information.

The details of the configuration of the route information conversion unit 17 will be described with reference to the block diagram of FIG. The route information conversion unit 17 includes, for example, a high-precision map data reception unit 21, an IVI route information reception unit 22, a vehicle position estimation data reception unit 23, a link/node data generation unit 24, a data matching processing unit 25, a detailed route An information generation unit 26, a new route data acquisition determination unit 27, and a preceding route data determination unit 28 can be provided.

The high-precision map data receiving section 21 has a function of receiving high-precision map data from the high-precision map data storage section 14 and temporarily storing the received high-precision map data. The IVI route information receiving unit 22 also has a function of receiving and temporarily storing IVI route information from the automatic driving ECU 20 . The vehicle position estimation data reception unit 23 has a function of receiving data regarding the position of the vehicle from the vehicle position estimation unit 15 and temporarily storing the data.

The link/node data generator 24 has a function of extracting link data and node data from the high-definition map data and generating link/node data.
The data matching processing unit 25 has a function of performing data matching between this link/node data and IVI route information. Further, the detailed route information generation unit 26 has a function of generating detailed route information according to the result of data matching, according to the high-precision map data and the IVI route information.

The new route data acquisition determination unit 27 has a function of determining whether or not new route information has been obtained. Whether or not new route information can be obtained may be determined based on whether or not an instruction signal to that effect is received from the automatic driving ECU 20, or the IVI route information receiving unit 22 receives it. Decisions may be made according to the information.

If the new route data acquisition determination unit 27 determines that new route information has been obtained, the preceding route data determination unit 28 selects route data in the vicinity of the current position of the vehicle from the new route information. is determined and extracted as preceding route data.
The extracted preceding route data is input to the data matching processing unit 25, and detailed route information is generated based on the preceding route data. The preceding route data (first data string) is subjected to data conversion prior to the portion (second data string) of the new route information other than the preceding route data.

The operation of this system when new route information is obtained will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
When the new route data acquisition determining unit 27 determines that new route data has been acquired due to route change (reroute) (S1), the IVI route information receiving unit 22 inputs the new route data. is started (S2).

The preceding route data determination unit 28 determines whether or not N or more point sequence data constituting the preceding route data has been received (S3). is executed for the point sequence data (S4). The preceding detailed route information obtained by completing the preceding route conversion is output to the automatic driving ECU 20 and used for automatic driving according to the new route information. The "N" number of point sequence data in S3 can be set to a number that can include data of multiple links and multiple nodes. It can be set as appropriate.

Receipt of IVI route information continues even after the preceding detailed route information is obtained. After that, when it is determined that all sequence data included in the IVI path information have been received (S5), data conversion is performed again for all sequence data (S6). In addition to the part where the route conversion process has not been completed (the part closer to the destination than the preceding route data that was not targeted for the above-mentioned preceding route conversion), the data conversion here is the part where the route conversion process has been completed. This is done again for the preceding route data. With respect to preceding route data for which the route conversion process has been completed, the calculation load is small, so the calculation time can be shortened. By recalculating the preceding route data for which route conversion processing has been completed, it is possible to perform route conversion that is more suited to the current road conditions.

As described above, according to the automatic driving system of the first embodiment, even when the route is changed (rerouted), the necessary route change data can be quickly obtained by performing advance route conversion. It can be obtained, and it becomes possible to control automatic driving smoothly.

[Second embodiment]
Next, an automatic driving system according to a second embodiment will be described. The second embodiment has the same overall configuration and basic operation as the first embodiment, but differs from the first embodiment in the operations at S5 and S6 in FIG. In this second embodiment, when all the point sequence data of the route data newly obtained in S5 have been received, the portion for which the route conversion calculation has not been completed (the target of the preceding route conversion described above). The route conversion processing is performed only for the portion that has not been calculated), and the recalculation of the preceding route data that has already been calculated is omitted. In the case of this second embodiment, there is an advantage that the calculation load is less than that of the first embodiment.

<Regarding Modifications of the Present Invention>
The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and includes various modifications. For example, the above embodiments have been described in detail for easy understanding of the present invention, and are not necessarily limited to those having all the described configurations. Also, part of the configuration of one embodiment can be replaced with the configuration of another embodiment, and the configuration of another embodiment can be added to the configuration of one embodiment. Moreover, it is possible to add, delete, or replace part of the configuration of each embodiment with another configuration.

Some or all of the above configurations, functions, processing units, processing means, etc. may be realized by hardware, for example, by designing integrated circuits. Moreover, each of the above configurations, functions, etc. may be realized by software by a processor interpreting and executing a program for realizing each function. Information such as programs, tables, and files that implement each function can be stored in recording devices such as memories, hard disks, SSDs (Solid State Drives), or recording media such as IC cards and SD cards. Further, the control lines and information lines indicate those considered necessary for explanation, and not all control lines and information lines are necessarily indicated on the product. In practice, it may be considered that almost all configurations are interconnected.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10... High-precision map ECU, 20... Automatic driving ECU, 30... Communication module, 11... Gyroscope/acceleration sensor, 12... GNSS receiver, 13... Map update part, 14... High-precision map data storage part, 15... Vehicle position Estimation unit 16 Map information output unit 17 Route information conversion unit 21 High precision map data reception unit 22 IVI route information reception unit 23 Vehicle position estimation data reception unit 24 Link/node data Generation unit 25 Data matching processing unit 26 Detailed route information generation unit 27 New route data acquisition determination unit 28 Preceding route data determination unit.

Claims (4)

a vehicle position estimating unit that obtains absolute position coordinates of a vehicle obtained from a GNSS system and estimates a relative position of the vehicle based on the absolute position coordinates;
a route information conversion unit that receives first route information and matches the first route information with high-definition map data to convert the first route information into second route information;
a map information output unit that outputs map information based on the relative position, the high-precision map data, and the second route information;
When the first route information is newly obtained, the route information conversion unit converts the first data string when a first data string forming part of the first route information is obtained. is converted into the second route information prior to a second data string which is a portion other than the first data string in the newly obtained first route information,
Regarding the newly obtained first route information, when data reception including the second data string is completed, the route information conversion unit re-transforms the first route information including the data-converted portion. perform data transformations
A path generation device characterized by: 2. The route generation device according to claim 1, wherein said first data string is data relating to positions near the current position of said vehicle. 3. The route generation device according to claim 2, wherein said first data string is data corresponding to at least a plurality of link data and a plurality of node data. a first control unit that controls automatic driving of the vehicle;
A second control unit that generates high-precision map data for automatic driving and route data of the vehicle,
The second control unit is
a vehicle position estimating unit that obtains absolute position coordinates of a vehicle obtained from a GNSS system and estimates a relative position of the vehicle based on the absolute position coordinates;
a route information conversion unit that receives first route information and matches the first route information with high-definition map data to convert the first route information into second route information;
a map information output unit that outputs map information based on the relative position, the high-precision map data, and the second route information;
When the first route information is newly obtained, the route information conversion unit converts the first data string when a first data string forming part of the first route information is obtained. is converted into the second route information prior to the second data string which is the part other than the first data string in the newly obtained first route information.
Regarding the newly obtained first route information, when data reception including the second data string is completed, the route information conversion unit re-transforms the first route information including the data-converted portion. perform data transformations
An automatic driving system characterized by

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