JPH06309599A - Traffic lane deviation alarming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce alarms by a winker operation at the time of changing a traffic lane by stopping an alarm processing even when a winker is returned after the winker operation is performed until a distance between the traffic lane and a vehicle returns to normal travelling inside the traffic lane. CONSTITUTION:Even when it is understood that the distance between the traffic lane and the vehicle is <= a threshold value, it is judged that traffic lane change is being performed as long as the winker 2 is operated, a controller 4 does not perform the alarming processing and a winker flag is set at '1'. Then, after the winker operation is performed, since it is judged that the winker flag = '1' until the normal travelling inside the traffic lane is returned, that is, until the distance between the traffic lane and the vehicle > the threshold value is attained, the alarm is not generated. Then, when the normal travelling inside the traffic lane is returned and the distance between the traffic lane and the vehicle > the threshold value is attained, the winker flag is reset to '0'. Even when the winker is returned too early at the time of changing the traffic lane, since it is judged that deviation from the traffic lane is intended by a driver and the alarm can be stopped, troublesomeness can be reduced.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a lane departure warning device, and in particular, it warns a vehicle departure from a white line or a yellow line (hereinafter referred to as a lane) by monitoring the road surface condition in front of the vehicle with a line camera or the like. It is related to the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 2 schematically shows the structure of a conventional lane departure warning device using a lane sensor such as a TV camera or a line camera.
Blinker (direction indicator) 2 and alarm device 3 such as a buzzer
And a controller 4 as a signal processing means for operating the alarm device 3 by receiving output signals from the lane sensor 1 and the winker 2.

The controller 4 converts the output signal (analog signal) of the lane sensor 1 into a digital signal A.
The output signal of the / D converter 40 and the winker 2 is converted to the internal C
It includes an input circuit 41 for taking in a PU (not shown) and an output circuit 42 for giving an output signal to the alarm device 3.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a control program stored in and executed by the controller 4 in the conventional example shown in FIG. 2. The operation of the conventional example of FIG. 2 will be described below with reference to this flow chart. To do.

First, the controller 4 reads the camera signal from the lane sensor 1 and the winker signal from the winker 2 (step S1).

As for the camera signal among the signals read as described above, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, the camera signal on the center line CL passing through the center O (this is because the lane sensor does not scan in the vertical direction but in the horizontal direction). (Because there is only a scan of)) and it is binarized by judging whether it exceeds a threshold value (S
2).

Then, the controller 4 extracts the lane WL on the road surface (the lane width on the center line CL in this example) from the binarized camera signal as shown in FIG. In step S3), the distance between the lane and the vehicle is calculated (step S4).

In order to determine whether or not the vehicle deviates from the lane based on the positional relationship between the vehicle and the lane thus obtained, it is determined whether or not the lane-vehicle distance is less than or equal to a threshold Th. (S5) If it is equal to or more than the threshold value, the process returns to step S1, but if it is equal to or more than the threshold value Th, the next step is executed.

That is, even if the vehicle is approaching the lane WL, it is not necessary to issue an alarm when the lane is changed. Therefore, it is determined whether or not the turn signal is generated (at the same step S).
6) When the winker signal is output from the winker 2, the process returns to step S1.

When the winker signal is not generated in step S6, the warning device 3 is driven to issue a lane departure warning (step S7).

[0011]

In the lane departure warning system as described above, after the driver operates the winker 2 to change the lane, the vehicle is normally driven in the lane (lane-vehicle distance> Th). If the driver returns the winker 2 early before returning and the winker signal becomes "absent", an alarm will be generated even though it is a normal driving operation, making the driver feel annoyed. There was a problem that it would end up.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the signal processing means binarizes the image signal obtained from the line camera for photographing the front of the vehicle to extract the lane on the road surface, and the distance between the lane and the vehicle is constant. If the blinker is not operated when the value is below the threshold, the lane departure warning device that performs alarm processing to activate the warning device should prevent the warning from being issued even if the blinker operation is released early when changing lanes. With the goal.

[0013]

In order to achieve the above object, in the lane departure warning apparatus according to the present invention, the signal processing means is arranged so that the lane-vehicle distance is deviated from the lane after the turn signal is operated. The alarm process is stopped even if the winker is returned until the vehicle returns to the normal running in the lane that is equal to or more than a certain value for determining.

[0014]

In the operation of the lane departure warning apparatus according to the present invention, first, the signal processing means inputs a signal from the lane sensor and binarizes it, and the signal processing means uses the binarized sensor signal to drive the lane on the road surface. And a conventionally known warning process is performed in which the warning device is activated when the winker is not operated when the distance between the lane and the vehicle becomes a predetermined value or less.

In this case, if the winker is operated, it is determined that the lane is changed, and the signal processing means does not perform the alarm process. However, after the winker is operated, until the vehicle returns to the normal running in the lane, That is, until the distance between the lane and the vehicle becomes a certain value or more for determining the lane departure, even if the winker operation is released, the alarm process satisfying the above condition is not performed.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The same configuration as the conventional example shown in FIG. 2 can be used as an embodiment of the lane departure warning apparatus according to the present invention, and it is stored and executed in the controller 4 as the signal processing means in FIG. A flow chart of a control program of the lane departure warning system according to the present invention is shown in FIG.

The operation of the embodiment of the lane departure warning system according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the flow chart of FIG.
Will be described with reference to. In addition, in this flowchart, FIG.
The same reference numerals are given to the same steps as. Therefore, the description of steps S1 to S7 is omitted.

Step S8: When it is found in step S5 that the lane-vehicle distance is larger than the threshold Th, the winker flag is set to "0" before returning to step S1.

Step S9: When the winker 2 is operated in step S6 and a winker signal is generated, the winker flag is set to "1" before returning to step S1.
Leave.

Step S10: When the winker 2 is not operated and the winker signal is not generated in step S6, it is judged whether the present winker flag is "0" or "1", and if the flag is "1". Is step S1
If it is "0", the process goes to step S7 to activate the alarm device 3 to generate an alarm.

Therefore, in the lane departure warning system of the present invention, even if it is found in step S5 that the lane-vehicle distance ≦ Th, if the winker 2 is operated, it is judged that the lane change has occurred, and the controller is determined. No. 4 does not perform the alarm process and sets the winker flag to "1".

After the winker operation is performed, the winker flag = “in step S10 even if the winker 2 is returned until the vehicle returns to the normal running in the lane, that is, until the lane-vehicle distance> Th. Since it is determined to be "1" and the process returns to step S1, no alarm is issued.

When the lane-vehicle distance> Th is returned to the normal running in the lane, the winker flag is reset to "0" in step S8. After that, the winker 2 with the lane-vehicle distance≤Th. If is not operated, the winker flag is set to "0" in step S10.
Therefore, an alarm will be issued.

When the winker signal is not generated, it may be further determined whether the vehicle speed exceeds the threshold value. This is because when the vehicle speed <threshold value, the vehicle is often traveling on a low speed road or the like in which the lane is not clear, so that such a case is excluded.

[0025]

As described above, according to the lane departure warning system of the present invention, after the turn signal is operated, the turn signal is returned until the lane-to-vehicle distance returns to the normal running in the lane with a certain value or more. Since the alarm process is stopped even if the driver returns the vehicle, it is possible to stop the alarm by determining that the driver intends to deviate from the lane even if the driver returns the blinker too early when changing the lane. Therefore, the troublesomeness of the driver's warning can be eliminated, and the reliability of the device can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a control program executed by a controller as signal processing means in a lane departure warning system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment common to a lane departure warning device according to the present invention and a conventional example.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing program of a conventional example.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a front road surface state imaged by a camera.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 lane sensor 2 turn signal (direction indicator) 3 alarm device 4 signal processing means (controller) WL lane In the figure, the same reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A lane on a road surface is extracted by binarizing an image signal obtained from a line camera for photographing the front of the vehicle by a signal processing means, and a distance between the lane and the vehicle is kept below a certain value. In the lane departure warning device for performing warning processing for activating the warning device if the winker is not operated, when the signal processing means performs the winker operation,
A lane departure warning device characterized in that the warning processing is stopped even when the winker is returned until the lane-vehicle distance returns to normal running in the lane where the lane-vehicle distance is equal to or more than the predetermined value.