JPH0836699A - Parking guiding device for mobile object - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a parking guiding device for a mobile object capable of accurately parking the mobile object at a desired position by relatively simple constitution. CONSTITUTION:An airplane 103 as the mobile object advances along a white line 133 and the image pickup part 16 of a television camera provided in a parking position photographs it. The optical axis of the image pickup part 16 is concident to the white line 133. Images obtained from the image pickup part 16 are processed in an image processor 23 and the images of two engine pods 222 and 222 are extracted. A distance to the parking position is calculated from the comparison of their interval on the images and the actual interval. Also, the deviation of the airplane 103 is discriminated by the degree of the deviation of the middle point of their center position from the optical axis and the inclination direction of the airplane 103 is discriminated from the difference of sizes on the right and left of an intake hole.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a parking guidance device for a moving body such as an aircraft or a vehicle, and more particularly to a moving body for accurately parking the moving body at a predetermined position. Body parking guidance device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Accurate parking is often required for various mobile objects such as aircrafts, especially when the positional relationship with other objects is a problem. For example, an aircraft landing on an airport runway is directed to a predetermined docking or parking position for unloading passengers and luggage. In order to dock the passenger entrance of the aircraft to the passenger entrance / exit facility of the building, it is necessary to accurately guide the aircraft to and park the passenger.

Conventionally, a pilot in the cockpit operates an aircraft according to a flag signal of a worker on the ground to stop the aircraft at a desired position. That is, a reference line of a shape in which the central axis of the fuselage of the aircraft is projected and a stop line indicating the position where the front wheels should stop are drawn in advance on the road surface of the approach road of the aircraft, so that the worker can see the pilot. It was designed to get on the platform installed on the vehicle, visually observe the deviation of the aircraft with respect to these lines on the road surface, and give a guidance instruction by hand.

[0006] In such guidance by the instruction of the worker,
Visual inspection will not be accurate if the workers are not proficient. As a result, when the front wheels of the aircraft are aligned with the stop line, the parking may end in a state in which the front wheels are inclined with respect to the reference line. Extremely high precision parking may be required in aircraft such as in the case of docking as described above. There was a case where the request was not satisfied at the tarp position and it was necessary to perform the operation for parking again.

Therefore, it has been proposed to embed many road sensors on the road surface, detect the current position of the aircraft by this, and display this on the display panel behind the parking position.

Further, in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 62-163499, a front straight-ahead target rod and a ground sign are arranged in a parking lot to be guided, and two forward-looking straight-ahead check cameras and 2 Each road surface position check camera is installed. Then, by processing each image obtained from these four cameras installed in the aircraft, the aircraft is parked at a desired parking position.

Further, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 4-89519, one or a plurality of scanning lines are emitted to the moving body such as an aircraft from the front in the traveling direction. Then, the deviation of the traveling angle and the traveling position of the moving body is automatically determined from the pattern of the scanning line of the portion hitting the moving body. That is, for example, when an aircraft enters along an extension of the above-mentioned reference line along this line, the pattern of the scanning line hitting the aircraft is symmetric with respect to the center of the aircraft, and this can be distinguished. You can If the position of the aircraft is inclined or misaligned with respect to the guidance direction,
Since the pattern of the scanning lines is asymmetrical to the left and right, the state can be discriminated.

[0008]

However, the method of burying a large number of load sensors on the road surface to guide a moving body such as an aircraft is not preferable because it is necessary to modify the road surface itself on which the moving body moves. Further, it is necessary to incorporate a dedicated circuit device into the moving body itself, which is practically impossible.

In the method proposed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 62-163499, it is necessary to install four cameras on a moving body such as an aircraft. For this reason, the equipment on the moving body side required for guidance becomes large in size, and it is also difficult to realize the equipment.

Further, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-89519, a scanning line such as a laser is emitted to scan a moving body and analyze the pattern of the scanning line. There is a drawback that accurate position information of the moving body cannot be obtained by simply analyzing the pattern of the scanning line unless the change in the shape of the protruding portion when the body is tilted is grasped with certainty. . For example, various shapes exist in aircraft, and in order to accurately analyze a scanning pattern and perform parking with high accuracy, it is necessary to increase the number of scanning lines such as lasers and complicate the processing procedure for analysis. However, there is a problem that it is difficult to realize.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a parking guide device for a moving body, which can park the moving body at a desired position with a relatively simple structure.

[0012]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided: (a) an image pickup means arranged on the terminal side of a straight line portion of the approach path of the moving body so that the optical axis coincides with the approach path; B)
Target extracting means for extracting two target objects symmetrically arranged from the image of the moving body imaged by the imaging means when the moving body is viewed from the front,
(C) Center position calculating means for calculating the center position of each of these two extracted targets from the image of the moving body,
(D) Interval measuring means for measuring the distance between the center positions of the two targets in the image by using the actual distance between the two targets of the moving body, and (e) the moving body being the imaging means based on the measured distance. The parking guidance device is provided with a distance calculation means for calculating a distance to the image pickup means when the vehicle advances in the optical axis direction.

That is, according to the first aspect of the invention, the image pickup means is arranged with the optical axis aligned with the terminal end side of the straight line portion of the approach path of the moving body, and the target object symmetrically arranged on the moving body. Is calculated from the image and compared with these actual intervals to calculate how far the moving body is from the image pickup means or the parking position.

In the invention according to claim 2, the result calculated by the invention according to claim 1 is displayed on the display means.

According to the third aspect of the invention, (a) an image pickup means arranged on the terminal side of the straight line portion of the approach path of the moving body so that the optical axis coincides with the approach path, and (b) the image pickup means. Target object extracting means for extracting two target objects symmetrically arranged when the mobile object is viewed from the front from the imaged image of the mobile object, and (c) these two extracted targets Center position calculating means for calculating the center position of each of the objects from the image of the moving object, and (d) whether or not the midpoint of the center positions of the two target objects is deviated by a predetermined amount or more in the image of the moving object and the direction of the deviation Deviation determining means for determining
(E) The parking guidance device is provided with a deviation direction display means for displaying the deviation direction of the moving body when the deviation judgment means judges the deviation.

That is, according to the third aspect of the present invention, the image pickup means is arranged with the optical axis aligned with the terminal side of the straight line portion of the approach path of the moving body, and the target object symmetrically arranged on the moving body. The center position (midpoint) of is determined to determine whether or not the moving body is deviated by a predetermined amount or more in the image, and the direction of the deviation, and the result is displayed on the direction display means.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, (a) an image pickup means arranged on the terminal side of the straight line portion of the approach path of the moving body so that the optical axis coincides with the approach path, and (b) the image pickup means. Target extracting means for respectively extracting two targets of a known size, which are symmetrically arranged when the moving body is viewed from the front, from the captured image of the moving body,
(C) A size determination unit that determines the size of the two target objects extracted from the image of the moving object; and (D) Enter using the known size of the two target objects and the size determined from the image. The parking guidance device is provided with an inclination determining means for calculating the degree of inclination of the moving body with respect to the road, and (e) inclination displaying means for displaying the degree of inclination determined by the inclination determining means.

That is, according to the invention of claim 4, the image pickup means is arranged with the optical axis aligned with the end side of the linear portion of the approach path of the moving body, and the target object symmetrically arranged on the moving body. When the sizes of the target objects are originally the same, the moving direction of the moving body is tilted from the normal direction according to the extent of the difference. It is determined and displayed.

According to the fifth aspect of the invention, the moving body is an aircraft as an example, and the two targets are intake holes of the engine pod.

[0020]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to embodiments.

FIG. 1 shows a parking guide device for a mobile body according to the present embodiment.
Showed an example of a parking lot when applying to the parking of an aircraft
Things. At the tarmac, there are multiple ships at regular intervals.
Aircraft 10₁10,₂, ... is supposed to park
It 10 aircraft currently trying to park₃In front of
A parking guidance device 11 is located in the
A pole 12 stood up to show that the parking area was set up.
Have been. Each aircraft 10 parked on the road surface
₁10,₂, White line (guideline) to guide ... 1
Three₁, 13₂, ... is drawn. Aircraft 10₃Is
Corresponding white line 13 ₃Go along and park the parking guidance device 11
It is designed to stop at a predetermined distance from.

The parking guidance device 11 is provided with a display plate 15 which is vertically attached to the front part of the pedestal 14. The image pickup unit 16 of the television camera (CCD camera) is provided above the display board.
Is attached. A line segment obtained by projecting an optical axis (not shown) indicating the shooting direction of the image capturing unit 16 on the road surface corresponds to at least a straight line portion of the corresponding white line 13 ₃ near the position where the aircraft 10 ₃ finally stops. Thus, the parking guidance device 11 is arranged. A display unit 17 is arranged below the image pickup unit 16 of the display board, and the distance to the parking position and the amount of lateral displacement of the aircraft 10 with respect to the white line 13 are visually displayed here. There is.

In this embodiment, the parking guidance device 11 and the pole 12 are individually moved to the places where the aircraft 10 is parked, but they are movably arranged on a rail, for example. Alternatively, they may be automatically moved to a parking place.

FIG. 2 shows how an aircraft is guided by a parking guidance device to move forward. Aircraft 1
As described above, 0 ₃ moves in the direction of the image pickup unit 16 of the television camera along the white line 13 ₃ . This aircraft 1
0 to ₃ of the main wing 21 the engine pod 22 _{1-22 4} which houses the engine symmetrically are arranged. Fans and air inlets are arranged in front of the engine pods 22 _{1 to} 22 ₄ . The image capturing unit 16 captures an image of the aircraft 10 ₃ within the range of the angle indicated by the solid line, and inputs this to the image processing device 23. In this example, the image processing device 23 extracts the images of the _two engine pods 22 ₂ and 22 ₃ and calculates the distance to the parking position and the presence / absence of deviation of the aircraft 10 ₃ with respect to the white line 13 ₃ based on the extracted images. It is like this.

FIG. 3 shows an example of an image sent to the image processing device of the parking guidance device. The air inlets of the engine pods 22 _{1 to} 22 ₄ are black and circular even during the daytime. Further, the range in which these are present in the image is limited to some extent. Therefore, tracking for extracting the specific two engine pods 22 ₂ and 22 ₃ of these engine pods 22 _{1 to} 22 ₄ from the image 31 of one sheet respectively sent from the image pickup unit 16 of FIG. It is quite possible to set the windows 32, 33.

After setting the two tracking windows 32 and 33 as shown in FIG. 4, the center of gravity of the air inlets 34 and 35 existing therein is calculated to obtain the coordinate values thereof. Then, the midpoint 36 of these coordinate values
Find the coordinate values of. Now, letting the X-axis be the direction parallel to the road surface and orthogonal to the white line 13 ₃ (Fig. 2), and letting the intersection with the white line 13 ₃ be X = "0", the midpoint of the center of gravity of the two air intake ports 34, 35. If the value of the X coordinate of 36 is "0", the center axis of the fuselage of the aircraft 10 ₃ is correctly located on the white line 13 ₃ . On the other hand, when the value of the X coordinate of the midpoint 36 is a positive value or a negative value, it is checked whether or not these are within the range of allowable values, and when the value is out of the allowable range, the aircraft 10 It is displayed on the display unit 17 shown in FIG. 1 which direction and how much ₃ is displaced with respect to the white line 13 ₃ .

Further, determine the difference between the two X-coordinate values of the center of gravity of the midpoint 36 of the air inlet 34 and 35, 2 of the aircraft 10 ₃
By comparing with the actual value of the distance between the two air inlets 34 and 35 and performing the calculation, it is possible to determine how close the aircraft 10 ₃ is to the parking position. This determination result regarding the distance is also displayed on the display unit 17 shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 shows an outline of the circuit configuration of the parking guidance device of the present embodiment. The parking guidance device 11 includes a CPU (central processing unit) 41 which is the center of various controls. The CPU 41 is connected to each unit in the device through a bus 42 such as a data bus. Of these, the working memory 43 stores a program necessary for controlling the parking guide device 11, and also stores image data and other temporarily necessary data. The disk controller 44 controls input / output of the magnetic disk 45. This parking guidance device 1 is attached to the magnetic disk 45.
A program for controlling the No. 1 and data such as the distance between air intakes of various aircraft are stored. Instead of the magnetic disk 45, a relatively large capacity ROM may be used for the same purpose. In the input circuit 46,
An operation panel 47 including a keyboard and the like is connected. From the operation panel 47, the type of the aircraft 10 to park and the command for instructing start or stop of measurement are input.

The camera control device 48 includes a television (TV).
The camera 49 is connected. The camera control device 48 sends the image captured by the image capturing unit 16 of the television camera 49 to the work memory 43 via the bus 42. The display control unit 51 is configured to display the calculation result for parking on the display unit 17 in a visually easily understandable manner.

FIG. 6 shows an outline of the control flow of this parking guidance device. The operator inputs from the operation panel 47 represents the data and height of the image pickup unit 16 of the spacing of the two air inlet 34, 35 of the aircraft 10 ₃ data (step S101). Instead of such an input, the model name of the aircraft 10 ₃ to be parked may be input. When the model name is input, the CPU 41 reads the data representing the interval between the air intakes 34 and 35 from the table indicating the model name and the interval between the two air intakes 34 and 35, and reads the corresponding area of the working memory 43. To store. The data representing the height of the image pickup unit 16 is set to a default value prepared in advance unless the height is changed, and the operator's input is not necessary.

After this, the aircraft 10₃To a certain extent
When approaching the place, the operator measures the operation panel 47.
Press the start button for starting the setting (step S
102). At the same time, the TV camera 49 outputs the image.
The CPU 41 starts the process as described above.
Jinpod 22₁~ 22_FourFeature extraction
(Step S103). And two of these
Jinpod 22₂, 22 ₃To extract each
Set the racking windows 32, 33 (step
S104). And the aircraft as already explained
10₃Is white line 13 ₃To what direction and to what extent
And the distance to the parking position (step
S105). And out of these results
Is displayed on the display unit 17 (step S106).

The display on the display unit 17 is performed as follows, for example. That is, the distance to the parking position is displayed such that the number of lamps that light up decreases as the distance decreases. Immediately before the position where the vehicle should be parked, the word “STOP” is further illuminated in red.
The deviation with respect to the white line 13 _3, direction rough amount of displacement is displayed intelligibly using a graphic (graphic) as well.

At a certain timing, the calculation for the aircraft 10 ₃ is performed, and when the result is displayed, it is then checked whether the operator has input a command indicating the end of measurement from the operation panel 47 (step S).
107). If this command has not been input (N), the control is returned to step 104 again, and after the positions of the tracking windows 32 and 33 set previously are recorrected, the deviation amount for the current aircraft 10 ₃ is changed. And the distance are calculated again (step S105). Then, the result is displayed on the display unit 17 as the latest information (step S106). In the same manner, the control state of the aircraft 10 ₃ is displayed on the display unit 17 every moment until the measurement end instruction is given. When the measurement end command is input (step S107; Y),
All controls for parking are completed (END).

Modification

In the embodiment described above, the distance to the final parking and the deviation of the aircraft from the white line are calculated on the assumption that the aircraft travels on the white line or in parallel with the white line. Decided to display. However, in reality, the aircraft may proceed with an inclination with respect to the white line indicating the traveling direction, and in this case, the interval between the two predetermined engine pods is observed to be shorter than it actually is and An error will occur in the calculation of the distance.

FIG. 7 is for explaining the principle of detecting the degree of inclination of the aircraft with respect to the white line. The TV camera 49 is used to extract the air inlets 34 and 35 of the _two engine pods 22 ₂ and 22 ₃ as in the previous embodiment, and this time, the diameters D ₂ and D ₃ on these images are determined. Determine. When the aircraft 10 ₃ (see FIG. 2) is inclined and proceeding with respect to the white line 13 ₃ , its wing 21 also has the white line 13 ₃
It is not orthogonal to and is inclined by a predetermined angle θ. At this time, the distance L ₂ from the TV camera 49 to the air intake port 34 and the other air intake port 35 from the TV camera 49 also. The distance L _{3 to} is different as the angle θ increases.

The sizes of the air inlets 34 and 35 are known in relation to the type of the aircraft 10. Therefore, by measuring the sizes on the image, the direction in which the aircraft 10 ₃ tilts beyond the allowable range is determined. It is possible to determine whether or not there is. Based on the result of this determination, an instruction to correct the inclination may be displayed on the display unit 17. Of course, the inclination angle may be actually measured and displayed using other data such as the distance between the two air suction ports 34 and 35.

In FIG. 7, the two air intake ports 34, 3
Although the case where 5 exists at a symmetrical position with respect to the white line 13 ₃ is shown, the aircraft 10 ₃ may exist at a position displaced from the white line 13 ₃ . In this case, the deviation can be discriminated on the image as a deviation of the center coordinates of the two air intake ports 34 and 35. Therefore, correction is made based on this and the respective air intake ports 34 and 35 are corrected.
The size of the aircraft 10 ₃ may be determined, and in which direction the aircraft 10 ₃ is inclined.

In the embodiment described above, the aircraft in which the engine pods are arranged symmetrically has been described, but it is needless to say that the present invention can be similarly applied to a moving body having symmetrically identifiable marks. is there. It is natural that the moving body includes not only an aircraft but also any object that moves and whose parking position is controlled.

[0040]

As described in detail above, according to the first aspect of the invention, the image pickup means is arranged with the optical axis aligned with the terminal end side of the straight line portion of the approach path of the moving body, and symmetrical with the moving body. Since the distances of the target objects that are arranged physically are calculated from the image and compared with these actual distances, it is possible to easily calculate how far the moving body is from the image pickup means. Therefore, by using this result,
The moving body can be parked more smoothly than when a worker guides it, which can be useful for eliminating congestion in the parking lot.

Further, since the result calculated by the invention described in claim 1 is displayed on the display means, it is possible for a person who is going to park an aircraft pilot or the like to visually confirm this. it can.

Further, in the invention according to claim 3, the image pickup means is arranged with the optical axis aligned with the end side of the straight line portion of the approach path of the moving body, and the target object symmetrically arranged on the moving body. Since we decided to find the center position (midpoint) of the optical axis, if it is deviated from the optical axis, the direction of the deviation can be determined. Can be displayed. Also in the case of the present invention, it is possible to give information for surely parking the moving body, without requiring labor of a worker.

Further, in the present invention as set forth in claim 4, the image pickup means is arranged with the optical axis aligned with the end side of the straight line portion of the approach path of the moving body, and the targets are arranged symmetrically with respect to the moving body. Since the sizes of the objects on the image pickup surface are determined and compared with the known size, the degree of inclination of the moving body can be determined. Also in the case of the present invention, it is possible to give information for surely parking the moving body, without requiring labor of a worker.

Further, according to the invention of claim 5, when the moving body is an aircraft, the two targets are the intake holes of the engine pod, so that even during the daytime, the black portion is accurately extracted as an image. However, there is an effect that the information about the parking of the aircraft can be accurately given.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a bird's-eye view showing an example of a parking lot when a parking guidance device for a mobile body of the present embodiment is applied to parking of an aircraft.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing how an aircraft is guided by a parking guidance device to move forward in an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing an example of an image sent to the image processing device of the parking guidance device in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a principle diagram showing a principle of determining whether or not an aircraft is deviated from a white line in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an outline of a circuit configuration of a parking guidance device of the present embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an outline of a control flow of the parking guidance device of the present embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a principle diagram showing the principle of detecting the inclination of an aircraft in a modified example of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Aircraft 11 Parking Guidance Device 13 White Line 16 Imaging Unit 17 Display Unit 21 Main Wing 22 Engine Pod 23 Image Processing Device 34, 35 Air Suction Port 41 CPU 43 Working Memory 47 Operation Panel 49 Television Camera

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An image pickup means arranged on the end side of a straight line portion of an approach path of the moving body so that the optical axis coincides with the approach path, and the moving body is detected from an image of the moving body taken by the image pickup means. Target extracting means for extracting each of the two targets symmetrically arranged when viewed from the front, and the center position of each of the extracted two targets are calculated from the image of the moving body. Center position calculating means, distance measuring means for measuring the distance between the center positions of the two targets in the image using the actual distance between the two targets of the moving body, and the moving body based on the measured distance. A parking guide device for a mobile body, comprising: a distance calculation unit that calculates a distance from the image pickup unit when the image pickup unit is moving in the optical axis direction. 2. The parking guide device for a mobile body according to claim 1, further comprising a distance display means for displaying the distance calculated by the distance calculation means. 3. An image pickup means arranged on the end side of a straight line portion of the approach path of the moving body with the optical axis aligned with the approach path, and the moving body from the image of the moving body picked up by the image pickup means. Target extracting means for extracting each of the two targets symmetrically arranged when viewed from the front, and the center position of each of the extracted two targets are calculated from the image of the moving body. A center position calculating means, a deviation determining means for determining whether or not a center point of the center positions of the two targets is deviated by a predetermined amount or more in an image of the moving body, and a deviation direction, and the deviation determining means A parking guidance device for a mobile body, comprising: a shift direction display means for displaying the direction of the shift of the mobile body when determined. 4. An image pickup means arranged on the terminal side of a straight line portion of the approach path of the moving body with the optical axis aligned with the approach path, and the moving body from the image of the moving body picked up by the image pickup means. The target object extracting means that respectively extracts two target objects of a known size, which are symmetrically arranged when viewed from the front, and the size of the two target objects extracted from the image of the moving body, Size determining means for determining, inclination determining means for calculating the degree of inclination of the moving body with respect to the approach path using the known size of the two targets and the size determined on the image, and the inclination determining means And a tilt display means for displaying the degree of tilt determined by the above. 5. The parking guide device for a mobile body according to claim 1, wherein the mobile body is an aircraft, and the two targets are intake holes of an engine pod.