KR20170094592A - Vehicle control system using vehicle license-plate recognition and vehicle control method thereof - Google Patents

Vehicle control system using vehicle license-plate recognition and vehicle control method thereof Download PDF

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Publication number
KR20170094592A
KR20170094592A KR1020160015514A KR20160015514A KR20170094592A KR 20170094592 A KR20170094592 A KR 20170094592A KR 1020160015514 A KR1020160015514 A KR 1020160015514A KR 20160015514 A KR20160015514 A KR 20160015514A KR 20170094592 A KR20170094592 A KR 20170094592A
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KR
South Korea
Prior art keywords
vehicle
license plate
distance
unit
image
Prior art date
Application number
KR1020160015514A
Other languages
Korean (ko)
Inventor
채석민
Original Assignee
한국전자통신연구원
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Priority to KR1020160015514A priority Critical patent/KR20170094592A/en
Publication of KR20170094592A publication Critical patent/KR20170094592A/en

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    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
    • B60W—CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE OR DIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TO THE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT
    • B60W40/00—Estimation or calculation of non-directly measurable driving parameters for road vehicle drive control systems not related to the control of a particular sub unit, e.g. by using mathematical models
    • B60W40/10—Estimation or calculation of non-directly measurable driving parameters for road vehicle drive control systems not related to the control of a particular sub unit, e.g. by using mathematical models related to vehicle motion
    • B60W40/105—Speed
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
    • B60K—ARRANGEMENT OR MOUNTING OF PROPULSION UNITS OR OF TRANSMISSIONS IN VEHICLES; ARRANGEMENT OR MOUNTING OF PLURAL DIVERSE PRIME-MOVERS IN VEHICLES; AUXILIARY DRIVES FOR VEHICLES; INSTRUMENTATION OR DASHBOARDS FOR VEHICLES; ARRANGEMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH COOLING, AIR INTAKE, GAS EXHAUST OR FUEL SUPPLY OF PROPULSION UNITS IN VEHICLES
    • B60K31/00—Vehicle fittings, acting on a single sub-unit only, for automatically controlling vehicle speed, i.e. preventing speed from exceeding an arbitrarily established velocity or maintaining speed at a particular velocity, as selected by the vehicle operator
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
    • B60W—CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE OR DIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TO THE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT
    • B60W30/00—Purposes of road vehicle drive control systems not related to the control of a particular sub-unit, e.g. of systems using conjoint control of vehicle sub-units, or advanced driver assistance systems for ensuring comfort, stability and safety or drive control systems for propelling or retarding the vehicle
    • B60W30/14—Adaptive cruise control
    • B60W30/16—Control of distance between vehicles, e.g. keeping a distance to preceding vehicle
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
    • B60W—CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE OR DIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TO THE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT
    • B60W40/00—Estimation or calculation of non-directly measurable driving parameters for road vehicle drive control systems not related to the control of a particular sub unit, e.g. by using mathematical models
    • B60W40/02—Estimation or calculation of non-directly measurable driving parameters for road vehicle drive control systems not related to the control of a particular sub unit, e.g. by using mathematical models related to ambient conditions
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
    • B60Y—INDEXING SCHEME RELATING TO ASPECTS CROSS-CUTTING VEHICLE TECHNOLOGY
    • B60Y2300/00—Purposes or special features of road vehicle drive control systems
    • B60Y2300/14—Cruise control
    • B60Y2300/16—Control of distance between vehicles, e.g. keeping a distance to preceding vehicle
    • G06K2209/15—

Abstract

The present invention relates to a vehicle control system and, more specifically, to a vehicle control system which comprises: a storage unit storing vehicle distance information in accordance with an area ratio of a license plate; an image photographing unit photographing a preceding vehicle; an image treatment unit recognizing the license plate in the image photographed by the image photographing unit; a calculation unit calculating an area of the license plate recognized by the image treatment unit and a distance between vehicles; and a speed control unit controlling the speed of a vehicle based on the distance between vehicles, wherein the distance is calculated by the calculation unit.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a vehicle control system and a vehicle control method using vehicle license plate recognition,

The present invention relates to a vehicle control system, and more particularly, to a vehicle control system and a vehicle control method configured to control a vehicle using license plate recognition.

Recently, various kinds of sensors for autonomous vehicles have been developed. Among the sensors, cameras that are widely used in autonomous vehicles include image sensors.

The advantage of the camera using vision sensor is that it is easy to detect and recognize the target, but it is not easy to calculate the distance to the vehicle in front of the direction when using one camera.

Recognition of vehicle license plates has been studied steadily, but most conventional license plate recognition technologies have a great significance in recognition of characters written on license plates in images obtained through cameras.

As the development of autonomous vehicles has become more and more developed, there has been studied a method of calculating the distance between vehicles after recognizing the characters of the license plate. The method of calculating the distance between the vehicles based on the character recognition of the license plate has a large amount of calculation, There is a problem that it takes time.

One of the key factors in the development of autonomous vehicles is how fast the information from the sensors can be processed. That is, one of the problems in the development of the autonomous vehicle is to shorten the processing time of the image information.

The method of calculating the distance between the vehicles based on the character recognition of the license plate has many limitations in terms of shortening the processing time of the image information.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle control system and a vehicle control method for controlling a vehicle using a ratio of an area occupied by a license plate .

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle control system using vehicle license plate recognition, comprising: a storage unit storing vehicle distance information according to a license plate area ratio; A video photographing unit for photographing a vehicle traveling ahead; An image processing unit for recognizing a license plate in an image photographed by the image capturing unit; A calculation unit for calculating an area of the number plate recognized by the image processing unit and a distance between the vehicles; And a speed control unit for controlling the speed of the vehicle based on the distance between the vehicles calculated by the calculation unit.

And the image processing unit is configured to recognize the outline of the license plate.

The calculation unit may include: a license plate area calculation unit for calculating an area of the license plate; And an inter-vehicle distance calculation unit for calculating a ratio of the area calculated by the calculation unit to the image, and calculating a distance between the vehicles based on the calculated ratio.

The area calculation unit is configured to calculate the area of the license plate by the number of pixels.

Wherein the speed control unit decreases the speed of the vehicle when it is determined that the inter-vehicle distance calculated by the calculation unit decreases, and increases the speed of the vehicle when it is determined that the inter-vehicle distance calculated by the calculation unit is farther do.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle control method for a vehicle control system using license plate recognition, comprising the steps of: photographing a vehicle traveling ahead of the vehicle using an image capturing unit; Recognizing a license plate in an image photographed by the image capturing unit using an image processing unit; Calculating an area of the license plate recognized by the image processing unit and an inter-vehicle distance using the calculation unit; And controlling the speed of the vehicle using the speed control unit based on the inter-vehicle distance calculated by the calculation unit.

The recognizing step is a step of recognizing the outer edge of the license plate.

The area of the license plate in the calculating step is calculated by the number of pixels.

The calculating step calculates the area of the recognized license plate and calculates the distance between the vehicles based on the ratio of the calculated area of the license plate to the image.

Wherein when the controller determines that the vehicle-to-vehicle distance calculated by the calculating unit is decreased, it decreases the speed of the vehicle, and when it is determined that the inter-vehicle distance calculated by the calculating unit is farther, to be.

In accordance with the present invention, a vehicle control system using vehicle license plate recognition according to an aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object in an image acquired by a camera, Calculates the area of the license plate, and controls the vehicle using the result of calculating the distance to the opponent vehicle based on the ratio of the calculated area to the image.

Therefore, unlike the related art, there is no need for a character recognition process, so that it is not necessary to perform complicated algorithms or many operations. In addition, since the time required to calculate the distance to the opponent vehicle is reduced, the vehicle control efficiency can be improved.

Further, since the distance between the vehicles can be calculated using only one camera, the number of sensors used for calculating the distance between the vehicles can be reduced.

1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a vehicle control system using license plate recognition according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a flow chart showing a procedure of a vehicle control method of a vehicle control system using license plate recognition according to an embodiment of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The advantages and features of the present invention and the manner of achieving them will become apparent with reference to the embodiments described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of the invention to those skilled in the art. Is provided to fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art, and the invention is only defined by the scope of the claims. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.

In the following description of the present invention, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention rather unclear. The following terms are defined in consideration of the functions in the embodiments of the present invention, which may vary depending on the intention of the user, the intention or the custom of the operator. Therefore, the definition should be based on the contents throughout this specification.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a vehicle control system using vehicle license plate recognition according to an embodiment of the present invention and its operation will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a vehicle control system using license plate recognition according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a vehicle control system 100 (hereinafter, referred to as 'system') using license plate recognition according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an image capturing unit 110, an image processing unit 130, a storage unit 150, Unit 170 and a speed control unit 190. However, the present invention may further include other configurations other than the above-described configurations.

The image capturing unit 110 photographs a vehicle (a 'relative vehicle') traveling in front of a vehicle ('main vehicle') on which the system 100 is mounted, Is transmitted to the image processing unit 130.

In particular, the image photographing unit 110 photographs the opponent vehicle so that the license plate of the opponent vehicle is included in the photographed image. At this time, the image capturing unit 110 may be a single camera.

If the image capturing unit 110 is configured as a single camera, the resolution per one frame of the image captured by the image capturing unit 110 is constant, and if the resolution is constant, the number of pixels constituting the image Is constant.

The image processing unit 130 performs image processing on the image photographed by the image photographing unit 110 to recognize the outline of the license plate included in the image.

The storage unit 150 stores the distance between the present vehicle and the opponent vehicle corresponding to the ratio of the area of the license plate in the form of a lookup table.

Therefore, if the ratio of the area of the license plate in the image is known, the distance between the present vehicle and the opponent vehicle can be known through the search for the storage unit 150, It is not necessary to carry out the process.

The calculation unit 170 calculates the area of the license plate recognized by the image processing unit 130 and calculates the distance between the vehicle and the opponent vehicle based on the ratio of the calculated area of the license plate to the image.

At this time, the calculation unit 170 may include a license plate area calculation unit 171 and an inter-vehicle distance calculation unit 173.

The license plate area calculation unit 171 calculates the area of the license plate recognized by the image processing unit 130. At this time, the area of the license plate is calculated by the number of pixels.

The vehicle-to-vehicle distance calculation unit 173 calculates the ratio of the area of the license plate calculated by the license plate area calculation unit 171 to the image, and calculates the distance between the vehicle and the opponent vehicle based on the calculated ratio.

In this case, the vehicle-to-vehicle distance calculator 173 calculates the distance between the present vehicle and the opponent vehicle using the distance between the present vehicle and the opponent vehicle corresponding to the ratio occupied by the area of the license plate stored in the storage unit 150 do.

Here, the increase in the ratio of the area of the license plate calculated by the inter-vehicle distance calculator 173 means that the distance between the present vehicle and the opponent vehicle is reduced. The inter-vehicle distance calculator 173, The ratio of the area of the license plate compared to the image calculated by the distance calculation means means that the distance between the present vehicle and the opponent vehicle is distant. Thus, if the ratio of the area of the license plate relative to the image is used, .

The speed control unit 190 is for controlling the speed of the vehicle and controls the speed of the vehicle based on the distance between the present vehicle and the opponent vehicle calculated by the calculation unit 170. [

That is, when it is determined that the inter-vehicle distance calculated by the calculation unit 170 is reduced, the speed control unit 190 decreases the speed of the vehicle and determines that the inter-vehicle distance calculated by the calculation unit 170 is distant , The speed of the vehicle is increased.

According to the present invention, the vehicle control system 100 calculates the area of the license plate on the image, calculates the distance to the opponent vehicle based on the ratio of the calculated area to the image, do.

Therefore, unlike the related art, there is no need for a character recognition process, so that it is not necessary to perform complicated algorithms or many operations. In addition, since the time required to calculate the distance to the opponent vehicle is reduced, the vehicle control efficiency can be improved.

Further, since the distance between the vehicles can be calculated using only one camera, the number of sensors used for calculating the distance between the vehicles can be reduced.

The configuration and function of the vehicle control system using the license plate recognition according to the embodiment of the present invention have been described above. Hereinafter, the operation of the vehicle control system using the license plate recognition according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.

2 is a flow chart showing a procedure of a vehicle control method of a vehicle control system using license plate recognition according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, the operation of the vehicle control system 100 using the license plate recognition according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described. The system 100 photographs the opponent vehicle traveling ahead by using the image capturing unit 110 (S200).

At this time, the system 100 photographs the opponent vehicle by using the image capturing unit 110 composed of a single camera.

After the step S200, the system 100 recognizes the license plate in the image using the image processing unit 130 for the image acquired by the image capturing unit 110 (S210). At this time, the system 100 recognizes the outline of the license plate in the image.

When the recognition of the license plate is completed according to the step S210, the system 100 calculates the area of the recognized license plate and the distance between the present vehicle and the opponent vehicle using the calculation unit 170 (S220).

In step S220, the system 100 calculates the area of the recognized license plate (S221), and calculates the distance between the present vehicle and the opponent vehicle based on the ratio of the calculated area of the license plate to the image (S222 ).

At this time, in step S221, the area of the license plate calculated by the system 100 is calculated by the number of pixels.

Also, in step S222, the system 100 calculates the distance between the present vehicle and the opponent vehicle using the vehicle distance information according to the license plate area ratio stored in the form of a look-up table in the storage unit 150. [

That is, in step S222, the system 100 calculates the distance between the present vehicle and the opponent vehicle, which corresponds to the area of the license plate calculated in step S221, from the vehicle distance information in relation to the license plate area ratio.

When the distance between the vehicle and the opponent vehicle is calculated in step S220, the system 100 controls the speed of the vehicle using the speed controller 190 based on the calculated inter-vehicle distance in step S230.

If it is determined in step S230 that the vehicle-to-vehicle distance calculated in step S220 is decreased, the system 100 decreases the speed of the vehicle, Increase the speed of the vehicle.

While the vehicle control system using the license plate recognition according to the present invention has been described with reference to the embodiments, the scope of the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments, and it is obvious to those skilled in the art And various alternatives, modifications, and alterations can be made within the scope.

Therefore, the embodiments described in the present invention and the accompanying drawings are intended to illustrate rather than limit the technical spirit of the present invention, and the scope of the technical idea of the present invention is not limited by these embodiments and accompanying drawings . The scope of protection of the present invention should be construed according to the claims, and all technical ideas within the scope of equivalents should be interpreted as being included in the scope of the present invention.

100: Vehicle control system
110:
130:
150:
170:
171: License plate area calculation unit
173: Inter-vehicle distance calculation unit
190: Speed control section

Claims (1)

A storage unit for storing vehicle distance information according to a license plate area ratio;
A video photographing unit for photographing a vehicle traveling ahead;
An image processing unit for recognizing a license plate in an image photographed by the image capturing unit;
A calculation unit for calculating an area of the number plate recognized by the image processing unit and a distance between the vehicles; And
And a speed control unit for controlling the speed of the vehicle based on the distance between the vehicles calculated by the calculation unit
Vehicle Control System Using License Plate Recognition.
KR1020160015514A 2016-02-11 2016-02-11 Vehicle control system using vehicle license-plate recognition and vehicle control method thereof KR20170094592A (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
KR1020160015514A KR20170094592A (en) 2016-02-11 2016-02-11 Vehicle control system using vehicle license-plate recognition and vehicle control method thereof

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Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
KR1020160015514A KR20170094592A (en) 2016-02-11 2016-02-11 Vehicle control system using vehicle license-plate recognition and vehicle control method thereof

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Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN110576855A (en) * 2018-06-07 2019-12-17 本田技研工业株式会社 Adaptive cruise control device

Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN110576855A (en) * 2018-06-07 2019-12-17 本田技研工业株式会社 Adaptive cruise control device
CN110576855B (en) * 2018-06-07 2022-09-02 本田技研工业株式会社 Adaptive cruise control device

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