KR20220115690A - Pedestrian safety system for self driving cars - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a driving prediction system of an autonomous vehicle which intuitively displays a driving speed, driving direction, and driving distance when an autonomous vehicle drives so that a pedestrian can recognize the driving speed, driving direction, and driving distance and relieves anxiety. The driving prediction system of an autonomous vehicle according to one aspect of the present invention comprises: a control unit controlling at least one of the driving speed, driving direction, and driving distance of the autonomous vehicle; and an output unit outputting a predicted driving range according to the driving direction or driving distance.

Description

Driving prediction system for autonomous vehicles {PEDESTRIAN SAFETY SYSTEM FOR SELF DRIVING CARS}

The present invention relates to a driving prediction system, and more particularly, to a driving prediction system of an autonomous driving vehicle that promotes safety by enabling pedestrians to easily predict the driving of the autonomous driving vehicle.

An automobile may be classified into an internal combustion engine automobile, an external combustion engine automobile, a gas turbine automobile, an electric vehicle, or the like, according to a type of a prime mover used.

An autonomous vehicle is a vehicle that can drive automatically without human driving. Autonomous vehicles drive autonomously by recognizing their surroundings with radar, light detection and ranging (LIDAR), GPS, and cameras and specifying a destination. Unmanned vehicles that have already been put into practical use include unmanned vehicles that patrol preset routes operated by the Israeli military, and unmanned operation systems such as dump trucks operated in overseas mines and construction sites.

The first core technologies of these autonomous vehicles are the driverless vehicle system and the actual system. In addition to simulation in the laboratory, it is a technology that actually builds an unmanned vehicle system. It implements the accelerator, reducer, and steering device, which are driving devices, for unmanned operation, and enables control using the computer, software and hardware installed in the unmanned vehicle. do.

The second core technology is to receive and process visual information using vision and sensors. As the basis of autonomous driving for unmanned driving, it is a technology that accepts image information and extracts necessary information from this image. It uses CCD (charge-coupled device) cameras as well as ultrasonic sensors and range filters to fuse information necessary for distance and driving, so that it can avoid obstacles and cope with unexpected situations through analysis and processing.

The third core technology is the integrated control system and operation monitoring fault diagnosis system technology. This technology establishes a driving monitoring system that monitors vehicle operation and gives appropriate commands according to changing situations, and provides appropriate information to the operator by analyzing various situations occurring from individual processors and sensors to diagnose system failures. or to perform the function of notifying an alarm.

The fourth core technology is intelligent control and intelligent operation devices. This technology is an unmanned driving technique that generates control commands based on mathematical analysis using real vehicle models. Intelligent Forward Control is a system that maintains the distance from the vehicle in front or obstacles by adjusting the speed by itself without the driver operating the pedals based on radar guide technology. When the driver inputs the distance to the vehicle in front, the long-range radar attached to the front of the vehicle detects the position of the vehicle in front, maintains a constant speed, decelerates, accelerates, and stops completely if necessary, which is useful in weather where visibility is difficult.

The fifth applied technology is the lane departure prevention system. This is a technology that notifies the driver of an unintentional departure situation by detecting a lane with a camera installed inside.

The sixth application technology is the parking assist system. This is a system that helps the car park in reverse line by adjusting the steering system when the driver presses the brake pedal after searching for the assist button and inserts the reverse gear. Based on infrastructure as well as vehicle-mounted sensors, the vehicle is automatically guided from the departure point to the parking space, saving unnecessary time and energy when parking, thereby minimizing cost and environmental pollution.

The seventh application technology is the automatic parking system. This is a technology in which the driver stops the car in front of the parking lot, turns off the engine, gets off, and presses the remote control lock switch twice in succession. to be.

The eighth application technology is a blind spot information guidance system. It is used to change lanes by checking obstacles and vehicles on both sides in complex road conditions, as sensors mounted on both sides of the car determine whether there are other vehicles in the blind spot not seen by the side mirrors and warn the driver. .

The biggest advantage of driverless cars is that they help fuel efficiency by avoiding repeated stops by making the control device more even because the driving speed and traffic management data match. will be. In addition, it has the advantages of solving fatigue caused by long-term driving, greatly reducing the risk of traffic accidents, speeding up road traffic flow, and reducing traffic congestion.

Furthermore, autonomous vehicles are expected to solve a number of parking-related problems by not occupying a parking space unnecessarily in the absence of a person. In particular, when an accident occurs, the autonomous vehicle may move smartly and play a role of easily assisting in handling an accident.

However, there is a problem in that pedestrians may have a vague fear of safety that the autonomous vehicle is not controlled because the discussion on the additional user experience using the autonomous vehicle has not been actively conducted yet. Therefore, it is necessary to derive many methods for pedestrians to intuitively know about the driving of the autonomous vehicle.

Korean Patent Publication No. 2019-0049221 (2019.05.09.)

The present invention is to solve the problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to intuitively display a driving speed, a driving direction, and a driving distance when an autonomous vehicle is driven, and to relieve anxiety by recognizing them by pedestrians. An object of the present invention is to provide a driving prediction system for autonomous driving vehicles.

A driving prediction system for an autonomous driving vehicle according to an aspect of the present invention includes a controller for controlling at least one of a driving speed, a driving direction, and a driving distance of the autonomous driving vehicle, and outputting a driving expected range according to the driving direction or driving distance It includes an output unit that

In this case, the expected driving range may be output to have an area on the ground.

Also, the driving expected range may be output to correspond to a steering direction of the autonomous vehicle or a change in the steering direction.

Also, the expected driving range may be output including a curved surface according to a steering direction of the autonomous vehicle.

In addition, the autonomous vehicle may further include a sensing unit for detecting a pedestrian, and when the sensing unit approaches the driving expected range, the output unit may output an alarm.

Also, when the output unit outputs an alarm, the sensing unit may stop or change the driving of the autonomous vehicle after detecting the voice or motion of the pedestrian.

The present invention maximizes pedestrian safety by outputting an image of the expected driving range for pedestrians to the ground when an autonomous vehicle is driven on a road through which pedestrians pass, and intuitively predicting an area where pedestrians should not pass.

1 is a configuration diagram of a system for predicting driving of an autonomous vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram illustrating the sensing unit of FIG. 1 in more detail.
FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram illustrating the output unit of FIG. 1 in more detail.
FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram illustrating the control unit in FIG. 1 in more detail.
5 to 6 are diagrams illustrating the operation of a driving prediction system of an autonomous vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, the embodiments disclosed in the present specification will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the same or similar components are assigned the same reference numbers regardless of reference numerals, and redundant description thereof will be omitted.

The suffixes "module" and "part" for components used in the following description are given or mixed in consideration of only the ease of writing the specification, and do not have distinct meanings or roles by themselves.

In addition, in describing the embodiments disclosed in the present specification, if it is determined that detailed descriptions of related known technologies may obscure the gist of the embodiments disclosed in the present specification, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In addition, the accompanying drawings are only for easy understanding of the embodiments disclosed in the present specification, and the technical spirit disclosed herein is not limited by the accompanying drawings, and all changes included in the spirit and scope of the present invention , should be understood to include equivalents or substitutes.

Terms including ordinal numbers such as first, second, etc. may be used to describe various elements, but the elements are not limited by the terms. The above terms are used only for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another.

When a component is referred to as being “connected” or “connected” to another component, it may be directly connected or connected to the other component, but it is understood that other components may exist in between. it should be On the other hand, when it is said that a certain element is "directly connected" or "directly connected" to another element, it should be understood that the other element does not exist in the middle.

The singular expression includes the plural expression unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

In the present application, terms such as “comprises” or “have” are intended to designate that a feature, number, step, operation, component, part, or combination thereof described in the specification exists, but one or more other features It is to be understood that it does not preclude the possibility of the presence or addition of numbers, steps, operations, components, parts, or combinations thereof.

Hereinafter, the driving prediction system 1000 of an autonomous vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. 1 is a configuration diagram of a system for predicting driving of an autonomous vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram illustrating a sensing unit in FIG. 1 in more detail, and FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an output unit in FIG. It is a configuration diagram showing in detail, and FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing the control unit in FIG. 1 in more detail.

Referring to the drawings, first, the system 1000 for predicting driving of an autonomous driving vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an autonomous driving vehicle 100 that displays driving contents. As shown, route management and remote control It may be made to further include a server 200 that performs the. In this case, the autonomous vehicle 100 includes an input unit 110 , a sensing unit 120 , an output unit 130 , a control unit 140 , a communication unit 150 , and a driving unit 160 .

The input unit 110 is a device for receiving a user input for driving. In the manual mode, the autonomous vehicle 100 may include a steering input device, an acceleration input device, and a brake input device for the input unit. In addition, the input unit 110 serves to input the destination of the autonomous vehicle, receives information from the server 200 according to the input destination, and continuously sets a route. Meanwhile, as will be described later, the expected driving range is output to the ground according to steering in the autonomous mode or the manual mode. This will be described in more detail later.

The sensing unit 120 may include a radar 121 and a lidar 122 , and may further include a camera 123 . In this embodiment, using the radar 121 , the lidar 122 and the camera 123 , the main objects of the pedestrian and the movement of the pedestrian, the stop of the pedestrian, the front direction of the pedestrian, and the movement direction of the pedestrian are detected. In particular, in the present embodiment, it is most importantly determined whether the pedestrian is located within or approaching the driving expected range, which will be described later.

First, the radar 121 may generate information on an object outside the autonomous vehicle 100 using radio waves. The radar 121 may include at least one processor that is electrically connected to an electromagnetic wave transmitter, an electromagnetic wave receiver, and an electromagnetic wave transmitter and an electromagnetic wave receiver, processes a received signal, and generates data for an object based on the processed signal. have.

The radar 121 may be implemented in a pulse radar method or a continuous wave radar method in view of a radio wave emission principle. The radar 121 may be implemented in a frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) method or a frequency shift keyong (FSK) method according to a signal waveform among continuous wave radar methods. The radar 121 detects an object based on a time of flight (TOF) method or a phase-shift method using an electromagnetic wave as a medium, and calculates the position of the detected object, the distance from the detected object, and the relative speed. can be detected. In this case, the radar 121 may be disposed at an appropriate position outside the vehicle in order to detect an object located in the front, rear, or side of the vehicle.

Next, the lidar 122 may generate information about an object including a pedestrian outside the autonomous vehicle 100 by using the laser light. The lidar 122 is electrically connected to the light transmitter (not shown), the light receiver (not shown), and the light transmitter and the light receiver, processes the received signal, and generates data for the object based on the processed signal. It may include at least one processor.

The lidar 122 may be implemented in a time of flight (TOF) method or a phase-shift method. The lidar 122 may be implemented as a driving type or a non-driven type. When the lidar 122 is implemented as a driving type, the lidar 122 is rotated by a motor and can detect objects such as pedestrians around the autonomous vehicle 100 . have. When implemented as a non-driven type, the lidar 122 may detect an object located within a predetermined range with respect to the vehicle by light steering. The autonomous vehicle 100 may include a plurality of non-driven lidar.

The lidar 122 detects an object based on a time of flight (TOF) method or a phase-shift method using a laser light medium, and calculates a position of the detected object, a distance from the detected object, and a relative speed. can be detected. In this case, the lidar 122 may be disposed at an appropriate position outside the vehicle in order to detect an object located in the front, rear or side of the vehicle.

Meanwhile, the camera 123 may generate information on an object such as a pedestrian outside the autonomous driving vehicle 100 by using the image. The camera 123 may include at least one lens, at least one image sensor, and at least one processor that is electrically connected to the image sensor to process a received signal, and generate data about the object based on the processed signal. can

The camera 123 may be at least one of a mono camera, a stereo camera, and an Around View Monitoring (AVM) camera. The camera 123 may obtain position information of an object, distance information from an object, or relative speed information with an object by using various image processing algorithms.

For example, the camera 123 may acquire distance information and relative velocity information from an object based on a change in the size of the object over time in the acquired image. Also, the camera 123 may acquire distance information and relative speed information with respect to an object through a pinhole model, road surface profiling, or the like.

Also, the camera 123 may acquire distance information and relative velocity information from an object based on disparity information in a stereo image obtained from the stereo camera. The camera 123 may be mounted at a position where a field of view (FOV) can be secured in the vehicle to photograph the outside of the vehicle.

The camera 123 may be disposed adjacent to the front windshield in the interior of the vehicle to acquire an image of the front of the vehicle. Furthermore, the camera 123 may be disposed around the front bumper or radiator grill. The camera 123 may be disposed adjacent to the rear glass in the interior of the vehicle to acquire an image of the rear of the vehicle. In this case, the camera 123 may be disposed around the rear bumper, the trunk, or the tailgate. In order for the camera 123 to acquire an image of the side of the vehicle, it may be disposed adjacent to at least one of the side windows in the interior of the vehicle. Alternatively, the camera 123 may be disposed around a side mirror, a fender, or a door.

In addition, since the sensing unit 120 needs to utilize location information of the autonomous vehicle, it essentially further includes a GPS 124 . The GPS 124 may include at least one of a general global positioning system (GPS) and a differential global positioning system (DGPS) to generate location data of the autonomous vehicle 100 . Position data of the autonomous vehicle 10 may be generated based on a signal generated by at least one of the GPS and DGPS.

In this case, the GPS 124 may correct the location data based on at least one of an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and the camera 123 of the sensing unit 120 . Also, the GPS 124 may be referred to as a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS).

On the other hand, the sensing unit 120 may further include a microphone 125 in order for the passenger to intervene in the autonomous driving in addition to the guardian by voice or the like even if the passenger does not perform the steering operation. Furthermore, the biometric information sensor 126 not only prepares for an emergency by sensing the passenger's heartbeat, pressure, brain waves, etc., but additionally senses fingerprint and iris information when entering and exiting the vehicle to prevent erroneous boarding. can By utilizing the biometric information sensor 126 , the autonomous vehicle 100 may detect that a passenger has boarded or alighted.

Meanwhile, the output unit 130 includes a driving information output module 131 , an expected driving range output module 132 , and a voice output module 133 . The driving information output module 131 is normally disposed inside or outside the autonomous driving vehicle 100 and displays it in a way to guide driving-related situations. For example, the driving direction, driving speed, stopping schedule, departure schedule, rotation schedule, etc. may be displayed. Furthermore, the driving information display module 131 may output any one of a shape, a shape, a color, a text, and a sound to be read from the outside of the vehicle to provide predictability to the owner and surrounding people of the vehicle.

In this case, the driving expected range output module 132 outputs the driving expected range according to the driving direction or driving distance of the autonomous vehicle. In this case, it is preferable for the pedestrian to intuitively observe that the expected driving range is output to be displayed directly on the ground. Furthermore, the expected driving range is preferably output to have a predetermined area. For example, when an autonomous vehicle is reversing for parking, it has a width corresponding to the width of the vehicle along the movement of the autonomous vehicle and a straight line or curve corresponding to the movement of the vehicle as opposite sides. It is preferred that this is generated.

Such a closed figure may be formed of a rectangle, a figure having two opposite sides formed of a curved surface and two opposite sides connecting them. In this case, the expected driving range output module 132 can output (project) the closed figure having such an area to the ground to include a color with strong discrimination, thereby remarkably drawing the attention of surrounding pedestrians.

Furthermore, the driving expected range generated by the closed figure may change the opposite two surfaces formed as the above-described curved surfaces according to the steering direction of the vehicle or a change in the steering direction. For example, when the steering wheel is turned to the left and reverse driving is performed, the vehicle is biased to the left and reversed, so that the two opposite sides formed by the above-described curved surface are also curved to the left, and then turn the steering wheel to the right again. In the case of reverse driving after bending, the two opposite sides formed by such a curved surface are biased to the right.

On the other hand, the ends of the opposite two surfaces are moved away from each other in proportion to the distance to which the vehicle is driven. In addition, in the case of reverse parking, the driving of the vehicle is not performed in only one direction, but is driven in a plurality of directions according to forward and reverse in more cases. The expected driving range can be calculated and outputted as a figure having an area on the ground. In this case, it is also preferable to output a separate display for the proceeding sequence in addition to the figure having an area for the understanding of pedestrians.

On the other hand, even in this case, there may be a case where the surrounding pedestrian approaches the driving expected range. Such a pedestrian is detected by the above-described sensing unit, and in this case, the voice output module 133 may output a warning voice to the pedestrian. However, since the pedestrian who hears the warning voice may keep walking, in this case, the controller controls the driving to stop the vehicle. Also, in this case, the pedestrian may perform voice input to the vehicle. This is because there may be cases where it may not be possible to fully protect pedestrians with only the output within the expected driving range. Accordingly, the pedestrian inputs a separate command to be detected by the sensor of the vehicle, and the vehicle may stop driving or change the driving direction based on this.

Meanwhile, the control unit includes a driving control module 141 , a driving expected range output control module 142 , and a pedestrian behavior determination module 143 .

First, the driving control module 141 may be configured as a main ECU, and controls the driving unit 160 of the autonomous vehicle 100 to control at least one of a driving speed, a driving direction, and a driving distance. In particular, the drive control module 141 may include a power train drive control device, a chassis drive control device, a door/window drive control device, a safety device drive control device, a lamp drive control device, and an air conditioning drive control device. The power train drive control device may include a power source drive control device and a transmission drive control device. The chassis drive control device may include a steering drive control device, a brake drive control device, and a suspension drive control device. Meanwhile, the safety device drive control device may include a safety belt drive control device for seat belt control.

The driving control module 141 includes at least one electronic control device (eg, a control ECU (Electronic Control Unit)). In particular, on the basis of the received signal, it is possible to control the vehicle drive unit. For example, the controller 140 may control a power train, a steering device, and a brake device based on a signal received from the sensor 120 .

The expected driving range output control module 142 controls the output of the above-described driving expected range. To this end, the driving expected range output control module 142 has two opposite sides with the output part having a straight or curved driving direction according to information such as the driving direction and driving distance of the vehicle and an end having a length according to the calculated driving distance. is controlled to output, and the degree of bending of the two sides of the curve is controlled to be displayed together according to the turning radius during steering control.

The pedestrian behavior determination module 143 receives the signal detected by the radar 121 and the rider 122 to classify the information, and the camera 123 converts the color information input as an image into black and white. At this time, the lidar 122 converts the received information into a coordinate plane, and the camera 123 normalizes the histogram (frequency distribution table) from the converted information. This determines the approaching pedestrian.

Furthermore, the pedestrian behavior determination module 143 serves to determine whether the pedestrian is a person who intends to enter the driving expected range from the detected value. That is, the ROI (region of interest) is set through the coordinate system converted by the lidar 122 and the histogram obtained from the camera, and the ROI obtained in the setting step is converted to HOG to obtain pedestrian recognition information. Find the distance value from the transmitted information. Thereafter, two pieces of information obtained by measuring the ROI and the distance value are combined, and the intention of the pedestrian to enter the expected driving range is determined through SVM classification from the combined information.

In this case, as described above, the alarming signal is output to the pedestrian by controlling the output unit as described above, and the other intention of the pedestrian is then detected as described above.

Meanwhile, the communication unit 150 may exchange signals with devices located outside the autonomous vehicle 100 , and may exchange signals with at least one of an infrastructure (eg, a server, a broadcasting station), another vehicle, and a terminal. have. The communication unit 150 may include at least one of a transmit antenna, a receive antenna, a radio frequency (RF) circuit capable of implementing various communication protocols, and an RF element to perform communication. For example, the communication apparatus may exchange a signal with an external device based on C-V2X (Cellular V2X) technology. In addition, the communication unit 150 is based on the IEEE 802.11p PHY / MAC layer technology and the IEEE 1609 Network / Transport layer technology based on DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communications) technology or WAVE (Wireless Access in Vehicular Environment) standard based on the external device and signal can be exchanged for

Hereinafter, the operation of the present invention will be exemplified and described. 5 to 6 are diagrams illustrating the operation of a driving prediction system of an autonomous vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5 , it is exemplified that the autonomous vehicle moving backward outputs red light to the ground as an expected driving range. At this time, the red light changes direction according to the steering, so that pedestrians can know the driving direction of the car. Referring to FIG. 6 , the content of requesting movement as an alarm when detecting that the pedestrian enters the driving expected range is exemplified, and in this case, the pedestrian can input a separate instruction is also described.

As such, those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains will understand that the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without changing the technical spirit or essential characteristics thereof.

In addition, the present specification and drawings have been disclosed with respect to preferred embodiments of the present invention, and although specific terms are used, these are only used in a general sense to easily explain the technical content of the present invention and help the understanding of the present invention, It is not intended to limit the scope of the invention. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention pertains that other modifications based on the technical spirit of the present invention can be implemented in addition to the embodiments disclosed herein.

1000: driving prediction system of autonomous vehicle
100: autonomous vehicle
110: input unit
120: detection unit
130: output unit
140: control unit
150: communication department
160: driving unit
200: server

Claims (6)

In the driving prediction system of an autonomous vehicle,
a control unit for controlling at least one of a driving speed, a driving direction, and a driving distance of the autonomous vehicle;
an output unit outputting an expected driving range according to the driving direction or driving distance;
A driving prediction system for an autonomous vehicle, comprising:
According to claim 1,
The driving prediction system of an autonomous vehicle, characterized in that the driving prediction range is output to have an area on the ground.
3. The method of claim 2,
The driving prediction system of the autonomous driving vehicle, characterized in that the driving prediction range is output to correspond to a steering direction of the autonomous driving vehicle or a change in the steering direction.
4. The method of claim 3,
The driving prediction system of the autonomous driving vehicle, characterized in that the driving prediction range is output including a curved surface according to a steering direction of the autonomous driving vehicle.
According to claim 1,
The autonomous vehicle further includes a sensing unit for detecting a pedestrian,
The driving prediction system of an autonomous vehicle, characterized in that the output unit outputs an alarm when the sensing unit approaches the driving prediction range.
6. The method of claim 5,
When the output unit outputs an alarm, the sensing unit detects a voice or motion of a pedestrian and then stops or changes the driving of the autonomous vehicle.

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