WO2019174851A1

WO2019174851A1 - Method and assistance system for generating recommendations for parking in parking garages

Info

Publication number: WO2019174851A1
Application number: PCT/EP2019/053742
Authority: WO
Inventors: Stefan Brosig; Stefan Wappler
Original assignee: Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft
Priority date: 2018-03-14
Filing date: 2019-02-14
Publication date: 2019-09-19
Also published as: DE102018203867A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for generating recommendations for parking in parking garages in which a plurality of parking spaces are located on one or more parking levels in a parking garage. In the method according to the invention, information about the availability of individual parking spaces in at least one parking garage is determined (1) by at least one vehicle (F). In each case, a marker (6) is sensed (2) for an available parking space. The availability information thus determined and the markers sensed in each case for available parking spaces are evaluated together, and a parking garage occupancy is established therefrom (3). A recommendation of a parking garage is generated depending on the established parking garage occupancy (4).

Description

description

Method and assistance system for generating recommendations for parking in

car parks

The present invention relates to a method for generating recommendations for parking in parking garages. The present invention further relates to a corresponding assistance system.

For parking vehicles come in areas with high demand

Parking spaces such as city centers, shopping malls or airports are often used for parking garages. In order to enable a high capacity of parking lots, the parking garages are usually designed as multi-storey buildings with several levels of parking, and with particularly high demand for parking spaces also complexes of several multi-storey car parks can be found. Usually, a parking fee for parking the vehicle must be paid to the operator of the parking garage. Furthermore, the car parks can be provided with an occupancy detection, which detects the parking occupancy by means of suitable sensors and thus directed to a parking lot seeker information on the availability of parking, such as "free" or "occupied" and / or the number of free parking on one electronic scoreboard allows. The display is often done in the entrance area of each car park, so that the information the

Parking seekers for his parking decision will be available only late. Although this may be due to display panels of parking guidance systems in which the free

Parking spaces are detected by several parking garages and information about this transmitted to a central office and from which they are forwarded to the scoreboards and displayed there together, be resolved. However, such parking guidance systems are available only to a limited extent, requiring the detection of the available parking spaces by appropriate sensors of the car parks and a provision of the collected data by the operator of the car parks for a common use of the data. Furthermore, the advertisement is limited to the availability or number of free parking spaces and does not give any further information or hints. DE 10 2012 216 994 A1 discloses a method for car park switching, in which vehicles are equipped with environment detection devices that determine information about free parking in the vicinity of the respective vehicle. The information is transmitted to a cloud computing system, which collects information from each vehicle and stores it in a parking card and provides information about the free parking on request. In this case, it is also possible to integrate information about the occupancy of a parking garage, which can be provided by the operator of the parking garage on the Internet or by means of a camera of a road user who drives past the occupancy of a parking garage information board, recorded and transmitted ,

DE 10 2012 005 573 A1 discloses a method for displaying parking spaces, in which a granting of an access authorization to a parking space takes place. In this case, a transmitting station which is assigned to a parking space or several parking spaces sends an ID code together with a current and / or future occupancy status to a server which updates an allocation table in dependence on the received data and at least the geographical coordinates of parking spaces whose Occupancy status is current or future "free", sends to a display device of a user. The respective user can display this information on his display device and decide which of the available parking spaces he would like to use currently or in the future. In response to this decision, its display device sends a selection code to the server, which then occupies the current or future occupancy status of the parking lot associated with the selection code with "busy" and activates an authorization code associated with that parking lot or sends it to the display device. By means of the authorization code can then be opened an access barrier to its assigned parking. The parking spaces may be in parking garages, whereby it may be intended to make parking prices variable in the form that higher prices are used when fewer parking spaces are available overall.

It is an object of the invention to provide an improved method of generating

Recommendations for parking in parking garages, as well as a corresponding assistance system to provide.

This object is achieved by a method having the features of claim 1 and by an assistance system according to claim 12. Preferred embodiments of the invention are the subject of the dependent claims. In the method according to the invention for generating recommendations for parking in multi-storey car parks, a plurality of parking spaces being arranged on one or more parking levels in a parking garage, information about the availability of individual parking spaces in at least one parking garage is determined by at least one vehicle. A mark is recorded for each available parking space. The ascertained information about the availability and the respectively registered markings for available parking lots are evaluated together and from this a

Parking garage utilization determined. Depending on the specific parking garage utilization, a recommendation for a parking garage is generated.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the marking identifies the position of the respectively available parking space in the parking garage.

Preferably, the marking is by one or more optical sensors of the

Vehicle recorded.

In this case, the information about the availability and the position of available parking spaces can be transmitted from the vehicle that has determined this information to a server and the server evaluate the information received from a plurality of vehicles, determine therefrom the parking garage load for at least one car park and the Generate recommendation for the parking garage.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the server sends the generated recommendation to a parking-looking vehicle.

Preferably, the server sends the generated recommendation to the parking-looking vehicle when approaching a parking garage.

Furthermore, the server can advantageously use the generated recommendation to the

Parking-seeking vehicle when it approaches a selected by an occupant destination, an estimated from the driver's driving history of the destination or a point-of-Interterest approach.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the parking-looking vehicle determines its position and sends it to the server, which receives the determined position; by means of the received position one or more parking garages near the

parking-looking vehicle determined; based on the parking garage utilization of determined parking garages generated a recommendation and sends the generated recommendation to the parking lot looking vehicle.

Advantageously, the generated recommendation to an occupant of the

park-seeking vehicle spent.

Furthermore, the parking price for parking a vehicle in a parking garage can advantageously depend on the parking garage utilization of this parking garage and the

Recommendation for this car park to be generated taking into account the parking price.

Finally, the position of an available parking space determined by means of the marking can be used to output guidance information for the route in the parking garage up to the position of the available parking space.

The invention also relates to an assistance system for carrying out the method according to the invention.

Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and claims taken in conjunction with the figures.

Fig. 1 shows a flowchart of a method according to the invention;

2 shows a schematic overview of components of a vehicle,

which can be used for the detection of available parking spaces according to the invention;

3 schematically shows a plan view of a parking area in which a vehicle according to FIG. 2 detects information about a free parking space; and

4 schematically shows an overview of a parking-space-seeking vehicle that receives a parking recommendation for a parking garage and several vehicles that report free parking spaces to a server.

For a better understanding of the principles of the present invention, embodiments of the invention will be explained in more detail below with reference to the figures. It is understood that the invention is not limited to these embodiments and that the can also be combined or modified without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the claims.

FIG. 1 shows a flow diagram of a method according to the invention for generating recommendations for parking in multi-storey car parks. In a first method step 1, the availability of individual parking spaces in a parking garage is determined by a vehicle that is located in the parking garage.

Various sensor technologies can be used to record the available parking spaces. Preferably, several sensors are provided here, which detect the lateral outer areas next to the vehicle. So can by at the

Body of the motor vehicle arranged ultrasonic sensors over the different durations of the reflected ultrasonic signal free parking of occupied parking spaces are distinguished. Instead of using ultrasonic sensors can also

Laser sensors or radar sensors are used, which are based on the emission of a light or radar wave and the evaluation of the echo. Likewise, the available parking spaces may be provided by one or more optical sensors, such as those shown in Figs. Cameras, are captured.

The sensors used here can be used only for the detection of available parking spaces or in addition for driver assistance systems such as a parking assistant. Furthermore, output data from multiple sensors can be linked by a sensor data fusion to optimize the detection of available parking spaces

The detection takes place when the vehicle passes through the individual parking bays, so that for a large number of parking spaces the availability can be checked and possibly several free parking spaces can be reported. Likewise, a detection can also take place when the vehicle is parked in one of the parking bays. In this way it can also be detected if during parking a located next to the vehicle, originally occupied parking bay is free or an originally free parking bay is occupied.

In a second method step 2, a marking is detected for a parking space recognized as available, preferably by means of one or more cameras. Both

Markings of the individual parking spaces may be, in particular, markings such as numbering of the individual parking spaces, which may be on the

Floor space of the respective parking lot or at the respective parking lot adjacent walls or columns are provided to the user of the vehicle a later Finding the vehicle easier. Likewise, but also different

Markings such as 2D bar codes in which the information about the parking lot is coded in the form of a two-dimensional pattern of pixels, e.g. B. in the form of provided therefor QR codes are evaluated. In addition, road markings which delimit the individual parking bays from one another can additionally be recorded and evaluated. This can make it easier, the actual labeling, such as a

Numbering to locate the individual parking spaces, as the lane markings are easy to capture due to their size and the often much smaller ones

Identification of the parking space usually for the parking bays in each case in the same place, e.g. Centrally located at the front or rear of the parking bay. Furthermore, in multi-storey car parks markings can be detected, which reflect the respective parking level, so as to free parking in the different floors

differ. In particular, the markings of the individual parking lots can be detected by the same cameras that are also used to determine the availability of the individual parking lots. Instead of cameras, other sensors can be used to capture the markers.

In a third method step 3, the information obtained on the

The availability of the parking spaces and the respectively recorded markings for the parking spaces recognized as available are jointly evaluated and a parking garage utilization determined therefrom. The detected markings make it possible to distinguish between the different recognized as available parking spaces and thus avoid, for example, a multiple count when a parking level was repeated several times by a vehicle or was traversed by several vehicles in quick succession.

For the evaluation, the information is then transmitted in each case from the vehicle that has determined this information to a server. In this case, the transmission can take place in each case directly upon detection of an available parking space or even bundled, for example when leaving a parking level or the parking garage. The server can then evaluate the information received from a plurality of vehicles and determine current parking information within a parking garage and across several parking garages. By using the swarm data of the various vehicles, an indication can be made of the utilization of the parking garages without the need for information from the operators of the car parks on the server side. The information on car park utilization is all the more accurate, the more vehicles are involved in the registration of parking. Usually, the markings of the parking lots are linked to the position of the parking lot in the respective parking garage. If these are known, for example by being made available by the operators of the parking garages and stored on the server side, the position of the available parking space in the parking garage can also be determined to the meter by evaluating the marking. So far, one is

Position determination within a parking garage problematic and only very inaccurate possible, among other things because due to the design of the car parks in these often no GPS signal can be received. By evaluating the marking, on the other hand, a very precise parking space availability information can be generated and utilized.

Furthermore, the markers can also provide further information on the respective

Parking spaces include. They can also provide parking spaces for special target groups. For example, parking spaces may also be reserved for long-term tenants, women, or people with special parking space requirements or may have particularly large dimensions. This information can also be evaluated and, if necessary, allows the indication of available parking spaces of a certain category.

In a fourth method step 4, a recommendation for a parking garage is then generated, which depends in particular on the specific parking garage utilization. Data with this recommendation is then sent from the server to a parking-looking vehicle. For this purpose, the data can be transmitted, for example, by mobile radio technology. The data is received by the vehicle and processed for further use. Thus, the generated recommendation can be issued to an occupant of a parking-lot searching vehicle, in particular the driver. For example, the recommendation may be displayed on a display device connected to an assistance system, in particular as part of a navigation display that can be displayed on a display in the area of the dashboard or the center console, an instrument cluster or a head-up display of the vehicle. Instead or in addition, a voice output of the recommendation can also be made. The driver of the vehicle can then decide whether to follow the recommendation and in this case lead his vehicle to the recommended parking garage and park there. Likewise, the recommendation can also be issued in the case of an autonomously driving vehicle and the vehicle can be guided to the available parking space after acceptance of the recommendation, or a recommendation can be accepted automatically. FIG. 2 schematically shows a vehicle F that has a series of sensors for detecting available parking spaces and markings of these parking spaces. So are

Ultrasonic sensors U provided, the area before, behind and in particular also next to the vehicle based on the emitted ultrasonic waves and the

Record the evaluation of the echo. For this purpose sensor data are supplied by the ultrasonic sensors U via a digital data bus B in the vehicle to an evaluation and control unit A, which can determine from the determined transit time of the reflected sensor signals whether there are parked vehicles or unoccupied parking areas in the detection area, in particular next to the vehicle , Likewise, several cameras K are provided for detecting the markings, the video signals of which are also fed via the digital data bus B to the evaluation and control unit A for evaluation. By suitable

Image processing methods can then first be recognized in the video signals markings, in order then to determine the positions of free parking spaces with the recognized markings. Furthermore, a communication unit C is provided, by means of which the

Information about the availability and location of each parking space can be transmitted to a server.

FIG. 3 schematically shows a plan view of a parking area in which a vehicle F acquires information about a free parking space. The vehicle F passes several adjacent parking bays, three of which are each occupied by a vehicle 5 and an intermediate fourth parking bay is free. Each of the parking bays is hereby provided with a marker 6, which clearly identifies the respective parking bays. The ultrasound waves emitted by the ultrasonic sensors U of the vehicle F are reflected by the vehicles 5 and, in the case of the free parking bay, by the wall behind them, the existence of the free parking bay being determined from the different transit times of the echo signals. For the free parking bay continues to be detected by the camera K marking 6 and evaluated.

As already described above, by collecting or reporting the information about free parking spaces to a server, a parking recommendation for a parking garage can be generated and transmitted to a parking space-seeking vehicle. This is shown schematically in FIG. A first vehicle F is here in a first

Parking area P1, which is located in a first parking garage, detects there an available parking space and evaluates the marking of this parking lot. Information about this is transmitted to a server S, which is part of an IT infrastructure IT not described further here. In the same way, a second vehicle F detects an available parking space in a second parking area P2, wherein the second parking area P2 can be located in a second parking garage or else in the same parking garage as the first parking area P1.

Furthermore, the second vehicle F detects the mark of the parking lot and also transmits information about this to the server s. The server in turn generates based on the information available to him parking recommendations and transmits them to a parking-looking vehicle. 7

In this case, the parking space searching vehicle 7 preferably determines its position, for example with a GPS navigation system, and transmits the determined position to the server, which uses the received position to determine one or more parking garages in the vicinity of the parking space seeking vehicle, based on the parking garage utilization of the determined parking garages Generated recommendation and sends to the parking lot looking vehicle. This recommendation can then have different aspects depending on the application. Some exemplary use cases are listed below.

If it results from the determined position that a vehicle user drives past a relatively empty parking garage, he may be offered parking in this parking garage at a favorable parking price. For this purpose, the parking price, for example, based on a dependent of the level of the parking garage pricing model that has been deposited by the operator of the parking garage at the server, determined by the server and taken into account for the recommendation. In this case, it can also be provided that the recommendation transmitted to the vehicle user also contains information about the height of the vehicle

Parking price contains. Likewise, it can be provided that, in addition to the fill level of the parking garage, the price model also takes into account other parameters, such as, for example, a discount for regular customers of a shopping mall, regular visitors to sporting events, etc.

The information on the availability of free parking spaces can also be linked to the destination. If the user of a vehicle then drives past a parking garage with available parking spaces, he may be advised to use this parking garage instead of a later parking garage which, although closer to the destination, has fewer or no available parking spaces. The server can do this by the user

Navigation system or a navigation application of a mobile terminal, such as a mobile device, evaluate a programmed destination. If no destination has been programmed in, the driver's journey history can be evaluated and a destination can be estimated from this. Likewise, the route in the parking garage can be spent up to the position of the available parking space. If the user drives a parking garage with available parking spaces near a point of interest that is relevant for him, eg. As an attraction, a shop or airport terminals, so the server can concretely offer the driver based on the available information about the vacant positions within the parking garage to use the parking garage, so as to minimize the sidewalks to the point of interest. In the case of large parking garages, it is also possible to specifically recommend those of the total available free parking spaces which are closest to an exit in the direction of the point of interest.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

1 first process step

2 second process step

3 third process step

4 fourth step

5 parked vehicle

6 parking mark

7 parking-looking vehicle F vehicle

U ultrasonic sensor

B digital data bus

A Evaluation and control unit K Camera

C communication unit P1 first parking area

P2 second parking area

S server

P2 second parking area

Claims

claims

A method for generating recommendations for parking in parking garages, wherein in a parking garage a plurality of parking spaces are arranged on one or more parking levels, in which

Information about the availability of individual parking spaces in at least one parking garage can be determined by at least one vehicle (F) (1);

- in each case for a parking space available a mark (6) is detected (2);

the information about the availability and the respectively recorded markings for available parking spaces thus determined are evaluated together and from this a parking garage utilization is determined (3); and

Depending on the particular parking garage utilization, a recommendation for a parking garage is generated (4).

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the marker (6) indicates the position of each available parking lot in the parking garage.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the mark (6) by one or more optical sensors (K) of the vehicle is detected.

4. The method of claim 2 or 3, wherein the information on the availability and the position of available parking spaces of the vehicle (F) that has determined this information is transmitted to a server (S) and the server (S) of a Variety of vehicles receives information received, from which the

Parking garage utilization determined for at least one parking garage and the recommendation for the parking garage generated.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the server (S) sends the generated recommendation to a parking lot searching vehicle (7).

The method of claim 5, wherein the server (S) sends the generated recommendation to the parking lot seeking vehicle (7) as it approaches a parking garage.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the server sends the generated recommendation to the parking lot seeking vehicle (7) as it approaches a vehicle-selected travel destination, a destination estimated from the driver's travel history, or a point-of-interest.

8. The method according to any one of claims 5 to 7, wherein the parking space-seeking

Vehicle (7) determines its position and sends to the server (S) and the

server

receives the determined position;

one or more parking garages in the vicinity of the parking lot looking vehicle determined by the received position;

based on the parking garage utilization of the determined parking garages generates a recommendation; and

sends the generated recommendation to the parking-looking vehicle (7).

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the generated recommendation is issued to an occupant of the parking-looking vehicle.

10. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the parking price for the parking of a vehicle in a parking garage of the parking garage occupancy of this parking garage is dependent and the recommendation for this parking garage, taking into account the

Park price is generated.

11. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 10, wherein the means of the mark (6) determined position of an available parking space is used to issue a guide information for the route in the parking garage to the position of the available parking space.

12. Assistance system for carrying out a method according to one of the preceding claims.