# US 10,479,362 B2 · Autonomous driving assistance system, autonomous driving assistance method, and computer program > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 10,479,362 B2 - Document ID: US10479362B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 15/556,483 - Filed: 2016-03-30 - Published: 2018-04-12 - Granted: 2019-11-19 - Earliest claimed: 2015-03-31 - Assignees: Aisin Aw Co., Ltd.; Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha - Applicants: Aisin Aw Co., Ltd.; Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha - Inventors: Hirohiko Goto; Yuji Sato; Kuniaki Tanaka; Masaki Takano - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10479362B2 ## CPC - B60W 30/18163: {Lane change; Overtaking manoeuvres} - B60W 10/04: including control of propulsion units - B60W 10/18: including control of braking systems - B60W 10/20: including control of steering systems - B60W 30/09: Taking automatic action to avoid collision, e.g. braking and steering - B60W 30/10: Path keeping {(cruise control for automatically following a preceding vehicle B60W30/165)} - B60W 60/001: {Planning or execution of driving tasks} - B62D 15/0255: {Automatic changing of lane, e.g. for passing another vehicle} - G01C 21/3492: {employing speed data or traffic data, e.g. real-time or historical (traffic control systems for road vehicles involving transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968)} - G05D 1/00: Control of position, course, altitude or attitude of land, water, air or space vehicles, e.g. using automatic pilots (drive control systems specially adapted for autonomous road vehicles B60W60/00) - G05D 1/0212: {with means for defining a desired trajectory (involving a plurality of land vehicles G05D1/0287)} - G08G 1/167: {Driving aids for lane monitoring, lane changing, e.g. blind spot detection} - B60W 2420/403: Image sensing, e.g. optical camera - B60W 2552/53: Road markings, e.g. lane marker or crosswalk - B60W 2554/00: Input parameters relating to objects - B60W 2554/406: Traffic density - G01C 21/3658: {Lane guidance} - G01C 21/3691: {Retrieval, searching and output of information related to real-time traffic, weather, or environmental conditions (arrangements for giving variable traffic instructions G08G1/09)} - 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 - B62D: MOTOR VEHICLES; TRAILERS (steering, or guiding on a desired track, of agricultural machines or implements A01B69/00; wheels, castors, axles, increasing wheel adhesion B60B; vehicle tyres, tyre inflation or tyre changing B60C; connections between vehicles of a train or the like B60D; vehicles for use on rail and road, amphibious or convertible vehicles B60F; suspension arrangements B60G; heating, cooling, ventilating or other air treating devices B60H; windows, windscreens, non-fixed roofs, doors or similar devices, protective coverings for vehicles not in use B60J; propulsion plant arrangements, auxiliary drives, transmissions, controls, instrumentation or dashboards B60K; electric equipment or propulsion of electrically-propelled vehicles B60L; power supply for electrically-propelled vehicles B60M; passenger accommodation not otherwise provided for B60N; adaptations for load transportation or to carry special loads or objects B60P; arrangement of signalling or lighting devices, the mounting or supporting thereof or circuits therefor, for vehicles in general B60Q; vehicles, vehicle fittings or vehicle parts not otherwise provided for B60R; servicing, cleaning, repairing, supporting, lifting, or manoeuvring, not otherwise provided for, B60S; brake arrangements, brake control systems or parts thereof B60T; air-cushion vehicles B60V; motor-cycles, accessories therefor B62J, B62K; testing of vehicles G01M) - G01C: MEASURING DISTANCES, LEVELS OR BEARINGS; SURVEYING; NAVIGATION; GYROSCOPIC INSTRUMENTS; PHOTOGRAMMETRY OR VIDEOGRAMMETRY (measuring liquid level G01F; radio navigation, determining distance or velocity by use of propagation effects, e.g. Doppler effects, propagation time, of radio waves, analogous arrangements using other waves G01S) - G05D: SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLING OR REGULATING NON-ELECTRIC VARIABLES - G08G: TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS (guiding railway traffic, ensuring the safety of railway traffic B61L; arrangement of road signs or traffic signals E01F9/00; radar or analogous systems, sonar systems, lidar systems specially adapted for traffic control G01S13/91, G01S15/88, G01S17/88; {radar or analogous systems, sonar systems, lidar systems specially adapted for anti-collision purposes G01S13/93, G01S15/93, G01S17/93}) ## Abstract Autonomous driving assistance systems, methods, and programs obtain lane information of a road on which a vehicle is traveling, and set a planned target section for which a lane change plan of the vehicle is to be created. The systems, methods, and programs obtain, for each lane, an obstructive factor present on the road on which the vehicle is traveling and that obstructs continuation of autonomous driving assistance executed on the vehicle, and set, for each obtained obstructive factor, an avoidance route that passes through a lane avoiding the obstructive factor. The systems, methods, and programs create a lane change route that defines the lane change plan of the vehicle in the planned target section and that is set so as to preferentially pass through the avoidance route set for each obtained obstructive factor, and execute the autonomous driving assistance of the vehicle based on the lane change route. ## Claims ### Claim 1 An autonomous driving assistance system, comprising: a processor programmed to: obtain lane information of a road on which a vehicle is traveling; set a planned target section for which a lane change plan of the vehicle is to be created; obtain, for each lane, a plurality of obstructive factors that are present on the road on which the vehicle is traveling and that obstruct continuation of autonomous driving assistance executed on the vehicle; set, for each obtained obstructive factor, an avoidance route that passes through a lane avoiding the obstructive factor; set, for each obtained obstructive factor, a level of influence defining a degree to which the obstructive factor affects continuation of the autonomous driving assistance; create a lane change route that defines the lane change plan of the vehicle in the planned target section based on the level of influence set for the obtained obstructive factor and that is set so as to preferentially pass through the avoidance route set for each obtained obstructive factor; and execute the autonomous driving assistance of the vehicle based on the lane change route. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The autonomous driving assistance system according to claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to: divide the planned target section into a plurality of sections so that a start point and an end point of a section where one of the obstructive factors occurs form boundaries between the sections; and create the lane change route that is set so that, in the section where the obstructive factor occurs out of the plurality of sections, the lane change route preferentially passes through the avoidance route set for the obstructive factor. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The autonomous driving assistance system according to claim 2, wherein the processor is programmed to: calculate, for each of the plurality of sections, lane change cost according to a lane change and level-of-influence cost according to the level of influence set for the obstructive factor included in a route; and create, as the lane change route, a route having a smallest sum of the lane change cost and the level-of-influence cost. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The autonomous driving assistance system according to claim 3, wherein the processor is programmed to: calculate the lane change cost by defining whether a lane change is to be made or not for each of the plurality of sections excluding the section where the obstructive factor occurs. ### Claim 5 (depends on 3) The autonomous driving assistance system according to claim 3, wherein the lane change cost is calculated so as to have a higher value as a number of lane changes increases. ### Claim 6 (depends on 3) The autonomous driving assistance system according to claim 3, wherein the lane change cost is calculated so as to have a higher value as a length of the section requiring a lane change decreases. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The autonomous driving assistance system according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of obstructive factors include a first factor that obstructs continuation of the autonomous driving assistance as the vehicle can no longer continue to travel on the same lane, and a second factor that obstructs continuation of the autonomous driving assistance as another vehicle traveling in an adjacent lane needs to merge into a lane in which the vehicle is traveling; and the level of influence of the first factor is set to a higher value than the level of influence of the second factor. ### Claim 8 (depends on 7) The autonomous driving assistance system according to claim 7, wherein the obstructive factors include a third factor that obstructs continuation of the autonomous driving assistance as road information required to execute the autonomous driving assistance on the vehicle cannot be obtained; and the level of influence of the third factor is set so as to have a higher value as a distance over which the road information cannot be obtained increases. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The autonomous driving assistance system according to claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to: preferentially create, as the lane change route, a route having a smaller sum of the levels of influence set for the obstructive factors included in the route. ### Claim 10 An autonomous driving assistance method, comprising: obtaining lane information of a road on which a vehicle is traveling; setting a planned target section for which a lane change plan of the vehicle is to be created; obtaining, for each lane, a plurality of obstructive factors that are present on the road on which the vehicle is traveling and that obstruct continuation of autonomous driving assistance executed on the vehicle; setting, for each obtained obstructive factor, an avoidance route that passes through a lane avoiding the obstructive factor; setting, for each obtained obstructive factor, a level of influence defining a degree to which the obstructive factor affects continuation of the autonomous driving assistance; creating a lane change route that defines the lane change plan of the vehicle in the planned target section based on the level of influence set for the obtained obstructive factor and that is set so as to preferentially pass through the avoidance route set for each obtained obstructive factor; and executing the autonomous driving assistance of the vehicle based on the lane change route. ### Claim 11 A computer-readable storage medium storing a computer-executable computer program that causes a computer to perform the following functions: obtaining lane information of a road on which a vehicle is traveling; setting a planned target section for which a lane change plan of the vehicle is to be created; obtaining, for each lane, a plurality of obstructive factors that are present on the road on which the vehicle is traveling and that obstruct continuation of autonomous driving assistance executed on the vehicle; setting, for each obtained obstructive factor, an avoidance route that passes through a lane avoiding the obstructive factor; setting, for each obtained obstructive factor, a level of influence defining a degree to which the obstructive factor affects continuation of the autonomous driving assistance; creating a lane change route that defines the lane change plan of the vehicle in the planned target section based on the level of influence set for the obtained obstructive factor and that is set so as to preferentially pass through the avoidance route set for each obtained obstructive factor; and executing the autonomous driving assistance of the vehicle based on the lane change route.