# US 11,077,849 B2 · Vehicle control system, vehicle control method, and storage medium > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 11,077,849 B2 - Document ID: US11077849B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 16/283,942 - Filed: 2019-02-25 - Published: 2019-08-29 - Granted: 2021-08-03 - Earliest claimed: 2018-02-27 - Assignees: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. - Applicants: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. - Inventors: Hideki Matsunaga; Masamitsu Tsuchiya; Yasuharu Hashimoto; Etsuo Watanabe; Ryoma Taguchi - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11077849B2 ## CPC - B60W 30/0956: {the prediction being responsive to traffic or environmental parameters} - B60W 40/04: Traffic conditions - B60W 60/0017: {of other traffic participants} - 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 1/0246: {using a video camera in combination with image processing means} - G06V 20/58: Recognition of moving objects or obstacles, e.g. vehicles or pedestrians; Recognition of traffic objects, e.g. traffic signs, traffic lights or roads - G06V 40/103: {Static body considered as a whole, e.g. static pedestrian or occupant recognition} - B60W 30/165: Automatically following the path of a preceding lead vehicle, e.g. "electronic tow-bar" - B60W 2554/00: Input parameters relating to objects - B60W 2554/4029: Pedestrians - B60W 2554/4041: Position - B60W 2554/4045: Intention, e.g. lane change or imminent movement - B60W 2554/60: Traversable objects, e.g. speed bumps or curbs - B60W 2554/802: Longitudinal distance - B60W 2554/805: Azimuth angle - 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 - G05D: SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLING OR REGULATING NON-ELECTRIC VARIABLES - G06V: IMAGE OR VIDEO RECOGNITION OR UNDERSTANDING ## Abstract A vehicle control system including: a recognizer that is configured to recognize a surroundings status of a vehicle; and a driving controller that is configured to control an acceleration and steering of the vehicle on the basis of the surroundings status recognized by the recognizer, wherein, in a case in which a plurality of pedestrians are recognized in an advancement direction of the vehicle by the recognizer, the driving controller is configured to executes follow control for following the plurality of pedestrians and is configured to determines details of the follow control on the basis of a behavior of a nearest pedestrian who is closest to the vehicle among the plurality of pedestrians and a behavior of a second pedestrian who is a monitoring target other than the nearest pedestrian among the plurality of pedestrians. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A vehicle control system comprising: a processor; and a memory storing executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising: recognizing a surrounding of a vehicle, wherein the surrounding includes a plurality of pedestrians present in an advancement direction of the vehicle, on a first side in a first lateral direction in a road on which the vehicle is traveling, and walking in the advancement direction of the vehicle; and controlling an acceleration and steering of the vehicle based on the surrounding, wherein in response to recognizing that a first pedestrian included in the plurality of pedestrians being a nearest pedestrian closest to the vehicle and a second pedestrian included in the plurality of pedestrians being present immediately in an advancement direction of the first pedestrian and not being present within a reference distance from the first pedestrian, maintaining a first distance between the first pedestrian and the vehicle, in response to recognizing that the first pedestrian is walking at a first speed and the second pedestrian included in the plurality of pedestrians is walking at a second speed, wherein the second speed is lower than the first speed, and wherein the second pedestrian is present immediately in the advancementdirectionofthefirstpedestrianandwithinthereferencedistancefromthefirst pedestrian, maintaining a second distance between the first pedestrian and the vehicle, wherein the second distance is longer than the first distance, in response to recognizing that the first pedestrian is walking at the first speed and the second pedestrian included in the plurality of pedestrians is walking at a third speed, wherein the third speed is greater than the first speed and the second pedestrian is present immediately in the advancement direction of the first pedestrian and within the reference distance from the first pedestrian, maintaining a third distance between the first pedestrian and the vehicle, wherein the third distance is shorter than the second distance, and based on the first speed and the second speed, determining a time when the first pedestrian overtakes the second pedestrian and moving the vehicle in a second lateral direction opposite to the first side based on the time. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The vehicle control system according to claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise following the nearest pedestrian based on a fourth distance between the nearest pedestrian and the second pedestrian representing a monitoring target being equal to or greater than a predetermined distance. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The vehicle control system according to claim 2, wherein, based on the fourth distance being equal to or greater than the predetermined distance, the operations further comprise determining details of a follow control for following the plurality of pedestrians based on a first behavior of the nearest pedestrian without taking a second behavior of the second pedestrian into account. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The vehicle control system according to claim 1, wherein, based on a fifth speed associated with the second pedestrian representing a monitoring target being less than the first speed of the nearest pedestrian by a predetermined speed, the operations further comprise changing details of a follow control for following the plurality of pedestrians. ### Claim 5 (depends on 4) The vehicle control system according to claim 4, wherein, in response to changing the details of the follow control, changing a first inter-vehicle distance between a reference position set for the plurality of pedestrians and the vehicle from a second inter-vehicle distance to a third inter-vehicle distance that is longer than the second inter-vehicle distance, or changing an acceleration or a speed of the vehicle from a first degree to a second degree, wherein the second degree is lower than the first degree. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The vehicle control system according to claim 1, wherein, based on a change of a relative speed between the nearest pedestrian and the second pedestrian representing a monitoring target changing by more than a predetermined speed, the operations further comprise moving the vehicle in a third lateral direction. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The vehicle control system according to claim 6, wherein the operations further comprise moving the vehicle in a direction opposite to a side on which the nearest pedestrian has deviated onto a road. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The vehicle control system according to claim 1, wherein the second pedestrian is positioned in front of the nearest pedestrian. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) The vehicle control system according to claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise excluding pedestrians not present within a specific range acquired by extending a width area set for the nearest pedestrian in the advancement direction of the vehicle from other pedestrians representing monitoring targets. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The vehicle control system according to claim 1, wherein other pedestrians representing monitoring targets are a third pedestrian positioned in front of the nearest pedestrian and a fourth pedestrian present immediately before the third pedestrian, and wherein, based on the third pedestrian and the fourth pedestrian satisfying a first specific condition, and the nearest pedestrian and the third pedestrian satisfying a second specific condition, wherein the second specific control is more attainable than the first specific condition, the operations further comprise changing details of a follow control for following the plurality of pedestrians. ### Claim 11 A vehicle control method using a vehicle control device, the vehicle control method comprising: recognizing a surrounding of a vehicle, wherein the surrounding includes a plurality of pedestrians present in an advancement direction of the vehicle, on a first side in a first lateral direction in a road on which the vehicle is traveling, and walking in the advancement direction of the vehicle; and controlling an acceleration and steering of the vehicle based on the surrounding; wherein in response to recognizing that a first pedestrian included in the plurality of pedestrians being a nearest pedestrian closest to the vehicle and a second pedestrian included in the plurality of pedestrians being present immediately in an advancement direction of the first pedestrian and not being present within a reference distance from the first pedestrian, maintaining a first distance between the first pedestrian and the vehicle, in response to recognizing that the first pedestrian is walking at a first speed and the second pedestrian included in the plurality of pedestrians is walking at a second speed, wherein the second speed is lower than the first speed, and wherein the second pedestrian is present immediately in the advancement direction of the first pedestrian and within the reference distance from the first pedestrian, maintaining a second distance between the first pedestrian and the vehicle, wherein the second distance is longer than the first distance, in response to recognizing that the first pedestrian is walking at the first speed and the second pedestrian included in the plurality of pedestrians is walking at a third speed, wherein the third speed is greater than the first speed and the second pedestrian is present immediately in the advancement direction of the first pedestrian and within the reference distance from the first pedestrian, maintaining a third distance between the first pedestrian and the vehicle, wherein the third distance is shorter than the second distance, and based on the first speed and the second speed, determining a time when the first pedestrian overtakes the second pedestrian and moving the vehicle in a second lateral direction opposite to the first side based on the time. ### Claim 12 A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores a computer program to be executed by a computer to perform at least: recognize a surrounding of a vehicle, wherein the surrounding includes a plurality of pedestrians present in an advancement direction of the vehicle, on a first side in a first lateral direction in a road on which the vehicle is traveling, and walking in the advancement direction of the vehicle; and control an acceleration and steering of the vehicle based on the surrounding; wherein in response to recognizing that a first pedestrian included in the plurality of pedestrians being a nearest pedestrian closest to the vehicle and a second pedestrian included in the plurality of pedestrians being present immediately in an advancement direction of the first pedestrian and not being present within a reference distance from the first pedestrian, maintain a first distance between the first pedestrian and the vehicle, in response to recognizing that the first pedestrian is walking at a first speed and the second pedestrian included in the plurality of pedestrians is walking at a second speed, wherein the second speed is lower than the first speed, and wherein the second pedestrian is present immediately in the advancement direction of the first pedestrian and within the reference distance from the first pedestrian, maintain a second distance between the first pedestrian and the vehicle, wherein the second distance is longer than the first distance, in response to recognizing that the first pedestrian is walking at the first speed and the second pedestrian included in the plurality of pedestrians is walking at a third speed, wherein the third speed is greater than the first speed and the second pedestrian is present immediately in the advancement direction of the first pedestrian and within the reference distance from the first pedestrian, maintain a third distance between the first pedestrian and the vehicle, wherein the third distance is shorter than the second distance, and based on the first speed and the second speed, determine a time when the first pedestrian overtakes the third pedestrian and move the vehicle in a second lateral direction opposite to the first side based on the time.