Method for measuring a lateral surrounding area of a vehicle, measuring device, and vehicle

A method for parking a vehicle that is provided with at least one lateral ultrasonic transceiver and a parking assistance system, comprising:

• in order to determine the positions and the object heights at a multiplicity of primary reflection points in the lateral surroundings of the vehicle, performing a method comprising:
• a) activating the at least one ultrasonic transceiver at a multiplicity of transmission and reception positions along a lateral direction of travel of the vehicle so as to transmit a respective transmission signal in a transverse direction transverse to the direction of travel of the vehicle and receive a respective received signal waveform reflected from the lateral surroundings;
• b) identifying a number of echo signals in the respective received signal waveform;
• c) forming a set of reflection points by trilaterating a respective reflection point in the lateral surroundings multiple times on the basis of two respective received signal waveforms from the multiplicity of received signal waveforms and on the basis of a respective echo signal from each of the two received signal waveforms and storing it in the set of reflection points;
• d) forming multiple pairs formed of a respective primary reflection point and a respective secondary reflection point of the set of reflection points, which are identified on the basis of an at least position-based criterion as reflection points of a direct and/or indirect reflection from one and the same object section in the lateral surroundings, wherein out of multiple reflection points that satisfy the at least position-based criterion in relation to the respective primary reflection point, a reflection point among the multiple reflection points closest to the respective primary reflection point is selected as the respective secondary reflection point of each of the multiple pairs;
• and
• e) determining an object height at a respective one of the reflection points in the lateral surroundings as being high if the reflection point in question is a primary reflection point of one of the pairs formed, and as being low if no pair comprising the reflection point in question as a primary or secondary reflection point was formed in step d);
• determining a parking space in the lateral surroundings that is free from reflection points with an object height determined as being “high”;
• and
• parking the vehicle in the parking space using the parking assistance system.

A non-transitory storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a computer device, prompt said computer device to carry out a method, the method comprising:

• a) activating the at least one ultrasonic transceiver at a multiplicity of transmission and reception positions along a lateral direction of travel of the vehicle so as to transmit a respective transmission signal in a transverse direction transverse to the direction of travel of the vehicle and receive a respective received signal waveform reflected from the lateral surroundings;
• b) identifying a number of echo signals in the respective received signal waveform;
• c) forming a set of reflection points by trilaterating a respective reflection point in the lateral surroundings multiple times on the basis of two respective received signal waveforms from the multiplicity of received signal waveforms and on the basis of a respective echo signal from each of the two received signal waveforms and storing it in the set of reflection points;
• d) forming multiple pairs formed of a respective primary reflection point and a respective secondary reflection point of the set of reflection points, which are identified on the basis of an at least position-based criterion as reflection points of a direct and/or indirect reflection from one and the same object section in the lateral surroundings, wherein out of multiple reflection points that satisfy the at least position-based criterion in relation to the respective primary reflection point, a reflection point among the multiple reflection points closest to the respective primary reflection point is selected as the respective secondary reflection point of each of the multiple pairs;
• and
• e) determining an object height at a respective one of the reflection points in the lateral surroundings as being high if the reflection point in question is a primary reflection point of one of the pairs formed, and as being low if no pair comprising the reflection point in question as a primary or secondary reflection point was formed in step d).