US 6,473,678 B1 · Lateral control of vehicle for lane following

Abstract

An apparatus for vehicle lane following in which a look ahead sensor including a CCD camera and an image processor detects a lane marking on the surface of a roadway. The image processor estimates a lateral displacement of a point at a preview distance in front of a vehicle from a target line. The target line is a line between lane markings defining a lane. An electric motor coupled to the steering mechanism is used to provide a bias (a torque input) to the steering, which may either assist or oppose to the steering torque from the driver. A steering controller is designed to assist the driver to maintain the vehicle's lane position by holding the vehicle at the target line using a biasing torque if the lane following is selected by the driver. In order to reflect the driver preference in the lane following, the controller collects a sufficient number of measures of the vehicle lateral displacement when the lane following is not selected. Based on the collected data, the controller updates the target line position. In the subsequent lane following, the driver is assisted to maintain the vehicle at this updated target line.

Claims8

Dependent claims

A lane-following system of facilitating steering of a vehicle by tracking a lane of a roadway, the vehicle having a steering system including a steering mechanism, said lane-following system comprising:

sensor means for detecting a position of lane marking on the surface of a roadway in relation to the vehicle, said lane marking defining a lane of a roadway;
means operatively coupled to said sensor means to estimate a lateral displacement of a point at a preview distance in front of the vehicle from the detected lane marking;
an actuator coupled to the steering mechanism to provide a steering bias to the steering system, which may either assist or oppose a steer torque from a vehicle driver, in response to a steering control signal;
steering controller means for producing said steering control signal based on said estimated lateral displacement to assist the driver of the vehicle to maintain the vehicle at a target line within the lane using the steering bias,
said steering controller means being operable, when the vehicle travels without lateral control for lane following, to collect said estimated lateral displacement to produce lateral displacement data,
said steering controller means being operable to update a position of the target line using said lateral displacement data.

3 more elements

a sensor detecting a position of lane marking on the surface of a roadway in relation to the vehicle, said lane marking defining a lane of a roadway;
a signal processor operatively coupled to said sensor to estimate a lateral displacement of a point at a preview distance in front of the vehicle from the detected lane marking;
an actuator coupled to the steering mechanism to provide a steering bias to the steering system, which may either assist or oppose the steer torque from a vehicle driver, in response to a steering control signal;
a steering controller producing said steering control signal based on said estimated lateral displacement to assist the driver of the vehicle to maintain the vehicle at a target line within the lane using the steering bias,
said steering controller being operable, when the vehicle travels without lateral control for lane following, to collect said estimated lateral displacement to produce lateral displacement data,
said steering controller being operable to update a position of the target line using said lateral displacement data.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Lateral control of vehicle for lane following

Life of this patent

Lateral control of vehicle for lane following

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims8