Vehicle control
AssigneesKabushikikaisha Equos Research, Aisin Aw Co., Ltd.
InventorsMasao Kawai, Keiichi Kimura, Hideki Aruga
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vehicle control system includes a road data memory, current position sensor that detects a current position of a vehicle and a camera that takes a picture of the road ahead of the current position. At least one indicator line such as a lane dividing line on the road is shown in the picture. The picture changes as the vehicle moves forward along the road, during which increase in width of the indicator line or increase of distance between two indicator lines may be detected. By such detection, the vehicle position with respect to the indicator line is determined, the result of which is incorporated into control operation of an automatic transmission, for example.
Claims21
A vehicle control system comprising:
- line recognizing means for recognizing indicator lines on a road;
- branch determination means for determining which branch the vehicle has taken at a junction in the road where the road divides into a plurality of branches, based on the status of indicator lines on the road recognized by the line recognizing means;
- drive position determining means for determining the vehicle position with respect to the indicator lines;
- and
- control means for controlling operation of at least one system in the vehicle depending upon the result of the determination by said drive position determination means and the determination made by said branch determination means.
A process of vehicle control comprising the steps of:
- taking a picture of a road ahead of a current vehicle position including indicator lines extending on the road;
- determining a current vehicle position with respect to the indicator lines;
- obtaining road data for a drive route to be determined extending from the current vehicle position;
- and
- controlling operation of at least one system in the vehicle in accordance with the road data, said determining of the current vehicle position being based on at least one of:
- drive lane determination that identifies a currently driven lane from among plural lanes of a multi-lane road by detection of the indicator lines as solid or broken;
- branch determination that determines if the vehicle has entered a junction on the road based upon detection of change of profile of the indicator lines;
- and
- lane change determination that determines a lane change by the vehicle at the junction based upon detection of lateral movement of the indicator lines in the picture.
A computer readable memory media to be used in combination with a computer mounted on a vehicle, said memory media storing a program by which the computer operates vehicle control in accordance with a specific process comprising the steps of:
- taking a picture of a road ahead of a current vehicle position including indicator lines extending on the road;
- determining a current vehicle position with respect to the indicator lines;
- obtaining road data for a drive route from the current vehicle position;
- and
- controlling operation of at least one system on the vehicle depending upon the road data;
- said determining of the current vehicle position being based on at least of:
- drive lane determination that identifies a currently driven lane from among plural lanes of a multi-lane road by detection of the indicator line as solid or broken;
- branch determination that determines if the vehicle has entered a junction on the road based upon detection of change of profile of the indicator lines;
- and
- lane change determination that determines a lane change by the vehicle at the junction based upon detection of lateral movement of the indicator lines in the picture.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.