Parking assist apparatus and method
AssigneeToyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsYukiko Kawabata, Yasushi Makino, Yuichi Kubota, Tomohiko Endo
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A parking assisting apparatus and method that can precisely estimate the orientation of a parking space. A parking assisting apparatus for assisting parking a vehicle includes an obstacle detecting mechanism that detects an obstacle near the vehicle and an orientation information acquiring mechanism that acquires information as to an orientation of the vehicle. The apparatus estimates an orientation of the parking space that may exist near the vehicle based on the detection result of the obstacle detecting mechanism and the orientation information.
Claims13
A parking assisting apparatus for assisting parking a vehicle, comprising:
- obstacle detecting means for detecting one or more obstacles near the vehicle, the one or more obstacles being circumnavigated when parking the vehicle in a parking space adjacent to the one or more obstacles;
- and
- orientation information acquiring means for acquiring orientation information as to an orientation of the vehicle relative to a prior orientation of the vehicle,
- wherein said apparatus estimates an orientation of the parking space based on a detection result of the obstacle detecting means and acquired orientation information of the orientation of the vehicle.
A parking assisting method of assisting parking a vehicle, comprising:
- detecting one or more obstacles near the vehicle, the one or more obstacles being circumnavigated when parking the vehicle in a parking space adjacent to the one or more obstacles;
- and
- acquiring orientation information as to an orientation of the vehicle relative to a prior orientation of the vehicle,
- wherein, if it is determined based on a detection result of the obstacle detecting step and the orientation information acquired in the orientation information acquiring step that the orientation of the vehicle changes greater than or equal to a predetermined angle after a first obstacle is detected, an orientation of the parking space is estimated based on the acquired orientation information of the orientation of the vehicle at a time when a second obstacle is detected near the vehicle.
A parking assisting method of assisting parking a vehicle, comprising:
- detecting one or more obstacles near the vehicle, the one or more obstacles being circumnavigated when parking the vehicle in a parking space adjacent to the one or more obstacles;
- and
- acquiring orientation information as to an orientation of the vehicle relative to a prior orientation of the vehicle,
- wherein, if it is determined based on a detection result of the obstacle detecting step and the orientation information acquired in the orientation information acquiring step that the orientation of the vehicle changes less than a predetermined angle after a first obstacle is detected, an orientation of the parking space is estimated based on the acquired orientation information of the orientation of the vehicle at a time when the first obstacle is detected near the vehicle.
A parking assisting method of assisting parking a vehicle, comprising:
- detecting one or more obstacles near the vehicle, the one or more obstacles being circumnavigated when parking the vehicle in a parking space adjacent to the one or more obstacles;
- and
- acquiring orientation information as to an orientation of the vehicle relative to a prior orientation of the vehicle,
- wherein, if it is determined based on a detection result of the obstacle detecting step and the orientation information acquired in the orientation information acquiring step that a second obstacle is not detected within a predetermined distance traveled by the vehicle away from a first obstacle after the first obstacle is detected, an orientation of the parking space is estimated based on acquired orientation information of the orientation of the vehicle at a time when the first obstacle is detected near the vehicle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.