KR102028964B1 - Driving assistant system and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a driving assistance system and a control method thereof, comprising: a camera for photographing the front of a vehicle; An image analyzer for generating a boundary line at a boundary at which illuminance change occurs in the image photographed by the camera, and generating an expected driving route of the vehicle using the boundary line; A driving determination unit determining whether the vehicle can be driven along the driving anticipation path; If it is determined that driving is possible in the driving determination unit, the driving control unit may control the steering wheel. Thus, by automatically driving the vehicle on a road where novice drivers are difficult to drive, such as parking lots or alleys, it prevents contact accidents with the parked vehicles in the alleys and prevents collisions with curbs or walls in parking lots. The driver's convenience can be achieved.

Description

Driving assistance system and its method {DRIVING ASSISTANT SYSTEM AND METHOD THEREOF}

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a driving assistance system and a method thereof, and more particularly, to generate a driving route of a vehicle on a narrow road such as a parking lot entrance or an alley and to assist the driving of the vehicle by steering a steering wheel according to the driving route. A traveling assistance system and method are provided.

With the rapid increase in the use of automobiles in modern society, there are tens of millions of people killed or injured in car accidents every year. Accordingly, various automobile technologies have been developed such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) to prevent accidents with advanced detection sensors and intelligent imaging equipment in order to reduce lives and economic losses caused by traffic accidents.

These intelligent driving assistance systems include Forward Collision Warning (FCW) technology, Automatic Cruise Control (ACC) technology, Lane Change Assistance technology, and Lane Departure Warning technology. , And Parking Assistance technology.

However, such an intelligent driving assistance system can be applied when a vehicle is traveling on a lane with a lane, for example, a highway, a national road, an automobile road, or a two-way road more than one lane. Is not applicable.

In the case of alleys or parking lot access roads, the roads are narrower, and in the case of alleys, driving is more difficult due to alley parking. In particular, a novice driver may experience a contact accident with a parked vehicle while driving in a parked alley, and may cause a crash that hits a wall or curb while driving in a parking lot entrance.

Accordingly, it is necessary to provide a system that can assist the operation of the vehicle even in narrow roads such as alleyways and parking lot entrances.

It is an object of the present embodiments to provide a driving assistance system and a method for preventing an accident in advance by assisting a vehicle in a narrow road such as an alley or a parking lot access road.

The object is a camera for photographing the front of the vehicle; An image analyzer configured to generate a boundary line at a boundary at which illuminance change occurs in the image photographed by the camera, and generate a driving expectation path of the vehicle using the boundary line; A driving determination unit comparing the width of the driving expected path with the width of the vehicle to determine whether the driving is possible; And if it is determined that driving is possible in the driving determination unit, the driving assistance system may include a driving control unit for controlling steering of the steering wheel.

The object comprises the steps of photographing the front of the vehicle; Generating a boundary line according to a change in illuminance in the image; Generating an expected driving route of the vehicle using the boundary line; A driving determination step of determining whether driving is possible by comparing the width of the driving expected path with the width of the vehicle; And if it is determined that the vehicle can be driven, controlling steering of a steering wheel. The control method of the driving assistance system may be achieved.

According to the present embodiments, by automatically driving a vehicle on a narrow road such as a parking lot entrance or an alley, it prevents a contact accident with a vehicle parked in the alley and prevents a collision accident with a curb or a wall in the parking lot entrance. Convenience can be achieved.

1 is a block diagram of a driving assistance system according to the present invention.
2A to 2C are diagrams illustrating a process of analyzing an image of an entrance to a parking lot by the image analyzer of FIG. 1.
3A to 3C are views illustrating a process of analyzing an image of an alleyway in the image analyzer of FIG. 1.
4 is a flowchart illustrating a process of assisting driving by analyzing an image in the driving assistance system according to the present invention.

Hereinafter, some embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to exemplary drawings. In adding reference numerals to components of each drawing, the same components may have the same reference numerals as much as possible even though they are shown in different drawings. In addition, in describing the present invention, when it is determined that the detailed description of the related well-known configuration or function may obscure the gist of the present invention, the detailed description may be omitted.

In addition, in describing the components of the present invention, terms such as first, second, A, B, (a), and (b) may be used. These terms are only to distinguish the components from other components, and the terms are not limited in nature, order, order or number of the components. When a component is described as being "connected", "coupled" or "connected" to another component, that component may be directly connected to or connected to that other component, but between components It will be understood that the elements may be "interposed" or each component may be "connected", "coupled" or "connected" through other components.

1 is a block diagram of a driving assistance system according to the present invention.

The driving assistance system according to the present invention may assist driving of a vehicle by detecting an edge of a road by detecting a curb or a parked vehicle when entering or exiting a parking lot or driving of an alley.

The driving assistance system includes a camera 10, an ROI setting unit 20, an image processing unit 30, an image analyzing unit 40, a driving determination unit 50, a driving control unit 60, and an electronic steering wheel control unit. 70 may be included.

The camera 10 may be mounted on an upper portion of the front window of the vehicle and generate a front image by photographing the front of the vehicle. The camera 10 may be mounted at a position other than the upper part of the front window, for example, the lower part or the front part of the front window, the front grille, the bumper, or the like, and may be mounted one or more.

The region of interest setting unit 20 may set a region of interest (ROI) for recognizing the driving route from the image photographed by the front camera 10.

The ROI setting unit 20 may project a position where the driving path can be detected in the three-dimensional actual coordinate system to the front image using a homography matrix (H-matrix). Here, the homography matrix represents a function for mapping a three-dimensional coordinate system to a two-dimensional forward image coordinate system.

Accordingly, the ROI setting unit 20 may generate an ROI for detecting the driving route. In general, the driving path detection area may be generated in a lower area of the front image in which the driving path is located, and a vanishing point may be formed in the center area of the front image.

The image processor 30 may receive the image captured by the camera 10 to perform black and white processing, and provide the black and white processed image to the image analyzer 40.

The image analyzer 40 may receive a black and white processed image and detect a curb or a vehicle on a front driving path of the vehicle located in the ROI.

First, the image analyzer 40 may extract boundary point information by displaying boundary points indicating the illumination intensity difference at a boundary where the illumination difference occurs in the ROI including the driving path. The image analyzer 40 may extract the information on the boundary points at which the illuminance difference occurs by comparing the illuminance difference with neighboring coordinates for all coordinates and displaying coordinates where the illuminance difference occurs as points.

As shown in FIG. 2A, curbs are formed at both sides of the driveway in the parking lot, and the image analyzer 40 may have boundary points formed on the boundary between the curb and the floor, and the boundary between the curb and the wall. have.

In addition, as shown in Figure 3a, in the case of the alley, the vehicle may be parked on one side or both sides of the alley, the image analyzer 40 is a boundary point at the boundary between the bottom of the wheel and the bottom of the alley road Will form.

The image analyzer 40 may generate boundary lines by clustering information on the extracted boundary points and interconnecting boundary points having continuity to generate straight lines, thereby generating boundary line information having a roughness difference. After extracting the boundary information, the image analyzer 40 may filter the extracted boundary information according to the length. At this time, the image analyzer 40 extracts only the boundary line whose length of the boundary line is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold value. In the case of a vehicle or curb, it has a predetermined length or more, so only a boundary line having a predetermined threshold or more is extracted.

For example, since the vehicle has a length of approximately 2.5 m or more, it is difficult to determine that the vehicle is less than this length. In addition, in the case of the curb, it is extended by several meters or more and is formed longer than the length of the vehicle, and thus it can be determined as the curb or the vehicle only when the length of the vehicle is longer.

When the image analysis unit 40 filters the boundary line, the image analysis unit 40 filters the boundary line that is increasingly far from the boundary line adjacent to the host vehicle. In this case, the image analyzer 40 may adjust the length of the boundary line or the threshold to be filtered according to the distance from the host vehicle. That is, even when the boundary line generated for the same vehicle is closer to the host vehicle, the length is longer, and the length is shorter as it is farther from the host vehicle. Accordingly, the image analyzer 40 may adjust the length of the boundary line according to the distance to the host vehicle and convert the length into an actual length, or convert the threshold value according to the distance to the host vehicle.

On the other hand, when multiple boundary lines appear in the horizontal direction of the host vehicle, the image analyzer 40 may finally select a boundary line closest to the host vehicle.

When the filtering is completed as shown in FIG. 2B, a boundary line may be formed along the driveway of the parking lot, and as shown in FIG. 3B, the boundary lines may be formed in the lower part of the vehicle parked in the alley.

When filtering is completed, the image analyzer 40 may generate a driving expectation path by connecting the boundary lines to each other. Accordingly, in the case of the driving expectation route for the alley, as shown in FIG. 2C, straight lines are interconnected, and in the case of the parking lot entrance, the driving expectation route is formed in a curve, as shown in FIG. 3C. Can be.

The driving determining unit 50 may determine whether the driving of the own vehicle is possible by comparing the driving expected path provided from the image analyzer 40 with the width of the own vehicle. First, the driving determination unit 50 calculates the width of the driving anticipation path. In this case, the driving determination unit 50 may calculate the width of the driving anticipation path over the entire area of the driving anticipation path. Then, the driving determination unit 50 may compare the width of the own vehicle and the width of the expected driving route that are known in advance.

As a result of the comparison, when the widths of all areas of the driving expectation path are larger than the width of the own vehicle, the driving determination unit 50 determines that the own vehicle can travel, and transmits information on the driving expected path to the driving controller 60. have.

On the other hand, if the width of the driving anticipation path is smaller than the width of the own vehicle even in one area, the driving determination unit 50 may determine that driving is impossible and display a message indicating that driving is impossible through a voice or a display panel.

The driving controller 60 may generate a driving route of the own vehicle when the driving determination unit 50 determines that driving is possible along the driving expected route. When generating the driving route, the driving controller 60 may generate the driving route so that the host vehicle can prevent contact with other vehicles or obstacles located at the boundary of the driving route. That is, the driving control unit 60 generates the driving route so that the own vehicle travels along the center of the driving route as much as possible, so that the own vehicle can run at the maximum distance from the boundary of the driving route. The driving controller 60 may generate a driving path, and then generate a steering control signal to steer the steering wheel according to the driving path.

The driving control unit 60 transmits the generated steering control signal directly to the steering wheel electronic control unit 70 to control steering of the steering wheel during the automatic driving control. When the driving control is selected and the accelerator pedal is pressed, the steering control signal may be transmitted to the steering wheel electronic control unit 70.

A process of generating a driving route in the driving assistance system will be described with reference to FIG. 4.

While the vehicle is in operation, the camera 10 captures a front image of the vehicle (S400), and transfers the captured image to the ROI setting unit 20 and the image processing unit 30. The ROI setting unit 20 sets an ROI to detect a driving path in the image (S410), and the image processing unit 30 provides a black and white image to the image analyzer 40 (S420).

In the image analyzer 40, a boundary point may be displayed on a portion where the illumination intensity is changed in the ROI in the image (S430), and a boundary line may be formed by connecting neighboring boundary points through clustering (S440). Then, the image analysis unit 40 may filter the boundary lines to remove the boundary lines that do not correspond to the vehicle or curb (S450), and connect the adjacent boundary lines that are spaced apart from each other to generate a driving expectation route (S460). .

The driving determination unit 50 may calculate the width of the entire driving anticipation path and compare the calculated width with the vehicle width to determine whether the own vehicle can drive the driving anticipation path (S470). . If it is determined that driving is possible in the driving determination unit 50, the driving control unit 60 generates a driving route along the driving anticipation path, and the driver indicates that the driving is possible and that the driving assistance system can be operated. Notify through (S480). In this case, the driving controller 60 may display an image on which the driving route is displayed through the display panel.

When the driver presses the accelerator pedal (S490), the driving control unit 60 generates a steering control signal for controlling steering of the steering wheel according to the driving route, and sends the steering control signal to the steering wheel electronic control unit 70. Provided (S500). In the steering wheel electronic control unit 70, by steering the steering wheel according to the steering control signal, it is possible to safely drive the alleys or parking lot access road without the driver's operation.

As such, according to the driving assistance system according to the present invention, by automatically driving the vehicle on a road that is difficult for a novice driver to drive, such as a parking lot entrance or an alley, thereby preventing contact with a vehicle parked in the alley and entering the parking lot. The driver's convenience can be prevented by preventing the collision with the curb or the wall.

Features, structures, effects, and the like described in the above embodiments are included in at least one embodiment of the present invention, and are not necessarily limited to only one embodiment. In addition, the features, structures, effects, and the like illustrated in the embodiments may be combined or modified with respect to other embodiments by those skilled in the art to which the embodiments belong. Therefore, contents related to such combinations and modifications should be construed as being included in the scope of the present invention.

In addition, the above description has been made with reference to the embodiments, which are merely examples and are not intended to limit the present invention, and those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains may be illustrated as above without departing from the essential characteristics of the present embodiments. It will be appreciated that various modifications and applications are possible. For example, each component specifically shown in the embodiments may be modified. And differences relating to such modifications and applications will have to be construed as being included in the scope of the invention defined in the appended claims.

10: camera 20: ROI setting unit
30: image processing unit 40: image analysis unit
50: driving determination unit 60: driving control unit
70: steering wheel electronic control unit

Claims (11)

A camera for photographing the front of the vehicle;
An image analyzer configured to generate a boundary line at a boundary at which illuminance change occurs in the image photographed by the camera, and generate a driving expectation path of the vehicle using the boundary line;
A driving determining unit determining whether the vehicle can be driven along the driving expected path; And
If it is determined that driving is possible in the driving determination unit, a driving control unit for generating a driving route based on the driving expected route and controlling the steering of the steering wheel so that the vehicle can travel along the driving route,
The image analyzer,
Compare the generated boundary line length with a preset threshold value based on the length of a predetermined vehicle, and filter only the boundary line having the threshold value or more,
The length of the boundary to be filtered is converted into an actual length based on the distance between the vehicle and the boundary to be filtered, or the threshold is converted based on the distance between the vehicle and the boundary to be filtered, so that the boundary to be filtered and the threshold is changed. Compare the values,
The driving assistance system, characterized in that for generating the driving projection path by interconnecting only the boundary line of the threshold value or more. The method of claim 1,
A region of interest setting unit configured to set a region of interest in which a road can be detected in the image photographed by the camera;
And the image analyzer displays a boundary point at a boundary at which illuminance changes in a region of interest of the image, and generates the boundary line by clustering the boundary points. The method of claim 1,
And the driving determining unit determines whether the vehicle can be driven by comparing the width of the vehicle with the width of the entire area of the driving expected path. The method of claim 1,
And the driving controller generates a driving route for driving the vehicle along a central area of the driving expected route. The method of claim 4, wherein
And the driving controller generates a steering control signal for controlling the steering wheel to provide the steering wheel electronic control unit so that the vehicle can travel along the driving path when a predetermined action is input from a driver. Photographing the front of the vehicle;
Generating a boundary line according to a change in illuminance in the image;
Generating an expected driving route of the vehicle using the boundary line;
A driving determination step of determining whether driving of the vehicle is possible along the driving expected path; And
If it is determined that the vehicle can be driven, generating a driving route based on the expected driving route, and controlling the steering of the steering wheel so that the vehicle can travel along the driving route;
The generating of the driving expectation path may include:
Compare the generated boundary line length with a preset threshold value based on the length of a predetermined vehicle, and filter only the boundary line having the threshold value or more,
The length of the boundary to be filtered is converted into an actual length based on the distance between the vehicle and the boundary to be filtered, or the threshold is converted based on the distance between the vehicle and the boundary to be filtered, so that the boundary to be filtered and the threshold is changed. Compare the values,
And generating the driving expectation path by interconnecting only the boundary line of the threshold value or more. The method of claim 6,
Setting a region of interest in which a road can be detected in the image;
The generating of the boundary line may include displaying a boundary point at a boundary where illumination intensity is changed in the ROI of the image, and generating the boundary line by clustering the boundary points. delete The method of claim 6,
The driving determination step is a control method of the driving assistance system, the step of determining whether the vehicle is capable of traveling by comparing the width of the vehicle and the width of the vehicle over the entire area of the expected driving path. The method of claim 6,
And generating a driving route for driving the vehicle along a central area of the driving expectation route to steer the steering wheel. The method of claim 10,
And generating a steering control signal to the steering wheel electronic control unit so that the vehicle can travel along the driving route when a predetermined action is input from the driver.

Images