JP2792566B2 - Travel control device for mobile vehicles - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a traveling control device for a mobile vehicle, and more particularly, to an improvement in traveling control when, for example, entering a garage.

(Prior Art) As a prior art for recognizing the outside world by image processing, there is, for example, JP-A-61-240307. The technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. Sho-61-197 estimates the position and moving direction of a moving object from an image of feature points (plural points) of a moving object from a stationary camera and an infinite line.

By the way, for example, when putting a car in a garage or moving a car to an empty space in a public parking lot,
Techniques for guiding the vehicle to a specific limited place include: those that use a camera or the like to visually guide the vehicle to the target position, and those that: have a map in advance and follow the trajectory based on the information. There is something that creates and guides the vehicle.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. Sho-sho is unsuitable for guiding the own vehicle to the above-mentioned specific limited place because it is a fixed camera. The technique is a guidance method that is effective only when the vehicle can move to a position near a parking position. This is because capturing an image of a parking lot, a garage, or the like from an arbitrary position and recognizing the parking space of the own vehicle based on the image requires an extremely large amount of information processing and advanced algorithms. The guidance method is effective only when the parking position of the own vehicle is previously determined, and is not applicable when an empty space is randomly generated as in a public parking lot.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is a technology for guiding a vehicle to a predetermined place, and a moving method capable of creating a trajectory to the vicinity of the destination by a simple method with the assistance of an operator. It is to propose a traveling control device for a car.

(Means and Actions for Solving the Problems) The configuration of the present invention for achieving the above objects is achieved by a traveling control device for a mobile vehicle having image input means for recognizing the outside world, as shown in FIG. Display means for displaying the input image of the outside world, and cursor generating means for generating the three-dimensional carcass corresponding to the vehicle body of the own vehicle so as to be superimposed and displayed on the image of the outside world. Virtual moving means for virtually moving the vehicle position; display control means for controlling the movement of the vehicle in accordance with the virtual movement of the own vehicle; Track generating means for generating a traveling track of the own vehicle in response to the movement.

(Embodiment) Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, a travel control device of the present invention will be described.
An embodiment applied to control for guiding a vehicle to a specific parking position in a parking lot will be described.

The operation in this embodiment is such that the driver virtually moves the position of the vehicle with a predetermined operation device while the vehicle is stationary while watching the image of the parking lot displayed on the monitor screen. . In response to the movement of the virtual own vehicle, a three-dimensional three-dimensional Casa similar to the body of the own vehicle moves on the display screen. In other words, the three-dimensional cursor moves to an empty space in the parking lot according to the operation of the driver. The driver starts the autonomous traveling after storing the position considered to be necessary for the autonomous traveling control of the own vehicle in the traveling control device as a teaching point in the course of the movement operation of the cursor.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the entire control system for this embodiment. Reference numeral 2 denotes a computer, which controls the entire system. Reference numeral 1 denotes a camera (see FIG. 5B) attached to the vehicle body ceiling of the own vehicle, which captures an image of the outside world behind the own vehicle. Reference numeral 3 denotes a CRT monitor device provided in the cockpit of the vehicle, and displays an image captured by the camera 1 on the screen under the control of the computer 2. Note that a three-dimensional cursor, which will be described in detail later, is displayed on the monitor 3 so as to be superimposed on the external image obtained by the camera 1. A cursor operating device 4 is operated by a driver. The appearance of the operating device 4 is shown in FIG. Reference numeral 5 denotes a controller for performing autonomous traveling, and controls a steering actuator 6. In the autonomous traveling control of the system of this embodiment, for convenience of explanation, it is assumed that the steering is controlled by the traveling control device and the accelerator is controlled by the driver.

FIG. 3 shows the appearance of a three-dimensional (three-dimensional) cursor displayed on the monitor device 3 of the embodiment. The Casa is formed by 12 vector (C ₁ ~C _12). These vectors are represented by start point coordinates and end point coordinates, as shown in FIG. 4, and these coordinate systems are represented by a global coordinate system.
The global coordinate system (X _G , Y _G , Z _G , θ _G ) is shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B.
As shown, shall apply in real its coordinate system origin moves with the movement of the vehicle, X _G axis are set to the rear of the vehicle, Y _G axis is included in the travel plane, X _G It is set perpendicular to the axis. The Z _G axis is set perpendicular to the running plane.
The θ _G axis is a direction that rotates around the Z _G axis. still,
Although the appearance of the three-dimensional casing is as shown in FIG. 3, when this casing is displayed on the monitor 3, a perspective transformation is performed, so that a so-called perspective is displayed. By giving the perspective, the driver can see the image of the parking lot superimposed and displayed on the monitor 3 and the three-dimensional car with a sense of reality.

The three-dimensional car represented by twelve vectors has a rectangular shape, and this rectangle encloses the body of the vehicle. That is, when the three-dimensional Casa is displayed on the monitor 3, the three-dimensional Casa realistically represents the position and orientation of the virtual vehicle body of the own vehicle. In FIG. 3, the front of the vehicle is represented by vectors C ₁ , C ₂ , C ₃ , C
₄ , the left side is represented by vectors C ₂ , C ₆ , C ₉ , C ₁₂ , the right side is represented by C ₄ , C ₅ , C ₈ , C ₁₁ , and the back side is. Is represented by

FIG. 6 shows the appearance of the cursor operating device 4. The operating device 4 is provided with a joystick 10 and four switches. The Joystick 10 has an operation rod 10a,
When the operation rod 10a is rotated about its axis, three-dimensional Casa is rotated Z _G axis. When the operation rod 10a is tilted in any of the + X direction, the -X direction, the + Y direction, and the -Y direction, the cursor moves by an amount corresponding to the time width of the tilt. FIG. 7A shows an image of the cursor displayed when the three-dimensional cursor is moved by (ΔX, ΔY, 0, Δθ) by operating the operation device 4. If this movement amount (ΔX, ΔY, 0, Δ
θ) is such a movement that the left side of the own vehicle can be seen from the front as viewed from the driver (located at the coordinate origin), then the three-dimensional car is moved to the vector C ₂ , C ₆ , C ₉ , C ₁₂
Is mainly displayed. It is to be noted that a three-dimensional effect may be obtained by displaying the hidden side portion of the cursor with a broken line as shown in FIG. 7B, rather than performing hidden line processing.

Returning to FIG. 6, the description of the operation device 4 will be continued. Reference numeral 11 denotes a power switch, and when the switch is turned on, power is supplied to the operation device 4. It should be noted that devices other than the operating device shown in FIG. 2 (for example, the computer 3 and the monitor 4) are supplied with power from another system, so that even when the operating device 4 is not powered on, the monitor 3 Since the rear image is displayed, the monitor 3 can be used for monitoring the rear.

The mode switch 12 of the operating device 4 functions to switch the coordinate system between the above-mentioned global coordinate system and the local coordinate system shown in FIG. The local coordinate system _{(X L, Y L, Z} L,
θ _L ) is a coordinate system that moves accompanying the three-dimensional cursor.
The reason that two coordinate systems are provided and can be switched in this way is to improve operability. That is, the global coordinate system is
Since the operation of the operation bar 10a for performing the movement in the X direction and the Y direction directly corresponds to the change on the screen of the three-dimensional cursor, the operability for the movement in the X direction and the Y direction is improved. However, in the global coordinate system, the operation rod 10a
Rotates the solid cursor around the origin of the global coordinate system. On the other hand, the local coordinates have good operability in the θ direction because the rotation amount of the operation rod 10a is the rotation amount of the three-dimensional cursor as it is. In the following description, the coordinate system is a global system for convenience.

The memory (MEM) switch 13 is a switch for starting the storage operation for storing the position where the three-dimensional cursor is currently displayed as the destination of the vehicle. The trajectory generation switch 14 is a start switch for starting a trajectory generation operation for causing the vehicle to autonomously travel toward the target position stored by the MEM switch 13. The trajectory creation operation itself is well known. The MEM switch 13 can be pressed a plurality of times before pressing the track generation switch 14.

FIG. 9 illustrates a state in which the host vehicle is guided to an empty space 120 of a parking lot. 110,11 other cars in parking lot
Has already stopped, and there is an empty space 120 between the second other vehicle. It is assumed that the own vehicle turns on the power to the operation device 4 at the position of 100 and starts the guidance according to the present embodiment. When the vehicle is at position 100, at the time of turning on the power, the three-dimensional cursor is located at the position corresponding to the current position 100 of the vehicle, and is displayed on the monitor 3 as shown in FIG. Not done. In addition, at this position of 100, the empty space 120 cannot be grasped as an image so that it can be reliably recognized. For that purpose, the operation described below is performed. That is, the three-dimensional cursor (in FIG. 9,
(Indicated by a broken line) are sequentially moved to positions 100a and 100b. In the course of this movement, the other cars 110 and 111 and the three-dimensional car are displayed on the monitor 3 in an overlapping manner. In other words, the monitor 3 displays a situation as if the vehicle is moving in accordance with the operation of the operation rod 10a, while the driver is looking at the position of 100.

When the three-dimensional cursor is placed at the position 100a, the screen displayed on the monitor 3 is as shown in FIG. 10B. When the three-dimensional cursor is placed at the position 100b, the screen displayed on the monitor 3 is as shown in FIG. 10C.

Pressing the MEM switch 13 when the stereoscopic Casa came to position 100a, the 100a coordinate position _{(x 1, y 1, z} 1, θ 1) (located in computer in 2) (not shown) of the memory, as the target position It is memorized. Also, when the three-dimensional car comes to position 100b
When the MEM switch 13 is pressed, the coordinate position of 100b (x ₂ , y ₂ , z ₂ , θ
₂ ) is stored in the same memory.

At this point, when the trajectory generation switch 14 is pressed, a trajectory that smoothly connects the target position (x ₁ , y ₁ , z ₁ , θ ₁ ) and (x ₂ , y ₂ , z ₂ , θ ₂ ) is created. Autonomous traveling is started along this track. By this autonomous traveling, the own vehicle should be at the position (or near) 100b. At the position 100b, the camera can capture the images of the other vehicles 110 and 111 and the empty space between them with sufficient margin as a whole, so it is necessary to recreate the trajectory that can surely guide the vehicle to this empty space. It becomes possible.

Next, a control procedure of the embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 11A is a flowchart of a program executed by the computer 2 when the operating device 4 is turned on. First, initialization is performed in step S2. In this initialization, the position of the three-dimensional cursor is set to the current vehicle position 100 (x ₀ ,
y ₀ , z ₀ , θ ₀ ). In step S4, an image is input from the camera 1 and displayed on the monitor 3 in step S6.

Next, at step S8, step S30, and step S34, it is determined whether the operating rod 10a has been operated, the MEM switch 13 has been pressed, or the trajectory generation switch 14 has been pressed, respectively.

If the operation rod 10a has been operated, the operation proceeds to step S16, in which the pressed time t is converted into parallel movement amounts ΔX, ΔY. In step S18, the cursor coordinates (X, Y, Z, θ) are set to Δ
Update by X and ΔY. If the operation rod 10a is rotated, the rotation amount Δθ is detected in step S12. Then, in step S14, the cursor coordinates (X, Y, Z, θ) are updated by Δθ. Thus, at the time of step S20, the coordinates of the three-dimensional cursor have been updated to a new position. Step
In S20, affine transformation of ΔX, ΔY, Δθ is performed on each vector of the three-dimensional cursor. Then, in step S22, the perspective transformation is performed on the three-dimensional car, and in step S24, the vector data after the perspective transformation is output to the monitor 3, and is superimposed and displayed together with the image of the parking lot. In the superimposed display with the three-dimensional cursor on top, an image obtained by the camera is first written into a display buffer (not shown) of the monitor, and then a bit image based on the vector data is generated, and the same display is performed. The postscript should be added to the buffer.

If it is determined in step S30 that the MEM switch 13 has been pressed, the updated cursor coordinates are stored as the target position in step S32. In the example of FIG. 9, (x ₁ , y ₁ , z ₁ , θ
₁ ) and (x ₂ , y ₂ , z ₂ , θ ₂ ) are stored.

If it is determined in step S34 that the trajectory generation switch 14 has been pressed, the trajectory is generated along the stored coordinate position by pressing the MEM switch 13 in step S36.

FIG. 11B shows an autonomous driving procedure. Step S
At 40, the current position of the vehicle in the global coordinate system is calculated. In step S42, the deviation between the current position and the created trajectory is calculated, and the steering angle is calculated. In step S44, the steering angle is output to the steering actuator 6 to drive a steering device (not shown). By this driving, the own vehicle slightly moves in the direction of the turning angle by a distance corresponding to the accelerator amount depressed by the driver and the time. This movement amount is defined as (δ _X , δ _Y ). Step
In steps S46 to S54, superposition display of the external image and the three-dimensional cursor after the movement of the own vehicle by this slight distance is controlled. That is,
In step S46, an external image is captured from the camera 1 and
In step S48, the origin of the global coordinate system is set to (δ _X ,
δ _Y ). And in step S50,
This affine transformation of the parallel movement is performed on the vector data of the three-dimensional cursor, and in step S52, this vector data is perspective-transformed and superimposed on the screen. Thus,
The correction of an external image and a three-dimensional cursor accompanying the actual movement of the own vehicle following autonomous traveling is performed in real time.

In step S56, the final target position (in the example of FIG. 9,
It is determined whether or not the position 100b) has been reached. If the position has not been reached yet, steps S40 to S54 are repeated, and
Autonomous traveling along the created track is continued, and the display of the cursor is corrected according to the movement.

When the vehicle arrives at the final destination, the rear image is captured again in step S58. In step S60, the parking space is recognized from the newly captured image. As previously mentioned,
The destinations that have just arrived are the steps S8 to S24, which are the positions set using the operation device 4 so that the driver can sufficiently image the parking space with the camera 1 at this position. Therefore, it can be fully expected that the entire parking space can be reliably recognized from the image captured in step S60. At step S62, a new trajectory for guiding the own vehicle to this parking space is created, and at step S64, autonomous traveling is resumed. In this way, the vehicle can be reliably guided to the parking space 120.

The present invention can be variously modified without departing from the gist thereof.

For example, in the above-described embodiment, the present invention is applied to control for guiding a vehicle to a parking lot. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and may be applied when traveling in another place. It is very easy.

In the above embodiment, the cursor movement in the global coordinate system has been described. However, the present invention can be similarly applied to the cursor movement in the local coordinate system.

(Effect of the Invention) As described above, the traveling control device for a mobile vehicle according to the present invention is a traveling control device for a mobile vehicle provided with image input means for recognizing the external world. Means, a three-dimensional Casa corresponding to the vehicle body of the own vehicle, a Casa generating means for generating the three-dimensional Casa so as to be superimposed on the image of the outside world, and a virtual moving means for virtually moving the own vehicle position And according to the virtual movement of this car,
Display control means for controlling the movement of the vehicle so as to be displayed, and track generation means for generating a traveling trajectory of the vehicle in response to the virtual movement of the position of the vehicle. I do. The driver can check the virtual movement of the own vehicle using the three-dimensional cursor in the external image. Therefore,
The trajectory created according to the virtual movement of the own vehicle surely reaches the vicinity of the target position.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the principle of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment system to which the present invention is applied, FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the structure of each vector as data, FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B are diagrams explaining the positional relationship between the global coordinate system and the vehicle, FIG. FIG. 7A is a diagram for explaining how the coordinates of the cursor are moved by operating the cursor operating device, and FIG. 7B is a diagram showing the shape of the cursor that can be seen on the monitor when the cursor moves only as shown in FIG. 7A. FIG. 8 is a view for explaining the relationship between the local coordinate system and the car, and FIG. 9 is a view for explaining how the three-dimensional car is moved using the operation device 4 before the car is put into the parking lot. FIGS. 10A to 10C show the movement of the cursor according to FIG. In Kutoki a diagram for explaining a change in display on the monitor screen, the 11A view and a 11B diagram is a flowchart for describing a control procedure according to the embodiment. In the figure, 1 ... camera, 2 ... computer, 3 ... CRT monitor, 4 ... Casa operating device, 5 ... travel controller,
6 Steering actuator, 10 Joystick, 10a Operation stick, 11 Power switch, 12
Mode switching switch, 13: Target position writing switch, 14: Track creation start switch, 100: Own vehicle position, 100a, 100b ... Solid car position, 110, 111 ... Other vehicles,
120... Free space, C _{1 to} C ₁₂ ...

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A traveling control device for a mobile vehicle having image input means for recognizing an external world, wherein: a display means for displaying an input image of the external world; and a three-dimensional carcass corresponding to the vehicle body of the vehicle. A car generating means for generating the three-dimensional car so as to be superimposed on the image of the car; a virtual moving means for virtually moving the position of the own vehicle; A travel control device for a mobile vehicle, comprising: display control means for controlling the display so as to be moved and displayed; and track generation means for generating a travel track of the own vehicle in response to the virtual movement of the own vehicle position. .