JP7488685B2 - Road condition identification device and vehicle system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a technology for identifying road conditions, including the damage status of the road surface.

Currently, road surfaces can become damaged due to aging roads, larger vehicles, and a significant increase in traffic volume. For example, road surface damage such as holes appearing in the road surface and lane disappearances where the white lines on the road surface disappear. Road surface damage can cause traffic accidents and disrupt traffic. In particular, for driver assistance systems and autonomous driving, it is important to identify road conditions in a timely manner and take measures such as repairs based on the identified conditions.

Technology has been proposed in which a vehicle is driven on a road and the road conditions are identified using the vehicle's sensors. For example, in Patent Document 1, crack detection cameras are installed on the upper front of the vehicle and positioned symmetrically on the left and right to capture images of the road surface from above in order to identify cracks, road width, and their locations.

Patent Document 2 also discloses a telematics system that detects vehicles traveling on a road and damage to the road surface, and notifies the road administrator of the damage.

Furthermore, Patent Document 3 describes a method of sequentially acquiring acceleration applied to the vehicle in the vertical direction and determining whether vibrations are occurring due to unevenness in the road surface based on this acceleration.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 08-184422 JP 2016-95184 A JP 2018-71318 A

The road conditions here vary depending on the location, terrain, and environment. For example, the same unevenness may be considered as damage on a road built on undulating terrain and on a flat road. Furthermore, the criteria for determining whether something is damaged also vary depending on the slope. Also, on roads with a center line, if no line-like object is found on the road surface, it is determined that the lane has disappeared. Conversely, on roads without white lines, if any line-like object is detected, there is a possibility of damage. Furthermore, road bumps may be determined to be unnecessary unevenness.

In this way, in order to identify road conditions, it is necessary to understand what the road should be like, in other words, information that can be used as a basis for judgment.

However, none of Patent Documents 1 to 3 take into consideration the ideal state of the road. For this reason, these Patent Documents have the problem of false positives, where damage is mistakenly detected when there is no damage, or conversely, failure to detect damage.

The present invention aims to provide technology that can prevent false detections and failure to detect, and grasp road conditions more accurately.

To achieve the above objective, the present invention identifies road conditions for each road section using a high-precision map that is composed of reference surrounding road condition information for each road element that makes up the road.

More specifically, a road condition identification device that is installed in a vehicle traveling on a road and identifies the road conditions of the road includes a storage unit that stores, for each section of each road, a high-precision map composed of reference surrounding road condition information for each road element that constitutes the road, a data receiving unit that receives surrounding road conditions detected from a sensor as the vehicle travels, a locator estimation unit that estimates the position of the vehicle, and, for each section, (1) identifying, from the high-precision map, reference surrounding road condition information corresponding to the estimated position of the vehicle; (2) comparing the identified reference surrounding road condition information with surrounding road condition information, which is created from the surrounding road conditions detected at the estimated position of the vehicle and is vector data including road surface information indicating the road surface conditions in the section, lane information indicating the lane conditions in the section, stop line information indicating the presence or absence of a stop line in the section, and display information regarding traffic signs or signboards in the section; (3) determining whether or not the road is damaged based on the result of the comparison, and identifying a road damage type if the road is damaged; a damage information creation unit that, if it is determined by the road damage determination unit that the road is damaged, creates damage information indicating damage to the road and including identification information of the road, section information, a transmission feasibility flag, the presence or absence of the damage, the road damage type, surrounding road conditions, and a normal return mileage; and a transmission feasibility determination unit that determines whether or not to transmit the created damage information to an external device depending on the presence or absence of damage on the road for a predetermined fixed period of time determined by the road damage determination unit .

The present invention also includes a vehicle system that uses the above-mentioned road condition identification device, and a method executed by the road condition identification device or vehicle system.

According to the present invention, it is possible to check road conditions more accurately using a vehicle. Problems, configurations, and advantages other than those described above will become clear from the description of the following embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a damage management system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an electronic control unit according to an embodiment of the present invention. 4 is a flowchart showing details of a road damage determination process in an embodiment of the present invention. 10 is a flowchart showing a method for creating (setting) a transmission permission flag and using the same in an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a high-precision map used in an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing damage information used in an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of an electronic control unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The following describes an embodiment of the present invention with reference to the drawings.

First, a first embodiment will be described. FIG. 1 shows a road damage management system 1 used in the first embodiment. The road damage management system 1 includes a vehicle 10, which is a type of traveling device having a traveling function, a network 20, and a damage information management server 30. The vehicle 10 is connected to the damage information management server 30 via the network 20.

The vehicle 10 has an electronic control unit (ECU) 100, an external environment recognition sensor 110, a communication unit 120, and a vehicle attitude sensor 130. Note that the external environment recognition sensor 110 and the vehicle attitude sensor 130 can be treated as a single sensor.

The electronic control unit 100 is used as a road condition identification device. The electronic control unit 100 includes a road damage determination unit 1000 that determines whether or not there is road damage, and a memory unit 1001. The memory unit 1001 also stores a high-precision map 101. It is preferable that the high-precision map 101 is transmitted from the damage information management server 30 and stored in the memory unit 1001, but this is not a limitation. The memory unit 1001 may also be provided outside the electronic control unit 100.

The electronic control unit 100 also compares the surrounding road conditions acquired from the external environment recognition sensor 110 (surrounding road condition information based on camera image information and vehicle attitude acquired by the vehicle attitude sensor 130) with the contents of the high-precision map 101 to identify road damage. When the electronic control unit 100 detects road damage, it uses the communication unit 120 to transmit the road damage information to the damage information management server 30 via the network 20. Details of the electronic control unit 100 and these processes will be described later using the figures from FIG. 2 onwards.

Furthermore, there are a plurality of vehicles 10 connected to the damage information management server 30 via the network 20. The high-precision map 101 indicates reference road condition information for each road element constituting the road for each section of each road. Note that the section in this specification may be any unit position information. Furthermore, the high-precision map 101 can be realized by vector data including, for example, road shape, lane shape, pedestrian crossing, stop line, traffic sign, signboard, etc. An example of this high-precision map 101 is shown in FIG. 5. The high-precision map 101 of this embodiment is composed of road identification information (#), section information, road surface information, lane information, stop line information, and display information. Here, the road identification information may be information that identifies the road, such as the road number (National Route 1). Furthermore, the section information is information that identifies the section that divides the road, and may be information that identifies the position. In this embodiment, longitude and latitude information are used. In this embodiment, road surface information, lane information, stop line information, and display information are used as the reference surrounding road conditions for each road element. Here, the road surface information includes the gradient (unit: per mille), the presence or absence of road bumps that are transmissions, the presence of repairs/foreign objects, the road surface shape, and the lane shape. Furthermore, the lane information indicates the presence or absence of lanes and their types. Furthermore, the stop line information indicates the presence or absence of stop lines. Furthermore, the display information includes the types of traffic signs and traffic signs indicating the presence or absence of such signs, and the types of signs indicating the presence or absence of such signs. Each of these items is merely an example, and is not limited to these, and some of them may not be used.

As mentioned above, the high-precision map 101 can be realized as vector data, but in FIG. 5, its contents are shown as text for ease of understanding. However, the high-precision map 101 may also be realized as text data as shown in FIG. 5. Furthermore, the high-precision map 101 may also be realized as sensing data such as image data. In this case, comparison with the high-precision map 101 is performed using road conditions (image data) acquired from the external environment recognition sensor 110. Furthermore, the high-precision map 101 may be provided for each direction of vehicle travel (e.g., inbound and outbound lanes).

Next, the functional configuration of the electronic control unit 100 will be described with reference to FIG. 2. The electronic control unit 100 includes a road damage determination unit 1000 that determines whether or not the road surface is damaged, a memory unit 1001 that stores a high-precision map 101, a locator estimation unit 1002 that estimates the position of the vehicle 10, a map data acquisition unit 1003 that acquires reference surrounding road information corresponding to the position of the vehicle from the high-precision map 101, an external environment recognition sensor data receiving unit 1004, a damage information creation unit 1005 that creates damage information (V_RDI) 105, a transmission possibility determination unit 1006 that determines whether or not the damage information 105 can be transmitted to the damage information management server 30, a transmission unit 1007 that transmits the damage information 105 to the network 20, and a reception unit 1008 that receives information from the network 20.

The road damage determination unit 1000 also compares the reference surrounding road information with surrounding road condition information based on the surrounding road conditions acquired via the external environment recognition sensor data receiving unit 1004, and determines whether or not there is road surface damage. The external environment recognition sensor data receiving unit 1004 may receive the vehicle attitude of the vehicle 10 acquired from the vehicle attitude sensor 130. In this case, the surrounding road condition information is also created using the vehicle attitude. An example of this will be described in Example 2. The damage information creation unit 1005 creates damage information 105 when the road damage determination unit 1000 detects road surface damage.

The contents of the damage information 105 are shown in FIG. 6. In this embodiment, the damage information 105 is composed of road identification information (#), section information, transmission availability flag, damage, road damage type, surrounding road conditions, and normal return mileage. Here, the road identification information (#) and section information are the same as those in the high-precision map 101. The surrounding road conditions are information detected by the external environment recognition sensor 110 and the vehicle attitude sensor 130. The surrounding road condition information based on the surrounding road conditions is then compared with the high-precision map 101. In other words, the surrounding road condition information is composed of the road surface information, lane information, stop line information, and display information of the high-precision map 101.

Furthermore, if a failure occurs in a component of the vehicle 10, the road damage determination unit 1000 may erroneously detect road damage even if there is no road damage. To prevent this, the transmission feasibility determination unit 1006 is used. If the road damage determination unit 1000 does not detect road damage within a predetermined period of time after the vehicle 10 starts traveling, the transmission feasibility determination unit 1006 permits the transmission of damage information 105. In other words, if the road damage determination unit 1000 does not detect road damage, it determines that there is no malfunction in the components of the vehicle 10 related to road damage determination. The transmission feasibility determination unit 1006 may determine whether or not to transmit using weather information received via the communication unit 120. Furthermore, the vehicle 10 may omit specifying the road conditions for sections where road damage has been confirmed.

Next, the hardware configuration that implements the functional configuration of the electronic control unit 100 shown in FIG. 2 will be described with reference to FIG. 7. The hardware of the electronic control unit 100 is composed of a storage medium 1001-1, an MCU (Micro Controller Unit) 1002-1, an input interface 1004-1, an output interface 1007-1, and a bus 1010-1. The storage medium 1001-1 corresponds to the storage unit 1001, and can be realized by a so-called memory. The MCU 1002-1 executes the functions of the road damage determination unit 1000, the locator estimation unit 1002, the map data acquisition unit 1003, the damage information creation unit 1005, and the transmission possibility determination unit 1006. Specifically, the MCU 1002-1 includes a CPU 1002-2 and a memory 1002-3, and the CPU 1002-2 executes various calculations according to the programs in the memory 1002-3. The MCU 1002-1 may be capable of executing various calculations using FPGA (field-programmable gate array) technology. The input interface 1004-1 corresponds to the external environment recognition sensor data receiving unit 1004 and the receiving unit 1008, and receives information from external devices such as the vehicle attitude sensor 130. The output interface 1007-1 corresponds to the transmitting unit 1007, and transmits information to external devices such as the communication unit 120. The bus 1010-1 mediates the transmission and reception of information between the various components in the electronic control unit 100.

Next, the road damage determination process of this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

In step S100, the locator estimation unit 1002 estimates the position of the vehicle 10. The locator estimation unit 1002 needs to estimate the position with an accuracy that corresponds to the section information. For this reason, it is preferable to estimate the position using the results detected by the GPS receiver and gyro. However, the results detected by either the GPS receiver or the gyro may also be used.

Next, in step S101, the map data acquisition unit 1003 acquires reference surrounding road condition information around the traveling device's locator from the high-precision map 101 stored in the memory unit 1001. To this end, the map data acquisition unit 1003 identifies section information corresponding to the position acquired in step S100 from the high-precision map 101. At this time, the map data acquisition unit 1003 identifies a record of section information on the high-precision map 101 that includes the position estimated in S100 as reference surrounding road condition information.

Next, in step S102, the external environment recognition sensor data receiving unit 1004 receives surrounding road conditions from the external environment recognition sensor 110. The external environment recognition sensor 110 can be realized by a camera, radar, ultrasonic sensor, etc. These are information indicating the road conditions. For example, when a camera is used as the external environment recognition sensor 110, image data is acquired as the surrounding road conditions.

Next, in step S103, the road damage determination unit 1000 creates surrounding road condition information from the surrounding road conditions acquired in step S102. This process is performed to compare with the reference surrounding road conditions that constitute the high-precision map 101. For this reason, the road damage determination unit 1000 creates data of the same type as the high-precision map 101. In this embodiment, the road damage determination unit 1000 creates vector data including road surface information, lane information, stop line information, and display information from the surrounding road conditions.

Then, the road damage determination unit 1000 compares the reference surrounding road condition information acquired in step S101 with the created surrounding road condition information. Based on the comparison result, the road damage determination unit 1000 determines whether or not there is road damage. Note that in this comparison process, it is desirable for the road damage determination unit 1000 to use road identification information and section information to identify the reference surrounding road condition information and surrounding road condition information to be compared.

The road damage determination unit 1000 may determine that there is road damage if there is a difference within a certain range in the comparison results. In addition, in this embodiment, vector data is used as the surrounding road condition information, but this format is not limited to this. Furthermore, sensing data such as image data may be used as the reference surrounding road condition information. In this case, it is desirable for the road damage determination unit 1000 to omit creating the surrounding road condition information and to compare the received surrounding road condition with the reference surrounding road condition information.

Furthermore, in this step, if damage is present, the road damage determination unit 1000 identifies the type of road damage based on the results of the comparison. For example, if there is no lane in the surrounding road condition information but there is lane information in the reference surrounding road condition information, the road damage determination unit 1000 determines that there is a lane loss. Also, if there are bumps and grooves in the road surface information in the surrounding road condition information but the transmission road bump in the reference surrounding road condition information is marked as "◯", the road damage determination unit 1000 determines that there is no damage.

The road damage determination unit 1000 may simultaneously determine the presence or absence of damage and identify the type of road damage.

Next, in step S104, if the result of step S103 is that there is no damage, the road damage determination unit 1000 returns to step S100 and executes processing for the next section. If there is damage, the road damage determination unit 1000 proceeds to step S105.

In step S105, the transmission possibility determination unit 1006 determines whether the damage information 105 created in step S106 and thereafter should be transmitted to the damage information management server 30. The transmission possibility determination unit 1006 makes this determination using the transmission possibility flag of the damage information 105. Note that in FIG. 5, the transmission possibility flag is shown as "yes" or "no", but it may also be determined by whether it is recorded or not (ON, OFF). Note that the transmission possibility flag is recorded when the vehicle 10 is started, as will be described later with reference to FIG. 4. Also, in this embodiment, a transmission possibility flag is provided for each record of damage information (surrounding road condition information), but it may also be managed as a separate piece of information.

If the result of this determination is that transmission is possible (ON), proceed to step S106. If the result is that transmission is not possible (OFF), end the process and return to step S101 to execute the process for the next section of this flowchart.

Next, in step S106, the road damage determination unit 1000 temporarily stores the surrounding road conditions detected by the external environment recognition sensor 110 and received in step S102 in the memory unit 1001. Note that this storage may also be performed in another storage medium.

Next, in step S107, the road damage determination unit 1000 determines whether the road damage detection has returned to normal after determining that there is damage. Specifically, if the road damage determination unit 1000 determines that there is damage but then determines that the damage has disappeared, it determines that the road damage detection has returned to normal. Note that the road damage determination unit 1000 may determine that the road damage detection has returned to normal if it has not determined that there is damage for a certain period of time or more.

In addition, in this step, the road damage determination unit 1000 identifies the location where it is determined that damage exists and the location where it is determined that the damage has disappeared. This can be achieved by periodically repeating the damage presence/absence determination in step S104 to determine the location where the damage has disappeared.

If the result is a return to normal (Yes), proceed to step S109. If the result is a return to normal (No), proceed to step S108.

Next, in step S108, the road damage determination unit 1000 determines whether the surrounding road conditions detected by the external environment recognition sensor 110 and stored in step S106 exceed a predetermined data size. As a result, if the data size is exceeded, the process returns to step S107. If the data size is exceeded, the process returns to step S106.

Next, in step S109, the damage information creation unit 1005 creates data to be sent to the damage information management server 30. In other words, the damage information creation unit 1005 creates the damage information 105. As described above, the damage information 105 is shown in FIG. 6, and is created as follows.

The damage information creation unit 1005 receives road identification information, section information, the presence of damage, and the road damage type from the road damage determination unit 1000. The damage information creation unit 1005 also receives the surrounding road conditions acquired in step S102 by the external environment recognition sensor data receiving unit 1004. The damage information creation unit 1005 may also receive the surrounding road conditions from the road damage determination unit 1000 instead of the surrounding road conditions.

Furthermore, the damage information creation unit 1005 receives the location where the damage was detected and the location where the damage was removed from the road damage determination unit 1000. The damage information creation unit 1005 then calculates the normal return driving distance from these.

Then, the damage information creation unit 1005 creates the damage information 105 by merging each of these pieces of information. Note that, as described above, the transmission permission flag is recorded at the stage of this step S109.

Next, in step S110, the transmission unit 1007 transmits the damage information 105 created in step S109 to the damage information management server 30 via the network 20 using the communication unit 120. Note that the transmission unit 1007 may transmit only a portion of the damage information 105 to the damage information management server 30. For example, the transmission of the transmission permission flag may be omitted.

In this embodiment, the process shown in FIG. 3 is executed repeatedly for each section. This makes it possible to grasp the damage status of each section. Also, in this embodiment, damage information 105 is created in step S109. That is, the damage information creation unit 1005 creates damage information 105 when transmission is possible as a result of the transmission possibility determination in step S105. This makes it possible to prevent the creation of unnecessary damage information 105. However, the damage information creation unit 1005 may create damage information before S105.

Next, we will use Figure 4 to explain how to create (set) the transmission permission flag and how to use it.

First, in step S1000, the transmission permission determination unit 1006 sets the transmission permission flag to transmission not permitted (OFF) as the initial value. As shown in FIG. 6, when setting the transmission permission flag for each section of the damage information 105, the transmission permission determination unit 1006 sets it for the first section.

Next, in step S1001, the transmission permission determination unit 1006 uses the speedometer and OBD (On-board diagnostics) function to determine whether the vehicle 10 has started moving, that is, whether the vehicle 10 is within a certain company regulation. If the vehicle 10 has started moving, the process proceeds to step S1002.

Next, in step S1002, the transmission permission determination unit 1006 sets the normality determination timer to an initial value of 0. Then, the normality determination timer starts to run and measures the elapsed time.

Next, in step S1003, the transmission permission determination unit 1006 executes the same process as in step S104. That is, the transmission permission determination unit 1006 determines whether or not there is damage. As a result, if there is damage, the process returns to step S1002, and if there is no damage, the process proceeds to step S1004.

In step S1003, the transmission feasibility determination unit 1006 may receive and use the determination result of the road damage determination unit 1000 in step S104.

Next, in step S1004, the transmission permission determination unit 1006 checks whether the elapsed time of the normality determination timer has passed a certain time (T). If the certain time has passed, the process proceeds to step S1005. If the certain time (T) has not passed, the process returns to step S1003.

Next, in step S1005, the transmission permission determination unit 1006 sets the transmission permission flag to transmission permission (ON). In this manner, in this process, when a predetermined fixed time (T) has passed, the damage information 105 is allowed to be transmitted. The reason for this is as follows. At the start of driving, the possibility of road damage is low, so if damage is detected during this period, there is a high possibility that it is an error. Conversely, if there is no damage within the fixed time (t), there is a high possibility that it is an accurate error, so transmission is allowed. Therefore, the fixed time (t) does not have to be from the start of driving. For example, it may be a fixed period of time on a high-standard road such as an expressway.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the second embodiment, the presence or absence of road surface damage is determined using the detection results of the vehicle attitude sensor 130, which detects the attitude and behavior of the vehicle 10 of the first embodiment, which changes as the vehicle travels. The configuration, flow chart, and various information of the second embodiment are the same as those of the first embodiment. Therefore, the differences from the first embodiment will be described below.

In step S102 of FIG. 3, the external environment recognition sensor data receiving unit 1004 receives the attitude and behavior of the vehicle 10 from the vehicle attitude sensor 130. The external environment recognition sensor data receiving unit 1004 receives, for example, vertical vibrations of the vehicle 10 as the attitude and behavior of the vehicle.

Next, in step S103, the road damage determination unit 1000 creates surrounding road condition information from the attitude and behavior of the vehicle 10. The road damage determination unit 1000 creates, as the surrounding road condition information, information indicating, for example, the presence or absence of a transmission road bump and the presence or absence of repairs/foreign objects. To create this information, the road damage determination unit 1000 determines the presence or absence of a transmission road bump and the presence or absence of repairs/foreign objects according to the magnitude of the vibration amplitude. The road damage determination unit 1000 may also make a determination using the frequency and duration of the vibration.

In this step, the road damage determination unit 1000 compares the corresponding reference surrounding road condition information with the surrounding road condition information. For example, if the road damage determination unit 1000 determines in the above process that there is a transmission road bump, but the reference surrounding road condition information does not indicate that there is a road bump, it determines that there is damage. In this way, if the comparison shows that the information does not correspond, the road damage determination unit 1000 determines that there is damage. Furthermore, the road damage determination unit 1000 may determine whether there is a gradient.

Furthermore, in this step, the road damage determination unit 1000 may determine the damage based on the posture and behavior instead of the above-mentioned comparison. In other words, the road damage determination unit 1000 determines that there is damage when the amplitude and frequency of the vibration in the vertical direction satisfy a predetermined condition.
The process from step S104 onward is the same as that in the first embodiment. The judgment in the second embodiment and the judgment in the first embodiment may be performed separately according to the damage type. Furthermore, either one of the processes may be performed.

According to each of the above embodiments, it is possible to provide an electronic control unit that reduces false detection of road surface damage and enables detection of undetectable lane damage.

10...vehicle, 20...network, 30...damage information management server, 100...electronic control unit, 110...external environment recognition sensor, 120...communication unit, 130...vehicle attitude sensor, 1000...road damage determination unit, 1001...storage unit, 1002...locator estimation unit, 1003...map data acquisition unit, 1004...external environment recognition sensor data reception unit, 1005...damage information creation unit, 1006...transmission possibility determination unit, 1007...transmission unit, 1008...reception unit

Claims (12)

A road condition identification device that is installed in a vehicle traveling on a road and identifies road conditions of the road,
a storage unit that stores, for each section of each road, a high-precision map that is configured with reference surrounding road condition information for each road element that constitutes the road;
A data receiving unit that receives surrounding road conditions detected as the vehicle travels from a sensor;
a locator estimation unit that estimates a position of the vehicle;
For each of the sections,
(1) Identifying reference surrounding road condition information corresponding to the estimated position of the vehicle from the high-precision map;
(2) comparing the identified reference surrounding road condition information with surrounding road condition information, which is created from the surrounding road conditions detected at the estimated vehicle position, and is vector data including road surface information indicating the road surface conditions in the section, lane information indicating the lane conditions in the section, stop line information indicating the presence or absence of a stop line in the section, and display information regarding traffic signs or signboards in the section;
(3) a road damage determination unit that determines whether or not the road is damaged based on a result of the comparison, and, if the road is damaged, identifies a type of road damage;
a damage information creation unit which, when the road damage determination unit determines that the road is damaged, creates damage information indicating the damage to the road and including identification information of the road, section information, a transmission availability flag, the presence or absence of the damage, the road damage type, surrounding road conditions, and a normal return mileage;
A road condition identification device characterized in that it has a transmission feasibility determination unit that determines whether to transmit the damage information created by the road damage determination unit to an external device depending on whether or not the road is damaged within a predetermined period of time . 2. The road condition identification device according to claim 1 ,
when it is determined that there is no damage to the road within a predetermined period of time, the transmission possibility determination unit sets the transmission possibility flag, which indicates that the damage information is transmittable to the external device, in the damage information;
The damage information creating unit creates the damage information when the transmission possibility flag indicates that the damage information is transmittable. 2. The road condition identification device according to claim 1,
The sensor is an external environment recognition sensor and a vehicle attitude sensor that detects a behavior state of the vehicle that changes as the vehicle travels,
The data receiving unit receives the behavior status from the vehicle attitude sensor,
The road condition specifying device is characterized in that the road damage determining unit determines whether or not the road is damaged based on whether the behavior of the vehicle satisfies a predetermined condition. 4. The road condition identification device according to claim 3 ,
The external environment recognition sensor is a camera that captures an image,
The road condition identification device is characterized in that the road damage determination unit performs image processing on the image for each section to create the surrounding road condition information. 2. The road condition identification device according to claim 1,
A road condition identification device characterized in that the road damage determination unit performs parallel processing of the creation of the surrounding road condition information and the processing of (1) to (3) for each different section. 6. The road condition specifying device according to claim 1 ,
A road condition specifying device, wherein the high-precision map includes the road surface information, the lane information, the stop line information, and the display information. A vehicle system provided in a vehicle traveling on a road, the vehicle system having a road condition identification device that identifies a road condition of the road,
A sensor that detects surrounding road conditions detected as the vehicle travels;
The road condition identification device is provided.
The road condition identification device includes:
a storage unit that stores, for each section of each road, a high-precision map that is configured with reference surrounding road condition information for each road element that constitutes the road;
a data receiving unit that receives the surrounding road conditions from the sensor;
a locator estimation unit that estimates a position of the vehicle;
For each of the sections,
(1) Identifying reference surrounding road condition information corresponding to the estimated position of the vehicle from the high-precision map;
(2) comparing the identified reference surrounding road condition information with surrounding road condition information, which is created from the surrounding road conditions detected at the estimated vehicle position, and is vector data including road surface information indicating the road surface conditions in the section, lane information indicating the lane conditions in the section, stop line information indicating the presence or absence of a stop line in the section, and display information regarding traffic signs or signboards in the section;
(3) a road damage determination unit that determines whether or not the road is damaged based on a result of the comparison, and, if the road is damaged, identifies a type of road damage;
a damage information creation unit which, when the road damage determination unit determines that the road is damaged, creates damage information indicating the damage to the road and including identification information of the road, section information, a transmission availability flag, the presence or absence of the damage, the road damage type, surrounding road conditions, and a normal return mileage;
A vehicle system characterized in that it has a transmission feasibility determination unit that determines whether to transmit the damage information created by the road damage determination unit to an external device depending on whether or not the road is damaged within a predetermined period of time . 8. The vehicle system according to claim 7 ,
the transmission possibility determination unit sets the transmission possibility flag, which indicates that the damage information can be transmitted to the external device, in the damage information when it is determined that there is no damage to the road within a predetermined fixed period of time;
The damage information creation unit creates the damage information when the transmission possibility flag indicates that the damage information is transmittable. 8. The vehicle system according to claim 7 ,
The sensor is an external environment recognition sensor and a vehicle attitude sensor that detects a behavior state of the vehicle that changes as the vehicle travels,
The data receiving unit receives the behavior status from the vehicle attitude sensor,
The road damage determination unit determines whether or not the road is damaged based on whether the behavior of the vehicle satisfies a predetermined condition. 10. The vehicle system according to claim 9 ,
The external environment recognition sensor is a camera that captures an image,
The vehicle system is characterized in that the road damage determination unit performs image processing on the image for each section to create the surrounding road condition information. 8. The vehicle system according to claim 7 ,
A vehicle system characterized in that the road damage determination unit performs parallel processing of the creation of the surrounding road condition information and the processing of (1) to (3) for each different section. 12. The vehicle system according to claim 7 ,
A vehicle system, wherein the high-precision map includes the road surface information, the lane information, the stop line information, and the display information.

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