JP7650995B2 - Road surface abnormality determination system, on-vehicle device, and road surface abnormality determination method - Google Patents

Description

The present disclosure relates to a road surface abnormality determination system, an in-vehicle device, and a road surface abnormality determination method.

A system has been proposed that analyzes the location of road surface abnormalities, including at least one of defects occurring on the road surface and obstacles present on the road surface, based on various information collected from a vehicle. For example, Patent Document 1 describes a system in which a server device analyzes road surface abnormalities at the current position of a vehicle based on the current position of the vehicle and vehicle behavior such as vehicle speed, acquired from a GPS device mounted on the vehicle.

JP 2020-13537 A

The positioning accuracy of conventional GPS devices is on the order of m. Therefore, when a vehicle is traveling on a road with multiple lanes in each direction, the GPS device can obtain the current position of the vehicle on a road-by-road basis, but cannot obtain the current position of the vehicle on a lane-by-lane basis. Therefore, the invention described in Patent Document 1 has the problem that, although it is possible to analyze road surface abnormalities on a road-by-road basis, it is not possible to analyze road surface abnormalities on a lane-by-lane basis.

The present disclosure has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and aims to provide a road surface abnormality determination system, an on-board device, and a road surface abnormality determination method that can determine the location of a road surface abnormality on a lane-by-lane basis, which is more detailed than a road-by-road basis.

One road surface abnormality determination system according to the present disclosure includes a position information acquisition unit that acquires position information indicating a current position of a vehicle on a lane-by-lane basis, a road surface condition information acquisition unit that acquires road surface condition information indicating the condition of the road surface in the lane on which the vehicle has traveled, a first road surface abnormality determination unit that determines whether or not a road surface abnormality including at least one of a defect occurring on the road surface and an obstacle existing on the road surface exists based on the road surface condition information and outputs road surface abnormality information indicating the road surface abnormality when it is determined that a road surface abnormality exists, a probe generation unit that generates probe information that associates the position information and the road surface abnormality information, a storage unit that accumulates the probe information, a second road surface abnormality determination unit that determines whether or not a road surface abnormality exists on a lane-by-lane basis based on the probe information accumulated in the storage unit, and and a map information storage unit that stores the road surface abnormality determined by the road surface abnormality determination unit in association with map information having road shape data on a lane-by-lane basis , and further includes a reference information storage unit that stores reference information which is information indicating the state of the road surface under normal conditions or information indicating the state of the road surface when a road surface abnormality exists. The first road surface abnormality determination unit determines whether or not a road surface abnormality exists by comparing the road surface condition information acquired by the road surface condition information acquisition unit with the reference information, the reference information including position information of vibration occurrence locations including rumble strips or ribbed lane markings, and the first road surface abnormality determination unit does not determine whether or not a road surface abnormality exists when the vehicle is traveling through the vibration occurrence location .

Another road surface abnormality determination system according to the present disclosure includes a position information acquisition unit that acquires position information indicating a current position of a vehicle for each lane, a road surface condition information acquisition unit that acquires road surface condition information indicating the condition of the road surface in the lane on which the vehicle has traveled, a probe generation unit that generates probe information that associates the position information with the road surface condition information, a storage unit that stores the probe information, a road surface abnormality determination unit that determines, for each lane, whether or not there is a road surface abnormality including at least one of a defect occurring on the road surface and an obstacle existing on the road surface based on the probe information stored in the storage unit, and a road surface abnormality determination unit that uses road shape data for each lane to determine the road surface abnormality determined by the road surface abnormality determination unit. The road surface abnormality determination unit is equipped with a map information storage unit that stores map information acquired by the road surface condition information acquisition unit in association with the map information acquired by the road surface condition information acquisition unit on a lane basis, and a reference information storage unit that stores reference information which is information indicating the state of the road surface under normal conditions or information indicating the state of the road surface when a road surface abnormality exists. The road surface abnormality determination unit determines whether or not a road surface abnormality exists by comparing the road surface condition information acquired by the road surface condition information acquisition unit with the reference information. The reference information includes position information of vibration occurrence locations including rumble strips or ribbed lane markings, and the road surface abnormality determination unit does not determine whether or not a road surface abnormality exists when the vehicle is traveling through a vibration occurrence location .
Furthermore, still another road surface abnormality judgment system according to the present disclosure includes a position information acquisition unit that acquires position information indicating a current position of a vehicle for each lane, a road surface condition information acquisition unit that acquires road surface condition information indicating the condition of the road surface in the lane on which the vehicle has traveled, a first road surface abnormality judgment unit that judges whether or not a road surface abnormality including at least one of a defect occurring on the road surface and an obstacle existing on the road surface exists based on the road surface condition information and outputs road surface abnormality information indicating the road surface abnormality when it is judged that a road surface abnormality exists, a probe generation unit that generates probe information that associates the position information and the road surface abnormality information, a storage unit that accumulates the probe information, a second road surface abnormality judgment unit that judges whether or not a road surface abnormality exists for each lane based on the probe information accumulated in the storage unit, and a road surface abnormality judgment unit that outputs the road surface abnormality judged by the second road surface abnormality judgment unit to map information having road shape data for each lane. The vehicle driving device further comprises a map information storage unit which stores the road surface abnormalities in association on a line-by-line basis, and a distribution processing unit which distributes map information in which the road surface abnormalities stored in the map information storage unit are associated on a lane-by-lane basis, and a notification unit which notifies the driver that a road surface abnormality exists in the lane in which the vehicle is traveling, and a control unit which uses the map information in which the road surface abnormalities stored in the map information storage unit are associated on a lane-by-lane basis and position information to determine whether or not a road surface abnormality exists in the lane in which the vehicle is traveling, and when it is determined that a road surface abnormality exists in the lane in which the vehicle is traveling, causes the notification unit to notify the driver that a road surface abnormality exists in the lane in which the vehicle is traveling, and when it is determined that a road surface abnormality exists in the lane in which the vehicle is traveling, the control unit causes the notification unit to display the road surface abnormality in the lane in which the vehicle is traveling in the map information more emphasized than road surface abnormalities existing in lanes other than the lane in which the vehicle is traveling.

The on-board device according to the present disclosure includes a position information detection unit that acquires position information indicating the current position of the vehicle on a lane-by-lane basis, a road surface condition information acquisition unit that acquires road surface condition information indicating the condition of the road surface in the lane on which the vehicle is traveling, a first road surface abnormality determination unit that determines whether or not there is a road surface abnormality including at least one of a defect occurring on the road surface and an obstacle existing on the road surface based on the road surface condition information and outputs road surface abnormality information indicating the road surface abnormality when it is determined that there is a road surface abnormality, a probe generation unit that generates probe information that associates the position information and the road surface abnormality information, and and a reference information storage unit that stores reference information which is information indicating the road surface condition or information indicating the road surface condition when a road surface abnormality exists, wherein the first road surface abnormality judgment unit judges whether or not a road surface abnormality exists by comparing the road surface condition information acquired by the road surface condition information acquisition unit with the reference information, the reference information including position information of vibration occurrence locations including rumble strips or ribbed lane markings, and the first road surface abnormality judgment unit does not judge whether or not a road surface abnormality exists when the vehicle is traveling through the vibration occurrence location .

Furthermore, a road surface abnormality judgment method according to the present disclosure is a road surface abnormality judgment method by a road surface abnormality judgment system including a position information acquisition unit, a road surface condition information acquisition unit, a first road surface abnormality judgment unit, a probe generation unit, an accumulation unit, a second road surface abnormality judgment unit, a map information storage unit, and a reference information storage unit, and includes a step of the position information acquisition unit acquiring position information indicating a current position of a vehicle for each lane, a step of the road surface condition information acquisition unit acquiring road surface condition information indicating the condition of the road surface in the lane on which the vehicle is traveling, a step of the first road surface abnormality judgment unit judging whether or not there is a road surface abnormality including at least one of a defect occurring on the road surface and an obstacle existing on the road surface based on the road surface condition information, and outputting road surface abnormality information indicating the road surface abnormality when it is determined that there is a road surface abnormality, a step of the probe generation unit generating probe information that associates the position information with the road surface abnormality information, and a step of the accumulation unit storing the probe information. the second road surface abnormality judgment unit judging, on a lane-by-lane basis, whether or not a road surface abnormality exists based on the accumulated probe information; the map information storage unit storing, on a lane-by-lane basis, the judged road surface abnormality in association with map information having road shape data on a lane -by-lane basis; and the reference information storage unit storing reference information which is information indicating the state of the road surface under normal conditions or information indicating the state of the road surface when a road surface abnormality exists, wherein the first road surface abnormality judgment unit judges whether or not a road surface abnormality exists by comparing the road surface condition information acquired by the road surface condition information acquisition unit with the reference information, the reference information including position information of vibration occurrence locations including rumble strips or ribbed lane markings, and the first road surface abnormality judgment unit does not judge whether or not a road surface abnormality exists when the vehicle is traveling through the vibration occurrence location .

According to the present disclosure, whether or not a road surface abnormality exists is determined for each lane based on accumulated probe information in which road surface abnormality information is associated with position information indicating the current position of the vehicle for each lane. The road surface abnormality determination system then associates the road surface abnormality with map information for each lane and stores it. This makes it possible to determine the location of a road surface abnormality for each lane, which is more detailed than a road unit.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a road surface abnormality determination system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the processing operation of the in-vehicle device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the processing operation of the server device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the map information according to the first embodiment in a visualized form. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the processing operation of the in-vehicle device according to the modified example of the first embodiment. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a processing operation of the server device according to the modification of the first embodiment. FIG. 7 is a plan view showing a visualized map information associated with positions where road surface abnormalities exist in the lane width direction according to the first embodiment. FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a road surface abnormality determination system according to the second embodiment. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the processing operation of the road surface abnormality determination system according to the second embodiment. FIG. 10 is a flow chart showing the processing operation of a distribution request vehicle according to the second embodiment. FIG. 11 shows an example of map information displayed on the notification unit in the second embodiment.

Embodiment 1.
A road surface abnormality determination system 1 in the embodiment 1 will be described with reference to Fig. 1. Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the road surface abnormality determination system 1 in the embodiment 1. Each component of the road surface abnormality determination system 1 is provided in an in-vehicle device 11 or a server device 21 of an information center. Each component of the road surface abnormality determination system 1 will be described below.

First, the in-vehicle device 11 will be described. The in-vehicle device 11 includes a position information acquisition unit 12, a road surface condition information acquisition unit 13, a first road surface abnormality judgment unit 14, a probe generation unit 15, a high-precision locator 16, a road surface condition detection sensor 17, and a communication unit 18. Here, a vehicle equipped with the in-vehicle device 11 and having the function of generating probe information is referred to as a probe vehicle. There may be only one probe vehicle, but it is preferable to have multiple probe vehicles in order to improve the judgment accuracy by the second road surface abnormality judgment unit 23 in the server device 21 described later.

The position information acquisition unit 12 acquires position information indicating the current position of the probe vehicle in units of lanes. In this embodiment, the position information acquisition unit 12 acquires position information from a high-precision locator 16 provided in the probe vehicle. The high-precision locator 16 includes a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and a map information storage device. The GNSS detects the current position of the probe vehicle with centimeter-order accuracy using positioning signals from GNSS satellites. The map information storage device stores map information having road shape data in units of lanes. The high-precision locator 16 detects the current position of the probe vehicle in units of lanes on the map based on the current position detected by the GNSS and the map information stored in the map information storage device. The high-precision locator 16 may perform map matching processing in units of lanes, or may detect the current position in units of lanes using signals from a vehicle speed sensor or the like. In this way, the position information acquisition unit 12 can acquire position information indicating the current position on a lane-by-lane basis using the high-precision locator 16 .

The road surface condition information acquisition unit 13 acquires road surface condition information indicating the condition of the road surface in the lane on which the probe vehicle has traveled. The road surface condition information acquisition unit 13 acquires road surface condition information from a road surface condition detection sensor 17 provided on the probe vehicle. The road surface condition detection sensor 17 is, for example, a sensing device such as an imaging device, a microphone, a vibration sensor, or the like, and may be a plurality of sensing devices. The road surface condition detection sensor 17 is not particularly limited as long as it can detect the condition of the road surface, and may be a device that detects the condition of the road surface by a method such as laser scanning or measuring road surface friction.

The first road surface abnormality determination unit 14 determines whether or not a road surface abnormality exists based on the road surface condition information acquired by the road surface condition information acquisition unit 13. If the first road surface abnormality determination unit 14 determines that a road surface abnormality exists, it outputs road surface abnormality information indicating the road surface abnormality and transmits it to the probe generation unit 15. A road surface abnormality includes at least one of a defect occurring on the road surface and an obstacle existing on the road surface, and may have some adverse effect on the proper running of the probe vehicle. Defects occurring on the road surface include, for example, depressions in the road surface, holes in the road surface, bulges in the road surface, ruts formed on the road surface, cracks in the road surface, and deterioration of the road surface. Obstacles existing on the road surface include, for example, fallen objects, fallen rocks, accident vehicles, and animal carcasses existing on the road surface. Details of the processing operation of the first road surface abnormality determination unit 14 will be described later in the processing operation of the in-vehicle device 11.

The probe generation unit 15 generates probe information that associates the location information acquired by the location information acquisition unit 12 and the road surface abnormality information output by the first road surface abnormality judgment unit 14.

Next, the server device 21 owned by the information center will be described. The road surface abnormality judgment system 1 provided in the server device 21 is configured with an accumulation unit 22, a second road surface abnormality judgment unit 23, and a map information storage unit 24. The server device 21 also has a communication unit 25 that communicates with the in-vehicle device 11.

The storage unit 22 collects and stores the probe information generated by the probe generation unit 15 of the in-vehicle device 11 via the communication unit 25.

The second road surface abnormality determination unit 23 determines whether or not a road surface abnormality exists for each lane based on the probe information stored in the storage unit 22. Details of the processing operation of the second road surface abnormality determination unit 23 will be explained in the processing operation of the server device 21 described later.

The map information storage unit 24 stores map information for each lane. The map information storage unit 24 then stores the road surface abnormalities for each lane determined by the second road surface abnormality determination unit 23 in association with the map information. Details of the processing operation of the map information storage unit 24 will be explained in the processing operation of the server device 21 described below.

Next, the road surface abnormality determination method by the road surface abnormality determination system 1 will be described with reference to Figures 2 and 3. Figure 2 is a flowchart showing the processing operation of the in-vehicle device 11 in the first embodiment, and Figure 3 is a flowchart showing the processing operation of the server device 21 in the first embodiment.

First, the processing operation of the in-vehicle device 11 will be described with reference to Figure 2. The in-vehicle device 11 starts operating, for example, when the probe vehicle starts running.

In step S01, the location information acquisition unit 12 acquires location information indicating the current location of the probe vehicle in units of lanes. The location information may include link numbers of roads and lanes that can be identified by the server device 21. In addition, if the location information does not include link numbers of roads and lanes, the server device 21 may determine the traveling road and lane by referring to the location information and map information.

In step S02, the road surface condition information acquisition unit 13 acquires road surface condition information indicating the condition of the road surface in the lane on which the probe vehicle has traveled. For example, if the road surface condition detection sensor 17 is an image capture device, the road surface condition information acquisition unit 13 acquires a captured image as road surface condition information.

In step S03, the first road surface abnormality judgment unit 14 judges whether or not a road surface abnormality exists based on the road surface condition information acquired by the road surface condition information acquisition unit 13. If the first road surface abnormality judgment unit 14 judges that a road surface abnormality exists, it outputs road surface abnormality information indicating the road surface abnormality. The road surface abnormality information may indicate the existence of a road surface abnormality, may express the degree of the road surface abnormality in stages, or may be expressed by a continuous numerical value. The first road surface abnormality judgment unit 14 may also continuously judge whether or not a road surface abnormality exists, and may judge in a certain section, for example, in 10 m or 100 m units or sub-link units.

An example of a method for determining whether or not a road surface abnormality exists in the driving lane by the first road surface abnormality determination unit 14 will be described below, but the method is not limited to this.
For example, if the road surface condition detection sensor 17 is an imaging device, the first road surface abnormality determination unit 14 performs image processing on the image of the road surface condition in the lane on which the probe vehicle traveled, which is acquired as road surface condition information, and detects road surface irregularities in the image. When the first road surface abnormality determination unit 14 detects road surface irregularities with a depth equal to or greater than a preset threshold, it outputs road surface abnormality information indicating the presence of a road surface abnormality. The first road surface abnormality determination unit 14 may also determine the degree of road surface abnormality based on the depth, number, and occurrence frequency of road surface irregularities.
The first road surface abnormality judgment unit 14 may also process the captured image and detect variations in the color tone of the road surface in the captured image. When the first road surface abnormality judgment unit 14 detects variations in the color tone of the road surface equal to or greater than a preset threshold, it outputs road surface abnormality information indicating the presence of a road surface abnormality. The first road surface abnormality judgment unit 14 may also output road surface abnormality information indicating the presence of a road surface abnormality when there is a location where there is significant variation in color tone. The first road surface abnormality judgment unit 14 may also judge the degree of the road surface abnormality based on the degree of color tone variation, the size of the area where the color tone variation occurs, and the number of areas.
Furthermore, if the road surface condition detection sensor 17 is a vibration sensor or a sound sensor, the first road surface abnormality determination unit 14 acquires, as road surface condition information, vibration or running sound of the probe vehicle in the lane on which the probe vehicle has traveled. Then, when vibration or running sound of a magnitude equal to or greater than a preset threshold is detected, the first road surface abnormality determination unit 14 may output road surface abnormality information indicating the presence of a road surface abnormality. Furthermore, the first road surface abnormality determination unit 14 may determine the degree of the road surface abnormality based on the magnitude of the vibration or running sound, and the frequency of detection of vibration or running sound equal to or greater than a preset threshold.
The first road surface abnormality determination unit 14 may comprehensively determine the road surface abnormality using a plurality of sensors. For example, the first road surface abnormality determination unit 14 may combine the above-mentioned determination methods to output road surface abnormality information indicating whether or not a road surface abnormality exists, or the degree of the road surface abnormality.
By using the above-described method, the first road surface abnormality determination unit 14 can determine whether or not a road surface abnormality exists on the driving lane.

In step S03, if road surface abnormality information indicating the presence of a road surface abnormality or the presence of a road surface abnormality of a degree equal to or greater than a preset threshold is output, proceed to step S04. In step S03, if the first road surface abnormality determination unit 14 determines that no road surface abnormality exists or that no road surface abnormality of a degree equal to or greater than a preset threshold does not exist, return to step S01.

In step S04, the probe generation unit 15 generates probe information that associates the position information acquired in step S01 with the road surface abnormality information output in step S03. In other words, the probe information is information that indicates the location of the road surface abnormality on a lane-by-lane basis.

In step S05, the communication unit 18 of the in-vehicle device 11 transmits the probe information generated in step S04 to the server device 21. The timing for transmitting the probe information to the server device 21 may be when the probe information is generated in step S04, or may be at a preset timing. For example, the probe information may be stored in a storage device (not shown), and a plurality of pieces of probe information may be transmitted simultaneously at a preset timing. The preset timing may be, for example, when there is a margin of availability in the communication line, at the end of driving, or when a state in which communication is not possible, such as inside a tunnel, becomes a state in which communication is possible, and may be set appropriately.
After the processing operation of step S05, the process returns to step S01. Although the process of terminating the processing operation of the in-vehicle device 11 is not shown in the flowchart of Fig. 2, the operation of the in-vehicle device 11 is terminated, for example, when the probe vehicle has finished traveling or when the operation of the in-vehicle device 11 is stopped by an operation of the occupant.

Next, the processing operation of the server device 21 will be explained using Figure 3.

In step S06, the communication unit 25 of the server device 21 receives probe information from the vehicle-mounted device 11.

In step S07, the storage unit 22 collects and stores the probe information received in step S06.

In step S08, the second road surface abnormality determination unit 23 determines whether or not a preset condition is satisfied. The preset condition is a condition for determining whether or not a road surface abnormality exists on a lane-by-lane basis in step S09 described later. Specifically, the preset condition is a case where a preset period such as one month has elapsed since the last processing of step S09 was executed, or where probe information associated with road surface abnormality information of a degree equal to or greater than a preset threshold has been accumulated in the accumulation unit 22. Road surface abnormality information of a degree equal to or greater than a preset threshold is, for example, a road surface abnormality that requires immediate road surface repair or the like. In addition, the preset condition may be a case where, when a command is executed by a user operation, the server device 21 requests probe information under specific conditions from the probe vehicle and a preset number or more of probe information is collected. In addition, these exemplified conditions may be used in combination.

In step S08, if the second road surface abnormality judgment unit 23 determines that the preset condition is satisfied, the process proceeds to step S09. In step S08, if the second road surface abnormality judgment unit 23 determines that the preset condition is not satisfied, the process repeats step S08 until the preset condition is satisfied.

In step S09, the second road surface abnormality determination unit 23 determines whether or not a road surface abnormality exists on a lane-by-lane basis based on the probe information stored in the storage unit 22. An example of a method for determining whether or not a road surface abnormality exists on a lane-by-lane basis by the second road surface abnormality determination unit 23 will be described. A road surface abnormality is determined to exist when a preset number or more of probe information with the same position information is stored in the storage unit 22, or when a preset number or more of probe information associated with road surface abnormality information of a degree equal to or greater than a preset threshold is stored. In addition, analysis may be performed using statistical methods such as the variance or median of the road surface abnormality information associated with the probe information.

In step S09, if the second road surface abnormality judgment unit 23 judges that a road surface abnormality exists, the process proceeds to step S10. In step S09, if the second road surface abnormality judgment unit 23 judges that a road surface abnormality does not exist, the process returns to step S06.

In step S10, the map information storage unit 24 associates the road surface abnormality determined by the second road surface abnormality determination unit 23 with the map information stored in the map information storage unit 24 on a lane-by-lane basis and stores it. FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the map information of the first embodiment in a visualized form. In FIG. 4, a cross indicates a cursor, a diamond indicates a position where the degree of the road surface abnormality has changed, a white circle indicates that the degree of the road surface abnormality is smaller than a preset threshold, and a black circle indicates that the degree of the road surface abnormality is greater than a preset threshold. The map shown in FIG. 4 can be zoomed in and out and the display position can be specified. In FIG. 4(A), the road width on the map is displayed wider for roads with more lanes. From FIG. 4(A), it can be seen that small road surface abnormalities exist at points X1 and X3, and large road surface abnormalities exist at points X2 and X4.

If the cursor in Figure 4(A) is then designated at point X2 and an operation for enlarging the display is performed, then the map shown in Figure 4(B), for example, will be displayed. In Figure 4(B), the road surface abnormalities at point X2 are displayed in more detail on a lane-by-lane basis. As can be seen from Figure 4(B), a significant degree of road surface abnormality is present in the second lane from the left of the four lanes heading uphill, and a diamond-shaped mark is added to indicate that there has been a change in the road surface abnormality since the previous time. It can also be seen that there are no road surface abnormalities in the first, third, and fourth lanes, or the four outbound lanes.

When the cursor in Figure 4(A) is designated at point X1 and an operation for enlarging the display is performed, for example, a map as shown in Figure 4(C) is displayed. In Figure 4(C), road surface abnormalities at point X1 are displayed in more detail on a lane-by-lane basis. From Figure 4(C), it can be seen that there is a small road surface abnormality in the third lane from the left of the four lanes heading uphill on each side, but there is no road surface abnormality in the first, second, and fourth lanes or the four outbound lanes.

The map information storage unit 24 may also display more detailed information about the road surface abnormality in response to a user operation. For example, an image of the road surface abnormality at a specific position on a lane may be displayed. Furthermore, when a new road surface abnormality occurs that is greater than or equal to a preset threshold, the map information storage unit 24 may display the location of the road surface abnormality in a pop-up manner, and when the server device 21 receives an image from the in-vehicle device 11, the image may be displayed.

After the processing operation of step S10, the process returns to step S06. Although the process of terminating the processing operation of the server device 21 is not shown in the flowchart of FIG. 3, the server device 21 terminates the processing operation when, for example, it receives an instruction from the user to terminate the processing operation of the server device 21.

In this way, the vehicle-mounted device 11 in this embodiment acquires position information indicating the current position of the probe vehicle on a lane-by-lane basis. The vehicle-mounted device 11 also acquires road surface condition information indicating the condition of the road surface in the lane on which the probe vehicle has traveled, and determines whether or not a road surface abnormality exists, including at least one of a defect occurring on the road surface and an obstacle existing on the road surface, based on the road surface condition information. Then, when the vehicle-mounted device 11 determines that a road surface abnormality exists, it outputs road surface abnormality information indicating the road surface abnormality. This allows the vehicle-mounted device 11 to generate probe information that associates the position information and the road surface abnormality information. Therefore, it is possible to determine the location where a road surface abnormality exists on a lane-by-lane basis, which is more detailed than a road unit.

The road surface abnormality determination system 1 in this embodiment determines whether or not a road surface abnormality exists on a lane-by-lane basis based on the accumulated probe information in which the road surface abnormality information is associated with position information indicating the current position of the probe vehicle on a lane-by-lane basis. The road surface abnormality determination system 1 then associates the road surface abnormality with map information on a lane-by-lane basis and stores it. This makes it possible to determine the location of a road surface abnormality on a lane-by-lane basis, which is more detailed than a road-by-road basis.

In addition, the on-board device 11 installed in one probe vehicle is limited in the amount of probe information that can be collected. Therefore, the area in which the location of a road surface abnormality can be determined is limited. In addition, it is difficult to collect the latest road surface abnormality information. Therefore, the road surface abnormality determination system 1 determines whether or not a road surface abnormality exists on a lane-by-lane basis based on the probe information stored in the storage unit 22 of the server device 21. Therefore, the road surface abnormality determination system 1 composed of the on-board device 11 and the server device 21 can determine the location of the latest road surface abnormality in a wider area than when composed only of the on-board device 11.

Note that the configuration of the road surface abnormality determination system 1 is not limited to the above. For example, whether each component of the road surface abnormality determination system 1 is provided in the in-vehicle device 11 or the server device 21 is not limited to the above description. In addition, it is also possible to omit or change part of the configuration of the road surface abnormality determination system 1 without departing from the gist of the invention. Below, examples of modified examples of the road surface abnormality determination system 1 of embodiment 1 are shown.

In the first embodiment, an example has been shown in which the first road surface abnormality judgment unit 14 is provided in the in-vehicle device 11, but the first road surface abnormality judgment unit 14 may be provided in the server device 21. In this case, the probe generation unit 15 generates probe information that associates the position information and the road surface condition information.

The operation of the road surface abnormality determination system 1 according to a modified example of embodiment 1 will be described using Figures 5 and 6. Figure 5 is a flowchart showing the processing operation of the in-vehicle device 11 according to a modified example of embodiment 1, and Figure 6 is a flowchart showing the processing operation of the server device 21 according to a modified example of embodiment 1. The same reference numerals are used for configurations similar to those in embodiment 1.

First, the processing operation of the in-vehicle device 11 will be described with reference to FIG.
Steps S01 and S02 are the same as those in the first embodiment. In step S041, the probe generation unit 15 generates probe information that associates the position information acquired in step S01 with the road surface condition information acquired in step S02. Then, in step S051, the communication unit 18 of the in-vehicle device 11 transmits the probe information generated in step S041 to the server device 21. After the processing operation of step S051, the process returns to step S01. Although the flowchart of FIG. 5 does not show a process for terminating the processing operation of the in-vehicle device 11, the operation of the in-vehicle device 11 is terminated, for example, when the probe vehicle has finished traveling or when the operation of the in-vehicle device 11 is stopped by the operation of the occupant.

Next, the processing operation of the server device 21 will be described with reference to FIG.
In step S061, the communication unit 25 of the server device 21 receives the probe information from the in-vehicle device 11. In step S071, the storage unit 22 collects and stores the probe information received in step S061. Then, in step S072, the first road surface abnormality determination unit 14 determines whether or not a road surface abnormality exists based on the road surface condition information included in the probe information stored in the storage unit 22. The processing operation of the first road surface abnormality determination unit 14 is similar to that of the first embodiment.

In step S072, if the first road surface abnormality judgment unit 14 judges that a road surface abnormality exists, it outputs road surface abnormality information. Then, in step S073, the first road surface abnormality judgment unit 14 associates the road surface abnormality information with the probe information and stores it in the accumulation unit 22. In step S072, if the first road surface abnormality judgment unit 14 judges that no road surface abnormality exists, it returns to step S071. Steps S08, S09, and S10 are the same as those in embodiment 1. Although the flowchart in FIG. 6 does not show the process of terminating the processing operation of the server device 21, for example, the server device 21 terminates the processing operation when it receives an instruction from a user to terminate the processing operation of the server device 21.

In this way, the road surface abnormality judgment system 1 in the modified example of embodiment 1 judges whether or not a road surface abnormality exists on a lane basis based on the accumulated probe information that associates road surface condition information with position information indicating the current position of the probe vehicle on a lane basis. The road surface abnormality judgment system 1 then associates the road surface abnormality with map information on a lane basis and stores it. This makes it possible to determine the location where a road surface abnormality exists on a lane basis, which is more detailed than a road basis. In addition, because the judgment of whether or not a road surface abnormality exists in the first road surface abnormality judgment unit 14 is performed by the server device 21, the processing load on the in-vehicle device 11 can be reduced.

In addition, in the first embodiment, an example has been shown in which the position information acquisition unit 12 acquires position information from the high-precision locator 16, but the position information may also be acquired from a normal-precision locator and a white line recognition device. The normal-precision locator is equipped with a map information storage device that stores GNSS with a positioning accuracy of the order of m and map information with a navigation accuracy having road shape data of the order of m. The normal-precision locator detects the current position of the probe vehicle with an accuracy of the order of m. The white line recognition device is a device that performs image processing to recognize lane markings. The position information acquisition unit 12 acquires position information indicating the current position of the probe vehicle, including the travel lane, from the normal-precision locator and the white line recognition device. The map information storage device may also include information on the number of lanes on the travel road, thereby improving lane recognition accuracy.

As a result, the position information acquisition unit 12 can acquire position information indicating the current position of the probe vehicle on a lane-by-lane basis, similar to embodiment 1. Therefore, the in-vehicle device 11 and the road surface abnormality determination system 1 can determine the location of a road surface abnormality on a lane-by-lane basis, which is more detailed than a road-by-road basis, similar to embodiment 1, without using the high-precision locator 16.

Furthermore, the position information acquisition unit 12 may acquire position information from the high-precision locator 16 and a white line recognition device. Similar to the position information acquisition unit 12 in the first embodiment, the position information acquisition unit 12 acquires the current position of the probe vehicle, including the traveling lane, by the high-precision locator 16. Furthermore, the position information acquisition unit 12 recognizes lane markings by image processing using the white line recognition device. Therefore, the position information acquisition unit 12 can improve the accuracy of identifying the traveling lane.
The position information acquisition unit 12 can recognize the position in the lane width direction where the probe vehicle is traveling within the lane and the position of the tires of the probe vehicle within the lane by using the white line recognition device. Therefore, the position information acquisition unit 12 includes the current position in the lane width direction within the lane or the position of the tires in the position information, so that the second road surface abnormality determination unit 23 can determine the position where the road surface abnormality exists in the lane width direction within the lane. In particular, when the road surface condition detection sensor 17 is, for example, a microphone or a vibration sensor and the road surface condition information is a running sound or a vibration signal, the second road surface abnormality determination unit 23 can identify the position where the road surface abnormality exists as the position of the tires, and therefore can easily determine the position where the road surface abnormality exists in more detail than on a lane-by-lane basis.

As described above, the position information acquisition unit 12 can acquire position information including the current position in the lane width direction or the tire position in the lane by the white line recognition device. In this case, the map information storage unit 24 may store the position of the road surface abnormality in the lane width direction in the lane determined by the second road surface abnormality determination unit 23 in association with the map information. FIG. 7 is a plan view showing the map information associated with the position of the road surface abnormality in the lane width direction, and displays the details of the road surface abnormality in the second lane at point X2 in FIG. 4. FIG. 7(A) displays the points in the second lane where the degree of the road surface abnormality is large and small. The position of the road surface abnormality such as road surface damage in the lane is displayed, for example, as shown in FIG. 7(B). FIG. 7(B) displays the distance from the boundary between the first lane and the second lane to the position where the road surface abnormality is present in the second lane. In FIG. 7(B), it is 20 cm.
In this way, the map information storage unit 24 stores the location where a road surface abnormality exists in the lane width direction within the lane in association with map information, thereby enabling the user to understand at which location within the lane the road surface abnormality exists.

The first road surface abnormality determination unit 14 may further include a reference information storage unit in which reference information is pre-stored. The reference information is information indicating the state of the road surface in a normal state or information indicating the state of the road surface when a road surface abnormality exists. The first road surface abnormality determination unit 14 compares the information indicating the state of the road surface in a normal state with the road surface condition information acquired by the road surface condition information acquisition unit 13, and determines that a road surface abnormality exists when there is a difference equal to or greater than a preset threshold. Alternatively, the first road surface abnormality determination unit 14 may compare the information indicating the state of the road surface when a road surface abnormality exists with the road surface condition information acquired by the road surface condition information acquisition unit 13, and determine that a road surface abnormality exists when there is no difference equal to or greater than a preset threshold. The first road surface abnormality determination unit 14 may also determine the degree of the road surface abnormality.

The reference information storage unit is not limited to the first road surface abnormality determination unit 14, and may be provided as a part of the road link information in the map information storage unit 24. The reference information may be downloaded from the server device 21.
The reference information storage unit may store different reference information for each vehicle type. Furthermore, the reference information storage unit may have reference information for each lane when the pavement conditions differ for each lane. In this case, the reference information storage unit may acquire reference information corresponding to the travel lane of the probe vehicle, and the travel lane may download reference information for a longer distance than other lanes, and the farther the lane is from the travel lane, the shorter the distance of the reference information may be downloaded. This makes it possible to reduce the amount of communication.

In this way, the in-vehicle device 11 and the server device 21 may be provided with a reference information storage unit that stores reference information, which is information indicating the state of the road surface under normal conditions or information indicating the state of the road surface when a road surface abnormality exists. As a result, the first road surface abnormality determination unit 14 can determine whether or not a road surface abnormality exists by comparing the road surface condition information acquired by the road surface condition information acquisition unit 13 with the reference information. Therefore, as in embodiment 1, it is possible to determine the location where a road surface abnormality exists on a lane basis, which is more detailed than a road basis. In addition, by storing different reference information for each vehicle type and pavement condition, the accuracy of the first road surface abnormality determination unit 14 in determining whether or not a road surface abnormality exists in the driving lane can be improved.

In addition, when the road surface condition information is a traveling sound or vibration signal of a probe vehicle, if the probe vehicle travels on a vibration-generating road such as rumble strips and ribbed lane markings installed on the road, the first road surface abnormality judgment unit 14 may erroneously judge that a road surface abnormality exists. Therefore, the reference information may store the position information of the vibration-generating road and the vibration-generating location, and when the probe vehicle travels on the vibration-generating road or the vibration-generating location, the first road surface abnormality judgment unit 14 may not perform the judgment process of whether or not a road surface abnormality exists. In addition, the reference information storage unit may store the traveling sound and vibration of the vibration-generating road and the vibration-generating location as reference information, and may judge that no road surface abnormality exists if the traveling sound and vibration of the road surface condition information do not differ from the reference information by a predetermined threshold value or more. In other words, the reference information includes information indicating the state of the road surface of rumble strips or ribbed lane markings, so that even if the probe vehicle travels on a vibration-generating road, the first road surface abnormality judgment unit 14 can correctly judge whether or not a road surface abnormality exists in the traveling lane.

The first road surface abnormality determination unit 14 may also use a neural network to determine whether or not a road surface abnormality exists. In this case, the first road surface abnormality determination unit 14 performs neural network analysis using road surface condition information as input. The parameters of the neural network may be changed according to the road along which the vehicle is traveling. For example, the neural network parameters may be stored as road link data, or the parameters of the neural network may be obtained from an external source such as a server device 21 according to location information. A neural network may also be used that uses weather and road surface illuminance information as input signals. Recently, the use of CNN (Convolutional Neural Network) has become widespread, and since an image processing processor is used for CNN calculation, it is suitable for cases in which a captured image is used as road surface condition information.

The road surface condition detection sensor 17 may also be a drive recorder. In this case, the road surface condition information is a video signal, an audio signal, and a vibration signal detected by the drive recorder. The drive recorder may also be used as a white line recognition device. A drive recorder with a communication function may also be used as a communication unit.

2, the communication unit 18 of the in-vehicle device 11 transmitted the probe information to the server device 21, but the communication unit 18 of the in-vehicle device 11 may also transmit road surface condition information to the server device 21. In this case, the probe generation unit 15 may generate probe information that associates the probe information with position information, road surface condition information, and road surface abnormality information. This allows the second road surface abnormality determination unit 23 of the server device 21 to utilize its abundant CPU capabilities to determine with high accuracy whether or not a road surface abnormality exists based on the road surface condition information.

Furthermore, the vehicle-mounted device 11 may determine whether or not a road surface abnormality exists only on roads specified by the server device 21. The roads specified by the server device 21 may be, for example, a specific road section, a specific road type, a bridge, an interchange, a specific area, etc. Furthermore, the vehicle-mounted device 11 may determine whether or not a road surface abnormality exists only in the case of specific weather conditions specified by the server device 21. Furthermore, the vehicle-mounted device 11 may obtain information specifying a probe vehicle of a specific vehicle type or a specific vehicle class from the server device 21, and determine whether or not a road surface abnormality exists when the probe vehicle meets the conditions. Furthermore, these conditions may be combined. This allows the server device 21 to obtain only the necessary information from the vehicle-mounted device 11. Furthermore, the vehicle-mounted device 11 can reduce the processing load.

In addition, in the first embodiment, it has been described that the required road surface abnormality information is the same regardless of the area, but for example, in areas where the road administrators who operate the information centers are different, the required road surface abnormality information may differ. For example, when traveling across multiple countries, it is assumed that the road administrators will be different for each country. It is also assumed that the road administrators will be different for each administrative unit such as state and prefecture. Therefore, it is possible to identify the road administrator corresponding to the current position of the probe vehicle, and transmit to the server device 21 only the probe information associated with the road surface abnormality information desired by the road administrator.
In addition, when the probe vehicle is traveling in an area where a plurality of information centers exist, the vehicle-mounted device 11 may transmit probe information corresponding to the road administrator to the server device 21 .
The reference information and the CNN parameters may be obtained from a road manager. Furthermore, if the criteria for determining whether or not a road surface abnormality exists differs for each road manager, the road surface abnormality determination unit may set different determination criteria. The map information storage unit 24 may contain information about the road manager. This allows the in-vehicle device 11 to appropriately transmit road surface abnormality information requested by the road manager to the server device 21.

In addition, in the first embodiment, the lanes are described assuming a general driving road, but areas where lanes are clearly separated, such as parking lots, service areas, parking areas, toll booths, and ramps, are also targets for determining whether or not there are road surface abnormalities for each lane. Furthermore, guidance zones such as zebra zones and areas on roads that separate driving sections equivalent to lanes are also targets for determining whether or not there are road surface abnormalities for each lane. In this case, the zebra zones can be considered as lanes. As a result, the location of a road surface abnormality can be determined on a lane basis, which is more detailed than a road basis, as in the first embodiment, even in guidance zones such as parking lots, service areas, parking areas, toll booths, ramps, and zebra zones, and areas on roads that separate driving sections equivalent to lanes.

Embodiment 2.
The road surface abnormality determination system 2 in the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 8. In the second embodiment, an example will be described in which map information in which road surface abnormalities stored in the map information storage unit 24 of the road surface abnormality determination system 2 are associated with each lane is utilized. FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the road surface abnormality determination system 2 in the second embodiment. The server device 21 is characterized by including a distribution processing unit 26 that distributes map information in which road surface abnormalities stored in the map information storage unit 24 are associated with each lane to a distribution request vehicle. The distribution request vehicle is a vehicle that requests the server device 21 of the information center to distribute map information in which road surface abnormalities are associated with each lane, and utilizes the distributed map information. Each component of the road surface abnormality determination system 2 is provided in the on-board device 11 mounted on the probe vehicle, the server device 21 of the information center, and the on-board device 31 mounted on the distribution request vehicle. The other components of the road surface abnormality determination system 2 are the same as those in the first embodiment. The same reference numerals are used for the same components as those in the first embodiment.

The distribution processing unit 26 is provided in the server device 21, and when a request is made from a distribution requesting vehicle to distribute map information in which road surface abnormalities are associated on a lane-by-lane basis, the distribution processing unit 26 distributes map information in which road surface abnormalities stored in the map information storage unit 24 are associated on a lane-by-lane basis to the distribution requesting vehicle via the communication unit 25.

The in-vehicle device 31 installed in the delivery request vehicle has a location information acquisition unit 36, a delivery request unit 32, a control unit 33, a notification unit 34, and a communication unit 35 that communicates with the server device 21.

The location information acquisition unit 36 acquires location information indicating the current location of the distribution request vehicle on a lane-by-lane basis. The location information acquisition unit 36 is similar to the location information acquisition unit 12 in embodiment 1, and may acquire location information from a high-precision locator 16 that stores, for example, map information having road shape data on a lane-by-lane basis and detects the current location of the distribution request vehicle with centimeter-order accuracy using positioning signals from GNSS satellites.

Based on the location information acquired by the location information acquisition unit 36, the distribution request unit 32 generates a signal requesting the server device 21 to distribute map information in which road surface abnormalities in an area including the current location of the distribution request vehicle are associated on a lane-by-lane basis. The signal generated by the distribution request unit 32 is called a distribution request signal. The area of the map information for which the server device 21 is requested to distribute by the distribution request signal is not limited to the area including the current location of the distribution request vehicle described above. For example, the area of the map information for which the server device 21 is requested to distribute by the distribution request signal is map information for an area corresponding to the route to the destination of the distribution request vehicle, or map information for a specific area specified by the user. In addition, the distribution request unit 32 generates the distribution request signal when the in-vehicle device 31 of the distribution request vehicle has map information on a lane-by-lane basis equivalent to that of the server device 21 and the map information provided in the in-vehicle device 31 is updated, etc. In addition, the distribution request unit 32 may generate a distribution request signal when it requires information on road surface abnormalities that require caution when driving the distribution requesting vehicle based on attributes such as the vehicle model and class of the distribution requesting vehicle, or when it requests location information on the presence of road surface abnormalities that require caution when driving based on weather conditions such as rain.

The control unit 33 performs processing operations to utilize map information in which road surface abnormalities are associated with each lane. The specific processing operations will be described later in the processing operations of the distribution request vehicle.

The notification unit 34 notifies the occupants of the requesting vehicle that a road surface abnormality exists. The notification unit 34 is a display device that displays an image or a speaker that outputs sound, etc.

Next, a method of utilizing map information associated with road surface abnormalities on a lane basis by the road surface abnormality determination system 2 and the distribution request vehicle will be described with reference to FIG. 9. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the processing operation of the road surface abnormality determination system 2 of the second embodiment. FIG. 9(A) is a flowchart showing the processing operation of the server device 21, and FIG. 9(B) is a flowchart showing the processing operation of the distribution request vehicle. The processing operation of the probe vehicle is not shown, but is the same as that of the first embodiment. The processing operation of the server device 21 is also the same as that of the first embodiment, up until the map information storage unit 24, which is step S10 of FIG. 3 in the first embodiment, associates the road surface abnormality determined by the second road surface abnormality determination unit 23 with the map information on a lane basis and stores it. The processing of FIG. 3 and the processing of FIG. 9(A) are assumed to operate in parallel by multi-process processing or multi-task processing. The flowchart of FIG. 9(A) does not show the processing of terminating the processing operation of the server device 21, but for example, the server device 21 terminates the processing operation when it receives an instruction from a user to terminate the processing operation of the server device 21.

In step S11, the delivery request vehicle transmits a delivery request signal to the server device 21 via the communication unit 35.

In step S12, the server device 21 receives a distribution request signal from the distribution request vehicle via the communication unit 25. Although not shown, the server device 21 also includes an authentication unit that authenticates whether the distribution request vehicle is a vehicle with which a distribution contract has been concluded, and if a distribution contract has not been concluded, the server device 21 may execute a process to request a distribution contract or may reject the distribution request.

In step S13, the distribution processing unit 26 of the server device 21 distributes map information in which road surface abnormalities stored in the map information storage unit 24 are associated on a lane basis to the distribution requesting vehicle via the communication unit 25. For example, if the distribution request signal is a signal requesting distribution of map information for a specific route, the distribution processing unit 26 distributes map information in which road surface abnormalities corresponding to the specific route are associated on a lane basis to the distribution requesting vehicle.

In step S14, the delivery requesting vehicle receives map information in which road surface abnormalities are associated on a lane-by-lane basis via the communication unit 35.

In step S15, the requesting vehicle utilizes map information in which road surface abnormalities are associated on a lane-by-lane basis. An example of utilizing map information in which road surface abnormalities are associated on a lane-by-lane basis is described below.

Figure 10 is a flowchart showing the processing operation of the distribution request vehicle in embodiment 2, and is a flowchart showing an example of step S15. Also, Figure 11 is an example of map information displayed in notification unit 34 in embodiment 2. In Figure 11, the position of the distribution request vehicle is indicated by a triangle. Also, road surface abnormalities exist at points X1, X2, X3, and X4 in Figure 11. Here, an example is described in which the road on which points X1 and X2 exist has four lanes on each side, and a road surface abnormality exists in the third lane at point X1, and a road surface abnormality exists in the second lane at point X2.

First, in step S151, the location information acquisition unit 36 acquires location information indicating the current lane-by-lane location of the distribution request vehicle, for example, from the high-precision locator 16.

Next, in step S152, the control unit 33 uses the map information in which the road surface abnormalities received from the server device 21 are associated on a lane-by-lane basis and the location information acquired in step S151 to determine whether or not a road surface abnormality exists in the lane in which the distribution request vehicle is traveling.

If it is determined in step S152 that no road surface abnormality exists, the control unit 33 causes the notification unit 34 to display map information in the first display mode shown in FIG. 11(A) to the occupant (step S153). The map information in the first display mode is map information in which road surface abnormalities are associated with each lane, and the location where the road surface abnormality exists is displayed without being emphasized compared to the second display mode described below. For example, FIG. 11(A) shows map information displayed in the notification unit 34 when the distribution requesting vehicle is traveling in the first driving lane, and no road surface abnormality exists in the first driving lane at points X1 and X2. In FIG. 11(A), the road surface abnormalities existing at points X1, X2, X3, and X4 are displayed as circles.

If it is determined in step S152 that a road surface abnormality exists, the control unit 33 causes the notification unit 34 to display map information in the second display mode shown in FIG. 11(B) (step S154). The map information in the second display mode is map information in which road surface abnormalities are associated with each lane, and road surface abnormalities existing in the lane in which the distribution request vehicle is traveling are displayed with greater emphasis than road surface abnormalities in lanes other than the traveling lane. This allows the notification unit 34 to notify the occupant of the distribution request vehicle that a road surface abnormality exists in the lane in which the distribution request vehicle is traveling. For example, FIG. 11(B) shows map information displayed on the notification unit 34 when the distribution request vehicle is traveling in the second traveling lane, and there is no road surface abnormality at point X1 in the second traveling lane, but there is a road surface abnormality at point X2. In FIG. 11(B), the road surface abnormalities existing at points X1, X3, and X4 are displayed with circles, and point X2 is displayed with a star. Here, the star is a mark that is more emphasized than the circle. The method of highlighting the abnormality is not particularly limited, and may be a change in color, a display of a captured image of the road surface abnormality, or an animation such as a blinking display.

In step S155, the control unit 33 determines whether the delivery request vehicle has approached the position where the road surface abnormality exists by a distance equal to or greater than a preset distance. Then, when the delivery request vehicle has approached the position where the road surface abnormality exists by a distance equal to or greater than a preset distance, the control unit 33 notifies the occupant through the notification unit 34 (step S156). The content of the notification may indicate that a road surface abnormality exists ahead, or may prompt the occupant to change lanes. In addition, the notification unit 34 may further notify the delivery request vehicle of the degree of the road surface abnormality, or may display a captured image of the road surface abnormality acquired from the server device 21. The preset distance may be a preset distance such as 500 m, or may be a case where the delivery request vehicle has reached a position where it is expected to arrive in, for example, one minute. When the control unit 33 determines that the delivery request vehicle has not approached the position where the road surface abnormality exists by a distance equal to or greater than a preset distance, the processing operation is terminated.

As in embodiment 1, the road surface abnormality determination system 2 in this embodiment determines whether or not a road surface abnormality exists on a lane-by-lane basis based on accumulated probe information in which road surface abnormality information is associated with position information indicating the current position of the probe vehicle on a lane-by-lane basis. The road surface abnormality determination system 2 then associates the road surface abnormality with map information on a lane-by-lane basis and stores it. This makes it possible to determine the location of a road surface abnormality on a lane-by-lane basis, which is more detailed than a road-by-road basis.

Furthermore, the road surface abnormality determination system 2 in this embodiment distributes map information in which road surface abnormalities stored in the map information memory are associated on a lane-by-lane basis via the communication unit 35. As a result, a distribution requesting vehicle that receives map information in which road surface abnormalities are associated on a lane-by-lane basis can notify, for example, an occupant of the distribution requesting vehicle that a road surface abnormality exists on a lane-by-lane basis. In this way, the road surface abnormality determination system 2 determines road surface abnormalities on a lane-by-lane basis in the server device 21 based on information collected from the probe vehicles, and distributes the determined results, which can be utilized, for example, by the distribution requesting vehicle, etc.

In addition, the vehicle-mounted device 31 of the delivery request vehicle in this embodiment includes a control unit 33 that determines whether or not a road surface abnormality exists in the lane in which the delivery request vehicle is traveling, using map information in which road surface abnormalities stored in the map information storage unit 24 of the server device 21 are associated on a lane-by-lane basis, and location information acquired by the location information acquisition unit 36 of the delivery request vehicle. When the control unit 33 determines that a road surface abnormality exists in the lane in which the delivery request vehicle is traveling, the notification unit 34 notifies the occupant of the delivery request vehicle that a road surface abnormality exists in the lane in which the delivery request vehicle is traveling. This allows the occupant of the delivery request vehicle to recognize the location where the road surface abnormality exists in lane units that are more detailed than road units. For example, when notifying a road surface abnormality on a road consisting of multiple lanes on one side, if a road surface abnormality exists in even one lane, even if the delivery request vehicle is traveling in a lane in which no road surface abnormality exists, it is troublesome because the presence of the road surface abnormality is notified. Therefore, the delivery request vehicle in this embodiment can appropriately notify the occupant that a road surface abnormality exists by notifying that a road surface abnormality exists on a lane-by-lane basis.

In addition, the notification unit 34 notifies the occupant of the delivery request vehicle that a road surface abnormality exists in the lane in which the delivery request vehicle is traveling by displaying map information in which road surface abnormalities are associated on a lane-by-lane basis. Then, when the control unit 33 determines that a road surface abnormality exists in the lane in which the delivery request vehicle is traveling, the notification unit 34 displays the road surface abnormality in the lane in which the delivery request vehicle is traveling in the map information with emphasis more than road surface abnormalities existing in lanes other than the lane in which the delivery request vehicle is traveling. As a result, the road surface abnormality in the traveling lane is displayed with emphasis, so that the occupant of the delivery request vehicle can pay attention to the road surface abnormality existing in the traveling lane.

Note that the configuration of the road surface abnormality determination system 2 is not limited to the above. For example, there is no particular limitation as to whether each component of the road surface abnormality determination system 2 described above is provided in the server device 21 or the in-vehicle device 31. In addition, it is also possible to omit or change part of the configuration of the road surface abnormality determination system 2 without departing from the gist of the invention. Below, examples of modified examples of the road surface abnormality determination system 2 of embodiment 2 are shown.

The server device 21 may receive signals indicating the start and end positions, perform a route search based on preset route planning regulations, and distribute map information of roads along the route search results and the route information to the requesting vehicle. The server device 21 may also recommend multiple pieces of route information to the requesting vehicle. The server device 21 may also weight each lane according to the presence or absence or degree of road surface abnormality, perform a route search that takes lanes into consideration, and provide route guidance on a lane-by-lane basis.

The notification unit 34 may also change the map display mode depending on the distance between the delivery request vehicle and the location where the road surface abnormality exists. For example, the notification unit 34 may display the location on the map where the road surface abnormality exists more emphatically the closer it gets to the location where the road surface abnormality exists. Furthermore, if the location where the road surface abnormality exists is not on the road on which the delivery request vehicle is traveling, it may be displayed less emphatically than if it is on the road on which the delivery request vehicle is traveling. Furthermore, the method of displaying the location where the road surface abnormality exists may be changeable by user settings. This allows the occupants of the delivery request vehicle to properly recognize the location of the road surface abnormality where there is a high possibility of driving.

Also, although an example has been shown in which the probe vehicle and the distribution request vehicle are different vehicles, they may be the same. For example, if the information center requires the distribution request vehicle to pay a distribution fee, a vehicle that has the functions of both a probe vehicle and a distribution request vehicle may set a lower distribution fee. This is expected to increase the number of vehicles that function as probe vehicles, and more probe information can be collected and stored in the storage unit 22. As a result, the judgment accuracy in the second road surface abnormality judgment unit 23 can be improved.

The control unit 33 may also determine whether or not to change lanes based on the vehicle type and class of the distribution requesting vehicle. For example, large vehicles such as buses and trucks may ignore minor road surface abnormalities compared to regular vehicles, as they do not impede driving, and may be processed as if no road surface abnormality exists. As a result, for road surface abnormalities that do not impede the driving of the distribution requesting vehicle, the existence of a road surface abnormality is not notified, and unnecessary notifications can be suppressed.

In addition, in step S15 of FIG. 10, an example in which the delivery request vehicle notifies the occupant of the presence of a road surface abnormality is shown as an example of utilizing map information in which road surface abnormalities are associated on a lane-by-lane basis, but this is not limited to this. For example, the control unit 33 may automatically perform lane change control at a preset timing when a road surface abnormality is present ahead of the driving lane of the delivery request vehicle. In this case, it is preferable that the control unit 33 notifies the driver through the notification unit 34 that a lane change will be automatically performed before the lane change. This makes it possible to prevent the delivery request vehicle from being hindered from driving appropriately due to a road surface abnormality by the automatic driving control. In addition, the control unit 33 may move the delivery request vehicle by automatic driving control in the direction in which the lane should be changed within the lane so as to encourage the lane change rather than changing the lane. This is an operation that intervenes in driving when the autonomous driving levels are 0, 1, and 2.

The delivery request vehicle may further include a route search unit that performs route search for each lane, taking into account road surface abnormalities for each lane. The route search unit receives the specification of the start point position and the end point position, and preferentially selects lanes with fewer or smaller degrees of road surface abnormalities among multiple lanes on the same road according to preset route planning rules, and searches for a route for each lane from the start point position to the end point position. This allows the delivery request vehicle to travel on lanes with fewer or smaller degrees of road surface abnormalities. The control unit 33 may also perform automatic driving control along the route for each lane searched for by the route search unit. This allows the delivery request vehicle to be prevented from being hindered from traveling appropriately due to road surface abnormalities by automatic driving control.

Furthermore, when a road surface abnormality exists in all lanes of a road in a specific section on the route, the control unit 33 may set a road surface safe speed that is lower than the recommended speed and notify the occupants via the notification unit 34, or may control driving so as to automatically change to the road surface safe speed. This allows the distribution requesting vehicle to reduce obstacles to driving caused by road surface abnormalities.

In addition, in the second embodiment, an example has been described in which the distribution requesting vehicle utilizes map information in which road surface abnormalities stored in the map information storage unit 24 of the road surface abnormality determination system 2 are associated on a lane-by-lane basis, but this is not limiting. For example, the server device 21 may be provided with a repair plan creation unit that uses map information in which road surface abnormalities are associated on a lane-by-lane basis to create a plan to repair a road surface where a road surface abnormality exists on a lane-by-lane basis. This allows the repair plan creation unit to create a repair plan on a lane-by-lane basis, which is more detailed than a road-by-road basis. In addition, the repair plan creation unit can create a repair plan that prioritizes repairs to roads where road surface abnormalities exist in all lanes, for example.

1, 2 Road surface abnormality judgment system, 11 Vehicle-mounted device, 12 Position information acquisition unit, 13 Road surface condition information acquisition unit, 14 First road surface abnormality judgment unit, 15 Probe generation unit, 16 High-precision locator, 17 Road surface condition detection sensor, 18 Communication unit, 21 Server device, 22 Storage unit, 23 Second road surface abnormality judgment unit, 24 Map information storage unit, 25 Communication unit, 26 Distribution processing unit, 31 Vehicle-mounted device, 32 Distribution request unit, 33 Control unit, 34 Notification unit, 35 Communication unit, 36 Position information acquisition unit

Claims (19)

a position information acquisition unit that acquires position information indicating a current position of a vehicle in units of lanes;
a road surface condition information acquisition unit that acquires road surface condition information indicating a condition of the road surface in the lane on which the vehicle is traveling;
a first road surface abnormality determination unit that determines whether or not a road surface abnormality including at least one of a defect occurring on the road surface and an obstacle existing on the road surface exists based on the road surface condition information, and outputs road surface abnormality information indicating the road surface abnormality when it is determined that the road surface abnormality exists;
a probe generation unit that generates probe information that associates the position information and the road surface abnormality information;
A storage unit that stores the probe information;
a second road surface abnormality determination unit that determines whether or not the road surface abnormality exists for each lane based on the probe information stored in the storage unit;
a map information storage unit that stores the road surface abnormality determined by the second road surface abnormality determination unit in association with map information having road shape data for each lane; and
Equipped with
A reference information storage unit is further provided for storing reference information, which is information indicating a road surface state in a normal state or information indicating a road surface state when the road surface abnormality exists;
the first road surface abnormality determination unit determines whether or not the road surface abnormality exists by comparing the road surface condition information acquired by the road surface condition information acquisition unit with the reference information;
The reference information includes position information of vibration generating locations including rumble strips or ribbed lane markings,
A road surface abnormality determination system, characterized in that the first road surface abnormality determination unit does not determine whether or not the road surface abnormality exists when the vehicle is traveling through the vibration generating location . 2. The road surface abnormality determination system according to claim 1 , wherein the reference information storage unit stores the reference information for each lane. The road surface abnormality judgment system according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the position information acquisition unit stores map information having road shape data for each lane, and acquires the position information from a locator that detects the current position of the vehicle with an accuracy of the order of centimeters using positioning signals from GNSS satellites. the position information acquisition unit acquires the position information using a white line recognition device that recognizes the locator and lane markings by image processing,
The road surface abnormality determination system according to claim 3 , wherein the position information includes the current position in a lane in a width direction of the lane. 5. The road surface abnormality determination system according to claim 4 , wherein the map information storage unit stores a position in the lane where the road surface abnormality exists in the lane width direction in association with the map information. The road surface abnormality judgment system according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the road shape data for each lane includes shape data of guidance strips, and the road surface abnormality judged by the second road surface abnormality judgment unit includes the road surface abnormality of the guidance strips . 7. The road surface abnormality determination system according to claim 1 , wherein the first road surface abnormality determination unit determines whether or not the road surface abnormality exists by using a neural network. The road surface abnormality judgment system according to any one of claims 1 to 7 , further comprising a distribution processing unit that distributes the map information in which the road surface abnormalities stored in the map information storage unit are associated on a lane-by-lane basis. a notification unit that notifies the driver that the road surface abnormality exists in the lane on which the vehicle is traveling;
The road surface abnormality judgment system according to claim 8, further comprising a control unit that uses the map information in which the road surface abnormalities stored in the map information storage unit are associated on a lane-by-lane basis and the position information to determine whether or not the road surface abnormality exists in the lane in which the vehicle is traveling, and when it is determined that the road surface abnormality exists in the lane in which the vehicle is traveling, causes the notification unit to notify that the road surface abnormality exists in the lane in which the vehicle is traveling. a position information acquisition unit that acquires position information indicating a current position of a vehicle in units of lanes;
a road surface condition information acquisition unit that acquires road surface condition information indicating a condition of the road surface in the lane on which the vehicle is traveling;
a first road surface abnormality determination unit that determines whether or not a road surface abnormality including at least one of a defect occurring on the road surface and an obstacle existing on the road surface exists based on the road surface condition information, and outputs road surface abnormality information indicating the road surface abnormality when it is determined that the road surface abnormality exists;
a probe generation unit that generates probe information that associates the position information and the road surface abnormality information;
A storage unit that stores the probe information;
a second road surface abnormality determination unit that determines whether or not the road surface abnormality exists for each lane based on the probe information stored in the storage unit;
a map information storage unit that stores the road surface abnormality determined by the second road surface abnormality determination unit in association with map information having road shape data for each lane; and
Equipped with
a distribution processing unit that distributes the map information in which the road surface abnormality stored in the map information storage unit is associated with each lane,
a notification unit that notifies the driver that the road surface abnormality exists in the lane on which the vehicle is traveling;
a control unit that uses the map information in which the road surface abnormalities stored in the map information storage unit are associated with each lane and the position information to determine whether or not the road surface abnormality exists in the lane on which the vehicle is traveling, and when it is determined that the road surface abnormality exists in the lane on which the vehicle is traveling, causes the notification unit to notify that the road surface abnormality exists in the lane on which the vehicle is traveling,
A road surface abnormality judgment system characterized in that, when it is determined that a road surface abnormality exists in the lane in which the vehicle is traveling, the control unit causes the notification unit to display the road surface abnormality in the lane in which the vehicle is traveling in the map information in a more emphasized manner than road surface abnormalities that exist in other lanes than the lane in which the vehicle is traveling. The road surface abnormality judgment system according to claim 9, characterized in that the notification unit displays the presence of the road surface abnormality in the lane on which the vehicle is traveling at a position where the road surface abnormality is present on a road map or lane map based on the map information in a display manner that makes it possible to distinguish the degree of the road surface abnormality. The road surface abnormality judgment system according to claim 11, characterized in that the notification unit displays the presence of the road surface abnormality in the lane on which the vehicle is traveling at a position on the lane map where the road surface abnormality is present in a width direction of the lane on which the vehicle is traveling, in a display manner that makes it possible to distinguish the degree of the road surface abnormality. The road surface abnormality judgment system according to claim 9, further comprising a route search unit that receives a start point position and an end point position, and preferentially selects, among multiple lanes on the same road, a lane that has fewer road surface abnormalities or a small degree of road surface abnormality according to a preset route planning rule, and searches for a route for each lane from the start point position to the end point position. The road surface abnormality determination system according to claim 13 , wherein the control unit performs automatic driving control along the route searched for by the lane unit by the route search unit. The road surface abnormality judgment system according to claim 13, characterized in that, when road surface abnormalities exist in all lanes of a road in a specific section on the lane-by-lane route searched for by the route search unit , the control unit performs driving control to set a road surface safe speed that is lower than a predetermined recommended speed for the road, and to present this to an occupant of the vehicle via the notification unit, or to automatically change to the road surface safe speed. The road surface abnormality judgment system according to any one of claims 1 to 15, further comprising a repair plan planning unit that uses the map information in which the road surface abnormalities stored in the map information storage unit are associated on a lane -by-lane basis to plan for repairing the road surface on which the road surface abnormality exists. a position information acquisition unit that acquires position information indicating a current position of a vehicle in units of lanes;
a road surface condition information acquisition unit that acquires road surface condition information indicating a condition of the road surface in the lane on which the vehicle is traveling;
a probe generating unit that generates probe information that associates the position information and the road surface condition information;
A storage unit that stores the probe information;
a road surface abnormality determination unit that determines, for each lane, whether or not there is a road surface abnormality including at least one of a defect occurring on the road surface and an obstacle existing on the road surface based on the probe information stored in the storage unit; and
a map information storage unit that stores the road surface abnormality determined by the road surface abnormality determination unit in association with map information having road shape data for each lane;
a reference information storage unit that stores reference information, which is information indicating a road surface state in a normal state or information indicating a road surface state when the road surface abnormality exists;
the road surface abnormality determination unit determines whether or not the road surface abnormality exists by comparing the road surface condition information acquired by the road surface condition information acquisition unit with the reference information;
The reference information includes position information of vibration generating locations including rumble strips or ribbed lane markings,
the road surface abnormality determination unit does not determine whether or not the road surface abnormality exists when the vehicle is traveling through the vibration occurrence location.
Road surface abnormality detection system. a position information detection unit that acquires position information indicating a current position of a vehicle in units of lanes;
a road surface condition information acquisition unit that acquires road surface condition information indicating a condition of the road surface in the lane on which the vehicle is traveling;
a first road surface abnormality determination unit that determines whether or not a road surface abnormality including at least one of a defect occurring on the road surface and an obstacle existing on the road surface exists based on the road surface condition information, and outputs road surface abnormality information indicating the road surface abnormality when it is determined that the road surface abnormality exists;
a probe generation unit that generates probe information that associates the position information and the road surface abnormality information;
a reference information storage unit that stores reference information, which is information indicating a normal road surface state or information indicating a road surface state when the road surface abnormality exists;
Equipped with
the first road surface abnormality determination unit determines whether or not the road surface abnormality exists by comparing the road surface condition information acquired by the road surface condition information acquisition unit with the reference information;
The reference information includes position information of vibration generating locations including rumble strips or ribbed lane markings,
the first road surface abnormality determination unit does not determine whether or not the road surface abnormality exists when the vehicle is traveling through the vibration occurrence location.
In-vehicle equipment. A road surface abnormality determination method using a road surface abnormality determination system including a position information acquisition unit, a road surface condition information acquisition unit, a first road surface abnormality determination unit, a probe generation unit, an accumulation unit, a second road surface abnormality determination unit, a map information storage unit, and a reference information storage unit,
The position information acquisition unit acquires position information indicating a current position of a vehicle in units of lanes;
a step of the road surface condition information acquisition unit acquiring road surface condition information indicating a condition of a road surface in a lane on which the vehicle is traveling;
the first road surface abnormality determination unit determining whether or not a road surface abnormality including at least one of a defect occurring on the road surface and an obstacle existing on the road surface exists based on the road surface condition information, and outputting road surface abnormality information indicating the road surface abnormality when it is determined that the road surface abnormality exists;
generating probe information by the probe generation unit that associates the position information and the road surface abnormality information;
a step of storing the probe information by the storage unit ;
the second road surface abnormality determination unit determining whether or not the road surface abnormality exists for each lane based on the accumulated probe information;
the map information storage unit storing the determined road surface abnormality in association with map information having road shape data for each lane, the map information storing unit storing the determined road surface abnormality in association with each lane, the map information having road shape data for each lane, the lane
a step of storing reference information in the reference information storage unit, the reference information being information indicating a normal road surface state or information indicating a road surface state when the road surface abnormality exists;
Equipped with
the first road surface abnormality determination unit determines whether or not the road surface abnormality exists by comparing the road surface condition information acquired by the road surface condition information acquisition unit with the reference information;
The reference information includes position information of vibration generating locations including rumble strips or ribbed lane markings,
the first road surface abnormality determination unit does not determine whether or not the road surface abnormality exists when the vehicle is traveling through the vibration occurrence location.
Method for determining road surface abnormalities.

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