EP3678912A1

EP3678912A1 - Offboard trajectories for difficult situations

Info

Publication number: EP3678912A1
Application number: EP18769030.0A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Ulrich STÄHLIN
Original assignee: Continental Teves AG and Co OHG
Current assignee: Continental Autonomous Mobility Germany GmbH
Priority date: 2017-09-07
Filing date: 2018-09-03
Publication date: 2020-07-15
Also published as: WO2019048009A1; US11273829B2; DE112018000293A5; DE102017215749A1; US20200010083A1; CN110267857A; CN110267857B

Abstract

The invention relates to a driver assistance system (10) for a vehicle (20). The driver assistance system (10) comprises a control unit (11) and a communication device (12) for receiving data from a server (30). The control unit (11) is designed to calculate a trajectory (T) for the vehicle (20) on the basis of the sensor data. The control unit (11) is also designed to replace the trajectory (T) for the vehicle (20) with an offboard trajectory (T1) received by the server (30).

Description

- Offboard trajectories for difficult situations -

The invention relates to a driver assistance system for a vehicle, a vehicle having such a driver assistance system, a server for such a driver assistance system

A method of providing an off-board trajectory, a program element, and a computer-readable medium.

In automotive development, the focus is increasingly on the topics of digitization and partially or fully autonomous driving. In autonomous driving, the goal is not to have to rely on the driver or the user of the vehicle. In other words, the vehicle drives itself. For autonomous driving, trajectories for the vehicle to be followed by the vehicle can be calculated. However, you can

Situations exist in which the environment sensors of the vehicle do not provide all the relevant information for the vehicle

Traj ektorienberechnung record resp. can provide, e.g. lack of lane markings, difficult visibility conditions, dirty road or snowy road environment.

In normal situations, the trajectory for the vehicle is calculated on the basis of an environmental model of sensor data from environment sensors. If the sensor data of the environment sensors are no longer available or not in sufficient quality or quality, a sufficiently reliable calculation of the trajectory can not take place and the steering of the vehicle must be passed on to the driver or the user so that the latter controls the vehicle or the vehicle is stopped. This can lead to an unsatisfactory user experience, as it can not fully utilize partially or fully autonomous driving.

It is the object of the invention to increase the safety of a vehicle and to improve the partially or fully autonomous driving. This object is solved by the subject matter of the independent claims. Embodiments and further developments can be taken from the dependent claims, the description and the figures.

A first aspect of the invention relates to

Driver assistance system for a vehicle. The

Driver assistance system has a control unit and a

Communication device for receiving data from a server. The control unit is set up to calculate a trajectory for the vehicle based on sensor data and to regulate the vehicle in such a way that it follows this trajectory as closely as possible. The control unit is further adapted to receive the trajectory for the vehicle in certain circumstances by a server received from

Offboard Traj ectorie replace, which is then used in place of the self-calculated trajectory. The control unit may be configured to calculate the trajectory for the vehicle based on sensor data from environmental sensors and possibly further vehicle sensor data. The environment sensors may include, for example, radar, lidar, ultrasound sensors, a laser scanner or a camera. Thus, the sensor data may include image data, distance data or relative velocities. Through this

Sensor data or information of the environmental sensors, the control unit can calculate the trajectory for the vehicle, in particular the position and orientation of the vehicle in a lane with respect to the roadside, the opposite lane, the lane marking or the guardrail. The calculated trajectory can be used to partially or possibly also fully autonomous control of the vehicle with the

Driver assistance system serve. Furthermore, the Control unit the calculated trajectory by a

Replace offboard traj ectorie from a server. The control unit typically replaces the calculated trajectory by the offboard traj ectorie at the latest when the sensor data are no longer of sufficient quality or when the environmental sensors no longer provide sensor data, so that a reliable calculation of the trajectory based on the sensor data is not is possible. Thus, the partial or autonomous control of the vehicle can be maintained, even if this would no longer be reliably possible due to the sensor data.

In other words, in good time before such situations in which the environmental sensors can no longer provide all the necessary sensor data, it is advisable to ask the server whether there is or is an offboard trajectory for these areas. Subsequently, this can be sent or transmitted from the server to the communication device of the driver assistance system of the vehicle. The control unit can use this Offboard Traj ektorie and control the vehicle after this, even without sensor data of environment sensors. The environment model or the environment sensors then provide information about "crash objects", for example a preceding one

Vehicle, but no longer the sensor data or the information for the trajectory or the path planning of the vehicle.

The control unit of the driver assistance system can also be set up to always request off-board trajectories from the server so that they can replace the trajectory calculated by the control unit if necessary. Thus, the

Probability of default for the driver assistance system can be minimized, since a suitable off-board trajectory is always maintained and available. Thus, unforeseen problems or difficulties in the calculation of the Trajectory are met, and the short-term failure of environment sensors are compensated.

The trajectory or trajectory describes a set path for the vehicle. This trajectory may include certain waypoints at particular times with a particular vehicle orientation and position. The vehicle or the driving systems of the vehicle in turn try to follow the (given) trajectory as well as possible, for example by adjusting the steering angle, by braking interventions or by accelerating the vehicle. Typically, the trajectory for the vehicle is executed in a lane-specific manner. In other words, the trajectory for the vehicle should be centered in a lane and not leave it, unless a lane change is desired.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the control unit is configured to recognize at an early stage that based on sensor data, no trajectory can be calculated and then to instruct the communication device

Offboard Traj ektorie from the server to request, receive and the trajectory of the vehicle through the received

Offboard Traj ectorie to replace.

The control unit can specifically instruct the communication device to request off-board trajectories from the server. For this purpose, the control unit can predict at an early stage that based on the sensor data of the vehicle in the near future, no calculation of the trajectory will be possible with sufficient accuracy, for example, because at a previous trip at this point problems with the calculation have occurred because the weather forecast predicts poor visibility conditions or because a construction site is on the way. Early inquiries by the off-road tractors can be made to ensure that they arrive in good time so that the control unit can open This can be used to control the vehicle partially or fully autonomously.

According to a further embodiment of the invention, the off-board traj ectorie received from the server has information about the driving angle of the vehicle, the orientation of the vehicle, relative position data of the vehicle, absolute position data of the vehicle, the route to be traveled, the vehicle's radius to be traveled Speeds or the time required for the approaching route.

The information of the offboard Traj ektoria can be generated for example by a reference run. Alternatively or additionally, the vehicle with the driver assistance system can make its trajectories available to the server as an off-board trajectory.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the control unit is configured to instruct the communication device to request the off-board trajectory from the server when a value for the quality of the sensor data for calculating the trajectory falls below a predefined threshold value.

It can be provided that the communication device requests offboard trajectories as soon as the the quality of the sensor data of the environmental sensors falls below a certain threshold. The quality or the quality of the sensor data can be expressed in a value correlating to the quality of the sensor data. This value can then be compared to the predefined threshold. In this case, the threshold can be chosen so that it can still act purely on the sensor data and there is still sufficient time to request the offboard traj ektorie from the server. In other words, then already (as a precaution) an Offboard Traj ektorie be requested at the server, if the quality of the sensor data decreases.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the control unit is set up to instruct the communication device to request the off-board trajectory from the server if external influencing factors indicate a reduced quality of the sensor data. It can be provided that off-board trajectories are requested by the control unit as soon as, for example due to the environmental sensors of the vehicle, criteria are detected which indicate that the quality or the quality of the sensor data might not be sufficient, a trajectory for to calculate a vehicle. Furthermore, certain

Weather conditions trigger the request of an off-board tractor ectorie by the control unit. Examples of the above criteria can be: Snow on the roadside

(Lane markings may be covered), low sun (difficult conditions for cameras when driving in the direction of the sun), construction sites (potential degeneration), rural area during harvest time (increased potential for debris), hail, fog or (heavy) rain , eg if this is announced by the weather forecast, an appropriate time or date, if the windscreen wiper is at the highest level or if the fog lights or the rear fog lamp is active.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the

Driver assistance system further comprises a navigation device. The navigation device has map material, wherein the map material has an offboard Traj ektorie. The

Control unit is set up, the offboard Traj ektorie of the map material with the offboard traj ectorie of the server.

Alternatively or additionally, the control unit can

Offboard Traj ektorie also through the maps of a

Navigation device or map unit (Map and Positioning Unit) received. This can be done either by buffering in the vehicle, especially if the same location was only recently passed, or in general, and then the validity of the trajectories can not always be ensured. Furthermore, a comparison with the server can take place, in which it is checked whether the existing off-board trajectory is still the currently valid off-board trajectory. This can be done, for example, by using a unique ID for each offboard trajectory. This ensures that the currently valid off-board trajectory is always used, but that data is only transferred between the driver assistance system and the server if a new off-board trajectory is required for the driver assistance system, ie if the ID of the off-board Traj ectorie of the navigation device does not match the id of the offboard trajector of the server.

Alternatively or additionally, the infrastructure data may already be provided in the map material of the driver assistance system as digital maps. The term "digital maps" or "digital map data" is also understood to mean maps for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) without navigation. Another aspect of the invention relates to a server for a previously and subsequently described

Driver assistance system. It should be noted that the server can also be called a backend. Furthermore, several servers can be combined to form one server. The term server in the context of this application rather describes a vehicle-external unit, which can provide data, in particular an off-board traj ektorie, for the previously described and subsequently described driver assistance system or can send this.

According to a further embodiment of the invention, the communication or the data exchange with the server is wireless, preferably via WLAN, Bluetooth and / or mobile, such as UMTS, 3G, LTE, 4G or 5G.

The wireless transmission or the wireless reception of the offboard traj ektorie can via Bluetooth, WLAN (eg WLAN

802.11a / b / g / n / ac or WLAN 802.1 lp), ZigBee or WiMax or even cellular radio systems such as GPRS, UMTS, 3G, 4G, 5G or LTE. It is also the use of others

Transmission protocols possible. The mentioned protocols offer the advantage of already existing standardization.

It should be noted that a bidirectional data exchange between the communication device of the

Driver assistance system and the server is possible. As a result, the driver assistance system can send the detected sensor data of the vehicle to the server. In particular, so the server in "good" visibility data from the

Driver assistance system received and "bad"

Visibility conditions to send this collected data back to the driver assistance system. It should be noted that the server can also send or provide data to a plurality of different driver assistance systems, in particular off-board tractors. According to one embodiment of the invention, the server is set up early to recognize that a reliable calculation of the trajectory by the control unit of the

Driver assistance system based on sensor data will probably not be possible, and then the

Communication device of the driver assistance system to send the offboard Traj ektorie.

On the server critical geographical areas can be deposited, in which typically

Offboard Traj ectorien be provided. The areas in which the environment sensors of the vehicles have problems can be identified by the number of requests of off-board vehicles by the control unit of the driver assistance system. For example, it may be that a certain

Road constellation at many different

Driver assistance systems repeatedly causing problems so that they repeatedly request an Offboard Traj ektorie for this area at the server. This allows the server to identify this area as a critical area (heaps of off-shore requests). The off-board tractors in the identified critical area can use the server preventively or precautionary to the communication devices of the

Send driver assistance systems. Thus, the right one

Offboard Traj ektorie the control unit of the

Driver assistance system available without the

Communication device of the driver assistance system itself must request. In other words, the server may be configured to send the offset trajectories to the server

Driver assistance system to trigger a future request from an off-board traj ectorie through the

Communication device of the driver assistance system considers likely. Another aspect of the invention relates to a vehicle having a previously and subsequently described

Angle determination device. The vehicle is, for example, a

Motor vehicle, such as a car, bus or truck, or even a ship, an aircraft, such as a helicopter or airplane.

Another aspect of the invention relates to methods for providing an offboard trajectory for a vehicle

Driver assistance system. The method comprises the steps:

Calculating, based on sensor data, a trajectory by a control unit;

- Receiving an off-board Traj ektorie from a server by a communication device;

Replacing the trajectory with the received one

Offboard Traj ectorie of the server.

The individual steps of the method can be carried out in parallel or sequentially. Furthermore, the order of the individual steps can be changed. Between the individual steps can also be a longer period of time.

Another aspect of the invention relates to a program element which, when mounted on a control unit of a

Driver assistance system is running, the

Driver Assistance System to perform the above and below described method. Another aspect of this invention relates to

computer-readable medium on which a program element is stored, which instructs the control unit of a driver assistance system to perform the method described above and below. Other features, advantages and applications of the invention will become apparent from the following description of the embodiments and the figures.

The figures are schematic and not to scale. If the same reference numbers are given in the following description of the figures, these designate the same or similar elements. 1 shows a block diagram for a driver assistance system according to an embodiment of the invention.

2 shows a schematic representation of a calculated trajectory of the control device of the driver assistance system according to an embodiment of the invention.

3 shows a schematic representation of an offboard traj ectorie of the server received by the communication device according to an embodiment of the invention.

4 shows a vehicle with the driver assistance system according to an embodiment of the invention.

5 shows a schematic representation of a vehicle with the driver assistance system and a server for the

Driver assistance system according to an embodiment of the

Invention.

6 shows a flow chart for a method for

Provision of off-board tractors according to a

Embodiment of the invention.

1 shows a block diagram of a driver assistance system 10. The driver assistance system 10 has a control unit 11, a communication device 12 and a

Navigation device or card device 13. In this case, the control unit 11 is set up to calculate or determine a trajectory for a vehicle based on sensor data. The communication device 12 is set up to receive and send data, in particular an offboard trajectory, from a server. Furthermore, the

Control unit 11 adapted to replace the calculated trajectory by the received Offboard Traj ektorie the server. Based on the trajectory or the received Offboard Traj ektorie a vehicle can be partially or fully autonomously controlled.

The control unit 11 may be configured to recognize early on that a trajectory can not be reliably calculated based on the sensor data with a certain probability, for example, because a previous trip has a

Calculation of the trajectory was not possible or the

Weather conditions are worse. If this has been determined, the control unit 11 can instruct the communication device 12 to request an off-board trajectory from the server. The Offboard-Traj ektorie sent by the server can then be used by the control unit 11 of the driver assistance system 10 or it can replace the calculated trajectory. Thus, the vehicle may continue partial or

Fully autonomous driving, although this would not be possible based on the sensor data of the environment sensors. The server's off-board trajectory may include information about the driving angle, the orientation, the traveling radius, the driving speeds, relative position data, absolute position data, the route to be traveled and the time of the vehicle to be used for this purpose. According to a further embodiment of the invention, the control unit 11 of the driver assistance system 10 may be configured to judge the quality of the sensor data from the environment sensors of the vehicle. For this purpose, a value which correlates with the quality of the data, with a predefined

Threshold are compared. If the value for the quality of the sensor data falls below the predefined threshold value, the control unit 11 can instruct the communication device 12 to request an off-board trajectory from the server. In other words, the control unit 11 may request from one

Trigger Offboard Traj ektorie based on the quality of the sensor data.

Alternatively or additionally, the control unit 11 may instruct the communication device 12 to request the off-board trajectory at the server if external influencing factors, such as weather conditions such as snow, rule, fog or hail, indicate a reduced quality of the sensor data. In other words, the control unit 11 triggers a request for off-board trajectories, if bad

Environmental conditions are expected, which can have a negative effect on the sensor data.

The navigation device or map device 13 of the driver assistance system 10 can digital maps for the

Have navigation of the vehicle or driver assistance systems. In these digital maps can also be a

Offboard Traj ektorie be saved. These

Offboard Traj ektorie can be used by the control unit 11 to replace the calculated trajectory of the control unit 11. Furthermore, it can be provided that the stored in the digital map offboard Traj ektorie with the

Offboard Traj ektorie on the server is adjusted, so always the current offboard Traj ektorie of the Control unit 11 of the driver assistance system is used. For this example, each offboard Traj ektorie have a unique ID. The ID of the off-board trajectory on the server can then be compared with the ID of the off-board trajectory from the digital map. If the two IDs differ from one another, then the off-board trajectory can be requested by server and received by the communication device 12. On the other hand, if the IDs match, then the offboard trajectory can be used from the digital maps, so that the data transfer between the server and the

Communication device 12 is reduced to a minimum.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic representation of a trajectory T calculated by a control unit of a driver assistance system. This trajectory T is replaced by a

solid line with an arrow, which symbolizes the direction of travel, shown in Fig. 2. Typically, the calculated trajectory T is in the middle of a lane. In Fig. 2, two lanes are shown, which are separated by the median strip (dashed line). Furthermore, a lane change of the vehicle is shown in FIG.

Fig. 3 shows a schematic representation of an off-board Traj ektorie Tl received by the communication device. The offboard Traj ektorie Tl is shown here as a dashed line and the arrow symbolizes the direction of travel of the vehicle. The vehicle 20 is shown as a dashed rectangle, which moves along this offboard Traj ektorie Tl. Furthermore, a road is shown in Fig. 3, on which the offboard Traj ektorie Tl of the server is located centrally. In the Offboard Traj ektorie Tl the server can be included, among other driving angle information φ. Furthermore, information about distances, waypoints, relative or absolute positions to be traveled can be provided in the off-board trajectory T1 Speeds, radii or times should be included. Furthermore, a vehicle with the solid rectangle is shown in FIG. 3, which symbolizes a faulty positioning by the sensor data of the environment sensors of the vehicle. This incorrect positioning of the vehicle requires the request of an off-board Traj ektorie Tl so that the vehicle 20 can drive partially or fully autonomously.

4 shows a schematic illustration of a vehicle 20 with a previously described and subsequently described

Driver assistance system 10. The driver assistance system 10 can in this case access sensor data of the environment sensors of the vehicle 20. Furthermore, the driver assistance system 10 may be configured to control the vehicle 20 partially or fully autonomously. In other words, the vehicle 20 with the

Driver assistance system 10 without the intervention of the driver or the user drive.

5 shows a schematic representation of a vehicle 20 with a driver assistance system 10 and a server 30 (backend). The server 10 is depicted as a cloud in FIG. 5 and the data exchange between the driver assistance system 10 and the server 10 is illustrated as a dashed line between the two. The communication device of the

Driver assistance system 10 may at the server 30 a

Request off-board traj ectorie. The server 30 then sends this requested offboard Traj ektorie to the

Communication device of the driver assistance system 10. With the received Offboard-Traj ektorie control unit of the driver assistance system, the vehicle 20 partially or fully autonomously control, even if this would not be possible based on the sensor data of the environment sensors. According to one embodiment of the invention, the data exchange, in particular of

Traj ektorien, bidirectional. In other words, that can Driver assistance system 10, the calculated trajectories to the server 30 send. In turn, the server 30 may choose these calculated trajectories of the driver assistance system 10

Send or make available to road users as off-board tractors.

6 shows a flow chart for a method for

Providing an off-board trajectory for one

Driver assistance system. In a first step S1, a control unit of a driver assistance system, based on sensor data, calculate a trajectory for a vehicle. In a step S2, a communication device of the driver assistance system can receive an offboard tractor ectorie from a server. In a final step S3, the control unit of the driver assistance system, the trajectory received by the communication device

Replace offboard Traj ektorie.

Claims

Claims:

A driver assistance system (10) for a vehicle (20), comprising:

a control unit (11); and

a communication device (12) for receiving data from a server (30),

wherein the control unit (11) is set up to calculate a trajectory (T) for the vehicle (20) based on sensor data,

wherein the control unit (11) is adapted to replace the trajectory (T) for the vehicle (20) by an offboard Traj ektorie (Tl) received from the server (30).

2. driver assistance system (10) according to claim 1,

wherein the control unit (11) is adapted to recognize at an early stage that, based on sensor data, no trajectory (T) can be calculated with sufficient reliability in the future, and then instruct the communication device (12) to derive an offboard trajectory (T 1) from the server (FIG. 30) request and receive and replace the trajectory (T) of the vehicle (20) by the received offboard Traj ektorie (Tl).

3. driver assistance system (10) according to claim 1 or 2,

wherein the received from the server (30) Offboard Traj ektorie (Tl) information about the driving angle of the vehicle (20), the orientation of the vehicle (20), relative position data of the vehicle (20), absolute position data of the vehicle (20) to traveling distance, radii, traveling speeds or the time required for the approaching route.

4. driver assistance system (10) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the control unit (11) is adapted to instruct the communication device (12) which

Offboard Traj ektorie (Tl) from the server (30) to ask if a value for the quality of the sensor data for calculating the trajectory (T) has a predefined threshold

falls below.

5. driver assistance system (10) according to one of the preceding claims,

wherein the control unit (11) is adapted to the

Communication device (12) to guide the

Offboard Traj ektorie (Tl) from the server (30) to ask if external factors suggest a reduced quality of the sensor data.

6. driver assistance system (10) according to one of the preceding claims, further comprising a navigation device or

Card device (13) having,

wherein the navigation device or card device (13) has map material,

the map material has an offboard trajectory (T1),

wherein the control unit (11) is adapted to the offboard Traj ektorie (Tl) of the map material with the

Offboard Traj ektorie (Tl) of the server.

7. vehicle (20) with a driver assistance system (10) according to one of the preceding claims.

8. server (30) for a driver assistance system (10) according to one of claims 1 to 6.

9. server (30) according to claim 8, wherein the server (30) is adapted to recognize at an early stage that a calculation of the trajectory (T) by the control unit (11) of the driver assistance system (10) based on sensor data will not be possible, and then the communication device (12) of the driver assistance system (10) to send offboard trajectory (Tl).

10. A method for providing an offboard Traj ektorie (Tl) for a driver assistance system (10), the steps

comprising:

Calculate (Sl) based on sensor data, one

Trajectory (T) by a control unit (11);

- receiving (S2) an offboard Traj ektorie (Tl) from a server (30) by a communication device (12);

Replacing (S3) the trajectory (T) with the received one

Offboard Traj ektorie (Tl) of the server (30).

11. Program element which, when it is on a control unit (11) of a driver assistance system (10), the

Driver assistance system (10) instructs to perform the method according to claim 10.

12. Computer-readable medium on which a program element according to claim 11 is stored.