On-board traffic density estimator

Abstract

Traffic density is estimated around a host vehicle moving on a roadway. An object detection system remotely senses and identifies the positions of nearby vehicles. A controller a) predicts a path of a host lane being driven by the host vehicle, b) bins the nearby vehicles into a plurality of lanes including the host lane and one or more adjacent lanes flanking the predicted path, c) determines a host lane distance in response to a position of a farthest vehicle that is binned to the host lane, d) determines an adjacent lane distance in response to a difference between a closest position in an adjacent lane that is within the field of view and a position of a farthest vehicle binned to the adjacent lane, and e) indicates a traffic density in response to a ratio between a count of the binned vehicles and a sum of the distances.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates generally to monitoring traffic around a motor vehicle and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for on-board and real-time classification of traffic density in an area in which a host vehicle is moving. Background technique [0002] For various automotive systems and functions, it is useful to obtain estimates of local traffic density (including traffic density in the path directly ahead of the vehicle, traffic density in adjacent lanes, and aggregated or overall traffic density in the vicinity of the vehicle estimate). For example, an alert threshold (eg, distance or buffer zone) for a collision warning system may be adjusted based on whether the traffic density is low, medium, or high. Additionally, driver alertness monitoring systems can use different thresholds depending on traffic density. [0003] In general, traffic density estimates can already be obtained in various ways. In one automated technique, a ...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

This is impacted by the high cost of implementing hardware both in the vehicle and at the roadside

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