Vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlamp device, automatic parking system and automatic parking method thereof

Abstract

The invention provides a vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlamp device. The vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlamp device comprises a direct current source, a transmitting end, a receiving end and a microcontroller. The transmitting end is used for transmitting visible light and a distance detection signal; the transmitting end comprises an LED vehicle lamp and a signal generator; the invention discloses an LED vehicle lamp. An LED driving circuit, a signal modulator and an LED pixel array; the direct current source is used for providing a power supply for the LED driving circuit and generating driving current; the signal generator is connected into the LED driving circuit and is used for generating a high-frequency signal; the signal modulator is used for receiving the high-frequency signal, superposing the high-frequency signal onto the driving current and driving the LED pixel array to emit visible light and a distance detection signal; the receiving end is used for receiving a distance detection reflection signal after the distance detection signal sent out by the transmitting end is reflected by an obstacle, and sending the distance detection reflection signal to the microcontroller; the microcontroller is used for obtaining the distance between the obstacle and the vehicle-mounted LED distance measurement headlamp device according to the distance detection reflection signal.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of automotive autonomous driving, and particularly to an in-vehicle LED ranging headlight device, an automatic parking system, and an automatic parking method thereof. Background Art

[0002] Currently, general automatic parking solutions usually use cameras to detect parking lot lines, and then use ultrasonic radars or millimeter-wave radars to measure the distance to obstacles.

[0003] For the methods of using ultrasonic radars to measure distance and millimeter-wave radars to measure distance, generally more than 3 radar devices are installed at the front and rear of the vehicle; the accuracy of obstacle detection and distance measurement is high, and as the number of radars increases, the accuracy of the system continuously improves, but the cost of a single radar is relatively high.

[0004] Another example is that Tesla has eliminated ultrasonic radars and adopted a pure vision parking solution. For an automatic parking solution, a camera is an essential sensor for detecting parking spaces. A monocular or binocular camera can also perform distance measurement tasks. It generally estimates depth through deep learning algorithms and then determines the distance to obstacles in combination with the calibration of the internal and external parameters of the camera. However, the accuracy of this solution relying solely on cameras is relatively low and is easily affected by the environment, making it difficult to handle complex parking scenarios.

[0005] Therefore, researching and developing a low-cost and high-precision distance detection device and an automatic parking system has become a technical problem that needs to be urgently solved by those skilled in the art. Summary of the Invention

[0006] In order to overcome the above technical defects, the purpose of the present invention is to provide an in-vehicle LED ranging headlight device, an automatic parking system, and an automatic parking method thereof. The present invention uses a signal modulator to superimpose a high-frequency signal and uses the high-frequency signal to achieve distance measurement. Therefore, the lighting and distance measurement functions can be simultaneously realized by the same LED headlight. Compared with radars, the cost is lower; and by installing a large number of small-sized LED ranging units, it not only has a wide coverage range and high robustness in distance measurement, but is also more suitable for complex parking scenarios. Compared with the pure vision solution, the present invention uses LEDs for distance measurement, which has a higher redundancy compared to the pure vision parking solution.

[0007] The present invention discloses an in-vehicle LED ranging headlight device, which is characterized by comprising: a DC power source, a transmitting end, a

[0008] receiving end

[0009] and a microcontroller;

[0010] The transmitting end is used to emit visible light and distance detection signals; the transmitting end includes: an LED vehicle lamp and a signal generator; the LED vehicle lamp includes: an LED driving circuit, a signal modulator, and an LED pixel array;

[0011] The DC power source is used to provide power for the LED driving circuit to generate a driving current;

[0012] The signal generator is connected to the LED driving circuit and is used to generate a high-frequency signal;

[0013] The signal modulator is used to receive the high-frequency signal and superimpose the high-frequency signal on the driving current to drive the LED pixel array to emit visible light and distance detection signals;

[0014] The receiving end is used to receive the distance detection reflected signal after the distance detection signal emitted by the transmitting end is reflected by an obstacle and send it to the microcontroller;

[0015] The microcontroller is used to obtain the distance between the obstacle and the vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlamp device according to the distance detection reflected signal.

[0016] Optionally, each of the LED vehicle lamps includes:

[0017] A number of LED ranging modules located in different areas of the LED vehicle lamp, and the LED ranging modules in each area are respectively used to detect the distance of obstacles in different detection areas of the vehicle body; each of the LED ranging modules includes:

[0018] A number of LED pixel units arranged in an array; each LED pixel unit is used to emit visible light and distance detection signals respectively;

[0019] The receiving end is used to receive the distance detection reflected signal after the distance detection signal emitted by each LED pixel unit is reflected by an obstacle, and calculate the distance between the obstacle and each LED pixel unit according to the corresponding distance detection reflected signal.

[0020] Optionally, the receiving end calculates the distance between the LED pixel unit and the obstacle according to the received distance detection reflected signal by using the time-of-flight ranging method or the phase difference method.

[0021] Optionally, the vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlamp device further includes: a lens;

[0022] The receiving end includes: a photodetector and a transimpedance amplifier:

[0023] The microcontroller includes: an analog-to-digital converter, a signal processing and distance calculation unit; the signal processing and distance calculation unit is configured to calculate the distance between the obstacle and the LED pixel unit based on the distance detection reflected signal.

[0024] The present invention also provides an automatic parking system, including a plurality of vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlamp devices distributed at different positions of the vehicle body as described in any one of the foregoing items;

[0025] In each vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlamp device, the LED pixel array is divided into a plurality of preset calibration areas; the LED pixel arrays located in each preset calibration area form an LED ranging module;

[0026] The image acquisition device is configured to acquire obstacle image information;

[0027] The central operation control module is configured to perform parking space recognition based on the obstacle image information to obtain parking space information; and perform obstacle orientation monitoring based on the obstacle image information to obtain the position information of the obstacle;

[0028] The central operation control module also stores a mapping relationship in which the preset calibration areas and the obstacle detection areas correspond one by one; the central operation control module is further configured to:

[0029] Specify a target vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlamp device among a plurality of vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlamp devices based on the position information of the obstacle; and is configured to:

[0030] Determine the target LED ranging module corresponding to the preset calibration area in the target vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlamp device according to the obstacle detection area corresponding to the position information of the obstacle and the mapping relationship; and control the target LED ranging module to perform obstacle distance detection to obtain a first detection distance; and is configured to:

[0031] Control the vehicle to perform automatic parking according to the first detection distance and the parking space information.

[0032] Optionally, the central operation control module is further configured to,

[0033] Simultaneously control all vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlamp devices at different positions of the vehicle body to perform obstacle distance detection to obtain a second detection distance; the second detection distance is greater than the first detection distance; and

[0034] Perform automatic parking according to the first detection distance, the second detection distance and the parking space information.

[0035] The present invention also provides an automatic parking method, which is applied to the automatic parking system described in any one of the foregoing of the present invention. The automatic parking system includes a plurality of in-vehicle LED ranging headlight devices distributed at different positions of the vehicle body; in each in-vehicle LED ranging headlight device, the LED pixel array is divided into a plurality of preset calibration areas; the LED pixel arrays located in each preset calibration area form an LED ranging module;

[0036] The automatic parking method includes:

[0037] Controlling the image acquisition device to acquire obstacle image information; and performing parking space recognition based on the obstacle image information to obtain parking space information, and monitoring the orientation of the obstacle based on the obstacle image information to obtain the position information of the obstacle;

[0038] The central operation control module stores a mapping relationship in which a plurality of preset calibration areas correspond one-to-one with a plurality of obstacle detection areas; the position information of any obstacle corresponds to an obstacle detection area;

[0039] The central operation control module designates a target in-vehicle LED ranging headlight device among a plurality of in-vehicle LED ranging headlight devices according to the position information of the obstacle; and,

[0040] Determining the target LED ranging module in the preset calibration area corresponding to the target in-vehicle LED ranging headlight device according to the obstacle detection area corresponding to the position information of the obstacle and the mapping relationship;

[0041] Controlling the target LED ranging module to perform obstacle distance detection to obtain a first detection distance;

[0042] The central operation control module performs automatic parking according to the first detection distance and the parking space information.

[0043] Optionally, before controlling the image acquisition device to acquire obstacle image information, it further includes:

[0044] The central calculation module controls all LED ranging modules of all in-vehicle LED ranging headlight devices at different positions of the vehicle body to perform obstacle distance detection to obtain a second detection distance; the second detection distance is greater than the first detection distance;

[0045] The central operation control module controls the vehicle to perform automatic parking according to the first detection distance, the second detection distance and the parking space information.

[0046] Optionally, the step of controlling the target LED ranging module to perform obstacle distance detection to obtain a first detection distance specifically includes:

[0047] The central operation control module controls a plurality of LED pixel units arranged in an array in the target LED ranging module to respectively emit distance detection signals;

[0048] The receiving end receives the distance detection reflection signals after the distance detection signals emitted by each LED pixel unit are reflected by the obstacle, and calculates the distance between the obstacle and each LED pixel unit according to the distance detection signal, the corresponding distance detection reflection signal and the phase difference method;

[0049] The first detection distance is obtained according to the distance between the obstacle and each LED pixel unit.

[0050] Optionally, the step of obtaining the second detection distance specifically includes:

[0051] According to the received distance detection reflection signal, the distance between the LED pixel unit and the obstacle is calculated according to the time-of-flight ranging method;

[0052] The second detection distance is obtained according to the distance between the obstacle and each LED pixel unit.

[0053] After adopting the above technical solution, compared with the prior art, it has the following beneficial effects:

[0054] 1. A high-frequency signal is generated by a signal generator, and the high-frequency signal is superimposed on a DC source through a signal modulator to realize the function of ranging while illuminating. A large number of matrix-arranged LED ranging units improve the ranging accuracy while ensuring low cost.

[0055] 2. A relatively lower-frequency signal is added to the LED optical signal compared with the previous LED car headlight. Due to its longer wavelength, the low-frequency signal often has stronger anti-interference ability and is less affected by the environment.

[0056] 3. The present invention not only uses LEDs for global overall scanning to calculate the distances of obstacles in all directions of the vehicle body. Moreover, for the azimuth where the camera detects an obstacle, the LED scanning angle is adjusted by determining the target LED ranging module in the ranging area, and frequency conversion scanning is performed to improve the redundancy of the system.

[0057] 4. By installing multiple LED ranging components, it not only has a wide coverage range, but also has high ranging robustness and is more suitable for complex parking scenarios. Description of the Drawings

[0058] Figure 1 It is a schematic structural diagram of a vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0059] Figure 2Schematic diagram of the relationship between the preset calibration area division and the detection area of an LED pixel array according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0060] Figure 3 Real scene diagram of an automatic parking system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0061] Figure 4 Flowchart of an automatic parking method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0062] Figure 5 Transmission signal waveform according to an embodiment of the present invention Figure 1 ;

[0063] Figure 6 Transmission signal waveform according to an embodiment of the present invention Figure 2 ;

[0064] Figure 7 Automatic parking control logic diagram according to a specific embodiment of the present invention;

[0065] Reference numerals:

[0066] 1 - Transmitter;

[0067] 11 - Signal generator;

[0068] 12 - LED headlight;

[0069] 121 - Signal modulator;

[0070] 122 - LED drive circuit;

[0071] 123 - LED pixel array;

[0072] 1231 - Distance measurement module;

[0073] 2 - Receiver;

[0074] 21 - Photoelectric detector;

[0075] 22 - Transimpedance amplifier;

[0076] 3 - Microcontroller;

[0077] 31 - Analog - to - digital converter;

[0078] 32 - Signal processing and distance calculation unit;

[0079] 4 - DC source;

[0080] 5 - Lens;

[0081] 6 Obstacle. Detailed implementation manners

[0082] The advantages of the present invention will be further elaborated below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

[0083] Exemplary embodiments will be described in detail herein, and examples thereof are shown in the accompanying drawings. When the following description refers to the accompanying drawings, unless otherwise indicated, the same numbers in different drawings represent the same or similar elements. The embodiments described in the following exemplary embodiments do not represent all embodiments consistent with the present disclosure. On the contrary, they are merely examples of apparatuses and methods consistent with some aspects of the present disclosure as detailed in the appended claims.

[0084] The terms used in the present disclosure are for the purpose of describing specific embodiments only and are not intended to limit the present disclosure. The singular forms "a", "said", and "the" used in the present disclosure and the appended claims are also intended to include the plural forms unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should also be understood that the term "and / or" as used herein refers to and encompasses any and all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

[0085] In the description of the present invention, it should be understood that the orientation or positional relationships indicated by terms such as "inside", "outside", etc. are based on the orientation or positional relationships shown in the accompanying drawings, and are only for the convenience of describing the present invention and simplifying the description, rather than indicating or implying that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and thus should not be construed as a limitation of the present invention.

[0086] In the description of the present invention, unless otherwise specified and defined, it should be noted that the terms "installation", "connection", and "coupling" should be understood in a broad sense. For example, they can be mechanical connections or electrical connections, or can be the communication inside two elements, can be directly connected, or can be indirectly connected through an intermediate medium. For those of ordinary skill in the art, the specific meanings of the above terms can be understood according to specific circumstances.

[0087] In subsequent descriptions, suffixes such as "module", "component", or "unit" used to represent elements are only for the convenience of describing the present invention and have no specific meaning in themselves. Therefore, "module" and "component" can be used interchangeably.

[0088] On the one hand, the present invention provides a vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlamp device. Refer to Figure 1 , Figure 1 which shows a schematic structural diagram of a vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlamp device conforming to the present invention.

[0089] The vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlamp device includes: a DC power source 4, a transmitting end 1, a receiving end 2, and a microcontroller 3.

[0090] The transmitting end 1 is used to emit visible light and distance detection signals; the transmitting end 1 includes: an LED headlight 12 and a signal generator 11; the LED headlight 12 includes: an LED driving circuit 122, a signal modulator 121, and an LED pixel array 123.

[0091] The DC power source 4 is used to supply power to the LED driving circuit to generate a driving current. The signal generator 11 is connected to the LED driving circuit and is used to generate a high-frequency signal; the signal modulator 121 is used to receive the high-frequency signal and superimpose the high-frequency signal on the driving current to drive the LED pixel array 123 to emit visible light and distance detection signals.

[0092] The receiving end 2 is used to receive the distance detection reflected signal after the distance detection signal emitted by the transmitting end 1 is reflected by the obstacle 6 and send it to the microcontroller 3;

[0093] The microcontroller 3 is used to obtain the distance between the obstacle 6 and the vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight device according to the distance detection reflected signal.

[0094] In the LED driving circuit of the present invention, a constant current source is used to drive the LED pixel array to achieve the lighting function. At the same time, a signal generator is added to generate a high-frequency signal. Based on the constant current source generated by the DC power source in the LED driving circuit, the signal modulator superimposes the high-frequency signal, and the high-frequency signal is used to achieve ranging. Therefore, the lighting and ranging functions can be realized by the same LED at the same time. Obstacle detection and ranging are performed by the LED ranging components installed in the front and rear headlights and reversing lights of the vehicle. Compared with the existing solutions using ultrasonic radars or millimeter-wave radars, the cost of this solution is lower and it is easier to promote. Further, a relatively lower-frequency signal is added to the LED optical signal compared to the previous LED headlight. Due to its longer wavelength, the low-frequency signal often has stronger anti-interference ability and is less affected by the environment.

[0095] In a further optional solution of the present invention, the vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight device further includes: a lens 5. When the distance detection signal encounters the obstacle 6 and returns, the lens 5 collects the returned light and focuses it on the photodetector 21. The receiving end 2 includes: a photodetector 21 and a transimpedance amplifier 22: the photodetector 21 converts the received optical signal into an electric current signal; the transimpedance amplifier 22 converts the electric current signal into a voltage signal and amplifies it. The microcontroller 3 includes: an analog-to-digital converter 31, a signal processing and distance calculation unit 32; the analog-to-digital converter 31 converts the analog signal into a digital signal for easy signal processing; the signal processing and distance calculation unit 32 processes the digital signal and calculates the distance between the obstacle 6 and the LED pixel unit in the LED pixel array according to the distance detection reflected signal.

[0096] In a further alternative, the receiving end 2 is configured to calculate the distance between the LED pixel unit and the obstacle 6 according to the received distance detection reflected signal by using the time-of-flight ranging method (i.e., the TOF ranging method) or the phase difference method. Based on the TOF ranging method, it is suitable for long-distance ranging and has a relatively fast response speed. Based on the phase difference method, the detection of short distances is more accurate. Therefore, when the system provided by the present invention does not encounter an obstacle 6, the TOF ranging method can be used to calculate the distance of the obstacle 6 for the distance detection signals of all LED pixel units; it can also combine with the image information collected by the camera. When the camera detects a short-distance obstacle 6, the phase-based ranging is used for some LED pixel units aligned with the obstacle 6, which not only improves the long-distance ranging efficiency but also ensures the accuracy of short-distance ranging, and the overall ranging performance of the system is improved.

[0097] Figure 2 FIG. shows a schematic diagram of the relationship between the area division of an LED pixel array and the detection area according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0098] Refer to Figure 2 , in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, each of the LED vehicle lamps includes: a plurality of LED ranging modules 1231 located in different areas of the LED vehicle lamp, and the LED ranging modules 1231 in each area are respectively configured to detect the distances of obstacles in different detection areas of the vehicle body, so as to control the scanning angle.

[0099] Each of the LED ranging modules includes: a plurality of LED pixel units arranged in an array; each LED pixel unit is configured to emit visible light and distance detection signals respectively to realize the lighting of the lighting area and the detection of obstacles in the ranging area. The receiving end is configured to receive the distance detection reflected signals after the distance detection signals emitted by each LED pixel unit are reflected by the obstacle, and calculate the distance between the obstacle and each LED pixel unit according to the corresponding distance detection reflected signals. In this embodiment, taking a single LED vehicle lamp as an example, the LED pixel array is arranged in a 5*20 matrix. Figure 2Each black / white cell represents 1 LED pixel unit, and each LED pixel unit can be independently controlled to turn on and off and perform ranging. The entire LED pixel array is divided into 5 light source emitting areas, such as the first light source emitting area - the fifth light source emitting area. Similarly, the corresponding illuminated area / ranging area is also divided into 5 areas, such as: the first illumination and ranging area, the second illumination and ranging area, the third illumination and ranging area, the fourth illumination and ranging area, and the fifth illumination and ranging area. During the actual ranging process, the camera can detect and determine in which area the obstacle is located. Taking obstacle 1 as an example, the ranging allocation method within the same LED headlight is as follows: If the image information detected by the camera shows that obstacle 1 falls within the first illumination and ranging area, then the LED pixel array in the first light source emitting area is controlled to be responsible for ranging; similarly, obstacle 2 is responsible for ranging by the LED pixel array in the second light source emitting area; obstacle 3 is simultaneously responsible for ranging by the LED pixel arrays in the first light source emitting area and the second light source emitting area. In the on-vehicle LED headlight device, the number of area divisions of each LED headlight can be determined according to actual needs. It can be divided in the same way as this embodiment, or in different ways. The present invention does not limit this here, and any division method that can achieve the effects of the present invention is within the protection scope of the present invention. In this preferred solution, the volume of each LED pixel unit is small, which is convenient for integration into the existing LED headlight. A large number of LED pixel units can be integrated in each LED headlight, which can better cover the environment around the vehicle. Although the ranging effect of a single LED ranging unit (composed of an LED pixel unit, a receiving end, and a microprocessor) is not as good as that of a single ultrasonic radar or millimeter-wave radar, by installing a large number of LED pixel units, the LED ranging unit combined with the receiving end and the microprocessor not only has a wide coverage range, but also has high ranging robustness and is more suitable for complex parking scenarios. Therefore, the large number of matrix-arranged LED ranging units improved on the basis of the vehicle lamp provided by the present invention not only reduce costs but also improve ranging accuracy.

[0100] The present invention also provides an automatic parking system, including a plurality of on-vehicle LED ranging headlight devices distributed at different positions on the vehicle body as described in any one of the foregoing. In each on-vehicle LED ranging headlight device, the LED pixel array is divided into a plurality of preset calibration areas (i.e., Figure 2 the first illumination and ranging area, the second illumination and ranging area, the third illumination and ranging area, the fourth illumination and ranging area, the fifth illumination and ranging area as described in the embodiment); the LED pixel array located in each preset calibration area constitutes an LED ranging module.

[0101] The image acquisition device is used to acquire obstacle image information; in this embodiment, the image acquisition device is a camera.

[0102] The central operation control module is used to identify parking spaces based on the obstacle image information to obtain parking space information; and to monitor the orientation of obstacles based on the obstacle image information to obtain the position information of the obstacles.

[0103] The central operation control module also stores the mapping relationship in which the preset calibration areas and the obstacle detection areas correspond one by one.

[0104] The central operation control module is further used to: specify a target vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight device among a number of vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight devices according to the position information of the obstacle; and to: determine the target LED ranging module corresponding to the preset calibration area in the target vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight device according to the obstacle detection area corresponding to the position information of the obstacle and the mapping relationship; and control the target LED ranging module to perform obstacle distance detection to obtain a first detection distance; and to: control the vehicle to perform automatic parking according to the first detection distance and the parking space information. The ranging process for different detection areas is as described above, and the present invention will not elaborate here. By not performing ranging for the ranging modules corresponding to the areas without obstacles, the present invention reduces the consumption of computing resources and has a faster ranging speed. Only in the areas with obstacles, the corresponding target ranging modules perform ranging, which can avoid signal interference in other areas, thereby achieving accurate ranging. The present invention provides a brand-new automatic parking system that obtains parking space information based on the images collected by the camera, and at the same time uses the vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight device, combines the camera for image collection, performs obstacle distance detection for the orientation where the camera detects obstacles to obtain a first detection distance, and controls the vehicle to achieve the automatic parking function according to the first detection distance and the parking space information. Moreover, by installing a large number of LED ranging components (LED pixel units combined with receiving ends and microcontrollers) for distance detection, it not only has a wide coverage range, but also has high ranging robustness and is more suitable for complex parking scenarios.

[0105] In a further solution, the central operation control module is further used to simultaneously control all the vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight devices at different positions of the vehicle body to perform obstacle distance detection to obtain a second detection distance; the second detection distance is greater than the first detection distance; and to perform automatic parking according to the first detection distance, the second detection distance and the parking space information.

[0106] Therefore, the present invention provides a comprehensive automatic parking system. The camera detects and obtains the position of the obstacle, and can use only the LED headlight in the area aligned with the obstacle for ranging, excluding the interference of other areas. The ranging result is more accurate, and at the same time, the ranging speed is faster, and the waste of computing resources or computing power resources is also saved. The positions of the obstacles obtained by the LED headlight and the camera are fused to obtain the azimuth and distance of the obstacles. The combination of the two sensors improves the redundancy of the system. In complex situations, the present invention can also use all vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight devices to perform a global overall scan, calculate the distances of obstacles in all directions of the vehicle body, and thus perform automatic parking, which is convenient for parking planning during the automatic parking process.

[0107] Figure 3 Fig. shows a real scene diagram of an automatic parking system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Refer to Figure 3 , cameras are respectively installed on the front bumper, rear bumper, left and right fenders of the vehicle for parking space detection; the LED test function is realized in the front, rear, left, and right headlights and reverse lights of the vehicle in the foregoing manner, and the vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight device with ranging function is improved, which is composed of a large number of independent LED ranging components (LED pixel unit combined with a receiving end, a microcontroller, and a lens), and is arranged in a matrix. In complex situations, the present invention not only uses the vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight device to perform a global overall scan and calculate the distances of obstacles in all directions of the vehicle body. Moreover, the azimuth of the obstacle is detected by the camera, then the scanning angle of the LED is controlled, and then the frequency conversion signal is sent at a specific azimuth by using the electrical scanning waveform of the LED to test its distance from the obstacle, improving the redundancy of the system; the distance detection result is used to improve the automatic parking performance after automatic parking.

[0108] In a specific example, the automatic parking system of the invention further includes a parking planning and control module, which receives the parking space information, the first detection distance and the second detection distance, and performs parking path planning and control of the actuator, and is applied to fully automatic driving and automatic parking. The present invention also provides an automatic parking method, which is applied to the automatic parking system described in any one of the foregoing of the present invention, Figure 4 Fig. shows a flowchart of an automatic parking method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0109] Refer to Figure 4 , the automatic parking system includes a plurality of vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight devices distributed at different positions of the vehicle body; in each vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight device, the LED pixel array is divided into a plurality of preset calibration areas; the LED pixel arrays located in each preset calibration area constitute an LED ranging module.

[0110] The automatic parking method includes:

[0111] S1: Control the image acquisition device to acquire obstacle image information; identify the parking space based on the obstacle image information to obtain parking space information, and monitor the orientation of the obstacle based on the obstacle image information to obtain the position information of the obstacle;

[0112] S2: The central operation control module stores the mapping relationship between a number of preset calibration areas and a number of obstacle detection areas in one-to-one correspondence; the position information of any obstacle corresponds to an obstacle detection area;

[0113] The central operation control module designates a target vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight device among a number of vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight devices according to the position information of the obstacle; and,

[0114] S3: Determine the target LED ranging module in the preset calibration area corresponding to the target vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight device according to the obstacle detection area corresponding to the position information of the obstacle and the mapping relationship;

[0115] S4: Control the target LED ranging module to perform obstacle distance detection to obtain a first detection distance;

[0116] S5: The central operation control module controls the vehicle to perform automatic parking according to the first detection distance and the parking space information.

[0117] In a further optional solution, in step S4, the step of controlling the target LED ranging module to perform obstacle distance detection to obtain a first detection distance specifically includes steps S41 - S43:

[0118] S41: The central operation control module controls a number of LED pixel units arranged in an array in the target LED ranging module to respectively emit distance detection signals;

[0119] The receiving end receives the distance detection reflection signals after the distance detection signals emitted by each LED pixel unit are reflected by the obstacle, and calculates the distance between the obstacle and each LED pixel unit according to the distance detection signal, the corresponding distance detection reflection signal and the phase difference method.

[0120] The phase difference method specifically includes: calculating the distance according to the frequency of the modulated light wave and the measured phase difference, turning on the part of the LED ranging units aligned with the obstacle, and the signal generator continuously sends out sine waves. The emission signal is: y1 = sin(wt); each LED ranging unit emits a frequency-variable signal as Figure 5 shown.

[0121] The emission signal encounters the obstacle and returns the signal to the receiver of the LED ranging unit. The reflection signal is as Figure 6as shown

[0122] By means of the phase difference detection method, the distance between each ranging unit and the obstacle is obtained, and the minimum distance among the multiple ranging units in the ranging module is taken as the distance between the vehicle and the obstacle object.

[0123] Since the time difference between the transmitted signal and the reflected signal is: Δt, the reflected signal can also be expressed as y2 = sin(w(t - Δt)).

[0124] If the distance between the LED ranging unit and the obstacle is d, and the propagation speed of the optical signal in the air is c, the calculation shows that The reflected signal can also be expressed as According to the above three formulas, it can be obtained that

[0125] Since w = 2πf, therefore, the calculation shows that where c is the speed of light and f is the frequency of the transmitted optical signal, both of which are known values. Only the phase difference needs to be obtained to obtain the distance.

[0126] The phases of the transmitted signal and the reflected signal are respectively obtained by means of Fourier transform, and the phase difference between the two is calculated Substitute into to obtain the distance between the ranging module and the obstacle.

[0127] S43: According to the distance between the obstacle and the LED pixel unit, the first detection distance is obtained. In one embodiment, the minimum distance between the obstacle and the LED pixel unit is taken as the distance between the vehicle and the obstacle.

[0128] In an optional solution, in the detection of a long-distance obstacle, before performing step S1: controlling the image acquisition device to acquire the obstacle image information, it further includes: S01: The central calculation module controls all LED ranging modules of all vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight devices in different orientations of the vehicle body to perform obstacle distance detection to obtain a second detection distance; the second detection distance is greater than the first detection distance; the central operation control module performs automatic parking according to the first detection distance, the second detection distance, and the parking space information.

[0129] Thus, in a further alternative, in step S4, the step of controlling all the LED ranging headlamp devices at different positions of the vehicle body to perform obstacle distance detection by all the LED ranging modules to obtain a second detection distance may specifically include: calculating the distance between the LED pixel unit and the obstacle according to the received distance detection reflection signal based on the time-of-flight ranging method; and obtaining the second detection distance based on the distances between the obstacle and each LED pixel unit. The specific cooperation process among the LED pixel unit, the receiving end, and the microprocessor is similar to the detection process in the above-mentioned specific direction, and the present invention will not elaborate herein.

[0130] The time-of-flight ranging method specifically includes: transmitting a signal, receiving the signal back when encountering an obstacle, and obtaining the distance through the time difference between the transmitted signal and the returned signal. The calculation is shown in the following formula, where d is the distance, c is the speed of light, and Δt is the time difference between the transmitted signal and the returned signal:

[0131]

[0132] In this solution, the time-of-flight ranging method for long-distance detection maximizes the efficiency of obstacle distance detection.

[0133] Figure 7 Shows an automatic parking control logic diagram according to a specific embodiment of the present invention. Refer to Figure 7 , the automatic parking logic is as follows: When starting to park, control all the LEDs to emit signals, and perform the process of calculating the distance based on the LED return signals. Obtain the image information around the vehicle itself, and perform image processing based on the image information (for parking space detection). At the same time, perform camera obstacle detection. Some LEDs emit variable-frequency signals, and perform the operation process of calculating the distance based on the LED return signals. When the recognized parking space is valid after parking space recognition, continue with the subsequent steps, otherwise, if it is invalid, return to the step of obtaining the image information around the vehicle itself to continue collecting. When the recognized parking space is valid after parking space recognition, summarize the partial obstacle distance information and the global distance information of the obstacles around the vehicle body for parking planning and control. If it is determined that parking is completed, end the parking, otherwise repeat the above operations.

[0134] The specific steps are described as follows:

[0135] Step 1: The driver clicks the start parking button on the central control screen to send a command to the vehicle to start parking. And simultaneously execute the following steps 2-step 5, steps 6-step 8, and step 9, where steps 2-step 5 are for parking space recognition; steps 6-step 8 are for obstacle recognition under the camera and partial LED ranging at a specific azimuth angle, and step 9 is for global ranging of all the LEDs around the vehicle body.

[0136] Step 2: When starting parking, the cameras installed on the vehicle body start to acquire the environmental information around 360 degrees and perform image stitching. Four cameras are used to capture the images around the vehicle. Each camera has a specific viewing angle range, and together they cover the entire surrounding environment. However, there are overlapping areas in the viewing angles of different cameras.

[0137] Step 2.1: Use the ORB feature point detection algorithm to extract feature points in the images of each camera.

[0138] Step 2.2: Find similar feature points between different images by calculating the Euclidean distance between feature points, and use the points with the minimum Euclidean distance as similar feature points for matching.

[0139] Step 2.3: According to the matching results of the feature points, calculate the transformation relationships between the images (such as affine transformation, perspective transformation, etc.), and use these transformation relationships to align the images into the same coordinate system.

[0140] Step 2.4: In the overlapping area, use the weighted average method to stitch the images together to form a complete 360-degree panoramic image.

[0141] Step 3: The central operation control module processes the acquired images, including operations such as image grayscale conversion, noise reduction, and image enhancement, for parking space detection.

[0142] Step 3.1: To simplify the image information and improve the running speed, the red, green, and blue components in the color image are weighted and averaged according to certain weights to obtain the grayscale value.

[0143] Step 3.2: Step 3.3: Enhance the image by sharpening and contrast enhancement to improve the image quality.

[0144] Step 4: The central operation control module performs corner detection on the processed images, including edge detection, line detection, and corner detection.

[0145] Step 4.1: Process the processed image through the Canny edge detection algorithm to obtain the edge image, which will display the edge information in the image, including parking space lines, parking space boundaries, etc.

[0146] Step 4.2: Through the Hough transform, convert the points in the edge image to the parameter space to detect the straight lines of the parking space lines.

[0147] Step 4.3: Detect the four corners of the parking space based on the image gradient information through the Harri step corner detection method.

[0148] Step 5: After obtaining edge, line, and corner point information, the system checks whether the line of the parking space is complete and continuous, whether the size of the parking space conforms to the dimensions of a conventional parking space, and whether the number of corner points is four. A comprehensive determination is made as to whether the space is valid. If it is, the parking space information is sent to the central processing unit. If it is not, steps 2 through 5 are repeated.

[0149] Step 6: While executing steps 3-5, the central operation control module performs obstacle detection around the vehicle body on the acquired image. Since obstacle detection generally uses deep learning algorithms such as the Yolo algorithm and the CenterNet algorithm, these algorithms generally do not require image preprocessing. They directly send the 360-degree image in step 2 to the obstacle detection module and output the obstacle location information.

[0150] Step 7: Turn on some LED ranging units aimed at the obstacle, and the signal generator continuously sends out a sine wave. The first detection distance is calculated based on the phase difference method.

[0151] Step 8: Calculate the minimum distance, maximum distance, and average distance among the LED pixels of the same ranging module (multiple ranging units in a headlight) and send them to the central operation control module, and repeat steps 6 to 8.

[0152] Step 9: While executing steps 2-5, 6-8, all LED distance measurement modules on the vehicle body simultaneously send out LED signals and receive LED return signals. Based on the time-of-flight distance measurement, the minimum distance, maximum distance, and average distance among multiple LED distance measurement modules in the same LED headlight are calculated and sent to the central operation control module, and step 9 is repeated. Alternatively, after starting parking and before performing image acquisition and obtaining image information around the vehicle, all LEDs can be controlled to send signals and the distance calculation process can be performed based on the LED return signals. Figure 7 Logic shown.

[0153] Step 10: When the parking space is valid after parking space identification, the parking space information of step 5, the partial obstacle distance information (first detection distance) of step 8, and the global distance information of obstacles around the vehicle body (second detection distance) of step 9 are summarized for parking planning and control.

[0154] Step 11: The parking planning and control module receives the information in Step 10 to conduct parking planning and sends instructions to actuators such as the steering wheel, transmission, and throttle. The central operation control module uses the data in Step 11 to comprehensively analyze the parking environment. Based on the current position of the vehicle, the position of the target parking space, and the distribution of surrounding obstacles, the parking planning and control module calculates an optimal parking path, generates control information for the actuators, and sends it to actuators such as the steering wheel, transmission, and throttle via the in-vehicle CAN bus.

[0155] Step 12: If the parking is completed, the parking ends and the system exits. If the parking is not completed, Steps 2 - 11 are continuously repeated.

[0156] In summary, through the improved in-vehicle LED ranging device, the present invention superimposes a high-frequency signal using a signal modulator and uses the high-frequency signal to achieve ranging. Therefore, the lighting and ranging functions can be simultaneously realized by the same LED. A brand-new parking system and method are provided. Compared with the radar-based solution, the present invention uses an LED as the ranging unit, which has a lower cost. Although the ranging effect of a single LED ranging unit is not as good as that of a single ultrasonic radar or millimeter-wave radar, by installing a large number of small-sized LED ranging units, it not only has a wide coverage range but also high ranging robustness and is more suitable for complex parking scenarios. Compared with the pure vision solution, the present invention uses an LED for ranging, improving the redundancy of the pure vision parking solution.

[0157] The present invention also provides a comprehensive and brand-new parking system. By the present invention, in areas without obstacles, the corresponding ranging module does not perform ranging, reducing the consumption of computing resources and achieving a faster ranging speed. Only in areas with obstacles, the corresponding target ranging module performs ranging, which can avoid signal interference in other areas and thus achieve accurate ranging. In complex situations, the present invention can also use all in-vehicle LED ranging headlight devices to conduct a global overall scan, calculate the distances of obstacles in all directions of the vehicle body, and thus perform automatic parking, facilitating parking planning during the automatic parking process.

[0158] It should be noted that the embodiments of the present invention have good implementability and do not impose any form of limitation on the present invention. Any person skilled in the art may use the disclosed technical content to modify or transform it into equivalent effective embodiments. However, as long as it does not depart from the technical solution of the present invention, any modification, equivalent change, or modification made to the above embodiments based on the technical essence of the present invention still falls within the scope of the technical solution of the present invention.

Claims

1. A vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight device, characterized in that, Comprising: A DC power source, a transmitting end, a receiving end, and a microcontroller; The transmitting end is used to emit visible light and distance detection signals; the transmitting end includes: an LED vehicle headlight and a signal generator; the LED vehicle headlight includes: an LED driving circuit, a signal modulator, and an LED pixel array; The DC power source is used to provide power for the LED driving circuit to generate a driving current; The signal generator is connected to the LED driving circuit and is used to generate high-frequency signals; The signal modulator is used to receive the high-frequency signal and superimpose the high-frequency signal on the driving current to drive the LED pixel array to emit the visible light and the distance detection signal; The receiving end is used to receive the distance detection reflected signal after the distance detection signal emitted by the transmitting end is reflected by an obstacle and send it to the microcontroller; The microcontroller is used to obtain the distance between the obstacle and the vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight device according to the distance detection reflected signal.

2. The vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight device according to claim 1, wherein Each of the LED vehicle headlights includes: A plurality of LED ranging modules located in different regions of the LED vehicle headlight, and the LED ranging modules in each region are respectively used to detect the distance of obstacles in different detection regions of the vehicle body; each LED ranging module includes: A plurality of LED pixel units arranged in an array; each LED pixel unit is used to emit visible light and distance detection signals respectively; The receiving end is used to receive the distance detection reflected signal after the distance detection signal emitted by each LED pixel unit is reflected by an obstacle, and calculate the distance between the obstacle and each LED pixel unit according to the corresponding distance detection reflected signal.

3. The vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight device according to claim 2, wherein The receiving end calculates the distance between the LED pixel unit and the obstacle according to the received distance detection reflected signal by the time-of-flight ranging method or the phase difference method.

4. The vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight device according to claim 3, wherein The vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight device further includes: a lens; The receiving end includes: a photodetector and a transimpedance amplifier: The microcontroller includes: an analog-to-digital converter, a signal processing and distance calculation unit; the signal processing and distance calculation unit is used to calculate the distance between the obstacle and the LED pixel unit according to the distance detection reflected signal.

5. An automatic parking system, wherein It includes a plurality of vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight devices distributed in different orientations of the vehicle body according to any one of claims 1-4; in each vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight device, the LED pixel array is divided into a plurality of preset calibration regions; the LED pixel array located in each preset calibration region constitutes an LED ranging module; The image acquisition device is used to acquire obstacle image information; The central operation control module is used to perform parking space recognition according to the obstacle image information to obtain parking space information; and perform obstacle orientation monitoring according to the obstacle image information to obtain the position information of the obstacle; The central operation control module also stores a mapping relationship in which the preset calibration areas and the obstacle detection areas correspond one by one; the central operation control module is further configured to: designate a target vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight device among a plurality of vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight devices according to the position information of the obstacle; and is further configured to: determine a target LED ranging module corresponding to the preset calibration area in the target vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight device according to the obstacle detection area corresponding to the position information of the obstacle and the mapping relationship; control the target LED ranging module to perform obstacle distance detection to obtain a first detection distance; and is further configured to: control the vehicle to perform automatic parking according to the first detection distance and the parking space information.

6. The automatic parking system according to claim 5, wherein the central operation control module is further configured to simultaneously control all vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight devices at different positions of the vehicle body to perform obstacle distance detection to obtain a second detection distance; the second detection distance is greater than the first detection distance; and perform automatic parking according to the first detection distance, the second detection distance and the parking space information.

7. An automatic parking method, characterized in that, Applied to the automatic parking system according to claim 5 or 6, the automatic parking system includes a plurality of vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight devices distributed at different positions of the vehicle body; in each vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight device, the LED pixel array is divided into a plurality of preset calibration areas; the LED pixel arrays located in each preset calibration area constitute an LED ranging module; The automatic parking method includes: controlling an image acquisition device to acquire obstacle image information; performing parking space recognition according to the obstacle image information to obtain parking space information, and performing obstacle orientation monitoring according to the obstacle image information to obtain the position information of the obstacle; The central operation control module stores a mapping relationship in which a plurality of preset calibration areas and a plurality of obstacle detection areas correspond one by one; the position information of any obstacle corresponds to an obstacle detection area; the central operation control module designates a target vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight device among a plurality of vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight devices according to the position information of the obstacle; and determines the target LED ranging module within the preset calibration area corresponding to the target vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight device according to the obstacle detection area corresponding to the position information of the obstacle and the mapping relationship; controls the target LED ranging module to perform obstacle distance detection to obtain a first detection distance; The central operation control module controls the vehicle to perform automatic parking according to the first detection distance and the parking space information.

8. The automatic parking method according to claim 7, wherein before controlling the image acquisition device to acquire obstacle image information, it further includes: the central calculation module controls all LED ranging modules of all vehicle-mounted LED ranging headlight devices at different positions of the vehicle body to perform obstacle distance detection to obtain a second detection distance; the second detection distance is greater than the first detection distance; The central operation control module performs automatic parking according to the first detection distance, the second detection distance, and the parking space information.

9. The automatic parking method according to claim 7, wherein: The step of controlling the target LED ranging module to perform obstacle distance detection to obtain the first detection distance specifically includes: The central operation control module controls a plurality of LED pixel units arranged in an array in the target LED ranging module to respectively emit distance detection signals; The receiving end receives the distance detection reflection signals after the distance detection signals emitted by each LED pixel unit are reflected by the obstacle, and calculates the distance between the obstacle and each LED pixel unit according to the distance detection signal, the corresponding distance detection reflection signal, and the phase difference method; The first detection distance is obtained according to the distance between the obstacle and each LED pixel unit.

10. The automatic parking method according to claim 8, wherein: The step of obtaining the second detection distance specifically includes: According to the received distance detection reflection signal, the distance between the LED pixel unit and the obstacle is calculated according to the time-of-flight ranging method; The second detection distance is obtained according to the distance between the obstacle and each LED pixel unit.

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