Avoiding false-positive warnings when monitoring a blind spot

Abstract

The invention relates to a system for monitoring a danger zone (1) around a vehicle (3), comprising a sensor unit (5) designed to detect another road user in a danger zone (1) and to transmit sensor information to a control unit (9) of the system, wherein the control unit (9) is designed to warn the driver about the other road user, and comprising an additional unit (7) designed to determine information about the static environment of the vehicle (3) and to transmit it to the control unit (9), wherein the control unit (9) is designed to carry out a plausibility check using the information about the static environment as to whether another road user can plausibly be located in the detection range of the sensor unit (5) based on the static environment, and if this is not the case,to reject a road user identified by the sensor information as non-existent.

Description

The invention relates to a system for a vehicle for monitoring blind spots outside the visual detection range of side mirrors of the vehicle and for warning a driver of a possible collision with another road user in one of the blind spots, and to a vehicle having such a system.Vehicles such as trucks and passenger cars are typically equipped with side mirrors in order to be able to detect the lateral and rearward traffic when turning or when changing lanes on a multi-lane road. The side mirrors have respective left and right detection regions with an opening angle which opens toward the direction of travel and somewhat toward the side. Outside the opening angle, other road users can thus be located, which cannot be seen by the driver of the own vehicle through the side mirrors. This is the region often referred to as the "blind spot". It is therefore provided for drivers of vehicles to perform shoulder gaze when turning and when performing a lane change in order to visually detect precisely this region. Since, despite the performance of a shoulder gaze, further road users can be overlooked in particular in a region next to the own vehicle, since these are located, for example, hidden behind a pillar of the vehicle body, according to the prior art, a sensory detection of this region of the blind spot is frequently used in order to output a warning about this to the driver when a further road user is detected in this region, in particular next to the own vehicle.DE 10 2009 023 096 A1 relates in this context to a device for controlling the sequence of at least one process of the processes of monitoring the blind spot and lane change warning in a vehicle based on the status of the driver of the vehicle, wherein at least one vehicle key having the status of a primary key is configured to be assigned to a driver having the status of a primary driver, and wherein at least one further vehicle key having the status of a secondary key is configured to be assigned to a further driver having the status of a secondary driver, wherein the device has a controller which is configured to carry out the following steps: receiving at least one driver status signal, which is indicative of whether the driver of the vehicle is a primary driver or a secondary driver, from an ignition key device, which is positioned on the primary key and / or the secondary key; determining whether the driver of the vehicle is a primary driver or a secondary driver based on the at least one driver status signal; and selectively controlling the sequence of the at least one of blind spot monitoring and lane change warning based on whether the driver of the vehicle is a primary driver or a secondary driver.Current systems, in particular radar-based systems, alert beyond the blind spot even in the event of general risks of a lane change. This means not only when another road user is in the blind spot on the adjacent lane or next to the own vehicle, but also when he is far away on the adjacent lane.However, if the sensors used for monitoring a danger area including the blind spot detect objects other than other road users, a false positive result of the monitoring is present, and the driver of the own vehicle may be erroneously warned of a road user who does not exist. Such a false positive result of the monitoring can occur, for example, when ultrasonic sensors or radar sensors are used on the own vehicle, from which a reflected signal is detected on an object such as a guardrail and, because of the short distance from the own vehicle, the reflection is interpreted as reflection on a further road user.It is an object of the invention to reduce the false positive results of monitoring a danger zone, in particular a blind spot beyond the detection zone of a side mirror of a vehicle.The invention results from the features of the independent claims. Advantageous refinements and refinements are the subject matter of the dependent claims.A first aspect of the invention relates to a system for a vehicle for monitoring a danger zone, in particular blind spots outside the visual detection zone of side mirrors of the vehicle, and for warning a driver of a possible collision with a further road user, having a sensor unit which is designed and serves to detect a further road user in a danger zone and to transmit sensor information to a control unit of the system, wherein the control unit is designed to warn the driver of the further road user, and having an additional unit which is designed to determine information about the static environment of the vehicle and to transmit it to the control unit, wherein the control unit is designed to carry out a plausibility check using the information about the static environment, whether another road user can be plausible in the detection range of the sensor unit due to the static environment, and if this is negated, to discard a road user determined by means of the sensor information as not existing.The system is basically designed to warn of another road user in the area of a blind spot beyond the detection range of side mirrors. For this purpose, the sensor unit detects a lateral region, for example with actively emitted ultrasonic waves or radar waves, and analyzes their reflections in order to infer the presence of a further road user in the blind spot, for example on the left or right next to the vehicle.This sensor information is transmitted to the control unit, the responsibility of which is to take over the evaluation of the sensor information and, if appropriate, to warn the driver of the vehicle of the further road user.False positive warnings can be generated here, for example if the ultrasonic waves or the radar waves are reflected on a guardrail, a massive roadway boundary such as made of concrete or the like, and the reflection location is at a distance from the own vehicle that is as small as the reflection location could be on a further road user. The problem can occur particularly in massive roadway separations without structures, since the reflection behavior corresponds to a road user traveling in parallel.In this case, there is the risk that the vehicle is driving on a single-lane roadway, for example, which is bounded by guardrails or other roadway boundaries, which is incorrectly interpreted by the control unit as a further road user next to the own vehicle on the basis of the sensor information.For this purpose, the additional unit acquires information about the static environment of the vehicle in order to be able to identify precisely these road boundaries or guardrails mentioned, for example. In such an exemplary case, it is impossible for another road user to walk or drive next to the vehicle, since there is no lane at all to give this a space next to the own vehicle.The static information about the environment therefore contains in particular such information in order to determine precisely those circumstances which are suitable for plausibility checking whether a further road user can be at all in a blind spot to the own vehicle.The additional unit carries out corresponding information acquisitions in order to be able to sufficiently characterize the static environment around the host vehicle. This can be done on the one hand with the aid of an additional sensor such as a camera, but this can also be done with the aid of digital maps from which information about the static environment can be gathered. In the case of the use of a digital map, the current position of the own vehicle is to be determined in each case, so that an assignment to the relevant information about the static environment can be made in each case currently.The term static environment is to be understood broadly here; it substantially comprises all relevant information which does not relate to further road users. While the sensor data of the sensor unit explicitly serve to obtain information about a further road user, in particular whether such a road user is located in a blind spot around the own vehicle, the additional unit is not used to detect further road users but to obtain information about the static environment, which information can be determined as being the basic possible presence of a further road user; i.e. in other words, whether the static environment allows a dangerous situation at all, in which a further road user can be located in a blind spot around the own vehicle.If the control unit establishes that the static environment does not at all allow a presence on at least one side of the own vehicle in the region of a blind spot or in the vicinity thereof, then a further road user that is provisionally detected by the control unit by means of the sensor information of the sensor unit is discarded as such and accordingly no warning about this is output to the driver of the vehicle.Advantageous effects of the invention are that sensor information obtained on account of the infrastructure around a vehicle is not incorrectly used by the control unit of a vehicle for warning about a further road user in a blind spot, in particular next to the vehicle, which does not exist at all, so that false-positive warnings about possible collisions with a further road user in a blind spot beyond a detection range of a side mirror of the vehicle can be avoided as far as possible. This in turn advantageously leads to the acceptance of the system for warning against a further road user in a blind spot at a customer being increased, as a result of which the confidence in the system for warning also increases and thus accidents can be better avoided.According to an advantageous embodiment, the sensor unit has a radar unit and / or an ultrasonic sensor unit.According to a further advantageous embodiment, the additional unit has a camera for visual detection of the static environment.With the camera, in particular, information about the static environment can be obtained by image analysis in order to be able to determine the presence or absence of further lanes, sidewalks, wheel paths, etc.According to a further advantageous embodiment, the additional unit has a LiDAR unit for visual detection of the static environment.A LiDAR unit can be used in particular to be able to spatially capture objects and contours in the environment of the vehicle, for example to be able to capture road profiles with high reliability.According to a further advantageous embodiment, the additional unit has a locating device for ascertaining a current position of the vehicle, which is designed to ascertain, by means of the respectively currently detected position of the vehicle, by matching with a digital map, whether a traffic path exists at all in the region of a blind spot which can be used by a further road user.The information determined from the digital map relates in particular to information about the lane guidance and / or the course of sidewalks or wheel paths. If a single-lane road is present which has neither a sidewalk nor a wheelway to its right, then, for example, no further road user can be located in a right blind spot area if the host vehicle is located sufficiently far to the right at a lane boundary. This position can be determined with the aid of the locating unit in order to be able to correctly assign its own position on the digital map to the vehicle.According to a further advantageous embodiment, the static environment information comprises a number of lanes on the road used by the vehicle.According to a further advantageous embodiment, the static environment information comprises the presence of a sidewalk and / or bicycle trail parallel to the road used by the vehicle.According to a further advantageous embodiment, the information about the static environment comprises the presence of a structural roadway boundary.Particularly in the case of a robust and high roadway boundary made of concrete, as is used, for example, in lane separations or in highway construction sites, radar beams and ultrasonic waves can be reflected and incorrectly interpreted by the control unit as a further road user. However, if the additional unit is used to obtain the information that such a structural roadway boundary is present directly next to the vehicle, false positive detection of another road user on this side of the vehicle next to the vehicle can be advantageously prevented.According to a further advantageous embodiment, the control unit is designed to determine a driving lane used by the vehicle from a plurality of available driving lanes, and to perform the plausibility check on the basis of the determined used driving lane.This requires a correspondingly accurate position recognition of the vehicle, which can preferably take place via the regular localization of the vehicle (preferably a data fusion from satellite-assisted position recognition, inertial sensors, lane recognition, etc.); alternatively, however, the number of further lanes left and right next to the own vehicle can also be recognized via the image recognition from lanes captured by camera images.A further aspect of the invention relates to a vehicle having a system as described above and below.Advantages and preferred refinements of the proposed vehicle result from an analogous and analogous transfer of the explanations given above in connection with the proposed system.Further advantages, features and details are evident from the following description, in which--possibly with reference to the drawing--at least one exemplary embodiment is described in detail. Identical, similar and / or functionally identical parts are provided with the same reference numerals.The following are shown: FIG. 1 : A vehicle with a system for monitoring blind spots according to a first exemplary embodiment of the invention. FIG. 2 : A vehicle with a system for monitoring blind spots according to a second exemplary embodiment of the invention.FIG. 1 shows a vehicle 3 having a system for monitoring blind spots 1 outside the visual detection range of side mirrors of the vehicle 3 and for warning a driver of a possible collision with a further road user in one of the blind spots 1. Both side mirrors serve the driver of the vehicle 3 to be able to monitor a rearward region. The detection ranges by the side mirrors are marked with aperture angles drawn with dashed lines on the left and right of the vehicle 3 in FIG. 1. Outside the respective outer limits of the opening angles, the respective blind spot 1 begins. If a further road user is located in this area 1, this further road user is not recognizable by the driver of the vehicle at least with the aid of the side mirrors. Only a shoulder gaze by the driver could remedy this in order to recognize the further road user. In order to increase the safety in the detection of the further road user, for example during a lane change or during a turn process, the system is equipped with a control unit 9, which receives sensor data from a sensor unit 5 of the vehicle 3 and concludes on the basis of waves reflected in the environment of the vehicle 3 that a further road user is present in or in the vicinity of the blind spot 1. The sensor unit 5 is designed as an ultrasound unit or radar unit. These emit a signal to the left and right sides of the vehicle 3 and also have a corresponding receiver in order to be able to receive the signals reflected in the environment again. If a further road user is detected in blind spot 1, or a road user is detected who is about to enter into this blind spot 1, control unit 9 outputs a warning to the driver. This can be done visually and / or acoustically. Furthermore, corresponding haptic feedback can also be output on the steering wheel, for example by an artificial resistance or by vibration on the steering wheel. In order to reduce the probability of false positive warnings, i.e. warnings to a road user in blind spot 1, which does not exist, an additional unit 7 is used. The additional unit 7 basically serves to detect a static environment around the vehicle 3, for example lane boundaries, guardrails, walls and others, which in each case indicates the possibility of a presence of a further road user in the area of the blind spot 1. The control unit 9 then suppresses a warning to the driver about a further road user to the right next to the vehicle 3, for example if the vehicle 3 is on the way on a multi-lane road but there is no further lane to the right next to the vehicle 3. This information about the environment is obtained with the aid of the additional unit 7 by sensor and / or by localization in conjunction with the use of a digital map. In the example of FIG. 1, the additional unit 7 has a left and right camera in order to optically capture the environment and transmit camera data to the control unit 9, where the camera data are evaluated by image analysis in order thus to obtain usable information for carrying out a plausibility check.FIG. 2 shows a further vehicle 3 with a system as described in FIG. 1. In contrast to FIG. 1, however, the additional unit 7 has a satellite-supported locating unit in order to be able to determine a position of the vehicle 3 as precisely as possible along the road and transversely to the road. The locating unit is so accurate that the current use of a lane from a plurality of possible lanes can be detected. With the aid of a digital map, into which the detected position of the vehicle 3 is classified, the situation of the currently present lanes can be detected, so that it can be established that further lanes are present at the top left and / or right of the vehicle 3, on which further road users could be located. If no such lane is present, a warning about a further road user on the side of the missing further lane is accordingly suppressed and is not output by the control unit 9 to the driver of the vehicle 3.Although the invention has been illustrated and explained in more detail by preferred exemplary embodiments, the invention is not restricted by the disclosed examples and other variations can be derived therefrom by the person skilled in the art without departing from the scope of protection of the invention. It is therefore clear that a large number of possible variations exist. It is also clear that embodiments mentioned by way of example represent only examples which are not to be understood in any way as limiting, for example, the scope of protection, the possible applications or the configuration of the invention. Rather, the preceding description and the description of the figures enable the person skilled in the art to implement the exemplary embodiments in concrete terms, wherein the person skilled in the art, knowing the disclosed inventive concept, can make various changes, for example with regard to the function or the arrangement of individual elements mentioned in an exemplary embodiment, without departing from the scope of protection defined by the claims and their legal equivalents, such as further explanations in the description.List of reference characters1 Blind spot 3 Vehicle 5 Sensor unit 7 Additional unit 9 Control unitReferences included in the specificationThis list of documents cited by the applicant has been produced in an automated manner and is only included for the better information of the reader. The list is not part of the German patent application or utility model application. The DPMA does not take any adhesion for any faults or omissions.Patent Literature citedDE 10 2009 023 096 A1

[0003]

Claims

System for a vehicle (3) for monitoring a danger zone (1), in particular blind spots outside the visual detection zone of side mirrors of the vehicle (3), and for warning a driver of a possible collision with a further road user, having a sensor unit (5) which is designed and serves to detect a further road user in a danger zone (1) and to transmit sensor information to a control unit (9) of the system, wherein the control unit (9) is designed to warn the driver of the further road user, and having an additional unit (7) which is designed to determine information about the static environment of the vehicle (3) and to transmit it to the control unit (9), wherein the control unit (9) is designed to carry out a plausibility check using the information about the static environment, whether another road user can be plausible in the detection range of the sensor unit ( 5) due to the static environment, and if this is negated, to discard a road user determined by means of the sensor information as not existing.The system according to claim 1, wherein the sensor unit (5) comprises a radar unit and / or an ultrasonic sensor unit.The system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the accessory unit (7) comprises a camera for visual detection of the static environment.The system according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the auxiliary unit (7) comprises a LiDAR unit for visual detection of the static environment.System according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the additional unit (7) has a locating device for determining a current position of the vehicle (3) and is designed to determine, by means of the respectively currently detected position of the vehicle (3) by matching with a digital map, whether a traffic path exists at all in the danger area (1), which can be used by a further road user.The system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the static environment information comprises a number of the lanes on the road used by the vehicle (3).The system according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the static environment information comprises the presence of a sidewalk and / or bicycle pavement parallel to the road used by the vehicle (3).The system of any preceding claim, wherein the static environment information comprises the presence of a structural roadway boundary.The system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the control unit (9) is configured to determine a driving lane used by the vehicle (3) from a plurality of available driving lanes, and to perform the plausibility check on the basis of the determined used driving lane.Vehicle (3) comprising a system according to one of the preceding claims.

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