Vehicle controller, and vehicle control method

Abstract

To obtain a vehicle controller for controlling a vehicle based on precise road information.SOLUTION: A vehicle controller 100 according to the present disclosure comprises a first road information storage part 101 for storing first road information detected using a peripheral monitoring sensor 22 for monitoring a periphery of one's own vehicle, a second road information acquisition part 102 for acquiring second road information based on map information 20, a road information comparison part 103 for comparing the first road information with the second road information, and a road information determination part 105 for determining road information based on a comparison result from the road information comparison part 103.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present application relates to a vehicle control device and a vehicle control method. [Background technology]

[0002] In recent years, autonomous driving technology has been developed that acquires road information around a vehicle using highly accurate positioning information and highly accurate map information obtained from positioning satellites, and drives the vehicle automatically based on the acquired road information. In addition, a system has been proposed that judges the reliability of road information by comparing road information acquired from highly accurate map information with road information acquired from a sensor that captures images of the road.

[0003] For example, the vehicle control device described in Patent Document 1 compares road information acquired using satellite positioning information and map information with road information acquired by capturing an image of the road, and determines the reliability of the road information.

[0004] For example, the position estimation device described in Patent Document 2 stores the vehicle position obtained using satellite positioning information and map information, as well as road dividing line information ahead, and estimates the vehicle position with high accuracy using the stored road dividing line information and the obtained vehicle position. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0005] [Patent Document 1] Patent No. 3795299 [Patent Document 2] Patent Publication No. 2022-54223 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0006] However, in the vehicle control device described in Patent Document 1, when road information such as white lines is acquired as image data using a front camera that captures an image of the road in the traveling direction of the vehicle, it is difficult to acquire accurate road information on curves in a road with a large curvature. Therefore, when the vehicle is traveling on a road with a large curvature, there is a problem that it is not possible to appropriately determine whether the road information is accurate even if the road information acquired from the map information is compared with the road information acquired by the front camera.

[0007] Furthermore, in the position estimation device described in Patent Document 2, the vehicle position is corrected using the deviation between the vehicle position obtained from map information and the vehicle position obtained by the front camera. However, for example, the vehicle position estimated from satellite positioning may contain errors in the positioning data. In a state where there is an error in the positioning data, there is a high possibility that the vehicle position will be erroneously estimated.

[0008] The present disclosure has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and has an object to provide a vehicle control device and a vehicle control method that control a vehicle based on accurate road information. [Means for solving the problem]

[0009] The vehicle control device disclosed in the present application comprises: a first road information storage unit that stores first road information detected by a surroundings monitoring sensor that monitors the surroundings of the host vehicle; a second road information acquisition unit that acquires second road information based on map information; a road information comparison unit that compares the first road information with the second road information; a road information determination unit that determines road information based on a comparison result of the road information comparison unit; Equipped with.

[0010] The vehicle control method disclosed in the present application comprises: A vehicle control method in which the following steps are executed by a vehicle control device, Storing first road information detected by a surroundings monitoring sensor that monitors the surroundings of the host vehicle; acquiring second road information based on map information; a step of comparing the first road information with the second road information, and outputting a comparison result indicating a match if a road information deviation between the first road information and the second road information is equal to or smaller than a preset threshold deviation, and outputting a comparison result indicating a mismatch if the road information deviation is larger than the preset threshold deviation; determining road information based on the comparison result; Equipped with. Effect of the Invention

[0011] According to the vehicle control device and vehicle control method disclosed in the present application, it is possible to determine the accuracy of road information by comparing road information from multiple information sources, and calculate the road information based on the determination result, thereby achieving the effect of enabling the vehicle to be stably controlled using accurate road information. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0012] [Figure 1] 1 is a block diagram of a vehicle control device according to a first embodiment. [Diagram 2] 1 is a schematic diagram of a vehicle equipped with a vehicle control device according to a first embodiment. [Diagram 3] 5 is a flowchart showing processing in a first road information storage unit of the vehicle control device according to the first embodiment. [Figure 4] 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example of processing in a first road information storage unit of the vehicle control device according to the first embodiment. FIG. [Diagram 5] 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example of processing in a first road information storage unit of the vehicle control device according to the first embodiment. FIG. [Figure 6] 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example of processing in a first road information storage unit of the vehicle control device according to the first embodiment. FIG. [Figure 7] 4 is a flowchart showing a process in a road information comparison unit of the vehicle control device according to the first embodiment. [Figure 8]4 is a schematic diagram showing an example of processing in a road information comparison unit of the vehicle control device according to the first embodiment. FIG. [Figure 9] 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example of processing in a road information comparison unit of the vehicle control device according to the first embodiment. FIG. [Figure 10] 4 is a flowchart showing a process in a road information determination unit of the vehicle control device according to the first embodiment. [Figure 11] 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration for implementing a vehicle control device according to a first embodiment. [Figure 12] 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration for implementing a vehicle control device according to a first embodiment. FIG. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0013] Embodiment 1 <Configuration of vehicle control device according to embodiment 1> 1 is a block diagram of a vehicle control device 100 according to embodiment 1. The vehicle control device 100 is mounted on a vehicle 10, for example.

[0014] The vehicle control device 100 includes a first road information storage unit 101, a second road information acquisition unit 102, a road information comparison unit 103, a road information determination unit 104, and a vehicle control unit 105. Each component of the vehicle control device 100 will be described below.

[0015] <1st road information storage section> The first road information storage unit 101 stores the first road information detected by the perimeter monitoring sensor 22. The first road information storage unit 101 also outputs the stored first road information to the road information comparison unit 103.

[0016] A forward monitoring camera (hereinafter, forward camera) installed in front of the vehicle can obtain road information from the vehicle to a long distance, but the detection accuracy deteriorates on roads with large curvatures, and there is a high possibility that erroneous road information will be detected. In contrast, the perimeter monitoring sensor 22 detects road information near the vehicle, i.e., first road information, and therefore there is a high possibility that correct road information can be detected even on roads with large curvatures.

[0017] Here, the perimeter monitoring sensor 22 may be, for example, a side camera. The side camera is often installed on the underside of a door mirror, and is a sensor that captures images of the left and right vicinity of the vehicle, and can output road information of the left and right vicinity of the vehicle and the reliability of the road information. The perimeter monitoring sensor 22 is not limited to a side camera, and may be a radar sensor such as a millimeter wave radar, LiDAR, or ultrasonic sensor.

[0018] The perimeter monitoring sensor 22 does not have a wide detection range because it detects road information around the vehicle. Therefore, the road information detected by the perimeter monitoring sensor 22 is stored as first road information, and the stored first road information is combined to obtain road information that is greater than the detection range of the perimeter monitoring sensor 22. Furthermore, by storing the first road information, even if the perimeter monitoring sensor 22 is temporarily unable to detect road information, the actual road shape can be estimated from the previously stored first road information. Details of the processing of the first road information storage unit 101 will be described later.

[0019] The first road information storage unit 101 stores vehicle movement information 23. The vehicle movement information 23 is movement information of the host vehicle acquired from, for example, a speed sensor, an acceleration sensor, a steering angle sensor, a steering torque sensor, a yaw rate sensor (none of which are shown), and the like.

[0020] <Second road information acquisition section> The second road information acquisition unit 102 acquires second road information by combining the vehicle's positioning information 21 acquired from a positioning satellite with highly accurate map information 20. The second road information includes at least the position information of road dividing lines. The second road information makes it possible to acquire road information from the vicinity of the vehicle to distant areas. The second road information may also be map information only.

[0021] The second road information reliability, which is the reliability of the second road information, is an index that indicates the accuracy of the second road information. One example of the second road information reliability is, for example, the positioning accuracy of the vehicle position acquired from a positioning satellite. As described above, the road information acquired by combining the vehicle positioning information 21 acquired from a positioning satellite and the highly accurate map information 20 is used as the second road information, but another example of the second road information may be road information acquired from, for example, V2X (Vehicle to Everything). In other words, the second road information may be any information that can acquire road information at least from the vehicle to a distant place.

[0022] <Road information comparison section> The road information comparison unit 103 compares the first road information acquired from the first road information storage unit 101 with the second road information acquired from the second road information acquisition unit 102, and determines whether the first road information and the second road information match.

[0023] The second road information can acquire road information for distant locations and estimate the road shape ahead. Therefore, it is possible to implement automatic driving control by generating a driving route for the vehicle using the second road information. However, if the second road information contains errors and differs from the actual road shape, there is a risk that erroneous automatic driving control will be performed. Therefore, it is necessary to confirm that the second road information is accurate enough to enable automatic driving control before performing automatic driving control.

[0024] One method of confirming that the second road information is accurate is to obtain road information using sensor information and methods different from those used for the second road information and compare the road information with the second road information to confirm the accuracy of the second road information.

[0025] For example, when road information to be compared with the second road information is detected using a front camera, the front camera is prone to false detection on roads with large curvatures, so if the road information detected using the front camera is used as the comparison target, the accuracy of the second road information cannot be confirmed on roads with large curvatures. For this reason, the vehicle control device 100 according to the first embodiment is configured to store the first road information detected by the periphery monitoring sensor 22 and compare the second road information with the stored first road information, thereby making it possible to confirm the accuracy of the second road information even on roads with large curvatures. Detailed processing of the road information comparison unit 103 will be described later.

[0026] <Road Information Determination Division> The road information determination unit 104 determines road information based on the comparison result in the road information comparison unit 103. The road information comparison unit 103 compares the first road information with the second road information, and if the road information deviation between the first road information and the second road information is equal to or less than a preset threshold deviation, it outputs a match as the comparison result, and the road information determination unit 104 corrects the second road information based on the first road information.

[0027] On the other hand, when the road information comparison unit 103 compares the first road information with the second road information, if the road information deviation is greater than a preset threshold deviation, it outputs a mismatch as the comparison result, and the road information determination unit 104 does not output the second road information to the vehicle control unit 105.

[0028] The vehicle control unit 105 controls the traveling of the vehicle based on the road information output from the road information determination unit 104 . The above is a description of each component of the vehicle control device 100 according to the first embodiment.

[0029] 2 is a schematic diagram of a vehicle 10 equipped with a vehicle control device 100. The vehicle control device 100 calculates a required target steering amount and a target acceleration / deceleration based on road information output from a road information determination unit 104, and outputs the target steering amount and the target acceleration / deceleration to an actuator device 200.

[0030] <Processing in the first road information storage unit> The processing in the first road information storage unit 101 will be described with reference to the flowchart in Fig. 3. In step S101, the first road information storage unit 101 acquires the vehicle movement information 23. The vehicle movement information 23 includes at least the amount of movement of the vehicle 10 in the translational direction and the amount of rotation of the vehicle 10. The amount of movement and the amount of rotation of the vehicle 10 may be calculated, for example, from the vehicle speed and yaw rate of the vehicle 10. Also, information may be acquired from a communication device outside the vehicle, such as V2X. After the processing of step S101, the processing proceeds to step S102.

[0031] In step S102, the first road information storage unit 101 acquires first road information and first road information reliability representing the reliability of the first road information from the periphery monitoring sensor 22. The first road information includes at least position information of the road dividing line. After the process of step S102, the process proceeds to step S103.

[0032] In step S103, the first road information storage unit 101 judges whether the first road information detected by the periphery monitoring sensor 22 is abnormal or the first road information reliability is low. For example, when the first road information newly detected by the periphery monitoring sensor 22 has a value far from the stored first road information, the newly detected road information is judged to be an abnormal value. As an example of a method for judging whether the first road information reliability is low, a method for judging that the first road information reliability is low when the first road information reliability is lower than a preset threshold reliability can be cited. When the first road information is not abnormal and the first road information reliability is equal to or higher than the threshold reliability, the process proceeds to step S104. On the other hand, when the first road information is abnormal or the first road information reliability is lower than the threshold reliability, the process proceeds to step S108.

[0033] In step S104, the first road information detected by the perimeter monitoring sensor 22 is stored, and the process proceeds to step S105.

[0034] In step S105, the first road information storage unit 101 performs coordinate conversion of the stored past first road information based on the vehicle movement information 23 of the host vehicle. When there is an overlapping portion of the road position between the latest, i.e., current, first road information detected by the perimeter monitoring sensor 22 and the coordinate-converted past first road information, the first road information storage unit 101 preferentially stores the latest first road information, but does not store the overlapping portion of the past first road information.

[0035] Since the stored past first road information is a value detected at the past vehicle position, when the vehicle moves, the previously detected value must be converted by the amount of movement of the vehicle. That is, the first road information detected in the past vehicle coordinate system is converted to the latest, i.e., current vehicle coordinate system based on the vehicle movement information 23 of the vehicle. An example of such coordinate conversion is shown in FIG. 4.

[0036] The first road information stored after coordinate transformation is the first road information estimated based on the vehicle movement information 23 of the host vehicle. For this reason, between the latest, i.e., current, first road information detected using the periphery monitoring sensor 22 and the coordinate-transformed first road information, the latest first road information is more likely to be closer to the actual road shape. For the above reasons, if there is a portion where the road positions of the latest first road information and the coordinate-transformed first road information overlap, the latest first road information is preferentially stored for the overlapping portion. After the process of step S105, the process proceeds to step S106.

[0037] In step S106, if there is any first road information that has been stored for a predetermined time or more among the first road information stored in the past, the first road information storage unit 101 deletes the first road information that has been stored for a predetermined time or more.

[0038] The first road information stored in the first road information storage unit 101 is stored while being coordinate-converted based on the vehicle movement information 23 of the host vehicle. However, the vehicle movement information 23 of the host vehicle may include slight errors due to sensor noise, etc. Therefore, the more coordinate conversions are repeated, the more errors accumulate, and there is a risk that the first road information stored in the first road information storage unit 101 may differ from the actual road shape.

[0039] For the above reasons, the first road information is deleted if a preset time or more has elapsed since it was stored. Note that instead of using a preset time as a criterion, a method may be used in which the number of coordinate conversions is counted, and the corresponding first road information is deleted when the number of coordinate conversions reaches a preset number or more. After the process of step S106, the process proceeds to step S107.

[0040] In step S107, the first road information storage unit 101 outputs the stored first road information to the road information comparison unit 103, and the processing as the first road information storage unit 101 ends.

[0041] Finally, step S108 and subsequent steps which are processes to be performed when it is determined in step S103 that the first road information is abnormal or that the reliability of the first road information is lower than the threshold reliability will be described.

[0042] In step S108, it is determined whether the number of times the first road information detected by the perimeter monitoring sensor 22 is an abnormal value is a predetermined number or more, i.e., a preset number or more. One example of a method for counting the number of times an abnormal value is detected is a method in which only consecutive abnormal values ​​are counted, and the count is reset when a normal value is detected, thereby counting the number of times an abnormal value is detected. Also, a different method may be used, such as a method in which the number of times an abnormal value is detected within a predetermined time is counted, rather than when consecutive abnormal values ​​of the first road information are detected.

[0043] If the number of times the first road information contains an abnormal value is equal to or greater than the preset threshold abnormal number, the process proceeds to step S109. On the other hand, if the number of times the first road information contains an abnormal value is less than the predetermined number, the process proceeds to step S105.

[0044] In step S109, the first road information storage unit 101 deletes the stored first road information, and proceeds to processing in step S110. Fig. 5 shows an example of deleting the first road information when the first road information is an abnormal value. Fig. 6 shows an example of deleting the first road information when the number of times the first road information is an abnormal value is equal to or greater than a preset threshold abnormal number.

[0045] In step S110, the first road information storage unit 101 stores the latest, that is, current, first road information detected by the perimeter monitoring sensor 22, and the process proceeds to step S107.

[0046] Possible cases in which abnormal values ​​in the first road information are detected multiple times include when there is an error in the stored first road information, or when the detection target of the perimeter monitoring sensor 22 changes unintentionally from road dividing line A to road dividing line B because road dividing line A and road dividing line B are parallel and close to each other. In such cases, it is advisable to reset the past stored first road information and re-store the first road information. For example, if the stored first road information is not reset when the detection of the road dividing line changes from road dividing line A to road dividing line B, the first road information for road dividing line A and road dividing line B will be combined and stored, which will result in a malfunction in which the actual road shape differs. The series of processes in the first road information storage unit 101 have been described above.

[0047] <Processing in the road information comparison section> The process in the road information comparison unit 103 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in Fig. 7. In step S201, the road information comparison unit 103 acquires the first road information stored in the first road information storage unit 101, and proceeds to the process in step S202.

[0048] In step S202, the road information comparison unit 103 acquires the second road information and the second road information reliability from the second road information acquisition unit 102, and the process proceeds to step S203.

[0049] In step S203, the road information comparison unit 103 judges whether the second road information reliability is equal to or greater than the threshold reliability. If the second road information reliability is equal to or greater than the threshold reliability, the process proceeds to step S204. On the other hand, if the second road information reliability is lower than the threshold reliability, the process proceeds to step S210.

[0050] In step S204, the road information comparison unit 103 judges whether the first road information and the second road information are comparable over a predetermined road distance or more. That is, when the road position is expressed by taking the forward direction of the vehicle as y and the lateral direction as x, the road information comparison unit 103 obtains the distance of overlap between the road positions of the first road information and the second road information in the y direction when comparing the first road information and the second road information, and judges whether the overlapping distance is smaller than a preset threshold distance. The reason for judging whether the first road information and the second road information are comparable over a predetermined road distance or more is that if the road distance of the road information to be compared is short, it may not be possible to accurately judge whether the road information is correct. If the first road information and the second road information are comparable over a predetermined road distance or more, the process proceeds to step S205. On the other hand, if the first road information and the second road information cannot be compared over a predetermined road distance or more, the process proceeds to step S210.

[0051] FIG. 8 shows an example of a judgment based on road distance. In the example shown in FIG. 8, the second road information is erroneous road information that differs from the actual road shape. If the road distance over which the first road information and the second road information can be compared is short, the comparison results may match as in this example. For this reason, it is desirable to perform a comparison judgment only when the road information has a sufficient distance for comparison.

[0052] In step S205, the road information comparison unit 103 compares the first road information with the second road information, calculates a deviation (hereinafter also referred to as a road information deviation), and proceeds to the process of step S206.

[0053] In step S206, the road information comparison unit 103 judges whether the road information deviation is equal to or less than the threshold deviation. If the road information deviation is equal to or less than the threshold deviation, the process proceeds to step S207. On the other hand, if the road information deviation is greater than the threshold deviation, the process proceeds to step S209.

[0054] Instead of fixing the threshold deviation to a preset value, the threshold deviation may be changed in a direction to allow road information deviation according to the number of coordinate conversions of the first road information stored in the first road information storage unit 101. In other words, the threshold deviation may be relaxed the farther away from the vicinity of the vehicle. This is because the more coordinate conversions are performed on the first road information the farther away from the vicinity of the vehicle.

[0055] The vehicle movement information 23 of the vehicle itself may contain slight errors due to the effects of sensor noise, etc., and the more coordinate transformations are performed, the more errors in the vehicle movement information 23 accumulate, which may cause a deviation from the actual road shape. When a deviation occurs, the road information deviation in the vicinity of the vehicle itself is equal to or less than the threshold deviation, but in the distance, the road information deviation exceeds the threshold deviation due to the effects of the errors in the vehicle movement information 23, and the comparison result by the road information comparison unit 103 may unintentionally be "mismatched."

[0056] As a countermeasure to the above problem, the threshold deviation may be increased based on the number of coordinate conversions, taking into account errors during the coordinate conversion of the first road information. In addition, when increasing the threshold deviation, a method of changing the deviation based on the distance from the vicinity of the vehicle, rather than the number of coordinate conversions, may be used.

[0057] 9 is a schematic diagram showing a process of reducing the threshold deviation depending on the number of coordinate transformations, illustrating how the threshold deviation is reduced as the number of coordinate transformations increases.

[0058] Also, instead of relaxing the threshold deviation, a weighting may be applied in accordance with the road distance to determine whether or not there is a "match" or "mismatch." · Matching points 0m from the vehicle · 3 points · Matching points 10m away from the vehicle · 2 points · Matching point 100m from the vehicle · 0.5 points etc. For example, if the total score is equal to or greater than XX points, it is determined that the first road information and the second road information “match.” The last compared road information and the comparison result are output to the road information determination unit 104.

[0059] In step S207, the road information comparison unit 103 determines that the comparison results indicate a match because the road information deviation is equal to or smaller than the threshold deviation. After the process of step S206, the process proceeds to step S208.

[0060] In step S208, the road information comparison unit 103 outputs the compared road information and the comparison result to the road information determination unit 104, and ends the process.

[0061] In step S209, the road information comparison unit 103 determines that the comparison result is a mismatch because the road information deviation is greater than the threshold deviation. After the process of step S209, the process proceeds to step S208.

[0062] In step S210, the road information comparison unit 103 determines that the comparison result is incomparable. This is because the second road information reliability is lower than the threshold reliability, or the first road information and the second road information are not comparable over a predetermined road distance or more. The second road information is road information obtained by combining the positioning information 21 obtained from a positioning satellite and the highly accurate map information 20. The second road information reliability, which is an index of the reliability of the second road information, may be lowered due to factors such as a deterioration in the accuracy of positioning using a positioning satellite, or a deterioration in matching between the vehicle position on the map in the map information 20 and the vehicle position determined by the positioning information 21.

[0063] When the accuracy of the positioning information 21 is degraded, the vehicle position may jump significantly to another location. Also, when the matching between the vehicle position on the map in the map information 20 and the vehicle position determined by the positioning information 21 is degraded, road information at a wrong location on the map may be acquired as the second road information.

[0064] That is, in any of the above cases, a problem occurs in that the possibility of acquiring erroneous road information increases. Therefore, even if the comparison between the first road information and the second road information matches and the second road information temporarily acquires correct road information, if the reliability of the second road information is low, it is possible that erroneous road information will be acquired at any time.

[0065] In the above-mentioned situation, it is possible that accurate road information and erroneous road information are alternately and repeatedly acquired as the second road information. In this case, the comparison result between the first road information and the second road information by the road information comparison unit 103 may fluctuate between "match" and "mismatch". If the comparison result fluctuates, the road information used by the vehicle control unit 105 is frequently switched, which is likely to result in an unnatural vehicle control. For this reason, when the reliability of the second road information is low, that is, when the vehicle is in a state where erroneous road information is likely to be acquired, the comparison result output by the road information comparison unit 103 is "uncomparable". Note that the reliability of the second road information is low when, for example, the reliability of the second road information is lower than the threshold reliability. After the process of step S210, the process proceeds to step S208.

[0066] <Processing in the Road Information Determination Unit> The process in the road information determination unit 104 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in Fig. 10. In step S301, the road information determination unit 104 acquires road information to be used in the vehicle control unit 105 from the road information comparison unit 103. That is, it acquires the first road information and the second road information. After acquiring the information, the process proceeds to step S302.

[0067] In step S302, the road information determination unit 104 acquires from the road information comparison unit 103 the comparison result between the first road information and the second road information.

[0068] When the road information comparison unit 103 determines that the first road information and the second road information match, it outputs the second road information to the road information determination unit 104. However, there is a possibility that the second road information contains a slight error.

[0069] The second road information may contain an error, for example, when the second road information is obtained by combining positioning information 21 of the vehicle's position obtained from a positioning satellite with highly accurate map information 20, and since the positioning of the positioning satellite may contain an error of several centimeters to several meters, the road information may also contain a slight error.

[0070] On the other hand, since the periphery monitoring sensor 22 directly detects road information, there is a low possibility that an error will occur in the first road information compared to the second road information. Therefore, by correcting the road information in the vicinity of the vehicle in the second road information using the first road information, it is possible to calculate more accurate road information. As a result, by outputting the highly accurate road information to the vehicle control unit 105, it is possible to realize safer automatic driving control.

[0071] In step S303, the road information determination unit 104 judges whether the comparison result output by the road information comparison unit 103 is "match". If the comparison result is "match", the process proceeds to step S304. On the other hand, if the comparison result is not "match", the process proceeds to step S306.

[0072] In step S304, the road information determination unit 104 corrects the second road information using the first road information, and proceeds to the process of step S305.

[0073] In step S305, the road information determination unit 104 outputs the determined road information to the vehicle control unit 105, and ends the process.

[0074] If the comparison result in step S303 is not "match", in step S306, the road information determination unit 104 determines not to use the second road information as the road information to be output to the vehicle control unit 105, and proceeds to the process of step S305.

[0075] When the first road information and the second road information do not match, the first road information, which detects the area closer to the vehicle, is considered to be more reliable as road information, and therefore the second road information is not output to the vehicle control unit 105, and only the first road information is output.

[0076] In the above, the first road information is output even when the comparison result is "uncomparable." However, the reliability of each of the first road information and the second road information may be obtained from the road information comparison unit 103, and the second road information may be output if it is determined that the reliability of the second road information is higher than that of the first road information.

[0077] If the comparison result of the road information is a match, the second road information is corrected using the first road information, and the corrected second road information is output from the road information determination unit 104 to the vehicle control unit 105. The reason for the correction is that although distant road information can be obtained from the second road information, the first road information, which detects the vicinity of the vehicle, has higher accuracy in terms of detailed information such as the relative distance between the vehicle and a road dividing line. Therefore, by correcting the second road information using the first road information, it is possible to obtain more accurate road information for distant areas.

[0078] An example of the road information correction is a method of weighting and adding the relative distance from the vehicle to the road dividing line in the first road information and the relative distance from the vehicle to the road dividing line in the second road information. In this case, the weighting coefficient of the first road information may be set to 0. Also, the weighting may be changed according to the reliability of the first road information. In other words, the correction amount of the first road information may be set to 0, and only the second road information may be output.

[0079] <Advantages of the First Embodiment> As described above, according to the vehicle control device and vehicle control method of embodiment 1, it is possible to determine the accuracy of road information by comparing road information from multiple information sources, and calculate the road information based on the determination result, thereby achieving the effect of enabling the vehicle to be stably controlled using accurate road information.

[0080] The above describes a configuration in which the functions of the components of the vehicle control device 100 according to the first embodiment are realized by either hardware or software, etc. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the vehicle control device 100 may be configured such that some of the components are realized by dedicated hardware and other components are realized by software, etc.

[0081] For example, as shown in Figures 11 and 12, the functions of some of the components can be realized by a processing circuit 800 as dedicated hardware, and the functions of some of the other components can be realized by the processing circuit 800 as a processor 801 reading out and executing a program stored in a memory device 802 for executing the vehicle control method of embodiment 1 on a computer or the like.

[0082] Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 12, the setting data used by each functional unit of the vehicle control device 100 may be installed in the storage device 802 from a recording medium 803 storing a part of the software, i.e., a program 804 for executing the vehicle control method of embodiment 1 on a computer or the like.

[0083] As described above, the vehicle control device 100 according to the first embodiment can realize the above-mentioned functions by hardware, software, or a combination of these.

[0084] Summary of the various aspects of the present application Various aspects of the present application are summarized below as appendices.

[0085] (Appendix 1) a first road information storage unit that stores first road information detected by a surroundings monitoring sensor that monitors the surroundings of the host vehicle; a second road information acquisition unit that acquires second road information based on map information; a road information comparison unit that compares the first road information with the second road information; a road information determination unit that determines road information based on a comparison result of the road information comparison unit; A vehicle control device comprising:

[0086] (Appendix 2) The vehicle control device described in Appendix 1, characterized in that when comparing the first road information and the second road information, if a distance over which the road positions of the first road information and the second road information overlap is smaller than a predetermined threshold distance, the road information comparison unit outputs a comparison result indicating that comparison is impossible.

[0087] (Appendix 3) The vehicle control device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the road information comparison unit compares the first road information with the second road information, and outputs a match as the comparison result when a road information deviation between the first road information and the second road information is equal to or less than a preset threshold deviation, and outputs a mismatch as the comparison result when the road information deviation is greater than the preset threshold deviation.

[0088] (Appendix 4) The vehicle control device according to claim 3, wherein the road information comparison unit adjusts the threshold deviation based on a time period during which the first road information storage unit stores the first road information.

[0089] (Appendix 5) A vehicle control unit that controls the host vehicle is further provided. A vehicle control device as described in any one of appendix 1 to 4, characterized in that when the road information comparison unit outputs a mismatch as the comparison result, the second road information is not used in the vehicle control unit.

[0090] (Appendix 6) The vehicle control device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that when the road information comparison unit outputs a match as the comparison result, the road information determination unit corrects the second road information using the first road information.

[0091] (Appendix 7) A vehicle control device as described in any one of Appendices 1 to 6, characterized in that if a second road information reliability representing the reliability of the second road information is lower than a predetermined threshold reliability, the road information comparison unit outputs the comparison result as incomparable.

[0092] (Appendix 8) The vehicle control device according to any one of appendices 1 to 7, characterized in that the first road information storage unit performs coordinate conversion on previously stored first road information based on vehicle movement information of the host vehicle, and stores the coordinate-converted past first road information together with the current first road information.

[0093] (Appendix 9) The vehicle control device described in Appendix 8, characterized in that when there is an overlapping portion of road positions between the coordinate-converted past first road information and the current first road information, the first road information storage unit preferentially stores the current first road information for the overlapping road positions.

[0094] (Appendix 10) The vehicle control device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the first road information storage unit does not store the current first road information when a first road information reliability representing the reliability of the first road information is lower than a predetermined threshold reliability or when the first road information includes an abnormal value.

[0095] (Appendix 11) The vehicle control device described in Appendix 10, characterized in that the first road information storage unit deletes the first road information stored in the first road information storage unit when the number of times the abnormal value is included in the first road information is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold abnormal number.

[0096] (Appendix 12) The vehicle control device according to any one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that the first road information storage unit deletes the first road information that has been previously stored if a predetermined time or more has passed since the first road information was stored.

[0097] (Appendix 13) A vehicle control method in which the following steps are executed by a vehicle control device, Storing first road information detected by a surroundings monitoring sensor that monitors the surroundings of the host vehicle; acquiring second road information based on map information; a step of comparing the first road information with the second road information, and outputting a comparison result indicating a match if a road information deviation between the first road information and the second road information is equal to or smaller than a preset threshold deviation, and outputting a comparison result indicating a mismatch if the road information deviation is larger than the preset threshold deviation; determining road information based on the comparison result; A vehicle control method comprising:

[0098] (Appendix 14) A vehicle control method as described in Appendix 13, characterized in that if a first road information reliability representing the reliability of the first road information is lower than a predetermined threshold reliability or if the first road information contains an abnormal value, the current first road information is not stored.

[0099] (Appendix 15) A vehicle control method as described in Appendix 13 or 14, characterized in that if the second road information reliability representing the reliability of the second road information is lower than a predetermined threshold reliability, the comparison result is output as being incomparable.

[0100] Although the present disclosure describes various exemplary embodiments and examples, the various features, aspects, and functions described in one or more embodiments are not limited to application to a particular embodiment, but may be applied to the embodiments alone or in various combinations.

[0101] Therefore, countless modifications not exemplified are assumed within the scope of the technology disclosed in the present specification, including, for example, modifying, adding, or omitting at least one component, and further, extracting at least one component and combining it with a component of another embodiment. [Explanation of symbols]

[0102] 10 vehicle, 20 map information, 21 positioning information, 22 surrounding monitoring sensor, 23 vehicle movement information, 100 vehicle control device, 101 first road information storage unit, 102 second road information acquisition unit, 103 road information comparison unit, 104 road information determination unit, 105 vehicle control unit, 200 actuator device, 800 processing circuit, 801 processor, 802 storage device, 803 recording medium, 804 program

Claims

1. a first road information storage unit configured to store first road information detected by a surroundings monitoring sensor that monitors the surroundings of the host vehicle; a second road information acquisition unit that acquires second road information based on map information; a road information comparison unit that compares the first road information with the second road information; a road information determination unit that determines road information based on a comparison result of the road information comparison unit; A vehicle control device comprising:

2. 2. The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein the road information comparison unit outputs a result indicating that comparison is impossible when, when comparing the first road information with the second road information, a distance over which the road positions of the first road information and the second road information overlap is smaller than a predetermined threshold distance.

3. 2. The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein the road information comparison unit compares the first road information with the second road information, and outputs a match as the comparison result when a road information deviation between the first road information and the second road information is equal to or less than a preset threshold deviation, and outputs a mismatch as the comparison result when the road information deviation is greater than a preset threshold deviation.

4. 4. The vehicle control device according to claim 3, wherein the road information comparison unit adjusts the threshold deviation based on a time period during which the first road information storage unit stores the first road information.

5. A vehicle control unit that controls the host vehicle is further provided.

5. The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein when the road information comparison unit outputs a mismatch as the comparison result, the second road information is not used by the vehicle control unit.

6. 5. The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein when the road information comparison unit outputs a match as the comparison result, the road information determination unit corrects the second road information using the first road information.

7. A vehicle control device as described in any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that if the second road information reliability representing the reliability of the second road information is lower than a predetermined threshold reliability, the road information comparison unit outputs the comparison result as incomparable.

8. 5. The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein the first road information storage unit performs coordinate conversion of previously stored first road information based on vehicle movement information of the host vehicle, and stores the coordinate-converted past first road information together with the current first road information.

9. The vehicle control device according to claim 8, characterized in that, when there is an overlapping portion of road positions between the coordinate-converted past first road information and the current first road information, the first road information storage unit preferentially stores the current first road information for the overlapping road positions.

10. A vehicle control device as described in any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the first road information storage unit does not store the current first road information when a first road information reliability representing the reliability of the first road information is lower than a predetermined threshold reliability or when the first road information includes an abnormal value.

11. The vehicle control device according to claim 10, characterized in that the first road information storage unit deletes the first road information stored in the first road information storage unit when the number of times the abnormal value is included in the first road information is equal to or greater than a preset threshold number of abnormalities.

12. 5. The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein the first road information storage unit deletes the previously stored first road information if a predetermined time or more has passed since the previously stored first road information was stored.

13. A vehicle control method in which the following steps are executed by a vehicle control device, storing first road information detected by a surroundings monitoring sensor that monitors the surroundings of the host vehicle; acquiring second road information based on map information; a step of comparing the first road information with the second road information, and outputting a comparison result indicating a match if a road information deviation between the first road information and the second road information is equal to or smaller than a preset threshold deviation, and outputting a comparison result indicating a mismatch if the road information deviation is larger than the preset threshold deviation; determining road information based on the comparison result; A vehicle control method comprising:

14. The vehicle control method according to claim 13, characterized in that if a first road information reliability indicating the reliability of the first road information is lower than a predetermined threshold reliability or if the first road information contains an abnormal value, the current first road information is not stored.

15. The vehicle control method according to claim 13 or 14, characterized in that if the second road information reliability representing the reliability of the second road information is lower than a predetermined threshold reliability, the comparison result is output as being incomparable.

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