Information processing device, information processing method, and program

Abstract

To add information indicative of road lanes to a road map on the basis of data acquired from a plurality of vehicles.SOLUTION: An information processing device comprises a control unit 110 configured to: acquire lane topology information indicative of a lane topology of a road traveled by a first vehicle and first information including position information corresponding to the lane topology information estimated on the basis of data acquired from the first vehicle via an in-vehicle sensor of the first vehicle; associate one or more pieces of lane topology information acquired from the plurality of first vehicles with each of a plurality of road segments included in a road map; and determine lane topology for each of the plurality of road segments included in the road map on the basis of corresponding one or more pieces of lane topology information.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE The present disclosure relates to map generation. [Background technology]

[0002] There is a technology for automatically generating a map. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a map generating device that associates a lane before entering with a lane that has been passed through based on the travel trajectory of a vehicle, and also associates a lane before entering with a lane that has been passed through based on an external situation detected by a camera. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2023-149356 [Patent Document 2] Patent No. 6958535 [Patent Document 3] Patent No. 7151894 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] The present disclosure aims to provide a road map with information indicating road lanes based on data acquired from multiple vehicles. [Means for solving the problem]

[0005] One aspect of the present disclosure is Acquiring from a first vehicle lane topology information indicating the lane topology of a road on which the first vehicle has traveled, estimated based on data acquired via an on-board sensor of the first vehicle, and first information including position information corresponding to the lane topology information; associating one or more pieces of lane topology information acquired from a plurality of the first vehicles with each of a plurality of road segments included in the road map based on the first information; and determining a lane topology for each of a plurality of road segments included in the road map based on the one or more pieces of corresponding lane topology information; The information processing device is provided with a control unit that executes the above.

[0006] Another aspect of the present disclosure is An information processing method including the steps of: acquiring, from a first vehicle, lane topology information indicating the lane topology of a road on which the first vehicle has traveled, estimated based on data acquired via an onboard sensor of the first vehicle; and first information including location information corresponding to the lane topology information; associating, based on the first information, one or more pieces of lane topology information acquired from a plurality of the first vehicles with each of a plurality of road segments included in the road map; and determining a lane topology for each of a plurality of road segments included in the road map based on the corresponding one or more pieces of lane topology information.

[0007] Another aspect is a program for causing a computer to execute the information processing method, or a computer-readable storage medium that non-temporarily stores the program. [Effects of the Invention]

[0008] According to the present disclosure, information indicating road lanes can be added to a road map based on data acquired from multiple vehicles. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an outline of a process executed by the server device. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining components of a server device according to the first embodiment. [Figure 3] 5 is a flowchart of processing executed by a control unit of the server device according to the first embodiment. [Figure 4] FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining an example of arranging nodes and edges. [Figure 5] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating information indicating the attitude of a vehicle. [Figure 6] 10 is a flowchart of a process for determining a lane topology executed by a control unit of a server device according to a second embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0010] (overview) In an autonomous vehicle, driving control is performed using a map of the surrounding area where the vehicle is traveling.

[0011] For example, in an autonomous vehicle, high-definition maps downloaded from an external device are used for the vehicle's autonomous driving control. In this case, if the high-definition maps are not updated appropriately to match the current situation, problems will occur in the vehicle's autonomous driving control.

[0012] However, updating high-resolution maps requires the use of dedicated measurement vehicles, and frequent updates of high-resolution maps are costly.

[0013] Even if high-resolution maps that are difficult to update frequently are not used, road maps that are used instead do not currently include information indicating road lanes, which is necessary for automated driving control. If road maps do not include information indicating road lanes or information indicating the connection between road lanes, the automated driving control of the vehicle 10 may not be able to smoothly determine the lane in which to drive, and appropriate automated driving control may not be achieved.

[0014] Therefore, rather than using dedicated measurement vehicles to generate high-resolution maps, it is preferable to collect data measured by multiple general vehicles such as connected cars, and add information indicating road lanes to existing road maps based on that data. This is because by utilizing data measured by existing vehicles, there is no need to run dedicated measurement vehicles to obtain the data needed to update high-definition maps.Furthermore, by adding lane information, which is missing from road maps used for autonomous driving control, based on data measured by vehicles, smooth autonomous driving control can be achieved.

[0015] An information processing device according to one aspect of the present disclosure includes: The system includes a control unit that executes the following operations: acquiring, from a first vehicle, lane topology information indicating the lane topology of a road on which the first vehicle has traveled, estimated based on data acquired via an on-board sensor of the first vehicle, and first information including location information corresponding to the lane topology information; associating, based on the first information, one or more pieces of lane topology information acquired from a plurality of the first vehicles with each of a plurality of road segments included in the road map; and determining a lane topology for each of a plurality of road segments included in the road map based on the corresponding one or more pieces of lane topology information.

[0016] Lane topology refers to the topology of lanes, or the topology of the roads or roads near the roads. Topology information is information that indicates the topology of objects and lanes. Here, an object may be any of several types of objects that have a specific meaning on a road map. Topology is a mathematical structure that indicates the spatial relationship between objects. In other words, topology information is information that indicates how the lanes that make up a road are connected to each other, and how the lanes are connected to objects on or near the road.

[0017] The first information includes location information corresponding to the lane topology information. Specifically, the first information includes location information indicating a lane topology at which position on a road a certain piece of lane topology information indicates. The first information may also include latitude and longitude information of the first vehicle and information indicating the attitude of the first vehicle.

[0018] A road segment is an area on a road map that represents a part of a road link that is divided into multiple areas. For example, a road segment may be an area on a road map that corresponds to a road from one intersection to the next intersection.

[0019] An information processing device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure acquires lane topology information and first information, associates one or more pieces of lane topology information with one road segment based on the first information, and then determines a lane topology for the associated road segment.

[0020] By acquiring lane topology information and first information from multiple vehicles and associating them with road segments, the accuracy of the lane topology to be assigned to a road map can be improved. Also, by determining the lane topology of a certain area of ​​a road map based on lane topology information associated with that area, the lane topology of that area can be accurately determined without being confused with lane topology information of other areas.

[0021] According to the above configuration, the information processing device according to an aspect of the present disclosure can assign information indicating the lane status of the road or the connection relationship between the lanes to each area on the road map.

[0022] The lane topology may represent the network topology of a road in units of lanes, and the lane topology information may be information representing a partial network topology estimated based on the data.

[0023] Furthermore, when determining the lane topology for each of the plurality of road segments, the control unit may place edges representing a vehicle's driving line and nodes connecting the edges together on the target road segment.

[0024] As a result, the information processing device according to an aspect of the present disclosure can represent the lane topology by a combination of nodes that are the endpoints of edges. In this way, the information processing device according to an aspect of the present disclosure can determine an appropriate vehicle driving line (trajectory) by representing the lane topology by edges and nodes that represent the vehicle driving line.

[0025] The first information may further include latitude and longitude information of the first vehicle and information indicating an attitude of the first vehicle.

[0026] The information indicating the attitude of the first vehicle may be expressed as a rotation angle of an axis parallel to the traveling direction of the vehicle from an axis of a geographic coordinate system.

[0027] As a result, the information processing device according to an aspect of the present disclosure can accurately identify a position corresponding to the lane topology information by taking into account the posture of the vehicle when the lane topology information was acquired, thereby providing an accurate lane topology to a road map.

[0028] In addition, the position information corresponding to the lane topology information may be expressed in a coordinate system based on the first vehicle, and the control unit may correct the coordinate system of the position information to a geographic coordinate system using latitude and longitude information of the first vehicle and information indicating the attitude of the first vehicle.

[0029] As a result, the information processing device according to an aspect of the present disclosure can express the position information corresponding to the lane topology information in the geographic coordinate system adopted for road maps. If the position information corresponding to the lane topology information is expressed in a coordinate system based on the first vehicle, the control unit cannot assign the lane topology information to the road segment included in the road map. Therefore, the control unit may convert the coordinate system of the position information corresponding to the lane topology information into the geographic coordinate system used in the road map. This allows the control unit to assign the lane topology information to the road map.

[0030] In addition, when there are multiple pieces of lane topology information that are candidates for association for each of the multiple road segments, the control unit may determine the lane topology information to be associated based on the number of lanes contained in each piece of lane topology information.

[0031] For example, when there are multiple candidates for association, a majority vote may be taken based on the number of lanes indicated by each piece of lane topology information to determine which piece of lane topology information is associated with the road segment. This is because lane topology information indicating a different number of lanes from the others may indicate an incorrect recognition of the number of lanes. In this way, the control unit can exclude lane topology information with low accuracy.

[0032] In addition, when a plurality of pieces of lane topology information are associated with each of the plurality of road segments, the control unit may determine the lane topology corresponding to the road segment based on the lane topology indicated by lane topology information randomly selected from the plurality of pieces of lane topology information.

[0033] When a plurality of pieces of lane topology information are associated with each of the plurality of road segments, the control unit may determine the lane topology corresponding to the road segment using the result of integrating the plurality of pieces of lane topology information.

[0034] The lane topology information may be integrated by, for example, excluding pieces of lane topology information that are deemed to contain errors and selecting appropriate lane topology information from the plurality of pieces of lane topology information, or by clustering the plurality of pieces of lane topology information based on their similarities and adopting the lane topology information corresponding to the cluster with the most members.

[0035] Specific embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Unless otherwise specified, the hardware configuration, module configuration, functional configuration, etc. described in each embodiment are not intended to limit the technical scope of the disclosure to those configurations.

[0036] (First embodiment) [Outline of processing performed by the server device] An overview of an information processing device according to a first embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overview of processing executed by a server device. The information processing device according to this embodiment includes: For example, it is realized as a server device 100. The server device 100 communicates with the vehicle 10, acquires various data from the vehicle 10, and updates the road map. The vehicle 10 is typically an autonomous vehicle, and can communicate with external devices via a wireless communication network (e.g., a cellular communication network). The vehicle 10 is a specific example of a "first vehicle."

[0037] The vehicle 10 generates a road map in real time based on data sensed by the vehicle itself, and travels autonomously using the road map.

[0038] The on-board device of the vehicle 10 generates a road map for the area surrounding the vehicle, showing road lanes, objects on the road, and the connections between them. The vehicle 10 drives under autonomous driving control based on the road map. In this case, for smooth autonomous driving control, it is preferable that the vehicle 10 acquires an external road map for areas other than the area surrounding the vehicle, where the vehicle does not perform sensing. It is also preferable that the road map includes information about road lanes.

[0039] Therefore, the server device 100, which is a center device that communicates with the vehicles 10, generates a wide-area road map with road lane information added based on various data acquired from the multiple vehicles 10. The multiple vehicles 10 download the generated road map from the server device 100 at appropriate times. As a result, the vehicles 10 that receive the road map can obtain a road map with road lane information added for areas outside the range that the vehicles can sense. In addition, if the server device 100 does not have an existing road map, it may generate a new road map of the area outside the area surrounding the vehicle 10 based on various data obtained from multiple other vehicles 10.

[0040] First, the server device 100 acquires, from multiple vehicles 10, lane topology information acquired by each of the multiple vehicles 10 while the vehicle 10 is traveling, and location information corresponding to the lane topology information. Here, the lane topology information is information indicating a partial network topology of lanes on a road on which each of the multiple vehicles 10 has traveled. In other words, the lane topology information indicates the connection state between lanes on a road. Furthermore, the location information corresponding to the lane topology information indicates the location on the road to which the lane topology represented by the lane topology information applies.

[0041] Next, the server device 100 associates one piece of lane topology information with one of the multiple road segments. The server device 100 associates the lane topology information with the road segment located at a position on the road map corresponding to the position information corresponding to the lane topology information. In other words, the server device 100 determines the position on the road to which the lane topology indicated by the lane topology information applies, from the position information corresponding to the lane topology information, and associates the lane topology information with the road segment corresponding to that position. If there are multiple pieces of lane topology information corresponding to one road segment, the server device 100 determines the one piece of lane topology information to be associated using a predetermined method.

[0042] Next, the server device 100 determines the lane topology for the edges included in the road segment. An edge is a line segment with two nodes as its endpoints, which is used to represent the lane topology. The lane topology is expressed as a combination of edges and nodes. The server device 100 determines the lane topology for an edge corresponding to the position of one road segment. For example, the lane topology for edge 220b indicates that the endpoints of edge 220b are nodes 210a and 210b. The lane topology indicates that node 210a, which is the endpoint of edge 220b, is connected to another node 210c via edge 220c and is also connected to node 210d via edge 220d. Furthermore, one road segment may have multiple edges corresponding to multiple lanes. For example, if the road on which the vehicle 10 is traveling consists of multiple lanes and lane topology information is acquired for the multiple lanes, a lane topology consisting of multiple parallel edges may be determined for one road segment.

[0043] The server device 100 determines the lane topology at each edge and generates a road map in which lane topology information is assigned to each road segment.

[0044] In this way, the server device 100 can add appropriate lane topology information determined based on data measured by a plurality of vehicles 10 to a road map that does not have lane topology information.

[0045] As described above, the server device 100 can add information indicating the network topology of the lanes of a road to a road map based on data acquired from multiple vehicles. Furthermore, by acquiring such a road map, the vehicle 10 can obtain information about the lanes of the road even in areas outside the range where the vehicle can perform sensing, thereby realizing smooth autonomous driving control.

[0046] [Server device configuration] Next, a description will be given of the hardware and software configurations of the devices constituting the server device 100. Fig. 2 is a diagram illustrating the components of the server device 100 according to the first embodiment.

[0047] The server device 100 can be configured as a computer having a processor (CPU, GPU, etc.), a main memory device (RAM, ROM, etc.), and an auxiliary memory device (EPROM, hard disk drive, removable media, etc.). The auxiliary memory device stores an operating system (OS), various programs, various tables, etc., and by executing the programs stored therein, various functions (software modules) that meet predetermined purposes, as described below, can be realized. However, some or all of the functions may be realized as hardware modules using hardware circuits such as ASICs and FPGAs.

[0048] The server device 100 includes a control unit 110, a storage unit 120, and a communication unit .

[0049] The control unit 110 is realized by a processor such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) or a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) and a memory. The control unit 110 includes, as functional modules, an acquisition unit 111, an allocation unit 112, and a determination unit 113. These functional modules may be realized by the control unit 110 executing a program.

[0050] The acquisition unit 111 communicates with multiple vehicles 10 via the communication unit 130 and acquires lane topology information and first information. Here, the lane topology information is information that indicates how lanes of a road are connected to each other, or how lanes of a road are connected to objects on or near the road, and is information that indicates the spatial relationship between lanes or between objects and lanes using a mathematical structure. Furthermore, the first information is information that includes position information corresponding to the lane topology information. Specifically, the first information may include position information corresponding to the lane topology information, latitude and longitude information of the first vehicle, and information indicating the attitude of the first vehicle.

[0051] The allocation unit 112 associates the lane topology information with a road segment included in the road map based on the first information. When the allocation unit 112 acquires multiple pieces of lane topology information, it associates each piece with one of the multiple road segments included in the road map. Note that multiple pieces of lane topology information may be associated with one road segment. Here, a road segment refers to an area cut out from a part of a road included in a road map. For example, a road segment may be an area cut out from a road from one intersection to the next intersection.

[0052] The determination unit 113 determines a lane topology for each of a plurality of road segments included in the road map based on one or more corresponding pieces of lane topology information. The determination unit 113 determines the lane topology of the lanes included in the road segment based on the lane topology information corresponding to the road segment determined by the allocation unit 112. Here, the lane topology refers to a network topology that indicates the connection state between lanes or between lanes and objects on the road.

[0053] The storage unit 120 is a main storage device such as RAM or ROM, an EPROM, a hard disk drive, or an auxiliary storage device such as removable media. The auxiliary storage device stores an operating system (OS), various programs, various tables, etc., and by executing the programs stored therein, it is possible to realize functions that match the predetermined purpose of each unit of the control unit 110. However, some or all of the functions may be realized by hardware circuits such as ASICs or FPGAs.

[0054] The storage unit 120 stores data and the like used or generated in the processing performed by the control unit 110. The storage unit 120 may also store the first information and lane topology information acquired from the vehicle 10.

[0055] The communication unit 130 is configured with a communication circuit that performs wireless communication. The communication unit 130 may be, for example, a communication circuit that performs wireless communication using 4G (4th Generation) or a communication circuit that performs wireless communication using 5G (5th Generation). The communication unit 130 may also be a communication circuit that performs wireless communication using LTE (Long Term Evolution) or a communication circuit that performs wireless communication using LPWA (Low Power Wide Area). The communication unit 130 may be a communication circuit that performs communication using the Wi-Fi (registered trademark) standard.

[0056] [Server device processing] Next, a description will be given of specific contents of the processing performed by the server device 100. Fig. 3 is a flowchart of the processing performed by the control unit 110 of the server device 100 according to the first embodiment.

[0057] The server device 100 may periodically execute the process illustrated in Fig. 3. Alternatively, the server device 100 may start the process illustrated in Fig. 3 upon receiving a request from a user of the vehicle 10 or the like. The request may be an operation requesting downloading of a road map required for autonomous driving control of the vehicle 10.

[0058] First, in step S10, the acquisition unit 111 acquires lane topology information and first information. The acquisition unit 111 communicates with a plurality of vehicles 10 via the communication unit 130, and acquires the lane topology information and the first information from each of the plurality of vehicles 10. The acquisition unit 111 may acquire a plurality of pieces of lane topology information corresponding to the same position from each of the plurality of vehicles 10.

[0059] In step S11, the allocation unit 112 obtains the number of lanes of the target road segment based on the lane topology information. The allocation unit 112 determines the number of lanes of the target road segment as the number of lanes of the target road segment, which is selected using a predetermined method from the numbers of lanes indicated by multiple pieces of lane topology information corresponding to the target road segment. The lane topology information corresponding to the target road segment refers to lane topology information in which the position of the road segment approximately matches the position indicated by the position information corresponding to the lane topology information.

[0060] The allocation unit 112 may determine the number of lanes indicated by the largest number of pieces of lane topology information among the plurality of pieces of lane topology information corresponding to the target road segment as the number of lanes of the target road segment.

[0061] Next, in step S12, the allocation unit 112 associates lane topology information with the target road segment based on the number of lanes determined in step S11. The allocation unit 112 associates one piece of appropriate lane topology information, which is compatible with the number of lanes determined in step S11, from among the plurality of pieces of lane topology information corresponding to the position of the road segment, with the road segment. For example, the allocation unit 112 may associate lane topology information randomly selected from the plurality of pieces of lane topology information that are compatible with the position of the road segment and the number of lanes of the target road segment with the road segment.

[0062] Next, in step S13, the determination unit 113 determines a lane topology corresponding to each road segment based on the lane topology information associated with that road segment. Specifically, when determining the lane topology for each of the multiple road segments, the determination unit 113 arranges edges representing the vehicle's driving line and nodes connecting the edges in the target road segment.

[0063] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of arranging nodes and edges. As shown in FIG. 4, the determination unit 113 arranges one or more nodes 210 for a road segment 200. If the road segment 200 includes multiple lanes, the determination unit 113 arranges a node 210 for each lane. Then, the determination unit 113 arranges an edge 220 between two nodes 210. One edge corresponds to one lane. For example, two edges 220 and four nodes 210 at their ends are arranged in a road segment 200 having two lanes.

[0064] By doing as described above, the determining unit 113 can determine a partial network topology indicating which nodes a certain node is connected to for each road segment.

[0065] In the first embodiment, the acquisition unit 111 acquires lane topology information corresponding to each road segment and first information indicating the position to which the lane topology information corresponds from multiple vehicles 10. Then, the determination unit 113 determines an appropriate lane topology for each road segment based on the multiple pieces of lane topology information. This allows the server device 100 to add information indicating the lanes of the road to the road map based on the data acquired from the multiple vehicles.

[0066] (Modification of the first embodiment) In the first embodiment, the server device 100 associates the lane topology information with the road segments by using the position information corresponding to the lane topology information included in the first information. However, the position information corresponding to the lane topology information is not always in a format that can be used by the server device 100. For example, when the lane topology information obtained from the vehicle 10 is The position information corresponding to the topology information may be expressed in a coordinate system centered on the vehicle. On the other hand, the generation (or update) of a road map may require the position information expressed in a geographic coordinate system. Therefore, in a modification of the first embodiment, the server device 100 corrects the coordinate system of the position information corresponding to the lane topology information to the geographic coordinate system using information indicating the attitude of the vehicle included in the first information.

[0067] 5 is a diagram illustrating information indicating the attitude of the vehicle 10. The information indicating the attitude of the vehicle 10 is included in the first information. The information indicating the attitude of the vehicle 10 is information indicating the angle at which an axis indicating the traveling direction of the vehicle 10 is tilted from the X-axis of the geographic coordinate system. Alternatively, the information indicating the attitude of the vehicle 10 may be information indicating the angle at which an axis indicating the traveling direction of the vehicle 10 is tilted from the Y-axis of the geographic coordinate system.

[0068] The allocation unit 112 corrects the coordinate system of the position information corresponding to the lane topology information from a coordinate system centered on the vehicle 10 to a geographic coordinate system, using the latitude and longitude information of the vehicle 10 acquired by the acquisition unit 111 and information indicating the attitude of the vehicle 10. Specifically, the coordinates of the position information corresponding to the lane topology information expressed in a coordinate system centered on the vehicle 10 may be rotated by an angle indicated by the information indicating the attitude of the vehicle 10, and corrected to coordinates in the geographic coordinate system.

[0069] In this way, the server device 100 may convert the position information corresponding to the lane topology information acquired from the vehicle into a geographic coordinate system and use it for processing.

[0070] (Second embodiment) [Outline of processing performed by the server device] In the first embodiment, the server device 100 associates the most appropriate lane topology information from among multiple pieces of lane topology information corresponding to the position of a target road segment with the road segment, and determines the lane topology of the road segment. However, when there are multiple pieces of lane topology information corresponding to the position of the road segment, it may be better to determine the lane topology corresponding to the position of the road segment by taking all of the pieces of lane topology information into consideration. Therefore, in the second embodiment, the server device 100 integrates multiple pieces of lane topology information corresponding to the position of the target road segment, selects appropriate lane topology information, and assigns the selected lane topology information to the road segment.

[0071] 6 is a flowchart of a process for determining a lane topology executed by the control unit 110 of the server device 100 according to the second embodiment. The process illustrated in FIG. 6 is executed after the process of step S12 in FIG. 3, instead of step S13.

[0072] First, in step S20, the determination unit 113 determines whether multiple pieces of lane topology information associated with the target road segment by the allocation unit 112 are associated with the target road segment. If there are multiple pieces of lane topology information that match the number of lanes determined in step S11 of Fig. 3, it can be said that multiple pieces of lane topology information are associated with the target road segment. This step results in a positive determination if the determination unit 113 determines that multiple pieces of lane topology information are associated with the target road segment.

[0073] If the determination in this step is affirmative, the process proceeds to step S21.

[0074] If the determination in this step is negative, the process proceeds to S13 described with reference to FIG.

[0075] When the process proceeds to step S21, the determination unit 113 performs a process of integrating a plurality of pieces of lane topology information associated with the target road segment, thereby determining the target road segment. Determine the lane topology of the interface. An example of the process of integrating a plurality of pieces of lane topology information is to classify (for example, cluster) the plurality of pieces of lane topology information by lane topology and adopt the most common lane topology. For example, the determination unit 113 selects the lane topology information corresponding to the content indicated by the most lane topology information among the content indicated by multiple pieces of lane topology information as the lane topology information of the target road segment. For example, a case will be described in which three pieces of lane topology information correspond to a certain road segment. If, among the three pieces of lane topology information, two pieces of lane topology information indicate that node 1 is connected to node 3 and one piece of lane topology information indicates that node 1 is connected to node 2, the determination unit 113 may adopt the lane topology information indicating that node 1 is associated with node 3. In other words, the determination unit 113 may adopt, for each road segment, the lane topology information indicated by the most lane topology information among all the lane topology information. Note that other methods may be adopted as long as they can integrate multiple lane topologies.

[0076] Next, in step S22, the determination unit 113 determines the lane topology corresponding to the target road segment based on the adopted lane topology information.

[0077] In the second embodiment, the server device 100 can integrate multiple pieces of lane topology information to determine an appropriate lane topology for a target road segment. This allows the server device 100 to appropriately add information indicating the lane positions of the road to a road map based on data acquired from multiple vehicles.

[0078] (Other variations) The above-described embodiment is merely an example, and the present disclosure may be modified as appropriate within the scope of the present disclosure. For example, the processes and means described in the present disclosure may be freely combined as long as no technical contradiction occurs.

[0079] The present disclosure includes an information processing method for executing the processing described in the above embodiment, and a program for causing a computer to execute the information processing method.

[0080] The present disclosure can also be realized by providing a computer program implementing the functions described in the above embodiments to a computer, and having one or more processors in the computer read and execute the program. Such a computer program may be provided to the computer via a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium connectable to the computer's system bus or via a network. Non-transitory computer-readable storage media include, for example, any type of disk, such as a magnetic disk (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk drive (HDD), etc.), an optical disk (e.g., a CD-ROM, a DVD disk, a Blu-ray disk), a read-only memory (ROM), a random-access memory (RAM), an EPROM, an EEPROM, a magnetic card, a flash memory, an optical card, or any type of medium suitable for storing electronic instructions. [Explanation of symbols]

[0081] 100 Server device 110 Control unit 111...Acquisition part 112 Allocation section 113...Decision section 120...Storage section 130 Communications Department

Claims

1. acquiring, from a first vehicle, lane topology information indicating a lane topology of a road on which the first vehicle has traveled, the lane topology information being estimated based on data acquired via an on-board sensor of the first vehicle, and first information including position information corresponding to the lane topology information; Associating one or more pieces of lane topology information acquired from the first vehicles with each of a plurality of road segments included in a road map based on the first information; determining a lane topology for each of a plurality of the road segments included in the road map based on the one or more corresponding lane topology information; A control unit that executes Information processing device.

2. The lane topology represents a road network topology in units of lanes, The lane topology information is information representing a partial network topology estimated based on the data. The information processing device according to claim 1 .

3. The control unit When determining a lane topology for each of the plurality of road segments, an edge representing a driving line of the first vehicle and a node connecting the edges are arranged on the target road segment. The information processing device according to claim 2 .

4. The first information further includes latitude and longitude information of the first vehicle and information indicating an attitude of the first vehicle. The information processing device according to claim 1 .

5. the information indicating the attitude of the first vehicle is expressed by a rotation angle of an axis parallel to a traveling direction of the vehicle from an axis of a geographic coordinate system; The information processing device according to claim 4 .

6. the position information corresponding to the lane topology information is expressed in a coordinate system based on the first vehicle; the control unit corrects a coordinate system of the position information to a geographic coordinate system using latitude and longitude information of the first vehicle and information indicating an attitude of the first vehicle. The information processing device according to claim 4 .

7. The control unit When there are a plurality of pieces of lane topology information that are candidates for association for each of the plurality of road segments, determining the lane topology information to be associated based on the number of lanes included in each piece of lane topology information.

3. The information processing device according to claim 1.

8. The control unit When a plurality of pieces of lane topology information are associated with each of the plurality of road segments, the lane topology corresponding to the road segment is determined by the lane topology indicated by the lane topology information randomly selected from the plurality of pieces of lane topology information. Determine the lane topology to be used, 3. The information processing device according to claim 1.

9. The control unit When a plurality of pieces of lane topology information are associated with each of the plurality of road segments, a lane topology corresponding to the road segment is determined using a result of integrating the plurality of pieces of lane topology information.

3. The information processing device according to claim 1.

10. acquiring, from a first vehicle, lane topology information indicating a lane topology of a road on which the first vehicle has traveled, the lane topology information being estimated based on data acquired via an on-board sensor of the first vehicle, and first information including position information corresponding to the lane topology information; a step of associating one or more pieces of lane topology information acquired from a plurality of the first vehicles with each of a plurality of road segments included in a road map based on the first information; determining a lane topology for each of a plurality of the road segments included in the road map based on the one or more corresponding lane topology information; Including, Information processing methods.

11. The lane topology represents a road network topology in units of lanes, The lane topology information is information representing a partial network topology estimated based on the data. The information processing method according to claim 10.

12. In the step of determining the lane topology, placing edges representing the driving line of the first vehicle and nodes connecting the edges on a target road segment; The information processing method according to claim 11.

13. The first information further includes latitude and longitude information of the first vehicle and information indicating an attitude of the first vehicle. The information processing method according to claim 10.

14. the information indicating the attitude of the first vehicle is expressed by a rotation angle of an axis parallel to a traveling direction of the vehicle from an axis of a geographic coordinate system; The information processing method according to claim 13.

15. the position information corresponding to the lane topology information is expressed in a coordinate system based on the first vehicle; and further comprising a step of correcting a coordinate system of the position information to a geographic coordinate system using latitude and longitude information of the first vehicle and information indicating an attitude of the first vehicle. The information processing method according to claim 13.

16. In the step of associating the lane topology information with each of a plurality of road segments included in the road map, For each of the plurality of road segments, the lane topography that is a candidate for association is selected. When there are a plurality of pieces of lane topology information, the lane topology information to be associated is determined based on the number of lanes included in each piece of lane topology information. The information processing method according to claim 10.

17. In the step of determining the lane topology, When a plurality of pieces of lane topology information are associated with each of the plurality of road segments, the lane topology corresponding to the road segment is determined based on the lane topology indicated by lane topology information randomly selected from the plurality of pieces of lane topology information. The information processing method according to claim 10.

18. In the step of determining the lane topology, When a plurality of pieces of lane topology information are associated with each of the plurality of road segments, a lane topology corresponding to the road segment is determined using a result of integrating the plurality of pieces of lane topology information. The information processing method according to claim 10.

19. A program for causing a computer to execute the information processing method according to any one of claims 10 to 18.

Images