Drivable area extraction device, system, method, and program

Abstract

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a travelable area extraction device and the like which are capable of extracting a travelable area from three-dimensional data. A disclosed travelable area extraction device (100) is provided with: a three-dimensional data input unit (101) which inputs three-dimensional data from a three-dimensional data acquisition unit mounted in a vehicle; a location information acquisition unit (103) which acquires location information of the vehicle; and a travelable area extraction unit (104) which extracts a travelable area from the three-dimensional data on the basis of the location information of the vehicle and a road structure rule that indicates the distance from one edge to the other edge of the traveling area in a road.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a travelable area extraction device, a travelable area extraction system, a travelable area extraction method, and a non-transitory computer-readable medium. [Background technology]

[0002] Sensors such as LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) can irradiate each measurement point of an object with a laser and calculate the distance to each measurement point based on the time between the laser irradiation and the reception of the light. By using such sensors while moving, the distance to the object and its shape can be obtained while the object is moving. It is required to accurately extract the traveling area from the point cloud data obtained in this way.

[0003] For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a drivable area detection device that detects a road edge break ahead of a moving body and determines whether or not a drivable area in which the moving body can travel exists from the detected road edge break. Patent Document 2 discloses a roadway recognition device that recognizes the road edges of a road on which the vehicle is traveling. This roadway recognition device has a laser radar that irradiates a laser from the vehicle toward the road, a road surface determination unit that determines the cross gradient of the road based on the coordinate values ​​of a point cloud obtained by the laser radar, and a road edge determination unit that determines a change point where the gradient angle changes in the cross gradient of the road determined by the road surface determination unit, and determines the coordinate value of at least one road edge on both sides of the cross direction of the road based on the coordinate value of the change point. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] International Publication No. 2018 / 123641 [Patent Document 2] Patent Publication No. 2020-134367 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] However, it is difficult to detect road edges on various roads from captured images or point cloud data. The conditions at both ends of a road are various, for example, a section with a guardrail, a section with a tunnel, a section with nothing, etc., and the width of the road point cloud extracted from the point cloud data is various. Therefore, the drivable area extracted from captured images or point cloud data in which a section with a guardrail and a section without a guardrail are mixed may not be appropriate.

[0006] The present disclosure has been made to solve such problems, and aims to provide a drivable area extraction device, a drivable area extraction system, a drivable area extraction method, and a non-transitory computer-readable medium that are capable of extracting a drivable area from three-dimensional data. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] The travelable area extraction device according to the first aspect of the present disclosure includes: a three-dimensional data input unit that inputs three-dimensional data from a three-dimensional data acquisition unit mounted on the vehicle; a location information acquisition unit that acquires location information of the vehicle; a drivable area extraction unit that extracts a drivable area from the three-dimensional data based on the vehicle position information and a road structural rule that indicates a distance from one end of a driving area within a road to the other end of the driving area; Equipped with.

[0008] A travelable area extraction system according to a second aspect of the present disclosure includes: A three-dimensional data acquisition unit mounted on the vehicle; a three-dimensional data input unit for inputting the three-dimensional data from the three-dimensional data acquisition unit; a location information acquisition unit that acquires location information of the vehicle; a drivable area extraction unit that extracts a drivable area from the three-dimensional data based on the vehicle position information and a road structural rule that indicates a distance from one end of a driving area within a road to the other end of the driving area; Equipped with.

[0009] A method for extracting a travelable area according to a third aspect of the present disclosure includes: 3D data is input from the 3D data acquisition unit installed in the vehicle, Acquire location information of the vehicle; A drivable area is extracted from the three-dimensional data based on the vehicle's position information and road structural rules that indicate the distance from one end of a driving area within a road to the other end of the driving area.

[0010] A non-transitory computer-readable medium according to a fourth aspect of the present disclosure includes a process for inputting three-dimensional data from a three-dimensional data acquisition unit mounted on a vehicle; A process of acquiring position information of the vehicle; The data includes a program that causes a computer to execute a process of extracting a drivable area from the three-dimensional data based on the vehicle's position information and road structural rules that indicate the distance from one end of a driving area within a road to the other end of the driving area. Effect of the Invention

[0011] The present disclosure makes it possible to provide a travelable area extraction device and the like that can extract a travelable area from three-dimensional data. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0012] [Figure 1] 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a travelable area extraction device according to a first embodiment. [Diagram 2] 2 is an exemplary flowchart showing a travelable area extraction method according to the first embodiment. [Diagram 3] FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating various sensors that can be mounted on a vehicle as viewed from the front according to a second embodiment. [Figure 4] FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating various sensors that can be mounted on a vehicle according to a second embodiment, as viewed from the rear. [Diagram 5] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of point cloud data acquired from the front of a vehicle. [Figure 6] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of detecting a drivable area from a road. [Figure 7] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a travelable area extraction system. [Figure 8] FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing another example of the configuration of the travelable area extraction device. [Figure 9] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of detecting a drivable area from a curved road. [Figure 10] 10 is an exemplary flowchart showing a travelable area extraction method according to a second embodiment. [Figure 11] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of point cloud data acquired from the front of a vehicle. [Figure 12] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of detecting a drivable area from a road. [Figure 13] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of detecting a drivable area from a road. [Figure 14] FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing another example of the configuration of the travelable area extraction device. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0013] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In each drawing, the same or corresponding elements are denoted by the same reference numerals, and duplicated descriptions will be omitted as necessary for clarity of explanation.

[0014] <Embodiment 1> FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a travelable area extraction device according to the first embodiment. The drivable area extraction device 100 is realized by a computer having a processor, a memory, etc. The drivable area extraction device 100 can be mounted on a vehicle together with a three-dimensional data acquisition unit (e.g., a LiDAR camera, etc.) and used to extract a drivable area from three-dimensional data. Examples of the vehicle include a general vehicle, a bus, a truck, a motorcycle, and any other suitable means of transportation.

[0015] The drivable area extraction device 100 comprises a three-dimensional data input unit 101 that inputs three-dimensional data from a three-dimensional data acquisition unit installed in the vehicle, a position information acquisition unit 103 that acquires vehicle position information, and a drivable area extraction unit 104 that extracts a drivable area from the three-dimensional data based on the vehicle position information and road structural rules that indicate the distance from one end of a driving area within the road to the other end of the driving area.

[0016] The three-dimensional data input unit 101 is an input interface for inputting three-dimensional data from a three-dimensional data acquisition unit (for example, a LiDAR camera, etc.). The three-dimensional data acquisition unit is fixed at a predetermined position of the vehicle, and its height from the ground (installation position) may basically be constant. The position information acquisition unit 103 may be various devices that acquire vehicle position information. For example, the position information acquisition unit 103 may be a magnetic sensor that detects the magnetic force of a magnetic marker laid on a road and recognizes the position of the vehicle, or may be a device (receiver) that detects the position of the vehicle using a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) or a Global Positioning System (GPS). The position information acquisition unit 103 may be any other suitable device that can acquire accurate position information of the vehicle.

[0017] A road, as used herein, is a real road constructed in accordance with the rules for road structure. A travel area, as used herein, is an area of ​​a real road constructed in accordance with the rules for road structure, in which a vehicle can travel. As described above, the position information acquisition unit 103 can identify the position of a vehicle traveling in the travel area, and can thereby calculate the distance from the current position of the vehicle to each end of the travel area constructed in accordance with the rules. The width of the travel area constructed in accordance with the rules (i.e., the distance from one end of the travel area to the other end of the travel area) and the position information (e.g., latitude and longitude) may be associated with map information and stored in the storage unit of the travelable area extraction device 100 or an external storage unit connected to the travelable area extraction device 100. The rules for road structure do not necessarily need to be those determined by a national or local government, and may be rules for road structure on private land.

[0018] The drivable area extraction unit 104 extracts a drivable area corresponding to the driving area from the three-dimensional data. At this time, since the installation position of the three-dimensional data acquisition unit in the vehicle (for example, the laser irradiation position of the LiDAR sensor) is fixed, the drivable area extraction unit 104 recognizes the position in the three-dimensional data corresponding to the installation position as the current position of the vehicle. Furthermore, the drivable area extraction unit 104 extracts, as the drivable area, three-dimensional data corresponding to the distance from the current position of the vehicle calculated as described above to one end (i.e., a road edge) of the driving area or the distance to both ends (both road edges) of the driving area.

[0019] FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating the travelable area extraction method according to the first embodiment. The drivable area extraction method includes the following steps: The three-dimensional data input unit 101 inputs three-dimensional data from a three-dimensional data acquisition unit mounted on the vehicle (step S11). The position information acquisition unit 103 acquires vehicle position information (step S12). The drivable area extraction unit 104 extracts a drivable area from the three-dimensional data based on the vehicle position information and a road structural rule indicating the distance from one end of a driving area within the road to the other end of the driving area (step S13).

[0020] The driveable area extraction device and method according to the first embodiment described above can appropriately extract the driveable area from three-dimensional data without detecting road edges in the three-dimensional data.

[0021] <Embodiment 2> FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating various sensors that can be mounted on a vehicle according to the second embodiment, as viewed from the front. A bus 3, which is an example of a vehicle, is equipped with a monocular camera 31 mounted on the front of the bus, a LiDAR sensor 32, a millimeter wave sensor 33 positioned near the opening and closing door at the boarding and alighting entrance of the bus 3, a stereo camera 34 positioned near the front windshield of the bus 3, and a millimeter wave sensor 35 and an infrared camera 36 provided near the license plate at the front of the bus 3.

[0022] The monocular camera 31 can acquire the characteristics of an object by photographing the object with a single camera. The LiDAR sensor 32 identifies the distance to the object and the shape of the object by using a laser light. The LiDAR sensor 32 can irradiate each measurement point of the measurement object with a laser and calculate the distance to each measurement point based on the time from when the laser is irradiated to when the light is received. In some embodiments, the LiDAR sensor 32 can acquire point cloud data only in front of the bus 3. In other embodiments, the LiDAR sensor 32 is configured to be rotatable and can acquire point cloud data from all directions so that it can detect obstacles and the like in a 360-degree surrounding area.

[0023] The millimeter wave sensors 33 and 35 emit radio waves in the millimeter wave band and detect the reflected waves to obtain the distance to an object and its speed. The stereo camera 34 is also called a front camera, and can record the distance to the object and its speed by photographing the object with two cameras. The stereo camera 34 has imaging elements such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) or a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor). The infrared camera 36 can visualize infrared rays emitted from the object.

[0024] 4 is a diagram illustrating various sensors that may be mounted on a vehicle as viewed from the rear according to embodiment 2. The bus 3 includes a magnetic sensor 41 disposed on the lower side in the center of the vehicle body, an RFID reader 42 disposed on the lower side of the rear side of the vehicle body, a millimeter wave sensor 43, a GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) antenna 44, and a LiDAR sensor 45.

[0025] The magnetic sensor 41 detects the magnetic force of magnetic markers laid on the road and obtains the vehicle's position. The RFID reader 42 obtains RFID tag information attached to some of the magnetic markers laid on the road and identifies the vehicle's position. The millimeter wave sensor 43 emits millimeter wave radio waves and detects the reflected waves to obtain the distance to an object and its speed. The GNSS antenna 44 obtains radio waves from a positioning satellite to recognize the vehicle's position. The LiDAR sensor 45 uses laser light to identify the distance to an object and the shape of the object.

[0026] In some embodiments, the LiDAR sensor 32 shown in FIG. 3 can acquire point cloud data only in front of the bus 3. In other embodiments, the LiDAR sensor 32 is configured to be rotatable and can acquire point cloud data from all directions so as to detect obstacles and the like in a 360-degree surrounding area. In some embodiments, the LiDAR sensor 45 shown in FIG. 4 can acquire point cloud data only in the rear of the bus 3. In other embodiments, the LiDAR sensor 45 is configured to be rotatable and can acquire point cloud data from all directions so as to detect obstacles and the like in a 360-degree surrounding area.

[0027] These sensors attached to the bus 3 are merely examples, and some sensors may be omitted or added depending on the embodiment. These sensors and various devices such as antennas and readers may be connected to the driving assistance control device 50 via a network. The driving assistance control device 50 controls various control devices (not shown) mounted on the vehicle to control the operation of the vehicle and assist driving. The various control devices may be, for example, an accelerator control unit, a brake control unit, a speaker control unit, a steering control unit, etc.

[0028] FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of point cloud data acquired from the front of the vehicle. Fig. 5 shows an example of traveling on a straight road with one lane in each direction. Fig. 5 shows point cloud data from only objects in front of the bus 3 acquired by the LiDAR sensor 32. As shown in Fig. 3, the LiDAR sensor 32 is disposed at a predetermined height on the upper front part of the bus 3. A current line PL is a schematic line indicating the traveling direction from a position on the point cloud data corresponding to the installation position of the LiDAR sensor 32 (for example, the LiDAR laser irradiation position).

[0029] In Fig. 5, it is difficult to accurately detect road edges from point cloud data. For example, in Fig. 5, there are many vehicles parked on the road, and objects that may be road edges (e.g., guard rails, etc.) cannot be detected. Therefore, it is also impossible to extract a drivable area from point cloud data. Therefore, in this embodiment, first, the exact positions of the vehicles on the road are acquired, and then, based on the position information, the drivable area is extracted in accordance with the structural rules of the road.

[0030] FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of detecting a travelable area. FIG. 6 shows an example of traveling on a straight road with one lane on each side, as in FIG. 5. A road, as used herein, is a road used for vehicular traffic, and includes areas where vehicles do not generally travel, such as road shoulders. A traveling area, as used herein, refers to an area of ​​a road where vehicles can travel, and is defined in accordance with the structural rules of the road. A drivable area, as used herein, refers to an area of ​​three-dimensional data (point cloud data) acquired by a sensor, which corresponds to the traveling area.

[0031] The bus 3 includes the magnetic sensor 41 as described above. The magnetic sensor 41 detects the magnetic force of the magnetic marker 48 laid on the road and recognizes the position of the bus 3. The magnetic markers 48 can be laid at a predetermined interval on the driving area of ​​the road (for example, the center line, etc.). This makes it possible to determine with high accuracy where on the road the vehicle is driving (for example, a point on the current line PL of the road width on the right side of FIG. 6). The driving area of ​​the road (for example, the area shown by diagonal lines on the right side of FIG. 6) is determined by the rules for road construction as the distance from the reference line RL (for example, the center line of the road) to the limit line LL, which is the end of the driving area within the road, and the road is constructed in accordance with the rules. Therefore, if the exact current position of the vehicle is known, the distance from the current line PL to one of the limit lines LL can also be calculated. In addition, the distance from the current line PL to the other limit line LL beyond the reference line RL can also be calculated. The road structural rules prescribe standard values ​​for roadway, sidewalk, shoulder, center strip, etc., in accordance with the Road Structure Ordinance. In this embodiment, a drivable area corresponding to the driving area determined based on the standard value of roadway width is extracted. The reference line RL may be the line at the other end of the driving area of ​​the road (for example, in the case of one lane in FIG. 6). The reference line RL may be the center line of the road (for example, in the case of two opposing lanes).

[0032] 5, point cloud data corresponding to the distance from the current line PL to one limit line LL and point cloud data corresponding to the distance from the current line PL to the other limit line LL are extracted as the drivable area. Therefore, in this embodiment, the drivable area can be extracted from the point cloud data without detecting objects (such as guardrails) at the roadside.

[0033] FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a travelable area extraction system. The driveable area extraction system includes a driveable area extraction device 200, a three-dimensional data acquisition unit 30 mounted on a vehicle, and a driving assistance control device 50 that controls driving of the vehicle.

[0034] The driveable area extraction device 200 is realized by a computer having a storage unit 210, a memory 220, a communication unit 230, a control unit 250, etc. The control unit 250 includes a three-dimensional data input unit 251, a position information acquisition unit 253, and a driveable area extraction unit 254. The storage unit 210 includes a program 211 and structural rules 212 for each road segment. The structural rules 212 for each road segment prescribe information related to the driveable area for each road segment (for example, the road width, the range of the driveable area, position information, etc.).

[0035] The three-dimensional data input unit 251 inputs three-dimensional data from a three-dimensional data acquisition unit 30 (for example, a LiDAR sensor 32) mounted on a vehicle. The three-dimensional data may be data (point cloud data, etc.) on three mutually orthogonal axes (i.e., axes such as XYZ axes, distance, azimuth angle, and elevation angle) for expressing roads and the like in a digital space, acquired by a sensor such as a LiDAR or a stereo camera. Since the attachment position of the three-dimensional data acquisition unit 30 (for example, the LiDAR sensor 32) is fixed, the position in the three-dimensional data (PL in FIG. 5) corresponding to the installation position of the three-dimensional data acquisition unit among the point cloud data shown in FIG. 5 is also fixed.

[0036] The position information acquisition unit 253 acquires the position information of the vehicle. The position information acquisition unit 253 acquires the position of the vehicle on the road. As described above, the position information acquisition unit 253 can acquire highly accurate position information of the vehicle calculated by a magnetic sensor and a magnetic marker on the road. The magnetic marker may be called a position information providing unit. In the case of the RFID reader 42, the position information providing unit may be a part of a magnetic marker laid on the road. The position information providing unit provides the RFID tag information attached to the magnetic marker to the position information acquisition unit 253, so that the position information acquisition unit 253 can specify the position of the vehicle. In another example, the position information providing unit may be a beacon transmitter placed on or near the road. In another embodiment, the position information acquisition unit 253 may acquire the position information of the vehicle from the GNSS antenna 44.

[0037] The drivable area extraction unit 254 extracts the drivable area from the three-dimensional data based on the vehicle position information and the structural rules of the road that indicate the distance from one end of the driving area in the road to the other end of the driving area. The structural rules of the road may be determined according to the road classification (for example, first to fourth types, determined based on the type of road, traffic capacity, region, and topography). That is, by using the structural rules of the road classification associated with the current position information of the vehicle, information on the corresponding driving area can be obtained from the current position of the vehicle. For example, if it is known from the current position of the vehicle that the vehicle is traveling on a third-type road, the distance from the reference position of the road to the limit position that is the end of the driving area in the road can be obtained according to the structural rules of the third-type road. This makes it possible to extract the drivable area of ​​the third-type road from the three-dimensional data.

[0038] The storage unit 210 is a storage device such as a hard disk, a flash memory, etc. The storage unit 210 stores structural rules 212 for each road segment. The storage unit 210 may also store map information indicating a road network, road segments, road types (e.g., general roads, expressways), etc.

[0039] The memory 220 is a volatile storage device such as a RAM (Random Access Memory), and is a storage area for temporarily holding information during operation of the control unit 250. The communication unit 230 is a communication interface with a network N. The communication unit 230 may be used to perform wireless communication. For example, the communication unit 230 may be used to perform wireless LAN communication defined in the IEEE 802.11 series, or mobile communication defined in the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project). Alternatively, the communication unit 230 may include, for example, a network interface card (NIC) conforming to the IEEE 802.3 series.

[0040] FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing another example of the configuration of the travelable area extraction device 200. As shown in FIG. In this configuration example, a road area extraction unit 252 is added. The road area extraction unit 252 extracts a specific range from a position in the input three-dimensional data corresponding to the installation position of the three-dimensional data acquisition unit 30 (for example, the LiDAR sensor 32) mounted on the vehicle as a road area. Specifically, the road area extraction unit 252 extracts a road area from the input three-dimensional data based on the traveling direction of the vehicle and the height from the installation position of the three-dimensional data acquisition unit to the road. The road area extraction unit 252 extracts a road area where a road is likely to exist below the installation position of the three-dimensional data acquisition unit by an amount equivalent to the height from the three-dimensional data (point cloud data). Even when the LiDAR sensor 32 rotates 360 degrees around to acquire three-dimensional data, the road area extraction unit 252 can extract three-dimensional data in the traveling direction of the vehicle.

[0041] The driveable area extraction unit 254 extracts a driveable area from the extracted road area based on the vehicle position information and the road structural rules associated with the vehicle position information. The driving assistance control device 50 controls the driving of the vehicle based on the extracted driveable area.

[0042] In this configuration example, even if the vehicle is not running parallel to the road, the drivable area can be extracted. FIG. 9 shows an example of extracting a driving area on a curved road. The road area extraction unit 252 extracts three-dimensional data (point cloud data) of an area where a road is likely to exist based on the installation position (height) of the vehicle of the three-dimensional data acquisition unit 30 (for example, LiDAR sensor), and extracts an area where the normal vector is oriented vertically to the data as the road area. Even in the case of a slope, the LiDAR is inclined according to the slope gradient when viewed from the world coordinate system, so that the road area can be extracted without being affected. The drivable area extraction unit 254 extracts a drivable area from the extracted road area based on the vehicle position information and the structural rules of the road associated with the vehicle position information.

[0043] Alternatively, in another embodiment, since a survey is performed when a road is constructed, the coordinates of the magnetic markers and the survey data are associated in a world coordinate system, and the direction in which the road extends is determined according to the position of the vehicle, so that it is possible to deal with cases in which the vehicle is not running parallel to the road. In this case, the survey data is also given as external information. The drivable area extraction device 200 stores the survey data 213 in the storage unit 210. Furthermore, instead of the survey data, digital map information 214 owned by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan may be used. The digital map information 214 may also be stored in the storage unit 210. The drivable area extraction unit 254 extracts a drivable area from the extracted road area based on the vehicle's position information and the road structural rules, survey data, or digital map associated with the vehicle's position information.

[0044] FIG. 10 is an exemplary flowchart illustrating the travelable area extraction method according to the second embodiment. The drivable area extraction method includes the following steps. The three-dimensional data input unit 251 inputs three-dimensional data from a three-dimensional data acquisition unit mounted on the vehicle (step S21). The road area extraction unit 252 extracts a specific range as a road area from a position in the three-dimensional data corresponding to the installation position of the three-dimensional data acquisition unit mounted on the vehicle (step S22). The road area extraction unit 252 extracts the road area from the input three-dimensional data based on the traveling direction of the vehicle and the height from the installation position of the three-dimensional data acquisition unit 30 to the road. The position information acquisition unit 253 acquires vehicle position information (step S23). The drivable area extraction unit 254 extracts a drivable area from the extracted road area based on the vehicle position information and a road structural rule indicating the distance from one end of the driving area in the road to the other end of the driving area (step S24).

[0045] FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of point cloud data acquired from the front of the vehicle. Fig. 11 shows an example of traveling on a straight road with two lanes on each side. Fig. 11 shows point cloud data from only objects in front of the bus 3 acquired by the LiDAR sensor 32. As shown in Fig. 3, the LiDAR sensor 32 is disposed at a predetermined height on the upper front part of the bus 3. A current line PL is a schematic line indicating the traveling direction from a position in the point cloud data corresponding to the installation position of the LiDAR sensor 32 (for example, the LiDAR laser irradiation position).

[0046] FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of detecting a travelable area. FIG. 12 shows an example of a bus traveling on a straight road with two lanes on each side, as in FIG. 11. The bus 3 includes the magnetic sensor 41 as described above. The magnetic sensor 41 detects the magnetic force of the magnetic marker 48a laid on the road on which the bus 3 is traveling, and recognizes the position of the bus 3. The magnetic markers 48a may be laid at a predetermined interval on the traveling area of ​​the road. A plurality of magnetic markers 48b may also be laid at a predetermined interval on the adjacent traveling area. This makes it possible to determine with high accuracy where on the road the vehicle is traveling (for example, a point on the current line PL of the road width). The traveling area of ​​the road is determined by the rules of road construction as the distance from the reference line RL (for example, the center line of the road, etc.) to the limit line LL, which is the end of the traveling area within the road, and the road is constructed according to the rules. Therefore, if the exact current position of the vehicle is known, the distance from the current line PL to the limit line LL can also be calculated. In addition, the distance from the current line PL to the reference line RL can also be calculated.

[0047] 11, point cloud data corresponding to the distance from the current line PL to one of the limit lines LL and point cloud data corresponding to the distance from the current line PL to the reference line RL are extracted as the drivable area. Therefore, in this embodiment, the drivable area can be extracted from the point cloud data without detecting objects (such as guardrails) at the edges.

[0048] FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of detecting a travelable area. FIG. 13 shows an example of a two-lane road that is a straight road with one lane on each side. The bus 3 is equipped with the magnetic sensor 41 as described above. The magnetic sensor 41 detects the magnetic force of the magnetic marker 48a laid on the road on which the vehicle is traveling, and recognizes the traveling lane and the position of the bus 3. A plurality of magnetic markers 48a may be laid at a predetermined interval on the traveling area of ​​the road. A plurality of magnetic markers 48b may also be laid at a predetermined interval on the adjacent traveling area. This makes it possible to determine with high accuracy where on the road the vehicle is traveling (for example, a point on the current line PL of the road width). The traveling area of ​​the road is determined by the rules of road construction as the distance from the reference line RL (for example, the center line of the road, etc.) to the limit line LL, which is the end of the traveling area within the road, and the road is constructed according to the rules. Therefore, if the exact current position of the vehicle is known, the distance from the current line PL to the limit line LL can also be calculated. In addition, the distance from the current line PL to the reference line RL can also be calculated.

[0049] FIG. 14 is a block diagram showing another example of the configuration of the travelable area extraction device 200. As shown in FIG. In this configuration example, a driving lane detection unit 255 and an opposing lane detection unit 256 are added as supplementary components. As described above, the driving area associated with the current position of the vehicle is determined in advance in accordance with the rules of road structure, so that once the current position of the vehicle is determined, the corresponding driving area can be extracted. However, in order to determine the driving area more accurately, in this embodiment, the driving lane detection unit 255 and the opposing lane detection unit 256 are added as supplementary components.

[0050] The driving lane detection unit 255 detects the driving lane in which the vehicle is traveling. For example, the driving lane detection unit 255 may be the RFID reader 42. As shown in FIG. 12, the driving lane detection unit 255 acquires RFID tag information attached to a magnetic marker, and when the driving lane detection unit 255 acquires RFID tag information from the magnetic marker 48a, the driving lane detection unit 255 can detect an area including the magnetic marker 48a as a driving lane. Furthermore, the opposing lane detection unit 256 detects an opposing lane in which an oncoming vehicle is traveling. For example, the opposing lane detection unit 256 may be the RFID reader 42. As shown in FIG. 13, the opposing lane detection unit 256 acquires RFID tag information attached to a magnetic marker, and when the driving lane detection unit 255 acquires RFID tag information from the magnetic marker 48b, the driving lane detection unit 255 can detect an area including the magnetic marker 48b as an opposing lane. The drivable area extraction unit 254 can extract a drivable area so as not to include the detected opposing lane.

[0051] In another embodiment, the driving lane detection unit 255 may be the monocular camera 31 or the stereo camera 34. The driving lane detection unit 255 can detect lines on the road (for example, solid or broken white lines, solid yellow lines, etc.) and recognize the driving lane. The driving lane detection unit 255 can detect the driving lane by a known image recognition technology. The opposing lane detection unit 256 may be the monocular camera 31 or the stereo camera 34. The opposing lane detection unit 256 can detect a white line, a median strip, etc., and further detect an oncoming vehicle or a sign included in the opposing lane, and can detect the opposing lane of the road. The opposing lane detection unit 256 can detect the driving lane by a known image recognition technology. The drivable area extraction unit 254 can extract a drivable area so as not to include the detected opposing lane.

[0052] In yet another embodiment, the driving lane detection unit 255 may be a LiDAR sensor 32. The driving lane detection unit 255 can detect lines on the road (e.g., solid or broken white lines, solid yellow lines, etc.) from the difference in laser reflection intensity between the asphalt and the lane, and recognize the driving lane. The opposing lane detection unit 256 may be a LiDAR sensor 32. The opposing lane detection unit 256 can detect white lines, median strips, etc., and further detects an oncoming vehicle or a sign included in the opposing lane, and can detect the opposing lane of the road.

[0053] There may be a case where the drivable area extraction unit 254 is used in combination with the driving lane detection unit 255 or the opposing lane detection unit 256. For example, the drivable area may be extracted from the three-dimensional data by combining an area on the three-dimensional data corresponding to the distance from the current position of the vehicle (for example, the current line PL in FIG. 13) to the limit line of the driving area, which is the road edge (for example, LL in FIG. 13), with the driving lane detected by the above-mentioned driving lane detection unit 255 (for example, RL in FIG. 13).

[0054] In the above embodiment, the present disclosure has been described as a hardware configuration, but is not limited to this. Any process of the present disclosure can be realized by causing a CPU to execute a computer program.

[0055] In the above example, the program can be stored and provided to the computer using various types of non-transitory computer readable media. The non-transitory computer readable media includes various types of tangible storage media. Examples of the non-transitory computer readable media include magnetic recording media (e.g., flexible disks, magnetic tapes, hard disk drives), magneto-optical recording media (e.g., magneto-optical disks), CD-ROM (Read Only Memory), CD-R, CD-R / W, DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), and semiconductor memory (e.g., mask ROM, PROM (Programmable ROM), EPROM (Erasable PROM), flash ROM, RAM (Random Access Memory)). The program may also be provided to the computer by various types of transitory computer readable media. Examples of the transitory computer readable media include electric signals, optical signals, and electromagnetic waves. The transitory computer readable media can provide the program to the computer via a wired communication path such as an electric wire and an optical fiber, or via a wireless communication path.

[0056] The present disclosure is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and may be modified as appropriate without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. In addition, the present disclosure may be implemented by appropriately combining the respective embodiments.

[0057] Although the present invention has been described above with reference to the embodiments (and examples), the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments (and examples). Various modifications that can be understood by those skilled in the art can be made to the configuration and details of the present invention within the scope of the present invention.

[0058] A part or all of the above-described embodiments can be described as, but is not limited to, the following supplementary notes. (Appendix 1) a three-dimensional data input unit that inputs three-dimensional data from a three-dimensional data acquisition unit mounted on the vehicle; a location information acquisition unit that acquires location information of the vehicle; a drivable area extraction unit that extracts a drivable area from the three-dimensional data based on the vehicle position information and a road structural rule that indicates a distance from one end of a driving area within a road to the other end of the driving area; A travelable area extraction device comprising: (Appendix 2) a road area extraction unit that extracts a specific range as a road area from a position in the three-dimensional data that corresponds to an installation position of the three-dimensional data acquisition unit mounted on the vehicle in the input three-dimensional data, 2. The drivable area extraction device according to claim 1, wherein the drivable area extraction unit extracts a drivable area from the extracted road area based on position information of the vehicle and rules on the structure of the road. (Appendix 3) 3. The driveable area extraction device according to claim 1, wherein the rules on road structure are determined for each road division and are associated with the vehicle position information. (Appendix 4) The drivable area extraction device according to claim 2, wherein the road area extraction unit extracts the road area from the input three-dimensional data based on a traveling direction of the vehicle and a height from an installation position of the three-dimensional data acquisition unit to a road. (Appendix 5) The drivable area extraction device according to claim 1, wherein the three-dimensional data acquisition unit acquires three-dimensional data with respect to a traveling direction of the vehicle. (Appendix 6) The drivable area extraction device according to claim 1, wherein the three-dimensional data acquisition unit acquires three-dimensional data in all directions around the vehicle. (Appendix 7) The driveable area extraction device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the position information acquisition unit acquires information from a position information provision unit installed on a road, and calculates position information of a vehicle on the road. (Appendix 8) a driving lane detection unit that detects lines on a road on which a vehicle is traveling, thereby detecting a driving lane; The drivable area extraction device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, further comprising an opposing lane detection unit that detects an opposing lane by detecting a line on a road and information indicating that the road is an opposing lane. (Appendix 9) A three-dimensional data acquisition unit mounted on the vehicle; a three-dimensional data input unit for inputting the three-dimensional data from the three-dimensional data acquisition unit; a location information acquisition unit that acquires location information of the vehicle; a drivable area extraction unit that extracts a drivable area from the three-dimensional data based on the vehicle position information and a road structural rule that indicates a distance from one end of a driving area within a road to the other end of the driving area; A drivable area extraction system comprising: (Appendix 10) 10. The driveable area extraction system according to claim 9, further comprising a drive assistance control device that controls an operation of the vehicle to assist driving, based on the driveable area extracted from the three-dimensional data. (Appendix 11) The vehicle further includes a location information providing unit installed on a road, 11. The driveable area extraction system according to claim 9, wherein the position information acquisition unit calculates a position of the vehicle by detecting information from the position information provision unit. (Appendix 12) 3D data is input from the 3D data acquisition unit installed in the vehicle, Acquire location information of the vehicle; A drivable area extraction method for extracting a drivable area from the three-dimensional data based on the vehicle's position information and road structural rules indicating the distance from one end of a driving area within a road to the other end of the driving area. (Appendix 13) A process of inputting three-dimensional data from a three-dimensional data acquisition unit mounted on the vehicle; A process of acquiring position information of the vehicle; A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a program that causes a computer to execute a process of extracting a drivable area from the three-dimensional data based on the vehicle's position information and road structural rules that indicate the distance from one end of a driving area within the road to the other end of the driving area. [Explanation of symbols]

[0059] 3. Bus 30 Three-dimensional data acquisition section 31 Monocular Camera 32 LiDAR sensors 33 mmWave Sensor 34 Stereo Camera 35 mmWave Sensor 36 Infrared Camera 41 Magnetic Sensor 42 RFID Reader 43 mmWave Sensor 44 GNSS antenna 45 LiDAR sensors 50 Driving assistance control device 100 Driving area extraction device 101 3D data input section 103 Location information acquisition unit 104 Drivable area extraction unit 200 Driving area extraction device 210 Storage section 211 Program 212 Structural rules for each road division 250 Control section 251 3D Data Input Section 252 Road area extraction part 253 Location information acquisition unit 254 Drivable Area Extraction Unit 255 Lane detection unit 256 Opposing lane detection unit

Claims

1. a three-dimensional data input unit that inputs three-dimensional data from a three-dimensional data acquisition unit mounted on the vehicle; a location information acquisition unit that acquires location information of the vehicle; a drivable area extraction unit that extracts a drivable area from the three-dimensional data based on position information of the vehicle and a road structural rule that indicates a distance from one end of a driving area in a road to the other end of the driving area, the road structural rule being associated with the vehicle position information; and A travelable area extraction device comprising:

2. a road area extraction unit that extracts a specific range as a road area from a position in the three-dimensional data that corresponds to an installation position of the three-dimensional data acquisition unit mounted on the vehicle in the input three-dimensional data, The driveable area extraction device according to claim 1 , wherein the driveable area extraction unit extracts a driveable area from the extracted road area based on position information of the vehicle and structural rules of the road.

3. The driveable area extraction device according to claim 1 , wherein the rules on the road structure are determined for each road category and are associated with the vehicle position information.

4. 3. The drivable area extraction device according to claim 2, wherein the road area extraction unit extracts the road area from the input three-dimensional data based on a traveling direction of the vehicle and a height from an installation position of the three-dimensional data acquisition unit to a road.

5. The driveable area extraction device according to claim 1 , wherein the three-dimensional data acquisition unit acquires three-dimensional data with respect to a traveling direction of the vehicle.

6. A three-dimensional data acquisition unit mounted on the vehicle; a three-dimensional data input unit for inputting the three-dimensional data from the three-dimensional data acquisition unit; a location information acquisition unit that acquires location information of the vehicle; a drivable area extraction unit that extracts a drivable area from the three-dimensional data based on the vehicle position information and a road structural rule that indicates a distance from one end of a driving area within a road to the other end of the driving area; A drivable area extraction system comprising:

7. The driveable area extraction system according to claim 6 , further comprising a drive assistance control device that controls an operation of the vehicle to assist driving, based on the driveable area extracted from the three-dimensional data.

8. The vehicle further includes a location information providing unit installed on a road, The driveable area extraction system according to claim 6 , wherein the position information acquisition unit calculates the position of the vehicle by detecting information from the position information provision unit.

9. A method for extracting a drivable area executed by a computer, comprising: 3D data is input from the 3D data acquisition unit installed in the vehicle, Acquire location information of the vehicle; A drivable area extraction method for extracting a drivable area from the three-dimensional data based on the vehicle's position information and a road structural rule indicating a distance from one end of a driving area within a road to the other end of the driving area, the road structural rule being associated with the vehicle's position information.

10. A process of inputting three-dimensional data from a three-dimensional data acquisition unit mounted on the vehicle; A process of acquiring position information of the vehicle; A program that causes a computer to execute a process of extracting a drivable area from the three-dimensional data based on the vehicle's position information and a road structural rule that indicates the distance from one end of a driving area within a road to the other end of the driving area, the road structural rule being associated with the vehicle's position information.

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