Map provisioning device

Abstract

Proposed are a map provision device and a peripheral technology thereof. The map provision device being able to provide, to a self-driving control unit, high-precision map information including a parking place map in which even a parking method is considered. This map provision device 100 comprises a map storage unit 130 which stores high-precision map information including lane information, a map update unit 120 which adds, to the high-precision map information, parking place link information available for travel from a lane link of the high-precision map information to a predetermined parking place, and a map output unit 150 which outputs the updated high-precision map information.

Description

Technical Field

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[0001] The present invention relates to a map providing device.

Background Art

[0002] In recent years, in order to realize a safe and secure traffic society, expectations for autonomous vehicles have been increasing, and technological development has been underway in various countries around the world. An autonomous vehicle realizes autonomous driving by recognizing the surrounding situation in real time using sensor information such as cameras and radars mounted on the vehicle. Further, for the purpose of complementing the recognition processing based on sensor information in such autonomous driving, highly accurate map information is used.

[0003] Patent Document 1 discloses an information processing device that generates connection map information by connecting private map information including private land areas and public road map information including information on public roads based on a reference point indicating a common position.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0004]

Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0005] <0000​​​​​This disclosure proposes a map providing device and related technologies capable of providing high-precision map information, including optimal parking maps tailored to specific situations, to an automated driving control unit. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] One aspect of the present disclosure is a map providing device that provides high-precision map information to an automated driving control device, comprising: a map storage unit that stores high-precision map information including lane information; a map update unit that adds parking link information that allows driving from the lane links of the high-precision map information to a predetermined parking space to the high-precision map information; and a map output unit that outputs the updated high-precision map information to the automated driving control device, wherein the map update unit adds parking link information corresponding to a parking method in the parking lot to the high-precision map information to generate new updated high-precision map information. [Effects of the Invention]

[0008] According to one aspect of this disclosure described above, high-precision map information including parking link information can be provided to an automated driving control device, for example, high-precision map information from any parking lot to any parking lot can be provided to the automated driving control device depending on the conditions of the driving route. Further features related to this disclosure will become apparent from the description herein and the accompanying drawings. In addition, problems, configurations, and effects other than those described above will become apparent from the following description of embodiments. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0009] [Figure 1] Block diagram showing Embodiment 1 of the map provisioning device relating to this disclosure. [Figure 2] Figure 1 shows an example of high-precision map information in a map provisioning device. [Figure 3] This figure shows an example of adding parking link information to the high-precision map information in the map provisioning device shown in Figure 1. [Figure 4] A flowchart showing an example of the operation of the map provisioning device in Figure 1. [Figure 5]A flowchart showing an example of the operation of the map provisioning device in Figure 1. [Figure 6] Figure 1 shows an example of parking information in the map provisioning device. [Figure 7] Figure 4 shows an example of a method for adding parking information and parking link information to high-precision map information. [Figure 8] Figure 4 shows an example of a method for adding parking link information that takes reverse parking into account to high-precision map information. [Figure 9] A diagram showing an example of an autonomous driving section near the destination. [Figure 10] A diagram showing a modified version of the autonomous driving section near the destination. [Figure 11] A diagram showing an example of an autonomous driving section from the starting point to the destination. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0010] Figure 1 is a block diagram showing Embodiment 1 of the map provisioning device according to this disclosure. The map providing device 100 in this embodiment is, for example, one of the ECUs (Electronic Control Units) located in the vehicle 1, and is a device that provides high-precision map information to the automatic driving control device 2. The ECU comprises at least one memory containing program code and at least one processor configured to execute the program code. The map providing device 100 realizes the following functions by executing the program code, which is pre-stored in the ECU's memory, using the processor.

[0011] The map providing device 100 includes a communication unit 110 that receives high-precision map information 131 necessary for autonomous driving and parking information necessary for autonomous parking from a server 10 connected to the network or from a storage medium such as a USB, a map update unit 120 that adds parking information and parking link information to the high-precision map information 131, a map storage unit 130 that stores the high-precision map information 131, a position information acquisition unit 140 that projects the vehicle's position onto the high-precision map information 131 using GNSS information from a GNSS receiver 3 that acquires the vehicle's position information, and a map output unit 150 that outputs the high-precision map information 131n with the added parking link information to the autonomous driving control device 2.

[0012] The automated driving control device 2 is, for example, an ECU mounted on the vehicle. The automated driving control device 2 is connected to, for example, various sensors and various actuators mounted on the vehicle 1. The automated driving control device 2 uses the detection results from the various sensors to control the various actuators and causes the vehicle 1 to autonomously drive along an automated driving section consisting of high-precision map information 131n received from the map providing device 100, and performs automated driving until it autonomously parks in the destination parking lot.

[0013] Figure 2 shows an example of high-precision map information 131 in the map providing device 100 shown in Figure 1. In the following explanation, the direction along the road lane L will be referred to as the X direction, and the road width direction of lane L will be referred to as the Y direction. The high-precision map information 131 includes information on lane links 132 and road boundary lines 133 for lane L. The lane links 132 are set by dividing the lane L of the road on which vehicles travel into predetermined sections in the direction along lane L (X direction). The lane links 132 have a lane link ID that uniquely identifies the lane link itself and shape information that indicates the shape of lane L (e.g., starting point coordinates, ending point coordinates, intermediate point coordinates, etc.). The shape information of lane L includes information on the shape of the line connecting the starting point set at the center of lane L in the road width direction (Y direction), at least one intermediate point, and the ending point.

[0014] In addition, the high-precision map information 131 has connection information indicating the connection relationship between a lane link and other lane links (for example, lane link 132 and lane link 2132). The road boundary line 133 is composed of a road boundary line ID that uniquely identifies the road boundary line 133 and shape information forming the road boundary line (for example, start point coordinates, end point coordinates, intermediate point coordinates, etc.). The high-precision map information 131 does not record home information including the position information of the home 134 as the destination or parking lot information including the position information of the parking space 135.

[0015] Figure 3 is an example in which the map update unit 120 adds the information of the parking lot link 1323 to the high-precision map information 131. The map update unit 120 divides the lane link 132 shown in FIG. 2 into two lane links, lane link 1321 and lane link 1322, and assigns arbitrary lane link IDs to each of them.

[0016] In addition, the map update unit 120 generates a parking lot link 1323 that connects between the lane links 1321 and 1322 and the parking space 135. The parking lot link 1323 has information corresponding to the parking method in the parking space. Specifically, it has information on the start point of the shape information and the end point of the shape information, and connection information with other lane links. The map update unit 120 adds the information of the parking lot link 1323 to the high-precision map information 131.

[0017] The map update unit 120 also assigns shape information and a lane link ID to the parking lot link 1323. In addition, the connection information of each lane link (lane link 1321 and lane link 1322) is updated.

[0018] The map update unit 120 sets the shape information start point 1625 on the lane L as the point where the vehicle starts moving from the lane L toward the parking space 135. The map update unit 120 divides the lane link 132 into the lane link 1321 and the lane link 1322 at the shape information start point 1625.

[0019] The map update unit 120 also divides the road boundary line 133 into road boundary line 1331 and road boundary line 1334, and adds information on road boundary line 1332 and road boundary line 1333, which form the boundary of the parking space 135, to the high-precision map information 131.

[0020] As explained above, the map update unit 120 generates new high-precision map information 131n by adding parking information and parking link information for destinations such as home 134 to the high-precision map information 131. The map output unit 150 outputs the updated new high-precision map information 131n to the automatic driving control device 2.

[0021] The automatic driving control device 2 can achieve automatic parking in the parking space 135 at the home 134 by controlling the vehicle's trajectory according to the parking information and parking link shape information included in the updated new high-precision map information 131n. Furthermore, the map update unit 120 saves the updated new high-precision map information 131n in the map storage unit 130, eliminating the need to add parking information and parking link information to the high-precision map information 131 for the same location.

[0022] Figure 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the map update unit 120. The communication unit 110 is assumed to receive origin information, destination information, and route information. For example, the origin information and destination information are location information such as latitude and longitude, and the route information is a sequence of link IDs formed by concatenating lane link IDs from the origin to the destination, or a sequence of points indicating the positions of the start and end points of the shape information for each lane link. This information is provided to the map providing device 100 from the navigation system installed in the vehicle 1.

[0023] The map update unit 120 acquires the departure point information and destination information received by the communication unit 110 (step S101). Next, it acquires the route information from the departure point to the destination received by the communication unit 110 (step S102). Furthermore, it acquires parking information for the departure point and parking information for the destination (step S103). This parking information may be acquired from the server 10 via the communication unit 110, or from a storage medium such as a USB via the communication unit 110. Details of the parking information will be described later.

[0024] Next, the map update unit 120 obtains high-precision map information 131 for the vicinity of the departure point and the vicinity of the destination from the map storage unit 130 (step S104). For example, it obtains high-precision map information 131 for a radius of 100m from the center point of the departure point and the destination from the map storage unit 130. An example of high-precision map information 131 is explained in Figure 2. Next, the map update unit 120 generates parking link information from the high-precision map information 131 and parking information, and adds the parking information and parking link information to the high-precision map information 131 (step S105). Details of how to add parking information to the high-precision map information 131 will be described later. Finally, the map update unit 120 has the updated new high-precision map information 131n, to which the parking information and parking link information for the departure point and destination have been added, stored in the map storage unit 130.

[0025] When a departure point or destination is set, the map update unit 120 adds the parking link information for the departure point or destination set in the high-precision map information 131 to the high-precision map information 131 and updates it to the new high-precision map information 131n. If the map update unit 120 has already updated and the high-precision map information 131 for the departure point or destination already contains parking link information, it replaces it with the updated high-precision map information 131n.

[0026] Figure 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the map output unit 150. The map output unit 150 acquires high-precision map information 131n from the map storage unit 130, covering the route from the starting point to the destination (step S201).

[0027] Next, an automated driving section from the starting point to the destination is generated from the high-precision map information 131n (step S202). The automated driving section is a detailed automated driving section using the high-precision map information 131n, for example, which lane should be used from the starting point to the destination. An example of an automated driving section will be described later.

[0028] Next, information indicating the current location of the vehicle is obtained from the location information acquisition unit 140 (step S203). Finally, high-precision map information 131n corresponding to the vehicle's position is output to the automatic driving control device 2 (step S204). For example, before leaving home, when the vehicle is entered, high-precision map information 131n from the home parking lot to a point several kilometers along the route is output to the automatic driving control device 2.

[0029] Figure 6 shows an example of parking information 161. As mentioned above, the parking information 161 may be obtained from the server 10 via the communication unit 110, or it may be obtained from a storage medium such as a USB via the communication unit. For example, the parking information 161 has node information (1621-1624) for the four corners that indicate the area of ​​the parking space 135. Node information is information that indicates location and can be represented, for example, by coordinates. The parking information 161 has parking vehicle direction information 1626 that indicates the orientation of the vehicle 1 when parking in the parking space 135. In order to indicate the orientation of the vehicle 1 when parking in the parking space 135, node information 1623 and 1624 may be given the attribute of being in front of the parking space, and node information 1621 and 1622 may be given the attribute of being in rear of the parking space. The parking information 161 does not have to include location information of the destination, home 134. Note that the parking information 161 may consist of just one node information point in the center of the parking space 135. For example, server 10 can generate node information for the center of parking space 135 and node information for the four corners (1621-1624) from the dimensions of a standard parking space 135 (length 6m, width 2.5m).

[0030] Figure 7 shows an example of a method (step S105) for adding parking information 161 and parking link information to high-precision map information 131. In this example, the parking information 161 contains information for parking a vehicle 1 by reversing it toward a parking space 135 facing the road.

[0031] The map update unit 120 generates a parking link 1323 using parking information 161 and high-precision map information 131. The example shown in Figure 7 describes how to generate a parking link 1323 for parking a vehicle 1 facing forward toward the road by reversing toward the parking space 135. Vehicle information may be calculated as standard vehicle information (e.g., total length 5m, total width 2m), or it may be obtained from the server 10 or USB via the communication unit 110.

[0032] The map update unit 120 sets the midpoint of node information 1623 and node information 1624 in front of the parking space in the parking information 161 as the shape information endpoint 1627 of the parking link 1323. The map update unit 120 then determines the shape information start point 1625 of the parking link 1323 from the shape information endpoint 1627. For example, the shape information start point 1625 is set as the X coordinate, which is shifted in the X direction along lane L by three vehicle lengths (18m) from the shape information endpoint 1627, and as the Y coordinate, which is shifted in the -Y direction along the lane width direction by one vehicle length (2m) from the road boundary line 133.

[0033] First, a straight line A is determined from the shape information endpoint 1627 of the parking link 1323 to the road boundary line 133 of the high-precision map information 131. Next, a curve B is determined from straight line A to the position where vehicle 1 is brought close to the road boundary line 133, taking into account the turning radius of vehicle 1. Next, a straight line C is determined from curve B to the shape information start point 1625. Straight line C, curve B, and straight line A are connected from the shape information start point 1625 to the shape information endpoint to generate shape points at arbitrary intervals, and a parking link 1323 is generated that has shape information for each shape point and the shape of these shape points connected by lines. In addition, the road boundary line 1332 that defines one side end of the parking space 135 is generated by extending a straight line from node information 1621 to node information 1623 to the road boundary line 133. The method for generating the road boundary line 1333 that defines the other side end of the parking space 135 is the same.

[0034] The parking link 1323 may be generated on an external server, for example, server 10, and the parking link 1323 may be obtained via the communication unit 110. By generating the parking link 1323 on server 10, the user can generate parking spaces with complex access roads and multi-story parking garages in a shape that is appropriate to the actual site. The map providing device 100 adds the information of the complex parking link 1323 to the high-precision map information 131 and transmits the updated new high-precision map information 131n to the automatic driving control device 2, thereby enabling automatic driving to parking spaces with more complex access roads.

[0035] The parking link 1323 may also be generated by saving the vehicle's movement history (location information) within the map providing device 100 and generating the parking link 1323 from the movement history. Since the parking link 1323 is generated from the movement history, it can be generated using a proven driving method. The map providing device 100 adds the proven parking link 1323 to the high-precision map information 131 and transmits it to the automatic driving control device 2 as new high-precision map information 131n, enabling more realistic automatic driving to the parking lot.

[0036] Furthermore, the updated high-precision map information 131n has a link type indicating the type of lane link and a shape information starting point type indicating the type of shape information starting point for each lane link. When generating a parking lot link 1323, the attribute "Parking Lot (Reverse)" is assigned to the link type and the shape information starting point type is set to "Stop Point". The link type and shape information starting point type may be assigned only to parking lot links.

[0037] Furthermore, when parking by moving forward towards parking space 135, the parking link 1323 will be assigned the "Parking (Forward)" attribute to its link type. Similarly, when the parking lot in Figure 7 is the starting point, the parking link 1323 will also be assigned the "Parking (Forward)" attribute to its link type. The method for generating the starting point parking link 1323 is omitted.

[0038] Figure 8 shows an example in which information from a parking link 1323 that takes reverse parking into consideration is added to high-precision map information 131. The method for dividing the lane links 132 and road boundary lines 133 of the high-precision map information 131 is as described in Figures 2 and 3. The map update unit 120 sets the shape information starting point 1625 at a position shifted from the center of lane L in the width direction toward the parking space side. The lane links 1322 are updated in the high-precision map information 131 as shapes extending from the center of road lane L toward the shape information starting point 1625 of the parking link 1323. The shape of the lane links 1322 may also be a gentle curve toward the shape information starting point 1625.

[0039] Here, we show an example of how the map output unit 150 generates an automated driving section from the starting point to the destination using the updated new high-precision map information 131n (step S202). As shown in Figure 8, if the destination is home 134, the automated driving section is generated based on the lane link connection information.

[0040] Figure 9 shows an example of an automated driving section 171 near the destination. The automated driving section 171 consists of a sequence of lane links: lane link 1132, lane link 1322, and lane link (parking link) 1323. Each lane link has a link type indicating the type of lane link and a shape information start point type indicating the type of shape information start point. The shape information start point 1625 of lane link 1323 is assigned the attribute "stopping point" and the link type "parking (reverse)". The map output unit 150 outputs the updated new high-precision map information 131n, which includes the generated automated driving section 171 information, to the automated driving control device 2.

[0041] The automated driving control device 2 can perform automated driving control according to the shape information of the automated driving section 171. Since the automated driving section 171 is assigned "stopping point" information, the automated driving control device 2 can temporarily stop vehicle 1 at the stopping point (shape information starting point 1625) located to the left of the roadway. Furthermore, since the lane link 1323 is assigned the "parking (reverse)" attribute, the automated driving control device 2 can perform a series of automated driving controls, such as temporarily stopping the vehicle and then automatically parking it in the parking space 135 by reversing along the shape points of the lane link 1323.

[0042] Figure 10 shows an example of high-precision map information 131 when returning home 134 from the lane link 4322 side. The map update unit 120 generates a lane link 4323 for parking by reversing from lane L. The method for generating lane link 4323 is omitted. The automated driving section 171 generated by the map output unit 150 consists of lane links 4322 and 4323, and includes a stopping point 1625. The method for generating the automated driving section 171 is omitted. The method for generating lane link 4323 and the method for generating the automated driving section 171 when departing from home 134 is omitted.

[0043] Figure 11 shows an example of an automated driving section 171 from the starting point 134 to the destination 634. The map update unit 120 updates the high-precision map information 131 near the departure point and destination only when the departure point and destination are specified. If the departure point and destination have been used for autonomous driving in the past, the map storage unit 130 stores new high-precision map information 131n with added parking information. Therefore, the map update unit 120 does not need to recalculate the process of adding parking information to the high-precision map information 131n, and updates can be performed simply by replacing the high-precision map information 131 of the departure point and destination with the high-precision map information 131n. Since only the high-precision map information 131n near the departure point and destination is updated, the processing load on the location information acquisition unit 140 and the map output unit 150 does not increase.

[0044] As described above, the map providing device 100 of this embodiment can add parking information 161 to high-precision map information 131 to generate new high-precision map information 131n. Furthermore, the map providing device 100 can generate an automated driving section 171 based on the new high-precision map information 131n and transmit it to the automated driving control device 2. The automated driving section 171 takes into account, for example, how the vehicle will travel until it parks in the parking space 135 of the home 134. Therefore, the automated driving control device 2 can control the automated driving using the automated driving section 171 to achieve automated driving from public roads to parking in the parking space 135 of the home 134.

[0045] The map providing device 100 of this embodiment can generate new high-precision map information 131n by adding parking information 161 for parking facing forward (reverse parking) and parking link information to high-precision map information 131. The automated driving section 171 generated based on the new high-precision map information 131n can be generated considering that the vehicle will pull up to the shoulder of the road in front of the parking space at the home 134 (to the left in this embodiment) and stop, then reverse into the parking space. Therefore, by using the automated driving section 171 for automated driving control, the automated driving control device 2 can achieve automated driving from the public road to the parking space 135 at the home 134, even if the home parking lot requires reverse parking where the vehicle 1 is reversed and parked facing forward.

[0046] The map providing device 100 of this embodiment can add information of parking links 1323 generated by an external server 10 or PC to high-precision map information 131, and generate updated new high-precision map information 131n. Users can generate parking links 1323 for parking spaces with complex access roads and multi-story parking garages. Since the automated driving section 171 generated based on the new high-precision map information 131n can take into account parking spaces with complex access roads, the automated driving control device 2 can use the automated driving section 171 to perform automated driving control, thereby enabling automated driving to parking spaces with complex access roads.

[0047] The map providing device 100 of this embodiment can store new high-precision map information 131n in the map storage unit 130, taking into account the driving method to the destination parking space. For the same destination, the new high-precision map information 131n can be read from the map storage unit 130. For the same destination, there is no need to add the parking link 1323 to the high-precision map information 131 and perform the process of generating new high-precision map information 131n, thus reducing the processing load on the map providing device 100.

[0048] In this embodiment, the map providing device 100 generates new high-precision map information 131n only for points where the departure point and destination have been set. The location information acquisition unit 140 can determine the vehicle's position on the high-precision map information 131n using the minimum necessary high-precision map information 131n. The map output unit 150 can generate the automated driving section 171 using the minimum necessary high-precision map information 131n.

[0049] Although embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and various design modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention as described in the claims. For example, the embodiments described above are described in detail in order to explain the present invention in an easy-to-understand manner, and are not necessarily limited to those having all the configurations described. Furthermore, it is possible to replace a part of the configuration of one embodiment with the configuration of another embodiment, and it is also possible to add the configuration of another embodiment to the configuration of one embodiment. Moreover, it is possible to add, delete, or replace parts of the configuration of each embodiment with other configurations. [Explanation of Symbols]

[0050] 1...Vehicle, 2...Automatic driving control device, 100...Map provision device, 110...Communication unit, 120...Map update unit, 130...Map storage unit, 131...High-precision map information, 132...Lane link, 133...Road boundary line, 134...Home (destination), 135...Parking space, 140...Location information acquisition unit, 150...Map output unit, 1625...Shape information start point (stopping point), 1627...Shape information end point, L...Lane

Claims

1. A map providing device that provides high-precision map information to an automated driving control device, A map storage unit that stores high-precision map information including lane link information of the lane in which a vehicle travels, A map update unit updates the high-precision map information by adding parking information used for automatic parking and information on parking links that can be driven from the lane link to a predetermined parking space to the high-precision map information. The system includes a map output unit that outputs the updated high-precision map information to the automatic driving control device, The map providing device is characterized in that the map updating unit adds parking information corresponding to the area and parking direction of the parking space, and parking link information corresponding to the parking method in the parking space, to the high-precision map information to generate new high-precision map information after updating.

2. The map providing device according to claim 1, characterized in that the map updating unit adds information of a parking link for stopping in the lane and then reversing to park when reverse parking is required, which involves reversing a vehicle toward a parking lot, to the high-precision map information.

3. The map providing device according to claim 2, characterized in that the map updating unit sets the starting point of the shape information of the parking space link at a position shifted from the center in the width direction of the lane toward the parking space side.

4. A map providing device that provides high-precision map information to an automatic driving control device, A map storage unit that stores high-precision map information including lane link information of the lane in which a vehicle travels, A map update unit updates the high-precision map information by adding information about parking links that can be driven from the lane link to a predetermined parking space to the high-precision map information. A map output unit that outputs the updated high-precision map information to the automatic driving control device, Equipped with, The map update unit adds information about parking links corresponding to parking methods in the parking spaces to the high-precision map information to generate new high-precision map information after updating. The map updating unit further divides the lane links of the high-precision map information at the starting point of the shape information of the parking lot links, and connects the lane links and the parking lot links at the starting point of the shape information, thereby providing a map.

5. The map updating unit updates the high-precision map information by adding the parking link information for the departure point or destination set in the high-precision map information to the high-precision map information when a departure point or destination is set, and replaces the updated high-precision map information when an update has already been made and the parking link information exists in the high-precision map information for the departure point or destination. This is the map providing device according to claim 4.

6. The map providing device according to claim 5, characterized in that the map updating unit receives the high-precision map information and the parking link information from an external server, and updates the high-precision map information by adding the parking link information from the lane link to the predetermined parking space.

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