Driver Assistance System Using Reduced Digital Road Map Data
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current driver assistance systems in vehicles face high costs due to the coupling of environment sensors with navigation systems for precise speed limit recognition, especially when recognizing speed limits with camera systems, and struggle to differentiate between town entrances and obstacles using industrialized cameras.
Innovation Solution
A driver assistance system that decouples from the navigation system by using an environment sensor and an evaluation unit with reduced digital road map data, allowing for function-specific data reduction and storage in a non-volatile electronic memory, enabling traffic sign recognition without GPS navigation links.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the driver assistance system is coupled to a navigation system to obtain digital road map data, then the precision of speed limit recognition is improved, but the system cost and complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the necessary digital road map data (speed limit information, town entrance/exit positions, construction site locations) from the navigation system and stores it locally in the environment sensor's memory. This allows the driver assistance system to obtain precise speed limit information without requiring a continuous coupling to the navigation system, thereby reducing system complexity while maintaining recognition precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The digital road map data is segmented into function-specific subsets relevant to the driver assistance system (speed limits, town boundaries, construction sites). Only these segmented, relevant data portions are stored locally, allowing the system to achieve precise recognition without processing or relying on the complete navigation system data set.
2Reliability
If the driver assistance system uses full digital road map data, then the reliability of traffic sign recognition is improved, but the memory requirements and processing load increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by storing different types of road map data in specific, dedicated memory locations within the environment sensor based on their relevance to particular recognition functions. Speed limit data is stored for speed assistant functions, town boundary data for lighting control, and construction site data for obstacle differentiation, optimizing memory usage while maintaining recognition reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses partial action by storing and processing only the subset of digital road map data that is necessary for specific driver assistance functions rather than the complete data set. This selective approach maintains sufficient reliability for each function while significantly reducing overall data quantity and processing requirements.
3Ease of manufacture
If industrialized cameras are used for speed limit recognition, then the ease of manufacture is improved, but the ability to recognize town entrances on signs is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces digital road map data as an intermediary that provides town entrance and exit position information. This intermediary data supplements the industrialized camera system, allowing it to achieve town entrance recognition capability without requiring complex camera modifications. The camera captures images while the digital data provides the contextual information needed for accurate recognition.
Solution Approach 2:
The system merges the output of industrialized cameras with pre-stored digital road map data. The camera provides visual detection of speed limit signs and the digital data provides town boundary information, and these are combined in the evaluation unit to achieve both ease of manufacture and accurate town entrance recognition.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a driver assistance system for a motor vehicle, comprising an environmental sensor and an evaluation unit for the environmental sensor data, wherein the evaluation unit is provided with data from a positioning device and reduced data from a digital road map.