Rear-Mounted Laser Radar for Perpendicular Parking Location Recognition
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for recognizing a target parking location, such as binocular stereo, motion stereo, light plane projection, ultrasonic sensors, and Short Range Radar, face challenges in low light conditions, severe reflection, and noise, particularly for inexperienced drivers, making it difficult to accurately determine a perpendicular parking space.
Innovation Solution
A system with a scanning laser radar mounted on the rear of a vehicle to detect range data, which includes preprocessing units to extract effective clusters and corner recognition units to identify main and sub reference corners, setting a target parking location by recognizing obstacle corners and their spatial relationships.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If binocular stereo or motion stereo is used to recognize parking space, then three-dimensional information can be obtained, but it does not work properly in the dark and severe reflection from vehicle surface makes it difficult to extract feature points
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces optical-based stereo vision systems with a scanning laser radar system that uses active laser scanning to measure distance and extract three-dimensional information. This substitution eliminates dependence on ambient light conditions and reduces sensitivity to surface reflections, as the laser radar actively emits and detects laser beams to calculate range data through time-of-flight measurements.
2Measurement precision
If ultrasonic sensors are used to recognize parking space, then they can measure distance to obstacles, but severe noise occurs when already parked vehicles are not parallel with the moving direction
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces ultrasonic sensors with laser radar technology. Ultrasonic sensors rely on sound wave reflection which is highly sensitive to the angle of incidence and target orientation, causing noise when vehicles are not parallel. Laser radar uses optical beams with tighter directional characteristics and more predictable reflection patterns, reducing noise from non-parallel vehicle surfaces while maintaining accurate distance measurement capability.
3Adaptability or versatility
If SRR (Short Range Radar) is used to recognize parking space, then it provides distance information within a comparatively large FOV, but variance of distance information is large and noise is severe at distance-discontinuous points
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces broadband Short Range Radar with laser radar technology. SRR provides wide FOV but suffers from large variance in distance measurements and severe noise at distance-discontinuous points due to its wavelength and detection methodology. Laser radar offers higher measurement precision with smaller variance, and while the scanning mechanism provides a specific FOV, the high angular resolution and precise range measurement capability compensate for the narrower field of view.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables accurate determination of a target parking location in various conditions, including daytime, nighttime, outdoor, and underground environments, improving parking convenience and reducing stress for inexperienced drivers.
Implementation Method 1
a scanning laser radar for detecting range data reflected and directed from a rear surface of the vehicle
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed is a method and a system for recognizing a target parking location of a vehicle. The system includes a scanning laser radar for detecting range data reflected and directed from a rear surface of the vehicle; a preprocessing unit for preprocessing the range data to extract effective clusters; a corner recognition unit for extracting obstacle corners from the effective clusters; and a parking location setting unit for recognizing a main reference corner, which is closest to a subjective vehicle and has an adjacent space satisfying an available parking space condition, and a sub reference corner, which exists toward the adjacent space in a direction opposite to a vehicle width direction from the main reference corner, and corresponds to a point on a closest effective cluster within a distance between a vehicle width and a vehicle length, from the obstacle corners to set a target parking location.