Side-View Camera Road Slope Estimation for Vehicle Pitch Accuracy
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing technologies struggle to accurately calculate the slope of a road using a vehicle's front camera, especially when structures like speed bumps are present or the road surface is not flat, and inertial measurement units fail to accurately determine the relative pitch angle between a road and a camera on uphill or downhill roads.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus using a side view camera to divide a road image into regions, calculate the slope of each region based on driving lanes and curbstones, and convert the camera's coordinate system to a real coordinate system to determine the slope between the camera and the road, thereby estimating the vehicle's pitch angle and road profile.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a front camera is used to estimate pitch angle assuming parallel driving lanes and constant lane width, then the calculation is simple, but the pitch angle becomes inaccurate when speed bumps are present or the road surface is not flat
Solution Approach 1:
The road image is divided into multiple regions, and the slope is calculated separately for each region based on driving lanes and curbstones. This segmentation allows the system to handle local variations in road surface (speed bumps, uneven surfaces) without compromising the overall pitch angle accuracy, resolving the contradiction between simple calculation and accurate measurement.
2Measurement precision
If an inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor is used to calculate pitch angle, then the measurement is direct, but the relative pitch angle between road and camera becomes inaccurate on uphill or downhill roads
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using the camera to measure the vehicle's pitch angle directly (which fails on slopes), the invention inverts the approach by using the camera to measure the road's slope relative to the vehicle, then deriving the pitch angle from this inverted measurement. This allows accurate pitch angle calculation on uphill and downhill roads where traditional methods fail.
3Measurement precision
If the road image is divided into multiple regions for slope calculation, then the slope measurement accuracy is improved, but the processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The road image is divided into multiple regions to calculate slope more accurately by accounting for local variations. Each region's slope is calculated independently using driving lanes and curbstones as reference features, then combined to determine the overall pitch angle. This segmentation approach improves measurement precision while keeping processing manageable through systematic region-based analysis.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and apparatus for determining a slope of a road using a side view camera of a vehicle, the method includes identifying a road image collected from a side view camera, dividing the road image into a plurality of regions, calculating a slope of a road for each of the plurality of regions based on driving lanes comprised in each of the plurality of regions, and determining a slope between the side view camera and the road using the slope of the road calculated for each of the plurality of regions.