Vehicle Lane Position Estimation Using Roadside Area Width
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods struggle to accurately specify the traveling lane of a subject vehicle, especially in environments with multiple lanes or when lane boundary lines are blurred or not clearly visible, and fail when no other vehicles are present to provide trajectory information.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle position estimation device that uses a combination of an imaging device and a distance measuring sensor to acquire road edge and lane boundary information, calculates the roadside area width, and specifies the traveling lane based on distance from the road edge, roadside area width, and lane quantity from map information, without relying on trajectory information from other vehicles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If lane boundary line type or trajectory information from other vehicles is used to specify traveling lane, then the method works in simple scenarios, but it fails when lane boundary lines are blurred or no other vehicles are present
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces roadside area width as an intermediary parameter that mediates between detectable elements (lane boundary lines, road edges) and the target (traveling lane specification). By calculating the width of the roadside area and comparing it with map information, the system can infer the traveling lane even when direct lane boundary detection fails or trajectory information is unavailable, thus resolving the contradiction between reliability and adaptability
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses the subject vehicle's own detected road edge information and lane boundary line positions to calculate roadside area width, making the vehicle self-sufficient for lane specification without relying on other vehicles' trajectory information. This self-service approach maintains reliability while improving adaptability to scenarios where other vehicles are absent
2Measurement precision
If multiple sensing methods are combined to improve measurement accuracy, then positioning precision improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the imaging device perform multiple functions: capturing images for lane boundary line detection, detecting road edge positions, and providing visual information for roadside area width calculation. By making the imaging device universal, the system improves measurement precision without proportionally increasing device complexity, as the same hardware serves multiple purposes
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle position estimation device is configured to acquire a distance from a road edge to a subject vehicle using at least one of an imaging device or a distance measuring sensor, acquire position information of lane boundary lines detected by analyzing the images captured by the imaging device; acquire map information including a lane quantity of a traveling road of the subject vehicle from a map storage, calculate, as a roadside area width, a lateral direction distance between an outermost detection line, which is an outermost boundary line among the detected boundary lines, and the road edge, and specify a traveling lane of the subject vehicle based on (i) the distance from the road edge to the subject vehicle, (ii) the roadside area width, and (iii) the lane quantity included in the acquired map information.