Vehicular Environment Estimation via Mobile Object Behavior
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicular environment estimation devices struggle to accurately predict the route and behavior of vehicles in blind areas, making it difficult to estimate the environmental state around a vehicle effectively.
Innovation Solution
A vehicular environment estimation device that includes behavior detection and estimation means to detect and predict the behavior of mobile objects in the vicinity, allowing for the estimation of environments that affect vehicle travel, including blind areas, by comparing detected and predicted behaviors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If radar detection is used to predict the route of other vehicles, then the route prediction capability is improved, but the ability to detect vehicles in blind areas deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a mobile object (such as another vehicle) as an intermediary to detect environmental information in blind areas. This mobile object acts as a mediator that can observe and report conditions that the own vehicle's sensors cannot directly detect, thereby resolving the contradiction between route prediction accuracy and blind area detection capability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces direct mechanical/radar detection in blind areas with information gathering through mobile objects. Instead of relying on physical detection systems that cannot reach blind spots, the system uses communication and information processing to substitute for direct sensing, enabling environmental estimation in areas that would otherwise be undetectable
2Reliability
If the own vehicle directly detects environmental state, then the detection reliability is improved, but the coverage of blind areas deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extends the detection coverage by utilizing mobile objects in different spatial positions and dimensions. By gathering information from multiple mobile objects at various locations, the system achieves three-dimensional environmental reconstruction that compensates for the own vehicle's limited two-dimensional sensor coverage, thereby expanding effective detection area while maintaining reliability
3Measurement precision
If multiple mobile objects are monitored to estimate environment, then the environmental estimation accuracy is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a multi-functional system where mobile objects serve multiple purposes: they are both the objects of interest whose behavior is being tracked and simultaneously the sensors that provide environmental information. This dual role reduces overall system complexity by eliminating the need for separate detection infrastructure in blind areas
Solution Approach 2:
The system utilizes the mobile objects' own sensing capabilities and communication functions to serve the environmental estimation purpose. Mobile objects use their built-in sensors and communication systems to provide data, rather than requiring external detection infrastructure, thereby reducing system complexity while improving estimation accuracy through multiple data sources
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed is a vehicular environment estimation device capable of accurately estimating a travel environment around own vehicle on the basis of a predicted route of a mobile object or the like, which is moving in a blind area. A vehicular environment estimation device that is mounted in the own vehicle detects a behavior of another vehicle in the vicinity of the own vehicle, and estimates a travel environment, which affects the traveling of another vehicle, on the basis of the behavior of another vehicle. For example, the presence of another vehicle, which is traveling in a blind area, is estimated on the basis of the behavior of another vehicle. Therefore, it is possible to estimate a vehicle travel environment that cannot be recognized by the own vehicle but can be recognized by another vehicle in the vicinity of the own vehicle.