Autonomous Vehicle Route Control Using Virtual Lanes on Wide Roads
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing automatic driving systems face challenges when multiple vehicles travel in parallel on a single lane, as they struggle to determine the correct lane for navigation, leading to potential stopping or unsafe maneuvers.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle control device that determines lane widths and generates virtual lane center lines, allowing multiple vehicles to travel parallelly, thereby enabling the automatic driving system to select the appropriate virtual lane for safe navigation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the automatic driving vehicle stops at the center of the lane, then the vehicle maintains a safe position, but it blocks vehicles behind from driving past
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the single physical lane into multiple virtual lanes by dividing the lane width into several sections. Each virtual lane has its own center line, allowing the vehicle to select different stopping positions within the same physical lane. This segmentation enables the vehicle to stop at positions that do not block traffic flow while maintaining safety.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a virtual dimension by creating virtual lanes within the physical lane space. Instead of only using the physical lane center as a stopping point, the system creates additional stopping positions along the width of the lane, effectively adding a spatial dimension for route selection that resolves the conflict between safety and traffic flow.
2Reliability
If the automatic driving vehicle follows the nearest vehicle ahead, then it maintains safe following distance, but it may leave the virtual lane without signaling
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses feedback from the positions of vehicles ahead to dynamically select the appropriate virtual lane center line. The system continuously monitors the nearest vehicle's position and adjusts the selected virtual lane accordingly, ensuring that the vehicle follows safely while remaining within the designated virtual lane boundaries, thus preventing unauthorized lane changes.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the driver switches to manual driving to select virtual lanes, then the vehicle can handle complex situations, but frequent switching increases driver workload and errors
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables the automatic driving system to autonomously select and switch between virtual lane center lines based on the positions of surrounding vehicles. The system serves itself by automatically adapting to complex traffic situations without requiring driver intervention, thereby reducing driver workload and the frequency of manual-automatic switching while maintaining adaptability.
4Adaptability or versatility
If multiple virtual lanes are generated, then the vehicle has more route options, but the computational load increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by generating virtual lanes only in specific sections where needed, rather than throughout the entire route. The system divides the lane width into virtual lanes selectively at locations where multiple vehicles may travel in parallel, reducing the overall computational burden while providing sufficient route options where necessary.
Data Source
AI summary
An object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle control device configured, regardless of the number of travel lanes of a road, to generate a travel route based on a road width of the road or the like, so as to improve a continuous automatic driving system. The present invention provides a vehicle control device configured to perform vehicle control of a self vehicle based on information of a position of the self vehicle, information of a map, and information of a route. The vehicle control device determines, at a specific spot of the route, whether or not a travel lane (311) of the self vehicle has a lane width (Wr1) that allows a plurality of virtual vehicles (303 and 304) to travel parallel to each other, and on determination that the travel lane has the lane width, the vehicle control device generates, on the travel lane, a plurality of virtual lanes and virtual lane center lines (332 and 333) of the plurality of virtual lanes.