VEHICLE VISION SYSTEM WITH AUTOMATIC PARKING FUNCTION
A vehicle parking system of a vehicle includes a plurality of exterior viewing cameras and a control having an image processor operable to process image data captured by the cameras. The vehicle parking system learns a path of travel from a drop off location to a parking location during a learning maneuver that includes a driver driving the vehicle from the drop off location to the parking location. The control, upon the driver exiting the vehicle when the vehicle is positioned at the drop off location and at least in part responsive to the learned path of travel, controls the vehicle to autonomously drive the vehicle from the drop off location to the parking location. The control, responsive at least in part to image processing by the image processor of image data captured by at least one of the cameras, parks the vehicle at the parking location.
The present application claims the filing benefits of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 62/302,346, filed Mar. 2, 2016, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
FIELD OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention relates generally to a vehicle vision system for a vehicle and, more particularly, to a vehicle vision system that utilizes one or more cameras at a vehicle.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONUse of imaging sensors in vehicle imaging systems is common and known.
Examples of such known systems are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,949,331; 5,670,935 and/or 5,550,677, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention provides a driver assistance system or vision system or imaging system for a vehicle that utilizes one or more exterior sensors, such as cameras and/or ultrasonic sensors and/or radar sensors or the like to capture data representative of the vehicle surroundings, and provides an autonomous parking feature that controls the vehicle to park the vehicle at a targeted parking location. The system may provide a home parking function, where the system can record or learn a path for the vehicle to travel from a drop off location (such as by a front door of a house) to a parking location (such as in a garage of the house). The system can then follow the recorded path to park the vehicle after the driver has exited the vehicle at the drop off location. Optionally, the system may provide a valet parking feature, where the system may autonomously control the vehicle to drive the vehicle through a parking structure to a parking space or zone.
These and other objects, advantages, purposes and features of the present invention will become apparent upon review of the following specification in conjunction with the drawings.
A vehicle vision system and/or parking system and/or driver assist system and/or object detection system and/or alert system operates to capture images exterior of the vehicle and may process the captured image data to display images and to detect objects at or near the vehicle and in the predicted path of the vehicle, such as to assist a driver of the vehicle in maneuvering the vehicle in a rearward direction. The vision system includes an image processor or image processing system that is operable to receive image data from one or more cameras and provide an output to a display device for displaying images representative of the captured image data. Optionally, the vision system may provide display, such as a rearview display or a top down or bird's eye or surround view display or the like.
Referring now to the drawings and the illustrative embodiments depicted therein, a vehicle 10 includes a vehicle parking system 12 that includes at least one exterior facing sensor or imaging sensor or camera, such as a rearward facing imaging sensor or camera 14a (and the system may optionally include multiple exterior facing imaging sensors or cameras, such as a forward facing camera 14b at the front (or at the windshield) of the vehicle, and a sideward/rearward facing camera 14c, 14d at respective sides of the vehicle), which captures images exterior of the vehicle, with the camera having a lens for focusing images at or onto an imaging array or imaging plane or imager of the camera (
The present invention provides an automatic parking system that will “valet park” a vehicle by driving or controlling the vehicle from a location where the driver and passenger may be dropped off to a parking space a relatively short distance away.
The system includes a plurality of sensors, such as multiple (e.g., about 12) ultrasonic sensors or the like, and an embedded ECU for ultrasonic park assist (UPA) functions and for ultrasonic park space detection (UPSD) functions (see
Optionally, the vehicle parking system may include or utilize cameras and machine vision algorithm blocks for surround view systems (SVS) or rear vision camera (RVC) systems and ultrasonic autopark, and may include motion estimation, image classifier, contrast+block entropy, line detection, structure from motion and/or object detection (see
Optionally, the parking system of the present invention may use a remote control application running on mobile device (see
Optionally, the parking system of the present invention may be operable as a home zone parking system that allows a user or driver to get out of the vehicle (such as at a driveway near the front door of the house), whereby the system will autonomously drive the vehicle from the drop off location to the parking location, such as into the garage or the like (see
The system utilizes object detection using cameras, UPA (and radar) sensors during the replay or autonomous parking/driving maneuver in order to avoid collisions and control the vehicle along the learned path (see
The system thus may provide a static record and replay without object detection and dynamic path adjustment, such as for a controlled environment, with only static objects present (no other moving vehicles), no pedestrians present (
The system may provide enhanced control of the vehicle by providing for static record and replay with object detection and without dynamic path adjustment (
Optionally, the system may provide for static record and replay with object detection and with dynamic path adjustment at the end of the path (
Optionally, the system may provide for static record and replay with object detection and with dynamic path adjustment during the entire maneuver (
Optionally, the system of the present invention may provide a valet parking function, where the system may park a vehicle at a public parking space after the driver has dropped himself or herself off at a desired location. Optionally, the desired location may be remote from the parking structure and the system may control the vehicle to follow a learned or predetermined path from the drop off location to an entrance of the parking structure (such as in a similar manner as discussed above). The system allows for autonomous maneuvering of the vehicle from any point inside or in the vicinity of a parking structure (such as at an entrance to the parking structure) to a designated parking location inside the parking structure. The system may include detection of available parking spaces in the vicinity of the designated parking location inside the parking structure using an autopark system that detects available parking spaces (such as by utilizing aspects of the systems described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,874,317 and/or U.S. Publication Nos. US-2017-0015312; US-2015-0158499; US-2015-0251599; US-2015-0124096; US-2015-0344028; US-2014-0375476 and/or US-2013-0116859, which are all hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties). The system provides autonomous parking of the vehicle in the detected parking space.
The system provides predetermined static path maneuvers from a defined point inside a parking structure to a desired parking zone inside the parking structure on the same floor level followed by automated parking (see
Optionally, the system may perform a predetermined static path maneuver from a defined point outside the parking structure to a desired parking zone inside the parking structure on the same floor level, followed by automated parking (
Optionally, the system may perform a predetermined static path maneuver with path adjustments from a defined point outside the parking structure to a desired area inside the parking structure on the same floor level followed by automated parking (
Optionally, the system may perform a planned path maneuver with path adjustments from a defined point outside the parking structure to a desired area inside the parking structure on the same floor level followed by automated parking (
For applications where the system parks the vehicle within a parking structure, the system may utilize an indoor positioning system for underground (or not outside) parking structures. The system may utilize absolute positioning via Bluetooth LE or WLAN or the like and relative positioning with vehicle sensors and optionally a navigation map. The position fingerprinting system or function determines position of the vehicle by comparing the measured signal patterns with previously measured signal patterns in reference points. Optionally, and desirably, the parking garage may have WLAN access points and/or 60 Bluetooth access points and a plurality of fingerprints, whereby the system can determine the vehicle's position within the garage via processing of signals from the access points. The system may combine this information with data captured by vehicle sensors (and processed by a vehicle-based processor) to enhance the determination of the position of the vehicle. The system may use CAN data and Kalman Filtering and/or Particle Filtering to enhance the position or location determination to enhance the vehicle's controlled path of travel when the system is autonomously controlling and parking the vehicle. Optionally, the system may extract map information for further enhancement.
As shown in
Optionally, the system may comprise simplified system architecture as shown in
The camera or sensor may comprise any suitable camera or sensor. Optionally, the camera may comprise a “smart camera” that includes the imaging sensor array and associated circuitry and image processing circuitry and electrical connectors and the like as part of a camera module, such as by utilizing aspects of the vision systems described in International Publication Nos. WO 2013/081984 and/or WO 2013/081985, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
The system includes an image processor operable to process image data captured by the camera or cameras, such as for detecting objects or other vehicles or pedestrians or the like in the field of view of one or more of the cameras. For example, the image processor may comprise an image processing chip selected from the EyeQ family of image processing chips available from Mobileye Vision Technologies Ltd. of Jerusalem, Israel, and may include object detection software (such as the types described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,855,755; 7,720,580 and/or 7,038,577, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties), and may analyze image data to detect vehicles and/or other objects. Responsive to such image processing, and when an object or other vehicle is detected, the system may generate an alert to the driver of the vehicle and/or may generate an overlay at the displayed image to highlight or enhance display of the detected object or vehicle, in order to enhance the driver's awareness of the detected object or vehicle or hazardous condition during a driving maneuver of the equipped vehicle.
The vehicle may include any type of sensor or sensors, such as imaging sensors or radar sensors or lidar sensors or ladar sensors or ultrasonic sensors or the like. The imaging sensor or camera may capture image data for image processing and may comprise any suitable camera or sensing device, such as, for example, a two dimensional array of a plurality of photosensor elements arranged in at least 640 columns and 480 rows (at least a 640×480 imaging array, such as a megapixel imaging array or the like), with a respective lens focusing images onto respective portions of the array. The photosensor array may comprise a plurality of photosensor elements arranged in a photosensor array having rows and columns. Preferably, the imaging array has at least 300,000 photosensor elements or pixels, more preferably at least 500,000 photosensor elements or pixels and more preferably at least 1 million photosensor elements or pixels. The imaging array may capture color image data, such as via spectral filtering at the array, such as via an RGB (red, green and blue) filter or via a red/red complement filter or such as via an RCC (red, clear, clear) filter or the like. The logic and control circuit of the imaging sensor may function in any known manner, and the image processing and algorithmic processing may comprise any suitable means for processing the images and/or image data.
For example, the vision system and/or processing and/or camera and/or circuitry may utilize aspects described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,233,641; 9,146,898; 9,174,574; 9,090,234; 9,077,098; 8,818,042; 8,886,401; 9,077,962; 9,068,390; 9,140,789; 9,092,986; 9,205,776; 8,917,169; 8,694,224; 7,005,974; 5,760,962; 5,877,897; 5,796,094; 5,949,331; 6,222,447; 6,302,545; 6,396,397; 6,498,620; 6,523,964; 6,611,202; 6,201,642; 6,690,268; 6,717,610; 6,757,109; 6,802,617; 6,806,452; 6,822,563; 6,891,563; 6,946,978; 7,859,565; 5,550,677; 5,670,935; 6,636,258; 7,145,519; 7,161,616; 7,230,640; 7,248,283; 7,295,229; 7,301,466; 7,592,928; 7,881,496; 7,720,580; 7,038,577; 6,882,287; 5,929,786 and/or 5,786,772, and/or U.S. Publication Nos. US-2014-0340510; US-2014-0313339; US-2014-0347486; US-2014-0320658; US-2014-0336876; US-2014-0307095; US-2014-0327774; US-2014-0327772; US-2014-0320636; US-2014-0293057; US-2014-0309884; US-2014-0226012; US-2014-0293042; US-2014-0218535; US-2014-0218535; US-2014-0247354; US-2014-0247355; US-2014-0247352; US-2014-0232869; US-2014-0211009; US-2014-0160276; US-2014-0168437; US-2014-0168415; US-2014-0160291; US-2014-0152825; US-2014-0139676; US-2014-0138140; US-2014-0104426; US-2014-0098229; US-2014-0085472; US-2014-0067206; US-2014-0049646; US-2014-0052340; US-2014-0025240; US-2014-0028852; US-2014-005907; US-2013-0314503; US-2013-0298866; US-2013-0222593; US-2013-0300869; US-2013-0278769; US-2013-0258077; US-2013-0258077; US-2013-0242099; US-2013-0215271; US-2013-0141578 and/or US-2013-0002873, which are all hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. The system may communicate with other communication systems via any suitable means, such as by utilizing aspects of the systems described in International Publication Nos. WO/2010/144900; WO 2013/043661 and/or WO 2013/081985, and/or U.S. Pat. No. 9,126,525, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
The system may also communicate with other systems, such as via a vehicle-to-vehicle communication system or a vehicle-to-infrastructure communication system or the like. Such car2car or vehicle to vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (car2X or V2X or V2I or 4G or 5G) technology provides for communication between vehicles and/or infrastructure based on information provided by one or more vehicles and/or information provided by a remote server or the like. Such vehicle communication systems may utilize aspects of the systems described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,690,268; 6,693,517 and/or 7,580,795, and/or U.S. Publication Nos. US-2014-0375476; US-2014-0218529; US-2013-0222592; US-2012-0218412; US-2012-0062743; US-2015-0251599; US-2015-0158499; US-2015-0124096; US-2015-0352953; US-2016-0036917 and/or US-2016-0210853, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
The system may utilize aspects of the parking assist systems described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,874,317 and/or U.S. Publication Nos. US-2017-0050672; US-2017-0017848; US-2017-0015312 and/or US-2015-0344028, and/or U.S. provisional applications, Ser. No. 62/335,248, filed May 12, 2016, and/or Ser. No. 62/330,558, filed May 2, 2016, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
Optionally, the vision system may include a display for displaying images captured by one or more of the imaging sensors for viewing by the driver of the vehicle while the driver is normally operating the vehicle. Optionally, for example, the vision system may include a video display device, such as by utilizing aspects of the video display systems described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,530,240; 6,329,925; 7,855,755; 7,626,749; 7,581,859; 7,446,650; 7,338,177; 7,274,501; 7,255,451; 7,195,381; 7,184,190; 5,668,663; 5,724,187; 6,690,268; 7,370,983; 7,329,013; 7,308,341; 7,289,037; 7,249,860; 7,004,593; 4,546,551; 5,699,044; 4,953,305; 5,576,687; 5,632,092; 5,677,851; 5,708,410; 5,737,226; 5,802,727; 5,878,370; 6,087,953; 6,173,508; 6,222,460; 6,513,252 and/or 6,642,851, and/or U.S. Publication Nos. US-2012-0162427; US-2006-0050018 and/or US-2006-0061008, which are all hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. Optionally, the vision system (utilizing the forward facing camera and a rearward facing camera and other cameras disposed at the vehicle with exterior fields of view) may be part of or may provide a display of a top-down view or bird's-eye view system of the vehicle or a surround view at the vehicle, such as by utilizing aspects of the vision systems described in International Publication Nos. WO 2010/099416; WO 2011/028686; WO 2012/075250; WO 2013/019795; WO 2012/075250; WO 2012/145822; WO 2013/081985; WO 2013/086249 and/or WO 2013/109869, and/or U.S. Publication No. US-2012-0162427, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
Changes and modifications in the specifically described embodiments can be carried out without departing from the principles of the invention, which is intended to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims, as interpreted according to the principles of patent law including the doctrine of equivalents.
Claims
1. A vehicle parking system for a vehicle, said vehicle parking system comprising:
- a plurality of exterior viewing cameras disposed at a vehicle, each camera of said plurality of exterior viewing cameras having a respective field of view exterior of the vehicle;
- a control comprising an image processor operable to process image data captured by said cameras;
- wherein said vehicle parking system learns a path of travel from a drop off location to a parking location during a learning maneuver that comprises a driver driving the vehicle from the drop off location to the parking location; and
- wherein said control, upon the driver exiting the vehicle when the vehicle is positioned at the drop off location and at least in part responsive to the learned path of travel, controls the vehicle to autonomously drive the vehicle from the drop off location to the parking location, and wherein said control, responsive at least in part to image processing by said image processor of image data captured by at least one of said cameras, parks the vehicle at the parking location.
2. The vehicle parking system of claim 1, wherein said vehicle parking system learns the path of travel from the drop off location to the parking location responsive to a user input that, when actuated by a user when the vehicle is at the drop off location, actuates a learning function of said vehicle parking system.
3. The vehicle parking system of claim 1, wherein said control, after said vehicle parking system learns the path of travel and responsive to actuation of a user input when the vehicle is at the drop off location, autonomously drives the vehicle from the drop off location to the parking location.
4. The vehicle parking system of claim 1, wherein, responsive at least in part to processing by said image processor of captured image data while said control autonomously drives the vehicle from the drop off location to the parking location, said vehicle parking system determines the presence of an object in the path of travel and, responsive to determination of the object, said control adjusts steering or braking of the vehicle as said control autonomously drives the vehicle along the learned path of travel.
5. The vehicle parking system of claim 1, wherein, responsive to a determination of a variation in the location of the vehicle along the learned path of travel, said control adjusts steering or braking of the vehicle as the vehicle is autonomously driven towards the parking location.
6. The vehicle parking system of claim 5, wherein said control determines the variation via image processing by said image processor of captured image data.
7. The vehicle parking system of claim 1, wherein the parking location is at an entrance of a parking structure and wherein, after the vehicle is autonomously driven to the parking location at the parking structure, said control parks the vehicle at a parking space of the parking structure responsive at least in part to signals from beacons at the parking structure.
8. The vehicle parking system of claim 7, wherein, responsive at least in part to signals from beacons, said vehicle parking system determines the current location of the vehicle at the parking structure.
9. The vehicle parking system of claim 8, wherein said control autonomously drives the vehicle from the parking location at the parking structure to a selected parking space of the parking structure responsive at least in part to the determined current location of the vehicle at the parking structure.
10. The vehicle parking system of claim 9, wherein said vehicle parking system is operable to determine, at least in part via image processing by said image processor of image data captured by at least some of said cameras, the presence of an object in the path of travel of the vehicle and, responsive to determination of the object, said control adjusts steering or braking of the vehicle as said control autonomously drives the vehicle toward the selected parking space of the parking structure.
11. The vehicle parking system of claim 1, wherein said vehicle parking system is operable at least in part responsive to a remote control device, whereby a user controls steering and braking of the vehicle via the remote control device remote from the vehicle.
12. The vehicle parking system of claim 1, wherein said control controls the vehicle to autonomously drive the vehicle from the drop off location to the parking location responsive at least in part to image processing by said image processor of image data captured by at least some of said cameras.
13. The vehicle parking system of claim 1, wherein said control controls the vehicle to autonomously drive the vehicle from the drop off location to the parking location responsive at least in part to a plurality of non-imaging sensors of the vehicle.
14. A vehicle parking system for a vehicle, said vehicle parking system comprising:
- a plurality of exterior viewing cameras disposed at a vehicle, each camera of said plurality of exterior viewing cameras having a respective field of view exterior of the vehicle;
- a control comprising an image processor operable to process image data captured by said cameras;
- wherein, responsive at least in part to actuation of a first user input, said vehicle parking system learns a path of travel from a drop off location to a parking location during a learning maneuver that comprises a driver, after actuating the first user input, driving the vehicle from the drop off location to the parking location; and
- wherein said control, responsive to the driver actuating a second user input when the vehicle is positioned at the drop off location, controls the vehicle to follow the learned path of travel to autonomously drive the vehicle from the drop off location to the parking location, and wherein said control, responsive at least in part to image processing by said image processor of image data captured by at least one of said cameras, parks the vehicle at the parking location.
15. The vehicle parking system of claim 14, wherein, responsive at least in part to processing by said image processor of captured image data while said control autonomously drives the vehicle from the drop off location to the parking location, said vehicle parking system determines the presence of an object in the path of travel and, responsive to determination of the object, said control adjusts steering or braking of the vehicle as said control autonomously drives the vehicle along the learned path of travel.
16. The vehicle parking system of claim 14, wherein the parking location is at an entrance of a parking structure and wherein, after the vehicle is autonomously driven to the parking location at the parking structure, said control parks the vehicle at a parking space of the parking structure responsive at least in part to signals from a parking system of the parking structure.
17. The vehicle parking system of claim 14, wherein said control controls the vehicle to autonomously drive the vehicle from the drop off location to the parking location responsive at least in part to (i) image processing by said image processor of image data captured by at least some of said cameras and (ii) a plurality of non-imaging sensors of the vehicle.
18. A vehicle parking system for a vehicle, said vehicle parking system comprising:
- a plurality of exterior viewing cameras disposed at a vehicle, each camera of said plurality of exterior viewing cameras having a respective field of view exterior of the vehicle;
- a control comprising an image processor operable to process image data captured by said cameras;
- wherein said vehicle parking system learns a path of travel from a drop off location to a parking structure during a learning maneuver that comprises a driver driving the vehicle from the drop off location to the parking structure; and
- wherein said control, upon the driver exiting the vehicle when the vehicle is positioned at the drop off location and at least in part responsive to the learned path of travel, controls the vehicle to autonomously drive the vehicle from the drop off location to the parking structure;
- wherein, after the vehicle is autonomously driven to the parking structure, said control parks the vehicle at a parking space of the parking structure responsive at least in part to signals from a parking system of the parking structure; and
- wherein, responsive at least in part to signals from the parking system of the parking structure, said vehicle parking system determines the current location of the vehicle at the parking structure and said control autonomously drives the vehicle to the parking space of the parking structure responsive at least in part to the determined current location of the vehicle at the parking structure.
19. The vehicle parking system of claim 18, wherein said vehicle parking system is operable to determine, at least in part via image processing by said image processor of image data captured by at least some of said cameras, the presence of an object in the path of travel of the vehicle and, responsive to determination of the object, said control adjusts steering or braking of the vehicle as said control autonomously drives the vehicle toward the selected parking space of the parking structure.
20. The vehicle parking system of claim 18, wherein said control controls the vehicle to autonomously drive the vehicle from the drop off location to the parking structure responsive at least in part to (i) image processing by said image processor of image data captured by at least some of said cameras and (ii) a plurality of non-imaging sensors of the vehicle.
Type: Application
Filed: Mar 1, 2017
Publication Date: Sep 7, 2017
Inventor: Horst D. Diessner (Rochester Hills, MI)
Application Number: 15/446,218