DE-112024002487-T5 - Parking aid device and parking aid procedure

DE112024002487T5DE 112024002487 T5DE112024002487 T5DE 112024002487T5DE-112024002487-T5

Abstract

The parking assistance device comprises: a unit for calculating a parking area, which calculates a parking area in which a vehicle can park based on an area in which the vehicle can drive and a three-dimensional shape of an object, which is detected by a sensing unit based on information about the vehicle's surroundings; a unit for calculating ease of entry/exit, which calculates the ease of entry/exit for an object entering or exiting the vehicle based on at least the three-dimensional shape of the object; and an auxiliary content generation unit, which calculates a parking position in which the vehicle parks based on the ease of entry/exit and the parking area and generates auxiliary content to assist in parking the vehicle based on the parking position.

Inventors

SHIBUYA KAORU
AKAI AKIHITO
HYODO AKIHIKO
YAMADA TETSUYA

Assignees

ASTEMO LTD

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20240930
Priority Date: 20231004

Claims (12)

A parking aid device comprising: an information acquisition unit that acquires information about the vehicle's surroundings; a detection unit that, based on the information about the vehicle's surroundings, identifies an area in which the vehicle can drive and a three-dimensional shape of an object present in the vehicle's surroundings; a unit for calculating a parking area, which calculates a parking area in which the vehicle can park based on the area in which the vehicle can drive and the three-dimensional shape of the object; a unit for calculating ease of entry/exit, which calculates the ease of entry/exit of an object entering or exiting the vehicle based on at least the object's three-dimensional shape; and an auxiliary content generation unit that calculates a parking position in which the vehicle parks based on ease of entry/exit and the parking area, and generates auxiliary content to assist in parking the vehicle based on the parking position.
Parking aid device Claim 1 , wherein the unit for calculating ease of entry/exit calculates ease of entry/exit based on vehicle information which includes the height of an entry/exit position of the vehicle and information about the entry/exit object.
Parking aid device Claim 2 , wherein the unit for calculating ease of entry/exit calculates the ease of entry/exit such that it is high when a physical restriction or vehicle restriction of the entry/exit object is satisfied based on physical information of the entry/exit object and/or vehicle performance, a three-dimensional shape and/or object type of the object, and the physical restriction or vehicle restriction of the entry/exit object is calculated from a value that includes a step and/or a distance and/or a passage width with which another vehicle can pass and/or a slope between the vehicle and the object.
Parking aid device Claim 3 , furthermore comprising: an entry/exit condition management unit that determines whether or not parking assistance processing is to be carried out for the vehicle; and a control unit that controls the vehicle based on the assistance content.
Parking aid device Claim 4 , further comprising: a storage unit that records a parking state of the vehicle and a parking rating value that indicates a result of easy entry/exit in the parking state, wherein the parking state includes a step and/or a distance and/or a passage width that allows another vehicle to pass and/or an inclination and/or an angle that indicates a positional relationship between the parked vehicle and the object, the parking rating value includes a value that can estimate an entry/exit time of the entry/exit object, and the auxiliary content generation unit improves the parking position, based on the parking state and the parking rating value, to a position at which the entry/exit object can easily enter or exit.
Parking aid device Claim 5 , wherein the unit for calculating ease of entry/exit calculates the ease of entry/exit for a parking candidate position extracted from the parking area, and an interval of the parking candidate position calculated during the processing of extracting a parking position where the entry/exit object can easily enter or exit a parking candidate area, according to the vehicle information, the information about the entry/exit object and the required accuracy.
Parking aid device Claim 5 , wherein the entry/exit condition management unit determines the presence or absence of disaster information acquired by an external sensor or communication unit attached to the vehicle, or determines whether the entry/exit object is entering or exiting an emergency vehicle, updates the memory unit such that a general vehicle is unable to park in a specific area of a parking position for a specific period of time, and determines whether a surrounding vehicle containing the vehicle is an emergency vehicle or not by using sensor information acquired by the external sensor, and/or information indicating the condition of an occupant acquired by an internal sensor, and/or a vehicle type read from the memory unit, and/or information acquired by the communication unit, wherein the information components are acquired by the information acquisition unit, and increases the parking priority of the vehicle designated as the emergency vehicle.
Parking aid device Claim 4 , wherein the auxiliary content generation unit captures a vehicle parking position for an object at an entry/exit destination and a weighting of each entry/exit ease element set by a user, and the entry/exit ease calculation unit calculates the entry/exit ease by the weighting of each element captured by the auxiliary content generation unit.
Parking aid device Claim 4 , wherein the entry/exit condition management unit determines to perform the parking assistance processing in a case where the vehicle approaches a preset parking position or a parking position detected by a communication unit at a certain vehicle speed or less.
Parking aid device Claim 4 , wherein the entry/exit condition management unit switches between a normal mode during normal driving, a detection mode in which an object in the vehicle's environment is detected with high accuracy, and a parking aid mode in which parking aid processing is performed.
Parking aid device Claim 4 , wherein the entry/exit condition management unit notifies a vehicle occupant or vehicle supervisor that a vehicle door cannot be opened or closed when it is determined that the vehicle door cannot be opened or closed from a shape that includes a height of an object at an entry/exit destination, a position that includes a height of a vehicle door, a movement range of the vehicle door, and a parking position relationship between the vehicle and the object at the entry/exit destination.
A parking assistance procedure comprising: a step of acquiring information about the vehicle's surroundings; a step of acquiring an area in which the vehicle can drive and a three-dimensional shape of an object present in the vehicle's surroundings based on the information about the vehicle's surroundings; a step of calculating a parkable area in which the vehicle can park based on the area in which the vehicle can drive and the three-dimensional shape of the object; a step of calculating the ease of entry/exit of an object entering or exiting the vehicle based on at least the object's three-dimensional shape; and a step of calculating a parking position in which the vehicle parks based on the ease of entry/exit and the parkable area, and generating auxiliary content to assist in parking the vehicle based on the parking position.

Description

Technical field The present invention relates to a parking aid device and a parking aid method. State of the art The prior art provides a parking assistance device that uses autonomous driving technology to park a vehicle in a parking area, such as a parking space, and to assist an occupant in entering or exiting the vehicle. As a technology for assisting with vehicle entry or exit in this manner, PTL 1 describes a "parking assistance device that can predict whether or not a door should be opened or closed before automatic parking." Citation list Patent literature PTL 1: JP 2022-117815 A Summary of the invention Technical problem The technology described in PTL 1 involves a camera detecting obstacles in the vicinity of a parking position when the vehicle is parked. A predictive result is then generated, based on the vehicle's parking position notification, to determine whether the vehicle door can be opened and closed. However, since PTL 1 does not address entry/exit height, there is a concern that if a person (such as a delivery van, wheelchair, stroller, or similar item) is entering or exiting the vehicle, a large step from the vehicle to the ground could make entry or exit difficult. Furthermore, the technology described in PTL 1 is based solely on the parking position and does not address the automatic extraction of a parking position where the person can easily enter or exit, such as during pickup and delivery. The present invention was made with such a situation in mind, and one object of the present invention is to obtain a position in a space where an entry/exit object can easily enter or exit. Solution to the problem A parking aid device according to the present invention comprises an information acquisition unit that acquires information about the surroundings of a vehicle, a detection unit that acquires an area in which the vehicle can drive and a three-dimensional shape of an object present in the surroundings of the vehicle based on the information about the surroundings of the vehicle, a unit for calculating a parkable area that calculates a parkable area in which the vehicle can park based on the area in which the vehicle can drive and the three-dimensional shape of the object, a unit for calculating ease of entry/exit that calculates the ease of entry/exit of an object leaving or entering the vehicle based on at least the three-dimensional shape of the object, and an auxiliary content generation unit that calculates a parking position in which the vehicle parks based on the ease of entry/exit and the parkable area and generates auxiliary content to assist in parking the vehicle based on the parking position. Advantageous effects of the invention According to the present invention, it is possible to automatically calculate the parking position at which the occupant can easily enter or exit the vehicle, based on the occupant's height, which is represented by a three-dimensional shape of the occupant. Parking the vehicle is then assisted based on this parking position. This improves the convenience and safety of the occupant entering or exiting the vehicle. Problems, configurations and effects that differ from those described above are clarified by the following description of embodiments. Brief description of the drawings [ 1 ] 1 is a configuration diagram of a (parking) aid device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.[ 2 ] 2 is a diagram that illustrates an example of a parking area and a permissible entry/exit area according to the first embodiment of the present invention.[ 3 ] 3 is a diagram that presents an example in which an auxiliary content generation is According to the first embodiment of the present invention, a position is calculated at which an entry/exit object can easily enter or exit by using height information relating to entry or exit.[ 4 ] 4 is a diagram that presents an example in which there is a step between a vehicle and a structure according to the first embodiment of the present invention at the time of entry or exit of an entry/exit object.[ 5 ] 5 is a diagram that presents an example in which a unit for calculating ease of entry/exit according to the first embodiment of the present invention calculates the ease of entry/exit of each parking candidate position from the parking area.[ 6 ] 6 is a diagram that represents a configuration example of vehicle information according to the first embodiment of the present invention.[ 7 ] 7 is a diagram that represents a configuration example of entry/exit object information according to the first embodiment of the present invention.[ 8 ] 8 is a diagram that represents a configuration example of entry/exit setting information according to the first embodiment of the present invention.[ 9 ] 9 is a flowchart that represents an example of parking aid processing according to the first embodiment of the present invention.[ 10 ] 10 is a configuration diagram of a parking aid device according to a second embodiment