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EP-4735715-A1 - CONTROLLING AN AUTOMATIC DOOR OPENING SYSTEM OF A MOTOR VEHICLE

EP4735715A1EP 4735715 A1EP4735715 A1EP 4735715A1EP-4735715-A1

Abstract

For controlling an automatic door opening system (12) of a motor vehicle (1), first sensor data is received from a first environmental sensor system (4, 5, 6, 7, 8) while driving to a target location and first object information concerning potential objects in a potential collision region (14) is determined based on the first sensor data and stored to a memory device. Second sensor data is received from a second environmental sensor system (2), wherein a field of view of the second environmental sensor system (2) covers a part of the potential collision region (14). The first object information is read from the memory device, and it is verified whether an obstacle is present in the potential collision region (14) depending on the first object information and the second sensor data. A control signal to open a door (13) automatically is generated depending on a result of the verification.

Inventors

  • Luca, Razvan
  • GANDRA, VENKATA
  • BECKER, MARKUS
  • DHANKADE, Visal

Assignees

  • Valeo Schalter und Sensoren GmbH

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20240617

Claims (17)

  1. 1 . Computer-implemented method for controlling an automatic door opening system (12) of a motor vehicle (1 ), wherein first sensor data is received from a first environmental sensor system (4, 5, 6, 7, 8) of the motor vehicle (1 ) while the motor vehicle (1 ) is driving to a target location; first object information concerning potential objects in a potential collision region (14) for a door (13) of the motor vehicle (1) is determined based on the first sensor data and stored to a memory device; second sensor data is received from a second environmental sensor system (2) of the motor vehicle (1) while the motor vehicle (1 ) is located at the target location, wherein a field of view of the second environmental sensor system (2) covers a part of the potential collision region (14); the first object information is read from the memory device and it is verified whether an obstacle is present in the potential collision region (14) depending on the first object information and depending on the second sensor data; a control signal to open the door (13) automatically is generated depending on a result of the verification.
  2. 2. Computer-implemented method according to claim 1 , wherein the memory device is a non-volatile memory device.
  3. 3. Computer-implemented method according to claim 2, wherein a vehicle computing unit (10, 11 ) of the motor vehicle (1 ), which contains the memory device, is powered off at a first time instance when or after the motor vehicle (1) has reached the target location; the vehicle computing unit (10, 11) is powered on at a second time instance after the first time instance; and the second sensor data is received from the second environmental sensor system (2) and the first object information is read from the memory device when or after the vehicle computing unit (10, 11) has been powered on.
  4. 4. Computer-implemented method according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the first object information comprises a first indication whether or not one or more first objects are detected in the potential collision region (14) according to the first sensor data; and if one or more first objects are detected in the potential collision region (14) according to the first indication, the first object information comprises a height classification for each of the one or more first objects.
  5. 5. Computer-implemented method according to claim 4, wherein second object information concerning potential objects in the potential collision region (14) is determined based on the second sensor data and the verification is carried out depending on the second object information; the second object information comprises an indication whether or not one or more second objects are detected in the potential collision region (14) according to the second sensor data; and if one or more second objects are detected in the potential collision region (14) according to the second indication, the second object information comprises a length classification for each of the one or more second objects.
  6. 6. Computer-implemented method according to one of the preceding claims, wherein, the door (13) is opened automatically, if the result of the verification is negative, such that the potential collision region (14) is free of obstacles; and/or the door (13) is not opened automatically, if the result of the verification is positive, such that an obstacle is present in the potential collision region (14).
  7. 7. Computer-implemented method according to claim 5 and claim 6, wherein, if no second objects are detected in the potential collision region (14) according to the second indication, then the result of the verification is negative.
  8. 8. Computer-implemented method according to claim 5 and according to one of claims 6 and 7, wherein, if one or more second objects are detected in the potential collision region (14) and the length classification corresponds to a predefined first length classification for at least one of the one or more second objects, then the result of the verification is positive.
  9. 9. Computer-implemented method according to claim 8, wherein, if one or more second objects are detected in the potential collision region (14) and the length classification for at least one of the one or more second objects corresponds to a predefined second length class and one or more first objects are detected in the potential collision region (14) and the height classification for at least one of the one or more first objects corresponds to a predefined first height class, then the result of the verification is positive; and/or if one or more second objects are detected in the potential collision region (14) and the length classification for at least one of the one or more second objects corresponds to the predefined second length class, and one or more first objects are detected in the potential collision region (14) and the height classification for at least one of the one or more first objects corresponds to a predefined second height class, then the result of the verification is negative.
  10. 10. Computer-implemented method according to claim 9, wherein object lengths, which are smaller than a predefined minimum length, correspond to the first length classification, and object lengths, which are greater than the minimum length, correspond to the second length classification; and object heights, which are greater than a predefined minimum height, correspond to the first height classification, and object heights, which are smaller than the minimum height, correspond to the second height classification.
  11. 11 . Computer-implemented method according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the door (13) is a side door (13) of the motor vehicle (1 ).
  12. 12. Computer-implemented method according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the first environmental sensor system (4, 5, 6, 7, 8) comprises at least one first ultrasonic sensor (5, 6) and/or at least one camera (7, 8) and/or at least one radar system and/or at least one lidar system (4); and/or the second environmental sensor system (2) comprises at least one second ultrasonic sensor (2).
  13. 13. Data processing apparatus (9) for an automatic door opening system (12) of a motor vehicle (1), comprising at least one computing unit (10, 11), which is adapted to carry out a computer-implemented method according to one of the preceding claims.
  14. 14. Automatic door opening system (12) for a motor vehicle (1) comprising a data processing apparatus (9) according to claim 13 and at least one actuator, which is configured to open the door (13) automatically depending on the control signal.
  15. 15. Automatic door opening system (12) according to claim 14, comprising the first environmental sensor system (4, 5, 6, 7, 8) and/or the second environmental sensor system (2).
  16. 16. Motor vehicle (1 ) comprising an automatic door opening system (12), according to one of claims 13 or 14, wherein the door (13) is a side door of the motor vehicle (1 ) and the second environmental sensor system (2) comprises at least one second ultrasonic sensor (2), which is arranged in a region below the door; and a field of view of the first environmental sensor system (4, 5, 6, 7, 8) contains a region in front of the motor vehicle (1 ) and/or behind the motor vehicle (1 ).
  17. 17. Computer program product comprising instructions, which, when executed by a data processing apparatus (9), cause the data processing apparatus (9) to carry out a computer-implemented method according to one of claims 1 to 12.

Description

Controlling an automatic door opening system of a motor vehicle The present invention is directed to a computer-implemented method for controlling an automatic door opening system of a motor vehicle. The invention is further directed to a corresponding data processing apparatus for an automatic door opening system of a motor vehicle and to an automatic door opening system for a motor vehicle comprising such a data processing apparatus. The invention is further directed to a motor vehicle comprising such an automatic door opening system and to corresponding computer program products. Parking assistant systems for motor vehicles are known, wherein environmental sensor systems, such as ultrasonic sensors or cameras, measure the potential parking space when the motor vehicle passes the parking space and uses the perceived information regarding the environment when controlling a parking procedure, for example for trajectory planning or maneuver planning. Such environmental sensor systems may for example be mounted at the front end or rear end of the motor vehicle and/or on the sides of the motor vehicle. In case of ultrasonic sensors, they may for example be integrated into a fender or bumper of the motor vehicle. On the other hand, automatic door opening systems for motor vehicles are known, wherein a user can for example trigger the opening of a side door remotely and the motor vehicle controls corresponding actuators to open the door automatically. For such automatic door opening systems it is also known to use environmental sensor systems, for example ultrasonic sensor systems, which are arranged in the immediate environment of the door, to detect potential obstacles in the pivot region of the door and for example block the automatic door opening in case an obstacle is observed. Document US 9,348,025 B2 describes a method for lateral environment detection of a motor vehicle. A motor vehicle is described, which comprises environmental sensors for parking space monitoring and additional environmental sensors for door protection. Both, a parking support device and a door protection device can operate at least one of their assigned environmental sensors, when the operating frequency, at which the parking support device operates its environmental sensors, is selected differently from the frequency, at which the door protection device operates its environmental sensors. Both operating frequencies are detuned with respect to the resonance frequency of the environmental sensors. In this way, it can be achieved to implement environmental detection for the parking support device and the door protection device with the same set of sensors simultaneously on the same side of the motor vehicle. Potential obstacles in the pivot region of the door may, however, be located very close to the door after parking. Consequently, the obstacle may be located or partly in a blind spot or blind region of the environmental sensors usable for the door protection. Such blind spots or blind regions may for example arise due to limitations regarding the placement of the environmental sensors on the side of the vehicle. For example, the door itself may be kept free of environmental sensors such as ultrasonic sensors due to aesthetic reasons. Consequently, the reliability of the door protection for the automatic door opening system is reduced. On the other hand, a restrictive handling of edge cases to improve the reliability of the door protection may lead to false positive obstacle detections and, consequently, to a reduced availability of the automatic door opening functionality. It is an objective of the present invention to improve the reliability of a door protection for an automatic door opening system of a motor vehicle and/or the availability of the automatic door opening functionality. This objective is achieved by the respective subject matter of the independent claims. Further implementations and preferred embodiments are subject matter of the dependent claims. The invention is based on the idea to use, on the one hand, first sensor data from a first environmental sensor system while the motor vehicle is driving to a target location, in order to determine information regarding potential objects in a potential collision region of the door, and store this information to a memory device. On the other hand, second sensor data are received from a second environmental sensor system, whose field of view covers a part of the potential collision region, while the motor vehicle is located at the target location. The information from the first sensor data as well as the second sensor data are used to verify whether an obstacle is actually present in the potential collision region and the automatic door opening system is controlled according to the result of the verification. According to an aspect of the invention, a computer-implemented method for controlling an automatic door opening system of a motor vehicle is provided. Therein, first