US-20260125078-A1 - AUTOMATIC DRIVING DEVICE AND VEHICLE CONTROL METHOD

US20260125078A1US 20260125078 A1US20260125078 A1US 20260125078A1US-20260125078-A1

Abstract

An automatic driving device generates a control plan for autonomously driving a vehicle using map data. The automatic driving device determines an acquisition status of the map data. The automatic driving device generates the control plan using the map data. The automatic driving device changes the control plan according to the acquisition status of the map data.

Inventors

Jingyu XIANG
Hiroyuki Ohsawa

Assignees

DENSO CORPORATION

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20260105
Priority Date: 20200708

Claims (12)

1 . An automatic driving device that generates a control plan for autonomously driving a vehicle using map data, the automatic driving device comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing computer readable code, wherein the computer readable code, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to: determine whether the map data is consistent with a real world based on sensing information provided from a surrounding monitoring sensor mounted on the vehicle; and generate the control plan to perform a predetermined emergency action upon determining that the map data is not consistent with the real world.
2 . The automatic driving device according to claim 1 , wherein the computer readable code further causes the at least one processor to generate the control plan to perform the predetermined emergency action when a landmark that has not been registered in the map data is detected by comparing the map data with the sensing information.
3 . The automatic driving device according to claim 1 , wherein the computer readable code further causes the at least one processor to generate the control plan to perform the predetermined emergency action when a landmark that has been registered in the map data is not detected by comparing the map data with the sensing information.
4 . The automatic driving device according to claim 1 , wherein the sensing information includes information indicated on a traffic sign recognized by a camera, and the computer readable code further causes the at least one processor to generate the control plan to perform the predetermined emergency action when information of a traffic sign that has been registered in the map data does not match the information indicated on the traffic sign recognized by the camera by comparing the map data with the sensing information.
5 . The automatic driving device according to claim 4 , wherein the information indicated on the traffic sign recognized by the camera includes information of a speed limit indicated on a speed sign, and the computer readable code further causes the at least one processor to generate the control plan to perform the predetermined emergency action when information of a speed sign that has been registered in the map data does not match the information indicated on the speed sign recognized by the camera by comparing the map data with the sensing information.
6 . The automatic driving device according to claim 1 , wherein the sensing information includes information of a road, and the computer readable code further causes the at least one processor to generate the control plan to perform the predetermined emergency action when information of a road that has been registered in the map data does not match the information of the road detected by the surrounding sensor.
7 . The automatic driving device according to claim 1 , wherein the computer readable code further causes the at least one processor to generate the control plan to perform the predetermined emergency action when a traveling position of another vehicle detected by the surrounding sensor is outside a road range indicated by the map data.
8 . The automatic driving device according to claim 1 , wherein the predetermined emergency action includes at least one of (i) notifying an occupant that autonomous driving may be interrupted, (ii) notifying the occupant that a mismatch between the map data and the real world has been detected, (iii) suppressing a traveling speed, and (iv) increasing an inter-vehicle distance from a preceding vehicle.
9 . The automatic driving device according to claim 1 , wherein the predetermined emergency action includes, after notifying an occupant, initiating one or more of increasing an inter-vehicle distance from a preceding vehicle, suppressing a traveling speed, requesting takeover of driving operation, and decelerating for an emergency stop.
10 . The automatic driving device according to claim 1 , wherein the computer readable code further causes the at least one processor to: acquire the map data in accordance with a position of the vehicle from a map server; store the map data on the at least one memory; manage a storing status of the map data on the at least one memory; generate the control plan using the map data stored on the at least one memory; and change the control plan depending on the storing status of the map data, wherein the computer readable code further causes the at least one processor to: determine whether the map data stored on the at least one memory is defective; determine that the map data is defective when the map data is not consistent with a real world; and generate the control plan to perform the predetermined emergency action upon determining that the map data is defective.
11 . The automatic driving device according to claim 2 , wherein the landmark includes at least one of a traffic sign, a guardrail, a traffic light, a curbstone, a utility pole, and a commercial sign.
12 . A vehicle control method for autonomously driving a vehicle using map data, comprising acquiring, from a map server, the map data in accordance with a position of the vehicle; determining whether the map data is consistent with a real world based on sensing information provided from a surrounding monitoring sensor mounted on the vehicle; and generating a control plan to perform a predetermined emergency action upon determining that the map data is not consistent with the real world.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS The present application is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 18/061,138 filed on Dec. 2, 2022, which is a continuation application of International Patent Application No. PCT/JP2021/025514 filed on Jul. 6, 2021, which designated the U.S. and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2020-117903 filed on Jul. 8, 2020. The entire disclosures of all of the above applications are incorporated herein by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to an automatic driving device that generates a control plan for an automatic driving vehicle using map data. BACKGROUND An automatic driving device that generates, in automatic driving, a travel plan, in other words, a control plan of a vehicle using a mathematical formula model called a Responsibility Sensitive Safety (RSS) model and map data has been proposed. A planner, which is a functional block for formulating the control plan in the RSS model, calculates a potential accident liability value for each of a plurality of control plans using the map data, and adopts the control plan in which the potential accident liability value falls within an allowable range. The potential accident liability value is a parameter that indicates the degree of responsibility of the subject vehicle when an accident occurs between the subject vehicle and a surrounding vehicle existing around the subject vehicle. The potential accident liability value is a value that takes into account whether or not inter-vehicle distance between the subject vehicle and the surrounding vehicle is shorter than a safe distance determined based on road structure or the like. SUMMARY The present disclosure provides an automatic driving device generates a control plan for autonomously driving a vehicle using map data. The automatic driving device determines an acquisition status of the map data. The automatic driving device generates the control plan using the map data. The automatic driving device changes the control plan according to the acquisition status of the map data. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS The features and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent from the following detailed description made with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings: FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing an overall configuration of an automatic driving system. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of an in-vehicle system. FIGS. 3A to 3C are diagrams each showing an example of an icon image indicating an acquisition status of map data. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of an automatic driving device 20. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining operation of a map management unit. FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining operation of a consistency determination unit. FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the consistency determination unit. FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining a map non-acquisition handling process. FIG. 9 is a flowchart for explaining an inconsistency handling process. FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining operation of a control planning unit when a concept of degree of urgency is applied. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a modification of contents of emergency action for each degree of urgency. FIG. 12 is a flowchart for explaining emergency action termination process. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a processing flow utilizing stored map data. FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of a processing flow for re-downloading map data on a condition that the stored map data and the real world are inconsistent. FIG. 15 is a diagram showing another example of a processing flow utilizing the stored map data. FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example of a processing flow for changing a set value of an upper limit speed used in a control plan depending on whether or not the map data used in the control plan is stored map data. FIG. 17 is a diagram showing an example of a processing flow for notifying a determination result of consistency between map data and the real world. FIG. 18 is a diagram showing an example of a processing flow for changing control according to distance at which an instant map can be generated. FIG. 19 is a diagram showing an example of a processing flow for executing a handover request based on approaching a capturing prohibited area or distribution prohibited area. DETAILED DESCRIPTION For example, the RSS model assumes that the vehicle holds the map data. When the vehicle holds the latest map data for all areas, it is less likely that the potential accident liability value cannot be calculated due to map deficiencies such as missing or deteriorated map data. However, it is difficult from the viewpoint of data capacity and communication frequency for the vehicle to keep map data of all areas in the latest state at all times. Due to such concern, it is assumed that the vehicle downloads and uses a partial map, which is a m