The present invention relates to a method and system that enables taking a precautionary action in a vehicle, such as providing a warning to a vehicle driver about a potentially difficult or hazardous driving condition on the road network.
Advanced driver assistance systems (“ADAS”), including active safety and fuel economy systems, have been developed to improve the comfort, efficiency, safety, and overall satisfaction of driving. Examples of these advanced driver assistance systems include adaptive headlight aiming, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning and control, curve warning, speed limit notification, hazard warning, predictive cruise control, and adaptive shift control, as well as others. Some of these advanced driver assistance systems use a variety of sensor mechanisms in the vehicle to determine the current state of the vehicle and the current state of the roadway in front of the vehicle. These sensor mechanisms may include radar, infrared, ultrasonic and vision-oriented sensors, such as digital video cameras and lidar. Some advanced driver assistance systems also use digital map data. Digital map data can be used in advanced driver assistance systems to provide information about the road network, road geometry, road conditions and other items associated with the road and terrain around the vehicle. Digital map data is not affected by environmental conditions, such as fog, rain or snow. In addition, digital map data can provide useful information that cannot reliably be provided by cameras or radar, such as curvature, grade, bank, speed limits that are not indicated by signage, traffic and lane restrictions, etc. Further, digital map data can provide a predictive capability well beyond the range of other sensors or even beyond the driver's vision to determine the road ahead of the vehicle, around corners, over hills or beyond obstructions. Accordingly, digital map data can be a useful addition for some advanced driver assistance systems.
Although these kinds of systems provide useful features, there exists room for further improvements. For example, it would be useful to identify locations on the road network where a relatively high number of traffic accidents have occurred. However, statistics pertaining to accidents are maintained by various different administrative entities that use different formats, standards, reporting methods, reporting periods, etc. Accordingly, it is difficult to obtain consistent information about traffic accidents on roads in a large geographic region, such as the entire United States or Europe. Moreover, data indicating locations where a statistically large number of traffic accidents occur may not indicate the causes of the accidents or how accidents can be avoided.
Accordingly, it is an objective to provide a system that facilitates taking a precautionary action in a vehicle, such as providing a warning to a vehicle operator, when approaching a location where accidents may occur. text
The present invention is defined by the following claims, and nothing in this section should be taken as a limitation on those claims. By way of introduction, the preferred embodiments described below relate to
To address these and other objectives, the present invention comprises a feature that enables taking a precautionary action in a vehicle as the vehicle approaches an intersection located in or at the bottom of a hill. The precautionary action may be a warning message provided to the vehicle driver to alert the vehicle driver about the intersection so that the vehicle driver can pay extra attention. Alternatively, the precautionary action may be an actual modification of the operation or control of the vehicle, such as braking, accelerating, or maneuvering the vehicle, or activating a sensor. Alternatively, the precautionary action may be providing an input to an algorithm that also processes inputs from other sensors for taking such actions. In another alternative, the precautionary action may include a combination of any of these aforementioned actions.
According to another aspect, a database that represents the road network is used to determine locations where an intersection of roads is located at the bottom of a hill. Then, precautionary action data is added to the database to indicate a location at which a precautionary action is to be provided about the intersection of roads located at the bottom of a hill.
According to further aspects, a precautionary action system installed in a vehicle uses this database, or a database derived therefrom, in combination with a positioning system, to determine when the vehicle is at a location that corresponds to the location where a precautionary action should be taken. When the vehicle is at such a location, the precautionary action is taken, such as providing a warning to the vehicle operator, as the vehicle is approaching an intersection located at the bottom of a hill. Alternatively, the precautionary action may consist of an actual modification of the operation or control of the vehicle, such as braking, accelerating, or maneuvering the vehicle, or activating a sensor. Alternatively, the precautionary action may include providing an input to an algorithm that also processes inputs from other sensors for taking such actions. Alternatively, the precautionary action may be an adjustment of sensitivities of other ADAS applications such as increasing the control authority and sensitivity of a lane departure warning or control system to lane edge approach and violation. In another alternative, the precautionary action may include a combination of any of these aforementioned actions.
Further aspects and advantages of the invention are discussed below in conjunction with the preferred embodiments.
The process 100 uses a database 110 that contains data that represents the road network in a region. The region may be a country, such as the United States, Germany, France or Korea. Alternatively, the region may include several countries or an entire continent. According to another alternative, the region may include only a portion of a country, such as a state or several states or metropolitan areas.
The process 100 is performed by a map developer, such as NAVTEQ Corporation. Alternatively, the process 100 may be performed by another entity that has access to an editable version of a map database 110. For example, the process may be performed by a customer or licensee of NAVTEQ, such as a manufacturer of navigation systems or active safety systems, or by a traffic information services company or by a government office at any level.
The database 110 is in a format that can be edited. That is, new or updated information can be added to the database 110. Alternatively, the database 110 is in a format such that new information can be combined with the original data to form a new database that includes both the original data and new data. In one embodiment, the database is in an Oracle spatial format. Alternatively, the database may be in delivery format, such as GDF (Geographic Data File), SIF (Standard Interchange Format), or other formats, including proprietary formats.
As stated above, the database 110 contains data that represents the road network in the region. The database 110 contains information such as the locations (geographic coordinates, including altitude) of roads and intersections, road names, the three-dimensional shape of the roads including curvature, slope and bank, speed limits along roads, turn restrictions at intersections, addresses or address ranges along roads, the number of lanes each road has, lane width, lane markings, functional classes of roads, the locations of medians, and so on. The database may also contain information about other geographic features, such as bodies of water, parks, administrative areas (including municipal, state and country boundaries), and locations of points of interest, such as businesses, hospitals, police stations, and so on.
In
Referring back to Step 136, if the represented road segment is part of a hill, the process 100 proceeds to obtain the data that represent the successor road segments that connect to the segment's downhill node (Step 142). The altitude of the successor road segments is examined (Step 144). From an examination of location of the segment's downhill node, as well as the altitude information associated with the segment's successor segments, it is determined whether there exists an intersection at the bottom of a hill (similar to the intersection 20 shown in
Referring back to Step 150, if examination of the location of the segment's downhill node and the altitude information associated with the successor segments indicates that there is an intersection at the bottom of a hill, the process 100 adds precautionary action data 160 to the database 110 (Step 156). There may be a minimum threshold applied concerning altitude change or slope that constitutes the definition of a slope of sufficient magnitude to be considered a hazardous condition when associated with the intersection. This threshold may be different for different function class roads, surface types, urban or rural locations, or other conditions. The precautionary action data 160 indicates the presence of a feature in the road network where a precautionary action may be taken. After the precautionary action data 160 is added to the database 110, the process 100 proceeds to the step in which it is determined whether all the road segment records in the database have been examined (Step 138) and if there are more segment records to examine, the process 100 proceeds to get the next segment record (Step 130).
The process 100 ends when it is determined whether all the road segment records have been examined (Step 138).
It is noted that the process 100, above, performs a data mining function. The existence of the potentially difficult location, i.e., the intersection located at the bottom of a hill, is derived from data already collected and present in the database. It is noted that the process 100, above, evaluates multiple data items in the original database, to determine whether the condition exists, in this case, an intersection located at the bottom of a hill By evaluating these multiple data items, a determination is made whether these multiple data items describe the condition of interest. If these data items do describe the condition, a new data item, i.e., the precautionary action data, is added to the database.
The data record 200 shown in
Referring to
In
In the embodiment shown in
Another component of the precautionary action data 160 is the precautionary action location 160(2). The precautionary action location 160(2) indicates where along the represented road segment a precautionary action may be taken. The precautionary action location 160(2) data may include multiple entries. For example, the precautionary action location 160(2) may indicate where a warning may be provided to a vehicle driver to advise the driver about the upcoming condition, i.e., the intersection at a bottom of a hill. In the case of an intersection located at a bottom of a hill, the warning location 160(2) may indicate a distance (e.g., x meters) from the downhill intersection. The location 160(2) is determined based on an analysis of factors, such as the slope of the hill, the speed limit along the represented road segment, the road classification, and possibly other factors. These factors may be determined from other data contained in the database 110. According to one example, the location 160(2) may indicate that a warning should be provided at a location 400 meters along the road segment from the downhill intersection.
The precautionary action location 160(2) may also indicate where a vehicle control action should be taken, such as tightening the seatbelts, pre-loading or engaging the brakes, tightening sensitivities of lane departure warning systems or stability control systems, etc. This may be a different location from where the precautionary warning is provided and would be based on a different analysis of factors.
Another component of the precautionary action data 160 is direction data 160(3). The direction data 160(3) indicates the direction along the represented road segment where the precautionary action should be taken. In this case, the direction data 160(3) indicates the downhill direction. (Note that the database 110 may indicate a direction along a road segment as positive or negative based on the relative latitude and longitude of the road segment endpoints. Accordingly, the downhill direction may be indicated as positive or negative.)
Another component of the precautionary action data 160 is a reference 160(4). In this case, the reference 160(4) indicates the location of the intersection at the bottom of the hill. The reference 160(4) refers to the node record that represents the intersection at the bottom of the hill.
The precautionary action data 160 described in
The vehicle 300 includes systems 310. In this embodiment, the vehicle systems 310 include a positioning system 320. The positioning system 320 determines the position of the vehicle 300 on the road network. The positioning system 320 includes appropriate hardware and software to determine the position of the vehicle 300. For example, the positioning system may include hardware 322 that includes a GPS unit, an accelerometer, wheel speed sensors, etc. The positioning system 320 also includes a positioning application 324. The positioning application 324 is a software application that uses outputs from the positioning system hardware 322 and information from a map database 330. The positioning application 324 determines the position of the vehicle 300 with respect to the road network, including the location of the vehicle 300 along a road segment and a direction of travel of the vehicle along the road segment.
In one embodiment, the map database 330 is located in the vehicle. In an alternative embodiment, the map database 330 may be located remotely and accessed by the vehicle systems 310 using a wireless communication system. In yet another embodiment, part of the map database 330 may be located locally in the vehicle and part of the map database 330 may be located remotely.
The map database 330 is stored on a computer readable medium 334. The computer-readable medium may be implemented using any suitable technology. For example, the computer readable medium may be a DVD disk, a CD-ROM disk, a hard disk, flash memory, or any other medium, or a plurality of media.
The map database 330 includes data that represents the geographic region in which the vehicle 300 is being operated. The map database 330 may represent the same geographic region as the database 110 in
The map database 330 used by the vehicle systems 310 may be in a different format from the database 110 in
Included among the vehicle systems 310 in
Also included among the vehicle systems 310 is a precautionary action application 350. The precautionary action application 350 uses outputs from the positioning system 320 and data from the map database 330 to take precautionary actions, such as provide warnings to the vehicle operator. The precautionary action application 350 provides the warning to the vehicle operator via the user interface 354.
Next, the process 400 obtains data from the map database 300 that represents the geographic features (i.e., roads, intersections, etc.) at the current location of the vehicle and in the direction in which the vehicle is heading (Step 420). In one embodiment, an electronic horizon is used (Step 430). Building an electronic horizon and using it to provide warnings are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,405,128 and 6,735,515 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/400,151, the entire disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein. Using an electronic horizon and/or the inventions disclosed in these patents and pending patent application is optional and the disclosed process 400 is not limited to using the electronic horizon technology.
After obtaining data from the map database 300 that represents the geographic features at the current location of the vehicle and in the direction in which the vehicle is heading, the process 400 includes the step of examining the data to determine whether any precautionary action data (160 in
The precautionary action is not limited to warnings, but may also include other actions. For example, in the case of an intersection located at the bottom of a hill, vehicle systems 356, such as the brakes, engine or transmission, can be readied for a quick deceleration or stop. In addition, the seatbelts may be tightened or the airbags set to deploy. As explained above, to facilitate these kinds of actions, additional information may be added to the warning data 160 (in
Referring still to
Alternative with Dynamic Data
The process (400 in
Verification
The process (100 in
It is intended that the foregoing detailed description be regarded as illustrative rather than limiting and that it is understood that the following claims including all equivalents are intended to define the scope of the invention. text
This application is a continuation under 37 C.F.R. § 1.53(b) of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/684,703 filed Apr. 13, 2015 now U.S. Pat. No. 9,399,468, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, which is a continuation under 37 C.F.R. § 1.53(b) of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/952,815 filed Jul. 29, 2013 now U.S. Pat. No. 9,035,804, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, which is a continuation under 37 C.F.R. § 1.53(b) of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/200,562 filed Sep. 26, 2011 now U.S. Pat. No. 8,531,318, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, which is a divisional of Ser. No. 12/156,277, filed on May 30, 2008, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,466,810, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein. The present patent application is related to patent application Ser. No. 12/156,264, filed on May 30, 2008, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,134,133, entitled “DATA MINING TO IDENTIFY LOCATIONS OF POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS CONDITIONS FOR VEHICLE OPERATION AND USE THEREOF,” the entire disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein.
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Child | 15191162 | US | |
Parent | 13952815 | Jul 2013 | US |
Child | 14684703 | US | |
Parent | 13200562 | Sep 2011 | US |
Child | 13952815 | US |