Method for determining a course of a traffic lane for a vehicle

US9360332B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG · DE

Inventors

• Matthias Strauss · Pfungstadt, DE
• Matthias Komar · Schallstadt, DE
• Dirk Waldbauer · Eppstein, DE
• Wolfgang Guenther · Munich, DE
• Stefan Lueke · Bad Homburg vor der Höhe, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Aug 9, 2013
• Grant date: Jun 7, 2016
• Expiry date: Aug 9, 2033

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01S17/931
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

In a method for determining a course of a traffic lane for a vehicle (10), structures that demarcate a trafficable space are detected in image data from an image acquisition unit (2), and these structures are plotted on a surroundings map (20) that subdivides the surroundings of the vehicle into a two-dimensional grid (20a) of cells (21). The position of the vehicle in the grid of the surroundings map is determined and updated by odometric data. The distance and the direction of the vehicle (10) relative to those cells (21b) of the grid (20a) having structures that demarcate the pavement and/or the traffic lane are determined. Brightness transitions in the image data are detected and are plotted on the cells (21) of the grid (20a). The course of the traffic lane (22) is determined from the cells with the detected brightness transitions.