Daimler Chrysler Ag

Daimler Ag

Uwe Regensburger

Carsten Knoeppel

Ingo Dudeck

Reinhold Schoeb

Rainer Moebus

Stefan Hahn

Avshalom Suissa

Volker Oltmann

Uwe Franke

Bernd Woltermann

Zoltan Zomotor

Frank-Werner Mohn

Gerhard Noecker

Bernd Danner

Axel Gern

Reinhard Janssen

Thomas Stahs

Markus Raab

Helmut Schittenhelm

Alexander Schanz

Erwin Schmid

Werner Bernhard

Edgar Bihler

Uli Kolbe

Rainer Möbus

Reinhold Schöb

In a method and apparatus for assisting the driver of a vehicle in maintaining a traffic lane limited by traffic lane markings, the traffic lane markings and the position of the vehicle in the traffic lane are detected. Upon an actual or impending change of traffic lanes a lane change warning is output to the driver of the vehicle in a first step, and a course correcting actuating intervention counteracting the lane change is carried out in a second step. The actuating intervention is carried out only if the change of traffic lanes is impermissible due to the type of traffic lane marking to be crossed during the traffic lane change, or if the lane change is not possible without danger due to collision-endangering objects present on the side of the traffic lane.

Driver assistance system and method for supporting the driver of a vehicle in maintaining a traffic lane limited by traffic lane markings

The opening of vehicle doors often leads to collisions with stationary obstacles that are not visible to the occupants or with moving obstacles that approach the vehicle without being noticed. Thus to avoid collisions when vehicle doors are opened, the aim of the invention is to take any modifications to the environmental situation of the vehicle as a result of a movement of the vehicle and the detected objects into consideration. This allows a collision of the vehicle doors with the objects to be reliably avoided. To achieve this, in a first step the probable trajectory of a vehicle is determined. In an additional step, the objects in the vicinity of the vehicle are detected and probable trajectories of said detected objects are determined. Respective probability ranges are then defined both for the vehicle and the pivoting zone of the vehicle doors and for the detected objects. The probability ranges of the pivoting zones of the vehicle doors are respectively compared with the individual probability ranges of the objects, in order to determine whether they overlap. If an overlap is identified, a response; signal that indicates the risk of a collision is generated.

Process and device for avoiding collision while opening vehicle doors

A vehicle-useful, high-resolution 3D-detection of the environment of a street vehicle with environment scanning sensors is not possible today. Depending on application the first commercially available vehicle integrated systems may be a comprise between resolution of the sensors and size of the sampled area. With the inventive two dimensional distance resolution sensor device it becomes possible, in contrast to those which are known, to produce a system which, installed in a street vehicle, detects and preferably processes complex dynamics scenarios such for example street traffic, from the prospective of the active dynamic moving vehicle. Therein a three dimensional image of the environment is produced using a distance sensor, which produces a two dimensional distance profile (depth profile), and on the other hand, using a data processing and a storage unit, which process and store sequential distance profiles and sequence a series of distance profiles into the three dimensional image of the environment.

Three-dimensional perception of environment

The invention relates to a method of detecting objects within a wide range of a road vehicle. According to said method, the distance between a moving or stationary vehicle and one or more objects is calculated by distance-based image segmentation using stereoscopic image processing techniques and the properties of the detected objects are determined by object recognition in the segmented image areas. Image areas of three-dimensional and/or flat objects are detected and said three-dimensional and/or flat objects are detected by clustering 3D pixels according to defined criteria. Three-dimensional objects are determined by features with similar distance values and flat objects by features with similar height values.

Method of detecting objects within a wide range of a road vehicle

A process for moving a motor vehicle into a target position includes placing the motor vehicle in a starting position near the target position; following a first driver-side activation, scanning the environment of the motor vehicle continuously at least for detection of the target position, and determining continuously the current motor vehicle position; determining control data for moving the motor vehicle into the target position with the aid of the determined environment and position information; and after a second driver-side activation, delivering control data-dependent control commands to at least one of a drive train, a brake system and a steering system of the motor vehicle, thus driving the motor vehicle driver-independently into the target position.

Process and device for moving a motor vehicle into a target position

A vehicle guidance system for assisting a driving lane change includes an object detection unit for detecting objects in a laterally adjacent rearward side space area of the vehicle. An analysis unit receives signals from the object detection unit and determines whether an object is situated in a dead angle section (blind spot) of the monitored rearward side space, or whether any such object in a section of the monitored rearward side space which is rearward beyond a dead angle section is moving forward at a higher speed than the system vehicle. If so, and if, in addition, it detects at the same time a lane change request pertaining to the corresponding side area, it activates a warning indicating unit for emitting a warning signal. According to the invention, a position detection device is provided which determines path data of the obstacle vehicle and the road geometry data, as well as the position of the system vehicle on the road. When the object detection unit detects an obstacle vehicle which is following in the rearward side space, corresponding to the covered distance recorded by the position detection device and the road geometry, a position assignment of the vehicle which is following is determined relative to the road.

Guidance system for assisting lane change of a motor vehicle

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Ostfildern, Germany

Uwe Regensburger