JP2000111644A - Vehicle detection device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] (with correction) [PROBLEMS] A vehicle detection device configured to detect a running vehicle or a stopped vehicle so as to be able to track the vehicle even if environmental conditions such as bad weather or nighttime change. Get the device. SOLUTION: Environment information such as visibility information 19 and weather information 20 from the outside is input to the millimeter wave radar device and detection information output from an infrared image sensor 17, and the detection information with the highest detection rate is obtained. Detection information selection device 8 for selection
By performing tracking based on the selected detection information, an event such as an abnormal running or a stopped vehicle is reliably detected.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle and a stationary vehicle installed on a roadside or on a road. The present invention relates to radio waves reflected from the vehicle and infrared and visible light emitted from the vehicle. A vehicle tracking device that uses multiple vehicle observation devices that obtain information about the vehicle by detecting and analyzing the vehicle, estimates the vehicle based on the information from the multiple vehicle observation devices, calculates the tracking parameters, and performs tracking The present invention relates to a vehicle detection device comprising:

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Road traffic by car greatly contributes to socio-economic development and plays an important role in today's social system. However, on the other hand, the number of traffic accidents has not decreased, and the annual number of fatalities has remained at more than 10,000. In addition, traffic congestion has become even more serious, and serious problems have recently emerged in terms of safety and transportation efficiency, such as very severe actual traffic conditions in recent years, and solutions to these problems are strongly demanded. Against the background of these social demands, the interest in safe driving of automobiles has been increasing very much in recent years, and active promotion of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) for safe driving support has been attempted. I have. Within this intelligent transportation system,
The AHS (Advanced Cruise Assist Highway Systems) driving support road system senses obstacles in front and the status of running vehicles using sensors installed as road infrastructure facilities. By providing control support services such as safe inter-vehicle maintenance and autonomous driving services, we can improve safety, improve efficiency,
Development is being promoted to improve the environment. Regarding the above-mentioned sensors, it is necessary to reliably detect the state of the traveling vehicle and obstacles regardless of day or night and in all weather, and it may be necessary to use a plurality of sensors. For a conventional vehicle detection device using a plurality of vehicle observation devices, for example, 4t
h World Congress on ITS Oct 1997 `` COLLISION AVOIDA
NCE SYSTEM BASED ON A MULTISENSOR SET-UP ”and other vehicle detection devices have been announced. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a conventional vehicle detection device, and FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of the conventional vehicle detection device.

As shown in FIG. 6, a conventional vehicle detecting device includes a plurality of tracked vehicles T1, T2,... And a structure around a road by first and second vehicle observation devices 1 and 2. Detect clutter such as. Reference numeral 6 denotes a detection coverage area of the first vehicle observation device 1, and reference numeral 7 denotes a detection coverage area of the second vehicle observation device 2. 3 and 4 are the above vehicle observation devices 1 and 2
Are first and second vehicle tracking devices provided in correspondence with the first and second vehicle tracking devices. Reference numeral 5 denotes a tracking specification correlation device that receives the vehicle tracking results of the vehicle tracking devices 3 and 4 and performs a correlation process on the vehicle tracking results. FIG. 7 is a block diagram of what is shown in FIG.

[0004]

In the conventional apparatus as described above, the tracking specification correlator 5 uses the vehicle tracking device 3
It has been determined whether all combinations of the vehicle tracking result input from the vehicle tracking result and the vehicle tracking result input from the vehicle tracking device are obtained from the same vehicle.
Therefore, it depends on the vehicle tracking results of the vehicle tracking devices 3 and 4 provided corresponding to the vehicle observation devices 1 and 2, that is, performances such as observation accuracy, resolution, detection probability, and erroneous detection. It is affected by the bad vehicle tracking result. Therefore, the vehicle may be affected by a vehicle observation device having a low detection rate due to bad weather or the like, which may cause loss of sight.

The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and includes visibility information, weather information,
By providing environment information such as time information and selecting a target information with the highest detection rate for environment information, a detection information selection device is provided, so that the target can be reliably tracked even in bad weather. A vehicle detection device is proposed.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a vehicle detection device according to a first aspect of the present invention, as a first target observation device, emits radio waves to a target and reflects the radio waves from the target. A millimeter wave radar device comprising an antenna transmitting / receiving unit for receiving waves and a radar signal processing unit, and an infrared camera comprising an infrared camera for receiving infrared radiation radiated from the target and an image processing unit as a second target observation device Using an image sensor, provided a detection information selection device for inputting environmental information such as visibility information from the outside, weather information, and selecting target information having the highest detection rate for the environmental information, the selected detection information and A target tracking device that calculates and tracks the tracking parameters of the tracking target based on past tracking parameters of the tracking target, and an event determination device that determines an event such as an abnormal running or a stopped vehicle based on the tracking parameters. It is obtained so as to constitute between.

Further, a vehicle detecting device according to a second aspect of the present invention includes:
The second target observation device is configured by a visible image sensor including a visible camera and an image processing unit.

[0008] Further, a vehicle detecting device according to a third aspect of the present invention includes:
The first target observation device is an infrared image sensor composed of an infrared camera and an image processing unit, and the second target observation device is composed of a visible camera and a visible image sensor composed of an image processing unit. It is.

Further, a vehicle detecting device according to a fourth aspect of the present invention includes:
The first target observation device is a millimeter wave radar device including an antenna transmission / reception unit and a radar signal processing unit;
Is an infrared image sensor composed of an infrared camera and an image processing unit, and is constituted by adding a visible camera and a visible image sensor composed of an image processing unit as a third target observation device. It is.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS First Embodiment FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a vehicle detection device according to a first embodiment, and FIG.
Is a block diagram. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a first vehicle observation device, and 2 denotes a second vehicle observation device, which is installed on a roadside.
12 is the detection coverage of the first vehicle observation device, 13 is the second
Is the detection coverage area of the vehicle observation device of FIG.
, T2, ... are detected. The first vehicle observation device 1 is a millimeter wave radar device, and includes an antenna 14, an antenna transmission / reception unit 15, and a radar signal processing unit 16.
Further, the second vehicle observation device 2 is an infrared image sensor, and includes an infrared camera 17 and an image processing unit 18. The roadside processing device 11 receives environmental information such as visibility information 19 or weather information 20 from the outside, and outputs the vehicle output from the first and second vehicle observation devices 1 and 2 having the highest detection rate with respect to the environmental information. A vehicle tracking device 9 for calculating and tracking the tracking parameters of the tracked vehicle based on the selected detection information and the past tracking parameters of the tracked vehicle; and The system includes an event determination device 10 that determines an event such as an abnormal traveling or a stopped vehicle from the specification traveling locus.

As the millimeter wave radar device used for the first vehicle observation device 1, an FM-CW system, a pulse system, an SS system, and the like can be considered. As an example, in the FM-CW method,
The transmission frequency is frequency-modulated and transmitted by the antenna transmission / reception unit 15 and the antenna 14, the reflected wave from the vehicle is received, and the beat frequency with the transmission signal is obtained. Radar signal processing unit 16
Then, the distance, speed, and azimuth angle from the beat frequency to the vehicle are respectively detected by performing a fast Fourier transform process or the like. The millimeter-wave radar device is less affected by weather such as snow and fog, and can detect a distance of up to several hundred meters. However, the azimuth angle resolution has disadvantages depending on the beam width of the antenna, and a disadvantage that it is difficult to distinguish the size and the vehicle of the vehicle.

The infrared image sensor used in the second vehicle observation device 2 receives infrared rays emitted from the vehicle by the infrared camera 17. The image processing unit 18 detects the size, speed, and position of the vehicle by a vehicle edge extraction method or a background difference method of detecting a change area from a difference from a background image acquired in advance as a vehicle extraction method. The infrared image sensor has better azimuth angle resolution because it has more pixels than the millimeter wave radar device. Further, the infrared image sensor has excellent detection performance at night. Further, since a wide viewing angle can be obtained, it is possible to perform detection from a position immediately near the installation position. However, compared to the millimeter wave radar device, it has disadvantages in that the influence of the weather such as snow and fog is large and in the accuracy of distance and speed.

With this configuration, tracking can be performed in which information having a high detection rate of each vehicle observation device is reflected in accordance with the environment.

Second Embodiment FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a vehicle detection device according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the first vehicle observation device 1 is a millimeter-wave radar device, and the second vehicle observation device 2 is a visible image sensor, and includes a visible camera 22 and an image processing unit 23.

The operation is the same as in the first embodiment. The visible image sensor has more pixels than the infrared image sensor and has better azimuth angle resolution. But,
Compared to the infrared image sensor, it has disadvantages such as nighttime without illumination, a large change in brightness, and being affected by halation of the light. Therefore, it is necessary to select detection information based on time information.

Third Embodiment FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a vehicle detection device according to a third embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, an infrared image sensor is used as the first vehicle observation device 1 and a visible image sensor is used as the second vehicle observation device 2. Also in this case, it is necessary to select detection information based on time information.

Fourth Embodiment FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of a vehicle detection device according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a millimeter wave radar device is used as a first vehicle observation device 1, an infrared image sensor is used as a second vehicle observation device 2, and a third vehicle observation device 24 is used.
A visible image sensor is used.

[0018]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the vehicle observation device is composed of a millimeter wave radar device and an infrared image sensor, and inputs environmental information such as visibility information and weather information from the outside, and performs most of the environmental information. A vehicle tracking device that is provided with a detection information selection device that selects information of a vehicle having a high detection rate and calculates and tracks the tracking parameters of the tracked vehicle based on the selected detection information and the past tracking parameters of the tracked vehicle. By using an event determination device that determines an event such as an abnormal running or a stopped vehicle based on the tracking specifications, the detection information of each vehicle observation device can be selected according to environmental conditions. Regardless of bad weather such as fog and snowstorm, the vehicle can be reliably tracked.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the vehicle observation device is constituted by the millimeter wave radar device and the visible image sensor, so that the vehicle can be reliably tracked even in bad weather such as fog or snowstorm. There is.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the vehicle observation device is constituted by the infrared image sensor and the visible image sensor, so that the detection of the vehicle size and the angle measurement accuracy are excellent regardless of day and night. There is an effect that the tracking accuracy can be reflected by using the information.

According to the fourth aspect of the invention, the vehicle observation device is constituted by the millimeter wave radar device, the infrared image sensor and the visible image sensor, so that the vehicle can be reliably tracked regardless of day or night under all weather conditions. There is an effect that can be.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a first embodiment of a vehicle detection device according to the present invention;
FIG.

FIG. 2 is a first embodiment of a vehicle detection device according to the present invention;
FIG.

FIG. 3 is a second embodiment of the vehicle detection device according to the present invention;
FIG.

FIG. 4 is a third embodiment of the vehicle detection device according to the present invention;
FIG.

FIG. 5 is a fourth embodiment of the vehicle detection device according to the present invention;
FIG.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a conventional vehicle detection device.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of a conventional vehicle detection device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 first vehicle observation device, 2 second vehicle observation device, 3
First vehicle tracking device, 4 second vehicle tracking device, 5
Tracking specification correlation device, 6 Detection coverage of first vehicle observation device, 7 Detection coverage of second vehicle observation device, 8 Detection information selection device, 9 Vehicle tracking device, 10 Event determination device, 1
1 roadside device, 12 detection coverage of the first vehicle observation device,
13 Detection coverage of the second vehicle observation device, 14 antenna, 15 antenna transmission / reception unit, 16 radar signal processing unit, 17 infrared camera, 18 image processing unit, 19 visibility information, 20 weather information, 21 time information, 22 visible camera , 23 Image processing unit, 24 Third vehicle observation device, T1 First tracked vehicle, T2 Second tracked vehicle.

Claims (4)

[Claims] An antenna transmitting and receiving unit for irradiating a plurality of vehicles traveling on a road with radio waves and receiving a reflected wave from a target, and a speed of the vehicle based on an output from the antenna transmitting and receiving unit and a vehicle from the antenna transmitting and receiving unit A first vehicle observation device comprising a radar signal processing unit for detecting a position of the vehicle, an infrared camera for receiving infrared rays emitted from the vehicle, and a size and a speed of the vehicle based on an output from the infrared camera. A second vehicle observation device including an image processing unit that detects a position from the infrared camera to the vehicle;
A detection information selection device that inputs visibility information or weather information from the outside and selects an output from the vehicle observation device having the highest detection rate for the information, and a selected output from the detection information selection device A vehicle tracking device that performs tracking by the vehicle tracking device to detect the vehicle, and an event determination device that determines an event such as abnormal running of the vehicle or a stopped vehicle based on an output from the vehicle tracking device. . 2. A first vehicle observation device comprising an antenna transmitting / receiving unit and a radar signal processing unit, a visible camera receiving visible light reflected from the vehicle, and a size of the vehicle based on an output from the visible camera. 2. The vehicle detection device according to claim 1, further comprising a second vehicle observation device including a speed and an image processing unit that detects a position from the visible camera to the vehicle. 3. A first vehicle observation device comprising an infrared camera and an image processing unit, and a second vehicle observation device comprising a visible camera and an image processing unit. The vehicle detection device according to claim 1. 4. A first vehicle observation device comprising an antenna transmission / reception unit and a radar signal processing unit, a second vehicle observation device comprising an infrared camera and an image processing unit, a visible camera and image processing The vehicle detection device according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle detection device includes a third vehicle observation device that includes a unit.