Vehicle parking aid system

Details Vehicle parking aid system Vehicle parking aid system

1999-10-13

2001-12-04

Crosland, Donnie L. (Department: 2632)

Communications: electrical

Land vehicle alarms or indicators

Of relative distance from an obstacle

C340S436000, C340S903000, C340S932200, C180S167000, C180S199000, C367S091000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06326887

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to vehicles in general, and more particularly to a parking aid system for a motor vehicle.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
There are already known various constructions of parking aid systems of the kind here under consideration. One example of such a system is currently being offered by the assignee hereof under the designation Parkpilot System. A significant use of such systems is to facilitate the drive's maneuvering of the vehicle in hard to survey and tight traffic conditions, especially those attendant to parking, in that the driver is warned of obstacles that are present in the vehicle's direction and/or path of movement and the distance of which from the vehicle is smaller than a predetermined limiting distance. Such traffic obstacles may be constituted by stationary objects such as, for instance, relatively low-lying street delimitation markers (curbs) or scattered objects which cannot be seen from the driver's seat of the motor vehicle because they are situated too close to the vehicle, but just as well by moving obstacles that newly appear in or penetrate into the vehicle movement path out of the vision field of the driver, such as, for instance, other users of the road, animals, etc.
The known Parkpilot System mentioned above detects the distance of such an obstacle from a delimiting edge or portion of the vehicle and generates an optical or an acoustic warning signal when it is detected that the measured distance is less than a first distance limit. The warning signal changes its characteristic each time the measured distance falls below another, smaller, distance limit, so that the driver is apprised by the nature of the issued signal of the extent of the danger of colliding with the object and is thus able to steer or operate the motor vehicle accordingly.
This system makes it possible for the careful driver to reliably avoid collisions while negotiating a relatively difficult traffic situation, such as parallel parking into a relatively small space. However, this known system also suffers from the significant disadvantage that a driver who does not expect that an obstacle could be present in or enter the path of movement of the vehicle and hence causes the vehicle to back up at a relatively high speed would not be able to bring the vehicle to a complete halt in the time left between the issuance of the warning signal and the collision of the vehicle with the obstacle.
The heretofore known parking aid systems of this kind could not take this consideration into account except by increasing the limit distance that triggers the issuance of the respective warning signal when the actually measured distance of the vehicle from the object falls below it. However, is not practical to employ this solution because any increase in this distance limit increases the danger of issuance of warning signals that are not warranted by the actually encountered situation. The real danger of the issuance of a substantial number of such unwarranted warning signals over time is that it may cause the driver to ignore even such signals that are warranted, thus making the system ineffective, even to the extent of losing its reason for existence altogether. In addition, it does not make much sense to increase the distance limit to such an extent that it reaches into the region of the prospective path of travel of the vehicle that the driver is able to clearly observe from his or her position within the vehicle.
From Lerner et al, Driver Backing Behavior Research: Implications for Backup Warning Devices, Transportation Research Board 76
th
Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., January 1997, there is known a system that warns the driver of a backwards moving vehicle when the time that is calculated by the system as remaining before the vehicle runs into an obstacle is less than a limit value of 1.5 to 2 seconds. In this system, however, there exists the problem that the speed of movement of the vehicle has to be measured with a high degree of precision in order to be able to obtain a meaningful forecast of the time remaining until collision with an obstacle, especially when driving at relatively low speeds which is typical for parking and similar motor vehicle maneuvering operations. The lower the movement speed, the smaller are the distances driven per time unit, and accordingly the higher is effect of the relative measuring error occurring in the measurement of vehicle speed. As the speed of movement of the vehicle approaches zero, the remaining time before collision approaches infinity, so that no warning is issued. Therefore, the warning system proposed by Lerner et al is ill suited for use while conducting parking maneuvers.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention to avoid the disadvantages of the prior art.
More particularly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a parking air system that does not possess the drawbacks of the known systems of this type.
Still another object of the present invention is to devise a system of the type here under consideration which is well suited for apprising the driver of the vehicle equipped with it in a timely fashion of the impending danger of collision between the vehicle and an obstacle, without increasing the incidence of unwarranted warnings to any meaningful extent.
It is yet another object of the present invention to design the above system in such a manner as to not require a high degree of precision in the measurement of the speed of movement of the vehicle.
A concomitant object of the present invention is so to construct the system of the above type as to be relatively simple in construction, inexpensive to manufacture, easy to use, and yet reliable in operation.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In keeping with the above objects and others which will become apparent hereafter, one feature of the present invention resides in a parking aid system for a vehicle which includes means for measuring the instantaneous distance of a predetermined portion of the vehicle from an obstacle located in the path of at least prospective movement of such a portion, and for generating at least one output signal having an instantaneous actual distance value indicative of such a measured distance and means for issuing warning signals. In accordance with the invention, this system further includes evaluating means that is interposed between the measuring means and the issuing means, being operative for dynamically determining, as a predetermined function of a movement condition of the vehicle, an instantaneous distance limit value representative of a far limit of a range in the path, comparing the actual distance value with the distance limit value, and activating the issuing means when the comparison reveals that the actual distance value is smaller than the distance limit value to alert the driver of the vehicle to the presence of the obstacle within the range. A particular advantage of the system as described so far is that the extent and/or distance of the range relative of the vehicle is dependent on the manner in which the vehicle is being driven at that time so that the warning signal is issued when the distance is larger when the vehicle is being driven less cautiously than when the driver is more circumspect in driving the vehicle, thus issuing the danger signal in a timely fashion in both instances.
Inasmuch as the evaluation means dynamically determines the distance limit value in dependence on the condition or manner in which the vehicle is being driven, it gives the driver, even at relatively higher speeds of movement of the vehicle, a sufficient amount of reaction time that is needed to reliably bring the vehicle to a complete stop before it encounters the obstacle. Since this system utilizes not the time but rather the distance as the criterion for establishing the distance limit value, it avoids the problems existing in the system of Lerner et al at relatively low speeds, and it render it possible for the

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