Lane marker recognition apparatus and lane marker recognition method used by said apparatus
A lane marker recognition apparatus which recognizes a lane marker based on a captured image of a road surface in the direction in which a vehicle is traveling, includes recognizing means for recognizing at least one left lane marker and at least one right lane marker captured in the image, and generating lane marker information indicative of the recognized lane markers; calculating means for calculating, based on the lane marker information, at least one type of control value for each potential running lane demarcated; first selecting means for selecting a control value of one of the running lanes that is to be indicated as information; generating means for generating information indicative of the selected control value; and second selecting means for, after the information has been generated, selecting the control value of the potential running lane that is closest to the control value indicated by the information.
1. A lane marker recognition apparatus which recognizes a lane marker based on an image captured in a direction in which a vehicle is traveling, comprising:
a recognizing device that recognizes one lane marker present on one of a left side and a right side of the vehicle and n lane markers present on the other of the left side and the right side of the vehicle, captured in the image, where n is an integer equal to or larger than two;
a calculating portion that obtains combinations of the one lane marker with each of the n lane markers, with regard to multiple lane markers recognized by the recognizing device, as first to nth running lanes in ascending order of distance between the lane markers, and calculating control values regarding the respective first to nth running lanes;
a first selecting portion which selects a predetermined running lane from among the second to nth running lanes as a selected running lane at a first timing;
and
a second selecting portion that selects a running lane that has a control value closest to the control value regarding the selected running lane, from among the first to nth running lanes, as a new selected running lane, at a second timing that differs from the first timing.
2. The lane marker recognition apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a processing portion that subjects the control values calculated by the calculating portion to a filtering process,
wherein the second selecting portion uses the control values subjected to the filtering process by the processing portion as the control values of the first to nth running lanes.
3. The lane marker recognition apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the processing portion uses a Kalman filter for the filtering process.
4. The lane marker recognition apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the processing portion uses a least squares method for the filtering process.
5. The lane marker recognition apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the processing portion uses a moving average for the filtering process.
6. The lane marker recognition apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the calculating portion calculates, for each of the running lanes, a lane width indicated by an interval in a width direction between left and right lane markers of each running lane as the control value.
7. The lane marker recognition apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the calculating portion calculates, for each of the running lanes, a distance from a center in a width direction between left and right lane markers of each running lane to a center of the vehicle in the width direction as the control value.
8. The lane marker recognition apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the calculating portion calculates, for each of the running lanes, a curvature radius of each running lane as the control value.
9. The lane marker recognition apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the calculating portion calculates, for each of the running lanes, a yaw angle of the vehicle with respect to a direction of each running lane as the control value.
10. The lane marker recognition apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the calculating portion calculates, for each of the running lanes, a pitch angle of the vehicle with respect to a road surface on which left and right lane markers of each running lane are drawn as the control value.
11. A lane marker recognition method executed by a lane marker recognition apparatus which recognizes a lane marker based on an image captured in a direction in which a vehicle is traveling, comprising:
recognizing one lane marker present on one of a left side and a right side of the vehicle and n lane markers present on the other of the left side and the right side of the vehicle, captured in the image, where n is an integer equal to or larger than two;
obtaining combinations of the one lane marker with each of the n lane markers, with regard to recognized multiple lane markers, as first to nth running lanes in ascending order of distance between the lane markers, and calculating control values indicating characteristics of the running lanes, regarding the first to nth running lanes;
selecting a predetermined running lane from among the second to nth running lanes as a selected running lane at a first timing;
and
selecting a running lane that has a control value closest to the control value regarding the selected running lane, from among the first to nth running lanes, as a new selected running lane, at a second timing that differs from the first timing.