Vehicle controller

1. A vehicle controller, comprising:

a vehicle-mounted camera that captures an image in front of a vehicle;

a vehicle speed sensor that detects vehicle speed information;

a steering angle sensor that detects steering angle information;

a yaw rate sensor that detects yaw rate information; and

a processing unit that decides one vehicle control method from a plurality of vehicle control methods and controls an actuator with the decided vehicle control method,

wherein

the vehicle-mounted camera includes: an image acquisition section that acquires an image in front of the vehicle; a lane recognition section that recognizes a lane from the acquired image; a control parameter estimation section that estimates road curvature indicating a degree of curve of a road, a yaw angle indicating relative orientation between the vehicle and a driving lane, and a lateral position indicating a relative position therebetween; and an area-specific confidence calculation section that divides the image acquired into a plurality of areas on a basis of the acquired image and the recognized lane, calculates confidence for each divided area and outputs area-specific confidence information,

the processing unit includes a vehicle control section that decides a vehicle control method in accordance with the area-specific confidence information,

the vehicle control section of the processing unit decides a vehicle control method in accordance with the area-specific confidence information and at least one of the road curvature, the yaw angle and the lateral position,

the area-specific confidence calculation section includes:

an area determination section that divides the image into a far area and a near area on the basis of the lane recognized by the lane recognition section;

an area confidence calculation section that calculates confidence for each area divided by the area determination section on a basis of the image acquired and outputs the calculated confidence as the area-specific confidence information; and

an area confidence correction section that corrects the area-specific confidence information on a basis of external information input, and

when each of the far area and the near area has the area-specific confidence information of a predetermined threshold or more, the vehicle control section decides a vehicle control method in a curve control mode, and when the far area has the area-specific confidence information less than a predetermined threshold and the near area has the area-specific confidence information of a predetermined threshold or more, the vehicle control section decides a vehicle control method in a straight control mode.

2. The vehicle controller according to claim 1 , wherein

the external information used by the area confidence correction section comprises at least one of detected vehicle-speed information, acceleration information, steering-angle information, yaw rate information, obstacle information, map information and vehicle position information.

3. The vehicle controller according to claim 1 , wherein

when the area determination section divides the image into four areas of left near, left far, right near and right far of a vehicle driving lane, and when a near area including the left near or the right near has the area-specific confidence information of a predetermined near threshold or more and when a far area including the left far or the right far has the area-specific confidence information of a predetermined far threshold or more, the vehicle control section of the processing unit calculates a target path using estimated curvature of the recognized lane and decides a vehicle control method in a curve control mode performing vehicle control along the calculated target path.

4. The vehicle controller according to claim 1 , wherein

when the area determination section divides the image into four areas of left near, left far, right near and right far of a vehicle driving lane, and when a near area including the left near or the right near has the area-specific confidence information of a predetermined near threshold or more and when a far area including the left far or the right far has the area-specific confidence information less than a predetermined far threshold, the vehicle control section of the processing unit calculates an intra-lane target path assuming a straight line and decides a vehicle control method in a straight control mode performing vehicle control along the calculated intra-lane target path.

5. The vehicle controller according to claim 1 , wherein

when the area determination section divides the image into four areas of left near, left far, right near and right far of a vehicle driving lane, and when a near area including the left near or the right near has the area-specific confidence information less than a predetermined first near threshold and a second near threshold or more and when a far area including the left far or the right far has the area-specific confidence information less than a predetermined far threshold, the vehicle control section of the processing unit decides a vehicle control method in a warning mode displaying departure warning.

6. The vehicle controller according to claim 1 , wherein

when the area determination section divides the image into four areas of left near, left far, right near and right far of a vehicle driving lane, and when a near area including the left near or the right near has the area-specific confidence information less than a predetermined first near threshold and less than a second near threshold and when a far area including the left far or the right far has the area-specific confidence information less than a predetermined far threshold, the vehicle control section of the processing unit decides a vehicle control method in a stop mode where a signal is output to stop vehicle control using a lane recognition result or waning.