METHOD FOR OPERATING A HEADLIGHT SYSTEM OF A MOTOR VEHICLE

Abstract

A method for operating a headlight system of a motor vehicle, which during operation, illuminates an overall illumination area in the area surrounding the motor vehicle. At least two sensors are provided which detect objects in different associated sensor regions, the sensor regions of the sensors overlapping in an overlap region within the overall illumination area. The data of the sensors are fused to ascertain the existence of an object in the overlap region. Upon confirmation of the existence of the object, a zone in the overall illumination area in which the object is located is selectively excluded from illumination. A motor vehicle having a headlight system operated in this manner is also described.

Claims

1-10. (canceled)

11. A method for operating a headlight system of a motor vehicle, the method comprising the following steps: illuminating, by the headlight system, an overall illumination area in an area surrounding the motor vehicle; sensing, by each of at least two sensors, an associated sensor region in the area surrounding the motor vehicle, at least two of the sensors sensing sensor regions differing from each other, which overlap in an overlap region in the overall illumination area; fusing, upon detection of an object in the overlap region, sensor data of the sensors associated with the overlap region, and confirming existence of the object in the overall illumination area from the fused sensor data; in response to the confirmation of the existence of the object, selectively blocking out, by the headlight system, a zone in the overall illumination area in which the object is located.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the existence of the object in the overlap region is confirmed when both associated sensors detect the object in the overlap region and detected objects are in closer proximity to each other than a threshold value.

13. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein when an object in the overlap region is detected by only one of the associated sensors, a quality of the sensors is taken into account, and the existence of the object is confirmed when a sensor of the associated sensors having a higher quality detects the object.

14. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein upon detecting an object outside of the at least one overlap region, the existence of the object is confirmed.

15. A motor vehicle, comprising: a headlight system which is configured in such a way that during operation, it selectively illuminates an overall illumination area in an area surrounding the motor vehicle; at least two sensors, each of which during operation detects objects in an associated sensor region in the area surrounding the motor vehicle, the sensor regions of at least two of the sensors differing from each other and overlapping in an overlap region in the overall illumination area; wherein the motor vehicle is configured to: illuminate, using the headlight system, the overall illumination area in the area surrounding the motor vehicle, fuse, upon detection of an object in the overlap region, sensor data of the sensors associated with the overlap region, and confirm existence of the object in the overall illumination area from the fused sensor data, in response to the confirmation of the existence of the object, selectively block out from the illumination, by the headlight system, a zone in the overall illumination area in which the object is located.

16. The motor vehicle as recited in claim 15, wherein the motor vehicle has an optical camera as a first sensor of the at least two sensors, which during operation, senses a front-end section of the motor vehicle forward in a direction of travel as a first sensor region.

17. The motor vehicle as recited in claim 16, wherein the motor vehicle has at least one second sensor of the at least two sensors, which during operation, senses a second sensor region at a side in the direction of travel and extending laterally beyond the overall illumination area counter to the direction of travel, and forms an overlap region with at least one other sensor.

18. The motor vehicle as recited in claim 17, wherein at least one of the at least one second sensors is a radar sensor.

19. The motor vehicle as recited in claim 17, wherein the motor vehicle has a third sensor differing from the first sensor, which during operation, senses a front-end section of the motor vehicle forward in the direction of travel as a third sensor region.

20. The motor vehicle as recited in claim 19, wherein the third sensor is a radar sensor.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0044] FIG. 1 shows a top view of a motor vehicle having sensors and a headlight system.

[0045] FIG. 2 shows a system architecture including the sensors and the headlight system.

[0046] FIG. 3 shows a top view of a traffic situation with the motor vehicle.

[0047] FIG. 4 shows a flowchart to clarify the method for operating the headlight system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

[0048] A motor vehicle 1, as shown by way of example in FIGS. 1 and 3, includes a headlight system 2 which is represented only in FIG. 2. Headlight system 2 illuminates a front outer area of motor vehicle 1 in direction of travel 3 of motor vehicle 1. In this context, headlight system 2 is capable of illuminating an area 4 in its entirety, which hereinafter is also referred to as overall illumination area 4 and is shown only in FIG. 3. In addition, headlight system 2 is able to selectively block out zones 5 within overall illumination area 4. In the exemplary embodiments shown, headlight system 2 has at least one matrix LED headlight 15 for this purpose (see FIG. 2).

[0049] Motor vehicle 1 may be of any type. Purely by way of example, motor vehicle 1 in the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 1 is a commercial vehicle 6, and in the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 3, is a passenger car 7.

[0050] To sense the area surrounding motor vehicle 1, motor vehicle 1 also has at least two sensors 8, each of which detects objects 10 in an associated sensor region 9, as can be gathered from FIGS. 1 and 3. Sensors 8 are represented only symbolically in FIGS. 1 and 3. In this case, at least two of the at least two sensors 8 have sensor regions 9 differing from each other, which overlap in an overlap region 11 in overall illumination area 4.

[0051] In the exemplary embodiments shown, motor vehicle 1 has an optical camera 12 as a first sensor 8a. During operation, first sensor 8a and thus camera 12 senses a front-end section of motor vehicle 1 forward in direction of travel 3 as associated sensor region 9a, which is also referred to hereinafter as first sensor region 9a. First sensor region 9a is also indicated with an associated angle a in FIG. 1. Motor vehicle 1 also has two further sensors 8b which detect objects 10 in a sensor region 9b at the side in direction of travel 3, also referred to hereinafter as second sensor region 9b. Second sensors 8b are disposed facing away from each other transversely to direction of travel 3. Respective second sensor 8b thus senses an associated second sensor region 9b at the side in direction of travel 3, which, as can be gathered from FIG. 3, advantageously extends laterally beyond overall illumination area 4 counter to direction of travel 3. Second sensor region 9b of respective second sensor 8b is indicated by angle β in FIG. 1. Respective second sensor 8b in the exemplary embodiments shown is a radar sensor 13. As can be gathered especially from FIG. 1, respective second sensor region 9b together with first sensor region 9a in this case forms a first overlap region 11a. As a result, in each case a first overlap region 11a is formed in the front left surrounding field and in the front right surrounding field. In the exemplary embodiments shown, motor vehicle 1 also has a third sensor 8c which differs from first sensor 8a and, like first sensor 8a, senses a front-end section of motor vehicle 1 forward in direction of travel 3 as associated sensor region 9c, which is also referred to hereinafter as third sensor region 9c. Third sensor region 9c is identified by angle γ in FIG. 1. As can also be gathered especially from FIG. 1, third sensor region 9c in the exemplary embodiments shown includes first sensor region 9a and extends laterally beyond first sensor region 9a. That is, angle γ is larger than angle α. As a result, first sensor region 9a and third sensor region 9c form a second overlap region 11b. In addition, third sensor region 9c together with respective second sensor region 9b forms a third overlap region 11c. In other words, two third overlap regions 11c are provided. Third sensor 8c in the exemplary embodiments shown likewise takes the form of a radar sensor 13. However, third sensor 8c may also be a lidar sensor 14.

[0052] FIG. 2 shows a system architecture of motor vehicle 1 having sensors 8 and headlight system 2. As can be gathered from FIG. 2, the data of sensors 8, also referred to hereinafter as sensor data, are collected and evaluated together. For this purpose, respective sensor 8 is connected to a bus system B. Bus system B is also connected to headlight system 2. As can be gathered from FIG. 2, in addition to the at least one headlight 15, headlight system 2 may include a control unit 16. The sensor data may be collected and evaluated in one of sensors 8, e.g., in optical camera 12. Likewise for this purpose, as indicated by a dashed line in FIG. 2, an evaluation unit 17 upstream of control unit 16 may be connected to bus system B.

[0053] The collected sensor data are evaluated by fusing the sensor data and evaluating them together in order to recognize objects 10 in overall illumination area 4 and to ascertain associated zones 5 for objects 10, as explained in the following with the aid of FIG. 4. As a result, headlight system 2, particularly with the aid of control unit 16, blocks out corresponding zones 5 in overall illumination area 4 in such a way that object 10 in associated zone 5 is glare-free, thus, is not blinded or the blinding is at least reduced.

[0054] A corresponding driving situation is illustrated in FIG. 3, object 10 being another vehicle 18. In this case, for the sake of a better overview, sensors 8 are not shown in FIG. 3, and only associated sensor regions 9 and overlap regions 11 are shown.

[0055] FIG. 4 shows a flowchart to clarify the method for operating headlight system 2. Accordingly, first of all the sensor data of all sensors 8, particularly the raw data, are collected and evaluated together. Then, particularly if a new object 10 was detected, the method is continued as follows. First of all, in a step 19, it is checked whether object 10 is in one of overlap regions 11, this step 19 also being referred to hereinafter as overlap-check step 19. If object 10 was detected in one of overlap regions 11, thus, the result of overlap-check step 19 is positive, with a step 20 it is checked whether the object was detected by both sensors 8 forming overlap region 11. This step 20 is also referred to hereinafter as correspondence step 20. If object 10 was detected by both associated sensors 8, thus, the result of correspondence step 20 is positive, then in a following step 21, the sensor data of associated sensors 8 are fused and compared to each other, this step 21 also being referred to hereinafter as fusion step 21. In fusion step 21, in addition, objects 10 ascertained by associated sensors 8 are compared, the existence of object 10 in associated overlap region 11 being confirmed if both associated sensors 8 detect object 10 and detected objects 10 are in closer proximity to each other than a threshold value. If the objects are closer to each other than the threshold value, in a following step 22, the existence of object 10 is confirmed. Step 22 is also referred to hereinafter as multi-sensor object step 22.

[0056] If the result in correspondence step 20 is negative, thus, object 10 was detected in one overlap region 11 and only by one of associated sensors 8, then in a following step 23, the quality of sensors 8 forming overlap region 11 is taken into account, this step 23 also being referred to hereinafter as quality-comparison step 23. In quality-comparison step 23, the qualities are compared in terms of whether sensor 8 having the higher quality has detected object 10. If this is the case, in a following step 24, the existence of object 10 is confirmed, this step 24 also being referred to hereinafter as single-sensor-object step 24. If sensor 8 having the lower quality has detected object 10, thus, the result of quality-comparison step 23 is negative, in a following step 25, the existence of object 10 is negated or rejected, or the existence of object 10 is assigned a low probability, this step 25 also being referred to hereinafter as rejection step 25.

[0057] As may also be gathered from FIG. 4, if an object 10 was detected outside of overlap regions 11, thus, the result of overlap-check step 19 is negative, in a step 26, the existence of object 10 is confirmed, this step 26 also being referred to hereinafter as single-sensor step 26.

[0058] The results of the confirmation or the rejection of detected objects 10 are subsequently collected as consolidated or fused object data in a step 27, which hereinafter is also referred to as collection step 27. That is, the results of multi-sensor-object step 22, single-sensor-object step 24, rejection step 25 and single-sensor step 26 are fed to collection step 27. In a step 28, an associated zone 5 in overall illumination area 4 is then ascertained for respective confirmed object 10, this step 28 also being referred to hereinafter as zone-ascertainment step 28. The result of zone-ascertainment step 28 is supplied to headlight system 2, particularly control unit 16, which subsequently blocks out corresponding zones 5.

[0059] A reliable and precise recognition of objects 10 and ascertainment of associated zones 5, and consequently an improved block-out of objects 10 in overall illumination area 4 is thus accomplished.

[0060] It goes without saying that the method described is carried out continuously, especially in order to continuously block out objects 10 moving in overall illumination area 4.