KR101877128B1 - Apparatus for controlling intensity of adaptive light emitting signal using dynamic control - Google Patents

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for controlling the amount of light of an adaptive light emitting signal using dynamic control for adjusting the light emission intensity of the light emitting portion according to driving information of a vehicle and surrounding environment information. To this end, the present invention provides a light emitting device comprising: a light emitting part for irradiating light with an arbitrary object; A light emission control driver for controlling the operation of the light emitting unit according to the light emission intensity information output from the control unit; A light receiving unit for detecting a distance to the object based on the light reflected by the light emitting unit and reflected by the object; Receiving information of at least one of traveling information transmitted from a vehicle control unit and environment information of a vehicle, comparing the received information with light intensity information of a previously stored light emitting unit to search corresponding light intensity information, And a vehicle controller for detecting driving information of the vehicle and environment information of the surroundings of the vehicle and outputting the information to the control unit. Accordingly, the present invention is advantageous in that the intensity of light emitted from the light source can be adjusted according to the driving information of the vehicle and surrounding environment information, thereby autonomously adjusting the intensity of the light source.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for controlling an amount of light of an adaptive emission signal using dynamic control,

The present invention relates to an apparatus for controlling an amount of light of an adaptive light emitting signal using dynamic control, and more particularly to an apparatus for controlling an amount of light of an adaptive light emitting apparatus using dynamic control for controlling the light emitting intensity of a light emitting unit To a light amount control apparatus of the present invention.

Recently, a system has been developed in which pedestrians in front of a vehicle are recognized, a warning is given to a driver when there is a risk of collision, or a braking control or a steering control is automatically performed to avoid a collision.

In the vehicle front object recognition system, a lidar sensor system capable of detecting a distance to a target, a direction, a speed, a temperature, and a material of the target in order to recognize a target around the vehicle is provided. And receive the information of the target through the reflected light reflected from the target.

Conventionally, such a laser sensor system has a single laser emitting unit and receives information of a target. However, in recent years, research on a laser sensor system that emits one or more lasers to accurately detect near and far targets of a vehicle Development is underway.

A TOF (Time of Flight) camera is used to increase the detection distance by using a plurality of laser emitting units as a light source.

The TOF camera detects an object using a phase delay generated in a process of reflecting light modulated at a predetermined frequency from an object and returns to the object. The TOF camera is used in a terrain surveying field or a posture control field of an object, Collision avoidance device and the like.

The TOF camera includes a light source that emits light having a predetermined center wavelength. The light source irradiates an object to be detected by modulating the emitted light with a predetermined frequency.

Then, the light irradiated on the object is reflected and returned to the TOF camera, and the TOF camera uses the built-in sensor to detect the returning light.

In this case, in the TOF camera, the distance to the object can be known by comparing the emitted light and the phase of the light reflected back from the object.

1 is a block diagram showing a general TOF camera. As shown in FIG. 1, a TOF camera includes a light receiving unit 10 for receiving a reflected signal reflected from an object 30, And a light emitting unit 20 for emitting light.

The light emitting unit 20 is capable of irradiating the modulated light beam to the object 30 by controlling each light emitting element 22 using the modulation signal provided from the light receiving unit 10, (30) and is condensed on the light receiving element (14) through the light receiving lens (12) of the light receiving section (10).

The light receiving element 14 converts the light energy into electrical energy and transmits it to the signal processing unit 16. The signal processing unit 16 determines the distance of the object by using the phase difference between the input signal and the modulated signal, The frequency modulating unit 18 modulates the frequency of light emitted from the light emitting unit 20 to the object 30 based on the distance to the calculated object 30. [

Meanwhile, the control method of the light emitting unit and the light receiving unit according to the related art is a method using a 3D motor type, a 2D scan type, a 3D flash, and a MEMS mirror.

In the 3D motor type, the light emitting unit is configured to be rotatable 360 degrees using a motor to output an irradiation signal to an object. However, since the structure of the light emitting unit using the motor is installed outside the upper part of the vehicle, there is a problem that a cosmetic limitation is generated.

In addition, in the 2D scanning method, a plurality of light sources are disposed so as to irradiate only a certain region (an irradiation angle), and an irradiation signal is output to an object in a long distance region and a short distance region, but high driving power is required.

In addition, the system using the above-mentioned mirror mirror has a problem that the light source of the light emitting unit is individually controlled and can be subjected to high-speed modulation, but precise measurement is difficult due to vibration occurring during running of the vehicle.

Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2015-0027543 entitled " Raidasensor System "

It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for controlling an amount of light of an adaptive emission signal using dynamic control for adjusting emission intensity of a light emitting portion according to driving information of a vehicle and surrounding environment information.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a light emitting device comprising: a light emitting unit that emits light with an arbitrary object; A light emission control driver for controlling the operation of the light emitting unit according to the light emission intensity information output from the control unit; A light receiving unit for detecting a distance to the object based on the light reflected by the light emitting unit and reflected by the object; Receiving information of at least one of traveling information transmitted from a vehicle control unit and environment information of a vehicle, comparing the received information with light intensity information of a previously stored light emitting unit to search corresponding light intensity information, A control unit for outputting information to the light emission control driver; And a vehicle controller for detecting driving information of the vehicle and environment information of the surroundings of the vehicle and outputting the detected information to the controller.

The controller may further include a dynamic decision controller for receiving the driving information transmitted from the vehicle control unit and the environment information about the vehicle, and searching the LUT for light intensity information of the light emitting unit corresponding to the received information; An LUT storing light emission intensity information of a light emitting unit previously set corresponding to driving information and environment information of the vehicle; And a light source controller for outputting the light emission intensity information retrieved from the dynamic determination controller to the light emission control driver.

In addition, the control unit according to the present invention includes a 3D operation unit for generating a 3D distance image using the distance information to the object output from the light-receiving unit.

The dynamic decision controller according to the present invention analyzes the driving mode including driving, parking, and stopping from the driving information of the vehicle, and searches the light emission intensity information corresponding to the analysis result.

Further, the environmental information according to the present invention is characterized by roughness, detection distance, traveling mode, rainfall, and snowfall information.

The present invention is advantageous in that the output intensity of the light source can be adjusted autonomously by adjusting the light emission intensity of the light emitting portion according to the running information of the vehicle and the surrounding environment information.

1 is a block diagram showing a general TOF camera;
2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an apparatus for controlling an amount of light of an adaptive emission signal using dynamic control according to the present invention.
3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a light receiving section of an apparatus for controlling the amount of light of an adaptive light emitting signal using dynamic control according to FIG.
4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a control unit of an apparatus for controlling an amount of light of an adaptive emission signal using dynamic control according to FIG.
FIG. 5 is a graph showing LUT information for controlling the light emission intensity of an adaptive light emission signal intensity control apparatus using dynamic control according to FIG. 2;

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of an apparatus for controlling an amount of light of an adaptive emission signal using dynamic control according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an apparatus for controlling an amount of light of an adaptive emission signal using dynamic control according to the present invention, FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a configuration of a light receiving unit of an apparatus for controlling an amount of light of an adaptive emission signal, And FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a control unit of the light amount control apparatus of the adaptive light emitting signal using the dynamic control according to FIG.

2 to 4, an apparatus 100 for controlling an amount of light of an adaptive emission signal using dynamic control according to the present invention includes a light emitting unit 110, a light emission control driver 120, a light receiving unit 130, A control unit 140, and a vehicle control unit 150.

The light emitting unit 110 includes a plurality of light sources 111 arranged in a one-dimensional array or a two-dimensional array of a matrix, and the light source 111 may be a long- (FOV) depending on the field of view.

The light source 111 includes at least one light emitting element such as a light emitting diode (LED) and a laser diode (LD).

The light emission control driver 120 controls the operation of the light emitting unit 110 and controls the light source 111 to be turned on and off according to an arbitrary pattern to control the operation voltage of the light source 111, So that the intensity can be controlled.

The light emission control driver 120 controls the operation voltage of the light source 111 according to the preset light emission intensity information and changes the set operation voltage according to the light emission intensity information output from the controller 140, 111 are controlled.

The light receiving unit 130 is configured to detect a distance to the object based on the light reflected by the object and reflected by the light emitting unit 110. The light receiving unit 130 includes a light receiving lens 131, A sensing current control section 133, and a signal processing section 134.

The light receiving lens 131 receives the light reflected by the object and returns.

The light receiving element 132 is formed of a photoelectric element such as an avalanche photo diode (APD) or a single photon avalanche diode (SPAD), and is preferably a high-resolution SPAD array Sensor.

The SPAD array sensor has a single-photon pixel array of arbitrary m * n pixels, and each pixel of the single photon pixel array detects particles of light using SPAD.

The sensing current controller 133 controls the reception sensitivity of the light received by the light receiving element 132 and controls the current detection between the light receiving element 132 and the signal processing unit 134 , So that reception sensitivity can be adjusted through calculation and amplification.

The sensing current controller 133 controls the receiving sensitivity of the light received by the light receiving element 132 according to the reception sensitivity control signal output from the controller 140.

The signal processing unit 134 calculates the phase difference between the light emitted from the light emitting unit 110 and the light received by the light receiving device 132 and calculates the distance to the object based on the calculated phase difference And detects and outputs distance information for each pixel.

The control unit 140 receives at least one of the driving information transmitted from the vehicle control unit 150 and the environment information of the surroundings of the vehicle and transmits the received information to the light emitting unit 110 and the light receiving unit 130 and outputs the retrieved light emission intensity information and reception sensitivity information to the light emission control driver 120 and the light receiver 130 so as to be autonomously adjusted. The dynamic determination controller 141 A LUT 142, a light source control unit 143, and a sensor control unit 144. The LUT 142,

The dynamic decision controller 141 receives the driving information transmitted from the vehicle controller 150 and the environment information of the surroundings of the vehicle and outputs light intensity information of the light emitting unit 110 corresponding to the received driving information and environment information, The reception sensitivity information of the light receiving unit 130 is retrieved from the LUT 142. [

That is, the dynamic decision controller 141 determines whether the vehicle is running, parked, or stopped from the running information received from the vehicle controller 150 that detects the running information of the vehicle to analyze the running mode, The light emission intensity information corresponding to the light emission intensity is retrieved from the LUT 142. [

The light emission intensity information according to the driving mode is controlled by the light emission intensity information set to increase the amount of light for remote light emission control for supporting an autocruise control for a long distance (for example, 100 m or more) while the vehicle is running, Light emission intensity control is performed so as to reduce the amount of light in the case of near-field light emission control for parking assist or parking assist for repetition of forward and backward operations, and light emission intensity information So that the saturation phenomenon can be prevented.

The dynamic judgment control unit 141 analyzes the weather information according to the current illuminance, the detection distance to the object, the running mode, the rainfall and the snowfall from the environmental information received from the vehicle controller 150, And searches the LUT 142 for the corresponding reception sensitivity information.

The dynamic decision controller 141 outputs the light emission intensity information and the reception sensitivity information retrieved from the LUT 142 to the light source controller 143 and the sensor controller 144, respectively.

The look-up table (LUT) 142 stores the light intensity information of the light emitting unit 110 and the reception sensitivity information of the light receiving unit 130, which correspond to the driving information and the environment information of the vehicle, 110 and the reception sensitivity information of the light receiving unit 130 are data defining the operating characteristics according to the weather conditions such as the traveling mode and the illuminance of the vehicle and the weather information secured through the demonstration.

That is, when the weather information is in a rainfall state or a snowfall state, the generation of disturbance or distortion due to the amount of rainfall and snowfall also differs, so that a difference occurs in the control value of the reception sensitivity, And the degree of amplification and the like of the receiving sensitivity can be adjusted.

5 is a graph showing the LUT information for controlling the light emission intensity. Referring to FIG. 5, the current illumination 300 state, the object detection distance 310, and the traveling mode 320 of the vehicle It is possible to discriminate the light emission intensity so that the correction information of the light emission intensity can be provided so that the light emission intensity control 330 can be performed.

That is, if the detected illuminance value is higher than the currently set illuminance value, correction information of the light emission intensity can be provided so as to increase the light emission intensity of the light emitting portion 110 so that the appropriate light emission intensity can be maintained, , Correction information is provided so that the light emission intensity according to the detection distance can be adjusted.

The light source control unit 143 outputs the light emission intensity information retrieved through the LUT 142 from the dynamic determination control unit 141 to the light emission control driver 120 so that the light emission intensity of the light source 111) can be made to emit light.

The sensor control unit 144 outputs the reception sensitivity information searched through the LUT 142 by the dynamic decision control unit 141 to the sensing current control unit 133 of the light receiving unit 130 so as to correspond to the running state of the vehicle and the environment information So that the receiving sensitivity of the light receiving element 132 can be adjusted.

The 3D operation unit 145 receives the distance information from the signal processing unit 134 of the light receiving unit 130 to each object detected for each pixel to generate a 3D distance image and outputs the generated 3D distance image information To the vehicle controller (150).

The vehicle control unit 150 is a main processor of the vehicle, and is preferably an ECU. The vehicle control unit 150 is a main processor of the vehicle. The vehicle control unit 150 includes a transmission control unit, And outputs the detected driving information and the environment information to the dynamic determination control unit 141 of the control unit 140. The control unit 141 controls the dynamic determination unit 141 based on the driving information and the environment information.

Also, the vehicle controller 150 receives the 3D distance image information transmitted from the controller 140 and converts the 3D distance image information into information necessary for driving the vehicle.

Therefore, the emission intensity of the light emitting portion can be adjusted according to the running information of the vehicle and the surrounding environmental information, so that the output intensity of the light source can be autonomously adjusted.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. It can be understood that

In the course of the description of the embodiments of the present invention, the thicknesses of the lines and the sizes of the components shown in the drawings may be exaggerated for clarity and convenience of explanation, , Which may vary depending on the intentions or customs of the user, the operator, and the interpretation of such terms should be based on the contents throughout this specification.

100: Signal control device 110:
111: light source 120: light emission control driver
130: light receiving section 131: receiving lens
132: light receiving element 133: sensing current control section
134: signal processor 140:
141: Dynamic decision controller 142: LUT
143: light source control unit 144: sensor control unit
145: 3D computing unit 150:
300: illuminance 310: detection distance
320: Driving mode 330: Strength control

Claims (5)

A light emitting unit 110 irradiating light with an arbitrary object and configured to have a different angle of view depending on the distance or nearness;
A light emission control driver 120 for controlling the operation voltage of the light emitting unit 110 according to light emission intensity information output from the controller 140;
A light receiving unit 130 for detecting the distance to the object based on the light reflected by the object and reflecting the light emitted from the light emitting unit 110 and controlling the receiving sensitivity according to the light emitting intensity of the light emitting unit 110 );
The LUT 142 receives light emission intensity information of the light emitting unit 110 and reception sensitivity information of the light receiving unit 130 corresponding to the received information, A LUT 142 storing the light emission intensity information of the light emitting unit 110 and the reception sensitivity information of the light receiving unit 130 corresponding to the travel information and the environment information of the vehicle, A light source controller 143 for controlling the operation of the light emission control driver 120 so that the light emission of the light emitting unit 110 is controlled according to the light emission intensity information retrieved by the dynamic determination controller 141, And a sensor control unit 144 for outputting the received sensitivity information retrieved through the LUT 142 to the light receiving unit 130 to adjust the reception sensitivity of the light receiving unit 130 corresponding to the traveling state and environment information of the vehicle A control unit 140; And
And a vehicle controller (150) for detecting driving information of the vehicle and environment information of the surroundings of the vehicle and outputting the detected information to the controller (140).
delete The method according to claim 1,
The control unit 140 may further include a 3D operation unit 145 for generating a 3D distance image using the distance information to the object output from the light receiving unit 130. [ An apparatus for controlling light quantity of an emission signal.
The method of claim 3,
Wherein the dynamic decision controller (141) analyzes the driving mode including driving, parking, and stopping from the driving information of the vehicle, and searches the light emission intensity information corresponding to the analysis result, An apparatus for controlling light quantity of an emission signal.
5. The method of claim 4,
Wherein the environment information is illuminance, detection distance, driving mode, rainfall, and snowfall information.

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