Vehicle Perimeter Monitoring using Minimum Number of Sensors during Parking Maneuver

Parking assist systems have become very common in current vehicles. The purpose of such a system is to assist the driver to park the vehicle without collision. The sensors serve as eyes of the driver during parking maneuver by sensing any obstacle in the path. The parking sensors, typically ultrasonic sensors, are mounted on front and rear of vehicle to assist the driver to park the vehicle. Thus, such a system can cover only the front and rear portion of the vehicle and is unable to cover the side portions of the vehicle.

This paper proposes a novel method to monitor the perimeter of a vehicle while parking using minimum sensors placed at strategic locations. A local map of the parking area is generated using data from sensors which helps in identifying static obstacles. The map is constantly updated in real time during parking. The algorithm ascertains that the entire perimeter of the vehicle is protected from impending collisions in real time. The algorithm takes into account vehicle parameters such as geometry (vehicle length & width), kinematics constraints (turning radius) and driver inputs(e.g. steering angle). This can also be applied in automatic parking for verifying the path generated before the vehicle starts the parking process.