Panasonic develops driverless valet parking system for Toyota with large-screen AR head-up display

According to foreign media reports, more and more companies are now seeking to promote autonomous driving and reduce traffic accidents to create a safer and more comfortable automobile society. To achieve this goal, Panasonic has developed an unmanned automatic valet parking system and an AR-HUD (augmented reality head-up display). The unmanned automatic valet parking system can achieve fully autonomous driving (SAE L4) in limited areas, while the AR-HUD provides safe and comfortable navigation, allowing users to focus on driving, and this technology will be installed on Toyota Motor Corporation's concept car LQ.

Driverless automatic valet parking system

The system enables driverless valet parking without the need for dedicated expensive sensors. It uses a variety of traditional on-board cameras, sonar, radar sensors and 2D road maps to accurately identify the location of the vehicle. The system achieves safe parking by looking for open spaces and detecting pedestrians entering the lane through surveillance cameras and control servers connected to the parking lot. The driverless automatic valet parking system can park in a narrow space with only 20 cm between cars because there is no need to open or close the door after parking. The emergency braking system in the car can detect pedestrians using deep learning, helping to prevent accidents.

The system is expected to bring the following advantages:

1. The driverless automatic valet parking system does not require the use of dedicated expensive sensors, can reduce traffic accidents in parking lots at a low cost, and significantly reduce parking pressure (such as the pressure of finding a parking space, the need to walk a long distance in the parking lot, and the pressure of dealing with bad weather conditions).

2. Land can be used efficiently by utilizing parking lots at a distance and parking spaces with smaller spaces.

Large-screen AR-HUD

Based on information from the vehicle, the AR-HUD can display route information and obstacle warnings. High-quality images can be presented on a large screen, and distortion is minimized by reducing the deviation between the actual space and the image using the company's proprietary optical technology (which has been improved when developing audio-visual products).

The system is expected to provide the following benefits:

1. By presenting information intuitively, it reduces the driver's eye movement and focus adjustment, thus helping to achieve safe driving;

2. Use dedicated vibration compensation technology to reduce the misalignment between the actual space and the displayed image caused by vibration, achieving more intuitive and easier to understand navigation.

Technology used in driverless valet parking systems

In recent years, ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) have been increasingly used to reduce traffic accidents caused by driver errors. The driverless valet parking system achieves safe autonomous driving in parking lots by combining on-board ADAS sensing technologies (such as cameras, sonar and radar sensors) and infrastructure safety sensing technologies (such as surveillance cameras).

Vehicles equipped with the automated valet parking feature are connected to an infrastructure sensor monitoring device via a local control server located in each parking lot. The driver can remotely command the vehicle to enter and exit the parking lot through a controller such as a smartphone or tablet.

The driverless automatic valet parking system mainly includes the following three technologies:

1. On-board emergency braking system, using deep learning to detect pedestrians

The deep learning network structure developed based on the application of the vehicle's electronic control unit (ECU) can accurately identify pedestrians using the least computing power.

2. This technology estimates the vehicle's position by capturing images of the vehicle's surroundings using a camera.

This technology allows the vehicle to automatically drive to the parking space indicated by the server. The vehicle's position can be identified by comparing the 2D road map of the parking lot with the road information generated by images taken by multiple cameras installed on the vehicle. In addition, the highly accurate vehicle positioning technology also allows it to park in a narrow space (the distance between cars is 20 cm), allowing land to be used effectively.

3. Technology connecting to infrastructure cameras and control servers

Infrastructure surveillance cameras can monitor parking lots for vacant parking spaces and pedestrians to ensure that vehicles are guided to parking spaces safely and smoothly. In addition, infrastructure cameras can also detect pedestrians using deep learning. Since the location of surveillance cameras is fixed, background subtraction based on fixed-point observations also helps improve sensing performance. Control server connection technology allows cars to avoid pedestrians that enter the driving path. In addition to the on-board emergency braking system, this technology can also send braking commands through the control server via wireless transmission to safely stop the car.

Technology for large-screen AR-HUD

The following two main technologies are developed for large-screen AR-HUD:

1. High-quality large-screen display technology, with a display distance of 7 to 14 meters, giving people a sense of depth;

By utilizing Panasonic's optical technologies, which have been optimized in the development, processing, and production of audio-visual products such as digital cameras, surveillance cameras, projectors, and TVs, a high-quality large screen with minimal distortion has been realized. This large-screen display is equivalent to displaying an image 230 inches from the center at a display distance of approximately 24 meters.

2. High-precision superposition technology

Vibration compensation technology combines Panasonic's proprietary image stabilization technology, which is already used in products such as digital cameras, to reduce the deviation between the actual space and the displayed image caused by vehicle vibration.

HUD overlays information, allowing you to see the actual view through the windshield, and project the information into the driver's forward field of view. HUD also provides alerts (such as lanes and signs) and route information in a more intuitive and understandable way.