抄録
This paper describes a pattern recognition information processing method for the safe running of an automobile and the results of an experiment connected with the method.
A pattern recognition device is indispensable for driving an automobile safely without a human driver in a given road situation. For this purpose it is necessary to recognize many details about the road environment, for example, the condition of the road surface, the distribution of obstacles, the traffic signals, etc. But it is impossible to accomplish the function of recognizing all the contents technically. Therefore in this paper the content of recognition is extremely simplified and narrowed down to only the one item most required for the automobile to achieve safe locomotion.
The pattern recognition device is composed of a pair of TV cameras and some simple information processing circuits. The information processing procedure consists of checking the following three steps: (1) whether or not there is anything on the road in front which would be an obstacle to the automobile; (2) whether or not there is a passable zone for the automobile on the road ahead; (3) what the extent is of the lateral deviation of the passable zone from the present path of the automobile.
Practical tests of the recognition device equipped on the automobile gave very good results at a running speed of about 60km/h with no influence of vibrations. The recognition device may be characterized as follows: (1) the information processing method is very simple; (2) the information processing speed is very rapid.
