CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority from Korean Patent Application No. 10-2017-0074700, filed on Jun. 14, 2017, which is hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes as if fully set forth herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present embodiments relate to a smart parking assist system for assisting a driver in parking a vehicle and a control method thereof.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Growing demands for the safety and convenience of a driver, as well as for the performance of a vehicle, have brought about various studies on and developments of a Driver Assist System (DAS) that supports a vehicle operation of a driver through control by the vehicle.

Such a Driver Assist System (DAS) includes a system that assists the driver in driving the vehicle or assists control of the vehicle so as to protect the driver from an emergency occurring while the driver is driving.

In addition, a Smart Parking Assist System (SPAS) is provided to control the vehicle in parking the vehicle, instead of manually driving the vehicle, thereby assisting the driver in parking the vehicle.

When Smart Parking Assist System (SPAS) receives an automatic parking control command, the Smart Parking Assist System (SPAS) searches the surrounding space of the vehicle to set a parking space, and controls the movement of the vehicle to the set parking space, thereby completing parking.

At this time, the Smart Parking Assist System (SPAS) controls the movement of the vehicle from an automatic parking control start position to an automatic parking control end position, but does not support the movement of the vehicle from the position of the vehicle at the time at which the parking space is set to the automatic parking control start position.

Therefore, the driver must move the vehicle to the automatic parking control start position by manual operation. In this case, the vehicle frequently goes beyond the automatic parking control start position. In addition, if the vehicle fails to reach the accurate automatic parking control start position, there is a problem that it is difficult to perform the automatic parking control by the smart parking assist system (SPAS).

Furthermore, there is an inconvenience in which the driver does not know the movement distance required for the parking end or the end time of the automatic parking accurately while the vehicle is moving from the automatic parking control start position to the automatic parking control end position under the control of the Smart Parking Assist System (SPAS).

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An aspect of the present embodiments is to provide a smart parking assist system that allows a driver to accurately know the distance by which the driver must move the vehicle for automatic parking control in a manual operation period by the driver during the automatic parking control operation by the smart parking assist system, thereby controlling the vehicle.

Another aspect of the present embodiments is to provide a smart parking assist system that allows the driver to identify information on the movement distance for each control period of the vehicle by the smart parking assist system when the vehicle is controlled by the smart parking assist system after the time of setting a parking space to the time at which the automatic parking control ends.

According to one aspect, the present embodiments provide a smart parking assist system that may include: a parking space determining unit that searches the surrounding space of a vehicle by means of a sensor mounted on the vehicle and sets a parking space for automatic parking of the vehicle when the parking space determining unit receives an automatic parking control command; and an automatic parking control unit that, when the parking space determining unit sets the parking space, sets a path through which the vehicle moves to the parking space, controls the movement of the vehicle in at least a portion of the period in which the vehicle moves according to the set path, and calculates a progress distance and the remaining distance of the vehicle in the set path depending on the movement of the vehicle.

According to another aspect, the present embodiments provide a method for controlling a smart parking assist system, which may include: when an automatic parking control command is input, searching the surrounding space of a vehicle by means of a sensor mounted on the vehicle and setting a parking space for automatic parking of the vehicle; setting a path through which the vehicle moves to the parking space; controlling the movement of the vehicle in at least a portion of a period in which the vehicle moves according to the set path; and simultaneously displaying the ratios of the progress distance and the remaining distance of the vehicle to the set path using figures depending on the movement of the vehicle.

According to the present embodiments, it is possible to provide convenience to the driver and to perform accurate automatic parking control by means of the smart parking assist system by providing information on the distance by which the vehicle must move to a position required for automatic parking control in a period in which the vehicle is moved by a manual operation of the driver during the period in which the smart parking assist system operates.

According to the present embodiments, information on the distance by which the vehicle must move for each period in which the automatic parking control of the vehicle is performed by the smart parking assist system. Therefore, it is possible to allow the driver to easily recognize the automatic parking control state by being provided with information related to the movement of the vehicle in each period of the automatic parking control operation.

