Argo Ai Gmbh

Disney Enterprises, Inc.

Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Other

Volkswagen Group of America Investments, LLC

G Peter K Carr

Andrew Thomas Hartnett

Constantin Savtchenko

Greydon Foil

Iain Matthews

Basel Alghanem

Arsenii Saranin

Kevin Lee Wyffels

Slawomir W Bak

Yaser Sheikh

Jagjeet Singh

Neal Andrew Seegmiller

Christopher Cunningham

Jason Ziglar

Eric Foote

Wulue Zhao

Lorenzo Nardi

Patrick Joseph Lucey

Long Sha

Mark Ollis

Thomas M Petroff

Albert Costa

Fnu Ratnesh Kumar

Stephan Marcel Mandt

Yisong Yue

Sameer Bardapurkar

Benjamin D Ballard

Matthew Lee Gilson

Alexander Metz

William Tyler Krampe

Bangjie Liu

Zhiwei Deng

Michael Peter K Mistry

Andreas Eberlein

Michal Koperski

Rajitha D B Navarathna

Jingchen Liu

Systems and methods for assigning a lane to an object in an environment of an autonomous vehicle are disclosed. The methods include assigning an instantaneous probability to each of a plurality of lanes in the environment based on a current state of the object, generating a transition matrix for each of the plurality of lanes, and identifying the lane in which the object is moving at the current time t based on the instantaneous probability and the transition matrix. The instantaneous probability is a measure of likelihood that the object is in that lane at a current time. The transition matrix encodes one or more probabilities that the object transitioned either into that lane or out of that lane at the current time.

Methods and systems for tracking a mover's lane over time

Systems and methods for object detection. Object detection may be used to control autonomous vehicle(s). For example, the methods comprise: obtaining, by a computing device, a LiDAR dataset generated by a LiDAR system of the autonomous vehicle; and using, by the computing device. The LiDAR dataset and image(s) are used to detect an object that is in proximity to the autonomous vehicle. The object is detected by: computing a distribution of object detections that each point of the LiDAR dataset is likely to be in; creating a plurality of segments of LiDAR data points using the distribution of object detections; and detecting the object in a point cloud defined by the LiDAR dataset based on the plurality of segments of LiDAR data points. The object detection may be used to facilitate at least one autonomous driving operation.

Systems and methods for camera-LiDAR fused object detection with local variation segmentation

Systems and methods for object detection. Object detection may be used to control autonomous vehicle(s). For example, the methods comprise: obtaining, by a computing device, a LiDAR dataset generated by a LiDAR system of the autonomous vehicle; and using, by the computing device, the LiDAR dataset and image(s) to detect an object that is in proximity to the autonomous vehicle. The object being is detected by: computing a distribution of object detections that each point of the LiDAR dataset is likely to be in; creating a plurality of segments of LiDAR data points using the distribution of object detections; merging the plurality of segments of LiDAR data points to generate merged segments; and detecting the object in a point cloud defined by the LiDAR dataset based on the merged segments. The object detection may be used by the computing device to facilitate at least one autonomous driving operation.

Systems and methods for camera-LiDAR fused object detection with segment merging

Systems and methods for predicting actions of an actor before entering a conflicted area are disclosed. The methods may include detecting the presence of an actor in an environment of an autonomous vehicle while the autonomous vehicle and the actor are approaching the conflicted area, determining whether the autonomous vehicle has precedence over the actor for traversing the conflicted area, assigning a kinematic target to the moving object that requires the moving object to come to a stop at an yield point before entering the conflicted area if the autonomous vehicle has precedence over the actor, determining whether a plurality of forecasted trajectories for the actor need to be generated, and controlling movement of the autonomous vehicle to traverse the conflicted area accordingly.

Methods and systems for predicting actions of an object by an autonomous vehicle to determine feasible paths through a conflicted area

Systems/methods for object detection. The methods comprise: obtaining, by a computing device, a LiDAR dataset generated by a LiDAR system of the autonomous vehicle; and using, by a computing device, the LiDAR dataset and at least one image to detect an object that is in proximity to the autonomous vehicle. The object is detected by: generating a pruned LiDAR dataset by reducing a total number of points contained in the LiDAR dataset; and detecting the object in a point cloud defined by the pruned LiDAR dataset. The object detection may be used by the computing device to facilitate at least one autonomous driving operation.

Systems and methods for camera-LiDAR fused object detection with point pruning

Methods of determining relevance of objects that a vehicle detected are disclosed. A system will receive a data log of a run of the vehicle. The data log includes perception data captured by vehicle sensors during the run. The system will identify an interaction time, along with a look-ahead lane based on a lane in which the vehicle traveled during the run. The system will define a region of interest (ROI) that includes a lane segment within the look-ahead lane. The system will identify, from the perception data, objects that the vehicle detected within the ROI during the run. For each object, the system will determine a detectability value by measuring an amount of the object that the vehicle detected. The system will create a subset with only objects having at least a threshold detectability value, and it will classify any such object as a priority relevant object.

Using relevance of objects to assess performance of an autonomous vehicle perception system

Systems and methods for operating a robotic system. The methods comprise: inferring, by a computing device, a first heading distribution for the object from a 3D point cloud; obtaining, by the computing device, a second heading distribution from a vector map; obtaining, by the computing device, a posterior distribution of a heading using the first and second heading distributions; defining, by the computing device, a cuboid on a 3D graph using the posterior distribution; and using the cuboid to facilitate driving-related operations of a robotic system.

Systems and methods for estimating cuboids from LiDAR, map and image data

Systems and methods for object detection. The object detection may be used to control an autonomous vehicle. For example, the methods comprise: obtaining, by a computing device, a LiDAR dataset generated by a LiDAR system of the autonomous vehicle; and using, by the computing device, the LiDAR dataset and at least one image to detect an object that is in proximity to the autonomous vehicle. The object is detected by: matching points of the LiDAR dataset to pixels in the at least one image; and detecting the object in a point cloud defined by the LiDAR dataset based on the matching. The object detection may be used to facilitate at least one autonomous driving operation (e.g., autonomous driving operation comprises an object tracking operation, an object trajectory prediction operation, a vehicle trajectory determination operation, and/or a collision avoidance operation).

Systems and methods for camera-LiDAR fused object detection with LiDAR-to-image detection matching

Systems/methods for operating an autonomous vehicle. The methods comprise, by a computing device: using sensor data to track an object that was detected in proximity to the autonomous vehicle; classifying the object into at least one dynamic state class of a plurality of dynamic state classes; transforming the at least one dynamic state class into at least one goal class of a plurality of goal classes; transforming the at least one goal class into at least one proposed future intention class of a plurality of proposed future intention classes; determining at least one predicted future intention of the object based on the proposed future intention class; and/or causing the autonomous vehicle to perform at least one autonomous driving operation based on the at least one predicted future intention determined for the object.

Systems and methods for determining future intentions of objects

A system receives a road network map that corresponds to a road network that is in an environment of an autonomous vehicle. For each of the one or more lane segments, the system identifies one or more conflicting lane segments from the plurality of lane segments, each of which conflicts with the lane segment, and adds conflict data pertaining to a conflict between the lane segment and the one or more conflicting lane segments to a set of conflict data. The system analyzes the conflict data to identify a conflict cluster that is representative of an intersection. The system groups predecessor lane segments and the successor lane segments as inlets or outlets of the intersection, generates an outer geometric boundary of the intersection, generates an inner geometric boundary of the intersection, creates a data representation of the intersection and adds the data representation to the road network map.

Methods and system for constructing data representation for use in assisting autonomous vehicles navigate intersections

Methods of forecasting intentions of actors that an autonomous vehicle (AV) encounters in are disclosed. The AV uses the intentions to improve its ability to predict trajectories for the actors, and accordingly making decisions about its own trajectories to avoid conflict with the actors. To do this, for any given actor the AV determines a class of the actor and detects an action that the actor is taking. The system uses the class and action to identify candidate intentions of the actor and evaluating a likelihood of each candidate intention. The system repeats this process over multiple cycles to determine overall probabilities for each of the candidate intentions. The AV's motion planning system can use the probabilities to determine likely trajectories of the actor, and accordingly influence the trajectory that the AV will itself follow in the environment.

Assessing present intentions of an actor perceived by an autonomous vehicle

A system may receive point cloud data that includes one or more data points associated with an object that was detected by sensors of an autonomous vehicle. The system may identify a subset of the point cloud data having data points that are associated with a likelihood of a pedestrian entering a scene with the object, determine a current probability value using a logistic function that is associated with the subset of the point cloud data, determine, based at least in part on the current probability value, a probability value representing a likelihood of the pedestrian actually being present for the subset of the point cloud data, determine whether the probability value exceeds a false alarm threshold value, and in response to the probability value exceeding the false alarm threshold value, assign data points of the subset an attribute value indicative of the pedestrian being present.

Autonomous vehicle system for detecting pedestrian presence

Systems and methods for forecasting trajectories of objects. The method includes obtaining a prediction model trained to predict future trajectories of objects. The prediction model is trained over a first prediction horizon selected to encode inertial constraints in a predicted trajectory and over a second prediction horizon selected to encode behavioral constraints in the predicted trajectory. The method also include generating a planned trajectory of an autonomous vehicle by receiving state data corresponding to the autonomous vehicle, receiving perception data corresponding to an object, predicting a future trajectory of the object based on the perception data and the prediction model, and generating the planned trajectory of the autonomous vehicle based on the future trajectory of the object and the state data.

Methods and systems for trajectory forecasting with recurrent neural networks using inertial behavioral rollout

A method of determining a trajectory for an autonomous vehicle is disclosed. An ego-vehicle may detect a moving actor in an environment. To choose between candidate trajectories for the ego-vehicle, the system will consider the cost of each candidate trajectory to the moving actor. The system will use the candidate trajectory costs for the candidate trajectories to select one of the candidate trajectories via which to move the ego-vehicle. An autonomous vehicle system of the ego-vehicle may then move the ego-vehicle in the environment along the selected trajectory.

Method and system for using a reaction of other road users to ego-vehicle actions in autonomous driving

Systems and methods for operating an autonomous vehicle. The methods comprising: obtaining, by a computing device, a LiDAR dataset; plotting, by a computing device, the LiDAR dataset on a 3D graph to define a 3D point cloud; using, by a computing device, the LiDAR dataset and contents of a vector map to define a cuboid on the 3D graph that encompasses points of the 3D point cloud that are associated with an object in proximity to the vehicle, where the vector map comprises lane information; and using the cuboid to facilitate driving-related operations of the autonomous vehicle.

Growing community of inventors

Allison Park, PA, United States of America

G Peter K Carr