Baidu USA LLC

Baidu.com Times Technology (Beijing) Co. Ltd.

Shuangcheng Guo

Shuai Wang

Manjiang Zhang

Shengjin Zhou

Yaoming Shen

Ning Qu

Davy Huang

Ji Wan

Lingchang Li

Chongchong Li

Xianfei Li

Haidong Liu

Hongshun Shen

Jian Sheng

In some implementations, a method is provided. The method includes determining a first set of data acquisition characteristics of a first sensor of an autonomous driving vehicle. The method also includes determining a second set of data acquisition characteristics of a second sensor of the autonomous driving vehicle. The method further includes synchronizing a first data acquisition time of the first sensor and a second data acquisition time of the second sensor, based on the first set of data acquisition characteristics and the second set of data acquisition characteristics. The first sensor obtains first sensor data at the first data acquisition time. The second sensor obtains second sensor data at the second data acquisition time.

Synchronizing sensors of autonomous driving vehicles

An ADV includes a method to combine data from multiple sensors. The method compresses video data from a camera to generate compressed video data. The compressed video data are segmented. The method time synchronizes each segment of the compressed video data with data from other sensors. The method then combines each segment of the compressed video data with the corresponding time-synchronized sensor data for the other sensors. In one embodiment, each segment of the compressed video data is independently decodable. In another embodiment, each segment of the compressed video data includes a compressed video unit that is prepended with a buffered portion of the compressed video data that immediately precede the compressed video unit. The length of the compressed video unit is smaller than the length of the independently decodable segment to offer finer granularity in time synchronizing the compressed video data with the other sensor data with a tradeoff.

Multiple sensor data storage with compressed video stream in autonomous driving vehicles

A method to perform video compression for ADV is disclosed. The method receives multiple frames of image data from multiple cameras. Metadata are appended to each frame of the image data to generate one of multiple frames of uncompressed image data as the image data are received. The frames of uncompressed image data may be stored. To compress the image data later, the method retrieves the frames of uncompressed image data, extracts the metadata from each frame of the uncompressed image data to generate one of multiple frames of processed image data. The method compresses each frame of the processed image data with the metadata extracted to generate one of multiple frames of compressed image data. The method reattaches the metadata to a corresponding frame of the compressed image data to generate one of multiple compressed image frames. The metadata supports time synchronization and error handling of the image data.

Timestamp and metadata processing for video compression in autonomous driving vehicles

The disclosure describes various embodiments for online system-level validation of sensor synchronization. According to an embodiment, an exemplary method of analyzing sensor synchronization in an autonomous driving vehicle (ADV) include the operations of acquiring raw sensor data from a first sensor and a second sensor mounted on the ADV, the raw sensor data describing a target object in a surrounding environment of the ADV; and generating an accuracy map based on the raw sensor data in view of timestamps extracted from the raw sensor data. The method further includes the operations of generating a first bounding box and a second bounding box around the target object using the raw sensor data; and performing an analysis of the first and second bounding boxes and the accuracy map using a predetermined algorithm in view of one or more pre-configured sensor settings to determine whether the first sensor and the second sensor are synchronized with each other.

System for sensor synchronization data analysis in an autonomous driving vehicle

Growing community of inventors

Beijing, China

Shuangcheng Guo