Patent Application
20210094480
The present invention generally pertains to sensor units and, more specifically, to camera units used in automotive vehicles.
Vehicles of various types operate in a wide variety of environmental conditions. These vehicles increasingly include and rely on various sensors to aid in vehicular operation and navigation. These sensors may also be used to provide users with various features or services. These sensors include, but are not limited to, cameras, light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensors, or radio detection and ranging (RADAR) sensors.
The various sensors systems included in today's vehicles may include sophisticated and sensitive electronic equipment that operates best in a narrow range of operational limits (e.g., high or low temperatures, moisture, etc.). Unfortunately, vehicles in which the sensor systems are implemented may operate in conditions that cause the sensor systems to exceed their operational limits. For example, automotive image sensors used in automotive cameras typically have a wider range of operational temperature limits than typical image sensors (e.g., up to 115° C.). However, even then, there are situations where those limits are exceeded in conventional automotive cameras.
The above-recited and other advantages and features of the present technology will become apparent by reference to specific implementations illustrated in the appended drawings. A person of ordinary skill in the art will understand that these drawings only show some examples of the present technology and would not limit the scope of the present technology to these examples. Furthermore, the skilled artisan will appreciate the principles of the present technology as described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which:
Various examples of the present technology are discussed in detail below. While specific implementations are discussed, it should be understood that this is done for illustration purposes only. A person skilled in the relevant art will recognize that other components and configurations may be used without parting from the spirit and scope of the present technology. In some instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate describing one or more aspects. Further, it is to be understood that functionality that is described as being carried out by certain system components may be performed by more or fewer components than shown.
Sensor systems installed on vehicles (e.g., automotive vehicles) may have one or more operational limits that specify conditions for optimal sensor performance, tested or guaranteed operation within a specified tolerance, or other operational limits. The operational limits may include, for example, a range of acceptable temperatures. The sensor systems often include an enclosed housing with components that draw power and generate heat. The enclosed housing may trap the heat generated by the components as well as heat provided by the external environment in which the vehicle and/or sensor systems operate. Accordingly, the high ends of ranges of acceptable temperatures specified by the operational limits are often exceeded. This results in suboptimal performance of the sensor systems, inoperable sensor systems, and/or even the possibility of damage to the sensor systems.
For example, automotive cameras may include image sensors that have a high end of acceptable temperatures (e.g., up to 115° C.). Although different image sensors may be designed with different acceptable temperature ranges, each image sensor will have some temperature above which performance is not guaranteed, performance degrades, or damage may occur. For example, above the high end of the acceptable temperature range, an image sensor may be rendered non-functional or performance of the image sensor may degrade beyond an acceptable level. In extreme cases, damage may even occur to the image sensor. Independent of the specified operational limits, there is also a desire to reduce the temperature surrounding image sensors because higher temperatures may cause higher noise (e.g., Gaussian noise) levels in image data, which results in degraded image quality.
Aspects of the subject technology solve these and other technical problems by providing a sensor unit that reduces the temperatures experienced by the sensor. Some aspects of the subject technology are directed to reducing the temperature of the image sensor by reducing the amount of heat trapped in the vicinity of the image sensor. Furthermore, the amount of heat experienced by the image sensor may be reduced by isolating the image sensor from heat generated by other components. For example, some aspects relate to a camera unit that includes a housing, an image sensor board that includes an image sensor, and an image signal processor (ISP) board. The image signal processor board may be mounted within the housing above the image sensor board such that less heat generated by the image signal processor board is experienced by the image sensor on the image sensor board.
Various embodiments of the subject technology are discussed with respect to an automotive camera unit for illustrative purposes. Other embodiments may relate to other types of camera units, image sensors, and other sensors that are sensitive to heat. These embodiments may be used in various fields and for various purposes. One area in which may be of particular interest is in the field of autonomous vehicles. Autonomous vehicles typically rely heavily on a number of sensors (including cameras) and satisfactory operation of these sensors is of critical importance. These sensors may be mounted in areas on the autonomous vehicle that constrain the ability for heat to dissipate. For example, there may be a lack of space available for cooling mechanisms or the sensors may be mounted to the roof of the vehicle which experiences particularly hot temperatures. Furthermore, autonomous vehicles may often travel through hot locations and environments that further increase temperatures experienced by the sensors.
Note that while the sensors 180 of the vehicle 102 of
The autonomous vehicle 102 further includes several mechanical systems that are used to effectuate appropriate motion of the autonomous vehicle 102. For instance, the mechanical systems can include but are not limited to, a vehicle propulsion system 130, a braking system 132, and a steering system 134. The vehicle propulsion system 130 may include an electric motor, an internal combustion engine, or both. The braking system 132 can include an engine brake, brake pads, actuators, and/or any other suitable componentry that is configured to assist in decelerating the autonomous vehicle 102. In some cases, the braking system 132 may charge a battery of the vehicle through regenerative braking. The steering system 134 includes suitable componentry that is configured to control the direction of movement of the autonomous vehicle 102 during navigation.
The autonomous vehicle 102 further includes a safety system 136 that can include various lights and signal indicators, parking brake, airbags, etc. The autonomous vehicle 102 further includes a cabin system 138 that can include cabin temperature control systems, in-cabin entertainment systems, etc.
The autonomous vehicle 102 additionally comprises an internal computing system 110 that is in communication with the sensor systems 180 and the systems 130, 132, 134, 136, and 138. The internal computing system includes at least one processor and at least one memory having computer-executable instructions that are executed by the processor. The computer-executable instructions can make up one or more services responsible for controlling the autonomous vehicle 102, communicating with remote computing system 150, receiving inputs from passengers or human co-pilots, logging metrics regarding data collected by sensor systems 180 and human co-pilots, etc.
The internal computing system 110 can include a control service 112 that is configured to control operation of the vehicle propulsion system 130, the braking system 208, the steering system 134, the safety system 136, and the cabin system 138. The control service 112 receives sensor signals from the sensor systems 180 as well communicates with other services of the internal computing system 110 to effectuate operation of the autonomous vehicle 102. In some embodiments, control service 112 may carry out operations in concert one or more other systems of autonomous vehicle 102.
The internal computing system 110 can also include a constraint service 114 to facilitate safe propulsion of the autonomous vehicle 102. The constraint service 116 includes instructions for activating a constraint based on a rule-based restriction upon operation of the autonomous vehicle 102. For example, the constraint may be a restriction upon navigation that is activated in accordance with protocols configured to avoid occupying the same space as other objects, abide by traffic laws, circumvent avoidance areas, etc. In some embodiments, the constraint service can be part of the control service 112.
The internal computing system 110 can also include a communication service 116. The communication service can include both software and hardware elements for transmitting and receiving signals from/to the remote computing system 150. The communication service 116 is configured to transmit information wirelessly over a network, for example, through an antenna array that provides personal cellular (long-term evolution (LTE), 3G, 4G, 5G, etc.) communication.
In some embodiments, one or more services of the internal computing system 110 are configured to send and receive communications to remote computing system 150 for such reasons as reporting data for training and evaluating machine learning algorithms, requesting assistance from remoting computing system or a human operator via remote computing system 150, software service updates, ridesharing pickup and drop off instructions etc.
The internal computing system 110 can also include a latency service 118. The latency service 118 can utilize timestamps on communications to and from the remote computing system 150 to determine if a communication has been received from the remote computing system 150 in time to be useful. For example, when a service of the internal computing system 110 requests feedback from remote computing system 150 on a time-sensitive process, the latency service 118 can determine if a response was timely received from remote computing system 150 as information can quickly become too stale to be actionable. When the latency service 118 determines that a response has not been received within a threshold, the latency service 118 can enable other systems of autonomous vehicle 102 or a passenger to make necessary decisions or to provide the needed feedback.
The internal computing system 110 can also include a user interface service 120 that can communicate with cabin system 138 in order to provide information or receive information to a human co-pilot or human passenger. In some embodiments, a human co-pilot or human passenger may be required to evaluate and override a constraint from constraint service 114, or the human co-pilot or human passenger may wish to provide an instruction to the autonomous vehicle 102 regarding destinations, requested routes, or other requested operations. The internal computing system 110 can, in some cases, include at least one computing system, or may include at least a subset of the components discussed with respect to computing systems.
As described above, the remote computing system 150 is configured to send/receive a signal from the autonomous vehicle 140 regarding reporting data for training and evaluating machine learning algorithms, requesting assistance from remote computing system 150 or a human operator via the remote computing system 150, software service updates, rideshare pickup and drop off instructions, etc.
The remote computing system 150 includes an analysis service 152 that is configured to receive data from autonomous vehicle 102 and analyze the data to train or evaluate machine learning algorithms for operating the autonomous vehicle 102. The analysis service 152 can also perform analysis pertaining to data associated with one or more errors or constraints reported by autonomous vehicle 102.
The remote computing system 150 can also include a user interface service 154 configured to present metrics, video, pictures, sounds reported from the autonomous vehicle 102 to an operator of remote computing system 150. User interface service 154 can further receive input instructions from an operator that can be sent to the autonomous vehicle 102.
The remote computing system 150 can also include an instruction service 156 for sending instructions regarding the operation of the autonomous vehicle 102. For example, in response to an output of the analysis service 152 or user interface service 154, instructions service 156 can prepare instructions to one or more services of the autonomous vehicle 102 or a co-pilot or passenger of the autonomous vehicle 102.
The remote computing system 150 can also include a rideshare service 158 configured to interact with ridesharing applications 170 operating on (potential) passenger computing devices. The rideshare service 158 can receive requests to be picked up or dropped off from passenger ridesharing app 170 and can dispatch autonomous vehicle 102 for the trip. The rideshare service 158 can also act as an intermediary between the ridesharing app 170 and the autonomous vehicle wherein a passenger might provide instructions to the autonomous vehicle to 102 go around an obstacle, change routes, honk the horn, etc.
The rideshare service 158 as depicted in
As noted above, various components of the autonomous vehicle 102 and the remote computing system 150 rely on data from the various sensor systems 180. Various aspects of the subject technology improve the performance and reliability of these sensor systems by reducing temperatures experienced by the sensors and/or reducing the amount of heat trapped in the vicinity of the sensors. These benefits may be achieved using substantially the same amount of space (e.g., without the need for larger sensor unit/housing). In some embodiments, a smaller housing may be used, thus conserving space. Various embodiments of the subject technology are discussed with respect to a camera unit for illustrative purposes. Other embodiments may relate to any other type of sensor that is sensitive to heat.
The image sensor board 220 and the image signal processor board 230 are positioned next to one another in parallel. The image sensor board 220 and the image signal processor board 230 may each generate heat. The heat from the image signal processor board 230 may affect the image sensor board 220. Furthermore, the heat that radiates from the image sensor board 220 and the image signal processor board 230 may accumulate between the image sensor board 220 and the image signal processor board 230 without adequate means for heat dissipation. As a result, the temperature of the image sensor board 220 may climb to levels that exceed operation limits or cause the performance of the image sensor board 220 to degrade.
Aspects of the subject technology mitigate the amount of heat the image sensor board experiences from the image signal processor board and thereby reduces the temperatures experienced by the image sensor board. As a result, operational limits of the image sensor are less likely to be exceeded, the performance of the image sensor is less likely to degrade, and resulting images will experience less noise and better image quality.
An image sensor board 320 is mounted within the housing 305 and includes a mounted image sensor 325. The image sensor 325 is configured to convert the optical image received through the lens 310 into sensor data. Both the lens 310 and the image sensor board 320 are positioned vertically in the housing 305 and in parallel. The image sensor 325 may be aligned with the lens 310 in order to receive an optical image through the lens 310. An image signal processor board 330 is also mounted within the housing 330 above the image sensor board 320. The image signal processor board 330 includes electronics, such as an image signal processor configured to covert the sensor data into image data for use by an automotive system. In some embodiments, the image sensor board 320 and the image signal processor board 330 may be printed circuit boards (PCBs). The camera unit also includes a connector 340 that provides an interface between the camera unit and an external system such as the internal computing system 110 of the autonomous vehicle 102 of
By placing the image signal processor board 330 above the image sensor board 320, heat generated by the image signal processor board 330 is less likely to affect the image sensor board 320. Furthermore, the heat generated by the image signal processor board 330 is likely to dissipate upwards as hot air rises and away from the image sensor board 320. As shown in
According to some embodiments, the image sensor board 320 and/or the image signal processor board 330 are mounted to an interior of the housing 305. However, in other embodiments, a chassis may be mounted to the interior of the housing 305 and the image sensor board 320 and/or the image signal processor board 330 are mounted to the chassis. Also, as shown in
For example,
The housing 505 in
In some embodiments, computing system 600 is a distributed system in which the functions described in this disclosure can be distributed within a datacenter, multiple data centers, a peer network, etc. In some embodiments, one or more of the described system components represents many such components each performing some or all of the function for which the component is described. In some embodiments, the components can be physical or virtual devices.
Example system 600 includes at least one processing unit (CPU or processor) 610 and connection 605 that couples various system components including system memory 615, such as read-only memory (ROM) 620 and random access memory (RAM) 625 to processor 610. Computing system 600 can include a cache of high-speed memory 612 connected directly with, in close proximity to, or integrated as part of processor 610.
Processor 610 can include any general purpose processor and a hardware service or software service, such as services 632, 634, and 636 stored in storage device 630, configured to control processor 610 as well as a special-purpose processor where software instructions are incorporated into the actual processor design. Processor 610 may essentially be a completely self-contained computing system, containing multiple cores or processors, a bus, memory controller, cache, etc. A multi-core processor may be symmetric or asymmetric.
To enable user interaction, computing system 600 includes an input device 645, which can represent any number of input mechanisms, such as a microphone for speech, a touch-sensitive screen for gesture or graphical input, keyboard, mouse, motion input, speech, etc. Computing system 600 can also include output device 635, which can be one or more of a number of output mechanisms known to those of skill in the art. In some instances, multimodal systems can enable a user to provide multiple types of input/output to communicate with computing system 600. Computing system 600 can include communications interface 640, which can generally govern and manage the user input and system output. The communication interface may perform or facilitate receipt and/or transmission wired or wireless communications via wired and/or wireless transceivers, including those making use of an audio jack/plug, a microphone jack/plug, a universal serial bus (USB) port/plug, an Apple® Lightning® port/plug, an Ethernet port/plug, a fiber optic port/plug, a proprietary wired port/plug, a BLUETOOTH® wireless signal transfer, a BLUETOOTH® low energy (BLE) wireless signal transfer, an IBEACON® wireless signal transfer, a radio-frequency identification (RFID) wireless signal transfer, near-field communications (NFC) wireless signal transfer, dedicated short range communication (DSRC) wireless signal transfer, 802.11 Wi-Fi wireless signal transfer, wireless local area network (WLAN) signal transfer, Visible Light Communication (VLC), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), Infrared (IR) communication wireless signal transfer, Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) signal transfer, Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) signal transfer, 3G/4G/5G/LTE cellular data network wireless signal transfer, ad-hoc network signal transfer, radio wave signal transfer, microwave signal transfer, infrared signal transfer, visible light signal transfer, ultraviolet light signal transfer, wireless signal transfer along the electromagnetic spectrum, or some combination thereof. The communications interface 640 may also include one or more Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers or transceivers that are used to determine a location of the computing system 600 based on receipt of one or more signals from one or more satellites associated with one or more GNSS systems. GNSS systems include, but are not limited to, the US-based Global Positioning System (GPS), the Russia-based Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), the China-based BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), and the Europe-based Galileo GNSS. There is no restriction on operating on any particular hardware arrangement, and therefore the basic features here may easily be substituted for improved hardware or firmware arrangements as they are developed.
Storage device 630 can be a non-volatile and/or non-transitory and/or computer-readable memory device and can be a hard disk or other types of computer readable media which can store data that are accessible by a computer, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, solid state memory devices, digital versatile disks, cartridges, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, a hard disk, magnetic tape, a magnetic strip/stripe, any other magnetic storage medium, flash memory, memristor memory, any other solid-state memory, a compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM) optical disc, a rewritable compact disc (CD) optical disc, digital video disk (DVD) optical disc, a blu-ray disc (BDD) optical disc, a holographic optical disk, another optical medium, a secure digital (SD) card, a micro secure digital (microSD) card, a Memory Stick® card, a smartcard chip, a EMV chip, a subscriber identity module (SIM) card, a mini/micro/nano/pico SIM card, another integrated circuit (IC) chip/card, random access memory (RAM), static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash EPROM (FLASHEPROM), cache memory (L1/L2/L3/L4/L5/L #), resistive random-access memory (RRAM/ReRAM), phase change memory (PCM), spin transfer torque RAM (STT-RAM), another memory chip or cartridge, and/or a combination thereof.
The storage device 630 can include software services, servers, services, etc., that when the code that defines such software is executed by the processor 610, it causes the system to perform a function. In some embodiments, a hardware service that performs a particular function can include the software component stored in a computer-readable medium in connection with the necessary hardware components, such as processor 610, connection 605, output device 635, etc., to carry out the function.
For clarity of explanation, in some instances, the present technology may be presented as including individual functional blocks including functional blocks comprising devices, device components, steps or routines in a method embodied in software, or combinations of hardware and software.
Any of the steps, operations, functions, or processes described herein may be performed or implemented by a combination of hardware and software services or services, alone or in combination with other devices. In some embodiments, a service can be software that resides in memory of a client device and/or one or more servers of a content management system and perform one or more functions when a processor executes the software associated with the service. In some embodiments, a service is a program or a collection of programs that carry out a specific function. In some embodiments, a service can be considered a server. The memory can be a non-transitory computer-readable medium.
In some embodiments, the computer-readable storage devices, mediums, and memories can include a cable or wireless signal containing a bit stream and the like. However, when mentioned, non-transitory computer-readable storage media expressly exclude media such as energy, carrier signals, electromagnetic waves, and signals per se.
Methods according to the above-described examples can be implemented using computer-executable instructions that are stored or otherwise available from computer-readable media. Such instructions can comprise, for example, instructions and data which cause or otherwise configure a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function or group of functions. Portions of computer resources used can be accessible over a network. The executable computer instructions may be, for example, binaries, intermediate format instructions such as assembly language, firmware, or source code. Examples of computer-readable media that may be used to store instructions, information used, and/or information created during methods according to described examples include magnetic or optical disks, solid-state memory devices, flash memory, USB devices provided with non-volatile memory, networked storage devices, and so on.
Devices implementing methods according to these disclosures can comprise hardware, firmware and/or software, and can take any of a variety of form factors. Typical examples of such form factors include servers, laptops, smartphones, small form factor personal computers, personal digital assistants, and so on. The functionality described herein also can be embodied in peripherals or add-in cards. Such functionality can also be implemented on a circuit board among different chips or different processes executing in a single device, by way of further example.
The instructions, media for conveying such instructions, computing resources for executing them, and other structures for supporting such computing resources are means for providing the functions described in these disclosures.
Although a variety of examples and other information was used to explain aspects within the scope of the appended claims, no limitation of the claims should be implied based on particular features or arrangements in such examples, as one of ordinary skill would be able to use these examples to derive a wide variety of implementations. Further and although some subject matter may have been described in language specific to examples of structural features and/or method steps, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to these described features or acts. For example, such functionality can be distributed differently or performed in components other than those identified herein. Rather, the described features and steps are disclosed as examples of components of systems and methods within the scope of the appended claims.
