Patent Grant
11619724
The embodiments discussed herein are related to maps for autonomous vehicles, and more particularly to calibration of multiple light detection and ranging sensors (LIDARs) mounted on a vehicle using localization based on a high definition (HD) map.
Autonomous vehicles, also known as self-driving cars, driverless cars, or robotic cars, may drive from a source location to a destination location without requiring a human driver to control or navigate the vehicle. Automation of driving may be difficult for several reasons. For example, autonomous vehicles may use sensors to make driving decisions on the fly, or with little response time, but vehicle sensors may not be able to observe or detect some or all inputs that may be required or useful to safely control or navigate the vehicle safely in some instances. Vehicle sensors may be obscured by corners, rolling hills, other vehicles, etc. Vehicles sensors may not observe certain inputs early enough to make decisions that may be necessary to operate the vehicle safely or to reach a desired destination. In addition, some inputs, such as lanes, road signs, or traffic signals, may be missing on the road, may be obscured from view, or may not be readily visible, and therefore may not be detectable by sensors. Furthermore, vehicle sensors may have difficulty detecting emergency vehicles, a stopped obstacle in a given lane of traffic, or road signs for rights of way.
Autonomous vehicles may use map data to discover some of the above information rather than relying on sensor data. However, conventional maps have several drawbacks that may make them difficult to use for an autonomous vehicle. For example, conventional maps may not provide the level of precision or accuracy that for navigation within a certain safety threshold (e.g., accuracy within 30 centimeters (cm) or better). Further, GPS systems may provide accuracies of approximately 3-5 meters (m) but have large error conditions that may result in accuracies of over 100 m. This lack of accuracy may make it challenging to accurately determine the location of the vehicle on a map or to identify (e.g., using a map, even a highly precise and accurate one) a vehicle's surroundings at the level of precision and accuracy desired.
Furthermore, conventional maps may be created by survey teams that may use drivers with specially outfitted survey cars with high resolution sensors that may drive around a geographic region and take measurements. The measurements may be provided to a team of map editors that may assemble one or more maps from the measurements. This process may be expensive and time consuming (e.g., taking weeks to months to create a comprehensive map). As a result, maps assembled using such techniques may not have fresh data. For example, roads may be updated or modified on a much more frequent basis (e.g., rate of roughly 5-10% per year) than a survey team may survey a given area. For example, survey cars may be expensive and limited in number, making it difficult to capture many of these updates or modifications. For example, a survey fleet may include a thousand survey cars. Due to the large number of roads and the drivable distance in any given state in the United States, a survey fleet of a thousand cars may not cover the same area at the same frequency of road changes to keep the map up to date on a regular basis and to facilitate safe self-driving of autonomous vehicles. As a result, conventional techniques of maintaining maps may be unable to provide data that is sufficiently accurate and up to date for the safe navigation of autonomous vehicles.
The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one example technology area where some embodiments described herein may be practiced.
According to an aspect of an embodiment, operations may comprise (a) accessing a portion of a high definition (HD) map comprising a point cloud of a region through which a vehicle is driving. The operations may also comprise (b) identifying a base light detection and ranging sensor (LIDAR) from a plurality of LIDARs mounted on the vehicle. The operations may also comprise (c) for each of the plurality of LIDARs mounted on the vehicle: receiving a LIDAR scan from the LIDAR comprising a point cloud of the region through which the vehicle is driving, and determining a pose for the LIDAR by performing localization by comparing the point cloud of the LIDAR scan with the point cloud of the HD map. The operations may also comprise (d) for each LIDAR from the plurality of LIDAR other than the base LIDAR, determining a transform for the LIDAR with respect to the base LIDAR based on the pose of the base LIDAR and the pose of the LIDAR. The operations may also comprise (e) repeating (c) to generate a plurality of samples. The operations may also comprise (f) for each of the plurality of samples, repeating (d) to determine a plurality of transforms for each LIDAR with respect to the base LIDAR. The operations may also comprise (g) calibrating each LIDAR of the plurality of LIDARs other than the base LIDAR by determining an aggregate transform for the LIDAR by aggregating the plurality of transforms for the LIDAR across the plurality of samples.
The objects and advantages of the embodiments will be realized and achieved at least by the elements, features, and combinations particularly pointed out in the claims.
Both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are given as examples and are explanatory and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.
Example embodiments will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which:
Embodiments of the present disclosure may maintain high definition (HD) maps that may include up-to-date information with high accuracy or precision. The HD maps may be used by an autonomous vehicle to safely navigate to various destinations without human input or with limited human input. In the present disclosure reference to “safe navigation” may refer to performance of navigation within a target safety threshold. For example, the target safety threshold may be a certain number of driving hours without an accident. Such thresholds may be set by automotive manufacturers or government agencies. Additionally, reference to “up-to-date” information does not necessarily mean absolutely up-to-date, but up-to-date within a target threshold amount of time. For example, a target threshold amount of time may be one week or less such that a map that reflects any potential changes to a roadway that may have occurred within the past week may be considered “up-to-date”. Such target threshold amounts of time may vary anywhere from one month to 1 minute, or possibly even less.
The autonomous vehicle may be a vehicle capable of sensing its environment and navigating without human input. An HD map may refer to a map that may store data with high precision and accuracy, for example, with accuracies of approximately 2-30 cm.
Some embodiments may generate HD maps that may contain spatial geometric information about the roads on which the autonomous vehicle may travel. Accordingly, the generated HD maps may include the information that may allow the autonomous vehicle to navigate safely without human intervention. Some embodiments may gather and use data from the lower resolution sensors of the self-driving vehicle itself as it drives around rather than relying on data that may be collected by an expensive and time-consuming mapping fleet process that may include a fleet of vehicles outfitted with high resolution sensors to create HD maps. The autonomous vehicles may have no prior map data for these routes or even for the region. Some embodiments may provide location as a service (LaaS) such that autonomous vehicles of different manufacturers may gain access to the most up-to-date map information collected, obtained, or created via the aforementioned processes.
Some embodiments may generate and maintain HD maps that may be accurate and may include up-to-date road conditions for safe navigation of the autonomous vehicle. For example, the HD maps may provide the current location of the autonomous vehicle relative to one or more lanes of roads precisely enough to allow the autonomous vehicle to drive safely in and to maneuver safety between one or more lanes of the roads.
HD maps may store a very large amount of information, and therefore may present challenges in the management of the information. For example, an HD map for a given geographic region may be too large to store on a local storage of the autonomous vehicle. Some embodiments may provide a portion of an HD map to the autonomous vehicle that may allow the autonomous vehicle to determine its current location in the HD map, determine the features on the road relative to the autonomous vehicle's position, determine if it is safe to move the autonomous vehicle based on physical constraints and legal constraints, etc. Examples of such physical constraints may include physical obstacles, such as walls, barriers, medians, curbs, etc. and examples of legal constraints may include an allowed direction of travel for a lane, lane restrictions, speed limits, yields, stops, following distances, etc.
Some embodiments of the present disclosure may allow safe navigation for an autonomous vehicle by providing relatively low latency, for example, 5-40 milliseconds or less, for providing a response to a request; high accuracy in terms of location, for example, accuracy within 30 cm or better; freshness of data such that a map may be updated to reflect changes on the road within a threshold time frame, for example, within days, hours, minutes or seconds; and storage efficiency by reducing or minimizing the storage used by the HD Map.
Some embodiments of the present disclosure may enable calibration of multiple LIDARs mounted on a vehicle using localization based on an HD map. For example, when a vehicle begins navigation along a road, and at various other time during the navigation of the vehicle, two or more LIDARs mounted on the vehicle may be calibrated using localization based on an HD map. Where a vehicle has a plurality of LIDARs mounted thereon, the LIDARs may need to be calibrated in order to be able to combine data received from the LIDARs. In some embodiments, calibration of first and second LIDARs may include determining a transformation that can map a point cloud of the first LIDAR to a point cloud of the second LIDAR. The transformation may include a translation vector and a rotation vector.
When calibrating two LIDARs, if the two LIDARs overlap in their fields of view, a system may perform calibration by identifying a point (or set of points) that can be observed from both LIDARs, such as by mapping the point or set of points on specialized surfaces, such as a checkerboard surface used for calibration. The system may then calibrate the LIDARs based on the position of the point (or set of points) determined by each LIDAR by calculating the transform that matches the position of the point (or set of points) determined by the two LIDARs. However, this calibration technique does not work if the two LIDARs do not have overlapping fields of view.
Accordingly, some embodiments enable the calibration of a plurality of LIDARs mounted on a vehicle even if there is no overlap between the fields of view of the plurality of LIDARs. In some embodiments, this calibration may involve using an HD map and a localization process. For example, a portion of a point cloud of an HD map of a region through which a vehicle is driving may be accessed, and a base LIDAR (e.g., a reference LIDAR) from a plurality of LIDARs mounted on the vehicle may be identified. Then, for each of the plurality of LIDARs mounted on the vehicle, a LIDAR scan may be received from the LIDAR of a point cloud of the region through which the vehicle is driving, and a pose may be determined for the LIDAR by performing localization by comparing the point cloud of the LIDAR scan with the point cloud of the HD map. Next, for each LIDAR from the plurality of LIDARs other than the base LIDAR, a transform may be determined for the LIDAR with respect to the base LIDAR based on the pose of the base LIDAR and the pose of the LIDAR. Then, the LIDAR scans and the pose determinations may be repeated to generate a plurality of samples. Next, for each of the plurality of samples, a transform may again be determined for the LIDAR based on the poses. Finally, each LIDAR of the plurality of LIDARs other than the base LIDAR may be calibrated by determining an aggregate transform for the LIDAR by aggregating the plurality of transforms for the LIDAR across the plurality of samples, even if there is no overlap between the fields of view of the plurality of LIDARs. Some embodiments disclosed herein may then uses the calibration of the LIDARs of the vehicle for navigating the vehicle.
Embodiments of the present disclosure are explained with reference to the accompanying drawings.
System Environment of HD Map System
The online HD map system 110 may be configured to receive sensor data that may be captured by sensors of the vehicles 150 and combine data received from the vehicles 150 to generate and maintain HD maps. The online HD map system 110 may be configured to send HD map data to the vehicles 150 for use in driving the vehicles 150. In some embodiments, the online HD map system 110 may be implemented as a distributed computing system, for example, a cloud-based service that may allow clients such as a vehicle computing system 120 (e.g., vehicle computing systems 120a-d) to make requests for information and services. For example, a vehicle computing system 120 may make a request for HD map data for driving along a route and the online HD map system 110 may provide the requested HD map data to the vehicle computing system 120.
The online HD map system 110 may comprise a vehicle interface module 160 and an HD map store 165. The online HD map system 110 may be configured to interact with the vehicle computing system 120 of various vehicles 150 using the vehicle interface module 160. The online HD map system 110 may be configured to store map information for various geographical regions in the HD map store 165. The online HD map system 110 may be configured to include other modules than those illustrated in
In the present disclosure, a module may include code and routines configured to enable a corresponding system (e.g., a corresponding computing system) to perform one or more of the operations described therewith. Additionally or alternatively, any given module may be implemented using hardware including any number of processors, microprocessors (e.g., to perform or control performance of one or more operations), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) or any suitable combination of two or more thereof. Alternatively or additionally, any given module may be implemented using a combination of hardware and software. In the present disclosure, operations described as being performed by a module may include operations that the module may direct a corresponding system to perform.
Further, the differentiation and separation of different modules indicated in the present disclosure is to help with explanation of operations being performed and is not meant to be limiting. For example, depending on the implementation, the operations described with respect to two or more of the modules described in the present disclosure may be performed by what may be considered as a same module. Further, the operations of one or more of the modules may be divided among what may be considered one or more other modules or submodules depending on the implementation.
The online HD map system 110 may be configured to receive sensor data collected by sensors of a plurality of vehicles 150, for example, hundreds or thousands of cars. The sensor data may include any data that may be obtained by sensors of the vehicles that may be related to generation of HD maps. For example, the sensor data may include LIDAR data, captured images, etc. Additionally or alternatively, the sensor data may include information that may describe the current state of the vehicle 150, the location and motion parameters of the vehicles 150, etc.
The vehicles 150 may be configured to provide the sensor data 115 that may be captured while driving along various routes and to send it to the online HD map system 110. The online HD map system 110 may be configured to use the sensor data 115 received from the vehicles 150 to create and update HD maps describing the regions in which the vehicles 150 may be driving. The online HD map system 110 may be configured to build high definition maps based on the collective sensor data 115 that may be received from the vehicles 150 and to store the HD map information in the HD map store 165.
The online HD map system 110 may be configured to send HD map data to the vehicles 150 at the request of the vehicles 150.
For example, in instances in which a particular vehicle 150 is scheduled to drive along a route, the particular vehicle computing system 120 of the particular vehicle 150 may be configured to provide information describing the route being traveled to the online HD map system 110. In response, the online HD map system 110 may be configured to provide HD map data of HD maps related to the route (e.g., that represent the area that includes the route) that may facilitate navigation and driving along the route by the particular vehicle 150.
In an embodiment, the online HD map system 110 may be configured to send portions of the HD map data to the vehicles 150 in a compressed format so that the data transmitted may consume less bandwidth. The online HD map system 110 may be configured to receive from various vehicles 150, information describing the HD map data that may be stored at a local HD map store (e.g., the local HD map store 275 of
In some embodiments, the online HD map system 110 may determine that the particular vehicle 150 may not have certain portions of the HD map data stored locally in a local HD map store of the particular vehicle computing system 120 of the particular vehicle 150. In these or other embodiments, in response to such a determination, the online HD map system 110 may be configured to send a particular portion of the HD map data to the vehicle 150.
In some embodiments, the online HD map system 110 may determine that the particular vehicle 150 may have previously received HD map data with respect to the same geographic area as the particular portion of the HD map data. In these or other embodiments, the online HD map system 110 may determine that the particular portion of the HD map data may be an updated version of the previously received HD map data that was updated by the online HD map system 110 since the particular vehicle 150 last received the previous HD map data. In some embodiments, the online HD map system 110 may send an update for that portion of the HD map data that may be stored at the particular vehicle 150. This may allow the online HD map system 110 to reduce or minimize the amount of HD map data that may be communicated with the vehicle 150 and also to keep the HD map data stored locally in the vehicle updated on a regular basis.
The vehicle 150 may include vehicle sensors 105 (e.g., vehicle sensors 105a-d), vehicle controls 130 (e.g., vehicle controls 130a-d), and a vehicle computing system 120 (e.g., vehicle computer systems 120a-d). The vehicle sensors 105 may be configured to detect the surroundings of the vehicle 150. In these or other embodiments, the vehicle sensors 105 may detect information describing the current state of the vehicle 150, for example, information describing the location and motion parameters of the vehicle 150.
The vehicle sensors 105 may comprise a camera, a light detection and ranging sensor (LIDAR), a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver, for example, a global positioning system (GPS) navigation system, an inertial measurement unit (IMU), and others. The vehicle sensors 105 may include one or more cameras that may capture images of the surroundings of the vehicle. A LIDAR may survey the surroundings of the vehicle by measuring distance to a target by illuminating that target with a laser light pulses and measuring the reflected pulses. The GPS navigation system may determine the position of the vehicle 150 based on signals from satellites. The IMU may include an electronic device that may be configured to measure and report motion data of the vehicle 150 such as velocity, acceleration, direction of movement, speed, angular rate, and so on using a combination of accelerometers and gyroscopes or other measuring instruments.
The vehicle controls 130 may be configured to control the physical movement of the vehicle 150, for example, acceleration, direction change, starting, stopping, etc. The vehicle controls 130 may include the machinery for controlling the accelerator, brakes, steering wheel, etc. The vehicle computing system 120 may provide control signals to the vehicle controls 130 on a regular and/or continuous basis and may cause the vehicle 150 to drive along a selected route.
The vehicle computing system 120 may be configured to perform various tasks including processing data collected by the sensors as well as map data received from the online HD map system 110. The vehicle computing system 120 may also be configured to process data for sending to the online HD map system 110. An example of the vehicle computing system 120 is further illustrated in
The interactions between the vehicle computing systems 120 and the online HD map system 110 may be performed via a network, for example, via the Internet. The network may be configured to enable communications between the vehicle computing systems 120 and the online HD map system 110. In some embodiments, the network may be configured to utilize standard communications technologies and/or protocols. The data exchanged over the network may be represented using technologies and/or formats including the hypertext markup language (HTML), the extensible markup language (XML), etc. In addition, all or some of links may be encrypted using conventional encryption technologies such as secure sockets layer (SSL), transport layer security (TLS), virtual private networks (VPNs), Internet Protocol security (IPsec), etc. In some embodiments, the entities may use custom and/or dedicated data communications technologies.
Vehicle Computing System
With reference to
The prediction module 215 may be configured to interpret the data provided by the perception module 210 using behavior models of the objects perceived to determine whether an object may be moving or likely to move. For example, the prediction module 215 may determine that objects representing road signs may not be likely to move, whereas objects identified as vehicles, people, etc., may either be in motion or likely to move. The prediction module 215 may also be configured to use behavior models 235 of various types of objects to determine whether they may be likely to move. In addition, the prediction module 215 may also be configured to provide the predictions of various objects to a planning module 200 of the vehicle computing system 120 to plan the subsequent actions that the corresponding vehicle 150 may take next.
The planning module 200 may be configured to receive information describing the surroundings of the corresponding vehicle 150 from the prediction module 215 and a route 240 that may indicate a destination of the vehicle 150 and that may indicate the path that the vehicle 150 may take to get to the destination.
The planning module 200 may also be configured to use the information from the prediction module 215 and the route 240 to plan a sequence of actions that the vehicle 150 may to take within a short time interval, for example, within the next few seconds. In some embodiments, the planning module 200 may be configured to specify a sequence of actions as one or more points representing nearby locations that the corresponding vehicle 150 may drive through next. The planning module 200 may be configured to provide, to the control module 225, the details of a plan comprising the sequence of actions to be taken by the corresponding vehicle 150. The plan may indicate the subsequent action or actions of the corresponding vehicle 150, for example, whether the corresponding vehicle 150 may perform a lane change, a turn, an acceleration by increasing the speed or slowing down, etc.
The control module 225 may be configured to determine the control signals that may be sent to the vehicle controls 130 of the corresponding vehicle 150 based on the plan that may be received from the planning module 200. For example, if the corresponding vehicle 150 is currently at point A and the plan specifies that the corresponding vehicle 150 should next proceed to a nearby point B, the control module 225 may determine the control signals for the vehicle controls 130 that may cause the corresponding vehicle 150 to go from point A to point B in a safe and smooth way, for example, without taking any sharp turns or a zig zag path from point A to point B. The path that may be taken by the corresponding vehicle 150 to go from point A to point B may depend on the current speed and direction of the corresponding vehicle 150 as well as the location of point B with respect to point A. For example, if the current speed of the corresponding vehicle 150 is high, the corresponding vehicle 150 may take a wider turn compared to another vehicle driving slowly.
The control module 225 may also be configured to receive physical constraints 245 as input. The physical constraints 245 may include the physical capabilities of the corresponding vehicle 150. For example, the corresponding vehicle 150 having a particular make and model may be able to safely make certain types of vehicle movements such as acceleration and turns that another vehicle with a different make and model may not be able to make safely. In addition, the control module 225 may be configured to incorporate the physical constraints 245 in determining the control signals for the vehicle controls 130 of the corresponding vehicle 150. In addition, the control module 225 may be configured to send control signals to the vehicle controls 130 that may cause the corresponding vehicle 150 to execute the specified sequence of actions and may cause the corresponding vehicle 150 to move according to a predetermined set of actions. In some embodiments, the aforementioned steps may be constantly repeated every few seconds and may cause the corresponding vehicle 150 to drive safely along the route that may have been planned for the corresponding vehicle 150.
The various modules of the vehicle computing system 120 including the perception module 210, prediction module 215, and planning module 220 may be configured to receive map information to perform their respective computations. The corresponding vehicle 150 may store the HD map data in the local HD map store 275. The modules of the vehicle computing system 120 may interact with the map data using an HD map API 205.
The HD map API 205 may provide one or more application programming interfaces (APIs) that can be invoked by a module for accessing the map information. The HD map system interface 280 may be configured to allow the vehicle computing system 120 to interact with the online HD map system 110 via a network (not illustrated in the Figures). The local HD map store 275 may store map data in a format that may be specified by the online HD map system 110. The HD map API 205 may be configured to process the map data format as provided by the online HD map system 110. The HD map API 205 may be configured to provide the vehicle computing system 120 with an interface for interacting with the HD map data. The HD map API 205 may include several APIs including a localization API 250, a landmark map API 255, a 3D map API 265, a route API 270, a map update API 285, etc.
The localization API 250 may be configured to determine the current location of the corresponding vehicle 150, for example, where the corresponding vehicle 150 is with respect to a given route. The localization API 250 may be configured to include a localized API that determines a location of the corresponding vehicle 150 within an HD map and within a particular degree of accuracy. The vehicle computing system 120 may also be configured to use the location as an accurate (e.g., within a certain level of accuracy) relative position for making other queries, for example, feature queries, navigable space queries, and occupancy map queries further described herein.
The localization API 250 may be configured to receive inputs comprising one or more of, location provided by GPS, vehicle motion data provided by IMU, LIDAR scanner data, camera images, etc. The localization API 250 may be configured to return an accurate location of the corresponding vehicle 150 as latitude and longitude coordinates. The coordinates that may be returned by the localization API 250 may be more accurate compared to the GPS coordinates used as input, for example, the output of the localization API 250 may have precision ranging within from 2-30 cm. In some embodiments, the vehicle computing system 120 may be configured to invoke the localization API 250 to determine the location of the corresponding vehicle 150 periodically based on the LIDAR using scanner data, for example, at a frequency of 10 Hertz (Hz).
The vehicle computing system 120 may also be configured to invoke the localization API 250 to determine the vehicle location at a higher rate (e.g., 60 Hz) if GPS or IMU data is available at that rate. In addition, vehicle computing system 120 may be configured to store as internal state, location history records to improve accuracy of subsequent localization calls. The location history record may store history of location from the point-in-time, when the corresponding vehicle 150 was turned off/stopped, etc. The localization API 250 may include a localize-route API that may be configured to generate an accurate (e.g., within a specified degree of accuracy) route specifying lanes based on the HD maps. The localize-route API may be configured to receive as input a route from a source to a destination via one or more third-party maps and may be configured to generate a high precision (e.g., within a specified degree of precision such as within 30 cm) route represented as a connected graph of navigable lanes along the input routes based on HD maps.
The landmark map API 255 may be configured to provide a geometric and semantic description of the world around the corresponding vehicle 150, for example, description of various portions of lanes that the corresponding vehicle 150 is currently travelling on. The landmark map APIs 255 comprise APIs that may be configured to allow queries based on landmark maps, for example, fetch-lanes API and fetch-features API. The fetch-lanes API may be configured to provide lane information relative to the corresponding vehicle 150 and the fetch-features API. The fetch-lanes API may also be configured to receive, as input, a location, for example, the location of the corresponding vehicle 150 specified using latitude and longitude and return lane information relative to the input location. In addition, the fetch-lanes API may be configured to specify a distance parameter indicating the distance relative to the input location for which the lane information may be retrieved. Further, the fetch-features API may be configured to receive information identifying one or more lane elements and to return landmark features relative to the specified lane elements. The landmark features may include, for each landmark, a spatial description that may be specific to the type of landmark.
The 3D map API 265 may be configured to provide access to the spatial 3-dimensional (3D) representation of the road and various physical objects around the road as stored in the local HD map store 275. The 3D map APIs 265 may include a fetch-navigable-surfaces API and a fetch-occupancy-grid API. The fetch-navigable-surfaces API may be configured to receive as input identifiers for one or more lane elements and return navigable boundaries for the specified lane elements. The fetch-occupancy-grid API may also be configured to receive a location as input, for example, a latitude and a longitude of the corresponding vehicle 150, and return information describing occupancy for the surface of the road and all objects available in the HD map near the location. The information describing occupancy may include a hierarchical volumetric grid of some or all positions considered occupied in the HD map. The occupancy grid may include information at a high resolution near the navigable areas, for example, at curbs and bumps, and relatively low resolution in less significant areas, for example, trees and walls beyond a curb. In addition, the fetch-occupancy-grid API may be configured to detect obstacles and to change direction, if necessary.
The 3D map APIs 265 may also include map-update APIs, for example, download-map-updates API and upload-map-updates API. The download-map-updates API may be configured to receive as input a planned route identifier and download map updates for data relevant to all planned routes or for a specific planned route. The upload-map-updates API may be configured to upload data collected by the vehicle computing system 120 to the online HD map system 110. The upload-map-updates API may allow the online HD map system 110 to keep the HD map data stored in the online HD map system 110 up-to-date based on changes in map data that may be observed by sensors of vehicles 150 driving along various routes.
The route API 270 may be configured to return route information including a full route between a source and destination and portions of a route as the corresponding vehicle 150 travels along the route. The 3D map API 265 may be configured to allow querying of the online HD map system 110. The route APIs 270 may include an add-planned-routes API and a get-planned-route API. The add-planned-routes API may be configured to provide information describing planned routes to the online HD map system 110 so that information describing relevant HD maps may be downloaded by the vehicle computing system 120 and kept up to date. The add-planned-routes API may be configured to receive as input, a route specified using polylines expressed in terms of latitudes and longitudes and also a time-to-live (TTL) parameter specifying a time period after which the route data may be deleted. Accordingly, the add-planned-routes API may be configured to allow the vehicle 150 to indicate the route the vehicle 150 is planning on taking in the near future as an autonomous trip. The add-planned-route API may also be configured to align the route to the HD map, record the route and its TTL value, and determine that the HD map data for the route stored in the vehicle computing system 120 is up-to-date. The get-planned-routes API may be configured to return a list of planned routes and to provide information describing a route identified by a route identifier.
The map update API 285 may be configured to manage operations related to updating of map data, both for the local HD map store 275 and for the HD map store 165 stored in the online HD map system 110. Accordingly, modules in the vehicle computing system 120 may be configured to invoke the map update API 285 for downloading data from the online HD map system 110 to the vehicle computing system 120 for storing in the local HD map store 275. The map update API 285 may also be configured to allow the vehicle computing system 120 to determine whether the information monitored by the vehicle sensors 105 indicates a discrepancy in the map information provided by the online HD map system 110 and upload data to the online HD map system 110 that may result in the online HD map system 110 updating the map data stored in the HD map store 165 that is provided to other vehicles 150.
The online HD map system 110 may be configured to provide a library for processing HD maps based on instructions specific to the manufacturer of the vehicle and instructions specific to a vendor specific platform of the vehicle. The library may provide access to the HD map data and may allow the vehicle 150 to interact with the online HD map system 110.
As illustrated in
The online HD map system 110 may be configured to store computer platform adapters 320 for a plurality of computer platforms and vehicle manufacturer adapters 310 for a plurality of vehicle manufacturers. The online HD map system 110 may be configured to determine the particular vehicle manufacturer and the particular computer platform for a specific autonomous vehicle 150. The online HD map system 110 may also be configured to select the vehicle manufacturer adapter 310 for the particular vehicle manufacturer and the computer platform adapter 320 the particular computer platform of that specific vehicle 150. In addition, the online HD map system 110 may be configured to send instructions of the selected vehicle manufacturer adapter 310 and the selected computer platform adapter 320 to the vehicle computing system 120 of that specific autonomous vehicle. The vehicle computing system 120 of that specific autonomous vehicle may be configured to install the received vehicle manufacturer adapter 310 and the computer platform adapter 320. The vehicle computing system 120 may also be configured to periodically verify whether the online HD map system 110 has an update to the installed vehicle manufacturer adapter 310 and the computer platform adapter 320. In addition, if a more recent update is available compared to the version installed on the vehicle 150, the vehicle computing system 120 may be configured to request and receive the latest update and to install it.
HD Map System Architecture
The map creation module 410 may be configured to create HD map data of HD maps from the sensor data collected from several vehicles 150 that are driving along various routes. The map update module 420 may be configured to update previously computed HD map data by receiving more recent information (e.g., sensor data) from vehicles 150 that recently traveled along routes on which map information changed. For example, certain road signs may have changed or lane information may have changed as a result of construction in a region, and the map update module 420 may be configured to update the HD maps and corresponding HD map data accordingly. The map data encoding module 430 may be configured to encode the HD map data to be able to store the data efficiently (e.g., compress the HD map data) as well as send the HD map data to vehicles 150. The load balancing module 440 may be configured to balance loads across vehicles 150 such that requests to receive data from vehicles 150 are distributed across different vehicles 150 in a relatively uniform manner (e.g., the load distribution between different vehicles 150 is within a threshold amount of each other). The map accuracy management module 450 may be configured to maintain relatively high accuracy of the HD map data using various techniques even though the information received from individual vehicles may not have the same degree of accuracy. The localization module 460 may be configured to perform actions similar to those performed by the localization module 290 of
In some embodiments, the HD map 510 of a geographical region may include a landmark map (LMap) 520 and an occupancy map (OMap) 530. The landmark map 520 may comprise information describing lanes including spatial location of lanes and semantic information about each lane. The spatial location of a lane may comprise the geometric location in latitude, longitude, and elevation at high prevision, for example, precision within 30 cm or better. The semantic information of a lane comprises restrictions such as direction, speed, type of lane (for example, a lane for going straight, a left turn lane, a right turn lane, an exit lane, and the like), restriction on crossing to the left, connectivity to other lanes, etc.
In these or other embodiments, the landmark map 520 may comprise information describing stop lines, yield lines, spatial location of cross walks, safely navigable space, spatial location of speed bumps, curb, road signs comprising spatial location, type of all signage that is relevant to driving restrictions, etc. Examples of road signs described in an HD map 510 may include stop signs, traffic lights, speed limits, one-way, do-not-enter, yield (vehicle, pedestrian, animal), etc.
In some embodiments, the occupancy map 530 may comprise a spatial 3-dimensional (3D) representation of the road and physical objects around the road. The data stored in an occupancy map 530 may also be referred to herein as occupancy grid data. The 3D representation may be associated with a confidence score indicative of a likelihood of the object existing at the location. The occupancy map 530 may be represented in a number of other ways. In some embodiments, the occupancy map 530 may be represented as a 3D mesh geometry (collection of triangles) which may cover the surfaces. In some embodiments, the occupancy map 530 may be represented as a collection of 3D points which may cover the surfaces. In some embodiments, the occupancy map 530 may be represented using a 3D volumetric grid of cells at 5-10 cm resolution. Each cell may indicate whether or not a surface exists at that cell, and if the surface exists, a direction along which the surface may be oriented.
The occupancy map 530 may take a large amount of storage space compared to a landmark map 520. For example, data of 1 GB/Mile may be used by an occupancy map 530, resulting in the map of the United States (including 4 million miles of road) occupying 4×1015 bytes or 4 petabytes. Therefore, the online HD map system 110 and the vehicle computing system 120 may use data compression techniques to be able to store and transfer map data thereby reducing storage and transmission costs. Accordingly, the techniques disclosed herein may help improve the self-driving of autonomous vehicles by improving the efficiency of data storage and transmission with respect to self-driving operations and capabilities.
In some embodiments, the HD map 510 does may not use or rely on data that may typically be included in maps, such as addresses, road names, ability to geo-code an address, and ability to compute routes between place names or addresses. The vehicle computing system 120 or the online HD map system 110 may access other map systems, for example, GOOGLE MAPS, to obtain this information. Accordingly, a vehicle computing system 120 or the online HD map system 110 may receive navigation instructions from a tool such as GOOGLE MAPS into a route and may convert the information to a route based on the HD map 510 or may convert the information such that it may be compatible for us on the HD map 510.
Geographical Regions in HD Maps
The online HD map system 110 may divide a large physical area into geographical regions and may store a representation of each geographical region. Each geographical region may represent a contiguous area bounded by a geometric shape, for example, a rectangle or square. In some embodiments, the online HD map system 110 may divide a physical area into geographical regions of similar size independent of the amount of data needed to store the representation of each geographical region. In some embodiments, the online HD map system 110 may divide a physical area into geographical regions of different sizes, where the size of each geographical region may be determined based on the amount of information needed for representing the geographical region. For example, a geographical region representing a densely populated area with a large number of streets may represent a smaller physical area compared to a geographical region representing sparsely populated area with very few streets. In some embodiments, the online HD map system 110 may determine the size of a geographical region based on an estimate of an amount of information that may be used to store the various elements of the physical area relevant for the HD map.
In some embodiments, the online HD map system 110 may represent a geographic region using an object or a data record that may include various attributes including: a unique identifier for the geographical region; a unique name for the geographical region; a description of the boundary of the geographical region, for example, using a bounding box of latitude and longitude coordinates; and a collection of landmark features and occupancy grid data.
In some embodiments, as illustrated in
In some embodiments, the vehicle computing system 120 may switch the current geographical region of the corresponding vehicle 150 from one geographical region to a neighboring geographical region when the corresponding vehicle 150 crosses a predetermined threshold distance within the buffer. For example, as shown in
Lane Representations in HD Maps
The HD map system 100 may represent lane information of streets in HD maps. Although the embodiments described may refer to streets, the techniques may be applicable to highways, alleys, avenues, boulevards, paths, etc., on which vehicles 150 may travel. The HD map system 100 may use lanes as a reference frame for purposes of routing and for localization of the vehicle 150. The lanes represented by the HD map system 100 may include lanes that are explicitly marked, for example, white and yellow striped lanes, lanes that may be implicit, for example, on a country road with no lines or curbs but may nevertheless have two directions of travel, and implicit paths that may act as lanes, for example, the path that a turning car may make when entering a lane from another lane.
The HD map system 100 may also store information relative to lanes, for example, landmark features such as road signs and traffic lights relative to the lanes, occupancy grids relative to the lanes for obstacle detection, and navigable spaces relative to the lanes so the vehicle 150 may plan/react in emergencies when the vehicle 150 makes an unplanned move out of the lane. Accordingly, the HD map system 100 may store a representation of a network of lanes to allow the vehicle 150 to plan a legal path between a source and a destination and to add a frame of reference for real-time sensing and control of the vehicle 150. The HD map system 100 stores information and provides APIs that may allow a vehicle 150 to determine the lane that the vehicle 150 is currently in, the precise location of the vehicle 150 relative to the lane geometry, and other relevant features/data relative to the lane and adjoining and connected lanes.
The HD map data may represent portions of the lanes as lane elements. The lane elements may specify the boundaries of the lane and various constraints including the legal direction in which a vehicle may travel within the lane element, the speed with which the vehicle may drive within the lane element, whether the lane element may be for left turn only, or right turn only, etc. In some embodiments, the HD map data may represent a lane element as a continuous geometric portion of a single vehicle lane. The HD map system 100 may store objects or data structures that may represents lane elements that may comprise information representing geometric boundaries of the lanes; driving direction along the lane; vehicle restriction for driving in the lane, for example, speed limit, relationships with connecting lanes including incoming and outgoing lanes; a termination restriction, for example, whether the lane ends at a stop line, a yield sign, or a speed bump; and relationships with road features that are relevant for autonomous driving, for example, traffic light locations, road sign locations, etc., as part of the HD map data.
Examples of lane elements represented by the HD map data may include, a piece of a right lane on a freeway, a piece of a lane on a road, a left turn lane, the turn from a left turn lane into another lane, a merge lane from an on-ramp an exit lane on an off-ramp, and a driveway. The HD map data may represent a one-lane road using two lane elements, one for each direction. The HD map system 100 may represents median turn lanes that may be shared similar to a one-lane road.
Localization
In some embodiments, the localization module 290 may support two operation modes: real-time mode and replay mode. The real-time mode may process the data as it comes in, such as asynchronously or in parallel. The actual sequence of estimate requests and state updates may be arbitrary. Thus, the results may differ between runs. The replay mode may process the data according to a previously recorded (or otherwise established) localization event sequence. Processing may be synchronous, and the results may be deterministic, such that the order may be controlled by means of the localization event sequence. The real-time mode may be applied to the operation of the localization module 290 on a vehicle, with the data being generally streamed directly from the vehicle's sensors. The real-time mode may also be used in conjunction with previously recorded data. The data may be processed asynchronously and subject to real-time constraints, and the current vehicle state estimate may be requested at any time. Consequently, the order in which the data is processed and used for localization, along with the intermittent requests of current estimates, may not be controlled.
In some embodiments, the localization module 290 may perform two atomic operations that determine the localization results: requesting an estimate of the current vehicle state, and updating the estimate through direct or derived measurements of the vehicle's state. In some embodiments, real-time constraints may also affect the localization behavior (e.g. an algorithm may have to finish before reaching convergence due to time constraints). In real-time mode, the sequence of estimation requests and update operations may be recorded as a localizer event sequence along with event identifiers describing why the operations were issued and what timing-dependent parameters were used in a particular algorithm. The event identifiers may relate to particular measurements and sensors (e.g. a LIDAR-scan from a specific time and sensor, or an API request of the current vehicle state estimate). The replay mode may allow localization behavior to be deterministically reproduced (replayed) given a stream of recorded data and a localizer event sequence. For truly deterministic localization replay, the current vehicle state estimate may not be requested asynchronously, but instead it may be received through a designated callback by means of a localization API.
Internally, the localization module 290 may deploy various algorithms to estimate a vehicle's dynamic state. For example, LIDAR data and image data may be used to estimate an absolute pose with respect to an HD map as well as the velocities/accelerations and relative pose with respect to previous measurements (e.g., odometry). In some embodiments, derived and direct measurements may be fused together by means of state estimation algorithms (e.g. Kalman filters) in order to obtain robust and optimal state estimates. Direct state measurements may come, for example, from inertial measurement units (IMU).
In some embodiments, the localization module 290 may include the localizer 292, the vehicle state filter manager 294, and the vehicle state filter 296, as disclosed in
In some embodiments, the localizer 292, vehicle state filter manager 294, and vehicle state filter 296 of the localization module 290 may form a nested structure. The localizer 292 may be the outermost component, and may handle raw sensor data. The data may be buffered and processed to generate estimates regarding the vehicle's dynamic state, (e.g., 3D pose, velocities, and accelerations). The resulting state measurement may then be passed to the vehicle state filter manager 294, which may constitute a second layer, and may manage the measurement buffering, filtering, and local-sector switching. The vehicle state filter 296 may consume time sequential state measurements as provided by the vehicle state filter manager 294. The vehicle state filter 296 may estimate an optimal vehicle state given the measurements and their uncertainties (e.g., standard deviations) as well as the uncertainties (e.g., standard deviations) of the model-based predictions. Subsequently, the estimated vehicle state for a given timestamp may be obtained. If the timestamp is in the future (i.e. past the last measurement), the vehicle state filter 296 may effectively predict the state using the current state and the prediction model.
As mentioned above, the localizer 292 may receive different sensor inputs (e.g. LIDAR, images, IMU etc.) as disclosed in
Iterative-Closest-Point (ICP) Technique
Some embodiments may employ an ICP technique for performing localization. An ICP technique may be generally employed to minimize the difference between two point clouds. In some embodiments of the ICP technique, one point cloud (e.g., vertex cloud), called the target or reference point cloud, may be kept fixed, while the other point cloud, call the source point cloud, may be transformed to best match the reference point cloud. The ICP technique may iteratively revise the transformation (e.g., combination of translation and rotation) needed to minimize an error metric, usually a distance from the source point cloud to the reference point cloud, such as the sum of squared differences between the coordinates of the matched pairs. The ICP technique may align 3D models (e.g., point clouds) given an initial guess of the transformation required.
In some embodiments, a system receives as input a reference point cloud and a source point cloud, an initial estimation of the transformation to align the source point cloud to the reference point cloud, and some criteria for stopping the iterations. For example, the reference point cloud may be the point cloud of an HD Map (OMap) and the source point cloud may be a LIDAR scan. The system may perform the ICP technique to generate a refined transformation, for example, the transformation to determine the pose of the vehicle (or the LIDAR) given the OMap of the region. For example, for each point in the source point cloud, the system may match the closest point in the reference point cloud (or a selected set). The system may then estimate the combination of rotation and translation which will best align each source point to its match found in the previous step. In some embodiments, the system may use a root mean square point to point distance metric minimization technique for estimating the combination of rotation and translation. The system may next weigh points and reject outliers prior to alignment. The system may then transform the source points using the obtained transformation. The system may next repeat these actions (e.g., by re-associating the points, and so on) until a predetermined stopping criteria is met.
Multi-LIDAR Calibration with HD Map and Localization
Some embodiments disclosed herein are able to perform multi-LIDAR calibration, even where there is no overlap between the fields of view of the multiple LIDARs, unlike some systems that may only perform multi-LIDAR calibration when the multiple LIDARs have a coverage overlap in their fields of view. Some embodiments may generally involve a system performing three actions to perform multi-LIDAR calibration.
In the first action, the system may perform independent localization with each LIDAR individually and then generate a series of localization poses for each LIDAR i at each sample j, which may be referred to as Pij. The system may identify one LIDAR as a base LIDAR. Where the vehicle is not moving, the system may not need to consider the time difference between each sample of the LIDAR point cloud. Otherwise, if the vehicle is moving, each sample j may correspond to a different timestamp than the sample of the base LIDAR point cloud. As a result, the system may perform pose interpolation for all other LIDARs to get the pose at the timestamp of the sample of the base LIDAR. Note that generating this pose for each LIDAR may require the system to determine a rough initial guess calibration, which may be directly measured mechanically. The requirement for such an initial guess may be for the localization to be able to bootstrap in an HD map.
In the second action, the system may calculate the relative pose for each LIDAR (i) with respect to the base lidar (0) for each sample (j). Here Pij may be the pose of LIDAR (i) as determined using sample (j), while P0j may be the pose of the base LIDAR (0) as determined using sample (j), and Tij may be the transform for LIDAR (i) determined using sample (j), as follows:
Tij=P0j−1Pij
In the third action, the system may calculate the average transform by taking the mean of the transform for each sample, as follows:
The use of the average transform of all samples may reduce the chance that some fluctuations of the localizer and the fuzziness of the HD map may introduce some error or bias. In some embodiments, the bootstrapping might cause the first few samples to have a larger error, so when Pij is calculated, the first few samples may be ignored.
The accuracy of this type of calibration may be subject to the accuracy of the localization approach and the fuzziness (or accuracy) of the HD map. The location where this calibration happens may matter because, to guarantee good accuracy of the localization, the system may need to ensure that each LIDAR observes an abundant amount of geometry (e.g., recognizable structures) in the environment to be able to localize.
Using the data collected when the vehicle is parked at a fixed location may generate better results because the localization result may have less error from wrong initial guessing or unwinding. The result quality may, however, be subject to the error or fuzziness of the HD map.
Calibration as an Optimization Problem
The cost function for the optimization may be the weighted sum of the difference between the estimated calibration transform and the calibration transform calculated from aligning to the HD map. The cost function may be represented as follows:
Where W(Ωi(m), Ωi(n)) is a general weighting function that combines the two Heissians of aligning to the HD map, the actual form of which may be adjusted depending on the LIDAR setup and field of view coverages.
The method 1100 may include, at action 1110, accessing a portion of an HD map comprising a point cloud of a region through which a vehicle is driving. In some embodiments, the point cloud of the HD map may be determined by combining a plurality of LIDAR scans obtained from a plurality of vehicles while driving through the region. For example, the localization module 290 of the vehicle computing system 120a may access, at action 1110, a portion of an HD map from the HD map store 165 of the online HD map system 110. The HD map may include a point cloud of a region through which the vehicle 150a is currently driving, and may have been generated by combining a plurality of LIDAR scans obtained from a plurality of vehicles (e.g., the vehicles 150b-150d and/or other vehicles having LIDARs mounted thereon) while driving through the same region.
The method 1100 may include, at action 1120, identifying a base LIDAR from a plurality of LIDARs mounted on the vehicle. For example, the localization module 290 of the vehicle computing system 120a may identify, at action 1120, a base LIDAR (e.g., a reference LIDAR) from a plurality of LIDARs mounted on the vehicle 150a.
The method 1100 may include, at action 1130, for each of the plurality of LIDARs, at action 1130a, receiving a LIDAR scan from the LIDAR comprising a point cloud of the region through which the vehicle is driving, and at action 1130b, determining a pose for the LIDAR by performing localization by comparing the point cloud of the LIDAR scan with the point cloud of the HD map. In some embodiments, the performing of the localization may be based on an iterative closest point (ICP) technique. In some embodiments, the pose determined at action 1130b may include a geographic location and an orientation. In some embodiments, the ICP technique may initialize the pose of each of the plurality of LIDARs based on a GNSS-based geographic location of the vehicle. For example, the localization module 290 of the vehicle computing system 120a may, at action 1130, for each of the plurality of LIDARs mounted on the vehicle 150a, receive, at action 1130a, a LIDAR scan from the LIDAR comprising a point cloud of the region through which the vehicle 150a is driving, and determine, at action 1130b, a pose for the LIDAR by performing localization by comparing the point cloud of the LIDAR scan with the point cloud of the HD map. In this example, the localization may be performed using an ICP technique, which may initialize the pose of the LIDAR based on a GNSS-based geographic location of the vehicle 150a.
In some embodiments, the action 1130b may further include, when the LIDAR scan of the base LIDAR is performed prior to the LIDAR scan of the LIDAR (e.g., when these two LIDAR scans are not performed simultaneously), transforming the point cloud of the LIDAR scan to compensate for any movement of the vehicle between the LIDAR scan of the base LIDAR and the LIDAR scan of the LIDAR. For example, where the LIDAR scan of the base LIDAR takes place 100 microseconds prior to the LIDAR scan of the LIDAR (e.g., based on the timestamps of these two LIDAR scans), the localization module 290 of the vehicle computing system 120a may transform the point cloud of the LIDAR scan to compensate for any movement of the vehicle 150a in this 100 microsecond time period.
The method 1100 may include, at action 1140, for each LIDAR of the plurality of LIDARs other than the base LIDAR, at action 1140a, determining a transform for the LIDAR with respect to the base LIDAR based on the pose of the base LIDAR and the pose of the LIDAR. For example, the localization module 290 of the vehicle computing system 120a may, at action 1140, for each LIDAR of the plurality of LIDARs mounted on the vehicle 150a other than the base LIDAR, determine, at action 1140a, a transform for the LIDAR with respect to the base LIDAR based on the pose of the base LIDAR and the pose of the LIDAR.
The method 1100 may include, at action 1150, repeating the action 1130 to generate a plurality of samples. For example, the localization module 290 of the vehicle computing system 120a may repeat, at action 1150, the action 1130 (including the actions 1130a and 1130b) to generate a plurality of samples (e.g., a plurality of sample poses of each of the LIDARs).
The method 1100 may include, at action 1160, for each of the plurality of samples, repeating the action 1140 to determine a plurality of transforms for each LIDAR with respect to the base LIDAR. For example, the localization module 290 of the vehicle computing system 120a may, for each of the plurality of samples, repeat, at action 1160, the action 1140 (including the action 1140a) to determine a plurality of transforms for each LIDAR with respect to the base LIDAR.
The method 1100 may include, at action 1170, calibrating each LIDAR of the plurality of LIDARs other than the base LIDAR by determining an aggregate transform for the LIDAR by aggregating the plurality of transforms for the LIDAR across the plurality of samples. In some embodiments, the determining of the aggregate transform for the LIDAR may include calculating an average transform by taking the mean of the plurality of transforms for the LIDAR across the plurality of samples, which may include removing outlier transforms from the plurality of transforms prior to the calculating of the average transform. In some embodiments, the determining of the aggregate transform for the LIDAR by aggregating the plurality of transforms for the LIDAR across the plurality of samples comprises calculating a weighted average transform of the plurality of transforms for the LIDAR across the plurality of samples using a measure of uncertainty. In some embodiments, the calibrating of each LIDAR of the plurality of LIDARs other than the base LIDAR may be performed where there is no overlap between fields of view of the plurality of LIDARs. For example, the localization module 290 of the vehicle computing system 120a may calibrate, at action 1170, each LIDAR of the plurality of LIDARs mounted on the vehicle 150a other than the base LIDAR by determining an aggregate transform for the LIDAR by aggregating the plurality of transforms for the LIDAR across the plurality of samples, such as by calculating an average transform by taking the mean of the plurality of transforms for the LIDAR across the plurality of samples. In this example, this calibration may be performed even if there is no overlap between the fields of view of the plurality of LIDARs.
In some embodiments, actions 1130-1170 may be performed repeatedly in real-time while the vehicle is driving through the region. As used herein, the term “real-time” refers to actions being performed while a vehicle is in operation.
Subsequent to the action 1170, the method 1100 may employ the calibrated LIDARs mounted on the vehicle 150a, in gathering data to update the HD map store 165, and/or in navigating the vehicle 150a. Further, the method 1100 may be employed repeatedly as the vehicle 150a navigates along a road. For example, the method 1100 may be employed with the vehicle 150a (or another non-autonomous vehicle) starts driving, and then may be employed repeatedly during the navigation of the vehicle 150a (or another non-autonomous vehicle). The vehicle 150a may navigate by sending control signals to controls of the vehicle 150a. The method 1100 may be employed by the vehicle computing system 120a of the vehicle 150a to perform an accurate calibration of multiple LIDARs, even if there is no overlap between the fields of view of the plurality of LIDARs.
Computer System Architecture
The machine may be a server computer, a client computer, a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a smartphone, a web appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing instructions 1224 (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. Further, while only a single machine is illustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken to include any collection of machines that individually or jointly execute instructions 1224 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.
The example computer system 1200 may be part of or may be any applicable system described in the present disclosure. For example, the online HD map system 110 and/or the vehicle computing systems 120 described above may comprise the computer system 1200 or one or more portions of the computer system 1200. Further, different implementations of the computer system 1200 may include more or fewer components than those described herein. For example, a particular computer system 1200 may not include one or more of the elements described herein and/or may include one or more elements that are not explicitly discussed.
The example computer system 1200 includes a processor 1202 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digital signal processor (DSP), one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), one or more radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs), or any combination of these), a main memory 1204, and a static memory 1206, which are configured to communicate with each other via a bus 1208. The computer system 1200 may further include graphics display unit 1210 (e.g., a plasma display panel (PDP), a liquid crystal display (LCD), a projector, or a cathode ray tube (CRT)). The computer system 1200 may also include alphanumeric input device 1212 (e.g., a keyboard), a cursor control device 1214 (e.g., a mouse, a trackball, a joystick, a motion sensor, or other pointing instrument), a storage unit 1216, a signal generation device 1218 (e.g., a speaker), and a network interface device 1220, which also are configured to communicate via the bus 1208.
The storage unit 1216 includes a machine-readable medium 1222 on which is stored instructions 1224 (e.g., software) embodying any one or more of the methodologies or functions described herein. The instructions 1224 (e.g., software) may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 1204 or within the processor 1202 (e.g., within a processor's cache memory) during execution thereof by the computer system 1200, the main memory 1204 and the processor 1202 also constituting machine-readable media. The instructions 1224 (e.g., software) may be transmitted or received over a network 1226 via the network interface device 1220.
While machine-readable medium 1222 is shown in an example embodiment to be a single medium, the term “machine-readable medium” should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, or associated caches and servers) able to store instructions (e.g., instructions 1224). The term “machine-readable medium” shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing instructions (e.g., instructions 1224) for execution by the machine and that cause the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies disclosed herein. The term “machine-readable medium” includes, but not be limited to, data repositories in the form of solid-state memories, optical media, and magnetic media.
Additional Configuration Considerations
The foregoing description of the embodiments of the invention has been presented for the purpose of illustration; it is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Persons skilled in the relevant art can appreciate that many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above disclosure.
For example, although the techniques described herein are applied to autonomous vehicles, the techniques can also be applied to other applications, for example, for displaying HD maps for vehicles with drivers, for displaying HD maps on displays of client devices such as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, or any computing device with a display screen. Techniques displayed herein can also be applied for displaying maps for purposes of computer simulation, for example, in computer games, and so on.
Some portions of this description describe the embodiments of the invention in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on information. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are commonly used by those skilled in the data processing arts to convey the substance of their work effectively to others skilled in the art. These operations, while described functionally, computationally, or logically, are understood to be implemented by computer programs or equivalent electrical circuits, microcode, or the like. Furthermore, it has also proven convenient at times, to refer to these arrangements of operations as modules, without loss of generality. The described operations and their associated modules may be embodied in software, firmware, hardware, or any combinations thereof.
Any of the steps, operations, or processes described herein may be performed or implemented with one or more hardware or software modules, alone or in combination with other devices. In one embodiment, a software module is implemented with a computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium containing computer program code, which can be executed by a computer processor for performing any or all of the steps, operations, or processes described.
Embodiments of the invention may also relate to an apparatus for performing the operations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes, and/or it may comprise a general-purpose computing device selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a tangible computer readable storage medium or any type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions and coupled to a computer system bus. Furthermore, any computing systems referred to in the specification may include a single processor or may be architectures employing multiple processor designs for increased computing capability.
Embodiments of the invention may also relate to a computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave, where the computer data signal includes any embodiment of a computer program product or other data combination described herein. The computer data signal is a product that is presented in a tangible medium or carrier wave and modulated or otherwise encoded in the carrier wave, which is tangible, and transmitted according to any suitable transmission method.
Finally, the language used in the specification has been principally selected for readability and instructional purposes, and it may not have been selected to delineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter. It is therefore intended that the scope of the invention be limited not by this detailed description, but rather by any claims that issue on an application based hereon.
As used herein, the terms “module” or “component” may refer to specific hardware implementations configured to perform the operations of the module or component and/or software objects or software routines that may be stored on and/or executed by general-purpose hardware (e.g., computer-readable media, processing devices, etc.) of the computing system. In some embodiments, the different components, modules, engines, and services described herein may be implemented as objects or processes that execute on the computing system (e.g., as separate threads). While some of the system and methods described herein are generally described as being implemented in software (stored on and/or executed by general purpose hardware), specific hardware implementations or a combination of software and specific hardware implementations are also possible and contemplated. In this description, a “computing entity” may be any computing system as previously defined herein, or any module or combination of modulates running on a computing system.
Terms used in the present disclosure and especially in the appended claims (e.g., bodies of the appended claims) are generally intended as “open” terms (e.g., the term “including” should be interpreted as “including, but not limited to,” the term “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term “includes” should be interpreted as “includes, but is not limited to,” etc.).
Additionally, if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such an intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of the introductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim recitation to embodiments containing only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an” (e.g., “a” and/or “an” should be interpreted to mean “at least one” or “one or more”); the same holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claim recitations.
In addition, even if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should be interpreted to mean at least the recited number (e.g., the bare recitation of “two recitations,” without other modifiers, means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations). Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, and C, etc.” or “one or more of A, B, and C, etc.”, or “at least one of A, B, or C, etc.” or “one or more of A, B, or C, etc.” is used, in general such a construction is intended to include A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, or A, B, and C together, etc. Additionally, the use of the term “and/or” is intended to be construed in this manner.
Further, any disjunctive word or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in the description, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, or both terms. For example, the phrase “A or B” should be understood to include the possibilities of “A” or “B” or “A and B” even if the term “and/or” is used elsewhere.
All examples and conditional language recited in the present disclosure are intended for pedagogical objects to aid the reader in understanding the present disclosure and the concepts contributed by the inventor to furthering the art and are to be construed as being without limitation to such specifically recited examples and conditions. Although embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail, various changes, substitutions, and alterations could be made hereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.
This patent application claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional App. No. 62/866,767 filed Jun. 26, 2019, which is incorporated by reference in the present disclosure in its entirety for all that it discloses.
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| 20200132850 | Crouch | Apr 2020 | A1 |
| 20200167955 | Bao | May 2020 | A1 |
| 20200333466 | Hansen | Oct 2020 | A1 |
| 20200386862 | Cop | Dec 2020 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| WO-2019079211 | Apr 2019 | WO |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20200408887 A1 | Dec 2020 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62866767 | Jun 2019 | US |
