US 11,810,322 B2
Camera pose estimation techniques
Chenzhe Qian, San Diego, CA (US); Yi Luo, San Diego, CA (US); Ke Xu, San Diego, CA (US); Mingdong Wang, San Diego, CA (US); and Xiaodi Hou, San Diego, CA (US)
Assigned to TUSIMPLE, INC., San Diego, CA (US)
Filed by TUSIMPLE, INC., San Diego, CA (US)
Filed on Apr. 8, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/225,396.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/007,895, filed on Apr. 9, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2021/0319584 A1, Oct. 14, 2021
Int. Cl. G06T 7/73 (2017.01)
CPC G06T 7/74 (2017.01) [G06T 2207/30244 (2013.01); G06T 2207/30256 (2013.01)] 13 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of estimating camera pose, comprising:
obtaining, from a camera located on a vehicle, an image comprising a lane marker on a road on which the vehicle is driven; and
estimating a pose of the camera such that the pose of the camera provides a best match according to a criterion between a first position of the lane marker determined from the image and a second position of the lane marker determined from a stored map of the road,
wherein the first position corresponds to pixel locations associated with a corner of the lane marker,
wherein the second position corresponds to a three-dimensional (3D) world coordinates of the corner of the lane marker,
wherein the second position of the lane marker is determined by:
obtaining, from the stored map and based on a location of the vehicle, a first set of one or more lane markers that are located within a pre-determined distance from the vehicle;
obtaining a second set of one or more lane markers from the first set of one or more lane markers based on a direction in which the vehicle is driven;
obtaining a third set of one or more lane markers from the second set of one or more lane markers based on a pre-determined field of view (FOV) of the camera; and
obtaining the second position of the lane marker from the third set of one or more lane markers;
wherein the best match according to the criterion is determined by minimizing a function of a combination of a cost of misalignment term and of a cost of constraint term,
wherein the cost of misalignment term is determined by minimizing a distance from the 3D world coordinates of the corner of the lane marker to the pixel locations associated with the corner of the lane marker, and
wherein the cost of constraint term is determined by minimizing a difference between a first estimated camera pose at a first time when the image is obtained and a second estimated camera pose from a second time, wherein the second time precedes in time the first time.