US 12,252,200 B2
Determining vehicle position using sideslip vector
Joseph Funke, Redwood City, CA (US); Liam Gallagher, San Francisco, CA (US); Marin Kobilarov, Baltimore, MD (US); Vincent Andreas Laurense, Foster City, CA (US); Mark Jonathon McClelland, San Francisco, CA (US); Sriram Narayanan, San Jose, CA (US); Kazuhide Okamoto, Mountain View, CA (US); Jack Riley, San Francisco, CA (US); Jeremy Schwartz, Redwood City, CA (US); Jacob Patrick Thalman, San Francisco, CA (US); Olivier Amaury Toupet, Escondido, CA (US); and David Evan Zlotnik, Menlo Park, CA (US)
Assigned to Zoox, Inc., Foster City, CA (US)
Filed by Zoox, Inc., Foster City, CA (US)
Filed on Sep. 30, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/957,756.
Prior Publication US 2024/0109585 A1, Apr. 4, 2024
Int. Cl. B62D 7/15 (2006.01); B62D 15/02 (2006.01)
CPC B62D 7/159 (2013.01) [B62D 15/025 (2013.01); B62D 15/0255 (2013.01); B62D 15/0265 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions executable by the one or more processors, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the system to perform operations comprising:
determining a position of a vehicle in an environment, the position comprising two-dimensional coordinates and a yaw value;
determining a heading vector associated with the vehicle based at least in part on the position, wherein the heading vector comprises a heading direction;
determining a sideslip vector associated with the vehicle based at least in part on a direction of motion of the vehicle and a velocity, wherein the sideslip vector comprises a sideslip direction that is different from the heading direction;
determining a curvature of the vehicle by:
determining a predicted heading vector associated with the vehicle based at least in part on a predicted position of the vehicle;
determining a predicted sideslip vector associated with the vehicle based at least in part on a predicted direction of motion of the vehicle and a predicted velocity; and
determining the curvature based at least in part on a difference between the predicted sideslip vector and the sideslip vector and a difference between the predicted heading vector and the heading vector;
determining a plurality of candidate paths for traversing the environment based at least in part on the curvature;
determining an operational vehicle path from among the plurality of candidate paths;
determining an operational trajectory for controlling the vehicle based at least in part on the operational vehicle path; and
controlling the vehicle based at least in part on the operational trajectory.