US 12,276,514 B2
Systems and methods for implementing occlusion representations over road features
Yifan Yang, Pittsburgh, PA (US); Scott D. Pendleton, Singapore (SG); and Giancarlo Baldan, Somerville, MA (US)
Assigned to Motional AD LLC, Boston, MA (US)
Filed by Motional AD LLC, Boston, MA (US)
Filed on Jun. 27, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/215,124.
Application 18/215,124 is a continuation of application No. 17/119,259, filed on Dec. 11, 2020, granted, now 11,733,054.
Prior Publication US 2023/0341232 A1, Oct. 26, 2023
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G01C 21/34 (2006.01); B60W 60/00 (2020.01); G01C 21/00 (2006.01); G01C 21/36 (2006.01); G06F 18/25 (2023.01); G06V 20/56 (2022.01)
CPC G01C 21/3476 (2013.01) [B60W 60/001 (2020.02); G01C 21/3679 (2013.01); G01C 21/3691 (2013.01); G01C 21/3889 (2020.08); B60W 2552/00 (2020.02); G06F 18/25 (2023.01); G06V 20/56 (2022.01)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method comprising:
determining, by one or more processors, a plurality of areas of interest within a predetermined distance from a vehicle;
filtering out, by the one or more processors, at least one first area of interest from the plurality of areas of interest, wherein a path extending from each of the at least one first area of interest along a corresponding lane direction interacts with one or more other paths different from a current route of the vehicle;
obtaining, by the one or more processors, area information of at least one second area of interest that is among the plurality of areas of interest and different from the at least one first area of interest, wherein obtaining the area information of the at least one second area of interest comprises: obtaining discretized reference path points along at least one lane direction corresponding to the at least one second area of interest, and obtaining a plurality of lane segments sequentially sorted along the at least one lane direction, each of the plurality of lane segments comprising at least one discretized reference path point of the discretized reference path points;
identifying, by the one or more processors, occlusion data associated with the at least one second area of interest;
determining, by the one or more processors, occlusion information associated with the at least one second area of interest based on the area information of the at least one second area of interest and the occlusion data associated with the at least one second area of interest, the occlusion information having a smaller data size than the occlusion data, wherein determining the occlusion information associated with the at least one second area of interest comprises: determining the occlusion information associated with the at least one second area of interest based on the discretized reference path points by determining a respective level of occlusion for each of the plurality of lane segments based on the occlusion data associated with the at least one second area of interest, wherein the respective level of occlusion is a value between 0 and 1 representing a confidence level of occlusion, where 1 represents a confidence of 100%;
generating data associated with a graphic interface based on the plurality of lane segments and the respective levels of occlusion;
planning, by the one or more processors, a route for the vehicle according to the determined occlusion information associated with the at least one second area of interest; and
controlling, by the one or more processors, the vehicle to move in accordance with the planned route.