US 12,012,122 B1
Object orientation estimator
Francesco Papi, Sunnyvale, CA (US); Qian Song, San Mateo, CA (US); Stanley Lilian Volta, Mountain View, CA (US); and Allan Zelener, San Mateo, CA (US)
Assigned to Zoox, Inc., Foster City, CA (US)
Filed by Zoox, Inc., Foster City, CA (US)
Filed on Apr. 8, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/716,391.
Int. Cl. B60W 60/00 (2020.01); B60W 30/09 (2012.01); B60W 30/095 (2012.01); B60W 40/04 (2006.01); B60W 50/00 (2006.01); G06N 5/04 (2023.01)
CPC B60W 60/0011 (2020.02) [B60W 30/09 (2013.01); B60W 30/0956 (2013.01); B60W 40/04 (2013.01); B60W 50/0097 (2013.01); B60W 60/0015 (2020.02); B60W 60/00274 (2020.02); G06N 5/04 (2013.01); B60W 2554/4041 (2020.02); B60W 2554/4044 (2020.02); B60W 2554/80 (2020.02)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system comprising:
one or more sensors for deployment onboard a vehicle;
one or more processors; and
one or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
determining, based on data received from the one or more sensors, a plurality of hypotheses for an orientation of an object in a vicinity of the vehicle, relative to a coordinate system of the vehicle;
generating a plurality of rotational kernels with orientations depending on the determined plurality of hypotheses;
determining, at a plurality of candidate orientations, cumulative contributions from the plurality of rotational kernels; and
estimating, based at least in part on the cumulative contributions from the plurality of rotational kernels at the plurality of candidate orientations, the orientation of the object relative to the coordinate system of the vehicle.