US 12,468,037 B2
Determining a pitch angle position of an active optical sensor system
Javier Rosales, Porriño (ES); and Nikolai Sergeev, Bietigheim-Bissingen (DE)
Assigned to Valeo Schalter und Sensoren GmbH, Bietigheim-Bissingen (DE)
Appl. No. 17/622,988
Filed by Valeo Schalter und Sensoren GmbH, Bietigheim-Bissingen (DE)
PCT Filed Jun. 23, 2020, PCT No. PCT/EP2020/067435
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Dec. 27, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/260242, PCT Pub. Date Dec. 30, 2020.
Claims priority of application No. 10 2019 117 312.4 (DE), filed on Jun. 27, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0260717 A1, Aug. 18, 2022
Int. Cl. G01S 17/89 (2020.01); G01S 7/481 (2006.01); G01S 17/931 (2020.01)
CPC G01S 17/89 (2013.01) [G01S 7/4814 (2013.01); G01S 7/4816 (2013.01); G01S 7/4817 (2013.01); G01S 17/931 (2020.01)] 12 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for determining a pitch angle position of an active optical sensor system, which is mounted on a motor vehicle located on a roadway, the method comprising:
generating a point cloud containing a first subset of scanning points of the roadway and a second subset of scanning points of the roadway, wherein generating the point cloud comprises:
emitting light into a surrounding area of the sensor system by a transmission unit of the sensor system;
detecting reflected components of the light by a reception unit of the sensor system;
generating at least one sensor signal by the reception unit based on the detected reflected components; and
generating the point cloud by a computation unit of the sensor system based on the at least one sensor signal;
identifying a first pair of scanning points by the computation unit, wherein one point of the first pair is part of the first subset, a further point of the first pair is part of the second subset, and a projection of a first connection vector of the first pair into a transmission plane of the sensor system is parallel to a longitudinal axis of the sensor system; and
determining a first angle, which the first connection vector encloses with the longitudinal axis of the sensor system by the computation unit in order to determine the pitch angle position.