Method and apparatus for generating autonomous driving route

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10452075-B2
Application number	US-201715630785-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 22, 2017
Priority date	Nov 30, 2016
Publication date	Oct 22, 2019
Grant date	Oct 22, 2019

Abstract

A method to generate an autonomous driving route of an autonomous vehicle includes: receiving an input image of a front view captured from the autonomous vehicle; calculating a gradient between the autonomous vehicle and a ground based on the input image; and generating the autonomous driving route based on the calculated gradient.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method to generate an autonomous driving route of an autonomous vehicle, the method comprising:
receiving an input image of a front view captured from the autonomous vehicle;
calculating a gradient between the autonomous vehicle and a ground based on the input image; and
generating the autonomous driving route based on the calculated gradient,
wherein the calculating of the gradient comprises:
detecting a lane marking in the input image,
detecting a vanishing point based on the lane marking, and
calculating the gradient based on the vanishing point.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generating of the autonomous driving route comprises:
generating a bird's eye image by converting a viewpoint of the input image into a bird's eye view based on the gradient; and
generating the autonomous driving route based on the bird's eye image.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
correcting data acquired by sensing an ambient environment of the autonomous vehicle using the gradient,
wherein the generating of the autonomous driving route comprises using the corrected data.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the detecting the vanishing point comprises detecting a plurality of vanishing points, and detecting a first vanishing point closest to the autonomous vehicle, among the plurality of vanishing points, as the vanishing point for the calculating the gradient.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the calculating of the gradient based on the vanishing point comprises:
receiving a location of a preset vanishing point and a location of the detected vanishing point; and
calculating the gradient based on a difference between the location of the preset vanishing point and the location of the detected vanishing point.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the receiving of the location of the preset vanishing point and the location of the detected vanishing point comprises receiving a height coordinate of the preset vanishing point and a height coordinate of the detected vanishing point in the input image.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the height coordinate of the preset vanishing point is a center height coordinate of the input image.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a condition of the ground based on gradients calculated at intervals of a preset period; and
controlling the autonomous vehicle based on the determined condition of the ground.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the determining of the condition of the ground comprises determining the condition of the ground based on a deviation between the gradients.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing program instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the method of claim 1 .

11. An apparatus to generate an autonomous driving route of an autonomous vehicle, the apparatus comprising:
a processor configured to
receive an input image of a front view captured from the autonomous vehicle,

calculate a gradient between the autonomous vehicle and a ground based on the input image, and
generate the autonomous driving route based on the calculated gradient,
wherein the processor is configured to calculate the gradient by:
detecting a lane marking in the input image,
detecting a vanishing point based on the lane marking, and
calculating the gradient based on the vanishing point.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , further comprising:
a camera configured to acquire the input image by capturing the front view from the autonomous vehicle.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the generating of the autonomous driving route comprises
generating a bird's eye image by converting a viewpoint of the input image into a bird's eye view based on the gradient, and
generating the autonomous driving route based on the bird's eye image.

14. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein
the generating of the autonomous driving route comprises correcting data acquired by sensing an ambient environment of the autonomous vehicle using the gradient, and
the corrected data is used to generate the autonomous driving route.

15. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the detecting the vanishing point comprises detecting a plurality of vanishing points, and detecting a first vanishing point closest to the autonomous vehicle, among the plurality of vanishing points, as the vanishing point for the calculating the gradient.

16. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the calculating of the gradient based on the vanishing point comprises
receiving a location of a preset vanishing point and a location of the detected vanishing point, and
calculating the gradient based on a difference between the location of the preset vanishing point and the location of the detected vanishing point.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the receiving of the location of the preset vanishing point and the location of the detected vanishing point comprises calculating a height coordinate of the preset vanishing point and a height coordinate of the detected vanishing point in the input image.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the height coordinate of the preset vanishing point is a center height coordinate of the input image.

19. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to
determine a condition of the ground based on gradients calculated at intervals of a preset period, and
control the autonomous vehicle based on the determined state of the ground.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 , wherein the determining of the condition of the ground comprises determining the condition of the ground based on a deviation between the gradients.

21. A vehicle control method, comprising:
receiving an input image of a front view captured from a vehicle;
calculating a gradient of the front view based on the input image; and
autonomously controlling a driving operation of the vehicle based on the gradient,
wherein the calculating the gradient comprises:
detecting a lane marking in the input image,
detecting a vanishing point based on the lane marking, and
calculating the gradient based on the vanishing point.

22. A vehicle control apparatus, comprising:
a processor configured to:
receive an input image of a front view captured from an autonomous vehicle, calculate a gradient of the front view based on the input image, and

control a driving operation of the autonomous vehicle based on the gradient,
wherein the processor is configured to calculate the gradient by:
detecting a lane marking in the input image,
detecting a vanishing point based on the lane marking, and
calculating the gradient based on the vanishing point.

23. The vehicle control apparatus of claim 22 , further comprising a memory storing program instructions executable by the processor to cause the processor to receive the input image, calculate the gradient, and control the driving operation of the autonomous vehicle.

24. A vehicle control method, comprising:
detecting a location of a vanishing point in an image captured by a camera of a vehicle;
calculating a gradient between the vehicle and a ground based on the location of a preset vanishing point and the location of the detected vanishing point; and
autonomously controlling a driving operation of the vehicle based on the gradient.

25. The vehicle control method of claim 24 , wherein the detected vanishing point is a vanishing point of

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• JANG Cheolhun

Classifications

• G06V20/56

  exterior to a vehicle by using sensors mounted on the vehicle · CPC title

• B60W2720/16

  Pitch · CPC title

• B60W2520/16

  Pitch · CPC title

• B60W40/11

  Pitch movement · CPC title

• B60W10/06

  including control of combustion engines · CPC title