Systems and methods for identifying changes within a mapped environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10489663-B2
Application number	US-201715495735-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 24, 2017
Priority date	Apr 24, 2017
Publication date	Nov 26, 2019
Grant date	Nov 26, 2019

Abstract

System, methods, and other embodiments described herein relate to identifying changes between models of a locality. In one embodiment, a method includes, in response to determining that a location model is available for a present environment of a vehicle, generating a current model of the present environment using at least one sensor of the vehicle. The method also includes isolating dynamic objects in the current model as a function of the location model. The method includes providing the dynamic objects to be identified and labeled.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A comparative labeling system for recognizing changes in locality models of a mapped environment, comprising:
one or more processors;
a memory communicably coupled to the one or more processors and storing:
a mapping module including instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to, in response to determining that a location model is available for a present environment of a vehicle, generate a current model of the present environment using at least one sensor of the vehicle; and
a comparison module including instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to:
isolate dynamic objects in the current model as a function of the location model, wherein the dynamic objects include semi-permanent objects of the present environment that change between the current model and the location model, and
provide the dynamic objects from the current model to be identified and labeled, wherein the location model is a three-dimensional representation of the present environment that was previously acquired and labeled to identify the semi-permanent objects including at least static aspects of the present environment.

2. The comparative labeling system of claim 1 , wherein the comparison module further includes instructions to isolate the dynamic objects by projecting the current model onto the location model to align the current model with the location model and to identify changes between the location model and the current model that correspond with the dynamic objects, and
wherein the comparison module further includes instructions to isolate the dynamic objects including instructions to label mobile objects that are part of the dynamic objects as provisional when the mobile objects are presently not moving but are determined to likely move and to label the dynamic objects that are semi-permanent objects according to an object class.

3. The comparative labeling system of claim 2 , wherein the comparison module further includes instructions to project the current model onto the location model by aligning a perspective of the current model with the location model to overlay corresponding points between the current model and the location model, and
wherein the comparison module further includes instructions to isolate the dynamic objects by comparing the current model with the location model to produce observation data points that embody the dynamic objects of the present environment while removing static objects that form a background of the present environment that is unchanged.

4. The comparative labeling system of claim 1 , wherein the location model is a three-dimensional representation of the present environment that was previously acquired and labeled to identify static objects in the present environment.

5. The comparative labeling system of claim 1 , wherein the comparison module further includes instructions to provide the dynamic objects by transmitting data from a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensor and a camera sensor about the dynamic objects to a remote server for labeling, and wherein the data from the camera sensor is validation data.

6. The comparative labeling system of claim 1 , wherein the mapping module further includes instructions to generate the current model by scanning the present environment of the vehicle using at least a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensor to acquire the current model as a three-dimensional point cloud, and
wherein comparison module includes instructions to provide the dynamic objects including instructions to electronically communicate at least LiDAR data of the dynamic objects to a remote system for labeling to improve updating of the location model using the dynamic objects.

7. The comparative labeling system of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle is an autonomous vehicle.

8. The comparative labeling system of claim 1 , wherein the mapping module further includes instructions to:
in response to determining the location model is not available for the present environment, generate the location model by scanning the present environment using the at least one sensor to obtain three-dimensional data points representing present objects in the present environment that are collected to form the location model, and
label the present objects to identify types of the present objects of the present environment.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to:
in response to determining that a location model is available for a present environment of a vehicle, generate a current model of the present environment using at least one sensor of the vehicle;
isolate dynamic objects in the current model as a function of the location model, wherein the dynamic objects include semi-permanent objects of the present environment that change between the current model and the location model; and
provide the dynamic objects to be identified and labeled, wherein the location model is a three-dimensional representation of the present environment that was previously acquired and labeled to identify the semi-permanent objects including at least static aspects of the present environment.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the instructions to isolate the dynamic objects include instructions to project the current model onto the location model to align the current model with the location model and to identify changes between the location model and the current model that correspond with the dynamic objects, and
wherein the instructions to isolate the dynamic objects include instructions to label mobile objects that are part of the dynamic objects as provisional when the mobile objects are presently not moving but are determined to likely move and to label the dynamic objects that are semi-permanent objects according to an object class.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the instructions to project the current model onto the location model include instructions to align a perspective of the current model with the location model to overlay corresponding points between the location model and the current model, and
wherein the instructions to isolate the dynamic objects include instructions to compare the current model with the location model to produce observation data points that embody the dynamic objects of the present environment while removing static objects that form a background of the present environment that is unchanged.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the location model is a three-dimensional representation of the present environment that was previously acquired and labeled to identify static objects in the present environment,
wherein the instructions to provide the dynamic objects include instructions to transmit data from a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensor and a camera sensor about the dynamic objects to a remote server for labeling, and wherein the data from the camera sensor is validation data.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the instructions to generate the current model include instructions to scan the present environment of the vehicle using at least a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensor to acquire the current model as a three-dimensional point cloud.

14. A method of identifying differences between locality models, comprising:
in response to determining that a location model is available for a present environment of a vehicle, generating a

Assignees

• Toyota Res Inst Inc

Inventors

• Olson Edwin B
• James Michael R
• Eustice Ryan M
• Wolcott Ryan W

Classifications

• G06V10/25

  Determination of region of interest [ROI] or a volume of interest [VOI] · CPC title

• G06K9/3233

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06K9/00791 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G05D1/0251

  extracting 3D information from a plurality of images taken from different locations, e.g. stereo vision (stereoscopic image analysis H04N13/00; depth recovery from images G06T7/593) · CPC title

• G05D1/0231

  using optical position detecting means (position-fixing by using electromagnetic waves other than radio waves, e.g. optical position detecting means G01S5/16) · CPC title