Relative atlas for autonomous vehicle and generation thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10521913-B2
Application number	US-201815940516-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 29, 2018
Priority date	Mar 29, 2018
Publication date	Dec 31, 2019
Grant date	Dec 31, 2019

Abstract

A relative atlas graph is generated to store mapping data used by an autonomous vehicle. The relative atlas graph may be generated for a geographical area based on observations collected from the geographical area, and may include element nodes corresponding to elements detected from the observations along with edges that connect pairs of element nodes and define relative poses between the elements for connected pairs of element nodes.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of generating mapping data for use by an autonomous vehicle, the method comprising:
receiving a plurality of observations for a geographical area; and
generating a relative atlas graph for the geographical area based on the plurality of observations for the geographical area, including:
generating a plurality of element nodes for a plurality of elements detected from the plurality of observations, each element node having an associated element from among the plurality of elements;
generating a first plurality of edges, each edge in the first plurality of edges connecting a pair of element nodes from among the plurality of element nodes and defining a relative pose between the associated elements for the pair of element nodes;
generating a plurality of tile nodes for the geographical area, each tile node representing a region of the geographical area; and
generating a second plurality of edges, each edge in the second plurality of edges connecting an element node from among the plurality of element nodes to a tile node from among the plurality of tile nodes and defining a relative pose of the associated element for the connected element node within a frame of reference for the connected tile node;
wherein the first plurality of edges includes a first edge connecting a first element node among the plurality of element nodes to a second element node among the plurality of element nodes to define a relative pose between the associated elements for the first and second element nodes, and wherein the second plurality of edges includes a first edge connecting the first element node to a first tile node among the plurality of tile nodes and defining a relative pose of the associated element for the first element node within the frame of reference for the first tile node; and
storing the plurality of element nodes and the first and second pluralities of edges in the relative atlas graph.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein each edge includes a transformation field defining the relative pose between the associated elements of the connected pair of element nodes.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein storing the plurality of element nodes and the first plurality of edges in the relative atlas graph includes storing the plurality of element nodes as records in a node table and storing the first plurality of edges as records in an edge table.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the node table and the edge table are maintained in a relational database.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of element nodes includes an identifier field including an identifier for the associated element thereof, and wherein each of the first plurality of edges includes first and second identifier fields including identifiers for the associated elements for the pair of element nodes connected thereby.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of element nodes includes a type field specifying a type that characterizes the respective element node and wherein each of the first plurality of edges includes a type field specifying a type that characterizes the respective edge.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein each of the plurality of element nodes includes a payload field including element-specific data, and wherein each of the first plurality of edges includes a payload field including edge-specific data.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the element-specific data in the payload field for the first element node is structured based upon the type specified in the type field of the first element node, and wherein the edge-specific data in the payload field for the first edge among the first plurality of edges is structured based upon the type specified in the type field of the first edge.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second plurality of edges further includes a second edge connecting the first element node to a second tile node among the plurality of tile nodes and defining a relative pose of the associated element for the first element node within the frame of reference for the second tile node.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising generating a tile-and-tile edge connecting the first and second tile nodes and defining a relative pose between the first and second tiles.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
generating a fixed reference node defining a fixed reference point; and
generating first and second fixed reference edges respectively connecting the first and second tile nodes to the fixed reference node and respectively defining relative poses between the first and second tiles and the fixed reference point.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the fixed reference point is an Earth Centered Earth Fixed (ECEF) reference point.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the plurality of element nodes are not directly connected by edges to the fixed reference node such that no relative poses are defined between the plurality of elements and the fixed reference point.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising storing in the first tile node geometry data defining a surface model for at least a portion of the region of the geographical area represented by the first tile node.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of element nodes includes a plurality of gate nodes, each gate node defining a gate representing a permissible vehicle pose within a geographical area.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein generating the plurality of element nodes includes generating the plurality of gate nodes based upon one or more traversed paths in one or more vehicle logs collected by one or more vehicles traversing the geographical area.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the first plurality of edges includes a plurality of gate-and-gate edges connecting pairs of gate nodes among the plurality of gate nodes, each gate-and-gate edge defining a permissible vehicle path between a pair of gates defined by the respective pair of gate nodes.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein a first gate-and-gate edge among the plurality of gate-and-gate edges connects first and second gate nodes among the plurality of gate nodes that represent a same lane of a roadway.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein a first gate-and-gate edge among the plurality of gate-and-gate edges connects first and second gate nodes among the plurality of gate nodes that represent different lanes of one or more roadways.

20. The method of claim 17 , wherein the plurality of element nodes further includes a plurality of boundary nodes, each boundary node defining a physical or virtual boundary that restricts vehicle movement within a geographical area.

21. The method of claim 20 , wherein generating the plurality of element nodes includes generating the plurality of boundary nodes based upon observations in one or more vehicle logs collected by one or more vehicles traversing the geographical area.

22. The method of claim 20 , wherein the first plurality of edges further includes a plurality of boundary-and-boundary edges connecting pairs of boundary nodes among the plurality of boundary nodes, each boundary-and-boundary edge defining a relative pose between a pair of boundaries defined by the respective pair of boundary nodes.

23. The method of claim 20 , wherein the first plurality of edges further includes a plurality of boundary-and-gate edges, each connecting a gate node from among the plurality of gate nodes with a boundary node from among the plurali

Assignees

• Aurora Innovation Inc

Inventors

• Eade Ethan
• Bode Michael

Classifications

• G01C21/20

  Instruments for performing navigational calculations (G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence) · CPC title

• G06T2207/20128

  Atlas-based segmentation · CPC title

• G06F16/284

  Relational databases · CPC title

• G06F16/29

  Geographical information databases · CPC title

• G06T7/162

  involving graph-based methods · CPC title