Classifying potentially stationary objects tracked by radar

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10914813-B2
Application number	US-201816106308-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 21, 2018
Priority date	Aug 21, 2018
Publication date	Feb 9, 2021
Grant date	Feb 9, 2021

Abstract

An illustrative example method of tracking a detected object comprises determining that a tracked object is near a host vehicle, determining an estimated velocity of the tracked object, and classifying the tracked object as frozen relative to stationary ground when the estimated velocity is below a preselected object threshold and a speed of the host vehicle is below a preselected host threshold.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of tracking a detected object, the method comprising:
determining that a tracked object is near a host vehicle;
determining an estimated velocity of the tracked object;
classifying the tracked object as frozen relative to stationary ground when the estimated velocity is below a preselected object threshold and a speed of the host vehicle is below a preselected host threshold, wherein when the tracked object is classified as frozen, periodically updating an estimate of speed, curvature, and yaw rate for the tracked object; and
classifying the tracked object as not frozen when the speed of the host vehicle exceeds the preselected host threshold or the estimated velocity of the tracked object exceeds the preselected object threshold.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein classifying the tracked object as frozen comprises freezing a determined orientation, length, width, and centroid position of the tracked object with respect to stationary ground.

3. The method of claim 1 , comprising estimating the speed, curvature, yaw rate, and position of the object using a Kalman filter.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the object is a second vehicle.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the second vehicle is oriented in a direction parallel to the host vehicle.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the estimated velocity of the object is an over the ground velocity.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the estimated velocity of the object is a velocity relative to the host vehicle.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the preselected host threshold is equal to the preselected object threshold.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein when the tracked object is classified as frozen, a position and orientation of the tracked object are stored and not updated.

10. The method of claim 4 , wherein the preselected object threshold is selected to indicate that the tracked object is stopped.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the preselected host threshold is selected to indicate that the host vehicle is stopped.

12. A system for tracking a detected object, the system comprising:
a tracking device configured to detect an object; and
a processor configured to:
determine that the tracked object is near a host vehicle;
determine an estimated velocity of the tracked object;
classify the tracked object as frozen relative to stationary ground when the estimated velocity is below a preselected object threshold and a speed of the host vehicle is below a preselected host threshold, wherein the processor is configured to periodically update an estimate of speed, curvature, and yaw rate for the tracked object when the tracked object is classified as frozen; and

classifying the tracked object as not frozen when the speed of the host vehicle exceeds the preselected host threshold or the estimated velocity of the tracked object exceeds the preselected object threshold.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the processor is configured to freeze a determined orientation, length, width, and centroid position of the tracked object with respect to stationary ground.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the processor is configured to estimate the speed, curvature, yaw rate, and position of the object using a Kalman filter.

15. The system of claim 12 , wherein the object is a second vehicle.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the second vehicle is oriented in a direction parallel to the host vehicle.

17. The system of claim 12 , wherein the estimated velocity of the object is an over the ground velocity.

18. The system of claim 12 , wherein the estimated velocity of the object is a velocity relative to the host vehicle.

19. The system of claim 12 , wherein the preselected host threshold is equal to the preselected object threshold.

20. The system of claim 15 , wherein the preselected object threshold is selected to indicate that the tracked object is stopped and the preselected host threshold is selected to indicate that the host vehicle is stopped.

Assignees

• Aptiv Tech Ltd

Inventors

• Dang Wenbing
• Schiffmann Jan K
• Vishwajeet Kumar
• Nagaraja Keerthi Raj
• Schiffmann Franz P

Classifications

• G06V20/56

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

• G01S13/931 Primary

  of land vehicles · CPC title

• G01S5/0278

  involving statistical or probabilistic considerations (G01S5/0252, G01S5/0294 take precedence) · CPC title

• G01S13/52

  Discriminating between fixed and moving objects or between objects moving at different speeds · CPC title

• G01S13/72

  for two-dimensional [2D] tracking, e.g. combination of angle and range tracking, track-while-scan radar · CPC title