Method of determining position of vehicle and vehicle using the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11255974-B2
Application number	US-201916396799-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 29, 2019
Priority date	Apr 27, 2018
Publication date	Feb 22, 2022
Grant date	Feb 22, 2022

Abstract

Provided is an autonomous vehicle including a storage configured to store a map including two-dimensionally represented road surface information and three-dimensionally represented structure information, a camera configured to obtain a two-dimensional (2D) image of a road surface in a vicinity of the vehicle, a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) unit configured to obtain three-dimensional (3D) spatial information regarding structures in a vicinity of the vehicle, and a controller comprising processing circuitry configured to determine at least one of the camera or the LiDAR unit as a position sensor, based on whether it is possible to obtain information regarding the road surface and/or the structures in the vicinity of the vehicle, to identify a position of the vehicle on the map corresponding to a current position of the vehicle using the position sensor, and performing autonomous driving based on the identified position on the map.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An autonomous vehicle comprising:
a storage configured to store a map including two-dimensionally represented road surface information and three-dimensionally represented structure information;
a camera configured to obtain a two-dimensional (2D) image of a road surface in a vicinity of the vehicle;
a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) unit comprising light detection and ranging circuitry configured to obtain three-dimensional (3D) spatial information regarding structures in the vicinity of the vehicle; and
a controller comprising processing circuitry configured to:
identify a position of the vehicle on the map corresponding to a current position of the vehicle by obtaining the 2D image of the road surface in the vicinity of the vehicle using the camera and mapping information regarding lanes and/or a road surface included in the 2D image to the two-dimensionally represented road surface information included in the map;
determine the LiDAR unit as a position sensor based on determining that there are no lanes and/or road surface signs on a road surface on the map corresponding to the vicinity of the vehicle based on the two-dimensionally represented road surface information of the map;
in response to the LiDAR unit being determined as the position sensor, identify the position of the vehicle on the map corresponding to the current position of the vehicle by obtaining the 3D spatial information regarding the structures in the vicinity of the vehicle using the LiDAR unit and mapping the 3D spatial information to the three-dimensionally represented structure information included in the map; and
perform autonomous driving based on the identified position on the map.

2. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to determine whether it is possible to obtain information regarding the road surface and/or the structures around the vehicle by determining whether there are lanes and/or road surface signs on a road surface in the vicinity of the vehicle on the map and/or whether there are structures in the vicinity of the vehicle on the map.

3. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to determine whether it is possible to obtain information regarding the road surface in the vicinity of the vehicle by determining whether it is possible to obtain information regarding lanes and/or road surface signs on the road surface from the 2D image of the road surface in the vicinity of the vehicle obtained by the camera.

4. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to determine the LiDAR unit as a position sensor, based on determining that it is not possible to obtain information regarding lanes and/or road surface signs on the road surface from the 2D image.

5. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to determine whether structures capable of being sensed by the LiDAR unit are located in the vicinity of the vehicle, based on the map, and to determine the camera as a position sensor based on determining that there are no structures in the vicinity of the vehicle.

6. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to determine both the camera and the LiDAR unit as position sensors, based on it being possible to obtain both information regarding the road surface in the vicinity of the vehicle and information regarding the structures in the vicinity of the vehicle and based on a driving situation of the vehicle including at least one of changing lanes, turning, or making a U-turn.

7. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the map comprises a map including information regarding a reliability index representing a degree of reliability of each object in the map, and
the controller is further configured to identify the position of the vehicle on the map corresponding to the current position of the vehicle based on the reliability index of each object in the map.

8. An autonomous driving method comprising:
storing a map including two-dimensionally represented road surface information and three-dimensionally represented structure information;
identifying a position of a vehicle on the map corresponding to a current position of the vehicle by obtaining a two-dimensional (2D) image of the road surface in vicinity of the vehicle using a camera and mapping information regarding lanes and/or a road surface included in the 2D image to the two-dimensionally represented road surface information included in the map;
determining a LiDAR unit as a position sensor based on determining that there are no lanes and/or road surface signs on a road surface on the map corresponding to the vicinity of the vehicle based on the two-dimensionally represented road surface information of the map;
in response to the LiDAR unit being determined as the position sensor, identifying the position of the vehicle on the map corresponding to the current position of the vehicle by obtaining three-dimensional (3D) spatial information regarding the structures in the vicinity of the vehicle using the LiDAR unit and mapping the 3D spatial information to the three-dimensionally represented structure information included in the map; and
performing autonomous driving based on the identified position on the map.

9. The autonomous driving method of claim 8 , further comprising determining whether it is possible to obtain the information regarding the road surface and/or the structures in the vicinity of the vehicle by determining whether there are lanes and/or road surface signs on a road surface in the vicinity of the vehicle on the map and/or whether there are structures in the vicinity of the vehicle on the map.

10. The autonomous driving method of claim 8 , further comprising determining whether it is possible to obtain the information regarding the road surface in the vicinity of the vehicle by determining whether it is possible to obtain information regarding lanes and/or road surface signs on the road surface from the 2D image of the road surface in the vicinity of the vehicle obtained by the camera.

11. The autonomous driving method of claim 8 , further comprising determining the LiDAR unit as a position sensor, based on it being determined that there are no lanes and/or road surface signs on a road surface on the map corresponding to the vicinity of the vehicle.

12. The autonomous driving method of claim 8 , further comprising determining the LiDAR unit as the position sensor, based on it being determined that obtaining information regarding lanes and/or road surface signs on the road surface from the 2D image is not possible.

13. The autonomous driving method of claim 8 , further comprising determining whether structures capable of being sensed by the LiDAR unit are located in the vicinity of the vehicle, based on the map, and determining the camera as a position sensor based on it being determined that there are no structures in the vicinity of the vehicle.

14. The autonomous driving method of claim 8 , further comprising determining both the camera and the LiDAR unit as position sensors, based on it being possible to obtain both information regarding the road surface in the vicinity of the vehicle and information regarding the structures in the vicinity of the vehicle and based on a driving situation of the vehicle including at least one of changing lanes, turning, or making a U-turn.

15. The autonomous driving method of claim 8 , wherein the map comprises a map including information regarding a reliability index representing a degree of reliability of each objec

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Choi Mideum
• Park Changsoo
• Baik Aron
• Ryu Jewoong
• Na Inhak

Classifications

• G05D2111/50

  Internal signals, i.e. from sensors located in the vehicle, e.g. from compasses or angular sensors · CPC title

• G05D2111/10

  Optical signals · CPC title

• B60W30/14

  {Adaptive} cruise control · CPC title

• G05D1/243 Primary

  Means capturing signals occurring naturally from the environment, e.g. ambient optical, acoustic, gravitational or magnetic signals (using passive navigation aids external to the vehicle G05D1/244; using signals from positioning sensors located off-board the vehicle G05D1/249) · CPC title

• G01C21/3822

  Road feature data, e.g. slope data · CPC title