Sensing system and vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11554792-B2
Application number	US-201816758459-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 24, 2018
Priority date	Oct 26, 2017
Publication date	Jan 17, 2023
Grant date	Jan 17, 2023

Abstract

A sensing system provided in a vehicle capable of running in an autonomous driving mode, includes: a LiDAR unit configured to acquire point group data indicating surrounding environment of the vehicle; and a LiDAR control module configured to identify information associated with a target object existing around the vehicle, based on the point group data acquired from the LiDAR unit. The LiDAR control module is configured to control the LiDAR unit so as to increase a scanning resolution of the LiDAR unit in a first angular area in a detection area of the LiDAR unit, wherein the first angular area is an area where the target object exists.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A sensing system provided in a vehicle capable of running in an autonomous driving mode, the sensing system comprising:
a LiDAR unit configured to acquire point group data indicating surrounding environment of the vehicle; and
a processor programmed to identify information associated with a target object existing around the vehicle, based on the point group data acquired from the LiDAR unit,
wherein the processor is programmed to control the LiDAR unit so as to increase a scanning resolution of the LiDAR unit in only a first angular area in a detection area of the LiDAR unit, wherein the first angular area is an area where the target object exists;
wherein when an attribute of the target object cannot be identified by the processor when the LiDAR unit has the increased scanning resolution in the first angular area, the processor is programmed to control the LiDAR unit so as to further increase the scanning resolution of the LiDAR unit in the first angular area.

2. The sensing system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the processor is programmed to control the LiDAR unit so as to repeatedly gradually increase the scanning resolution of the LiDAR unit in the first angular area until the attribute of the target object can be identified.

3. The sensing system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the is programmed to update a position of the target object based on point group data newly acquired from the LiDAR unit, and then update the first angular area based on the updated position of the target object.

4. A vehicle capable of running in an autonomous driving mode, comprising the sensing system according to claim 1 .

Assignees

• Koito Mfg Co Ltd

Inventors

• Yamamoto Shuki
• Nagashima Toru
• Kamiya Misako
• Okamura Shunsuke

Classifications

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• G01S17/894

  Three-dimensional [3D] imaging with simultaneous measurement of time-of-flight at a two-dimensional [2D] array of receiver pixels, e.g. time-of-flight cameras or flash lidar · CPC title

• G01S7/4817

  relating to scanning · CPC title

• G01S13/867

  Combination of radar systems with cameras · CPC title

• G01S2013/9316

  combined with communication equipment with other vehicles or with base stations · CPC title