Vehicular sensing system for classification of detected objects

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11604253-B2
Application number	US-202017247487-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 14, 2020
Priority date	Sep 6, 2016
Publication date	Mar 14, 2023
Grant date	Mar 14, 2023

Abstract

A vehicular sensing system includes at least one radar sensor disposed at a vehicle and having a field of sensing forward, rearward or sideward of the vehicle. Radar data captured by the radar sensor is received at an electronic control unit (ECU). Received transmitted signals reflected off objects and received at the receiving antennas are evaluated at the ECU to establish surface responses for the objects present in the field of sensing of the radar sensor. A data set of radar data that is representative of an object present in the field of sensing of the radar sensor is compared to stored data sets to determine if the data set corresponds to a particular stored data set of the stored data sets. Responsive to the data set of radar data being determined to correspond to the particular stored data set, the vehicular sensing system classifies the detected object.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A vehicular sensing system, said vehicular sensing system comprising:
at least one radar sensor disposed at a vehicle equipped with said vehicular sensing system and having a field of sensing forward of the equipped vehicle;
wherein said at least one radar sensor comprises an antenna array having multiple transmitting antennas and multiple receiving antennas, wherein said transmitting antennas transmit signals and said receiving antennas receive the transmitted signals reflected off objects;
an electronic control unit (ECU), wherein radar data captured by said at least one radar sensor is received at said ECU;
wherein the received transmitted signals reflected off objects and received at said receiving antennas are evaluated at said ECU to establish surface responses for the objects present in the field of sensing of said at least one radar sensor;
wherein a data set of received captured radar data that is representative of an object present in the field of sensing of said at least one radar sensor is compared to stored data sets;
wherein the data set of received captured radar data representative of the object is compared with the stored data sets to determine if the data set of received captured radar data corresponds to a particular stored data set of the stored data sets; and
wherein, responsive to the data set of received captured radar data being determined to correspond to the particular stored data set of the stored data sets, said vehicular sensing system classifies the object.

2. The vehicular sensing system of claim 1 , wherein the received captured radar data comprises high definition radar reflection responses.

3. The vehicular sensing system of claim 1 , wherein the stored data sets are available via a deep learning neural network.

4. The vehicular sensing system of claim 3 , wherein the deep learning neural network is accessible via a system controller that is capable of controlling the motion of the vehicle.

5. The vehicular sensing system of claim 1 , wherein the equipped vehicle includes a vision system comprising at least one exterior viewing camera disposed at the equipped vehicle and an image processor for processing image data captured by the at least one exterior viewing camera, and wherein image data captured by the at least one exterior viewing camera is provided to said ECU.

6. The vehicular sensing system of claim 5 , wherein image data acquired from the vision system is processed to establish a confirmation correlation associated with the data set of received captured radar data that is representative of the object.

7. The vehicular sensing system of claim 1 , wherein said vehicular sensing system accesses data from external to the equipped vehicle to confirm vehicle classification of the object.

8. The vehicular sensing system of claim 7 , wherein said vehicular sensing system accesses data from Internet of Things (IoT) cloud data sources.

9. The vehicular sensing system of claim 1 , wherein the stored data sets comprise sets of data representative of a plurality of vehicle types.

10. The vehicular sensing system of claim 9 , wherein, responsive to the data set of received captured radar data being determined to correspond to the particular stored data set of the stored data sets, said vehicular sensing system classifies the object as a particular vehicle type.

11. The vehicular sensing system of claim 1 , wherein the particular stored data set comprises data representative of radar signature of a particular vehicle type.

12. The vehicular sensing system of claim 1 , wherein said vehicular sensing system comprises two or more individual radar sensors, each having an antenna array having multiple transmitting antennas and multiple receiving antennas, and wherein said two or more individual radar sensors are spaced at a known separation and aligned within a known attitude.

13. The vehicular sensing system of claim 12 , wherein information is shared between the individual radar sensors operating in stereo to determine high definition radar reflection responses for objects detected by said vehicular sensing system.

14. The vehicular sensing system of claim 1 , wherein said at least one radar sensor is disposed at a front portion of the equipped vehicle.

15. The vehicular sensing system of claim 1 , wherein said at least one radar sensor is part of a sensing system capable of providing automatic emergency braking.

16. The vehicular sensing system of claim 1 , wherein said at least one radar sensor is part of a sensing system capable of providing pedestrian detection.

17. The vehicular sensing system of claim 1 , wherein said at least one radar sensor is part of a sensing system capable of providing intersection collision mitigation.

18. The vehicular sensing system of claim 1 , wherein said vehicular sensing system is capable of providing short range communication with a system of another vehicle or an infrastructure system.

19. The vehicular sensing system of claim 18 , wherein the short range communication comprises a one-way communication or a two way communication.

20. The vehicular sensing system of claim 18 , wherein information communicated by said vehicular sensing system includes at least one selected from the group consisting of (i) status of driver assist system functions, (ii) environment maps, (iii) object classification data, (iv) position data, (v) intended route, (vi) vehicle condition monitoring data, (vii) tolling authorization, (viii) parking requests, (ix) driver monitoring, (x) driver preferences and (xi) infrastructure updates.

21. The vehicular sensing system of claim 20 , wherein the information communicated includes captured radar data representative of objects in the field of sensing of the at least one radar sensor.

22. The vehicular sensing system of claim 21 , wherein the short range communication comprises a two way communication and the information communicated includes radar data captured by a radar sensor of another vehicle.

23. The vehicular sensing system of claim 22 , wherein the captured radar data of the at least one radar sensor of the equipped vehicle and radar data captured by the radar sensor of the other vehicle received via communicated information are combined and evaluated to establish enhanced surface responses and classification for objects in the field of sensing of said at least one radar sensor of the equipped vehicle.

24. A vehicular sensing system, said vehicular sensing system comprising:
at least one radar sensor disposed at a vehicle equipped with said vehicular sensing system and having a field of sensing rearward of the equipped vehicle;
wherein said at least one radar sensor comprises an antenna array having multiple transmitting antennas and multiple receiving antennas, wherein said transmitting antennas transmit signals and said receiving antennas receive the transmitted signals reflected off objects;
an electronic control unit (ECU), wherein radar data captured by said at least one radar sensor is received at said ECU;
wherein the received transmitted signals reflected off objects and received at said receiving antennas are evaluated at said ECU to establish surface responses for the objects present in the field of sensing of said at least one radar sensor;
wherein a data set of received captured radar data that is representative of an object present in the field of sensing of said at least one radar sensor is compared to sto

Assignees

• Magna Electronics Inc

Inventors

• Wodrich Helmut A
• Woodington Walter G

Classifications

• G01S13/867

  Combination of radar systems with cameras · CPC title

• G01S2013/93271

  in the front of the vehicles · CPC title

• G01S13/931

  of land vehicles · CPC title

• G01S13/58 Primary

  Velocity or trajectory determination systems; Sense-of-movement determination systems · CPC title

• G01S2013/93275

  in the bumper area · CPC title