Processing of lossy-compressed ADAS sensor data for driver assistance systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11876540-B2
Application number	US-202017754129-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 16, 2020
Priority date	Sep 24, 2019
Publication date	Jan 16, 2024
Grant date	Jan 16, 2024

Abstract

Example embodiments relate to an ADAS sensor data processing unit, to an ADAS sensor system and to an ADAS sensor data evaluation method for use in driver assistance systems or systems for the automated driving of a vehicle. The ADAS sensor data processing unit includes an input interface, a decompression module, a processing unit and an output unit. The input interface is designed to receive data of an ADAS sensor that have been subjected to lossy compression by a compression module. The decompression module is designed to decompress the compressed data of the ADAS sensor. The processing unit is designed to process the decompressed data (IdSD) of the ADAS sensor, information relevant to an ADAS/AD function being ascertained from the decompressed sensor data. The output unit is designed to output the ascertained information relevant to the ADAS function.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An ADAS sensor system for a vehicle, comprising:
an ADAS sensor subassembly, comprising
at least one vehicle ADAS sensor configured to generate data regarding an environment of the vehicle when mounted thereto, and
a compression module having an input connected to an output of the at least one vehicle ADAS sensor at which the generated data is received, the compression module preprocesses the generated data by being configured to subject the generated data to lossy compression to generate lossy compression sensor data, and

an ADAS sensor data processing subassembly comprising
a decompression module configured to receive and decompress the lossy compression sensor data to generate decompressed lossy sensor data, the decompression module performed by a programmed electronic circuit,
a processing unit configured to process the decompressed lossy sensor data by extracting information relevant to an ADAS/automated driving (AD) function being ascertained from the decompressed lossy sensor data, and outputting the ascertained information relevant to the ADAS/AD function, the processing unit performed by the programmed electronic circuit,

wherein the ADAS sensor system comprises an electronics housing and the ADAS sensor subassembly and the ADAS sensor data processing subassembly are integrated into the electronics housing.

2. The ADAS sensor system according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one vehicle ADAS sensor is a camera sensor and the data generated by the at least one ADAS sensor are image data.

3. The ADAS sensor system according to claim 2 , wherein the processing unit comprises an image processing unit which is configured to detect objects, lane markings, road signs, traffic light signals and light sources and/or to spatially reconstruct an environment of the vehicle.

4. The ADAS sensor system according to claim 2 , wherein the ADAS sensor subassembly further comprises
an optical flow calculation module having an input connected to the output of the at least one vehicle ADAS sensor, the input receiving the generated data from the at least one ADAS vehicle sensor, the optical flow calculation module performing pre-processing of the generated data by being configured
to ascertain an optical flow between the image data of two individual images captured at different times by the camera sensor, and
to provide the ascertained optical flow to the processing unit.

5. The ADAS sensor system according claim 4 , wherein the optical flow calculation module ascertains the optical flow on the generated data before lossy compression is performed thereon, and the optical flow is transmitted losslessly by the optical flow calculation module to an input of the processing subassembly.

6. A vehicle having the ADAS sensor system according to claim 1 .

7. An advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) sensor data method comprising
generating sensor data by a vehicle ADAS sensor,
performing, by a compression unit having an input coupled to an output of the vehicle ADAS sensor, lossy compression on the sensor data to generate lossy compressed sensor data,
receiving and decompressing the lossy-compressed sensor data to generate lossy decompressed sensor data,
processing the lossy decompressed sensor data in order to ascertain information relevant to an ADAS function, and
outputting the ascertained information relevant to the ADAS function,
wherein generating the sensor data and performing lossy compression are performed in a sensor subassembly, and receiving and decompressing the lossy-compressed sensor data, processing the lossy decompressed sensor data and outputting the ascertained information are performed by a processing subassembly having an input coupled to an output of the sensor subassembly and having programmed electronic circuitry, and the sensor subassembly and the processing subassembly are integrated into a single electronics housing.

8. A software program stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium and having program instructions which, when executed by computer hardware, cause the computer hardware to perform the method according to claim 7 .

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium on which a program element according to claim 8 is stored.

10. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the at least one vehicle ADAS sensor comprises at least one camera sensor and the sensor data comprises image data.

11. The method according to claim 10 , further comprising:
performing, by an optical flow calculation module having an input connected to the output of the at least one vehicle ADAS sensor, pre-processing of the image data by ascertaining an optical flow between the image data of two individual images captured at different times by the at least one camera sensor, and
transmitting, by the optical flow calculation module, the ascertained optical flow from an output of the optical flow calculation module to the input of the processing subassembly, wherein the ascertained information relevant to an ADAS function is based on the ascertained optical flow.

12. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the optical flow is ascertained from the generated sensor data before the lossy compression is performed thereon, and the optical flow is transmitted losslessly to the input of the processing subassembly.

13. A vehicle function sensor system, comprising:
a sensor subassembly, comprising
at least one vehicle sensor configured to generate data regarding an environment of the vehicle when mounted thereto, and
at least one electronic circuit having an input connected to an output of the at least one vehicle sensor at which the generated data is received, the at least one electronic circuit configured to pre-process the generated data by subjecting the generated data to lossy compression generating lossy compression sensor data,

a sensor data processing subassembly, comprising
at least one electronic circuit having an input coupled to an output of the electronic circuit of the sensor subassembly and configured to receive and decompress the lossy compression sensor data for generating decompressed lossy sensor data, and to process the decompressed lossy sensor data by extracting information relevant to a vehicle function being ascertained from the decompressed lossy sensor data and outputting the ascertained information relevant to the vehicle function, and

an electronics housing, wherein the sensor subassembly and the sensor data processing subassembly are integrated into the electronics housing.

14. The vehicle function sensor system according to claim 13 , wherein the at least one vehicle sensor comprises at least one camera sensor and the data generated by the at least one vehicle sensor are image data.

15. The vehicle function sensor system according to claim 14 , wherein the sensor subassembly or the at least one electronic circuit thereof is configured to pre-process the image data by ascertaining an optical flow between the image data of two individual images captured at different times by the at least one camera sensor, and by transmitting the ascertained optical flow to the input of the at least one electronic circuit of the sensor data processing subassembly, wherein the ascertained information relevant to the vehicle function is based on the ascertained optical flow.

16. The vehicle function sensor system according to claim 15 , wherein the optical flow is ascertained from the generated sensor data before lossy compression is performed thereon, and the optical flow is transmitted losslessly to the input of the at least one electronic circuit o

Assignees

• Conti Temic Microelectronic Gmbh

Inventors

• Strigel Elias
• Heinrich Stefan
• Krökel Dieter
• Fechner Thomas
• Pfitzer Martin
• Thiel Robert

Classifications

• H03M7/3059 Primary

  Digital compression and data reduction techniques where the original information is represented by a subset or similar information, e.g. lossy compression · CPC title

• H03M7/6005

  Decoder aspects · CPC title

• H04N7/183

  for receiving images from a single remote source · CPC title