System and method for generating precise road lane map data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11920950-B2
Application number	US-202017120210-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 13, 2020
Priority date	Nov 6, 2017
Publication date	Mar 5, 2024
Grant date	Mar 5, 2024

Abstract

An in-vehicle system for generating precise, lane-level road map data includes a GPS receiver operative to acquire positional information associated with a track along a road path. An inertial sensor provides time local measurement of acceleration and turn rate along the track, and a camera acquires image data of the road path along the track. A processor is operative to receive the local measurement from the inertial sensor and image data from the camera over time in conjunction with multiple tracks along the road path, and improve the accuracy of the GPS receiver through curve fitting. One or all of the GPS receiver, inertial sensor and camera are disposed in a smartphone. The road map data may be uploaded to a central data repository for post processing when the vehicle passes through a WiFi cloud to generate the precise road map data, which may include data collected from multiple drivers.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system for generating precise road map data, comprising:
a plurality of vehicles, each vehicle carrying a GPS receiver operative to acquire and store raw GPS coordinates as each vehicle travels along a road path;
wherein the raw GPS coordinates acquired by each vehicle define raw road track data defining the same road path travelled by each respective vehicle;
a processor operative to receive the raw road track data from the plurality of vehicles and apply an algorithm to the raw road track data to generate improved road track data defining the road path; and
wherein the improved road track data is stored in a database for subsequent use by the same or different vehicles when traveling along the road path.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
each vehicle is further equipped with an inertial sensor measuring the acceleration and turn rate of the vehicle as it travels along the road path; and
the acceleration and turn rate of each vehicle is used to generate the raw road track data for that vehicle.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
each vehicle is further equipped with a video camera operative to acquire image data of the road path as the vehicle as it travels along the road path; and
the image data is used to generate the raw road track data for that vehicle.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the video camera is a look-ahead or look-behind video camera.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
each vehicle is further equipped with a wireless transmitter; and
each vehicle transmits its raw road track data to a remote processor and database.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the GPS receiver is disposed in a smartphone carried by the vehicle.

7. The system of claim 2 , wherein the inertial sensor is disposed in a smartphone carried by the vehicle.

8. The system of claim 3 , wherein the video camera is disposed in a smartphone carried by the vehicle.

9. The system of claim 4 , wherein the video camera is disposed in a smartphone carried by the vehicle.

10. The system of claim 4 , wherein the wireless transmitter is disposed in a smartphone carried by the vehicle.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein each vehicle transmits its raw road track data to a remote processor and database when the vehicle passes through a WiFi cloud.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the algorithm applied by the processor to generate the improved road track data is based upon curve fitting.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the improved road track data includes transient road features.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the transient road features include one or more of the following:
construction sites,
traffic diversions, and
newly opened road or lane paths.

15. The system of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle is an autonomous vehicle.

16. A system for generating precise road map data, comprising:
a plurality of vehicles, each vehicle carrying a GPS receiver operative to acquire and store raw GPS coordinates and an inertial sensor measuring acceleration and turn rate data as each vehicle travels along a road path;
wherein the raw GPS coordinates and inertial sensor data acquired by each vehicle define raw road track data defining the same road path travelled by each respective vehicle;
a processor operative to receive the raw road track data from the plurality of vehicles and apply a curve-fitting algorithm to the raw road track data to generate improved road track data defining the road path; and
wherein the improved road track data is stored in a database for subsequent use by the same or different vehicles when traveling along the road path.

17. A system for generating precise road map data, comprising:
a plurality of vehicles, each vehicle carrying a GPS receiver operative to acquire and store raw GPS coordinates and a video camera acquiring image data as each vehicle travels along a road path;
wherein the raw GPS coordinates and image data acquired by each vehicle define raw road track data defining the same road path travelled by each respective vehicle;
a processor operative to receive the raw road track data from the plurality of vehicles and apply a curve-fitting algorithm to the raw road track data to generate improved road track data defining the road path; and
wherein the improved road track data is stored in a database for subsequent use by the same or different vehicles when traveling along the road path.

18. A system for generating precise road map data, comprising:
a plurality of vehicles, each vehicle carrying a GPS receiver operative to acquire and store raw GPS coordinates, and inertial sensor measuring acceleration and turn rate data, and a video camera acquiring image data as each vehicle travels along a road path;
wherein the raw GPS coordinates, inertial sensor data and image data acquired by each vehicle define raw road track data defining the same road path travelled by each respective vehicle;
a processor operative to receive the raw road track data from the plurality of vehicles and apply a curve-fitting algorithm to the raw road track data to generate improved road track data defining the road path; and
wherein the improved road track data is stored in a database for subsequent use by the same or different vehicles when traveling along the road path.

Assignees

• Cybernet Systems Corp

Inventors

• Jacobus Charles J
• Beach Glenn J
• Haanpaa Douglas
• Cohen Charles J

Classifications

• G05D1/246

  using environment maps, e.g. simultaneous localisation and mapping [SLAM] · CPC title

• G05D1/248

  generated by satellites, e.g. GPS · CPC title

• G05D1/249

  from positioning sensors located off-board the vehicle, e.g. from cameras · CPC title

• G01C21/3848 Primary

  Data obtained from both position sensors and additional sensors · CPC title

• G01C21/1656

  with passive imaging devices, e.g. cameras · CPC title