Encoded road striping for autonomous vehicles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018282955-A1
Application number	US-201715472076-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 28, 2017
Priority date	Mar 28, 2017
Publication date	Oct 4, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

An autonomous vehicle (AV) can process a live sensor view to autonomously operate acceleration, braking, and steering systems of the AV along a given route. While traveling along the given route, the AV can identify an encoded road stripe in the live sensor view, and decode the encoded road stripe to determine location data corresponding to the encoded road stripe.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An autonomous vehicle (AV) comprising:
acceleration, braking, and steering systems; a sensor suite generating live sensor view of a surrounding environment of the AV; and a control system operable to:
process the live sensor view to autonomously operate the acceleration, braking, and steering systems of the AV along a given route;
identify an encoded road stripe in the live sensor view; and
decode the encoded road stripe to determine location data corresponding to the encoded road stripe.

2 . The AV of claim 1 , further comprising:
a location-based resource to dynamically receive a location signal to determine a current location of the AV for the control system; wherein the control system is triggered to identify the encoded road stripe and decode the encoded road stripe in response to the location-based resource being unable to receive the location signal to determine the current location of the AV.

3 . The AV of claim 2 , wherein the location-based resource being unable to receive the location signal corresponds to the AV entering a tunnel.

4 . The AV of claim 3 , wherein the location data corresponding to the road stripe identifies a relative location of the AV within the tunnel.

5 . The AV of claim 1 , wherein the encoded road stripe comprises a set of sub-stripes each having a given length, and wherein the location data corresponding to the encoded road stripe is encoded based on the given length of each of the set of sub-stripes.

6 . The AV of claim 5 , wherein the control system reads the set of sub-stripes from a specified camera of the sensor suite in order to decode the encoded road stripe.

7 . The AV of claim 6 , wherein the control system performs super-resolution imaging on a set of frames from the specified camera that include the road stripe to read the set of sub-stripes.

8 . The AV of claim 1 , further comprising:
a database storing a set of localization maps for a given region throughout which the AV operates; wherein the control system performs localization operations using respective current localization maps to dynamically determine a current location of the AV.

9 . The AV of claim 8 , wherein the control system is triggered to identify the encoded road stripe and decode the encoded road stripe based on a current localization map lacking unique location markers that otherwise enable the control system to determine the current location of the AV.

10 . A road marking system comprising:
one or more paint containers to store road paint; a paint gun to output the road paint; one or more processors to control the paint gun; and one or more memory resources storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the road marking system to:
determine a current location of the road marking system; and
programmatically apply the road paint to an underlying road surface as a set of sub-stripes to encode the current location into the set of sub-stripes.

11 . The road marking system of claim 10 , wherein the executed instructions further cause the road marking system to:
at a first location, programmatically apply the road paint to the underlying road surface as a master set of road stripes having location coordinates encoded therein, the location coordinates indicating the first location.

12 . The road marking system of claim 11 , wherein the executed instructions cause the road marking system to encode the current location into the set of sub-stripes relative to the location coordinates encoded in the master set of road stripes.

13 . The road marking system of claim 12 , wherein the first location corresponds to an entrance to a tunnel, and wherein the set of sub-stripes are located within the tunnel and encode the current location in relation to the entrance to the tunnel.

14 . The road marking system of claim 10 , wherein the road marking system is comprised as a component of a striper vehicle.

15 . The road marking system of claim 10 , wherein the set of sub-stripes comprises a single lane divider marking on the underlying road surface.

16 . The road marking system of claim 10 , wherein the set of sub-stripes is included as a portion of a road boundary marker of the underlying road surface.

17 . The road marking system of claim 10 , wherein the set of sub-stripes is included as a portion of a center line dividing respective rights-of-way on the underlying road surface.

18 . The road marking system of claim 10 , wherein the executed instructions further cause the road marking system to encode a road version into the set of sub-stripes.

19 . The road marking system of claim 18 , wherein the road version indicates when the underlying road surface was paved.

20 . A road striper vehicle comprising:
acceleration, braking, and steering systems; and a road marking system comprising: one or more paint containers to store road paint; a paint gun to output the road paint; one or more processors to control the paint gun; and one or more memory resources storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the road marking system to:
determine a current location of the road marking system; and
programmatically apply the road paint to an underlying road surface as a set of sub-stripes to encode the current location into the set of sub-stripes.

Assignees

• Uber Technologies Inc

Inventors

• Mcclendon Brian

Classifications

• G08G1/09623

  Systems involving the acquisition of information from passive traffic signs by means mounted on the vehicle (G08G1/0967 takes precedence) · CPC title

• E01F9/50

  Road surface markings; Kerbs or road edgings, specially adapted for alerting road users (for redirecting vehicles E01F15/00) · CPC title

• E01C23/222

  specially adapted for automatic spraying of interrupted, individual or variable markings · CPC title

• G08G1/095

  Traffic lights · CPC title

• B60W2420/52

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic