Aligning road information for navigation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020284591-A1
Application number	US-202016811017-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 6, 2020
Priority date	Mar 7, 2019
Publication date	Sep 10, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for aligning navigation information from a plurality of vehicles. In one implementation, at least one processing device may receive first navigational information from a first vehicle and second navigational information from a second vehicle. The first and second navigational information may be associated with a common road segment. The processor may divide the common road segment into a first road section and a second road section that join at a common point. The processor may then align the first and second navigational information by rotating at least a portion of the first navigational information or the second navigational information relative to the common point. The processor may store the aligned navigational information in association with the common road segment and send the aligned navigational information to vehicles for use in navigating along the common road segment.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:
receive first navigational information from a first vehicle; receive second navigational information from a second vehicle, wherein the first navigational information and the second navigational information are associated with a common road segment; divide the common road segment into at least a first road section and a second road section, wherein the first road section and the second road section join at a common point; align the first navigational information with the second navigational information relative to the common road segment, wherein aligning the first navigational information with the second navigational information includes rotating at least a portion of the first navigational information or at least a portion of the second navigational information relative to the common point; store the aligned navigational information in association with the common road segment; and send at least a portion of the aligned navigational information to one or more vehicles for use in navigating the one or more vehicles along the common road segment.

2 . The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein a length of the first road section is the same as a length of the second road section.

3 . The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 2 , wherein the length of the first road section and the length of the second road section are each between 45 and 65 meters.

4 . The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein a length of at least one of the first road section or the second road section is based at least in part on a curvature of at least a portion of the common road segment.

5 . The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processor to:
divide the common road segment into a third road section, wherein the third road section and the second road section join at a second common point, and wherein aligning the first navigational information with the second navigational information further includes rotating at least a portion of the first navigational information or at least a portion of the second navigational information relative to the second common point.

6 . The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the first navigational information or the second navigational information is received over a network.

7 . The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the first navigational information or the second navigational information includes global positioning system (GPS) information.

8 . The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the first navigational information includes a first location of at least one landmark based on one or more images captured by a camera included in the first vehicle and the second navigational information includes a second location of the at least one landmark based on one or more images captured by a camera included in the second vehicle.

9 . The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein aligning the first navigational information with the second navigational information is based on the first and second locations of the at least one landmark.

10 . The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the at least one landmark includes a road marking, a road sign, or a traffic light.

11 . The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processor to:
correlate the aligned navigational information with a global coordinate system; and store the correlated navigational information in association with the common road segment.

12 . The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the first vehicle collected the first navigational information and the second vehicle collected the second navigational information during a predetermined time period.

13 . The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the first vehicle collected the first navigational information over a first number of drives and the second vehicle collected the second navigational information over a second number of drives.

14 . The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the first number of drives and the second number of drives are equal.

15 . The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the first number of drives and the second number of drives are not equal.

16 . The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the first number of drives and the second number of drives are equal to or less than a predetermined threshold number of drives.

17 . The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the first navigational information or the second navigational information are rotated relative to the common point until at least a portion of the first navigational information at least partially overlaps with at least a portion of the second navigational information.

18 . The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the one or more vehicles include autonomous vehicles.

19 . A server for aligning navigation information from a plurality of vehicles, the server comprising:
at least one processor programmed to:
receive first navigational information from a first vehicle;
receive second navigational information from a second vehicle, wherein the first navigational information and the second navigational information are associated with a common road segment;
divide the common road segment into at least a first road section and a second road section, wherein the first road section and the second road section join at a common point;
align the first navigational information with the second navigational information relative to the common road segment, wherein
aligning the first navigational information with the second navigational information includes rotating at least a portion of the first navigational information or at least a portion of the second navigational information relative to the common point;
store the aligned navigational information in association with the common road segment; and
send at least a portion of the aligned navigational information to one or more vehicles for use in navigating the one or more vehicles along the common road segment.

20 . A computer-implemented method for aligning navigation information from a plurality of vehicles, the method comprising:
receiving first navigational information from a first vehicle; receiving second navigational information from a second vehicle, wherein the first navigational information and the second navigational information are associated with a common road segment; dividing the common road segment into at least a first road section and a second road section, wherein the first road section and the second road section join at a common point; aligning the first navigational information with the second navigational information relative to the common road segment, wherein aligning the first navigational information with the second navigational information includes rotating at least a portion of the first navigational information or at least a portion of the second navigational information relative to the common point; storing the aligned navigational information in associati

Assignees

• Mobileye Vision Technologies Ltd

Inventors

• Shapira Dori
• Tubis Igor
• Rokni Uri
• Ratner Nir

Classifications

• G01C21/165

  combined with non-inertial navigation instruments · CPC title

• G01S19/47

  the supplementary measurement being an inertial measurement, e.g. tightly coupled inertial · CPC title

• G01S19/42

  Determining position · CPC title

• G01S17/86

  Combinations of lidar systems with systems other than lidar, radar or sonar, e.g. with direction finders · CPC title

• G01S13/89

  for mapping or imaging · CPC title