Auto-calibration of vehicle sensors
AssigneeToyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorJames J. Kuffner, Jr.
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system for automatically calibrating sensors of a vehicle includes an electronic control unit, a projector communicatively coupled to the electronic control unit, a first sensor communicatively coupled to the electronic control unit, and a second sensor communicatively coupled to the electronic control unit. The electronic control unit is configured to project, with the projector, a calibration pattern onto a surface, capture, with the first sensor, a first portion of the calibration pattern, capture, with the second sensor, a second portion of the calibration pattern, and calibrate the first sensor and the second sensor based on at least one feature sensed within the first portion of the calibration pattern and the second portion of the calibration pattern.
Claims20
A system for automatically calibrating sensors of a vehicle comprising:
- an electronic control unit;
- a projector and a sensor of the projector communicatively coupled to the electronic control unit;
- a first sensor communicatively coupled to the electronic control unit;
- and
- a second sensor communicatively coupled to the electronic control unit,
- wherein the electronic control unit is configured to:
- project, with the projector, a calibration pattern onto a surface that is observable by the sensor of the projector, the first sensor, and the second sensor;
- capture, with the sensor of the projector, an image of the calibration pattern;
- adjust a projection, projected by the projector, of the calibration pattern on the surface so that the image of the calibration pattern captured by the sensor of the projector corresponds to a predefined calibration pattern for projection;
- capture, with the first sensor, a first portion of the calibration pattern;
- capture, with the second sensor, a second portion of the adjusted projection of the calibration pattern;
- and
- calibrate the first sensor and the second sensor based on at least one feature sensed within the first portion of the calibration pattern and the second portion of the calibration pattern.
A method for automatically calibrating vehicle sensors, the method comprising:
- projecting, with a projector, a calibration pattern onto a surface that is observable by a sensor of the projector, a first sensor, and a second sensor;
- capturing, with the sensor of the projector, an image of the calibration pattern;
- adjusting a projection, projected by the projector, of the calibration pattern on the surface so that the image of the calibration pattern captured by the sensor of the projector corresponds to a predefined calibration pattern for projection;
- capturing, with the first sensor, a first portion of the calibration pattern;
- capturing, with the second sensor, a second portion of the adjusted projection of the calibration pattern;
- and
- calibrating the first sensor and the second sensor based on at least one feature sensed within the first portion of the calibration pattern and the second portion of the calibration pattern.
A vehicle comprising:
- an electronic control unit;
- a projector and a sensor of the projector communicatively coupled to the electronic control unit;
- a first camera communicatively coupled to the electronic control unit;
- and
- a second camera communicatively coupled to the electronic control unit,
- wherein the electronic control unit is configured to:
- project, with the projector, a calibration pattern onto a surface that is observable by the sensor of the projector, the first sensor, and the second sensor;
- capture, with the sensor of the projector, an image of the calibration pattern;
- adjust a projection, projected by the projector, of the calibration pattern on the surface so that the image of the calibration pattern captured by the sensor of the projector corresponds to a predefined calibration pattern for projection;
- capture, with the first camera, a first portion of the calibration pattern;
- capture, with the second camera, a second portion of the adjusted projection of the calibration pattern;
- and
- calibrate the first camera and the second camera based on at least one feature sensed within the first portion of the calibration pattern and the second portion of the calibration pattern.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.