Method for estimating a relative position of an object in the surroundings of a vehicle and electronic control unit for a vehicle and vehicle
AssigneeArgo AI, LLC
InventorFrancesco Ferroni
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A relative position of an object in the surroundings of a vehicle is estimated based on a two-dimensional camera image. A control unit determines an object contour of the object from the camera image and determines at least one digital object template that represents the object based on the object contour. The control unit forward projects the at least one object template from respective different positions onto an image plane of the camera image. Each forward-projected object template yields a respective two-dimensional contour proposal, and the control unit compares the contour proposals with the object contour of the object.
Claims20
A method for determining a relative position of an object in a surroundings of a vehicle, the method comprising:
- determining, by an electronic control unit of the vehicle, an object contour of the object from a two-dimensional (2D) camera image taken by a camera of the vehicle;
- back-projecting the object contour into a three-dimensional virtual space that represents the surroundings, the back-projected object contour describing a virtual three-dimensional (3D) frustum reaching from the camera into the surroundings;
- determining at least one digital object template that represents the object;
- positioning the at least one digital object template at a plurality of predefined positions inside the frustum, the plurality of predefined positions being determined according to a predefined positioning rule;
- forward projecting the at least one digital object template from the plurality of predefined positions onto an image plane of the camera image, each forward-projected digital object template yielding a respective 2D contour proposal;
- comparing the 2D contour proposals with the object contour of the object;
- selecting, based on the comparing, at least one 2D contour proposal among the 2D contour proposals that fulfills a predefined matching criterion with respect to the object contour, as a respective best-fit contour proposal;
- and
- determining the relative position of the object based on the respective predefined position of each corresponding digital object template that leads to the at least one 2D contour proposal selected as the respective best-fit contour proposal.
An electronic control unit for a vehicle, comprising:
- a memory configured to store instructions;
- and
- a processor configured to execute the instructions to:
- determine an object contour of the object from a two-dimensional (2D) camera image taken by a camera of the vehicle,
- back-project the object contour into a three-dimensional virtual space that represents the surroundings, the back-projected object contour describing a virtual three-dimensional (3D) frustum reaching from the camera into the surroundings,
- determine at least one digital object template that represents the object,
- position the at least one digital object template at a plurality of predefined positions inside the frustum, the plurality of predefined positions being determined according to a predefined positioning rule,
- forward project the at least one digital object template from the plurality of predefined positions onto an image plane of the camera image, each forward-projected digital object template yielding a respective 2D contour proposal,
- compare the 2D contour proposals with the object contour of the object;
- select, based on the comparison, at least one 2D contour proposal among the 2D contour proposals that fulfills a predefined matching criterion with respect to the object contour, as a respective best-fit contour proposal, and
- determine a relative position of the object based on the respective predefined position of each corresponding digital object template that leads to the at least one 2D contour proposal selected as the respective best-fit contour proposal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.