Removable automotive LIDAR data collection pod
AssigneeAurora Operations, Inc.
InventorsNathaniel Gist, IV, Christopher Williams
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vehicle agnostic removable pod can be mounted on a vehicle using one or more legs of a pod mount. The removable pod can collect and time stamp a variety of environmental data as well as vehicle data. For example, environmental data can be collected using a sensor suite which can include an IMU, 3D positioning sensor, one or more cameras, and/or a LIDAR unit. As another example, vehicle data can be collected via a CAN bus attached to the vehicle. Environmental data and/or vehicle data can be time stamped and transmitted to a remote server for further processing by a computing device.
Claims20
A method of calibrating a removable pod on a vehicle, comprising:
- attaching the removable pod to the vehicle using a pod mount, the removable pod including one or more sensors;
- adjusting a position of the removable pod using the pod mount;
- determining, using the one or more sensors of the removable pod on the vehicle, pod location measurements of the removable pod;
- determining, based at least on the pod location measurements of the removable pod indicated from sensor data captured by the one or more sensors of the removable pod, a position of the removable pod;
- determining whether the position of the removable pod is a valid position of one or more valid positions;
- and
- in response to determining that the position of the removable pod is not any valid position of the one or more valid positions, re-attaching the removable pod using the pod mount.
A method of calibrating a position of a removable pod on a vehicle, wherein the removable pod includes a sensor suite, the method comprising:
- capturing, via one or more sensors within the sensor suite of the removable pod that is positioned on the vehicle, data that measures the vehicle with respect to the removable pod, wherein the removable pod is in communication with a computing device;
- determining, based on the data captured by the one or more sensors of the sensor suite of the removable pod that measures the vehicle with respect to the removable pod, the position of the removable pod on the vehicle;
- determining whether the position of the removable pod on the vehicle is a valid position that enables the sensor suite to collect sensor data from a predefined perspective;
- and
- in response to determining that the position of the removable pod on the vehicle is not a valid position that enables the sensor suite to collect the sensor data from the predefined perspective:
- guiding a user, via a user interface of the computing device, to adjust the position of the removable pod.
A method of positioning a removable pod on a vehicle, wherein the removable pod is in communication with a computing device, the method comprising:
- identifying, using a user interface of the computing device, a desired spot of the vehicle to attach the removable pod to the vehicle, wherein the removable pod includes a sensor suite;
- attaching, via an adjustable pod mount, the removable pod to the vehicle at the desired spot of the vehicle;
- and
- adjusting a position of the removable pod via the adjustable pod mount,
- wherein one or more sensors of the sensor suite of the removable pod capture data that measures the removable pod with respect to the vehicle while the removable pod is being adjusted.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.