# US 12,110,018 B2 · Apparatus for calculating driving path area of vehicle and method thereof > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 12,110,018 B2 - Document ID: US12110018B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 17/881,234 - Filed: 2022-08-04 - Published: 2023-06-15 - Granted: 2024-10-08 - Earliest claimed: 2021-12-13 - Assignees: Hyundai Motor Company; Kia Corporation - Applicants: Hyundai Motor Company; Kia Corporation - Inventors: Tae Dong Oh - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12110018B2 ## CPC - B60W 30/12: Lane keeping - G06N 3/0442: characterised by memory or gating, e.g. long short-term memory [LSTM] or gated recurrent units [GRU] - B60W 40/06: Road conditions - B60W 60/0011: {involving control alternatives for a single driving scenario, e.g. planning several paths to avoid obstacles} - G06N 3/02: Neural networks - G06N 5/01: Dynamic search techniques; Heuristics; Dynamic trees; Branch-and-bound - G06N 5/02: Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation - G06N 20/00: Machine learning - B60W 2300/14: Tractor-trailers, i.e. combinations of a towing vehicle and one or more towed vehicles, e.g. caravans; Road trains - B60W 2520/22: Articulation angle, e.g. between tractor and trailer - B60W 2530/203: Presence of trailer - B60W 2556/40: High definition maps - B60W 2556/50: of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data - B60W: CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE OR DIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TO THE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT - G06N: COMPUTING ARRANGEMENTS BASED ON SPECIFIC COMPUTATIONAL MODELS ## Abstract An apparatus for calculating a driving path area of a vehicle including a tractor part and a trailer part and a method thereof are provided. A sensor device obtains information about periphery of the vehicle. A processor calculates a drivable area with regard to a road structure identified based on at least one of the information about the periphery of the vehicle or information about a map and calculates one or more driving paths of the tractor part, based on the calculated drivable area. The apparatus for calculating the driving path area of the vehicle accurately determines a risk of a predicted driving path to improve stability of autonomous driving. ## Claims ### Claim 1 An apparatus for calculating a driving path area of a vehicle, the apparatus comprising: a sensor device provided in the vehicle including a tractor part and a trailer part and configured to obtain information about a periphery of the vehicle; a memory configured to store information about a map around the vehicle; and a processor configured to: calculate one or more driving paths of the tractor part, based on information about the periphery of the vehicle and the information about the map, calculate a path area swept by a part or all of the body of the vehicle with regard to an area swept by the trailer part corresponding to each of the one or more driving paths of the tractor part, calculate a driving path of the trailer part corresponding to each of the one or more driving paths of the tractor part, based on a previously learned artificial neural network-based learning model, and calculate the area swept by the trailer part, based on the driving path of the trailer part. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor calculates a drivable area with regard to a road structure identified based on at least one of the information about the periphery of the vehicle or the information about the map and calculates the one or more driving paths of the tractor part, based on the calculated drivable area. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor calculates a drivable area with regard to a surrounding object identified based on at least one of the information about the periphery of the vehicle or the information about the map, and calculates the one or more driving paths of the tractor part, based on the calculated drivable area. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor calculates the one or more driving paths of the tractor part, based on a random probability-based rapidly exploring random tree (RRT) algorithm scheme or a random probability-based fast rapidly exploring random tree (fRRT) algorithm scheme. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor calculates the driving path of the trailer part corresponding to each of the one or more driving paths of the tractor part, also based on a tractor-trailer model, and calculates the area swept by the trailer part, based on the driving path of the trailer part. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor calculates the driving path of the trailer part corresponding to each of the one or more driving paths of the tractor part, also based on simulation, and calculates the area swept by the trailer part, based on the driving path of the trailer part. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor calculates a first path area, based on areas occupied by the tractor part and the trailer part, and calculates the path area including the first path area. ### Claim 8 (depends on 7) The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processor calculates the first path area, based on a union of the area occupied by the tractor part, the area occupied by the trailer part, and an internal area of a path corresponding to one or more feature points of the trailer part, the one or more feature points being calculated with regard to rotation of the trailer part. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor calculates left and right outermost path lines of a driving path of the vehicle, based on a path corresponding to one or more feature points of the tractor part and a path corresponding to one or more feature points of the trailer part, calculates a second path area, based on the left and right outermost path lines of the driving path of the vehicle, and calculates the path area including the second path area. ### Claim 10 (depends on 9) The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processor determines a coordinate system, one axis of which is based on the driving path of the vehicle, and calculates the left and right outermost path lines of the driving path of the vehicle, based on the coordinate system. ### Claim 11 (depends on 9) The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processor determines the outermost path lines, based on a cross product of a vector corresponding to the path corresponding to the one or more feature points of the tractor part and a vector corresponding to the path corresponding to the one or more feature points of the trailer part. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor calculates a third path area greater than a specific distance in the direction of a driving path of the vehicle and calculates the path area where the third path area is removed. ### Claim 13 A method for calculating a driving path area of a vehicle, the method comprising: obtaining, by a sensor device provided in the vehicle including a tractor part and a trailer part, information about a periphery of the vehicle; calculating, by a processor, one or more driving paths of tractor part, based on the information about the periphery of the vehicle and information about a map around the vehicle, the information about the map around the vehicle being stored in a memory; and calculating, by the processor, a path area swept by a part or all of the body of the vehicle with regard to an area swept by the trailer part corresponding to each of the one or more driving paths of the tractor part, wherein the calculating of the path area swept by the part or all of the body of the vehicle by the processor includes: calculating, by the processor, a driving path of the trailer part corresponding to each of the one or more driving paths of the tractor part, based on at least one of a tractor-trailer model, simulation, or a previously learned artificial neural network-based learning model; and calculating, by the processor, the area swept by the trailer part, based on the driving path of the trailer part. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) The method of claim 13, wherein the calculating of the one or more driving paths of the tractor part by the processor includes: calculating, by the processor, a drivable area with regard to a road structure identified based on at least one of the information about the periphery of the vehicle or the information about the map; and calculating, by the processor, the one or more driving paths of the tractor part, based on the calculated drivable area. ### Claim 15 (depends on 13) The method of claim 13, wherein the calculating of the path area swept by the part or all of the body of the vehicle by the processor includes: calculating, by the processor, a first path area, based on areas occupied by the tractor part and the trailer part; and calculating, by the processor, the path area including the first path area. ### Claim 16 (depends on 13) The method of claim 13, wherein the calculating of the path area swept by the part or all of the body of the vehicle by the processor includes: calculating, by the processor, left and right outermost path lines of a driving path of the vehicle, based on a path corresponding to one or more feature points of the tractor part and a path corresponding to one or more feature points of the trailer part; calculating, by the processor, a second path area, based on the left and right outermost path lines of the driving path of the vehicle; and calculating, by the processor, the path area including the second path area. ### Claim 17 (depends on 16) The method of claim 16, wherein the calculating of the left and right outermost path lines of the driving path of the vehicle by the processor includes: determining, by the processor, a coordinate system, one axis of which is based on the driving path of the vehicle; and calculating, by the processor, the left and right outermost path lines of the driving path of the vehicle, based on the coordinate system. ### Claim 18 (depends on 13) The method of claim 13, wherein the calculating of the path area swept by the part or all of the body of the vehicle by the processor includes: calculating, by the processor, a third path area greater than a specific distance in the direction of a driving path of the vehicle; and calculating, by the processor, the path area where the third path area is removed.