Vehicular sensing system with occlusion estimation for use in control of vehicle

A vehicular sensing system, the vehicular sensing system comprising:

• a sensor disposed at a vehicle equipped with the vehicular sensing system and sensing exterior of the vehicle;
• an electronic control unit (ECU) comprising electronic circuitry and associated software;
• wherein the sensor is operable to capture sensor data;
• wherein sensor data captured by the sensor is transferred to the ECU;
• wherein the electronic circuitry of the ECU comprises a data processor for processing sensor data captured by the sensor;
• wherein, via processing at the ECU of sensor data captured by the sensor, the vehicular sensing system generates a three-dimensional point cloud of data representing a three-dimensional scene exterior of the vehicle within a field of sensing of the sensor;
• wherein the vehicular sensing system, based at least in part on the three-dimensional point cloud of data, generates a virtual range image for the three-dimensional point cloud of data, wherein the virtual range image comprises a 2.5-dimensional data structure having a set of pixels whose coordinates are determined by azimuth and elevation bins and whose values store range information, the set of points representing the three-dimensional point cloud of data, and wherein each point of the set of points comprises a respective location and a respective range value;
• wherein the vehicular sensing system, based at least in part on the three-dimensional point cloud of data, generates another virtual range image for a region of interest of the three-dimensional point cloud of data, wherein the other virtual range image comprises another set of points representing the three-dimensional point cloud of data, and wherein each point of the other set of points comprises a respective location and a maximum range value;
• wherein the vehicular sensing system, for each respective point of the set of points, classifies the respective point as occluded or non-occluded by comparing the respective range value of the respective point with the maximum range value of a corresponding point of the other set of points;
• wherein the vehicular sensing system determines one or more occlusion regions based on the classification for the respective points, each occlusion region comprising a region that is within the field of sensing of the sensor but that is not sensed by the sensor due to an object obstructing the sensor from sensing the region;
• and
• wherein the vehicular sensing system tracks a moving detected object as it enters an occlusion region and predicts where the moving detected object will exit from the occlusion region.

A vehicular sensing system, the vehicular sensing system comprising:

• a sensor disposed at a vehicle equipped with the vehicular sensing system and sensing exterior of the vehicle;
• an electronic control unit (ECU) comprising electronic circuitry and associated software;
• wherein the sensor is operable to capture sensor data;
• wherein sensor data captured by the sensor is transferred to the ECU;
• wherein the electronic circuitry of the ECU comprises a data processor for processing sensor data captured by the sensor;
• wherein, via processing at the ECU of sensor data captured by the sensor, the vehicular sensing system generates a three-dimensional point cloud of data representing a three-dimensional scene exterior of the vehicle within a field of sensing of the sensor;
• wherein the vehicular sensing system, based at least in part on the three-dimensional point cloud of data, generates a virtual range image for the three-dimensional point cloud of data, wherein the virtual range image comprises a 2.5-dimensional data structure having a set of pixels whose coordinates are determined by azimuth and elevation bins and whose values store range information, the set of points representing the three-dimensional point cloud of data, and wherein each point of the set of points comprises a respective location and a respective range value;
• wherein the vehicular sensing system, for each respective point of the set of points, classifies the respective point as occluded or non-occluded by comparing the respective range value with a threshold range value associated with that respective point;
• wherein the vehicular sensing system determines one or more occlusion regions based on the classification for the respective points, each occlusion region comprising a region that is within the field of sensing of the sensor but that is not sensed by the sensor due to an object obstructing the sensor from sensing the region;
• wherein the vehicular sensing system detects a moving object based on a group of one or more adjacent points being classified as occluded;
• and
• wherein the vehicular sensing system tracks the detected moving object as it enters an occlusion region and predicts where the detected moving object will exit from the occlusion region before the detected moving object will be sensed by the sensor again.