Apparatus and method for estimating location of vehicle

A method of estimating a location of a vehicle, the method comprising:

• receiving, from an information providing vehicle, identification information and location information on a driving vehicle in a vicinity of the information providing vehicle, the identification information comprising license plate information of the driving vehicle and at least one of a size, a vehicle type or a color of the driving vehicle;
• obtaining a weighted value representing accuracy of the location information of the driving vehicle based on the received identification information;
• classifying the at least one of the size, the vehicle type or the color of the driving vehicle into groups, each of the groups associated with one of license plates;
• obtaining the weighted value by accumulating the at least one of the size, the vehicle type or the color for each of the groups;
• generating, in real time, a probabilistic grid map of the driving vehicle at each of a plurality of points of time by applying the weighted value to the location information, wherein probability information that the driving vehicle is located on each of a plurality of grids at a first point of time is accumulated on the probabilistic grid map;
• and
• estimating a location of the driving vehicle by applying the weighted value to the location information based on the probabilistic grid map;
• wherein the identification information and location information are obtained based on surrounding images captured by a camera sensor mounted on the information providing vehicle, and
• wherein the surrounding images are processed to detect the driving vehicle and extract the license plate information and at least one of the size, the vehicle type or the color of the driving vehicle.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including computer executable instructions, wherein the instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a transfer method, the method comprising:

• receiving, from an information providing vehicle, identification information and location information on a driving vehicle in a vicinity of the information providing vehicle, the identification information comprising license plate information of the driving vehicle and at least one of a size, a vehicle type or a color of the driving vehicle;
• obtaining a weighted value representing accuracy of the location information of the driving vehicle based on the received identification information;
• classifying the at least one of the size, the vehicle type or the color of the driving vehicle into groups, each of the groups associated with one of license plates;
• obtaining the weighted value by accumulating the at least one of the size, the vehicle type or the color for each of the groups;
• generating, in real time, a probabilistic grid map of the driving vehicle at each of a plurality of points of time by applying the weighted value to the location information, wherein probability information that the driving vehicle is located on each of a plurality of grids at a first point of time is accumulated on the probabilistic grid map, wherein the location information includes location coordinates of the driving vehicle obtained by the information providing vehicle and second probability information indicating a probability that the driving vehicle is located at the obtained location coordinates;
• estimating a location of the driving vehicle by applying the weighted value to the location information based on the probabilistic grid map;
• wherein the identification information and location information are obtained based on surrounding images captured by a camera sensor mounted on the information providing vehicle, and
• wherein the surrounding images are processed to detect the driving vehicle and extract the license plate information and at least one of the size, the vehicle type or the color of the driving vehicle.