Detecting Motion of an Autonomous Vehicle Using Radar Technology

An article of manufacture including a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a processor in a computing system, causes the computing system to perform operations comprising:

• receiving, from a radar sensor mounted on an autonomous vehicle, radar data representative of a physical environment of the autonomous vehicle;
• based on the radar data, detecting at least one scatterer present in the environment;
• making a determination of a likelihood that the at least one scatterer is stationary with respect to the autonomous vehicle;
• based on the determination being that the likelihood is at least equal to a predefined confidence threshold, determining an indication that the autonomous vehicle is stationary;
• and
• based on the determined indication, controlling movement of the autonomous vehicle.

A computing system configured to control an autonomous vehicle, the computing system comprising:

• a radar sensor mounted on the autonomous vehicle;
• a processor configured to perform operations comprising:
• receiving, from the radar sensor, radar data representative of a physical environment of the autonomous vehicle;
• based on the radar data, detecting at least one scatterer present in the environment;
• making a determination of a likelihood that the at least one scatterer is stationary with respect to the autonomous vehicle;
• based on the determination being that the likelihood is at least equal to a predefined confidence threshold, determining an indication that the autonomous vehicle is stationary;
• and
• based on the determined indication, controlling movement of the autonomous vehicle.