Compensation for vertical road curvature in road geometry estimation

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing one or more instructions which, when executed by one or more processors of a processing system, cause the one or more processors to carry out a method for estimating a vertical offset of a road segment for a vehicle, the method comprising:

• tracking at least one road reference on the road segment at a first moment in time from a first observation point in order to form a first representation of the at least one road reference in a vehicle plane, and wherein the first representation is based on a first mathematical function;
• obtaining vehicle movement data over a time period extending from the first moment in time to a second moment in time;
• tracking the at least one road reference on the road segment at the second moment in time from a second observation point in order to form a second representation of the at least one road reference in the vehicle plane, and wherein the second representation is based on a second mathematical function;
• transforming a point of the first representation from a coordinate system of the first representation to a coordinate system of the second representation based on the obtained movement data;
• applying a vertical coordinate on the transformed point so to calculate a set of projected longitudinal and lateral coordinates that satisfy the second mathematical function and a maximum error value;
• and
• determining the vertical offset based on the applied vertical coordinate that satisfied the second mathematical function with the maximum error value and on the obtained vehicle movement data.

A control device for estimating a vertical offset of a road segment for a vehicle, the control device comprising:

• control circuitry configured to:
• track a road reference on the road segment by means of an image sensor at a first moment in time from a first observation point in order to form a first representation of the road reference in a vehicle plane, and wherein the first representation is based on a first mathematical function;
• obtain vehicle movement data from at least one motion sensor of the vehicle over a time period extending from the first moment in time to a second moment in time;
• track the road reference on the road segment by means of the image sensor at the second moment in time from a second observation point in order to form a second representation of the road reference in the vehicle plane, and wherein the second representation is based on defined second mathematical function;
• transform a point of the first representation from a coordinate system of the first representation to a coordinate system of the second representation based on the obtained movement data;
• apply a vertical coordinate on the transformed point so to calculate a set of projected longitudinal and lateral coordinates that satisfy the second mathematical function and a maximum error value;
• and
• determine the vertical offset based on the applied vertical coordinate that satisfied the second mathematical function and the maximum error value and on the obtained vehicle movement data.