Assessing visibility of a target object with autonomous vehicle fleet
AssigneeGM Cruise Holdings LLC
InventorsKatherine Mary Stumpf, Andrew David Acosta
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system uses a fleet of AVs to assess visibility of target objects. Each AV has a camera for capturing images of target objects. AVs provide the captured images, or visibility data derived from the captured images, to a remote system, which aggregates visibility data describing images captured across the fleet of AVs. The AVs also provide condition data describing conditions under which the images were captured, and the remote system aggregates the condition data. The remote system processes the aggregated visibility data and condition data to determine conditions under which a target object does not meet a visibility threshold.
Claims20
A method for identifying a location for a target object, the method comprising:
- capturing, by a camera mounted to an autonomous vehicle (AV), a plurality of images, each of the plurality of images having a field of view comprising a potential location for a target object, the plurality of images captured over a period of time;
- determining whether the potential location for the target object is visible in one of the plurality of images;
- in response to determining that the potential location for the target object is visible in one of the plurality of images, determining, based on the plurality of images, a duration of time during which the potential location is visible;
- and
- in response to determining that the potential location is visible for at least a threshold period of time, transmitting the potential location for the target object to a remote system.
An autonomous vehicle (AV) to identify a location for a target object, the AV comprising:
- a camera mounted to the AV, the camera to capture a plurality of images, each of the plurality of images having a field of view comprising a potential location for a target object, wherein the camera captures the plurality of images over a period of time;
- a processor to:
- receive the plurality of images captured by the camera;
- determine whether the potential location for the target object is visible in one of the plurality of images;
- and
- in response to determining that the potential location for the target object is visible in one of the plurality of images, determine, based on the plurality of images, a duration of time during which the potential location is visible;
- and
- communications circuitry to transmit the potential location for the target object to a remote system in response to a determination that the potential location is visible for at least a threshold period of time.
A method for identifying a location for a target object, the method comprising:
- receiving, from a plurality of AVs, data describing a potential location for a target object, the data from each of the plurality of AVs comprising whether the potential location for the target object was visible to a camera mounted to the AV, and, if the potential location for the target object was visible, a length of time during which the potential location for the target object was visible;
- determining a proportion of the plurality of AVs for which the potential location for the target object was visible for at least a threshold period of time;
- determining whether the proportion of the plurality of AVs exceeds a threshold proportion;
- and
- in response, reporting the potential location for the target object as a suitable location for placing the target object.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.