Automotive radar for mapping and localization
AssigneeGM Cruise Holdings LLC
InventorStefan Andreas Brisken
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vehicle (AV) includes a radar sensor and a hardware logic component. The radar sensor receives a radar return from a driving environment of the vehicle and outputs radar data that is indicative of the return to the hardware logic component. The hardware logic component further receives data indicative of a velocity of the vehicle from a sensor mounted on the vehicle. The hardware logic component is configured to employ synthetic aperture radar (SAR) techniques to compute a three-dimensional position of a point on a surface of an object in the driving environment of the vehicle based upon the radar data and the velocity of the vehicle.
Claims20
A vehicle comprising:
- a radar antenna array that receives radar returns from a driving environment of the vehicle, wherein the radar antenna array has a field-of-view (FOV) pointed in a direction that is offset at an angle from a direction of travel of the vehicle;
- and
- a hardware logic component that receives radar data that is indicative of the radar returns received by the radar antenna array over a period of time and generates a three-dimensional point cloud based upon the radar data through use of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) techniques, wherein use of the SAR techniques comprises:
- computing, based upon the radar data and a velocity of the vehicle during the period of time, a position of a point on a surface of an object in the driving environment;
- and
- updating a three-dimensional map of the driving environment based upon the computed position such that the three-dimensional map indicates that an object is present at the computed position.
A system comprising:
- a first vehicle, wherein the first vehicle comprises:
- a radar antenna that receives radar returns from a driving environment of the first vehicle;
- and
- a hardware logic component that receives radar data that is indicative of the radar returns received by the radar antenna, wherein the hardware logic component employs synthetic aperture radar (SAR) techniques to generate a point cloud that is representative of the driving environment of the first vehicle, wherein employing the SAR techniques comprises:
- computing, based upon the radar data and a velocity of the vehicle during the period of time, a position of a point on a surface of an object in the driving environment;
- and
- updating, based upon the computed position, mapping data that pertains to an operational region of a fleet of autonomous vehicles (AVs), the operational region including the driving environment, the mapping data updated such that the mapping data indicates that an object is present at the computed position;
- and
- a second vehicle, wherein the second vehicle is an AV in the fleet of AVs, the second vehicle includes a computing system, wherein the computing system is configured to control operation of the AV based upon the mapping data.
A method, comprising:
- receiving a first radar return by way of a first radar antenna mounted on a vehicle;
- receiving a second radar return by way of a second radar antenna mounted on the vehicle;
- receiving data indicative of a velocity of the vehicle;
- computing, based upon the first radar return, the second radar return, and the velocity of the vehicle, a position of a point on a surface of an object in a driving environment of the vehicle, wherein computing the position of the point on the surface of the object comprises:
- computing an azimuth angle of the point relative to a center of a field-of-view (FOV) of the first radar antenna based upon the first radar return and the velocity of the vehicle;
- and
- updating a three-dimensional map of the driving environment of the vehicle such that the three-dimensional map of the driving environment indicates that an object is present at the computed position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.