Method for Detecting Presence of Person in Seat

A method comprising:

• receiving field-of-view data representing a field of view of an occupancy system on an autonomous vehicle, including a view of an operator seat on the autonomous vehicle and a three-dimensional operator volume defined as a volume above the operator seat in which an operator may be located when sitting in the operator seat;
• receiving occupancy data, comprising a plurality of occupancy points, captured by the occupancy system on the autonomous vehicle;
• identifying occupancy points within the operator volume;
• and
• if the total number of occupancy points in the operator volume exceeds an occupancy threshold for a predetermined period of time, determining that an operator is located in the operator seat;
• and
• in response to determining that an operator is located in the operator seat, sending a stop signal to a vehicle control unit on the autonomous vehicle to stop autonomous movement of the autonomous vehicle.

An autonomous vehicle comprising:

• an operator seat;
• a pressure sensor in the operator seat which detects the presence of an operator on the operator seat by detecting the weight of an operator on the operator seat;
• a Lidar system comprising one or more Lidar sensors to capture Lidar data including a plurality of Lidar points, wherein a three-dimensional operator volume is in a field of view of the Lidar system, the operator volume being defined as a volume above the operator seat in which an operator may be located when sitting in the operator seat;
• a vehicle control unit for autonomously controlling movement of the autonomous vehicle;
• a digital storage medium comprising field-of-view data representing the field of view of the Lidar system, the field-of-view data including a representation of the operator volume;
• and
• an operator detection system in communication with the digital storage medium, Lidar system, and the vehicle control unit, wherein the operator detection system regularly performs an operator check, at predetermined time intervals, when the vehicle control unit autonomously controls movement of the autonomous vehicle, the operator check comprising:
• receiving field-of-view data from the digital storage medium;
• receiving the Lidar data from the Lidar system;
• identifying Lidar points within the operator volume;
• and
• calculating the total number of Lidar points in the operator volume and if (i) the total number of Lidar points in the operator volume exceeds a Lidar threshold for a predetermined period of time, and/or (ii) the pressure sensor detects the presence of an operator on the operator seat:
• determining that an operator is located in the operator seat and sending a stop signal to the vehicle control unit to stop autonomous movement of the autonomous vehicle;
• wherein autonomous movement of the autonomous vehicle is only permitted when it can be determined from signals from both the Lidar system and the pressure sensor that there is no operator present on the operator seat.