Waypoint splining for autonomous vehicle following
AssigneeSouthwest Research Institute
InventorsJoshua J. Curtis, George T. McWilliams, Kristopher C. Kozak
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Abstract
A method for defining a following path for a following vehicle to autonomously follow a leader, the method including acquiring waypoints associated with a path that the leader traverses; filtering the acquired waypoints, wherein the filtering removes waypoints located outside an area of interest; generating intermediate waypoints by interpolating between adjacent pairs of the filtered waypoints if the adjacent pairs of the filtered waypoints are separated by a distance that exceeds a threshold distance; and defining a following path through the filtered waypoints and the intermediate waypoints using a least-squares spline fit to calculate the following path.
Claims20
A method for defining a following path for a following vehicle to autonomously follow a leader, comprising:
- acquiring waypoints, said waypoints associated with a path that said leader traverses;
- filtering said acquired waypoints, wherein said filtering comprises identifying a preceding waypoint and a subsequent waypoint and removing waypoints that exceed a threshold number of degrees outside of a course heading defined by said preceding waypoint and subsequent waypoint, wherein said threshold number of degrees is in the range of one to ten degrees and is selected based on a speed of said leader and a waypoint acquisition sampling rate;
- generating intermediate waypoints by interpolating between adjacent pairs of said filtered waypoints if said adjacent pairs of said filtered waypoints are separated by a distance that exceeds a threshold distance;
- removing a previously acquired waypoint as a new waypoint is acquired, if said removal generates a course change exceeding five degrees;
- and
- defining a following path through said filtered waypoints and said intermediate waypoints using a least-squares spline fit to calculate said following path,
- wherein said following vehicle traverses said following path.
A following vehicle configured to autonomously follow a leader, said following vehicle comprising:
- an acquisition module configured to acquire waypoints associated with a path that said leader traverses;
- a filtering module configured to filter said acquired waypoints, wherein said filtering comprises identifying a preceding waypoint and a subsequent waypoint and removing waypoints that exceed a threshold number of degrees outside of a course heading defined by said preceding waypoint and subsequent waypoint, wherein said threshold number of degrees is in the range of one to ten degrees and is selected based on a speed of said leader and a waypoint acquisition sampling rate;
- an interpolating module configured to generate intermediate waypoints by interpolating between adjacent pairs of said filtered waypoints if said adjacent pairs of said filtered waypoints are separated by a distance that exceeds a threshold distance;
- said acquisition module further configured to remove a previously acquired waypoint as a new waypoint is acquired, if said removal generates a course change exceeding five degrees;
- and
- a curve fitting module configured to define a following path through said filtered waypoints and said intermediate waypoints using a least-squares spline fit to calculate said following path.
An article comprising a non-transitory storage medium having stored thereon instruction that when executed by a machine result in the following operations for defining a following path for a following vehicle to autonomously follow a leader:
- acquiring waypoints, said waypoints associated with a path that a leader traverses;
- filtering said acquired waypoints, wherein said filtering comprises identifying a preceding waypoint and a subsequent waypoint and removing waypoints that exceed a threshold number of degrees outside of a course heading defined by said preceding waypoint and subsequent waypoint, wherein said threshold number of degrees is in the range of one to ten degrees and is selected based on a speed of said leader and a waypoint acquisition sampling rate;
- generating intermediate waypoints by interpolating between adjacent pairs of said filtered waypoints if said adjacent pairs of said filtered waypoints are separated by a distance that exceeds a threshold distance;
- removing a previously acquired waypoint as a new waypoint is acquired, if said removal generates a course change exceeding five degrees;
- and
- defining a following path through said filtered waypoints and said intermediate waypoints using a least-squares spline fit to calculate said following path.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.