Apparatus and associated methods for use in lane-level mapping of road intersections

• US 20160102986A1
• Filed: 10/10/2014
• Published: 04/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HERE Global B.V. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: HERE Global B.V. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: CHEN, Xin, MA, Xiang, ZHUKOV, Vlad
• Granted Patent: US 10,533,863 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/32 Structuring or formatting of map data
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3819 Road shape data, e.g. outline of a route
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3841 Data obtained from two or more sources, e.g. probe vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0129 for creating historical data or processing based on historical data

Abstract

An apparatus comprising a processor and memory including computer program code, the memory and computer program code configured to, with the processor, enable the apparatus at least to:

• • generate, in respect of a road intersection, grouped probe data using probe data derived from probed vehicular movements through the road intersection, wherein the grouped probe data is generated by grouping together probe data comprising vehicle trajectories which have respective common heading angles at points of entry to and exit from the road intersection; and
  • provide the grouped probe data for use in lane-level mapping of the road intersection.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising a processor and memory including computer program code, the memory and computer program code configured to, with the processor, enable the apparatus at least to:

generate, in respect of a road intersection, grouped probe data using probe data derived from probed vehicular movements through the road intersection, wherein the grouped probe data is generated by grouping together probe data comprising vehicle trajectories which have respective common heading angles at points of entry to and exit from the road intersection; and

provide the grouped probe data for use in lane-level mapping of the road intersection.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the grouped probe data is generated by further grouping together probe data comprising vehicle trajectories which have respective common heading angles at one or more points within the road intersection.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the probe data for each vehicle trajectory comprise at least one of the geographic location and heading angle of the vehicle at a plurality of points on the trajectory.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the probe data is derived from the probed vehicular movements of all vehicles, or one or more predetermined vehicles, travelling through the road intersection over a period of time.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is configured to generate and provide updated grouped probe data using probe data derived from subsequent probed vehicular movements through the road intersection.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the apparatus is configured to generate and provide the updated grouped probe data one or more of periodically, in real-time and whenever the probe data derived from subsequent vehicular movements becomes available.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the common heading angles comprise all heading angles which fall within one or more of ±

1°

, ±

5°

, ±

10°

, ±

15°

, ±

20°

, ±

25°

, ±

30°

, ±

35°

, ±

40° and

±

45°

of one another.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the common heading angles at the points of entry are different to the common heading angles at the points of exit.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the points of entry to and exit from the road intersection correspond to geographical locations on respective inbound and outbound lanes of road segments of the road intersection at a predefined distance from a reference position of the road intersection.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the points of entry to and exit from the road intersection correspond to geographical locations at which the respective vehicles cross a predefined boundary encompassing the road intersection.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the boundary is predefined such that each edge of the boundary is perpendicular to the length of a respective road segment of the road intersection.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is configured to group the probe data using one or more clustering techniques.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the one or more clustering techniques comprise k-means clustering.

14. An apparatus comprising a processor and memory including computer program code, the memory and computer program code configured to, with the processor, enable the apparatus at least to:

use grouped probe data, in respect of a road intersection, in lane-level mapping of the road intersection, the grouped probe data comprising probe data derived from probed vehicular movements through the road intersection which have been grouped together by probe data with vehicle trajectories which have respective common heading angles at points of entry to and exit from the road intersection.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the apparatus is configured to filter the grouped probe data to remove any probe data in respect of vehicle trajectories which constitute one or more of noise and outliers.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein each group of probe data defines a separate path of travel from an inbound road segment to a corresponding outbound road segment, and wherein the apparatus is configured to determine a centreline which defines a shape of the path of travel by minimising the average distance of all trajectories within the group to the centreline.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the apparatus is configured to determine a width of the path of travel based on the physical distance between the outermost trajectories at one or more points along the centreline.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the apparatus is configured to determine the number of lanes within the path of travel by dividing the width of the path of travel by a known typical lane width.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the apparatus is configured to create a graphical representation of the road intersection using the shape and width of each path of travel through the road intersection and the number of lanes within each path of travel.

20. A system comprising a first apparatus and a second apparatus, the first apparatus and second apparatus having a processor and memory including computer program code, the memory and computer program code configured to, with the processor:

enable the first apparatus at least to;

generate, in respect of a road intersection, grouped probe data using probe data derived from probed vehicular movements through the road intersection, wherein the grouped probe data is generated by grouping together probe data comprising vehicle trajectories which have common heading angles at respective points of entry to and exit from the road intersection; and

provide the grouped probe data to the second apparatus; and

enable the second apparatus at least to;

use the grouped probe data in lane-level mapping of the road intersection.