METHOD AND SYSTEM TO DETERMINE VEHICLE SPEED

• US 20160189393A1
• Filed: 12/22/2015
• Published: 06/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Naphade, Nikhil Uday, Rao, Dattaraj Jagdish, Nelson, Scott Daniel, Naithani, Nidhi
• Granted Patent: US 10,176,386 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2420/403 Image sensing, e.g. optical camera
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/105 Speed
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 3/38 using photographic means
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 11/12 using electromagnetic waves other than radio waves
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30256 Lane; Road marking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/246 using feature-based methods, e.g. the tracking of corners or segments
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/588 Recognition of the road, e.g. of lane markings; Recognition of the vehicle driving pattern in relation to the road
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/167 Driving aids for lane monitoring, lane changing, e.g. blind spot detection
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/72 Electric energy management in electromobility

Abstract

A vehicle speed determination system and method receive image data of a field of view of a camera operably disposed onboard a vehicle. A speed and/or heading of the vehicle are determined as the vehicle is moving based at least in part on one or more differences in the image data. In one aspect, pixel intensities in different images or frames may be examined to identify one or more features of interest in the images or frames. Movement of the one or more features of interest in the images or frames is correlated to movement of the vehicle along the route, and the time difference between when the images or frames are obtained can be used to determine the vehicle speed.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more analysis processors configured to be operably disposed onboard a vehicle and configured to receive image data of a field of view of a camera operably disposed onboard the vehicle,

wherein the one or more analysis processors are further configured to determine one or more of a speed or a heading of the vehicle as the vehicle is moving based at least in part on one or more differences in the image data.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein at least part of the field of view of the camera includes a route of the vehicle that is external to the vehicle.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising the camera operably disposed onboard the vehicle and oriented such that the field of view of the camera includes the route, the route being one of a road surface or a guided track that the vehicle travels on.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a vehicle control system configured to be operably disposed onboard the vehicle, wherein the vehicle control system is configured to at least one of automatically control the vehicle based on the speed that is determined, to control display of the speed that is determined to an operator, to control storage onboard the vehicle of information of the speed that is determined, or to control communication off board the vehicle of the information of the speed that is determined.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a vehicle control system configured to be operably disposed onboard the vehicle, wherein the vehicle control system is configured to automatically control the vehicle based on the speed that is determined.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more analysis processors are configured to:

identify at least one feature of interest of the route in the image data that moves in time across plural frames of the image data;

determine a total pixel distance by which the at least feature of interest has moved;

determine a pixel rate of change based on the total pixel distance and a frame rate at which the image data is captured; and

determine the speed based on the pixel rate of change and a correlation of a unit pixel distance to a unit route distance.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more analysis processors are configured to determine the heading of the vehicle by determining a direction in which one or more features of interest in the image data has changed and determining the heading of the vehicle based on the direction.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more analysis processors are configured to determine the one or more of the speed or the heading of the vehicle by identifying one or more features of interest in the image data and monitoring movement of the one or more features of interest in the image data, wherein the one or more analysis processors are configured to identify the one or more features of interest based on pixel intensities in the image data.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more analysis processors are configured to apply one or more convolution filters to the image data in order to identify the one or more features of interest.

10. A method comprising:

receiving image data of a field of view a camera operably disposed onboard a vehicle; and

determining a speed of the vehicle when the vehicle is moving based at least in part on one or more differences in the image data.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein at least part of the field of view includes a route of the vehicle external to the vehicle

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the camera is oriented such that the field of view of the camera includes a route, the route being one of a road surface or a guided track that the vehicle is traveling on.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising one or more of controlling the vehicle based on the speed that is determined, controlling display of the speed that is determined to an operator, controlling storage onboard the vehicle of information of the speed that is determined, or controlling communication off board the vehicle of the information of the speed that is determined.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising automatically controlling the vehicle based on the speed that is determined.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the speed is determined by:

identifying at least one image feature of the route in the image data that moves in time across plural frames of the image data;

determining a total pixel distance by which the at least one image feature has moved;

determining a pixel rate of change based on the total pixel distance and a frame rate at which the image data is captured; and

determining the speed based on the pixel rate of change and a correlation of a unit pixel distance to a unit route distance.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving the image data and determining the speed of the vehicle are carried out automatically by one or more processors onboard the vehicle.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising identifying one or more features of interest in the image data based on pixel intensities in the image data and monitoring movement of the one or more features of interest in the image data, wherein the speed is determined based on the movement that is monitored.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein identifying the one or more features of interest includes applying one or more convolution filters to the image data.

19. A system comprising:

one or more processors configured to receive images obtained at different times from a camera onboard a vehicle moving along a route, the one or more processors configured to determine a difference between the images and to determine one or more of a heading or a speed of the vehicle along the route based on the difference between the images.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine a change in location of one or more features of interest in the images as the difference.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine how far a location of a feature of interest changed between the images and determine the speed of the vehicle based on how far the location changed.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine a direction in which a location of a feature of interest changed between the images and determine the heading of the vehicle based on the direction.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein the one or more processors are configured to:

identify at least one feature of interest of the route in the images;

determine a total pixel distance by which the at least one feature of interest has moved between the images;

determine a pixel rate of change based on the total pixel distance and a frame rate at which the images are captured by a camera; and

determine the speed of the vehicle based on the pixel rate of change and a correlation of the total pixel distance to a route distance.

24. The system of claim 19, further comprising a vehicle control system configured to be operably disposed onboard the vehicle, wherein the vehicle control system is configured to at least one of automatically control the vehicle based on the one or more of the heading or the speed that is determined, to control display of the one or more of the heading or the speed that is determined to an operator, to control storage onboard the vehicle of information of the one or more of the heading or the speed that is determined, or to control communication off board the vehicle of the information of the one or more of the heading or the speed that is determined.