ESTIMATE OF GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OF A VEHICLE USING WIRELESS VEHICLE DATA

• US 20180113472A1
• Filed: 10/21/2016
• Published: 04/26/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Sakr, Ahmed Hamdi, Bansal, Gaurav
• Granted Patent: US 10,281,925 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0276 using signals provided by a source external to the vehicle involving a plurality of vehicles G05D1/0287; automatically controlling vehicle speed responsive to externally generated signals B60K31/0058

Abstract

The disclosure includes embodiments for improving an estimate of a geographical position of an ego vehicle using wireless vehicle data of a remote vehicle. A method according to some embodiments includes determining ego estimate data based on remote GPS data and relative position data. The remote GPS data describes a geographical location of the remote vehicle. The relative position data describes a location of the ego vehicle relative to the remote vehicle as measured by onboard sensors of the remote vehicle. The ego estimate data describes the geographical location of the ego vehicle from the perspective of the remote vehicle. The method includes fusing the ego estimate data and ego GPS data to form fused data. The ego GPS data describes the geographical location of the ego vehicle from the perspective of the ego vehicle. The fused data describes the geographical location of the ego vehicle with lane-level accuracy.

Claims

1. A method for an ego vehicle including an Advanced Driver Assistance System (“

an ADAS system”

) and a Global Positioning System (“

GPS”

) unit, the method comprising;

receiving a wireless message from a network, wherein the wireless message includes remote GPS data and relative position data associated with a remote vehicle;

determining ego estimate data based on the remote GPS data and the relative position data, wherein the ego estimate data describes a first geographical location of the ego vehicle from a first perspective of the remote vehicle; and

fusing the ego estimate data and ego GPS data to form fused data, wherein the ego GPS data is retrieved by the GPS unit of the ego vehicle and describes a second geographical location of the ego vehicle from a second perspective of the ego vehicle and the fused data describes a third geographical location of the ego vehicle with an accuracy of at least substantially plus or minus 1.5 meters relative to an actual geographic location of the ego vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the ADAS system provides its functionality based on a positional information input describing a geographical position of the ego vehicle with an accuracy of at least substantially plus or minus 1.5 meters relative to an actual geographic position of the ego vehicle and the method further comprises:

inputting the fused data to the ADAS system as the positional information input for the ADAS system; and

executing the ADAS system using the fused data as the positional information input for the ADAS system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the ADAS system provides safety functionality for the ego vehicle.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the GPS unit is a conventional GPS unit and the ego GPS data has an accuracy of substantially plus or minus 10 meters relative to the actual geographic location of the ego vehicle.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote GPS data describes a geographical location of a remote vehicle.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the relative position data includes range data and angle data and the relative position data describes a location of the ego vehicle relative to the remote vehicle as measured by one or more sensors of the remote vehicle based on (1) a range separating the ego vehicle from the remote vehicle as described by the range data and (2) an angle separating the ego vehicle from the remote vehicle as described by the angle data;

the wireless message is transmitted via cellular communication.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless message is transmitted by the remote vehicle and the wireless message is one of a Dedicated Short Range Communication (“

DSRC”

) message and a cellular message.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless message is relayed to the ego vehicle by a Roadside Unit (“

RSU”

).

9. A system including an ego vehicle, the ego vehicle comprising:

an ADAS system;

a GPS unit; and

an onboard vehicle computer system that is communicatively coupled to the ADAS system and the GPS unit, the onboard vehicle computer system including a non-transitory memory storing computer code which, when executed by the onboard vehicle computer system causes the onboard vehicle computer system to;

determine ego estimate data based on remote GPS data and relative position data, wherein the remote GPS data describes a geographical location of a remote vehicle and the relative position data describes a location of the ego vehicle relative to the remote vehicle as measured by the remote vehicle; and

fuse the ego estimate data and ego GPS data to form fused data, wherein the ego estimate data describes a first geographical location of the ego vehicle from a first perspective of the remote vehicle and the ego GPS data is retrieved by the GPS unit of the ego vehicle and describes a second geographical location of the ego vehicle from a second perspective of the ego vehicle and the fused data describes a third geographical location of the ego vehicle.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the fused data describes the third geographical location of the ego vehicle with an accuracy of at least substantially plus or minus 1.5 meters relative to an actual geographic location of the ego vehicle.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the ADAS system provides its functionality based on a positional information input describing a geographical position of the ego vehicle with an accuracy of at least substantially plus or minus 1.5 meters relative to an actual geographic position of the ego vehicle and the non-transitory memory stores further computer-executable code that, when executed by the onboard vehicle computer system, causes the onboard vehicle computer system to:

input the fused data to the ADAS system as the positional information input for the ADAS system; and

execute the ADAS system using the fused data as the positional information input for the ADAS system.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the remote GPS data and the relative position data are included in wireless message that is transmitted to the ego vehicle by the remote vehicle.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the wireless message is a DSRC message.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the wireless message is a full-duplex wireless message.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the wireless message is a millimeter wave message.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the wireless message is a Long-Term Evolution Vehicle-to-X (“

LTE-V2X”

) message.

17. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory memory of an onboard vehicle computer system of an ego vehicle storing computer-executable code that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to:

determine ego estimate data based on remote GPS data and relative position data, wherein the remote GPS data describes a geographical location of a remote vehicle and the relative position data describes a location of the ego vehicle relative to the remote vehicle as measured by one or more sensors of the remote vehicle; and

fuse the ego estimate data and ego GPS data to form fused data, wherein the ego estimate data describes a first geographical location of the ego vehicle from a first perspective of the one or more sensors of a remote vehicle and the ego GPS data is retrieved by a GPS unit of the ego vehicle and describes a second geographical location of the ego vehicle from a second perspective of the ego vehicle and the fused data describes a third geographical location of the ego vehicle.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the fused data describes the third geographical location of the ego vehicle with an accuracy of at least substantially plus or minus 1.5 meters relative to an actual geographic location of the ego vehicle.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the ego vehicle includes an ADAS system and the ADAS system provides its functionality based on a positional information input describing a geographical position of the ego vehicle with an accuracy of at least substantially plus or minus 1.5 meters relative to an actual geographic position of the ego vehicle and the non-transitory memory stores further computer-executable code that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to:

input the fused data to the ADAS system as the positional information input for the ADAS system; and

execute the ADAS system using the fused data as the positional information input for the ADAS system.

20. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein remote GPS data and the relative position data are received via a wireless message received from a network and transmitted by a remote electronic device.

21. A wireless message stored in a non-transitory memory, wherein the wireless message includes:

remote identification (“

ID”

) data uniquely identifying a remote vehicle;

remote GPS data describing a geographical location of the remote vehicle at a selected point in time;

ego ID data uniquely identifying an ego vehicle; and

relative position data describing (1) a distance separating the remote vehicle and the ego vehicle at the selected point in time as measured by a sensor set of the remote vehicle and (2) an angle separating the remote vehicle and the ego vehicle at the selected point in time as measured by the sensor set.

22. The wireless message of claim 21, wherein the wireless message further comprises error estimate data that describes an estimation of an inaccuracy of the relative position data.