OCCULSION AWARE PLANNING AND CONTROL
First Claim
1. A system comprising:
- one or more processors; and
one or more computer-readable media storing instructions executable by the one or more processors, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the system to perform operations comprising;
controlling an autonomous vehicle to traverse to a first location in an environment;
capturing, as sensor data, at least LIDAR data or image data of the environment using a sensor of the autonomous vehicle;
determining, based at least in part on accessing map data or on identifying an obstacle in an environment, an occlusion grid comprising a plurality of occlusion fields, an occlusion field of the occlusion grid indicating an occlusion state and an occupancy state of a corresponding region of the environment;
determining, as an occluded region and based at least in part on the sensor data, that at least a first portion of the occlusion grid is occluded at a first time;
determining, as an un-occluded region and based at least in part on the sensor data, that at least a second portion of the occlusion grid is un-occluded at the first time;
determining, based at least in part on an extent and occupancy of the second portion, a confidence level associated with safely traversing a trajectory through the environment;
controlling the autonomous vehicle to stay at the first location or to traverse to a second location based at least in part on the confidence level being below a threshold level;
determining, based at least in part on the sensor data, that a third portion of the occlusion grid is visible and unoccupied at a second time; and
controlling the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the third portion of the occlusion grid being visible an unoccupied at the second time.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Techniques are discussed for controlling a vehicle, such as an autonomous vehicle, based on occluded areas in an environment. An occluded area can represent areas where sensors of the vehicle are unable to sense portions of the environment due to obstruction by another object. An occlusion grid representing the occluded area can be stored as map data or can be dynamically generated. An occlusion grid can include occlusion fields, which represent discrete two- or three-dimensional areas of driveable environment. An occlusion field can indicate an occlusion state and an occupancy state, determined using LIDAR data and/or image data captured by the vehicle. An occupancy state of an occlusion field can be determined by ray casting LIDAR data or by projecting an occlusion field into segmented image data. The vehicle can be controlled to traverse the environment when a sufficient portion of the occlusion grid is visible and unoccupied.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A system comprising:
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one or more processors; and one or more computer-readable media storing instructions executable by the one or more processors, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the system to perform operations comprising; controlling an autonomous vehicle to traverse to a first location in an environment; capturing, as sensor data, at least LIDAR data or image data of the environment using a sensor of the autonomous vehicle; determining, based at least in part on accessing map data or on identifying an obstacle in an environment, an occlusion grid comprising a plurality of occlusion fields, an occlusion field of the occlusion grid indicating an occlusion state and an occupancy state of a corresponding region of the environment; determining, as an occluded region and based at least in part on the sensor data, that at least a first portion of the occlusion grid is occluded at a first time; determining, as an un-occluded region and based at least in part on the sensor data, that at least a second portion of the occlusion grid is un-occluded at the first time; determining, based at least in part on an extent and occupancy of the second portion, a confidence level associated with safely traversing a trajectory through the environment; controlling the autonomous vehicle to stay at the first location or to traverse to a second location based at least in part on the confidence level being below a threshold level; determining, based at least in part on the sensor data, that a third portion of the occlusion grid is visible and unoccupied at a second time; and controlling the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the third portion of the occlusion grid being visible an unoccupied at the second time. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method comprising:
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controlling an autonomous vehicle to traverse to a first location in an environment; determining, based at least in part on accessing map data or on identifying an obstacle in an environment, an occlusion grid; determining, as an occluded region, that at least a first portion of the occlusion grid is occluded at a first time; determining, as an un-occluded region, that at least a second portion of the occlusion grid is visible at the first time; determining an occupancy state of the un-occluded region; controlling the autonomous vehicle to stay at the first location or traverse to a second location based at least in part on an extent of the un-occluded region and the occupancy state of the un-occluded region; determining that a third portion of the occlusion grid is un-occluded and unoccupied at a second time; and controlling the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the third portion of the occlusion grid being un-occluded and unoccupied at the second time. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
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controlling a robotic platform to traverse to a first location in an environment; determining a location of the robotic platform with respect to a map, the map comprising map data; determining, based at least in part on accessing the map data associated with the location or on identifying an obstacle in an environment proximate to the robotic platform, an occlusion grid; determining, as an occluded region, that at least a first portion of the occlusion grid is occluded at a first time; determining, as an un-occluded region, that at least a second portion of the occlusion grid is visible at the first time; determining an occupancy state of the un-occluded region; controlling the robotic platform to stay at the first location or traverse to a second location based at least in part on an extent of the un-occluded region and the occupancy state of the un-occluded region; determining that a third portion of the occlusion grid is un-occluded and unoccupied at a second time; and controlling the robotic platform based at least in part on the third portion being un-occluded and unoccupied at the second time. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification