Methods and apparatus for stationary object detection

• US 6,832,156 B2
• Filed: 08/19/2002
• Issued: 12/14/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Telanon, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Telanon, Inc.
• Inventors: Farmer, Bennie L.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, TAN QUANG
• Application Number:
  US10/223,865
• Publication Number:
  US 20030004644A1
• Time in Patent Office: 848 Days
• Field of Search: 701/301, 701/300, 701/96, 701/45, 340/903, 340/435, 340/436, 340/403, 340/904, 340/555, 342/70
• US Class Current: 701/301
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/16 Control of distance between vehicles, e.g. keeping a distance to preceding vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9321 Velocity regulation, e.g. cruise control
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9322 using additional data, e.g. driver condition, road state or weather data
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/41 using analysis of echo signal for target characterisation; Target signature; Target cross-section
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/255 Detecting or recognising potential candidate objects based on visual cues, e.g. shapes
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0962 having an indicator mounted inside the vehicle, e.g. giving voice messages
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/164 Centralised systems, e.g. external to vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/165 for passive traffic, e.g. including static obstacles, trees

Abstract

The present invention provides systems and methods for measuring the likelihood that detected stationary objects are not normally present at a sensed location. Such systems and methods may be used by other systems to which information from the present invention are communicated, for minimizing nuisance alerts in onboard object detection systems such as collision warning, collision avoidance, and/or adaptive cruise control systems. The system includes at least one vehicle mounted sensor capable of sensing at least a target object and providing data related to the target object. The system also comprises a locating device which is capable of determining and providing data related to the location of the machine or vehicle and a processing unit which receives the data from the sensor and the data from the locating device. The processing unit is configured to determine a probability estimate or measure of likelihood that the target object is not a normally present object based upon a comparison to previously recorded data from a reference storage device. The reference storage device stores the previously recorded data acquired from at least one similar sensor and a vehicle locating device while operating in the same geographic area, or stores data derived from such previously recorded data. The invention may enhance vehicle collision warning, collision avoidance and/or adaptive cruise control systems as examples.

Claims

1. A process to develop a reference database in conjunction with a system for stationary object detection, comprising the steps of:

1) acquiring signals from at least one sensor, said sensor capable of sensing target objects and generating data related to said target objects;

2) storing said data from said at least one sensor in a storage device;

3) determining the location of said at least one sensor;

4) indexing said target object data with respect to at least said sensor location for subsequent comparison to real time data acquired from at least one sensor located on a mobile machine or vehicle to evaluate whether said real time data indicates the presence of a normally-present stationary object;

5) acquiring data from a vehicle locating device associated with said vehicle as said vehicle travels along a path providing said data from said at least one sensor to a collision warning or avoidance system associated with said vehicle, said collision warning or avoidance system generating signals indicating a possible collision of said vehicle with an obstacle;

6) monitoring the signals from said collision warning or avoidance system to a man-machine interface; and

7) permanently capturing said data from said at least one sensor and said vehicle locating device in response to a stationary target warning message from said collision warning or avoidance system to said man-machine interface wherein said stationary target warning message relates to a non-collision situation or nuisance alert.

2. The process of claim 1 wherein said process is repeated more than once and includes a final step of combining the data from at least one sensor and said vehicle locating device from said path at a location which generated a nuisance alert in a manner increasing the confidence in said data.

27. A reference database formed with the process of any one of claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26.

28. The reference database according to claim 27, wherein said data records are stored on a replaceable permanent storage medium, wherein said database is updated by replacing said permanent storage medium with an updated version.

29. The reference database according to claim 27, wherein said data are transmitted to a storage medium located on a vehicle by wireless communication.

3. A process of creating a reference database comprising:

1) obtaining sensor data of stationary target objects using at least one sensor device mounted on a vehicle;

2) obtaining vehicle location data using a vehicle location device;

3) recording said sensor data and said vehicle location data for a selected time period within which a stationary object nuisance alert is generated by a vehicle collision warning or avoidance system;

4) repeating steps 1-3 with a vehicle having at least one similar sensor; and

5) creating a database of sensor data relating to stationary objects detected along segments of vehicle paths where nuisance alerts relating to stationary objects were generated.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein said sensor data of a target object comprises a target number, a fast Fourier transform number, a distance to the target, an azimuth angle to the target, a magnitude of sensor return and a quality indicator.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein said vehicle location data comprises a latitude, a longitude, a heading, a velocity and a time.

6. A process to develop a database in conjunction with a collision avoidance or warning system using a predetermined type of sensor, comprising the steps of:

1) acquiring signals from at least one sensor corresponding to the predetermined type of sensor, said predetermined type of sensor capable of sensing target objects and generating data related to said target objects;

2) storing said data from said at least one sensor;

3) determining the location of said at least one sensor; and

4) indexing said target object data with respect to at least said sensor location for subsequent use as a preexisting reference database by a collision avoidance or warning system to optimize performance of the collision avoidance or warning system by comparison of real time data acquired from the at least one type of sensor with stored data from said predetermined type of sensor to at least decrease nuisance alerts from the collision avoidance or warning system.

7. The process according to claim 6, wherein data relating to normally-present stationary objects is indexed to sensor location and heading of the vehicle on which sensor data was obtained.

8. The process according to claim 6, wherein data relating to normally-present stationary objects is indexed to a calculated absolute location of a normally-present stationary object.

9. The process according to claim 6, wherein said at least one sensor comprises a radar-based sensor.

10. The process according to claim 9, wherein said at least one sensor comprises a radar-based sensor selected from the group consisting of a FSK Doppler-based radar sensor, a pulse Doppler sensor, a FMCW ramp sensor or combinations thereof.

11. The process according to claim 6, wherein said sensor location data is selected from the group consisting of location coordinates, time, heading, velocity or combinations thereof.

12. The process according to claim 6, wherein location data is provided by a satellite-based locating system.

13. The process according to claim 6, wherein location data is provided by a global positioning system.

14. The process according to claim 6, wherein stored data further comprises at least one of the following group of data comprising distance to said at least one stationary object, azimuth angle to said at least one stationary object, the magnitude of a detected signal relating to at least one stationary object, the elevation angle to said at least one stationary object, the width of said at least one stationary object, the height of said at least one stationary object of combinations thereof.

15. The process according to claim 6, wherein said stored sensor data further comprises at least the magnitude of a detected signal.

16. The process according to claim 6, wherein only data relating to normally-present stationary objects are stored which either:

1) generate a stationary-object nuisance alert from an associated collision avoidance or warning system;

or

     2) could generate a stationary-object nuisance alert according to predetermined logic;

or

     3) appear to be in or near the path of the vehicle as determined according to preexisting information on the location of the path;

or

     4) could cause a true stationary-object alert to be missed or delayed, according to predetermined logic.

17. The process according to claim 6, wherein said process is repeated more than once and includes a final step of combining the data from said at least one sensor and said sensor location for a selected geographic area in a manner increasing the confidence in said data.

18. The process according to claim 17, wherein the step of combining the data comprises deriving the relationship between sensed stationary-object data and sensor location and storing data related to derived relationships and statistical measures of the relationships in a reference database to be used in conjunction a vehicle collision avoidance or warning system to improve performance of the collision avoidance or warning system.

19. The process according to claim 18, wherein the relationships comprise at least signal return strength as a function of sensor location.

20. The process according to claim 18, wherein the relationships comprise at least sensor-reported distance to stationary object as a function of sensor location.

21. The process according to claim 18, wherein the relationships are polynomial functions of sensor location.

22. The process according to claim 18, wherein the sensor location is expressed as vehicle-travel distance to stationary object.

23. The process according to claim 18, wherein the sensor location is expressed as one or more position coordinates within a roadway lane.

24. The process according to claim 18, wherein the wherein sensor location is expressed as one or more position coordinates without respect to roadway or lane position.

25. A process to develop a reference database in conjunction with a system with at least one outward-looking sensor for stationary object detection and warning, for subsequent use as a preexisting database for comparison to real time data acquired from at least one similar outward-looking sensor located on a mobile machine or vehicle to evaluate whether said real time data indicates the presence of a normally-present stationary object, comprising the steps of:

1) acquiring signals from at least one outward-looking sensor mounted on a mobile machine or vehicle, said at least one sensor capable of sensing target objects and generating data related to said target objects;

2) determining the location of said at least one sensor;

3) indexing said target object data with respect to location of said at least one sensor;

4) storing said position-indexed target object data in a storage device;

5) providing, as said mobile machine or vehicle travels along a path, said target object data from said at least one sensor to collision warning logic associated with said mobile machine or vehicle, said collision warning logic generating signals indicating a possible collision of said vehicle with a stationary object;

6) monitoring the signals from said collision warning logic; and

7) if said collision warning logic generates a stationary-object collision warning, then permanently capturing from the storage device said position-indexed target object data for all detected objects for the entire time period that the target object responsible for said collision warning had data captured by said at least one sensor.

26. The process of claim 25, wherein said process is repeated more than once by the same or other mobile machines or vehicles having similar outward-looking sensors and collision warning logic, over substantially the same path where location-indexed stationary object data were captured, and includes a final step of combining said location-indexed stationary object data in a manner increasing the confidence in said data.