Method of constructing artificial mark for autonomous driving, apparatus and method of determining position of intelligent system using artificial mark and intelligent system employing the same

• US 7,437,226 B2
• Filed: 08/17/2004
• Issued: 10/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Kwon, Woong, Roh, Kyung-shik, Oh, Yeon-taek, Han, Woo-sup, Shim, Young-bo, Park, Ki-cheol
• Primary Examiner(s): Trammell; James P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): GREENE, DANIEL LAWSON
• Application Number:
  US10/919,493
• Publication Number:
  US 20050228555A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,519 Days
• Field of Search: 701/25, 702/85, 700/245
• US Class Current: 701/25
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0234 using optical markers or beacons optical beacons per se G01S1/70

Abstract

A method for constructing an artificial mark for autonomous driving of an intelligent system, an apparatus and method for determining the location of an intelligent system using the artificial mark, and an intelligent system employing the same. The apparatus and method for determining the location of an intelligent system includes a projective invariant calculator which calculates a projective invariant of an artificial mark detected from an image taken for a driving place; a search unit which stores a database of indices according to a combination of colors of polygons included in the artificial mark, projective invariants of the artificial marks, and global location information of the artificial marks in the driving place, and searches the database by the calculated projective invariant for obtaining the global location information of the detected artificial mark; and a position information analyzer which analyzes the position of the intelligent system by using the global location information of the detected artificial mark and location information between the intelligent system and the detected artificial mark.

Claims

1. A device for determining a position of an intelligent system using an artificial mark comprising:

means for calculating a projective invariant of an artificial mark detected from an image taken for a driving place;

means for storing a database of indices, wherein the database includes a combination of colors of polygons included in the artificial mark, projective invariants of the artificial marks, and global location information of the artificial marks in the driving place, and searching the database by the calculated projective invariant for obtaining the global location information of the detected artificial mark; and

means for determining the position of the intelligent system according to the global location information of the detected artificial mark and location information between the intelligent system and the detected artificial mark,

wherein the means for calculating, the means for storing, and the means for determining constitute said device.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the artificial mark is formed with a plane with a first color, and a plurality of polygons arranged in the plane with a form of one-dimension or two-dimension, having colors different from the first color and different to each other.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein the artificial mark further comprises areas on both sides of the plane, the areas having a color different from the colors of the plane and polygons.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein information on the orientation and distance of the intelligent system with respect to the detected artificial mark is obtained by using information on the height and width of the detected artificial mark, a scaling factor and the height and width of the artificial mark installed on the driving place.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the real shape of polygons included in an artificial mark is a perfect circle and the shape of polygons included in the detected artificial mark is an oval, and because the real shape of the polygons included in the artificial mark is the perfect circle and the shape of polygons included in the detected artificial mark is the oval, an equation for a cubic section of the oval is transformed into a cubic section equation for the perfect circle and information on the orientation and distance of the intelligent system with respect to the detected artificial mark is obtained from the relationship equation between the two conic section equations.