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Detecting principal directions of unknown environments

  • US 8,060,271 B2
  • Filed: 06/06/2008
  • Issued: 11/15/2011
  • Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2008
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method of determining principal directions for an environment, the principal directions relating to vehicle operation within the environment, the method comprising:

  • forming a graphical model of the environment, the graphical model having nodes corresponding to spatial locations within the environment,the graphical model being a Markov random field model; and

    determining principal directions for the nodes using linear features detected within the environment, determining the principal directions further includingdetermining principal directions for nodes having at least one proximate linear feature using angular data related to the at least one proximate linear feature, anddetermining principal directions for nodes not having a proximate linear feature using a potential function for change in principal direction between neighboring nodes,the potential function being selected to obtain a smooth variation in principal directions between neighboring nodes.

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