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 8,229,619 B2
• Filed: 09/10/2008
• Issued: 07/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Roh, Kyung-shik, Han, Woo-sup, Kwon, Woong, Shim, Young-bo, Oh, Yeon-taek, Park, Ki-cheol
• Primary Examiner(s): Cheung, Mary
• Assistant Examiner(s): GREENE, DANIEL LAWSON
• Application Number:
  US12/208,096
• Publication Number:
  US 20090099716A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,413 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701/22, 701/23, 701/25, 701/26, 701/28, 382/104, 382/181, 382/209, 382/286, 382/287, 382/289, 702/85
• 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 of controlling an intelligent system using an artificial mark and method for employing the same. The intelligent system includes: an image pickup unit which obtains an image taken for a driving place; a main control unit which calculates a projective invariant of an artificial mark detected from an image taken for a driving place and analyzes the position of the intelligent system using global location information of the detected artificial mark in the driving place obtained by the calculated projective invariant and location information between the intelligent system and the detected artificial mark; and a driving control unit which controls driving of the intelligent system according to the position information of the intelligent system analyzed in the main control unit.

Claims

1. An intelligent system comprising:

an image pickup unit which obtains an image taken for a driving place;

a main control unit which calculates a projective invariant of an artificial mark detected from an image taken for a driving place and analyzes the position of the intelligent system using global location information of the detected artificial mark in the driving place obtained by the calculated projective invariant and location information between the intelligent system and the detected artificial mark; and

a driving control unit which controls driving of the intelligent system according to the position information of the intelligent system analyzed in the main control unit,

wherein the main control unit comprises;

a projective invariant calculator which calculates a projective invariant of the detected artificial mark;

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.

2. The intelligent system 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 intelligent system 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 intelligent system of claim 1, wherein the main control unit obtains information on the orientation and distance of the intelligent system with respect to the detected artificial mark 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 intelligent system of claim 1, wherein if the real shape of polygons included in an artificial mark is perfect circle and the shape of polygons included in the detected artificial mark is an oval, the main control unit transforms an equation for a cubic section of the oval into a cubic section equation for the perfect circle and obtains the location information on the orientation and distance of the intelligent system with respect to the detected artificial mark from the relationship equation between the two conic section equations.

6. A method of controlling an intelligent system using an artificial mark comprising:

obtaining an image taken for a driving place;

calculating a projective invariant of an artificial mark detected from the image taken for the driving place and analyzing the position of the intelligent system using global location information of the detected artificial mark in the driving place obtained by the calculated projective invariant and location information between the intelligent system and the detected artificial mark;

controlling driving of the intelligent system according to the position information of the intelligent system,

providing a database of indices according to a combination of colors of polygons included in the artificial mark, projective invariants of the artificial marks; and

searching the database by the calculated projective invariant for obtaining the global location information of the detected artificial mark.

7. The method of claim 6, 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.

8. The method of claim 7, 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 the plurality of polygons.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the analyzing of the position of the intelligent system obtains information on orientation and distance of the intelligent system with respect to the detected artificial mark by using information on 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.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein if a real shape of polygons included in an artificial mark is a circle and a shape of polygons included in the detected artificial mark is an oval, the analyzing of the position of the intelligent system transforms an equation for a cubic section of the oval into a cubic section equation for the circle and obtains information on the orientation and distance of the intelligent system with respect to the detected artificial mark from the relationship equation between the two conic section equations.

11. A non-transitory computer readable recording medium having embodied thereon a computer program for a method of controlling an intelligent system using an artificial mark comprising:

obtaining an image taken for a driving place;

calculating a projective invariant of an artificial mark detected from the image taken for the driving place and analyzing the position of the intelligent system using global location information of the detected artificial mark in the driving place obtained by the calculated projective invariant and location information between the intelligent system and the detected artificial mark;

controlling driving of the intelligent system according to the position information of the intelligent system,

providing a database of indices according to a combination of colors of polygons included in the artificial mark, projective invariants of the artificial marks; and

searching the database by the calculated projective invariant for obtaining the global location information of the detected artificial mark.