Waypoint splining for autonomous vehicle following
First Claim
1. A method for defining a following path for a following vehicle to autonomously follow a leader, comprising:
- acquiring waypoints, said waypoints associated with a path that said leader traverses;
filtering said acquired waypoints, wherein said filtering comprises identifying a preceding waypoint and a subsequent waypoint and removing waypoints that exceed a threshold number of degrees outside of a course heading defined by said preceding waypoint and subsequent waypoint, wherein said threshold number of degrees is in the range of one to ten degrees and is selected based on a speed of said leader and a waypoint acquisition sampling rate;
generating intermediate waypoints by interpolating between adjacent pairs of said filtered waypoints if said adjacent pairs of said filtered waypoints are separated by a distance that exceeds a threshold distance;
removing a previously acquired waypoint as a new waypoint is acquired, if said removal generates a course change exceeding five degrees; and
defining a following path through said filtered waypoints and said intermediate waypoints using a least-squares spline fit to calculate said following path,wherein said following vehicle traverses said following path.
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Abstract
A method for defining a following path for a following vehicle to autonomously follow a leader, the method including acquiring waypoints associated with a path that the leader traverses; filtering the acquired waypoints, wherein the filtering removes waypoints located outside an area of interest; generating intermediate waypoints by interpolating between adjacent pairs of the filtered waypoints if the adjacent pairs of the filtered waypoints are separated by a distance that exceeds a threshold distance; and defining a following path through the filtered waypoints and the intermediate waypoints using a least-squares spline fit to calculate the following path.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for defining a following path for a following vehicle to autonomously follow a leader, comprising:
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acquiring waypoints, said waypoints associated with a path that said leader traverses; filtering said acquired waypoints, wherein said filtering comprises identifying a preceding waypoint and a subsequent waypoint and removing waypoints that exceed a threshold number of degrees outside of a course heading defined by said preceding waypoint and subsequent waypoint, wherein said threshold number of degrees is in the range of one to ten degrees and is selected based on a speed of said leader and a waypoint acquisition sampling rate; generating intermediate waypoints by interpolating between adjacent pairs of said filtered waypoints if said adjacent pairs of said filtered waypoints are separated by a distance that exceeds a threshold distance; removing a previously acquired waypoint as a new waypoint is acquired, if said removal generates a course change exceeding five degrees; and defining a following path through said filtered waypoints and said intermediate waypoints using a least-squares spline fit to calculate said following path, wherein said following vehicle traverses said following path. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A following vehicle configured to autonomously follow a leader, said following vehicle comprising:
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an acquisition module configured to acquire waypoints associated with a path that said leader traverses; a filtering module configured to filter said acquired waypoints, wherein said filtering comprises identifying a preceding waypoint and a subsequent waypoint and removing waypoints that exceed a threshold number of degrees outside of a course heading defined by said preceding waypoint and subsequent waypoint, wherein said threshold number of degrees is in the range of one to ten degrees and is selected based on a speed of said leader and a waypoint acquisition sampling rate; an interpolating module configured to generate intermediate waypoints by interpolating between adjacent pairs of said filtered waypoints if said adjacent pairs of said filtered waypoints are separated by a distance that exceeds a threshold distance; said acquisition module further configured to remove a previously acquired waypoint as a new waypoint is acquired, if said removal generates a course change exceeding five degrees; and a curve fitting module configured to define a following path through said filtered waypoints and said intermediate waypoints using a least-squares spline fit to calculate said following path. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. An article comprising a non-transitory storage medium having stored thereon instruction that when executed by a machine result in the following operations for defining a following path for a following vehicle to autonomously follow a leader:
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acquiring waypoints, said waypoints associated with a path that a leader traverses; filtering said acquired waypoints, wherein said filtering comprises identifying a preceding waypoint and a subsequent waypoint and removing waypoints that exceed a threshold number of degrees outside of a course heading defined by said preceding waypoint and subsequent waypoint, wherein said threshold number of degrees is in the range of one to ten degrees and is selected based on a speed of said leader and a waypoint acquisition sampling rate; generating intermediate waypoints by interpolating between adjacent pairs of said filtered waypoints if said adjacent pairs of said filtered waypoints are separated by a distance that exceeds a threshold distance; removing a previously acquired waypoint as a new waypoint is acquired, if said removal generates a course change exceeding five degrees; and defining a following path through said filtered waypoints and said intermediate waypoints using a least-squares spline fit to calculate said following path. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification