Autonomous driving certification generalizer

• US 9,940,625 B2
• Filed: 09/02/2015
• Issued: 04/10/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/02/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Levine, Daniel, Jain, Jinesh J
• Primary Examiner(s): LIN, ABBY YEE
• Application Number:
  US14/843,514
• Publication Number:
  US 20170059335A1
• Time in Patent Office: 951 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3819 Road shape data, e.g. outline of a route
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3822 Road feature data, e.g. slope data
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3841 Data obtained from two or more sources, e.g. probe vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales

Abstract

Methods, devices and apparatuses pertaining to identifying the candidate road segments for autonomous operations are described. A method may involve obtaining data of a first plurality of road segments that are permitted for one or more autonomous operations. The method may further include generating a road segment template based on the data of the first plurality of road segments, and reconstructing a second plurality of road segments based on the road segment template to obtain a plurality of reconstructed road segments.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

obtaining, by a processor of a computing system, data of a first plurality of road segments permitted for one or more autonomous operations in an autonomous level, the obtaining of the data of the first plurality of road segments comprises operating one or more vehicles on the first plurality of road segments to collect statistics on the first plurality of road segments pertaining to topological data, geometrical data, visibility, mobility, traffic patterns, or a combination thereof using a Geographic Information System (GIS), a camera and a Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) system installed on the one or more vehicles;

generating, by the processor, a road segment template based on the data of the first plurality of road segments;

obtaining data of a second plurality of road segments that have not been permitted for the one or more autonomous operations in the autonomous level;

reconstructing, by the processor, the second plurality of road segments in the computing system based on the road segment template to provide a plurality of reconstructed road segments in the computing system;

selecting one or more road segments from the plurality of reconstructed road segments; and

scheduling a road test on the selected one or more road segments.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

submitting one or more road segments of the plurality of reconstructed road segments as one or more candidate road segments to a regulatory body for a permit for the one or more autonomous operations on the one or more candidate road segments in the autonomous level.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the road segment template based on the first plurality of road segments comprises:

partitioning the first plurality of road segments using a nonparametric clustering technique to identify a plurality of road network configurations; and

imposing a constraint on the plurality of road network configurations to generate the road segment template.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the plurality of road network configurations comprise a plurality of attributes and a plurality of values corresponding to the plurality of attributes.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the plurality of attributes are associated with at least one of topology, geometry, visibility, mobility profiles, traffic patterns, traffic signage and signals, or environmental factors associated with the first plurality of road segments.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the constraint comprises either or both of a contiguity condition and a continuity condition.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the contiguity condition indicates connectedness of each of one or more individual road segments of the first plurality of road segments with respect to one or more other road segments of the first plurality of road segments, and wherein the continuity condition indicates a similarity of mobility profiles of two road segments of the first plurality of road segments.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

ranking the plurality of reconstructed road segments based on a contiguity condition indicating connectedness of each of one or more individual road segments of the plurality of reconstructed road segments.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the autonomous level comprises driver assistance, partial automation, conditional automation, high automation, full automation, or a combination thereof.