System and method for aligning sensors on a vehicle
DCFirst Claim
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1. A sensor alignment system for establishing and maintaining accurate alignment of automotive sensors comprising:
- a sensor mounted on an automotive vehicle for gathering target data around the vehicle using optical information;
a micro inertial sensor included with the sensor that measures rotation rate and acceleration along two or more axes of the sensor for the establishment of a sensor reference frame;
a separate micro inertial sensor independently mounted on the vehicle that measures rotation rate and acceleration along two or more axes of the vehicle for the establishment of a vehicle body reference frame; and
a processor for determining an amount of misalignment of the sensor reference frame with the vehicle body reference frame and aligning the sensor target data with the vehicle body reference frame according to the amount of misalignment.
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Abstract
A vehicle sensor system consisting of video, radar, ultrasonic or laser sensors, oriented to obtain a 360 degree view around the vehicle for the purpose of developing a situation or scene awareness. The sensors may or may not have overlapping field of views, or support the same applications, but data will be shared by all. Orientation of the sensor to the vehicle body coordinates is critical in order to accurately assess threat and respond. This system describes methods based on measuring force and rotation on each sensor and computing a dynamic alignment to first each other, then second to the vehicle.
119 Citations
58 Claims
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1. A sensor alignment system for establishing and maintaining accurate alignment of automotive sensors comprising:
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a sensor mounted on an automotive vehicle for gathering target data around the vehicle using optical information; a micro inertial sensor included with the sensor that measures rotation rate and acceleration along two or more axes of the sensor for the establishment of a sensor reference frame; a separate micro inertial sensor independently mounted on the vehicle that measures rotation rate and acceleration along two or more axes of the vehicle for the establishment of a vehicle body reference frame; and a processor for determining an amount of misalignment of the sensor reference frame with the vehicle body reference frame and aligning the sensor target data with the vehicle body reference frame according to the amount of misalignment. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A sensor alignment system for an automotive vehicle comprising:
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a first sensor mounted on the vehicle for gathering target data around the vehicle; a second sensor mounted on the vehicle for determining pitch, yaw or rotation of the vehicle; an alignment sensor included with each of the first and second sensors for measuring a state of the vehicle; a vehicle element within the field of view of the first sensor;
the first sensor using the vehicle element to determine a reference axis; andone or more processors for determining a sensor misalignment of the first sensor according to an analysis of the visual data with respect to the reference axis and comparing a difference in the state of the vehicle measured by the first and second sensors to determine an alignment of the second sensor with respect to the reference axis. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A sensor alignment system for an automotive vehicle comprising:
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a first sensor mounted on the vehicle for gathering target data around the vehicle; a second sensor mounted on the vehicle; an optical sensor included with each of the first and second sensors; a vehicle element within the field of view of the optical sensors, wherein the vehicle element is referenced to determine one or more vehicle axes that identify a vehicle body reference frame; and one or more processors for determining sensor misalignment with the vehicle body reference frame by computing differences in the optical alignment at each sensor to align the target data with the vehicle body reference frame. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. A sensor alignment system for an automotive vehicle comprising:
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a first sensor for gathering target data around the vehicle; a second sensor collocated with the first; a micro inertial sensor included with the second sensor that measures rotation rate and acceleration along three axes of the sensor to determine a sensor reference frame; a micro inertial sensor independently mounted on the vehicle that measures rotation rate and acceleration along three axes of the vehicle for determining a vehicle body reference frame; a processor for determining sensor misalignment of the sensor reference frame with the vehicle body reference frame; and a common mounting platform for mounting the first and second sensors including the micro inertial sensor to the vehicle such that each of the first and second sensors remain aligned with each other, wherein the common mounting platform is aligned to the vehicle body reference frame according to the sensor misalignment. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51)
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52. A sensor alignment system for an automotive vehicle comprising:
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a first sensor mounted to the vehicle for acquiring target data around the vehicle; a second sensor independently mounted to the vehicle from the first sensor; an imager having a field of view including a vehicle element which is used as a reference to determine one or more vehicle axes that identifies a vehicle body reference frame; and a processor with a filter for determining sensor misalignment angles between the first and second sensors and for determining sensor misalignment angles of the sensors with the vehicle body reference frame in order to align the target data with the vehicle body reference frame such that target data information received from one sensor can be used in combination with target data information received from another sensor to obtain a kinematic state of targets around the vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58)
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Specification