IP Library Granted Patent US 11,333,754
Granted Patent B2
US 11,333,754 · App. 16/761,871 · Granted May 17, 2022

Detection of parking row orientation

Inventors: Andreas Schmid (Dachau, DE); Christopher Unverdorben (Munich, DE); Christian Pfaffenzeller (Olching, DE); Hendrik Böttcher (Unterschleissheim, DE)
Assignee: VEONEER SWEDEN AB
G01S13/931G01S7/411G01S7/414G01S7/415G01S2013/9314G01S2013/93271G01S2013/93274
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,333,754
App. No.
16/761,871
Granted
May 17, 2022
Kind
B2
Abstract

A vehicle environmental detection system ( 3 ) in an ego vehicle ( 1 ) and having at least one detector arrangement ( 4, 7 ) and at least one control unit arrangement ( 15 ) configured to determine a slant angle of parking slots in a parking row. The detector arrangement ( 4, 7 ) is adapted to obtain a set of detections (d(k), k=1 . . . K). For each slant angle (α n ) in a set of slant angles (α n , n=1 . . . N), the control unit arrangement ( 15 ) is adapted to calculate a set of slant rotated detections (d slant (k, α n ), k=1 . . . K) by rotating coordinates of each detection in the set of detections (d(k), k=1 . . . K)) by the present slant angle (α n ), calculate a projection profile (P row (α n )) for the set of slant rotated detections (d slant (k,α n ), k=1 . . . K) by determining a histogram of slant rotated detection coordinates, and to calculate an entropy (H row (α n )) associated with the calculated projection profile (P row (α n )). The control unit arrangement ( 15 ) can determine the slant angle based on the calculated entropies (H row (α n ), n=1 . . . N).

Claims (444)

1. A vehicle environmental detection system arranged to be mounted in an ego vehicle and comprising at least one detector arrangement and at least one control unit arrangement configured to determine a slant angle of parking slots in a parking row, where the detector arrangement is adapted to obtain a plurality of detections from the detector arrangement, forming a set of detections (d(k), k=1 . . . K), in that, for each of the slant angle (α n ) in a set of the slant angles (α n , n=1 . . . N), the control unit arrangement is adapted to:

calculate a set of slant rotated detections (d slant (k, α n ), k=1 . . . K) by rotating coordinates of each detection in the set of detections (d(k), k=1 . . . K) by a present slant angle (α n ),

calculate a projection profile (P row (α n )) for the set of slant rotated detections (d slant (k,α n ), k=1 . . . K) by determining a histogram of slant rotated detection coordinates; and to

calculate an entropy (H row (α n )) associated with the projection profile (P row (α n ));

where the control unit arrangement further is adapted to determine the slant angle of the parking slots in the parking row based on the entropies (H row (α n ), n=1 . . . N).

2. The vehicle environmental detection system according to claim 1 , further comprising the control unit arrangement is adapted to calculate the projection profile for a j-th histogram bin (P row (j, α n )) according to the following equation:

P

row

(

j

,

α

n

)

=

k

=

1

K

{

1

if

(

j

-

1

)

W

<

{

x

-

coordinate

of

(

d

slant

(

k

,

α

)

)

}

<

jW

0

else

,

where P row (α n ) is determined by the projection profile values for j=1 . . . B, and parameters B and W are each a pre-determined range of the histogram and width of a histogram bin respectively.

3. The vehicle environmental detection system according to claim 1 , further comprising the control unit arrangement is adapted to calculate the entropy (H row (α n )) for the projection profile (P row (α n )) as a function of the slant angle (α n ) for each histogram according to:

H

row

(

α

n

)

=

-

j

=

1

B

P

row

(

j

,

α

n

)

log

2

(

P

row

(

j

,

α

n

)

)

where H row (α n ) is the entropy associated with the slant angle α n , and B is the number of bins in the determined histogram associated with the slant angle α n .

4. The vehicle environmental detection system according to claim 1 , further comprising that a majority of the plurality of detections is associated with one or more vehicles in the parking row, where a slant angle for which the entropy (H row (α n )) reaches a minimum is constituted by a correct slant angle (α c ) which constitutes a measure of the slant angle between a common orientation of the vehicles and a reference line.

5. The vehicle environmental detection system according to claim 1 , further comprising the control unit arrangement is adapted to calculate the set of slant rotated detections (d slant (k,α), k=1 . . . K) according to:

d

slant

(

k

,

α

)

=

[

cos

(

α

)

-

sin

(

α

)

sin

(

α

)

cos

(

α

)

]

d

(

k

)

,

1

k

K

where d slant (k,α) is the k-th slant rotated detection, rotated by the angle α.

6. The vehicle environmental detection system according to claim 1 , further comprising that the control unit arrangement is adapted to apply an initial rotation to the set of detections (d(k), k=1 . . . K) by a reference angle (β) such that a set of rotated detections (d horizontal (k, β), k=1 . . . K) is obtained, where the control unit arrangement is adapted to calculate the sets of slant rotated detections (d slant (k,α n ), k=1 . . . K) from the set of rotated detections (d horizontal (k, β), k=1 . . . K).

7. The vehicle environmental detection system according to claim 6 , further comprising the reference angle (β) is constituted by an oncome angle (β) formed between a vehicle environmental detection system movement direction and a first border line.

8. The vehicle environmental detection system according to claim 6 , further comprising the control unit arrangement is adapted to calculate the sets of rotated detections (d horizontal (k,β), k=1 . . . K) according to:

d

horizontal

(

k

,

β

)

=

[

cos

(

β

)

-

sin

(

β

)

sin

(

β

)

cos

(

β

)

]

d

(

k

)

,

1

k

K

where d horizontal (k, β) is detection d(k) rotated by the reference angle, β is the reference angle, K is the number of detections, and d(k) is a detection in the set of detections (d(k), k=1 . . . K).

9. The vehicle environmental detection system according to claim 6 , further comprising the control unit arrangement is adapted to calculate the set of slant rotated detections (d slant (k,α)) according to:

d

slant

(

k

,

α

)

=

[

cos

(

α

)

-

sin

(

α

)

sin

(

α

)

cos

(

α

)

]

d

horizontal

(

k

,

β

)

,

1

k

K

where d slant (k,α) is the k-th slant rotated detection.

10. A method for a vehicle environmental detection system in an ego vehicle, where the method comprises the steps of:

obtaining a plurality of detections forming a set of detections (d(k), k=1 . . . K) for determining a slant angle, for each of the slant angle in a set of slant angles (α n , n=1 . . . N),

calculating a set of slant rotated detections (d slant (k,α n ), k=1 . . . K) from the set of detections (d(k), k=1 . . . K) and a present slant angle;

calculating a projection profile (P row ) for the slant rotated detections (d slant (k, α n ), k=1 . . . K) comprising a histogram; and

calculating an entropy (H row ) for the histogram; and

determining for which of the slant angle the entropy (H row ) reaches a minimum based on the calculated entropy (H row ).

11. The method according to claim 10 , further comprising calculating the projection profile value for a j-th histogram bin (P row (j, α n )) according to the following equation:

P

row

(

j

,

α

n

)

=

k

=

1

K

{

1

if

(

j

-

1

)

W

<

{

x

-

coordinate

of

(

d

slant

(

k

,

α

)

)

}

<

jW

0

else

,

where P row (α n ) is determined by the projection profile values for j=1 . . . B, and parameters B and W are each a pre-determined range of the histogram and width of a histogram bin respectively.

12. The method according to claim 10 , further comprising calculating the entropy (H row (α n )) for the projection profile (P row (α n )) as a function of the slant angle (α n ) for each histogram according to:

H

row

(

α

n

)

=

-

j

=

1

B

P

row

(

j

,

α

n

)

log

2

(

P

row

(

j

,

α

n

)

)

where H row (α n ) is the entropy associated with the slant angle α n , and B is the number of bins in the determined histogram associated with the slant angle α n .

13. The method according to claim 10 , further comprising a majority of the plurality of detections is associated with vehicles in a parking row, where the slant angle for which the entropy (H row (α n )) reaches a minimum is constituted by a correct slant angle which constitutes a measure of a slant angle between a common orientation of the vehicles and a reference line.

14. The method according to the method claim 10 , further comprises applying an initial rotation to the set of detections (d(k), k=1 . . . K) by a reference angle (β) such that a set of the rotated detections (d horizontal (k, β), k=1 . . . K) is obtained, where the control unit arrangement is adapted to calculate the sets of slant rotated detections (d slant (k,α n ), k=1 . . . K) from the set of rotated detections (d horizontal (k, β), k=1 . . . K), where the sets of rotated detections (d horizontal (k,β), k=1 . . . K) are calculated according to:

d

horizontal

(

k

,

β

)

=

[

cos

(

β

)

-

sin

(

β

)

sin

(

β

)

cos

(

β

)

]

d

(

k

)

,

1

k

K

where d horizontal (k, β) is detection d(k) rotated by the reference angle, β is the reference angle, K is the number of detections, and d(k) is a detection in the set of detections (d(k), k=1 . . . K), and where the set of slant rotated detections (d slant (k,α)) is calculated according to:

d

slant

(

k

,

α

)

=

[

cos

(

α

)

-

sin

(

α

)

sin

(

α

)

cos

(

α

)

]

d

horizontal

(

k

,

β

)

,

1

k

K

where d slant (k,α) is the k-th slant rotated detection.

Assignments (3)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Oct 11, 2024
From: ARRIVER SOFTWARE AB
To: QUALCOMM AUTO LTD.
Reel/Frame 069171/0233 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Apr 5, 2022
From: VEONEER SWEDEN AB
To: ARRIVER SOFTWARE AB
Reel/Frame 059596/0826 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Mar 22, 2022
From: SCHMID, ANDREAS; UNVERDORBEN, CHRISTOPHER; PFAFFENZELLER, CHRISTIAN; BÖTTCHER, HENDRIK
To: VEONEER SWEDEN AB
Reel/Frame 059337/0520 →