IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,291,191
Granted Patent B1
US 12,291,191 · App. 18/087,689 · Granted May 6, 2025

Parking location filter

Inventors: Joseph Funke (Redwood City, CA); Steven Cheng Qian (San Francisco, CA); Zheyuan Xie (Foster City, CA)
Assignee: Zoox, Inc.
B60W30/06B60W60/0011B60W2510/20B60W2520/10B60W2520/105B60W2552/05B60W2554/80B60W2556/10
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,291,191
App. No.
18/087,689
Granted
May 6, 2025
Kind
B1
Abstract

Techniques for determining parking spaces and/or parking trajectories for a vehicle based on multistage filtering are discussed herein. In some examples, a vehicle may navigate to a destination within an environment. The vehicle may receive a set of parking locations and perform filtering operations to determine a subset of the parking locations. For example, the vehicle may use a list of parking characteristics (e.g., conditions) to filter the set of parking spaces. Based on determining the subset of parking spaces, the vehicle may generate a set of candidate trajectories to the subset of parking spaces. The vehicle may determine a subset of the candidate trajectories based on filtering the set of candidate trajectories according to various constraints. Further, the vehicle may determine a cost for the subset of candidate trajectories. Based on the costs, the vehicle may determine a candidate trajectory for the vehicle to follow.

Claims (92)

1. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

determining that an autonomous vehicle is within a threshold distance from a destination;

receiving, based at least in part on being within the threshold distance, a set of parking locations;

identifying for a parking location of the set of parking locations a parking characteristic;

determining, based at least in part on the parking characteristic, whether to include the parking location in a subset of parking locations;

determining, based at least in part on the subset of parking locations, a plurality of trajectories that include vehicle acceleration data or vehicle steering angle data and at least two of the plurality of trajectories configured to control the autonomous vehicle to enter a same parking location of the subset of parking locations;

determining a control trajectory from the plurality of trajectories; and

controlling the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the control trajectory.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the parking characteristic comprises at least one of:

an availability of the parking location,

a first distance between the parking location and the autonomous vehicle meeting or exceeding a first threshold,

a second distance between the parking location and the autonomous vehicle being at or below second threshold,

a side of a road associated with the parking location, or

a type of parking space associated with the parking location.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:

determining a plurality of costs associated with the plurality of trajectories; and

determining, as the control trajectory, a trajectory of the plurality of trajectories having a lowest cost.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:

determining a number of parking spaces in the subset of parking locations is less than or equal to a threshold number of parking spaces;

based at least in part on determining the number of parking spaces is less than or equal to the threshold number of parking spaces, modifying the parking characteristic; and

determining a second subset of parking locations.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the threshold distance is based at least at least in part on:

an environment type,

a characteristic of a passenger of the autonomous vehicle,

event data, or

historical data.

6. One or more non transitory computer readable media storing instructions executable by one or more processors, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

determining that a vehicle is within a threshold distance from a destination;

receiving, based at least in part on being within the threshold distance, a set of parking locations;

identifying a parking characteristic associated with a parking location of the set of parking locations;

determining, based at least in part on the parking characteristic, a subset of parking locations of the set of parking locations;

determining, based at least in part on the set of parking locations, a set of candidate trajectories that include vehicle acceleration data or vehicle steering angle data to enter the parking location of the set of parking locations, wherein at least two of the set of candidate trajectories configured to control the vehicle to enter the parking location; and

controlling the vehicle based at least in part on the set of candidate trajectories.

7. The one or more non transitory computer readable media of claim 6 , wherein the parking characteristic comprises at least one of:

an availability of the parking location,

a first distance between the parking location and the vehicle meeting or exceeding a first threshold,

a second distance between the parking location and the vehicle at or being below second threshold,

a side of a road of the parking location, or

a type of parking space of the parking location.

8. The one or more non transitory computer readable media of claim 7 , wherein the parking characteristic is further associated with a rank.

9. The one or more non transitory computer readable media of claim 6 , wherein the operations further comprise:

determining, based at least in part on a constraint, a subset of trajectories of the set of candidate trajectories that satisfy the constraint;

determining a cost associated with a trajectory of the subset of trajectories; and

determining, based at least in part on the cost, a control trajectory,

wherein controlling the vehicle comprises controlling the vehicle in accordance with the control trajectory.

10. The one or more non transitory computer readable media of claim 9 , wherein the constraint comprises at least one of:

a steering limitation of the vehicle,

an acceleration limitation of the vehicle,

a velocity limitation of the vehicle, or

a predicted intersection with an object.

11. The one or more non transitory computer readable media of claim 6 , wherein the threshold distance is based at least at least in part on:

an environment type,

a characteristic of a passenger of the vehicle,

event data, or

historical data.

12. The one or more non transitory computer readable media of claim 8 , wherein controlling the vehicle based at least in part on the set of candidate trajectories comprises determining a trajectory of the set of candidate trajectories based at least in part on the rank.

13. The one or more non transitory computer readable media of claim 6 , the operations further comprising:

determining a number of parking spaces in the subset of parking locations is less than or equal to a threshold number of parking spaces;

based at least in part on determining the number of parking spaces is less than or equal to the threshold number of parking spaces, determining a modified parking characteristic associated with the parking characteristic; and

determining a second subset of parking spaces based at least in part on the modified parking characteristic.

14. A method comprising:

determining that a vehicle is within a threshold distance from a destination;

receiving, based at least in part on being within the threshold distance, a set of parking locations;

identifying a parking characteristic associated with a parking location of the set of parking locations;

determining, based at least in part on the parking characteristic, a subset of parking locations of the set of parking locations, wherein determining whether to include the parking location in the subset of parking locations is based at least in part on a modified parking characteristic of the parking characteristic;

determining, based at least in part on the set of parking locations, a set of candidate trajectories that include vehicle acceleration data or vehicle steering angle data; and

controlling the vehicle based at least in part on the set of candidate trajectories.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the parking characteristic comprises at least one of:

an availability of the parking location,

a first distance between the parking location and the vehicle meeting or exceeding a first threshold,

a second distance between the parking location and the vehicle at or being below second threshold,

a side of a road of the parking location, or

a type of parking space of the parking location.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the parking characteristic is further associated with a rank.

17. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:

determining, based at least in part on a constraint, a subset of trajectories of the set of candidate trajectories that satisfy the constraint;

determining a cost associated with a trajectory of the subset of trajectories; and

determining, based at least in part on the cost, a control trajectory,

wherein controlling the vehicle comprises controlling the vehicle in accordance with the control trajectory.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the constraint comprises at least one of:

a steering limitation of the vehicle,

an acceleration limitation of the vehicle,

a velocity limitation of the vehicle, or

a predicted intersection with an object.

19. The method of claim 14 , wherein the threshold distance is based at least at least in part on:

an environment type,

a characteristic of a passenger of the vehicle,

event data, or

historical data.

20. The method of claim 16 , wherein controlling the vehicle based at least in part on the set of candidate trajectories comprises determining a trajectory of the set of candidate trajectories based at least in part on the rank.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jan 5, 2023
From: FUNKE, JOSEPH; QIAN, STEVEN CHENG; XIE, ZHEYUAN
To: ZOOX, INC.
Reel/Frame 062288/0224 →
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Cited By (1)
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