Perception device

1. A perception device comprising

a receiver configured to receive sensor information comprising information about a location and a velocity of one or more objects detected by a sensor;

a memory configured to store an occupancy grid of a predetermined region, wherein the occupancy grid comprises a plurality of grid cells, wherein each grid cell represents an area in the predetermined region, wherein at least one grid cell of the plurality of grid cells is associated with a respective single occupancy hypothesis; and

a single occupancy hypothesis determiner configured to determine a single occupancy hypothesis;

wherein the single occupancy hypothesis comprises information about a degree of belief of occupancy of a grid cell depending on the sensor information and velocity of the grid cell depending on the sensor information;

wherein a contribution of a sensor information value to the degree of belief of occupancy of a grid cell substantially decreases with an increase of a distance of the location of the object detected by the sensor from a center of the grid cell; and

wherein the velocity of the grid cell is dependent on a velocity of one or more objects.

2. The perception device of claim 1 ,

wherein the degree of belief of occupancy of a grid cell is a measure of a likelihood that the cell is occupied.

3. The perception device of claim 1 ,

wherein the degree of belief of occupancy of a grid cell is computed in accordance with the following formula:

m

S

i

⁡

(

{

S

,

D

}

)

=

{

max

j

⁢

(

m

occ

j

⁢

e

-

(

x

i

-

z

t

j

)

2

2

⁢

σ

2

)

⁢

⁢

if

⁢

⁢

j

′

>

0

0

⁢

⁢

else

wherein

m occ is a constant value in the range [0:1];

i is a grid cells index;

j is a sensor measurements index;

t is a time instant index;

x i is a center of the i-th grid cell;

z t j is a projection of the j-th sensor measurement at time t;

σ is a parameter;

S indicates static occupancy;

D indicates dynamic occupancy;

j′ is a value that may be a positive value when z t j bearing crosses x i boundaries.

4. The perception device of claim 3 ,

wherein the single occupancy hypothesis determiner is configured to determine the degree of belief of occupancy of a grid cell exclusively from the sensor measurements whose bearers cross the cell boundaries; wherein a sensor measurement bearer is the direct line from the sensor to the projection of the sensor measurements.

5. The perception device of claim 1 ,

wherein the single occupancy hypothesis determiner is configured to substantially decrease a contribution of a sensor information value to the velocity of a grid cell with an increase of a distance of the location of the object detected by the sensor from a center of the grid cell.

6. The perception device of claim 1 ,

wherein the single occupancy hypothesis determiner is configured to determine the velocity of a cell n in accordance with the following formula

v

t

+

1

⁡

(

Cell

⁢

⁢

n

)

=

∑

m

=

1

l

⁢

b

n

⁢

b

m

⁢

v

t

⁡

(

Cell

⁢

⁢

m

)

⁢

e

-

(

v

t

⁡

(

cell

⁢

⁢

m

)

-

v

gt

⁡

(

cell

⁢

⁢

m

->

cell

⁢

⁢

n

)

)

2

2

⁢

σ

2

wherein

l is a number of grid cells in the occupancy grid;

m is an index ranging from 1 to l;

b n is a degree of belief of occupancy of grid cell n for which the velocity is computed;

b m is a degree of belief of occupancy of grid cell m in the occupation grid whose velocity contributes to the velocity of grid cell n;

v t (Cell m) is a velocity at time t of grid cell m which effects the velocity of grid cell n;

v t+1 (Cell n) is an expected velocity of grid cell n at time t+1;

v gt (cell m→cell n) is a velocity that the objects in the grid cell m will need to hold to reach grid cell n at time t+1.

7. The perception device of claim 6 ,

wherein the single occupancy hypothesis determiner is configured to determine v gt (cell m→cell n) in accordance with the following formula:

v

gt

⁡

(

cell

⁢

⁢

m

->

cell

⁢

⁢

n

)

=

dist

⁡

(

cell

⁢

⁢

m

->

cell

⁢

⁢

n

)

dT

wherein

dist(cell m→cell n) is a distance from grid cell m to grid cell n,

dT is defined as a time interval from time t to time t+1.

8. The perception device of claim 1 ,

wherein the single occupancy hypothesis determiner is configured to update the single occupancy hypothesis of at least one grid cell of a plurality of grids cells of an occupancy grid when new sensor information is received.

9. The perception device of claim 1 ,

wherein the single occupancy hypothesis determiner is configured to update the single occupancy hypothesis of a grid cell by updating the degree of belief of occupancy of the single occupancy hypothesis or the velocity of the single occupancy hypothesis.

10. The perception device of claim 1 ,

wherein the single occupancy hypothesis determiner is configured to update the single occupancy hypothesis of at least one grid cell by means of a Kalman filter.

11. The perception device of claim 10 ,

wherein the single occupancy hypothesis determiner is configured to update the single occupancy hypothesis of at least one grid cell by means of a Kalman filter configured to receive a measurements vector.

12. The perception device of claim 10 ,

wherein the single occupancy hypothesis determiner is configured to update the single occupancy hypothesis of at least one grid cell by means of a Kalman filter configured to receive from at least one sensor of a plurality of sensors a measurements vector;

wherein the measurements vector comprises an estimate of occupation of each grid cell.

13. The perception device of claim 10 ,

wherein the single occupancy hypothesis determiner is configured to update the single occupancy hypothesis of at least one grid cell by means of a Kalman filter configured to receive from at least one sensor of a plurality of sensors a measurements vector wherein the measurements vector comprises an estimate of the occupancy and an estimate of the velocity of each grid cell.

14. The perception device of claim 10 ,

wherein the single occupancy hypothesis determiner is configured to update the single occupancy hypothesis of at least one grid cell using a Kalman filter configured to receive a state vector wherein the state vector comprises a single occupancy hypothesis for each cell of a plurality of cells in the occupation grid.

15. The perception device of claim 10 ,

wherein the single occupancy hypothesis determiner is configured to update the single occupancy hypothesis of at least one grid cell by means of a Kalman filter configured to receive a measurement matrix relating a prediction of the uncertainty in the measurements vector to a prediction uncertainty in the state vector.

16. The perception device of claim 10 ,

wherein the single occupancy hypothesis determiner is configured to update the single occupancy hypothesis of at least one grid cell by means of a Kalman filter configured to receive a state transition matrix wherein each cell in the matrix comprises an occupancy rate change or of a velocity rate change.

17. A vehicle comprising

a receiver configured to receive sensor information comprising information about a location and a velocity of one or more objects detected by a sensor;

a memory configured to store an occupancy grid of a predetermined region, wherein the occupancy grid comprises a plurality of grid cells, wherein each grid cell represents an area in the predetermined region, wherein at least one grid cell of the plurality of grid cells is associated with a respective single occupancy hypothesis;

a single occupancy hypothesis determiner configured to determine a single occupancy hypothesis;

wherein the single occupancy hypothesis comprises information about a degree of belief of occupancy of the grid cell depending on the sensor information and about a velocity of the grid cell depending on the sensor information;

wherein a contribution of a sensor information value to the degree of belief of occupancy substantially decreases with an increase of a distance of the location of the object detected by the sensor from a center of the grid cell; and

wherein the velocity of the grid cell is dependent on a velocity of one or more objects.

18. The vehicle of claim 17 ,

wherein the degree of belief of occupancy of a grid cell is a measure of a likelihood that the cell is occupied.

19. A non-transient computer readable medium for causing one or more processors to implement the method of

receiving sensor information comprising information about a location and a velocity of one or more objects detected by a sensor;

storing an occupancy grid of a predetermined region, wherein

wherein each grid cell represents an area in the predetermined region,

wherein at least one grid cell of the plurality of grid cells is associated with a respective single occupancy hypothesis,

wherein the single occupancy hypothesis comprises information about a degree of belief of occupancy of the grid cell depending on the sensor information and about a velocity of the grid cell depending on the sensor information;

wherein a contribution of a sensor information value to the degree of belief of occupancy substantially decreases with an increase of a distance of the location of the object detected by the sensor from a center of the grid cell,

wherein the velocity of the grid cell is dependent on a velocity of one or more objects.

20. The non-transient computer readable medium of claim 19 ,

wherein the degree of belief of occupancy of a grid cell is a measure of a likelihood that the cell is occupied.