Granted Patent B2

US 12,723,878 · App. 18/573,491 · Granted Sep 1, 2026

Inventors: Frank Keidel (Poing, DE); Alexander Born (Munich, DE); Tilman Nowak (Erfurt, DE); Sean Brown (Deggendorf, DE)

Assignee: Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft

G01C21/30G06V20/588

Abstract

Claims (51)

1 . A method for at least partially automated operation of a vehicle in accordance with an estimated course of a road in an environment of the vehicle, the method comprising:

obtaining a state function that maps the estimated course of the road;

generating environment measurement data from a sensor system of the vehicle, wherein the environment measurement data erroneously maps an observed course of the road due to an observation error included in the environment measurement data;

capturing information about the observation error;

determining a transform by transforming the state function or the environment measurement data based on the captured information to compensate for the observation error; and

adapting the estimated course of the road using the transform such that the at least partially automated operation of the vehicle is in accordance with the adapted estimated course of the road.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the capturing information about the observation error comprises:

determining a deviation of the environment measurement data from the course of the road; and

obtaining the information about the observation error based on the deviation.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein

the information about the observation error comprises an error angle, and

the determining the transform comprises:

rotating the state function or the environment measurement data based on the error angle.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the rotating comprises:

rotating using a Bayes filter for estimating the course of the road, wherein

a rotation parameter of the Bayes filter is based on the error angle.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the capturing information about the observation error comprises:

capturing movement measurement data of the vehicle; and

determining the information about the observation error based on the environment measurement data and the movement measurement data.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein

the environment measurement data comprises first environment measurement data measured at a first point in time and second environment measurement data measured at a later second point in time, and

the determining the information about the observation error comprises:

transforming the first and second environment measurement data into a common coordinate system using the movement measurement data; and

determining the information about the observation error based on a deviation between the first and second environment measurement data in the common coordinate system.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the determining the deviation between the first and second environment measurement data comprises:

determining the deviation based on a deviation of a first measurement point of the first environment measurement data and a second measurement point of the second environment measurement data, wherein

the first and second measurement points map the same point in the environment.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein

the capturing the information about the observation error comprises:

capturing first information about an observation error at a left road boundary and second information about the observation error at a right road boundary; and

the determining a transform comprises:

determining a transform by transforming the environment measurement data and/or the state function to compensate for the observation error at the left road boundary based on the first and second information.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the capturing the first and second information comprises:

obtaining information about changes in inclination of the road; and

determining the first and second information based on the information about changes in the inclination of the road.

10 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions operable, when executed by one or more computing systems, to configure the one or more computing systems to:

obtain a state function that maps an estimated course of a road in an environment of a vehicle configured to operate in an at least partially automated manner in accordance with the estimated course of the road;

generate environment measurement data from a sensor system of the vehicle, wherein the environment measurement data erroneously maps an observed course of the road due to an observation error included in the environment measurement data;

capture information about the observation error;

determine a transform by transforming the state function or the environment measurement data based on the captured information to compensate for the observation error; and

adapt the estimated course of the road using the transform such that the at least partially automated operation of the vehicle is in accordance with the adapted estimated course of the road.

11 . An apparatus, comprising:

one or more interfaces for communication; and

a processor configured to:

control the one or more interfaces;

obtain a state function that maps an estimated course of a road in an environment of a vehicle configured to operate in an at least partially automated manner in accordance with the estimated course of the road;

generate environment measurement data from a sensor system of the vehicle, wherein the environment measurement data erroneously maps an observed course of the road due to an observation error included in the environment measurement data;

capture information about the observation error;

determine a transform by transforming the state function or the environment measurement data based on the captured information to compensate for the observation error; and

adapt the estimated course of the road using the transform such that at least partially automated operation of the vehicle is in accordance with the adapted estimated course of the road.

12 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the apparatus is a vehicle.

Assignments (2)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (20)