Surrogate for metal guardrail

US10689818B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignees

• TOYOTA MOTOR ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING NORTH AMERICA, INC. · US
• Ohio State Innovation Foundation · US
• THE TRUSTEES OF INDIANA UNIVERSITY · US

Inventors

• Rini Sherony · Ann Arbor, US
• Stanley Yung-Ping Chien · Indianapolis, US
• Qiang Yi · Carmel, US
• Jun Lin · 安丰镇, CN
• Abir Saha · Chicago, US
• Yaobin Chen · Carmel, US
• Chi-Chih Chen · Baoshan, TW

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 27, 2018
• Grant date: Jun 23, 2020
• Expiry date: Sep 27, 2038

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01N2021/1793
• WIPO field: Civil engineering
• WIPO sector: Other fields

Abstract

Surrogates for roadside objects, such as metal guardrails, can be used for vehicle testing. A surrogate for a metal guardrail can have substantially the same size and/or shape as the metal guardrail that the surrogate is mimicking. The surrogate can be configured to exhibit substantially the same characteristics as their actual counterpart metal guardrail when sensed by one or more vehicle sensors (e.g., cameras, radar sensors, and/or LIDAR sensors). Such surrogates can be used to test autonomous vehicles, one or more vehicle sensors, a vehicle sensor system, and/or one or more vehicle system (e.g., a road departure mitigation system). The surrogates can be configured to withstand being crashed into by a test vehicle without being damaged and without damaging the test vehicle.