Image space motion planning of an autonomous vehicle

US11592845B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Skydio, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Ryan David Kennedy · Naperville, US
• Peter Benjamin Henry · San Francisco, US
• Hayk Martirosyan · San Francisco, US
• Jack Louis Zhu · San Francisco, US
• Abraham Galton Bachrach · San Francisco, US
• Adam Parker Bry · Redwood City, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 28, 2021
• Grant date: Feb 28, 2023
• Expiry date: Oct 28, 2041

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06T2207/30252
• WIPO field: Control
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

An autonomous vehicle that is equipped with image capture devices can use information gathered from the image capture devices to plan a future three-dimensional (3D) trajectory through a physical environment. To this end, a technique is described for image-space based motion planning. In an embodiment, a planned 3D trajectory is projected into an image-space of an image captured by the autonomous vehicle. The planned 3D trajectory is then optimized according to a cost function derived from information (e.g., depth estimates) in the captured image. The cost function associates higher cost values with identified regions of the captured image that are associated with areas of the physical environment into which travel is risky or otherwise undesirable. The autonomous vehicle is thereby encouraged to avoid these areas while satisfying other motion planning objectives.