Vehicle environment perception system

Abstract

A system for providing vehicle environment awareness, comprising: two mm-wave radar sensor modules, each having a 180-degree operating field, the operating field defined by a 6 dB drop in the antenna radiation pattern, having identical hardware components and the same respective hardware arrangement within said mm-wave sensor modules, and having access to a display portion via the vehicle's communications network, the display portion positioned in the driver's field of view; wherein each of said mm-wave radar sensor modules is positioned at the rear corners of the vehicle, the rear side of the vehicle being defined as opposite the main direction of travel; wherein the radiation pattern in the elevation plane of said mm-wave radar sensor modules has a maximum radiation in the horizontal plane parallel to the ground plane;wherein the radiation pattern in the azimuth plane of said mm-wave radar sensor modules has a maximum radiation in the plane perpendicular to the back surfaces of said mm-wave radar sensor modules; wherein the back surface of said mm-wave radar sensor forms an angle greater than 60 degrees with the back surface of said mm-wave radar sensor module; wherein at least one of said mm-wave radar sensor modules has digital processing hardware functionality that performs classification of objects detected by said mm-wave radar sensor modules using radar sensor point cloud data previously generated by another functionality within said mm-wave radar sensor modules;wherein at least one of said mm-wave radar sensor modules transmits classification information about said objects around the vehicle, the object distances to the vehicle, the relative object positions to the vehicle, and the relative speed of the vehicles; the basic classification categories being: passenger vehicles, large commercial vehicles with a length not exceeding 10 meters, and motorcycles; wherein classification information is physically transmitted from at least one of said mm-wave radar sensor modules via a 4-pin connector;wherein said display part positioned in the driver's field of view uses said classification information and displays dynamic positions of said objects, the objects being represented by artificial images related to said basic classification categories, the total view coverage in the azimuth plane being greater than 300 degrees;

Claims

[1] A system for providing vehicle environment awareness, comprising: two mm-wave radar sensor modules, each having a 180-degree operating field, the operating field being defined by a 6 dB drop in the antenna radiation pattern, having identical hardware components and the same respective hardware arrangement within said mm-wave sensor modules, and having access to a display part via the vehicle's communications network, the display part being positioned in the driver's field of view; wherein each of said mm-wave radar sensor modules is positioned at the rear corners of the vehicle, the rear side of the vehicle being defined as opposite the main direction of travel; wherein the radiation pattern in the elevation plane of said mm-wave radar sensor modules has a maximum radiation in the horizontal plane parallel to the ground plane; wherein the radiation pattern in the azimuth plane of said mm-wave radar sensor modules has a maximum radiation in the plane perpendicular to the back surfaces of said mm-wave radar sensor modules; wherein the back of said mm-wave radar sensor forms an angle greater than 60 degrees with the back of said mm-wave radar sensor module; wherein at least one of said mm-wave radar sensor modules comprises digital processing hardware functionality that performs classification of objects detected by said mm-wave radar sensor modules using radar sensor point cloud data previously generated by another functionality within said mm-wave radar sensor modules; wherein at least one of said mm-wave radar sensor modules provides classification information about said objects around the vehicle, the object distances to the vehicle, the relative object positions to the vehicle and transmits the relative speed of the vehicles; the basic classification categories are: passenger vehicles, large commercial vehicles with a length not exceeding 10 metres, and motorcycles; wherein classification information is physically sent from at least one of said mm-wave radar sensor modules via a 4-pin connector; wherein said display part positioned in the driver's field of view uses said classification information and displays dynamic positions of said objects, the objects being represented by artificial images related to said basic classification categories, the total view coverage in the azimuth plane being greater than 300 degrees. [2] The system of claim 1, wherein said mm-wave sensor modules have terminals with more than 4 poles. [3] The system of claim 2, wherein said basic classification categories are extended to detect bicycles. [4] A system according to claim 3, wherein said basic classification categories are extended to detect long commercial vehicles with a length of more than 10 metres. [5] A system according to claim 4, wherein said basic classification categories are extended to detect three-wheeled commercial vehicles whose length does not exceed 3 metres. [6] System according to the preceding claims, wherein the classification of objects around the vehicle having said system is performed by an artificial intelligence functionality using pre-calculated point cloud data, wherein the artificial intelligence functionality makes a classification decision previously trained by radar system annotation data, wherein said radar system annotation data relates to the classification categories, The speed of objects around the vehicle in conjunction with the point cloud radar data is taken into account in the artificial intelligence calculation process. [7] A system according to any preceding claim, wherein the environmental awareness information is continuously updated on said display and is visually accessible to said driver. [8] A system according to any preceding claim, wherein the environmental awareness information is used to provide warnings to said driver. [9] The system of claim 7, wherein the environmental awareness information is sent to the cloud via the wireless connection of said vehicle for access by other systems. [10] A system according to any preceding claim, wherein the environmental perception information is used by the vehicle infrastructure to autonomously perform actions, the actions changing the dynamic behavior of said vehicle. [11] A system according to any preceding claim, wherein the environmental awareness information is additionally used as parking assistance and provides warning distances to objects in the vicinity of the vehicle without the need to perform classification of the objects in the vicinity.

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