Automated Driving Data Acquisition Through Learned Scene Representations

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Solution Overview

Problem

The collection of data from a fleet of vehicles for the development of automated driving systems is hindered by bandwidth and storage limitations, as well as the immense need for post-processing to extract relevant datasets, leading to inefficient and costly data transmission.

Innovation Solution

A method involving the learning of a multidimensional scene representation from a set of sensor data frames, which is then used to transmit compressed data, enabling the reconstruction or rendering of sensor data frames at a remote server.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If raw sensor data is collected and transmitted from a fleet of vehicles, then data completeness and information quality are improved, but bandwidth requirements and transmission costs increase significantly

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedata completenessVSAvoidbandwidth requirements
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts only the essential scene representation information from raw sensor data using neural radiance fields, separating the core semantic content from redundant raw data. This allows transmission of compressed scene representations that retain critical information while dramatically reducing bandwidth requirements.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent transforms raw sensor data into a different parameter space using neural radiance field representations. By changing the data representation from raw sensor readings to learned scene parameters, the system achieves compact encoding that reduces transmission volume while preserving essential scene information for reconstruction.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

2Quantity of substance

If sensor data is compressed to reduce transmission size, then bandwidth requirements are reduced, but information loss occurs during compression and decompression

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedata transmission sizeVSAvoidinformation integrity
Core Design Contradiction:
Quantity of substanceVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The patent creates a learned scene representation that acts as a compact copy of the essential scene information. This learned representation can be transmitted efficiently and then used to reconstruct or render sensor data frames, providing a faithful copy of the critical scene content without transmitting the full raw data.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #26Copying

Solution Approach 2:

The patent transitions from transmitting data in the raw sensor dimension to transmitting in the learned representation dimension. By encoding scene information in a compressed latent space and enabling rendering in the original sensor space, the system achieves loss-efficient compression through dimensional transformation.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

3Loss of information

If all sensor data from the fleet is uploaded to centralized servers, then data availability for processing is improved, but storage requirements and post-processing complexity increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedata availabilityVSAvoidpost-processing complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts only the necessary scene representation from complete sensor data before transmission. By separating essential scene information from redundant raw data at the source, the system reduces the volume of data requiring centralized storage and post-processing while maintaining availability of critical information.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent performs preliminary processing at the vehicle端 by learning scene representations from raw sensor data before transmission. This preliminary action of encoding scene information into compact representations reduces the burden on centralized servers for both storage and subsequent processing operations.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

4Productivity

If compression techniques are applied to sensor data, then transmission efficiency is improved, but the ability to reconstruct complete sensor data frames is degraded

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvetransmission efficiencyVSAvoiddata reconstruction quality
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSManufacturing precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent creates a learned scene representation that serves as a compact copy capable of rendering complete sensor data frames. This learned copy maintains the essential information needed for high-quality reconstruction or rendering of sensor frames, achieving both compression and fidelity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #26Copying

Solution Approach 2:

The patent enables bidirectional transformation between compressed learned representation space and original sensor data space. By establishing this dimensional bridge through neural radiance fields, the system achieves efficient compression while preserving the ability to reconstruct complete sensor data frames with high quality.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

Data Source

PatentEP4641520A1Methods and systems for data acquisition for the development of automated driving systems
Publication Date: 2025.10.29 ZENSEACT AB
  • EP4641520A1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP4641520A1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP4641520A1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

The present disclosure relates to, among other things, a computer-implemented method (100) performed in a vehicle. The method (100) comprising: obtaining (5102) a set of sensor data frames depicting a scene in a surrounding environment of the vehicle from at least two points-of-view; forming (S108) a learned scene representation of the depicted scene, based on the obtained set of sensor data frames, wherein the learned scene representation is a multidimensional representation of the depicted scene; and transmitting (5110) information indicative of the learned scene representation to a remote server for subsequent rendering of sensor data frames based on the learned scene representation.