Autonomous Vehicle Perception With Low-Confidence Object Validation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous vehicles face challenges in accurately detecting objects with low confidence, leading to potential safety issues and inefficiencies in decision-making, as they often trade off between precision and recall.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system that communicates data from sensors to a secondary-processing device, such as a human operator or a more powerful computer, for further processing and confirmation when detection confidence is below a threshold, allowing for improved object identification and decision-making.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If autonomous vehicle detection systems operate independently without human or secondary processing assistance, then automation level is high and response speed is fast, but detection precision deteriorates for low-confidence objects
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a secondary processing device as an intermediary between the autonomous vehicle's detection system and final decision-making. When the autonomous detection system identifies objects with confidence below a threshold, the system queries a secondary processing device (human operator or more powerful computer) for assistance. This intermediary resolves the contradiction by maintaining high automation for confident detections while engaging human or advanced computational resources only when needed for low-confidence detections, thereby improving overall precision without completely sacrificing automation efficiency
2Reliability
If autonomous vehicle system queries secondary processing device for all low-confidence detections, then detection precision improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs parameter changes by dynamically adjusting the confidence threshold and selectively engaging the secondary processing device based on detection confidence levels. Rather than always querying the secondary device, the system changes its operational parameters to only seek additional processing when confidence falls below a specific threshold. This approach improves safety for uncertain detections while avoiding the complexity overhead of constant secondary processing engagement
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies partial action by querying the secondary processing device only for a subset of detections—specifically those with low confidence—rather than processing all detections through the secondary device. This selective approach improves reliability for critical low-confidence cases while minimizing the added system complexity that would result from universal secondary processing
3Measurement precision
If autonomous vehicle uses conservative detection threshold to improve precision, then false positives decrease, but recall deteriorates and more queries to secondary device are needed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the autonomous detection system continuously monitors detection confidence levels and dynamically adjusts its operation based on feedback from secondary processing outcomes. When low-confidence detections are queried to the secondary device, the results feed back into the system to refine future detection thresholds and strategies. This feedback loop optimizes the balance between precision and productivity by learning from past queries and adjusting the confidence threshold to minimize unnecessary secondary device engagement while maintaining high precision
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein are systems and methods for providing supplemental identification abilities to an autonomous vehicle system. The sensor unit of the vehicle may be configured to receive data indicating an environment of the vehicle, while the control system may be configured to operate the vehicle. The vehicle may also include a processing unit configured to analyze the data indicating the environment to determine at least one object having a detection confidence below a threshold. Based on the at least one object having a detection confidence below a threshold, the processor may communicate at least a subset of the data indicating the environment for further processing. The vehicle is also configured to receive an indication of an object confirmation of the subset of the data. Based on the object confirmation of the subset of the data, the processor may alter the control of the vehicle by the control system.