Bad Weather Judgment Apparatus for Autonomous Driving Sensor Fusion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous driving systems face challenges in accurately recognizing bad weather and sensor performance degradation due to limitations in existing sensor technologies, which can lead to misrecognition and erroneous sensing, compromising system reliability.
Innovation Solution
A bad weather judgment apparatus that utilizes a target recognizer, counter, and bad weather judger to determine the presence of a target across multiple heterogeneous sensors' detection areas, incrementing or decrementing a case count based on detection states, and judging weather conditions by comparing these counts against threshold values to differentiate between good and bad weather.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If sensor information fusion is used to overcome individual sensor limitations, then autonomous driving recognition performance is improved, but sensor performance degradation due to bad weather still occurs and cannot be self-recognized
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a bad weather judgment apparatus as an intermediary system that mediates between the heterogeneous sensors and the autonomous driving control system. This apparatus includes a target recognizer that identifies targets in detection areas, a counter that tracks detection consistency across sensors, and a bad weather judger that determines weather conditions based on detection discrepancies. The intermediary apparatus enables the system to recognize bad weather conditions without requiring the sensors themselves to self-diagnose, thus resolving the contradiction between improved recognition performance and inability to self-recognize degradation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the bad weather judgment apparatus continuously monitors detection results from multiple heterogeneous sensors and feeds back weather condition information to the autonomous driving system. The counter component accumulates detection states and provides feedback on target presence consistency, enabling the system to adapt to bad weather conditions. This feedback loop allows the autonomous driving system to respond appropriately to degraded sensor performance while maintaining improved recognition through multi-sensor fusion.
2Area of stationary object
If multiple heterogeneous sensors are deployed to improve detection coverage, then the system can recognize more targets, but it becomes difficult to judge performance degradation caused by bad weather using single sensor data
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the weather judgment function into distinct modular components: a target recognizer module that identifies targets in detection areas, a counter module that tracks detection states, and a bad weather judger module that determines weather conditions. Each component handles a specific aspect of the judgment process, making the overall complex system manageable. The segmentation allows each module to focus on its specific task while contributing to the overall weather judgment capability, thus handling the complexity of multi-sensor integration.
Solution Approach 2:
The bad weather judgment apparatus is designed as a universal system that can process detection data from multiple types of heterogeneous sensors simultaneously. The target recognizer and counter components are configured to handle various sensor inputs and apply unified judgment logic across all sensor types. This multi-functional design enables the system to judge weather conditions based on combined information from different sensors without requiring separate judgment mechanisms for each sensor type, thus managing complexity while maintaining broad detection coverage.
3Productivity
If the autonomous driving system operates in bad weather without recognition, then continuous operation is maintained, but misrecognition and erroneous sensing increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by having the bad weather judgment apparatus continuously monitor and judge weather conditions before they significantly degrade detection accuracy. The system proactively identifies bad weather situations by analyzing detection patterns across multiple sensors, allowing the autonomous driving system to take preventive measures such as adjusting operational parameters or alerting the driver before misrecognition and erroneous sensing occur. This preliminary detection maintains continuous operation while preserving reliability through early warning.
Data Source
AI summary
A bad weather judgment apparatus and a bad weather judgment method thereof are disclosed. The apparatus includes a target recognizer configured to recognize targets in detection areas of a plurality of heterogeneous sensors based on sensor recognition information received from the heterogeneous sensors, a counter configured to count the number of cases based on detection states of the heterogeneous sensors about a same target among the targets, and a bad weather judger configured to determine whether the same target is present in bad weather judgment zones of the detection areas of the heterogeneous sensors, control the counter to increment or decrement the number of the cases based on detection states of the heterogeneous sensors about whether the same target is present in the bad weather judgment zones, and judge current weather to be bad weather when the number of the cases is greater than a threshold value.