Dynamic Occupancy Grid Fusion for Occluded Object Tracking

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Existing autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicle systems face challenges in accurately detecting and tracking objects, particularly smaller or occluded objects, due to limitations in sensor data fusion and object recognition techniques.

Innovation Solution

The proposed solution involves generating a dynamic occupancy grid based on sensor information from multiple sources, including cameras and radar, to identify dynamic cell clusters. This grid is then fused with low-level perception object detection results to generate an object track list, enhancing the detection of smaller or occluded objects.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If dynamic occupancy grid generation is implemented to improve object detection accuracy, then detection precision improves, but computational complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveobject detection accuracyVSAvoidcomputational complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The environment is divided into discrete grid cells, with each cell independently processed to determine occupancy status. This segmentation allows parallel computation across cells, improving detection accuracy through detailed spatial analysis while managing computational complexity through divide-and-conquer processing

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent transforms sensor data into a two-dimensional grid representation, adding a spatial dimension to object detection. This dimensional transformation enables more accurate detection of smaller and occluded objects by analyzing occupancy patterns across the grid, while the structured grid format facilitates efficient computation

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

2Measurement precision

If dynamic grid techniques are used to detect smaller or occluded objects, then detection capability improves, but data processing time increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedetection capabilityVSAvoiddata processing time
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system pre-generates the occupancy grid from sensor data before performing object detection. This preliminary grid creation organizes spatial information in advance, enabling faster detection of smaller and occluded objects during subsequent processing by leveraging the pre-structured occupancy patterns

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The occupancy grid serves as an intermediary data structure between raw sensor input and object detection output. This intermediate representation captures environmental geometry and occupancy information, facilitating more efficient detection of difficult-to-detect objects while reducing direct processing of raw sensor data

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Reliability

If fusion of multiple data sources is implemented to improve object tracking, then tracking accuracy improves, but system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveobject tracking accuracyVSAvoidsystem complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent merges occupancy grid data with low-level perception object detection results into a unified object track list. This merging combines complementary information from different data sources, improving tracking accuracy by leveraging both geometric occupancy patterns and semantic object detection while integrating through a coordinated fusion process

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Data Source

PatentUS20250130576A1Dynamic occupancy grid architecture
Publication Date: 2025.04.24 QUALCOMM INC
  • US20250130576A1 patent drawing
  • US20250130576A1 patent drawing
  • US20250130576A1 patent drawing

AI summary

Techniques are provided for utilizing a dynamic occupancy grid (DoG) for tracking objects proximate to an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle. An example method for generating an object track list in a vehicle includes obtaining sensor information from one or more sensors on the vehicle, determining a first set of object data based at least in part on the sensor information and an object recognition process, generating a dynamic grid based on an environment proximate to the vehicle based at least in part on the sensor information, determining a second set of object data based at least in part on the dynamic grid, and outputting the object track list based on a fusion of the first set of object data and the second set of object data.