Scene Tokenization for Accurate Multi-Agent Motion Prediction

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing systems face challenges in accurately predicting the motion of agents in complex environments due to the high-dimensional nature of sensor data and the loss of information in simplified representations.

Innovation Solution

A system that processes both perception outputs and high-dimensional sensor data to generate tokens for trajectory prediction, decomposing sensor data into scene elements and encoding them along with perception outputs into a small number of tokens for use by a decoder model.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If high-dimensional sensor data is directly used for trajectory prediction, then information completeness is improved, but computational complexity and processing time increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveinformation completenessVSAvoidcomputational complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments high-dimensional sensor data into discrete scene elements (e.g., vehicles, pedestrians, road structures) and represents each element with separate tokens. This segmentation allows the system to process complex environmental information in manageable units, reducing computational complexity while preserving essential information about each scene component.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces tokens as an intermediary representation layer between raw sensor data and trajectory prediction. These tokens serve as compressed summaries of scene elements, enabling the neural network to work with reduced-dimensional data that retains key environmental information without requiring full high-dimensional input processing.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Productivity

If simplified representations are used for trajectory prediction, then processing efficiency is improved, but information loss increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveprocessing efficiencyVSAvoidinformation loss
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

By segmenting the environment into distinct scene elements and assigning dedicated tokens to each element type (e.g., separate tokens for vehicles, pedestrians, road features), the system maintains specialized information about each category while using compact representations. This prevents information loss that would occur with overly simplified unified representations.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent applies different token representations to different scene elements based on their specific characteristics and importance. Critical elements receive more detailed token representations while less critical elements use compressed representations, optimizing the balance between information retention and processing efficiency for each local region of the scene.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

3Measurement precision

If extensive neural network training is performed, then prediction accuracy is improved, but training time and computational resources increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveprediction accuracyVSAvoidtraining time
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent performs preliminary encoding of sensor data into scene element tokens before feeding them to the trajectory prediction network. This pre-processing step organizes raw data into structured representations that are more amenable to learning, reducing the training burden on the neural network while maintaining prediction accuracy.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent transforms the input data representation from high-dimensional raw sensor data to a parameterized token system with controlled dimensionality. This parameter change reduces the search space for neural network training, allowing the model to achieve comparable accuracy with fewer training iterations and less computational resource consumption.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

Data Source

PatentUS20250166366A1Scene tokenization for motion prediction
Publication Date: 2025.05.22 WAYMO LLC
  • US20250166366A1 patent drawing
  • US20250166366A1 patent drawing
  • US20250166366A1 patent drawing

AI summary

Methods, systems, and apparatus for predicting future trajectories of agents in an environment. In one aspect, a system comprises one or more computers configured to receive sensor data of an environment having one or more agents. The system decomposes the sensor data into a plurality of scene elements in the environment, and the system generates multiple tokens including a respective token for each respective scene element of the multiple scene elements in the environment. The system processes the multiple tokens using a decoder model to generate a respective predicted trajectory for the one or more agents in the environment.