Vehicle Sensor Calibration Using Reference Road Segments
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Solution Overview
Problem
Production vehicle sensors, such as accelerometers and LIDAR systems, often provide inaccurate road surface profile data due to positioning issues, calibration problems, and limitations in measurement accuracy, which can lead to poor performance in terrain-based localization and control systems.
Innovation Solution
The method involves calibrating on-board production vehicle sensors using data from specialized road surface sensor systems on primary or secondary reference road segments, adjusting sensor parameters based on collected and pre-recorded road surface profile information to improve accuracy, and using inverse transfer functions to determine road surface characteristics on other segments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If production vehicle sensors are used to measure road surface profile, then the system is cost-effective and widely deployable, but the measurement precision deteriorates due to positioning issues and calibration problems
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary calibration by traveling over reference road segments with known characteristics before actual measurement. Transfer functions are pre-determined through controlled experiments on reference segments, allowing the production sensors to be calibrated without requiring expensive specialized equipment during operational measurement.
Solution Approach 2:
Reference road segments serve as an intermediary medium between the production sensors and the unknown road surfaces. By measuring on known reference segments first, the system establishes transfer functions that act as mediators to correct and improve measurements on unknown segments, indirectly achieving high precision without direct contact with calibration standards.
2Measurement precision
If specialized road surface sensor systems are used, then the measurement precision improves, but the device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using expensive specialized sensors directly in production vehicles, the system creates a copy of the calibration process by using reference road segments with known characteristics. The transfer functions derived from reference segments replicate the measurement accuracy of specialized systems without requiring the specialized hardware in operational vehicles.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the measurement parameters by using transfer functions that relate vehicle responses to road surface characteristics. By determining these transfer functions on reference segments and applying them to correct production sensor readings, the system achieves specialized-level accuracy through parameter transformation rather than through specialized hardware.
3Measurement precision
If production sensors are calibrated using reference road segments, then the measurement precision improves, but the time and resources required for calibration increase
Solution Approach 1:
The calibration process is performed preliminarily by traveling over reference road segments before actual measurement operations. Transfer functions are determined in advance through controlled calibration runs, allowing rapid deployment of calibrated sensors without requiring time-consuming calibration during operational use.
Solution Approach 2:
The reference road segments and transfer functions serve multiple purposes: they calibrate the production sensors, validate the measurement system, and provide a basis for determining unknown road surface characteristics. This multi-functionality reduces the overall time and resources required by eliminating the need for separate calibration and validation processes.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods described herein include implementations where performance of systems for measuring aspects of a road surface, such as sensor systems, on board a production vehicle may be improved by using data collected by the production vehicle while traveling on primary and/or secondary reference road segments. Primary reference road segments in a road network may be characterized by specially equipped vehicles.