Patents by Inventor Andrew Chatham

Andrew Chatham has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11913441
    Abstract: Systems are provided for an air compressor system. In one example, a system includes a housing, a piston arranged in the housing, and a crankshaft arranged in the housing, the crankshaft coupled to a connecting rod of the piston, and the crankshaft forces the piston to oscillate from a first end of the housing to a second end, the piston pressurizing air in the housing to a first pressure at the first end and to a second pressure at the second end, the second pressure greater than the first.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignee: TRANSPORTATION IP HOLDINGS, LLC
    Inventors: Andrew Miller, Christopher Lucke, Jeffrey Hritz, Matthew Chatham, Wesley Martincic
  • Patent number: 11675084
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to methods and systems that facilitate determination of a pose of a vehicle based on various combinations of map data and sensor data received from light detection and ranging (LIDAR) devices and/or camera devices. An example method includes receiving point cloud data from a (LIDAR) device and transforming the point cloud data to provide a top-down image. The method also includes comparing the top-down image to a reference image and determining, based on the comparison, a yaw error. An alternative method includes receiving camera image data from a camera and transforming the camera image data to provide a top-down image. The method also includes comparing the top-down image to a reference image and determining, based on the comparison, a yaw error.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2023
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventors: John Tisdale, Michael Montemerlo, Andrew Chatham
  • Publication number: 20230152461
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to methods and systems that facilitate determination of a pose of a vehicle based on various combinations of map data and sensor data received from light detection and ranging (LIDAR) devices and/or camera devices. An example method includes receiving point cloud data from a (LIDAR) device and transforming the point cloud data to provide a top-down image. The method also includes comparing the top-down image to a reference image and determining, based on the comparison, a yaw error. An alternative method includes receiving camera image data from a camera and transforming the camera image data to provide a top-down image. The method also includes comparing the top-down image to a reference image and determining, based on the comparison, a yaw error.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 19, 2023
    Publication date: May 18, 2023
    Inventors: John Tisdale, Michael Montemerlo, Andrew Chatham
  • Publication number: 20200249359
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to methods and systems that facilitate determination of a pose of a vehicle based on various combinations of map data and sensor data received from light detection and ranging (LIDAR) devices and/or camera devices. An example method includes receiving point cloud data from a (LIDAR) device and transforming the point cloud data to provide a top-down image. The method also includes comparing the top-down image to a reference image and determining, based on the comparison, a yaw error. An alternative method includes receiving camera image data from a camera and transforming the camera image data to provide a top-down image. The method also includes comparing the top-down image to a reference image and determining, based on the comparison, a yaw error.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 23, 2020
    Publication date: August 6, 2020
    Inventors: John Tisdale, Michael Montemerlo, Andrew Chatham
  • Patent number: 10670725
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to methods and systems that facilitate determination of a pose of a vehicle based on various combinations of map data and sensor data received from light detection and ranging (LIDAR) devices and/or camera devices. An example method includes receiving point cloud data from a (LIDAR) device and transforming the point cloud data to provide a top-down image. The method also includes comparing the top-down image to a reference image and determining, based on the comparison, a yaw error. An alternative method includes receiving camera image data from a camera and transforming the camera image data to provide a top-down image. The method also includes comparing the top-down image to a reference image and determining, based on the comparison, a yaw error.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2020
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventors: John Tisdale, Michael Montemerlo, Andrew Chatham
  • Publication number: 20190033459
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to methods and systems that facilitate determination of a pose of a vehicle based on various combinations of map data and sensor data received from light detection and ranging (LIDAR) devices and/or camera devices. An example method includes receiving point cloud data from a (LIDAR) device and transforming the point cloud data to provide a top-down image. The method also includes comparing the top-down image to a reference image and determining, based on the comparison, a yaw error. An alternative method includes receiving camera image data from a camera and transforming the camera image data to provide a top-down image. The method also includes comparing the top-down image to a reference image and determining, based on the comparison, a yaw error.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 25, 2017
    Publication date: January 31, 2019
    Inventors: John Tisdale, Michael Montemerlo, Andrew Chatham
  • Patent number: 9008890
    Abstract: An autonomous vehicle may include a stuck condition detection component and a communications component. The stuck-detection component may be configured to detect a condition in which the autonomous vehicle is impeded from navigating according to a first trajectory. The communications component may send an assistance signal to an assistance center and receive a response to the assistance signal. The assistance signal may include sensor information from the autonomous vehicle. The assistance center may include a communications component and a trajectory specification component. The communications component may receive the assistance signal and send a corresponding response. The trajectory specification component may specify a second trajectory for the autonomous vehicle and generate the corresponding response that includes a representation of the second trajectory. The second trajectory may be based on the first trajectory and may ignore an object that obstructs the first trajectory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2015
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Joshua Seth Herbach, Nathaniel Fairfield, Dmitri Dolgov, Peter Colijn, Andrew Chatham
  • Patent number: 8996226
    Abstract: Aspects of the disclosure relate generally to generating roadgraphs for use by autonomous vehicles. A computer may receive input defining aspects of a roadway including an intersection with another roadway, one or more traffic control features, and one or more locations at which a vehicle is required to observe at least one traffic signal before entering the intersection. A user may identify the intersection, for example, by tracing a perimeter around the intersection. In response, for each particular location of the one or more locations, the computer may identifying a route through the intersection from the particular location and determine, based on the boundary of the intersection and the particular location, a set of the one or more traffic control features must be observed by the vehicle before entering the intersection. This information may then be used to generate a roadgraph.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2015
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Chatham, Christopher Paul Urmson
  • Patent number: 8874372
    Abstract: Aspects of the disclosure relate generally to safe and effective use of autonomous vehicles. More specifically, objects detected in a vehicle's surroundings may be detected by the vehicle's various sensors and identified based on their relative location in a roadgraph. The roadgraph may include a graph network of information such as roads, lanes, intersections, and the connections between these features. The roadgraph may also include the boundaries of areas, including for example, crosswalks or bicycle lanes. In one example, an object detected in a location corresponding to a crosswalk area of the roadgraph may be identified as a person. In another example, an object detected in a location corresponding to a bicycle area of the roadgraph and identified as a bicycle. By identifying the type of object in this way, an autonomous vehicle may be better prepared to react to or simply avoid the object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 28, 2014
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Jiajun Zhu, Michael Steven Montemerlo, Christopher Paul Urmson, Andrew Chatham
  • Patent number: 8825391
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to generating elevation maps. More specifically, data points may be collected by a laser moving along a roadway and used to generate an elevation map of the roadway. The collected data points may be projected onto a two dimensional or ā€œ2Dā€ grid. The grid may include a plurality of cells, each cell of the grid representing a geolocated second of the roadway. The data points of each cell may be evaluated to identify an elevation for the particular cell. For example, the data points in a particular cell may be filtered in various ways including occlusion, interpolation from neighboring cells, etc. The minimum value of the remaining data points within each cell may then be used as the elevation for the particular cell, and the elevation of a plurality of cells may be used to generate an elevation map of the roadway.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 2, 2014
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher Paul Urmson, Andrew Chatham, Hendrik Dahlkamp, Michael Steven Montemerlo, Jiajun Zhu
  • Patent number: 8565958
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to safe and effective use of autonomous vehicles. More specifically, laser data including locations, intensities, and elevation data may be collected along a roadway in order to generate a 3D map of the roadway. In order to remove extraneous objects such as moving vehicles from the 3D map, a 2D grid of the roadway may be generated. The grid may include a plurality of cells, each representing an area of the roadway. The collected data may be sorted into the grid based on location and then evaluated to identify the lowest elevation of the cell. All data points above some threshold distance above this lowest elevation may be removed. The resulting data points may be used to generate a 3D map of the roadway which excludes the extraneous objects.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2013
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Steven Montemerlo, Donald Jason Burnette, Andrew Chatham, Daniel Trawick Egnor
  • Patent number: 8195394
    Abstract: Aspects of the disclosure relate generally to safe and effective use of autonomous vehicles. More specifically, objects detected in a vehicle's surroundings may be detected by the vehicle's various sensors and identified based on their relative location in a roadgraph. The roadgraph may include a graph network of information such as roads, lanes, intersections, and the connections between these features. The roadgraph may also include the boundaries of areas, including for example, crosswalks or bicycle lanes. In one example, an object detected in a location corresponding to a crosswalk area of the roadgraph may be identified as a person. In another example, an object detected in a location corresponding to a bicycle area of the roadgraph and identified as a bicycle. By identifying the type of object in this way, an autonomous vehicle may be better prepared to react to or simply avoid the object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2012
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Jiajun Zhu, Michael Steven Montemerlo, Christopher Paul Urmson, Andrew Chatham