Patents by Inventor Elliot Branson

Elliot Branson 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: 11900814
    Abstract: An autonomous vehicle is described herein. The autonomous vehicle comprises a first sensor and a second sensor having limited fields of view, an articulation system, and a computing system. The computing system determines a first region and a second region external to the autonomous vehicle based on a sensor prioritization scheme comprising a ranking of regions surrounding the autonomous vehicle. The computing system then causes the articulation system to orient the first sensor towards the first region and the second region towards the second region. Responsive to receiving a sensor signal from the first sensor indicating that an object has entered a field of view of the first sensor, the computing system determines a third region having a higher ranking than the second region within the sensor prioritization scheme. The computing system then causes the articulation system to orient the second sensor towards the third region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Elliot Branson, Eric Lujan, Benjamin Earle Weinstein-Raun
  • Patent number: 11853061
    Abstract: An autonomous vehicle is described herein. The autonomous vehicle includes a lidar sensor system. The autonomous vehicle additionally includes a computing system that executes a lidar segmentation system, wherein the lidar segmentation system is configured to identify objects that are in proximity to the autonomous vehicle based upon output of the lidar sensor system. The computing system further includes a deep neural network (DNN), where the lidar segmentation system identifies the objects in proximity to the autonomous vehicle based upon output of the DNN.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2023
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Andrea Allais, Micah Christopher Chambers, William Gongshu Xie, Adam Samuel Cadien, Elliot Branson
  • Patent number: 11776215
    Abstract: One embodiment provides techniques for automatically pre-labeling point cloud data with cuboid annotations. Point cloud data is processed using ML models to detect, associate, and localize objects therein, in order to generate cuboid tracks that each include a series of cuboid annotations associated with an object. An object detection model that detects objects and performs coarse localization is trained using a loss function that separately evaluates the distances between corners of predicted cuboids and corners of ground truth cuboids for position, size, and yaw. A refinement model that performs more accurate localization takes as input 2D projections of regions surrounding cuboid tracks predicted by the object detection model and the cuboid tracks, and outputs refined cuboid tracks. The refined cuboid tracks are filtered to a set of keyframes, with in-between frames being interpolated. The cuboid tracks can then be presented to a user for viewing and editing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2023
    Assignee: SCALE AI, INC.
    Inventors: Chiao-Lun Cheng, Elliot Branson, Leigh Marie Braswell, Daniel Havíř, Jeffrey Alan Anders
  • Patent number: 11636602
    Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for performing a labeling task. The technique includes generating a multi-scale representation of an image as input to a machine learning model. The technique also includes performing one or more operations that apply the machine learning model to the multi-scale representation of the image to produce a semantic segmentation comprising predictions of labels for regions of pixels in the image. The technique further includes outputting, in a user interface, the semantic segmentation for use in assisting a user in specifying the labels for the pixels in the image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2023
    Assignee: SCALE AI, INC.
    Inventors: Daniel Havír, Chiao-Lun Cheng, Elliot Branson, Nathan Herman, Nathan Hayflick, Simon Alexander Hewat, Suchir Balaji, Shariq Hashme
  • Publication number: 20220292977
    Abstract: An autonomous vehicle is described herein. The autonomous vehicle comprises a first sensor and a second sensor having limited fields of view, an articulation system, and a computing system. The computing system determines a first region and a second region external to the autonomous vehicle based on a sensor prioritization scheme comprising a ranking of regions surrounding the autonomous vehicle. The computing system then causes the articulation system to orient the first sensor towards the first region and the second region towards the second region. Responsive to receiving a sensor signal from the first sensor indicating that an object has entered a field of view of the first sensor, the computing system determines a third region having a higher ranking than the second region within the sensor prioritization scheme. The computing system then causes the articulation system to orient the second sensor towards the third region.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 30, 2022
    Publication date: September 15, 2022
    Inventors: Elliot Branson, Eric Lujan, Benjamin Earle Weinstein-Raun
  • Patent number: 11380204
    Abstract: An autonomous vehicle is described herein. The autonomous vehicle comprises a first sensor and a second sensor having limited fields of view, an articulation system, and a computing system. The computing system determines a first region and a second region external to the autonomous vehicle based on a sensor prioritization scheme comprising a ranking of regions surrounding the autonomous vehicle. The computing system then causes the articulation system to orient the first sensor towards the first region and the second region towards the second region. Responsive to receiving a sensor signal from the first sensor indicating that an object has entered a field of view of the first sensor, the computing system determines a third region having a higher ranking than the second region within the sensor prioritization scheme. The computing system then causes the articulation system to orient the second sensor towards the third region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2022
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Elliot Branson, Eric Lujan, Benjamin Earle Weinstein-Raun
  • Patent number: 11345277
    Abstract: Various technologies described herein pertain to controlling an autonomous vehicle to provide indicators that signal a driving intent of the autonomous vehicle. The autonomous vehicle includes a plurality of sensor systems that generate a plurality of sensor signals, a notification system, and a computing system. The computing system determines that the autonomous vehicle is to execute a maneuver that will cause the autonomous vehicle to traverse a portion of a driving environment of the autonomous vehicle. The computing system predicts that a person in the driving environment is to traverse the portion of the driving environment based upon the plurality of sensor signals. The computing system then controls the notification system to output a first indicator indicating that the autonomous vehicle plans to yield to the person or a second indicator indicating that the autonomous vehicle plans to execute the maneuver prior to the person traversing the portion of the driving environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2022
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Eric Lujan, Shiva Ghose, Elliot Branson, Peter Ming Gao, Zhichang Yan, Zhizhong Yan
  • Publication number: 20220019221
    Abstract: An autonomous vehicle is described herein. The autonomous vehicle includes a lidar sensor system. The autonomous vehicle additionally includes a computing system that executes a lidar segmentation system, wherein the lidar segmentation system is configured to identify objects that are in proximity to the autonomous vehicle based upon output of the lidar sensor system. The computing system further includes a deep neural network (DNN), where the lidar segmentation system identifies the objects in proximity to the autonomous vehicle based upon output of the DNN.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 30, 2021
    Publication date: January 20, 2022
    Inventors: Andrea Allais, Micah Christopher Chambers, William Gongshu Xie, Adam Samuel Cadien, Elliot Branson
  • Patent number: 11204605
    Abstract: An autonomous vehicle is described herein. The autonomous vehicle includes a lidar sensor system. The autonomous vehicle additionally includes a computing system that executes a lidar segmentation system, wherein the lidar segmentation system is configured to identify objects that are in proximity to the autonomous vehicle based upon output of the lidar sensor system. The computing system further includes a deep neural network (DNN), where the lidar segmentation system identifies the objects in proximity to the autonomous vehicle based upon output of the DNN.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2021
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Andrea Allais, Micah Christopher Chambers, William Gongshu Xie, Adam Samuel Cadien, Elliot Branson
  • Publication number: 20210223402
    Abstract: An autonomous vehicle is described herein. The autonomous vehicle includes a lidar sensor system. The autonomous vehicle additionally includes a computing system that executes a lidar segmentation system, wherein the lidar segmentation system is configured to identify objects that are in proximity to the autonomous vehicle based upon output of the lidar sensor system. The computing system further includes a deep neural network (DNN), where the lidar segmentation system identifies the objects in proximity to the autonomous vehicle based upon output of the DNN.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 9, 2021
    Publication date: July 22, 2021
    Inventors: Andrea Allais, Adam Samuel Cadien, Elliot Branson, William Gongshu Xie, Micah Christopher Chambers
  • Patent number: 11036999
    Abstract: An autonomous vehicle is described herein. The autonomous vehicle includes several different types of sensor systems, such as image, lidar, and radar. The autonomous vehicle additionally includes a computing system that executes several different object classifier modules, wherein the object classifier modules are configured to identify types of objects that are in proximity to the autonomous vehicle based upon outputs of the sensor systems. The computing system additionally executes a Bayesian object classifier system that is configured to receive outputs of the object classifier modules and assign labels to objects captured in sensor signals based upon the outputs of the object classifier modules.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2021
    Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
    Inventors: Gabriel Warshauer-Baker, Elliot Branson, Siddhartho Bhattacharya, Haggai Megged Nuchi, Mark Liu
  • Patent number: 11022693
    Abstract: An autonomous vehicle is described herein. The autonomous vehicle includes a lidar sensor system. The autonomous vehicle additionally includes a computing system that executes a lidar segmentation system, wherein the lidar segmentation system is configured to identify objects that are in proximity to the autonomous vehicle based upon output of the lidar sensor system. The computing system further includes a deep neural network (DNN), where the lidar segmentation system identifies the objects in proximity to the autonomous vehicle based upon output of the DNN.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2021
    Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
    Inventors: Andrea Allais, Adam Samuel Cadien, Elliot Branson, William Gongshu Xie, Micah Christopher Chambers
  • Patent number: 10935652
    Abstract: A processor-implemented method in a vehicle for detecting objects from radar data includes: retrieving radar measurements taken at different periodic time increments; organizing the radar measurements into appropriate time windows; building a sequence cluster of radar measurements wherein the sequence cluster comprises a sliding window the latest time windows of radar measurements; removing noise from the sequence cluster of radar measurements by removing a cluster of radar measurements from the sequence cluster of radar measurements that is contradictory to a road topology map for an area in which the first object is estimated to be situated; and outputting the sequence cluster of radar measurements after removal of contradictory radar measurements as a new cluster of radar measurements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventor: Elliot Branson
  • Patent number: 10884411
    Abstract: An autonomous vehicle is described herein. The autonomous vehicle includes a lidar sensor system. The autonomous vehicle additionally includes a computing system that executes a lidar segmentation system, wherein the lidar segmentation system is configured to identify objects that are in proximity to the autonomous vehicle based upon output of the lidar sensor system. The computing system further includes a deep neural network (DNN), where the lidar segmentation system identifies the objects in proximity to the autonomous vehicle based upon output of the DNN. The computing system is further configured to align a heightmap to lidar data output by the lidar sensor system based upon output of the DNN. The lidar segmentation system can identify objects in proximity to the autonomous vehicle based upon the aligned heightmap.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2021
    Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
    Inventors: Andrea Allais, Adam Samuel Cadien, Elliot Branson, William Gongshu Xie, Micah Christopher Chambers
  • Publication number: 20200327810
    Abstract: An autonomous vehicle is described herein. The autonomous vehicle comprises a first sensor and a second sensor having limited fields of view, an articulation system, and a computing system. The computing system determines a first region and a second region external to the autonomous vehicle based on a sensor prioritization scheme comprising a ranking of regions surrounding the autonomous vehicle. The computing system then causes the articulation system to orient the first sensor towards the first region and the second region towards the second region. Responsive to receiving a sensor signal from the first sensor indicating that an object has entered a field of view of the first sensor, the computing system determines a third region having a higher ranking than the second region within the sensor prioritization scheme. The computing system then causes the articulation system to orient the second sensor towards the third region.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 28, 2020
    Publication date: October 15, 2020
    Inventors: Elliot Branson, Eric Lujan, Benjamin Earle Weinstein-Raun
  • Patent number: 10706724
    Abstract: An autonomous vehicle is described herein. The autonomous vehicle comprises a first sensor and a second sensor having limited fields of view, an articulation system, and a computing system. The computing system determines a first region and a second region external to the autonomous vehicle based on a sensor prioritization scheme comprising a ranking of regions surrounding the autonomous vehicle. The computing system then causes the articulation system to orient the first sensor towards the first region and the second region towards the second region. Responsive to receiving a sensor signal from the first sensor indicating that an object has entered a field of view of the first sensor, the computing system determines a third region having a higher ranking than the second region within the sensor prioritization scheme. The computing system then causes the articulation system to orient the second sensor towards the third region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Elliot Branson, Eric Lujan, Benjamin Earle Weinstein-Raun
  • Publication number: 20200114813
    Abstract: Various technologies described herein pertain to controlling an autonomous vehicle to provide indicators that signal a driving intent of the autonomous vehicle. The autonomous vehicle includes a plurality of sensor systems that generate a plurality of sensor signals, a notification system, and a computing system. The computing system determines that the autonomous vehicle is to execute a maneuver that will cause the autonomous vehicle to traverse a portion of a driving environment of the autonomous vehicle. The computing system predicts that a person in the driving environment is to traverse the portion of the driving environment based upon the plurality of sensor signals. The computing system then controls the notification system to output a first indicator indicating that the autonomous vehicle plans to yield to the person or a second indicator indicating that the autonomous vehicle plans to execute the maneuver prior to the person traversing the portion of the driving environment.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 16, 2018
    Publication date: April 16, 2020
    Inventors: Eric Lujan, Shiva Ghose, Elliot Branson, Peter Ming Gao, Zhichang Yan, Zhizhong Yan
  • Publication number: 20200043343
    Abstract: An autonomous vehicle is described herein. The autonomous vehicle comprises a first sensor and a second sensor having limited fields of view, an articulation system, and a computing system. The computing system determines a first region and a second region external to the autonomous vehicle based on a sensor prioritization scheme comprising a ranking of regions surrounding the autonomous vehicle. The computing system then causes the articulation system to orient the first sensor towards the first region and the second region towards the second region. Responsive to receiving a sensor signal from the first sensor indicating that an object has entered a field of view of the first sensor, the computing system determines a third region having a higher ranking than the second region within the sensor prioritization scheme. The computing system then causes the articulation system to orient the second sensor towards the third region.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 1, 2018
    Publication date: February 6, 2020
    Inventors: Elliot Branson, Eric Lujan, Benjamin Earle Weinstein-Raun
  • Publication number: 20200034634
    Abstract: An autonomous vehicle is described herein. The autonomous vehicle includes several different types of sensor systems, such as image, lidar, and radar. The autonomous vehicle additionally includes a computing system that executes several different object classifier modules, wherein the object classifier modules are configured to identify types of objects that are in proximity to the autonomous vehicle based upon outputs of the sensor systems. The computing system additionally executes a Bayesian object classifier system that is configured to receive outputs of the object classifier modules and assign labels to objects captured in sensor signals based upon the outputs of the object classifier modules.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 30, 2018
    Publication date: January 30, 2020
    Inventors: Gabriel Warshauer-Baker, Elliot Branson, Siddhartho Bhattacharya, Haggai Megged Nuchi, Mark Liu
  • Patent number: 10528057
    Abstract: Systems and method are provided for controlling a vehicle. In one embodiment, a localization method includes receiving sensor data relating to an environment of a vehicle, the sensor data including a plurality of sensor returns associated with objects in the environment, each of the sensor returns having a plurality of corresponding attributes, and constructing a first plurality of sensor data groups, each including a self-consistent subset of the plurality of sensor returns based on their corresponding attributes. The method further includes defining, for each of the first plurality of sensor data groups, a first set of features, wherein each feature is based on at least one of the corresponding attributes and each has an associated feature location, and determining, with a processor, a feature correlation between the first set of features and a second, previously determined set of features.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2020
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventor: Elliot Branson