Patents by Inventor Congrui Hetang

Congrui Hetang 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).

  • Publication number: 20240135727
    Abstract: The technology relates to approaches for determining appropriate stopping locations at intersections for vehicles operating in a self-driving mode. While many intersections have stop lines painted on the roadway, many others have no such lines. Even if a stop line is present, the physical location may not match what is in store map data, which may be out of date due to construction or line repainting. Aspects of the technology employ a neural network that utilizes input training data and detected sensor data to perform classification, localization and uncertain estimation processes. Based on these processes, the system is able to evaluate distribution information for possible stop locations. The vehicle uses such information to determine an optimal stop point, which may or may not correspond to a stop line in the map data. This information is also used to update the existing map data, which can be shared with other vehicles.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 3, 2024
    Publication date: April 25, 2024
    Inventors: Romain Thibaux, David Harrison Silver, Congrui Hetang
  • Patent number: 11900697
    Abstract: The technology relates to approaches for determining appropriate stopping locations at intersections for vehicles operating in a self-driving mode. While many intersections have stop lines painted on the roadway, many others have no such lines. Even if a stop line is present, the physical location may not match what is in store map data, which may be out of date due to construction or line repainting. Aspects of the technology employ a neural network that utilizes input training data and detected sensor data to perform classification, localization and uncertain estimation processes. Based on these processes, the system is able to evaluate distribution information for possible stop locations. The vehicle uses such information to determine an optimal stop point, which may or may not correspond to a stop line in the map data. This information is also used to update the existing map data, which can be shared with other vehicles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventors: Romain Thibaux, David Harrison Silver, Congrui Hetang
  • Publication number: 20230356748
    Abstract: A system identifies a set of input data including a roadgraph identifying an intermediate autonomous vehicle (AV) driving path related to a scene representing an environment proximate an AV. The intermediate AV driving path reflects a modification to an initial (AV) driving path to avoid one or more obstacles obstructing the initial AV driving path. The system performs, using the set of input data, a path adjustment operation that identifies one or more candidate AV driving paths based on the intermediate AV driving path and determines a cost value for each of the candidate AV driving paths. The system identifies, among the candidate AV driving paths, a final AV driving path having a cost value that satisfies an evaluation criterion. The final AV driving path is to be included in the set of training data as a target output paired with training input including scene data identifying the scene.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 9, 2022
    Publication date: November 9, 2023
    Inventors: Congrui Hetang, Ningshan Zhang
  • Patent number: 11749000
    Abstract: The technology relates to approaches for determining appropriate stopping locations at intersections for vehicles operating in a self-driving mode. While many intersections have stop lines painted on the roadway, many others have no such lines. Even if a stop line is present, the physical location may not match what is in store map data, which may be out of date due to construction or line repainting. Aspects of the technology employ a neural network that utilizes input training data and detected sensor data to perform classification, localization and uncertain estimation processes. Based on these processes, the system is able to evaluate distribution information for possible stop locations. The vehicle uses such information to determine an optimal stop point, which may or may not correspond to a stop line in the map data. This information is also used to update the existing map data, which can be shared with other vehicles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventors: Romain Thibaux, David Harrison Silver, Congrui Hetang
  • Publication number: 20230023913
    Abstract: The technology relates to approaches for determining appropriate stopping locations at intersections for vehicles operating in a self-driving mode. While many intersections have stop lines painted on the roadway, many others have no such lines. Even if a stop line is present, the physical location may not match what is in store map data, which may be out of date due to construction or line repainting. Aspects of the technology employ a neural network that utilizes input training data and detected sensor data to perform classification, localization and uncertain estimation processes. Based on these processes, the system is able to evaluate distribution information for possible stop locations. The vehicle uses such information to determine an optimal stop point, which may or may not correspond to a stop line in the map data. This information is also used to update the existing map data, which can be shared with other vehicles.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 3, 2022
    Publication date: January 26, 2023
    Inventors: Romain Thibaux, David Harrison Silver, Congrui Hetang
  • Publication number: 20220402520
    Abstract: A system includes a memory device, and a processing device, operatively coupled to the memory device, to receive a set of input data including a roadgraph, the roadgraph including an autonomous vehicle driving path, modify the roadgraph to obtain a modified roadgraph by adjusting a trajectory of the autonomous vehicle driving path, place a set of artifacts along one or more lane boundaries of the modified roadgraph to generate a synthetic scene, and train a machine learning model used to navigate an autonomous vehicle based on the synthetic scene.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 16, 2021
    Publication date: December 22, 2022
    Inventors: Congrui Hetang, Yi Shen, Youjie Zhou, Jiyang Gao
  • Publication number: 20220402521
    Abstract: A system includes a memory device, and a processing device, operatively coupled to the memory device, to receive a set of input data including a roadgraph. The roadgraph includes an autonomous vehicle driving path. The processing device is further to determine that the autonomous vehicle driving path is affected by one or more obstacles, identify a set of candidate paths that avoid the one or more obstacles, each candidate path of the set of candidate paths being associated with a cost value, select, from the set of candidate paths, a candidate path with an optimal cost value to obtain a selected candidate path, generate a synthetic scene based on the selected candidate path, and train a machine learning model to navigate an autonomous vehicle based on the synthetic scene.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 16, 2021
    Publication date: December 22, 2022
    Inventor: Congrui Hetang
  • Publication number: 20220198199
    Abstract: The technology relates to approaches for determining appropriate stopping locations at intersections for vehicles operating in a self-driving mode. While many intersections have stop lines painted on the roadway, many others have no such lines. Even if a stop line is present, the physical location may not match what is in store map data, which may be out of date due to construction or line repainting. Aspects of the technology employ a neural network that utilizes input training data and detected sensor data to perform classification, localization and uncertain estimation processes. Based on these processes, the system is able to evaluate distribution information for possible stop locations. The vehicle uses such information to determine an optimal stop point, which may or may not correspond to a stop line in the map data. This information is also used to update the existing map data, which can be shared with other vehicles.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 22, 2020
    Publication date: June 23, 2022
    Inventors: Romain Thibaux, David Harrison Silver, Congrui Hetang