Patents by Inventor Francesco Ferroni

Francesco Ferroni 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: 11966452
    Abstract: Systems and methods for image-based perception. The methods comprise: capturing images by a plurality of cameras with overlapping fields of view; generating, by a computing device, spatial feature maps indicating locations of features in the images; identifying, by the computing device, overlapping portions of the spatial feature maps; generating, by the computing device, at least one combined spatial feature map by combining the overlapping portions of the spatial feature maps together; and/or using, by the computing device, the at least one combined spatial feature map to define a predicted cuboid for at least one object in the images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2024
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Guy Hotson, Francesco Ferroni, Harpreet Banvait, Kiwoo Shin, Nicolas Cebron
  • Patent number: 11887336
    Abstract: A relative position of an object in the surroundings of a vehicle is estimated based on a two-dimensional camera image. A control unit determines an object contour of the object from the camera image and determines at least one digital object template that represents the object based on the object contour. The control unit forward projects the at least one object template from respective different positions onto an image plane of the camera image. Each forward-projected object template yields a respective two-dimensional contour proposal, and the control unit compares the contour proposals with the object contour of the object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2024
    Assignee: ARGO AI GmbH
    Inventor: Francesco Ferroni
  • Publication number: 20240027622
    Abstract: A method for reconstructing surface topology of a ground surface in an environment of a vehicle. The reconstruction is based on LIDAR sensor scan data. A virtual horizontal grid is defined for dividing the environment into distinct grid cells. In each grid cell, a local tile is defined as a function of coordinates of those measurement points that are contained in the respective grid cell. The respective local tile of each individual grid cell is classified as belonging to the ground surface based on reference surface data that identifies the respective local tile of at least one grid cell as a ground surface tile. For at least some grid cells, a respective height value of the measurement points in that grid cell is re-calculated as being the vertical distance of the respective measurement point above the ground surface, as it is defined by the identified ground surface tiles.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 25, 2021
    Publication date: January 25, 2024
    Inventors: Francesco Ferroni, Ohad Menashe
  • Patent number: 11663807
    Abstract: Systems and methods for image-based perception. The methods comprise: obtaining, by a computing device, images captured by a plurality of cameras with overlapping fields of view; generating, by the computing device, spatial feature maps indicating locations of features in the images; defining, by the computing device, predicted cuboids at each location of an object in the images based on the spatial feature maps; and assigning, by the computing device, at least two cuboids of said predicted cuboids to a given object when predictions from images captured by separate cameras of the plurality of cameras should be associated with a same detected object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2023
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Guy Hotson, Francesco Ferroni, Harpreet Banvait, Kiwoo Shin, Nicolas Cebron
  • Publication number: 20230038578
    Abstract: Systems and methods for image-based perception. The methods comprise: obtaining, by a computing device, images captured by a plurality of cameras with overlapping fields of view; generating, by the computing device, spatial feature maps indicating locations of features in the images; defining, by the computing device, predicted cuboids at each location of an object in the images based on the spatial feature maps; and assigning, by the computing device, at least two cuboids of said predicted cuboids to a given object when predictions from images captured by separate cameras of the plurality of cameras should be associated with a same detected object.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 5, 2021
    Publication date: February 9, 2023
    Inventors: Guy Hotson, Francesco Ferroni, Harpreet Banvait, Kiwoo Shin, Nicolas Cebron
  • Publication number: 20230043716
    Abstract: Systems and methods for image-based perception. The methods comprise: capturing images by a plurality of cameras with overlapping fields of view; generating, by a computing device, spatial feature maps indicating locations of features in the images; identifying, by the computing device, overlapping portions of the spatial feature maps; generating, by the computing device, at least one combined spatial feature map by combining the overlapping portions of the spatial feature maps together; and/or using, by the computing device, the at least one combined spatial feature map to define a predicted cuboid for at least one object in the images.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 5, 2021
    Publication date: February 9, 2023
    Inventors: Guy Hotson, Francesco Ferroni, Harpreet Banvait, Kiwoo Shin, Nicolas Cebron
  • Publication number: 20230009766
    Abstract: A method for operating a processing unit of a vehicle for processing sensor data of several different sensors with an artificial neural network, wherein a set of volume data cells is provided as a volumetric representation of different volume elements of an environment, and when sensor data is generated by the sensors the sensor data is transferred to the respective volume data cells using an inverse mapping function, wherein each inverse mapping function is a mapping of a respective sensor coordinate system of the sensor to an internal volumetric coordinate system corresponding to the world coordinate system, and by the transfer of the sensor data each volume data cell receives the sensor data that are associated with this volume data cell according to the inverse mapping function from each sensor, wherein the received sensor data from each sensor are accumulated in the respective volume data cell as combined data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 7, 2022
    Publication date: January 12, 2023
    Inventor: Francesco Ferroni
  • Publication number: 20220373354
    Abstract: A system will generate a vector map of a geographic area using a method that includes receiving a birds-eye view image of a geographic area. The birds-eye view image comprises various pixels. The system will process the birds-eye view image to generate a spatial graph representation of the geographic area, and it will save the node pixels and the lines to a vector map data set. The processor may be a component of a vehicle such as an autonomous vehicle. If so, the system may use the vector map data set to generate a trajectory for the vehicle as the vehicle moves in the geographic area.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 18, 2021
    Publication date: November 24, 2022
    Inventor: Francesco Ferroni
  • Patent number: 11495022
    Abstract: A method recognizes an object of a mobile unit in a digital image that shows at least one partition of the mobile unit, especially in motion, by using a method for machine learning. To provide an accurate and reliable recognition the method includes using machine learning in a categorization step for categorizing the digital image, which shows the partition of the mobile unit, with a category. By using the machine learning in a detection step the object of the mobile unit in the categorized digital image and a location of the object in the categorized digital image are determined. By using machine learning in a segmentation step positions in the categorized digital image are classified such that it is determined whether at a respective position of the categorized digital image a part of the object is present or not.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2022
    Assignee: Siemens Mobility GmbH
    Inventor: Francesco Ferroni
  • Publication number: 20220146277
    Abstract: Methods by which an autonomous vehicle or related system may determine when a high definition (HD) map is out of date are disclosed. As the vehicle moves in an area, it captures sensor data representing perceived features of the area. A processor will input the sensor data along with HD map data for the area into a neural network to generate an embedding that identifies differences between features in the map data and corresponding features in the sensor data. The system may convert the sensor data into a birds-eye view or ego view before doing this. The network will identify any differences that exceed a threshold. The network will report the features for which the differences that exceed the threshold as features of the HD map that require updating.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 8, 2021
    Publication date: May 12, 2022
    Inventors: John Lambert, James Hays, Francesco Ferroni, Richard L. Kwant
  • Publication number: 20210287022
    Abstract: A relative position of an object in the surroundings of a vehicle is estimated based on a two-dimensional camera image. A control unit determines an object contour of the object from the camera image and determines at least one digital object template that represents the object based on the object contour. The control unit forward projects the at least one object template from respective different positions onto an image plane of the camera image. Each forward-projected object template yields a respective two-dimensional contour proposal, and the control unit compares the contour proposals with the object contour of the object.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 5, 2019
    Publication date: September 16, 2021
    Applicant: Argo AI GmbH
    Inventor: Francesco FERRONI
  • Publication number: 20200034626
    Abstract: A method recognizes an object of a mobile unit in a digital image that shows at least one partition of the mobile unit, especially in motion, by using a method for machine learning. To provide an accurate and reliable recognition the method includes using machine learning in a categorization step for categorizing the digital image, which shows the partition of the mobile unit, with a category. By using the machine learning in a detection step the object of the mobile unit in the categorized digital image and a location of the object in the categorized digital image are determined. By using machine learning in a segmentation step positions in the categorized digital image are classified such that it is determined whether at a respective position of the categorized digital image a part of the object is present or not.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 3, 2018
    Publication date: January 30, 2020
    Inventor: FRANCESCO FERRONI
  • Publication number: 20190324413
    Abstract: A method for the prevention of failures in the operation of a motorized door. At least one sensor provides time series sensor data of at least one variable of a motorized door. The time series sensor data is used for machine learning in order to monitor, detect and/or predict anomalies in the operation of the motorized door. There is also described a monitoring system for a motorized door that is configured to carry out the method.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 14, 2016
    Publication date: October 24, 2019
    Applicant: Siemens Mobility GmbH
    Inventor: Francesco FERRONI
  • Publication number: 20120040991
    Abstract: Disclosed are 3-azabicyclo[4.1.0]heptane derivatives of formula (I) and their use as orexin receptor antagonists.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 23, 2010
    Publication date: February 16, 2012
    Applicant: Glaxo Group Limited
    Inventors: David Amantini, Romano Di Fabio, Massimo Gianotti, Francesca Pavone, Francesco Ferroni