Patents by Inventor Gregory Boyd Nichols

Gregory Boyd Nichols 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: 11970185
    Abstract: Methods and systems for determining information about an area that includes a polygon for controlling navigation of an autonomous vehicle are disclosed. The methods include defining a bounding box that encloses the area, and generating a KD-tree from the bounding box that partitions the polygon into a plurality of leaf nodes that each include at least some of a plurality of edges of the polygon. The methods also include assigning a reference point to each leaf node, creating a data representation of the area that comprises the KD-tree, and adding the data representation to map data comprising the area. A reference point is associated with a location within that leaf node, and information relating to whether the reference point lies outside or inside the at least one polygon.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2024
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventor: Gregory Boyd Nichols
  • Patent number: 11880203
    Abstract: Methods and systems for controlling navigation of an autonomous vehicle for traversing a drivable area are disclosed. The methods include receiving information relating to a drivable area that includes a plurality of polygons, identifying a plurality of logical edges that form a boundary of the drivable area, sequentially and repeatedly analyzing concavities of each the plurality of logical edges until identification of a first logical edge that has a concavity greater than a threshold, creating a first logical segment of the boundary of the drivable area. This segmentation may be repeated until each of the plurality of logical edges has been classified. The method may include creating and adding (to a map) a data representation of the drivable area that comprises an indication of the plurality of logical segments, and adding the data representation to a road network map comprising the drivable area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2024
    Assignee: Argo AI, LLC
    Inventor: Gregory Boyd Nichols
  • Publication number: 20240004394
    Abstract: Methods and systems for controlling navigation of an autonomous vehicle for traversing a drivable area are disclosed. The methods include receiving information relating to a drivable area that includes a plurality of polygons, identifying a plurality of logical edges that form a boundary of the drivable area, sequentially and repeatedly analyzing concavities of each the plurality of logical edges until identification of a first logical edge that has a concavity greater than a threshold, creating a first logical segment of the boundary of the drivable area. This segmentation may be repeated until each of the plurality of logical edges has been classified. The method may include creating and adding (to a map) a data representation of the drivable area that comprises an indication of the plurality of logical segments, and adding the data representation to a road network map comprising the drivable area.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 14, 2023
    Publication date: January 4, 2024
    Inventor: Gregory Boyd Nichols
  • Publication number: 20230105871
    Abstract: Methods and systems for determining information about an area that includes a polygon for controlling navigation of an autonomous vehicle are disclosed. The methods include defining a bounding box that encloses the area, and generating a KD-tree from the bounding box that partitions the polygon into a plurality of leaf nodes that each include at least some of a plurality of edges of the polygon. The methods also include assigning a reference point to each leaf node, creating a data representation of the area that comprises the KD-tree, and adding the data representation to map data comprising the area. A reference point is associated with a location within that leaf node, and information relating to whether the reference point lies outside or inside the at least one polygon.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 1, 2021
    Publication date: April 6, 2023
    Inventor: Gregory Boyd Nichols
  • Publication number: 20220413505
    Abstract: At compile-time, a processor develops a computer program by receiving an input that includes multiple nodes and connections between pairs of the nodes. The nodes represent object properties such as properties of objects that an autonomous vehicle (AV) detects while moving about an environment. For each node, the system will identify a depth that represents a number of nodes along a longest path from that node to any available input node. The system will order the nodes by depth in a sequence, and it will build a graph-based program specification that includes the nodes in the sequence, along with the connections. The graph-based program specification may correspond to a directed acyclic graph (DAG). The system will compile the graph-based program specification into a computer-readable program, and it will save the computer-readable program to a memory so that the AV or other system can use it at run-time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 2, 2022
    Publication date: December 29, 2022
    Inventor: Gregory Boyd Nichols
  • Publication number: 20220388534
    Abstract: Methods by which an autonomous vehicle may predict actions of other actors are disclosed. A vehicle will assign either a high priority rating or a low priority rating to each actor that it detects. The vehicle will then generate a forecast for each of the detected actors. Some of not all high priority actors will receive a high resolution forecast. Low priority actors, and optionally also some of the high priority actors, will receive a low resolution forecast. The system will the forecasts to predict actions for the actors. The autonomous vehicle will then use the predicted actions to determine its trajectory.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 2, 2021
    Publication date: December 8, 2022
    Inventors: Friederike Schneemann, Andrew T. Hartnett, Gregory Boyd Nichols, Constantin Savtchenko
  • Patent number: 11480969
    Abstract: At compile-time, a processor develops a computer program by receiving an input that includes multiple nodes and connections between pairs of the nodes. The nodes represent object properties such as properties of objects that an autonomous vehicle (AV) detects while moving about an environment. For each node, the system will identify a depth that represents a number of nodes along a longest path from that node to any available input node. The system will order the nodes by depth in a sequence, and it will build a graph-based program specification that includes the nodes in the sequence, along with the connections. The graph-based program specification may correspond to a directed acyclic graph (DAG). The system will compile the graph-based program specification into a computer-readable program, and it will save the computer-readable program to a memory so that the AV or other system can use it at run-time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2022
    Assignee: Argo AI, LLC
    Inventor: Gregory Boyd Nichols
  • Publication number: 20220214690
    Abstract: Methods and systems for controlling navigation of an autonomous vehicle for traversing a drivable area are disclosed. The methods include receiving information relating to a drivable area that includes a plurality of polygons, identifying a plurality of logical edges that form a boundary of the drivable area, sequentially and repeatedly analyzing concavities of each the plurality of logical edges until identification of a first logical edge that has a concavity greater than a threshold, creating a first logical segment of the boundary of the drivable area. This segmentation may be repeated until each of the plurality of logical edges has been classified. The method may include creating and adding (to a map) a data representation of the drivable area that comprises an indication of the plurality of logical segments, and adding the data representation to a road network map comprising the drivable area.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 5, 2021
    Publication date: July 7, 2022
    Inventor: Gregory Boyd Nichols
  • Publication number: 20210208591
    Abstract: At compile-time, a processor develops a computer program by receiving an input that includes multiple nodes and connections between pairs of the nodes. The nodes represent object properties such as properties of objects that an autonomous vehicle (AV) detects while moving about an environment. For each node, the system will identify a depth that represents a number of nodes along a longest path from that node to any available input node. The system will order the nodes by depth in a sequence, and it will build a graph-based program specification that includes the nodes in the sequence, along with the connections. The graph-based program specification may correspond to a directed acyclic graph (DAG). The system will compile the graph-based program specification into a computer-readable program, and it will save the computer-readable program to a memory so that the AV or other system can use it at run-time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 7, 2020
    Publication date: July 8, 2021
    Inventor: Gregory Boyd Nichols