Patents by Inventor Khaled Refaat

Khaled Refaat 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: 20260145711
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus for generating trajectory predictions for one or more target agents. In one aspect, a system comprises one or more computers configured to obtain scene context data characterizing a scene in an environment at a current time point, where the scene includes multiple agents that include a target agent and one or more context agents, and the scene context data includes respective context data for each of multiple different modalities of context data. The one or more computers then generate an encoded representation of the scene in the environment that includes one or more embeddings and process the encoded representation of the scene context data using a decoder neural network to generate a trajectory prediction output for the target agent that predicts a future trajectory of the target after the current time point.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 22, 2025
    Publication date: May 28, 2026
    Inventors: Rami Al-Rfou, Nigamaa Nayakanti, Kratarth Goel, Aurick Qikun Zhou, Benjamin Sapp, Khaled Refaat
  • Patent number: 12608004
    Abstract: Aspects of the disclosure provide for generating distributions for hypothetical or potentially occluded objects. For instance, a location for which to generate one or more distributions may be identified. Observations of road users by perception systems of a plurality of autonomous vehicles may be accessed. Each of these observations may identify a characteristic of one of the road users. A distribution of the characteristic for the location may be determined based on the observations. The distribution may be provided to one or more autonomous vehicles in order to enable the one or more autonomous vehicles to use the distribution to generate a characteristic for a hypothetical occluded road user and to respond to the hypothetical occluded road user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2026
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventor: Khaled Refaat
  • Patent number: 12497081
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for agent behavior prediction using keypoint data. One of the methods includes obtaining data characterizing a scene in an environment, the data comprising: (i) context data comprising data characterizing historical trajectories of a plurality of agents up to the current time point; and (ii) keypoint data for a target agent; processing the context data using a context data encoder neural network to generate a context embedding for the target agent; processing the keypoint data using a keypoint encoder neural network to generate a keypoint embedding for the target agent; generating a combined embedding for the target agent from the context embedding and the keypoint embedding; and processing the combined embedding using a decoder neural network to generate a behavior prediction output for the target agent that characterizes predicted behavior of the target agent after the current time point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 16, 2025
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventors: Xinwei Shi, Tian Lan, Jonathan Chandler Stroud, Zhishuai Zhang, Junhua Mao, Jeonhyung Kang, Khaled Refaat, Jiachen Li
  • Patent number: 12497079
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus for generating trajectory predictions for one or more target agents. In one aspect, a system comprises one or more computers configured to obtain scene context data characterizing a scene in an environment at a current time point, where the scene includes multiple agents that include a target agent and one or more context agents, and the scene context data includes respective context data for each of multiple different modalities of context data. The one or more computers then generate an encoded representation of the scene in the environment that includes one or more embeddings and process the encoded representation of the scene context data using a decoder neural network to generate a trajectory prediction output for the target agent that predicts a future trajectory of the target after the current time point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2023
    Date of Patent: December 16, 2025
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventors: Rami Al-Rfou, Nigamaa Nayakanti, Kratarth Goel, Aurick Qikun Zhou, Benjamin Sapp, Khaled Refaat
  • Patent number: 12461532
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus for predicting future trajectories of agents in an environment. In one aspect, a system comprises one or more computers configured to receive a data set comprising multiple training examples. The training examples include scene data comprising respective agent data for multiple agents and a ground truth trajectory for a target agent that represents ground truth motion of the target agent after a corresponding time point. The one or more computers obtain data identifying one or more of the multiple agents as non-causal agents for each training example. A non-causal agent is an agent whose states do not cause the ground truth trajectory for the target agent to change. The one or more computers generate a respective modified training example from each of the multiple training examples.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2023
    Date of Patent: November 4, 2025
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventors: Benjamin James Caine, Khaled Refaat, Benjamin Sapp, Scott Morgan Ettinger, Wei Chai, Rebecca Dawn Roelofs, Liting Sun
  • Patent number: 12450469
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for anomaly estimation for behavior predictions using a neural network. One of the methods includes receiving data characterizing a scene that includes an agent in an environment. A behavior prediction input generated from the data is processed using a behavior prediction model. The behavior prediction model is configured to process the behavior prediction input to generate a predicted probability distribution over a plurality of possible behaviors for the agent. An anomaly estimation input generated from the data is processed using an anomaly estimation model. The anomaly estimation model is configured to process the anomaly estimation input to generate a prediction error for the predicted probability distribution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2025
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventor: Khaled Refaat
  • Patent number: 12420846
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for agent trajectory prediction using context-sensitive fusion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2022
    Date of Patent: September 23, 2025
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventors: Balakrishnan Varadarajan, Ahmed Said Mohammed Hefny, Benjamin Sapp, Khaled Refaat, Dragomir Anguelov
  • Patent number: 12344273
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium that determine yield behavior for an autonomous vehicle, and can include identifying an agent that is in a vicinity of an autonomous vehicle navigating through a scene at a current time point. Scene features can be obtained and can include features of (i) the agent and (ii) the autonomous vehicle. An input that can include the scene features can be processed using a first machine learning model that is configured to generate (i) a crossing intent prediction that includes a crossing intent score that represents a likelihood that the agent intends to cross a roadway in a future time window after the current time, and (ii) a crossing action prediction that includes a crossing action score that represents a likelihood that the agent will cross the roadway in the future time window after the current time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2022
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2025
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventors: Xinwei Shi, Junhua Mao, Khaled Refaat, Tian Lan, Jeonhyung Kang, Zhishuai Zhang, Jonathan Chandler Stroud
  • Patent number: 12275412
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for processing inputs using slice-based dynamic neural networks. One of the methods includes receiving a new input for processing by a neural network that includes a first conditional neural network layer that has a set of shared parameters and a respective set of slice parameters for each of a plurality of slices. One or more slices to which the new input belongs are identified. The new input is processed to generate a network output, including: receiving a layer input to the first conditional neural network layer; and processing the layer input using the set of shared parameters, the respective one or more sets of slice parameters for the identified one or more slices, but not the respective sets of slice parameters for any other slices to which the new input does not belong.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2024
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2025
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventors: Khaled Refaat, Stéphane Ross
  • Publication number: 20250065921
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for intervention behavior prediction. One of the methods includes receiving data characterizing a scene that includes a first agent and a second agent in an environment and receiving intervention data specifying a planned intervention to be performed by the second agent. A conditional behavior prediction output that assigns, to each of a plurality of possible future behaviors, (i) a respective conditional likelihood that the first agent performs the possible future behavior given that the second agent performs the planned intervention and (ii) a predicted value of a confounder variable for the possible future behavior is generated using a conditional behavior prediction model.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 23, 2023
    Publication date: February 27, 2025
    Inventors: Khaled Refaat, Nigamaa Nayakanti
  • Patent number: 12204333
    Abstract: Aspects of the disclosure provide for controlling a vehicle in an autonomous driving mode. For instance, sensor data for an object as well as a plurality of predicted trajectories may be received. Each predicted trajectory may represent a plurality of possible future locations for the object. A grid including a plurality of cells, each being associated with a geographic area, may be generated. Probabilities that the object will enter the geographic area associated with each of the plurality of cells over a period of time into the future may be determined based on the sensor data in order to generate a heat map. One or more of the plurality of predicted trajectories may be compared to the heat map. The vehicle may be controlled in the autonomous driving mode based on the comparison.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2025
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventors: Khaled Refaat, Kai Ding
  • Patent number: 12168462
    Abstract: An autonomous vehicle includes sensor subsystem(s) that output a sensor signal. A perception subsystem (i) detects an agent in a vicinity of the autonomous vehicle and (ii) generates a motion signal that describes at least one of a past motion or a present motion of the agent. An intention prediction subsystem processes the sensor signal to generate an intention signal that describes at least one intended action of the agent. A behavior prediction subsystem processes the motion signal and the intention signal to generate a behavior prediction signal that describes at least one predicted behavior of the agent. A planner subsystem processes the behavior prediction signal to plan a driving decision for the autonomous vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2023
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2024
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventor: Khaled Refaat
  • Publication number: 20240300542
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for generating trajectory predictions for one or more agents in an environment. In one aspect, a method comprises: obtaining scene context data characterizing a scene in an environment at a current time point and generating a respective predicted future trajectory for each of a plurality of agents in the scene at the current time point by sampling a sequence of discrete motion tokens that defines a joint future trajectory for the plurality of agents using a trajectory prediction neural network that is conditioned on the scene context data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 8, 2024
    Publication date: September 12, 2024
    Inventors: Ari Seff, Rami Al-Rfou, Angelo Brian Cera, Nigamaa Nayakanti, Aurick Qikun Zhou, Mason Ng, Benjamin Sapp, Dian Chen, Khaled Refaat
  • Patent number: 12071161
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for intervention behavior prediction. One of the methods includes receiving data characterizing a scene that includes a first agent and a second agent in an environment. A confounder prediction input generated from the data is processed using a confounder prediction model. A plurality of predicted conditional probability distributions is generated, wherein each predicted conditional probability distribution is conditioned on: (i) a planned intervention by the second agent, and (ii) the confounder variable belonging to a corresponding confounder class.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2022
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2024
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventors: Khaled Refaat, Stéphane Ross
  • Publication number: 20240278802
    Abstract: Data representing a set of predicted trajectories and a planned trajectory for an autonomous vehicle is obtained. A predictability score for the planned trajectory can be determined based on a comparison of the planned trajectory to the set of predicted trajectories for the autonomous vehicle. The predictability score indicates a level of predictability of the planned trajectory. A determination can be made, based at least on the predictability score, whether to initiate travel with the autonomous vehicle along the planned trajectory. In response to determining to initiate travel with the autonomous vehicle along the planned trajectory, a control system can be directed to maneuver the autonomous vehicle along the planned trajectory.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2023
    Publication date: August 22, 2024
    Inventors: Khaled Refaat, Haoyu Chen, Wei Chai, Alisha Saxena
  • Patent number: 11977382
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for identifying high-priority agents in the vicinity of a vehicle. The high-priority agents can be identified based on a set of mutual importance scores in which each mutual importance score indicates an estimated mutual relevance between the vehicle and a different agent from a set of agents on planning decisions of the other. The mutual importance scores can be calculated based on importance scores assessed from the perspectives of both the vehicle and the agents.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2023
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventors: Kai Ding, Minfa Wang, Haoyu Chen, Khaled Refaat, Stephane Ross, Wei Chai
  • Patent number: 11950166
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for determining occupancies of surrounding agents. One of the methods includes obtaining scene data characterizing an environment at a current time point; processing a first network input generated from the scene data using a first neural network to generate an intermediate output; obtaining an identification of a future time point that is after the current time point; and generating, from the intermediate output and the future time point, an occupancy output, wherein the occupancy output comprises respective occupancy probabilities for each of a plurality of locations in the environment, wherein the respective occupancy probability for each location characterizes a likelihood that one or more agents will occupy the location at the future time point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2024
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventors: Khaled Refaat, Kai Ding
  • Patent number: 11938943
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for processing inputs using slice-based dynamic neural networks. One of the methods includes receiving a new input for processing by a neural network that includes a first conditional neural network layer that has a set of shared parameters and a respective set of slice parameters for each of a plurality of slices. One or more slices to which the new input belongs are identified. The new input is processed to generate a network output, including: receiving a layer input to the first conditional neural network layer; and processing the layer input using the set of shared parameters, the respective one or more sets of slice parameters for the identified one or more slices, but not the respective sets of slice parameters for any other slices to which the new input does not belong.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2024
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventors: Khaled Refaat, Stéphane Ross
  • Patent number: 11900224
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for generating training data for training a machine learning model to perform trajectory prediction. One of the methods includes: obtaining a training input, the training input including (i) data characterizing an agent in an environment as of a first time and (ii) data characterizing a candidate trajectory of the agent in the environment for a first time period that is after the first time. A long-term label for the candidate trajectory that indicates whether the agent actually followed the candidate trajectory for the first time period is determined. A short-term label for the candidate trajectory that indicates whether the agent intended to follow the candidate trajectory is determined. A ground-truth probability for the candidate trajectory is determined. The training input is associated with the ground-truth probability for the candidate trajectory in the training data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventors: Khaled Refaat, Stephane Ross
  • Publication number: 20240025454
    Abstract: An autonomous vehicle includes sensor subsystem(s) that output a sensor signal. A perception subsystem (i) detects an agent in a vicinity of the autonomous vehicle and (ii) generates a motion signal that describes at least one of a past motion or a present motion of the agent. An intention prediction subsystem processes the sensor signal to generate an intention signal that describes at least one intended action of the agent. A behavior prediction subsystem processes the motion signal and the intention signal to generate a behavior prediction signal that describes at least one predicted behavior of the agent. A planner subsystem processes the behavior prediction signal to plan a driving decision for the autonomous vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 31, 2023
    Publication date: January 25, 2024
    Inventor: Khaled Refaat