Patents by Inventor Michael Grabner

Michael Grabner 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: 12620115
    Abstract: In various examples, surface profile estimation and bump detection may be performed based on a three-dimensional (3D) point cloud. The 3D point cloud may be filtered in view of a portion of an environment including drivable free-space, and within a threshold height to factor out other objects or obstacles other than a driving surface and protuberances thereon. The 3D point cloud may be analyzed—e.g., using a sliding window of bounding shapes along a longitudinal or other heading direction—to determine one-dimensional (1D) signal profiles corresponding to heights along the driving surface. The profile itself may be used by a vehicle—e.g., an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle—to help in navigating the environment, and/or the profile may be used to detect bumps, humps, and/or other protuberances along the driving surface, in addition to a location, orientation, and geometry thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 2023
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2026
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: Minwoo Park, Yue Wu, Michael Grabner, Cheng-Chieh Yang
  • Publication number: 20250341403
    Abstract: Approaches presented herein provide for the selection of tracks of data to be used to generate, or update, a digital representation or reconstruction of a physical environment. Tracks of data may be obtained that correspond to roads or other features of a region, but there may be more tracks of data obtained for certain features than is needed, and few tracks obtained for other features. A selection process can cluster track segments into buckets, and attempt to select tracks so that the number of tracks for each bucket is above a minimum track threshold and below a maximum track threshold. An interactive selection process can be used, where selection of a track causes that track to be selected for all associated buckets that have not yet reached the maximum track threshold. Once at least a minimum number of tracks have been selected for each bucket, the tracks can be registered and provided for generation of the digital representation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 21, 2024
    Publication date: November 6, 2025
    Inventors: Derik Schroeter, Michael Grabner, Youding Zhu, Tian Liu
  • Publication number: 20250314502
    Abstract: In various examples, determining wait condition information associated with traffic features for autonomous and semi-autonomous systems and applications is described herein. Systems and methods described herein may process data representing actual driving behaviors associated with users of machines in order to determine wait condition information, such as wait lines (e.g., stopping lines, etc.), for traffic features located within an environment. For instance, mapstreams (e.g., drives, etc.) associated with machines navigating approximate to a traffic feature may be scored based at least on whether rules associated with the environment and/or the traffic feature were followed. At least a portion of the mapstreams, such as mapstreams associated with at least a threshold score, may then be used to determine a wait line associated with the traffic feature. Additionally, map data representative of a map may be updated to indicate the location of the wait line within the environment.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 5, 2024
    Publication date: October 9, 2025
    Inventors: Andrew Carley, Chase Equall, Michael Grabner, Michael Kroepfl, Vadims Cugunovs
  • Publication number: 20250292459
    Abstract: In various examples, various types of sensor data from multiple ego-machines are used to infer lanes and/or generate lane graphs for use in autonomous systems and applications. In some embodiments, one or more DNNs may be used to infer lane data indicating a representation of a lane shape using sensor data from various vehicles to represent a 3D environment. The inferred lane data may include cross-section indicators that indicate cross-sections of a lane and/or connection indicators that indicate a lane channel connecting two locations (e.g., two lane portions). The inferred lane data may be used to generate a lane graph that represents lanes on a road and, in some cases, lane dividers (e.g., polyline represented as a solid line, a dashed line, a double line, etc.). A lane graph may be used, for example, to model the environment around a vehicle, facilitate localization, provide guidance for autonomous driving, etc.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 12, 2024
    Publication date: September 18, 2025
    Inventors: Amala Sanjay DESHMUKH, Farzan Nowruzi, Vadim Cugonovs, Michael Grabner
  • Publication number: 20250292460
    Abstract: In various examples, various types of sensor data from multiple ego-machines are used to infer lanes and/or generate lane graphs for use in autonomous systems and applications. In some embodiments, one or more DNNs may be used to infer lane data indicating a representation of a lane shape using sensor data from various vehicles to represent a 3D environment. The inferred lane data may include cross-section indicators that indicate cross-sections of a lane and/or connection indicators that indicate a lane channel connecting two locations (e.g., two lane portions). The inferred lane data may be used to generate a lane graph that represents lanes on a road and, in some cases, lane dividers (e.g., polyline represented as a solid line, a dashed line, a double line, etc.). A lane graph may be used, for example, to model the environment around a vehicle, facilitate localization, provide guidance for autonomous driving, etc.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 12, 2024
    Publication date: September 18, 2025
    Inventors: Amala Sanjay DESHMUKH, Farzan Nowruzi, Vadim Cugunovs, Michael Grabner
  • Publication number: 20240078695
    Abstract: In various examples, surface profile estimation and bump detection may be performed based on a three-dimensional (3D) point cloud. The 3D point cloud may be filtered in view of a portion of an environment including drivable free-space, and within a threshold height to factor out other objects or obstacles other than a driving surface and protuberances thereon. The 3D point cloud may be analyzed—e.g., using a sliding window of bounding shapes along a longitudinal or other heading direction—to determine one-dimensional (1D) signal profiles corresponding to heights along the driving surface. The profile itself may be used by a vehicle—e.g., an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle—to help in navigating the environment, and/or the profile may be used to detect bumps, humps, and/or other protuberances along the driving surface, in addition to a location, orientation, and geometry thereof.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 8, 2023
    Publication date: March 7, 2024
    Inventors: Minwoo Park, Yue Wu, Michael Grabner, Cheng-Chieh Yang
  • Patent number: 11900629
    Abstract: In various examples, surface profile estimation and bump detection may be performed based on a three-dimensional (3D) point cloud. The 3D point cloud may be filtered in view of a portion of an environment including drivable free-space, and within a threshold height to factor out other objects or obstacles other than a driving surface and protuberances thereon. The 3D point cloud may be analyzed—e.g., using a sliding window of bounding shapes along a longitudinal or other heading direction—to determine one-dimensional (1D) signal profiles corresponding to heights along the driving surface. The profile itself may be used by a vehicle—e.g., an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle—to help in navigating the environment, and/or the profile may be used to detect bumps, humps, and/or other protuberances along the driving surface, in addition to a location, orientation, and geometry thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2023
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: Minwoo Park, Yue Wu, Michael Grabner, Cheng-Chieh Yang
  • Publication number: 20230366698
    Abstract: An end-to-end system for data generation, map creation using the generated data, and localization to the created map is disclosed. Mapstreams—or streams of sensor data, perception outputs from deep neural networks (DNNs), and/or relative trajectory data—corresponding to any number of drives by any number of vehicles may be generated and uploaded to the cloud. The mapstreams may be used to generate map data—and ultimately a fused high definition (HD) map—that represents data generated over a plurality of drives. When localizing to the fused HD map, individual localization results may be generated based on comparisons of real-time data from a sensor modality to map data corresponding to the same sensor modality. This process may be repeated for any number of sensor modalities and the results may be fused together to determine a final fused localization result.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 14, 2023
    Publication date: November 16, 2023
    Inventors: David Nister, Ruchi Bhargava, Vaibhav Thukral, Michael Grabner, Ibrahim Eden, Jeffrey Liu
  • Publication number: 20230357076
    Abstract: An end-to-end system for data generation, map creation using the generated data, and localization to the created map is disclosed. Mapstreams—or streams of sensor data, perception outputs from deep neural networks (DNNs), and/or relative trajectory data—corresponding to any number of drives by any number of vehicles may be generated and uploaded to the cloud. The mapstreams may be used to generate map data—and ultimately a fused high definition (HD) map—that represents data generated over a plurality of drives. When localizing to the fused HD map, individual localization results may be generated based on comparisons of real-time data from a sensor modality to map data corresponding to the same sensor modality. This process may be repeated for any number of sensor modalities and the results may be fused together to determine a final fused localization result.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 2, 2023
    Publication date: November 9, 2023
    Inventors: Michael Kroepfl, Amir Akbarzadeh, Ruchi Bhargava, Viabhav Thukral, Neda Cvijetic, Vadim Cugunovs, David Nister, Birgit Henke, Ibrahim Eden, Youding Zhu, Michael Grabner, Ivana Stojanovic, Yu Sheng, Jeffrey Liu, Enliang Zheng, Jordan Marr, Andrew Carley
  • Patent number: 11803192
    Abstract: Systems and methods for performing visual odometry more rapidly. Pairs of representations from sensor data (such as images from one or more cameras) are selected, and features common to both representations of the pair are identified. Portions of bundle adjustment matrices that correspond to the pair are updated using the common features. These updates are maintained in register memory until all portions of the matrices that correspond to the pair are updated. By selecting only common features of one particular pair of representations, updated matrix values may be kept in registers. Accordingly, matrix updates for each common feature may be collectively saved with a single write of the registers to other memory. In this manner, fewer write operations are performed from register memory to other memory, thus reducing the time required to update bundle adjustment matrices and thus speeding the bundle adjustment process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2023
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: Michael Grabner, Jeremy Furtek, David Nister
  • Patent number: 11788861
    Abstract: An end-to-end system for data generation, map creation using the generated data, and localization to the created map is disclosed. Mapstreams—or streams of sensor data, perception outputs from deep neural networks (DNNs), and/or relative trajectory data—corresponding to any number of drives by any number of vehicles may be generated and uploaded to the cloud. The mapstreams may be used to generate map data—and ultimately a fused high definition (HD) map—that represents data generated over a plurality of drives. When localizing to the fused HD map, individual localization results may be generated based on comparisons of real-time data from a sensor modality to map data corresponding to the same sensor modality. This process may be repeated for any number of sensor modalities and the results may be fused together to determine a final fused localization result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2023
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: David Nister, Ruchi Bhargava, Vaibhav Thukral, Michael Grabner, Ibrahim Eden, Jeffrey Liu
  • Publication number: 20230230273
    Abstract: In various examples, surface profile estimation and bump detection may be performed based on a three-dimensional (3D) point cloud. The 3D point cloud may be filtered in view of a portion of an environment including drivable free-space, and within a threshold height to factor out other objects or obstacles other than a driving surface and protuberances thereon. The 3D point cloud may be analyzed—e.g., using a sliding window of bounding shapes along a longitudinal or other heading direction—to determine one-dimensional (1D) signal profiles corresponding to heights along the driving surface. The profile itself may be used by a vehicle—e.g., an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle—to help in navigating the environment, and/or the profile may be used to detect bumps, humps, and/or other protuberances along the driving surface, in addition to a location, orientation, and geometry thereof.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 27, 2023
    Publication date: July 20, 2023
    Inventors: Minwoo Park, Yue Wu, Michael Grabner, Cheng-Chieh Yang
  • Patent number: 11698272
    Abstract: An end-to-end system for data generation, map creation using the generated data, and localization to the created map is disclosed. Mapstreams—or streams of sensor data, perception outputs from deep neural networks (DNNs), and/or relative trajectory data—corresponding to any number of drives by any number of vehicles may be generated and uploaded to the cloud. The mapstreams may be used to generate map data—and ultimately a fused high definition (HD) map—that represents data generated over a plurality of drives. When localizing to the fused HD map, individual localization results may be generated based on comparisons of real-time data from a sensor modality to map data corresponding to the same sensor modality. This process may be repeated for any number of sensor modalities and the results may be fused together to determine a final fused localization result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 11, 2023
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: Michael Kroepfl, Amir Akbarzadeh, Ruchi Bhargava, Vaibhav Thukral, Neda Cvijetic, Vadim Cugunovs, David Nister, Birgit Henke, Ibrahim Eden, Youding Zhu, Michael Grabner, Ivana Stojanovic, Yu Sheng, Jeffrey Liu, Enliang Zheng, Jordan Marr, Andrew Carley
  • Patent number: 11657532
    Abstract: In various examples, surface profile estimation and bump detection may be performed based on a three-dimensional (3D) point cloud. The 3D point cloud may be filtered in view of a portion of an environment including drivable free-space, and within a threshold height to factor out other objects or obstacles other than a driving surface and protuberances thereon. The 3D point cloud may be analyzed—e.g., using a sliding window of bounding shapes along a longitudinal or other heading direction—to determine one-dimensional (1D) signal profiles corresponding to heights along the driving surface. The profile itself may be used by a vehicle—e.g., an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle—to help in navigating the environment, and/or the profile may be used to detect bumps, humps, and/or other protuberances along the driving surface, in addition to a location, orientation, and geometry thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 23, 2023
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: Minwoo Park, Yue Wu, Michael Grabner, Cheng-Chieh Yang
  • Publication number: 20220413509
    Abstract: Systems and methods for performing visual odometry more rapidly. Pairs of representations from sensor data (such as images from one or more cameras) are selected, and features common to both representations of the pair are identified. Portions of bundle adjustment matrices that correspond to the pair are updated using the common features. These updates are maintained in register memory until all portions of the matrices that correspond to the pair are updated. By selecting only common features of one particular pair of representations, updated matrix values may be kept in registers. Accordingly, matrix updates for each common feature may be collectively saved with a single write of the registers to other memory. In this manner, fewer write operations are performed from register memory to other memory, thus reducing the time required to update bundle adjustment matrices and thus speeding the bundle adjustment process.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2022
    Publication date: December 29, 2022
    Inventors: Michael Grabner, Jeremy Furtek, David Nister
  • Patent number: 11435756
    Abstract: Systems and methods for performing visual odometry more rapidly. Pairs of representations from sensor data (such as images from one or more cameras) are selected, and features common to both representations of the pair are identified. Portions of bundle adjustment matrices that correspond to the pair are updated using the common features. These updates are maintained in register memory until all portions of the matrices that correspond to the pair are updated. By selecting only common features of one particular pair of representations, updated matrix values may be kept in registers. Accordingly, matrix updates for each common feature may be collectively saved with a single write of the registers to other memory. In this manner, fewer write operations are performed from register memory to other memory, thus reducing the time required to update bundle adjustment matrices and thus speeding the bundle adjustment process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2022
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: Michael Grabner, Jeremy Furtek, David Nister
  • Publication number: 20210183093
    Abstract: In various examples, surface profile estimation and bump detection may be performed based on a three-dimensional (3D) point cloud. The 3D point cloud may be filtered in view of a portion of an environment including drivable free-space, and within a threshold height to factor out other objects or obstacles other than a driving surface and protuberances thereon. The 3D point cloud may be analyzed—e.g., using a sliding window of bounding shapes along a longitudinal or other heading direction—to determine one-dimensional (1D) signal profiles corresponding to heights along the driving surface. The profile itself may be used by a vehicle—e.g.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 24, 2020
    Publication date: June 17, 2021
    Inventors: Minwoo Park, Yue Wu, Michael Grabner, Cheng-Chieh Yang
  • Publication number: 20210165418
    Abstract: Systems and methods for performing visual odometry more rapidly. Pairs of representations from sensor data (such as images from one or more cameras) are selected, and features common to both representations of the pair are identified. Portions of bundle adjustment matrices that correspond to the pair are updated using the common features. These updates are maintained in register memory until all portions of the matrices that correspond to the pair are updated. By selecting only common features of one particular pair of representations, updated matrix values may be kept in registers. Accordingly, matrix updates for each common feature may be collectively saved with a single write of the registers to other memory. In this manner, fewer write operations are performed from register memory to other memory, thus reducing the time required to update bundle adjustment matrices and thus speeding the bundle adjustment process.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 1, 2020
    Publication date: June 3, 2021
    Inventors: Michael Grabner, Jeremy Furtek, David Nister
  • Publication number: 20210063200
    Abstract: An end-to-end system for data generation, map creation using the generated data, and localization to the created map is disclosed. Mapstreams—or streams of sensor data, perception outputs from deep neural networks (DNNs), and/or relative trajectory data—corresponding to any number of drives by any number of vehicles may be generated and uploaded to the cloud. The mapstreams may be used to generate map data—and ultimately a fused high definition (HD) map—that represents data generated over a plurality of drives. When localizing to the fused HD map, individual localization results may be generated based on comparisons of real-time data from a sensor modality to map data corresponding to the same sensor modality. This process may be repeated for any number of sensor modalities and the results may be fused together to determine a final fused localization result.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2020
    Publication date: March 4, 2021
    Inventors: Michael Kroepfl, Amir Akbarzadeh, Ruchi Bhargava, Vaibhav Thukral, Neda Cvijetic, Vadim Cugunovs, David Nister, Birgit Henke, Ibrahim Eden, Youding Zhu, Michael Grabner, Ivana Stojanovic, Yu Sheng, Jeffrey Liu, Enliang Zheng, Jordan Marr, Andrew Carley
  • Publication number: 20210063198
    Abstract: An end-to-end system for data generation, map creation using the generated data, and localization to the created map is disclosed. Mapstreams—or streams of sensor data, perception outputs from deep neural networks (DNNs), and/or relative trajectory data—corresponding to any number of drives by any number of vehicles may be generated and uploaded to the cloud. The mapstreams may be used to generate map data—and ultimately a fused high definition (HD) map—that represents data generated over a plurality of drives. When localizing to the fused HD map, individual localization results may be generated based on comparisons of real-time data from a sensor modality to map data corresponding to the same sensor modality. This process may be repeated for any number of sensor modalities and the results may be fused together to determine a final fused localization result.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2020
    Publication date: March 4, 2021
    Inventors: David Nister, Ruchi Bhargava, Vaibhav Thukral, Michael Grabner, Ibrahim Eden, Jeffrey Liu