Patents by Inventor Michael Samples

Michael Samples 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: 20260116424
    Abstract: A computing system can obtain, through one or more sensor systems onboard an autonomous vehicle, a motion input, a surface element registration input representing one or more tracked surface elements, and a lane alignment input representing one or more lane boundaries. The computing system can provide the motion input, the surface element registration input, and the lane alignment input to a pose estimation system including a localization filter. The pose estimation system can generate one or more pose states of the autonomous vehicle, including a local pose and a global pose. The computing system can determine a motion plan for the autonomous vehicle based on the one or more pose states.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 26, 2025
    Publication date: April 30, 2026
    Inventors: James Jackson, Daniel Koch, Michael Samples, David Wheeler, Robert Zlot
  • Patent number: 12534106
    Abstract: A computing system can obtain, through one or more sensor systems onboard an autonomous vehicle, a motion input, a surface element registration input representing one or more tracked surface elements, and a lane alignment input representing one or more lane boundaries. The computing system can provide the motion input, the surface element registration input, and the lane alignment input to a pose estimation system including a localization filter. The pose estimation system can generate one or more pose states of the autonomous vehicle, including a local pose and a global pose. The computing system can determine a motion plan for the autonomous vehicle based on the one or more pose states.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2023
    Date of Patent: January 27, 2026
    Assignee: AURORA OPERATIONS, INC.
    Inventors: James Jackson, Daniel Koch, Michael Samples, David Wheeler, Robert Zlot
  • Patent number: 12491884
    Abstract: An autonomous vehicle includes a first compute lane, the first compute lane including a first motion planner configured to output a first motion trajectory at a first planning cycle; a second compute lane, the second compute lane including a second motion planner configured to output a second motion trajectory; and one or more processors configured to: obtain data describing the first motion trajectory from the first motion planner; provide the data describing the first motion trajectory to the second motion planner; generate the second motion trajectory by the second motion planner at a second planning cycle based on the data describing the first motion trajectory from the first motion planner; and control an autonomous vehicle in accordance with the first motion trajectory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2023
    Date of Patent: December 9, 2025
    Assignee: AURORA OPERATIONS, INC.
    Inventors: Michael Samples, Nitish Thatte, Diana Yanakiev
  • Publication number: 20250206313
    Abstract: An autonomous vehicle includes a first compute lane, the first compute lane including a first motion planner configured to output a first motion trajectory at a first planning cycle; a second compute lane, the second compute lane including a second motion planner configured to output a second motion trajectory; and one or more processors configured to: obtain data describing the first motion trajectory from the first motion planner; provide the data describing the first motion trajectory to the second motion planner; generate the second motion trajectory by the second motion planner at a second planning cycle based on the data describing the first motion trajectory from the first motion planner; and control an autonomous vehicle in accordance with the first motion trajectory.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2023
    Publication date: June 26, 2025
    Inventors: Michael Samples, Nitish Thatte, Diana Yanakiev
  • Publication number: 20250091604
    Abstract: A computing system can obtain, through one or more sensor systems onboard an autonomous vehicle, a motion input, a surface element registration input representing one or more tracked surface elements, and a lane alignment input representing one or more lane boundaries. The computing system can provide the motion input, the surface element registration input, and the lane alignment input to a pose estimation system including a localization filter. The pose estimation system can generate one or more pose states of the autonomous vehicle, including a local pose and a global pose. The computing system can determine a motion plan for the autonomous vehicle based on the one or more pose states.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 15, 2023
    Publication date: March 20, 2025
    Inventors: James Jackson, Daniel Koch, Michael Samples, David Wheeler, Robert Zlot
  • Publication number: 20250083690
    Abstract: A localization system can be validated by: obtaining log data descriptive of a plurality of environmental and operational conditions associated with operation of the autonomous vehicle in an environment; augmenting the log data with one or more simulated anomalies; simulating operation of the localization system using the augmented data as input; obtaining simulation result data descriptive of a state of the localization system subsequent simulating the operation of the localization system; and determining a metric associated with the localization system based on the simulation result data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 8, 2023
    Publication date: March 13, 2025
    Inventors: Michael Samples, Robert Michael Zlot
  • Patent number: 10248191
    Abstract: An apparatus for dynamically determining a displacement of a target sensor in an electronic system is disclosed. The apparatus can comprise a non-line-of-sight sensor rigidly mounted on or proximate to the target sensor and configured to measure a parameter that varies with the displacement of the target sensor. The apparatus further can comprise at least one processor coupled to the non-line-of-sight sensor and configured to compute the displacement of the target sensor based on the parameter, and to compute an adjustment value based on the computed displacement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2019
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Nicholas Damien McGee, Quentin Simon Charles Miller, Lev Cherkashin, Michael Samples, Drew Edward Steedly
  • Publication number: 20190012835
    Abstract: A technique is described herein that employs a resource-efficient image capture system. The image capture system includes an active illumination system for emitting electromagnetic radiation within a physical environment. The image capture system also includes a camera system that includes one or more cameras for detecting electromagnetic radiation received from the physical environment, to produce image information. In one implementation, the technique involves using the same image capture system to produce different kinds of image information for consumption by different respective image processing components. The technique can perform this task by allocating timeslots over a span of time for producing the different kinds of image information. In one case, the image processing components include: a pose tracking component; a controller tracking component; and a surface reconstruction component, etc., any subset of which may be active at any given time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 7, 2017
    Publication date: January 10, 2019
    Inventors: Michael BLEYER, Raymond Kirk PRICE, Denis Claude Pierre DEMANDOLX, Michael SAMPLES
  • Publication number: 20180164878
    Abstract: An apparatus for dynamically determining a displacement of a target sensor in an electronic system is disclosed. The apparatus can comprise a non-line-of-sight sensor rigidly mounted on or proximate to the target sensor and configured to measure a parameter that varies with the displacement of the target sensor. The apparatus further can comprise at least one processor coupled to the non-line-of-sight sensor and configured to compute the displacement of the target sensor based on the parameter, and to compute an adjustment value based on the computed displacement.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 12, 2016
    Publication date: June 14, 2018
    Inventors: Nicholas Damien McGee, Quentin Simon Charles Miller, Lev Cherkashin, Michael Samples, Drew Edward Steedly
  • Publication number: 20150003669
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for estimating and tracking a 3D object shape and pose estimation is disclosed A plurality of 3D object models of related objects varying in size and shape are obtained, aligned and scaled, and voxelized to create a 2D height map of the 3D models to train a principle component analysis model. At least one sensor mounted on a host vehicle obtains a 3D object image. Using the trained principle component analysis model, the processor executes program instructions to estimate the shape and pose of the detected 3D object until the shape and pose of the detected 3D object matches one principle component analysis model. The output of the shape and pose of the detected 3D object is used in one vehicle control function.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 28, 2013
    Publication date: January 1, 2015
    Inventors: Mojtaba Solgi, Michael R. James, Danil Prokhorov, Michael Samples