Patents by Inventor TILMAN WEKEL

TILMAN WEKEL 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: 20250076070
    Abstract: In various examples, feature location identification for autonomous and semi-autonomous systems and applications is described herein. Systems and methods are disclosed that use LiDAR data to determine locations of road markings within an environment. For instance, the LiDAR data may be used to generate one or more images, such as a top-down image, birds-eye-view (BEV) image, and/or an intensity image, representing the environment. The image(s) may then be processed using one or more machine learning models that are configured to determine information associated with the road markings, such as bounding shapes (e.g., bounding boxes) indicating the locations of the road markings within the image(s), classifications associated with the road markings (e.g., the types of road markings), and/or any other information. The information may then be used to perform one or more processes, such as updating a map of the environment and/or navigating a vehicle within the environment.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 28, 2023
    Publication date: March 6, 2025
    Inventors: Yixuan Lin, Jonathan Howe, Yu Zhang, James Skinner, George Cong, Tilman Wekel
  • Publication number: 20250014186
    Abstract: A deep neural network(s) (DNN) may be used to perform panoptic segmentation by performing pixel-level class and instance segmentation of a scene using a single pass of the DNN. Generally, one or more images and/or other sensor data may be stitched together, stacked, and/or combined, and fed into a DNN that includes a common trunk and several heads that predict different outputs. The DNN may include a class confidence head that predicts a confidence map representing pixels that belong to particular classes, an instance regression head that predicts object instance data for detected objects, an instance clustering head that predicts a confidence map of pixels that belong to particular instances, and/or a depth head that predicts range values. These outputs may be decoded to identify bounding shapes, class labels, instance labels, and/or range values for detected objects, and used to enable safe path planning and control of an autonomous vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 27, 2023
    Publication date: January 9, 2025
    Inventors: Ke CHEN, Nikolai SMOLYANSKIY, Alexey KAMENEV, Ryan OLDJA, Tilman WEKEL, David NISTER, Joachim PEHSERL, Ibrahim EDEN, Sangmin OH, Ruchi BHARGAVA
  • Publication number: 20240410981
    Abstract: A deep neural network(s) (DNN) may be used to detect objects from sensor data of a three dimensional (3D) environment. For example, a multi-view perception DNN may include multiple constituent DNNs or stages chained together that sequentially process different views of the 3D environment. An example DNN may include a first stage that performs class segmentation in a first view (e.g., perspective view) and a second stage that performs class segmentation and/or regresses instance geometry in a second view (e.g., top-down). The DNN outputs may be processed to generate 2D and/or 3D bounding boxes and class labels for detected objects in the 3D environment. As such, the techniques described herein may be used to detect and classify animate objects and/or parts of an environment, and these detections and classifications may be provided to an autonomous vehicle drive stack to enable safe planning and control of the autonomous vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 21, 2024
    Publication date: December 12, 2024
    Inventors: Nikolai Smolyanskiy, Ryan Oldja, Ke Chen, Alexander Popov, Joachim Pehserl, Ibrahim Eden, Tilman Wekel, David Wehr, Ruchi Bhargava, David Nister
  • Patent number: 12164059
    Abstract: A deep neural network(s) (DNN) may be used to detect objects from sensor data of a three dimensional (3D) environment. For example, a multi-view perception DNN may include multiple constituent DNNs or stages chained together that sequentially process different views of the 3D environment. An example DNN may include a first stage that performs class segmentation in a first view (e.g., perspective view) and a second stage that performs class segmentation and/or regresses instance geometry in a second view (e.g., top-down). The DNN outputs may be processed to generate 2D and/or 3D bounding boxes and class labels for detected objects in the 3D environment. As such, the techniques described herein may be used to detect and classify animate objects and/or parts of an environment, and these detections and classifications may be provided to an autonomous vehicle drive stack to enable safe planning and control of the autonomous vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2024
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: Nikolai Smolyanskiy, Ryan Oldja, Ke Chen, Alexander Popov, Joachim Pehserl, Ibrahim Eden, Tilman Wekel, David Wehr, Ruchi Bhargava, David Nister
  • Publication number: 20240362935
    Abstract: In various examples, generating maps using first sensor data and then annotating second sensor data using the maps for autonomous systems and applications is described herein. Systems and methods are disclosed that automatically propagate annotations associated with the first sensor data generated using a first type of sensor, such as a LiDAR sensor, to the second sensor data generated using a second type of sensor, such as an image sensor(s). To propagate the annotations, the first type of sensor data may be used to generate a map, where the map represents the locations of static objects as well as the locations of dynamic objects at various instances in time. The map and annotations associated with the first sensor data may then be used to annotate the second sensor data and/or determine additional information associated with the objects represented by the second sensors data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 21, 2023
    Publication date: October 31, 2024
    Inventors: Anton Mitrokhin, Roman Parys, Alexey Solovey, Tilman Wekel
  • Publication number: 20240353234
    Abstract: In various examples, generating maps using first sensor data and then annotating second sensor data using the maps for autonomous systems and applications is described herein. Systems and methods are disclosed that automatically propagate annotations associated with the first sensor data generated using a first type of sensor, such as a LiDAR sensor, to the second sensor data generated using a second type of sensor, such as an image sensor(s). To propagate the annotations, the first type of sensor data may be used to generate a map, where the map represents the locations of static objects as well as the locations of dynamic objects at various instances in time. The map and annotations associated with the first sensor data may then be used to annotate the second sensor data and/or determine additional information associated with the objects represented by the second sensors data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 21, 2023
    Publication date: October 24, 2024
    Inventors: Anton Mitrokhin, Roman Parys, Alexey Solovey, Tilman Wekel
  • Patent number: 12080078
    Abstract: A deep neural network(s) (DNN) may be used to detect objects from sensor data of a three dimensional (3D) environment. For example, a multi-view perception DNN may include multiple constituent DNNs or stages chained together that sequentially process different views of the 3D environment. An example DNN may include a first stage that performs class segmentation in a first view (e.g., perspective view) and a second stage that performs class segmentation and/or regresses instance geometry in a second view (e.g., top-down). The DNN outputs may be processed to generate 2D and/or 3D bounding boxes and class labels for detected objects in the 3D environment. As such, the techniques described herein may be used to detect and classify animate objects and/or parts of an environment, and these detections and classifications may be provided to an autonomous vehicle drive stack to enable safe planning and control of the autonomous vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2022
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2024
    Inventors: Nikolai Smolyanskiy, Ryan Oldja, Ke Chen, Alexander Popov, Joachim Pehserl, Ibrahim Eden, Tilman Wekel, David Wehr, Ruchi Bhargava, David Nister
  • Patent number: 12072443
    Abstract: A deep neural network(s) (DNN) may be used to detect objects from sensor data of a three dimensional (3D) environment. For example, a multi-view perception DNN may include multiple constituent DNNs or stages chained together that sequentially process different views of the 3D environment. An example DNN may include a first stage that performs class segmentation in a first view (e.g., perspective view) and a second stage that performs class segmentation and/or regresses instance geometry in a second view (e.g., top-down). The DNN outputs may be processed to generate 2D and/or 3D bounding boxes and class labels for detected objects in the 3D environment. As such, the techniques described herein may be used to detect and classify animate objects and/or parts of an environment, and these detections and classifications may be provided to an autonomous vehicle drive stack to enable safe planning and control of the autonomous vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2024
    Inventors: Nikolai Smolyanskiy, Ryan Oldja, Ke Chen, Alexander Popov, Joachim Pehserl, Ibrahim Eden, Tilman Wekel, David Wehr, Ruchi Bhargava, David Nister
  • Publication number: 20240273919
    Abstract: A deep neural network(s) (DNN) may be used to detect objects from sensor data of a three dimensional (3D) environment. For example, a multi-view perception DNN may include multiple constituent DNNs or stages chained together that sequentially process different views of the 3D environment. An example DNN may include a first stage that performs class segmentation in a first view (e.g., perspective view) and a second stage that performs class segmentation and/or regresses instance geometry in a second view (e.g., top-down). The DNN outputs may be processed to generate 2D and/or 3D bounding boxes and class labels for detected objects in the 3D environment. As such, the techniques described herein may be used to detect and classify animate objects and/or parts of an environment, and these detections and classifications may be provided to an autonomous vehicle drive stack to enable safe planning and control of the autonomous vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 26, 2024
    Publication date: August 15, 2024
    Inventors: Nikolai Smolyanskiy, Ryan Oldja, Ke Chen, Alexander Popov, Joachim Pehserl, Ibrahim Eden, Tilman Wekel, David Wehr, Ruchi Bhargava, David Nister
  • Patent number: 12051206
    Abstract: A deep neural network(s) (DNN) may be used to perform panoptic segmentation by performing pixel-level class and instance segmentation of a scene using a single pass of the DNN. Generally, one or more images and/or other sensor data may be stitched together, stacked, and/or combined, and fed into a DNN that includes a common trunk and several heads that predict different outputs. The DNN may include a class confidence head that predicts a confidence map representing pixels that belong to particular classes, an instance regression head that predicts object instance data for detected objects, an instance clustering head that predicts a confidence map of pixels that belong to particular instances, and/or a depth head that predicts range values. These outputs may be decoded to identify bounding shapes, class labels, instance labels, and/or range values for detected objects, and used to enable safe path planning and control of an autonomous vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 30, 2024
    Inventors: Ke Chen, Nikolai Smolyanskiy, Alexey Kamenev, Ryan Oldja, Tilman Wekel, David Nister, Joachim Pehserl, Ibrahim Eden, Sangmin Oh, Ruchi Bhargava
  • Patent number: 12050285
    Abstract: In various examples, a deep neural network(s) (e.g., a convolutional neural network) may be trained to detect moving and stationary obstacles from RADAR data of a three dimensional (3D) space. In some embodiments, ground truth training data for the neural network(s) may be generated from LIDAR data. More specifically, a scene may be observed with RADAR and LIDAR sensors to collect RADAR data and LIDAR data for a particular time slice. The RADAR data may be used for input training data, and the LIDAR data associated with the same or closest time slice as the RADAR data may be annotated with ground truth labels identifying objects to be detected. The LIDAR labels may be propagated to the RADAR data, and LIDAR labels containing less than some threshold number of RADAR detections may be omitted. The (remaining) LIDAR labels may be used to generate ground truth data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2022
    Date of Patent: July 30, 2024
    Inventors: Alexander Popov, Nikolai Smolyanskiy, Ryan Oldja, Shane Murray, Tilman Wekel, David Nister, Joachim Pehserl, Ruchi Bhargava, Sangmin Oh
  • Patent number: 11960026
    Abstract: In various examples, a deep neural network(s) (e.g., a convolutional neural network) may be trained to detect moving and stationary obstacles from RADAR data of a three dimensional (3D) space. In some embodiments, ground truth training data for the neural network(s) may be generated from LIDAR data. More specifically, a scene may be observed with RADAR and LIDAR sensors to collect RADAR data and LIDAR data for a particular time slice. The RADAR data may be used for input training data, and the LIDAR data associated with the same or closest time slice as the RADAR data may be annotated with ground truth labels identifying objects to be detected. The LIDAR labels may be propagated to the RADAR data, and LIDAR labels containing less than some threshold number of RADAR detections may be omitted. The (remaining) LIDAR labels may be used to generate ground truth data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2024
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: Alexander Popov, Nikolai Smolyanskiy, Ryan Oldja, Shane Murray, Tilman Wekel, David Nister, Joachim Pehserl, Ruchi Bhargava, Sangmin Oh
  • Publication number: 20240111025
    Abstract: In various examples, a deep neural network (DNN) may be used to detect and classify animate objects and/or parts of an environment. The DNN may be trained using camera-to-LiDAR cross injection to generate reliable ground truth data for LiDAR range images. For example, annotations generated in the image domain may be propagated to the LiDAR domain to increase the accuracy of the ground truth data in the LiDAR domain—e.g., without requiring manual annotation in the LiDAR domain. Once trained, the DNN may output instance segmentation masks, class segmentation masks, and/or bounding shape proposals corresponding to two-dimensional (2D) LiDAR range images, and the outputs may be fused together to project the outputs into three-dimensional (3D) LiDAR point clouds. This 2D and/or 3D information output by the DNN may be provided to an autonomous vehicle drive stack to enable safe planning and control of the autonomous vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 6, 2023
    Publication date: April 4, 2024
    Inventors: Tilman Wekel, Sangmin Oh, David Nister, Joachim Pehserl, Neda Cvijetic, Ibrahim Eden
  • Publication number: 20240096102
    Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed that relate to freespace detection using machine learning models. First data that may include object labels may be obtained from a first sensor and freespace may be identified using the first data and the object labels. The first data may be annotated to include freespace labels that correspond to freespace within an operational environment. Freespace annotated data may be generated by combining the one or more freespace labels with second data obtained from a second sensor, with the freespace annotated data corresponding to a viewable area in the operational environment. The viewable area may be determined by tracing one or more rays from the second sensor within the field of view of the second sensor relative to the first data. The freespace annotated data may be input into a machine learning model to train the machine learning model to detect freespace using the second data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 7, 2023
    Publication date: March 21, 2024
    Inventors: Alexander POPOV, David NISTER, Nikolai SMOLYANSKIY, PATRIK GEBHARDT, Ke CHEN, Ryan OLDJA, Hee Seok LEE, Shane MURRAY, Ruchi BHARGAVA, Tilman WEKEL, Sangmin OH
  • Patent number: 11915493
    Abstract: A deep neural network(s) (DNN) may be used to detect objects from sensor data of a three dimensional (3D) environment. For example, a multi-view perception DNN may include multiple constituent DNNs or stages chained together that sequentially process different views of the 3D environment. An example DNN may include a first stage that performs class segmentation in a first view (e.g., perspective view) and a second stage that performs class segmentation and/or regresses instance geometry in a second view (e.g., top-down). The DNN outputs may be processed to generate 2D and/or 3D bounding boxes and class labels for detected objects in the 3D environment. As such, the techniques described herein may be used to detect and classify animate objects and/or parts of an environment, and these detections and classifications may be provided to an autonomous vehicle drive stack to enable safe planning and control of the autonomous vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: Nikolai Smolyanskiy, Ryan Oldja, Ke Chen, Alexander Popov, Joachim Pehserl, Ibrahim Eden, Tilman Wekel, David Wehr, Ruchi Bhargava, David Nister
  • Publication number: 20240061075
    Abstract: In various examples, a deep neural network(s) (e.g., a convolutional neural network) may be trained to detect moving and stationary obstacles from RADAR data of a three dimensional (3D) space, in both highway and urban scenarios. RADAR detections may be accumulated, ego-motion-compensated, orthographically projected, and fed into a neural network(s). The neural network(s) may include a common trunk with a feature extractor and several heads that predict different outputs such as a class confidence head that predicts a confidence map and an instance regression head that predicts object instance data for detected objects. The outputs may be decoded, filtered, and/or clustered to form bounding shapes identifying the location, size, and/or orientation of detected object instances. The detected object instances may be provided to an autonomous vehicle drive stack to enable safe planning and control of the autonomous vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 24, 2023
    Publication date: February 22, 2024
    Inventors: Alexander POPOV, Nikolai SMOLYANSKIY, Ryan OLDJA, Shane Murray, Tilman WEKEL, David NISTER, Joachim PEHSERL, Ruchi BHARGAVA, Sangmin OH
  • Patent number: 11906660
    Abstract: In various examples, a deep neural network (DNN) may be used to detect and classify animate objects and/or parts of an environment. The DNN may be trained using camera-to-LiDAR cross injection to generate reliable ground truth data for LiDAR range images. For example, annotations generated in the image domain may be propagated to the LiDAR domain to increase the accuracy of the ground truth data in the LiDAR domain—e.g., without requiring manual annotation in the LiDAR domain. Once trained, the DNN may output instance segmentation masks, class segmentation masks, and/or bounding shape proposals corresponding to two-dimensional (2D) LiDAR range images, and the outputs may be fused together to project the outputs into three-dimensional (3D) LiDAR point clouds. This 2D and/or 3D information output by the DNN may be provided to an autonomous vehicle drive stack to enable safe planning and control of the autonomous vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2024
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: Tilman Wekel, Sangmin Oh, David Nister, Joachim Pehserl, Neda Cvijetic, Ibrahim Eden
  • Patent number: 11885907
    Abstract: In various examples, a deep neural network(s) (e.g., a convolutional neural network) may be trained to detect moving and stationary obstacles from RADAR data of a three dimensional (3D) space, in both highway and urban scenarios. RADAR detections may be accumulated, ego-motion-compensated, orthographically projected, and fed into a neural network(s). The neural network(s) may include a common trunk with a feature extractor and several heads that predict different outputs such as a class confidence head that predicts a confidence map and an instance regression head that predicts object instance data for detected objects. The outputs may be decoded, filtered, and/or clustered to form bounding shapes identifying the location, size, and/or orientation of detected object instances. The detected object instances may be provided to an autonomous vehicle drive stack to enable safe planning and control of the autonomous vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2024
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: Alexander Popov, Nikolai Smolyanskiy, Ryan Oldja, Shane Murray, Tilman Wekel, David Nister, Joachim Pehserl, Ruchi Bhargava, Sangmin Oh
  • Publication number: 20240029447
    Abstract: A deep neural network(s) (DNN) may be used to detect objects from sensor data of a three dimensional (3D) environment. For example, a multi-view perception DNN may include multiple constituent DNNs or stages chained together that sequentially process different views of the 3D environment. An example DNN may include a first stage that performs class segmentation in a first view (e.g., perspective view) and a second stage that performs class segmentation and/or regresses instance geometry in a second view (e.g., top-down). The DNN outputs may be processed to generate 2D and/or 3D bounding boxes and class labels for detected objects in the 3D environment. As such, the techniques described herein may be used to detect and classify animate objects and/or parts of an environment, and these detections and classifications may be provided to an autonomous vehicle drive stack to enable safe planning and control of the autonomous vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 6, 2023
    Publication date: January 25, 2024
    Inventors: Nikolai SMOLYANSKIY, Ryan Oldja, Ke Chen, Alexander Popov, Joachim Pehserl, Ibrahim Eden, Tilman Wekel, David Wehr, Ruchi Bhargava, David Nister
  • Patent number: 11769599
    Abstract: A system and method are provided for use in evaluating a clinical guideline which is represented in a machine readable version by a decision tree comprising at least one node and a decision rule associated with the node. The decision rule comprises at least one variable representing a biomedical quantity. The biomedical quantity is extracted from the patient data using an ontology which defines concepts and their relationships in a medical domain of the clinical guideline and which thereby relates the variable of the decision rule to the patient data. If said extraction is not possible, a view of the patient data is presented to the user to enable the user to determine the biomedical quantity from the view. Advantageously, the user is assisted in evaluating the clinical guideline even when it is not possible to automatically extract the biomedical quantity from the patient data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2023
    Assignee: KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.
    Inventors: Tilman Wekel, Alexandra Groth, Rolf Jürgen Weese