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).
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Patent number: 12676007Abstract: 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: GrantFiled: August 7, 2023Date of Patent: July 7, 2026Assignee: NVIDIA CorporationInventors: Alexander Popov, David Nister, Nikolai Smolyanskiy, Patrik Gebhardt, Ke Chen, Ryan Oldja, Hee Seok Lee, Shane Murray, Ruchi Bhargava, Tilman Wekel, Sangmin Oh
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Patent number: 12651465Abstract: 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: GrantFiled: April 26, 2024Date of Patent: June 9, 2026Assignee: NVIDIA CorporationInventors: Nikolai Smolyanskiy, Ryan Oldja, Ke Chen, Alexander Popov, Joachim Pehserl, Ibrahim Eden, Tilman Wekel, David Wehr, Ruchi Bhargava, David Nister
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Publication number: 20260147121Abstract: In various examples, data collection vehicles or machines may be equipped with one or more LiDAR sensors (and/or other sensors), and the LiDAR sensor(s) may be used to collect frames of LiDAR data representing various real-world conditions. The LiDAR data may be processed using one or more deep neural networks (DNNs) such as a transformer neural network to generate auto-labels representing detected dynamic obstacles of any designated class. Tracking may be applied to generate object tracks (tracklines), estimate velocity, and/or handle occlusions. In some embodiments, the object tracks may be refined based on geometry and/or confidence to improve their accuracy. In some embodiments, the auto-labels are classified to generate an estimated representation of quality, and auto-labels with at least a threshold quality score may be skipped during human labeling. As such, auto-label quality scores may be used to accelerate human validation of auto-labeled scenes by skipping high quality auto-labels.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 27, 2024Publication date: May 28, 2026Inventors: Alperen Degirmenci, Jonathan Howe, David Ambrose Wehr, Deepak Ravishankar, Sravya Nimmagadda, James Michael Skinner, Christian Panhuber, Jiwoong Choi, Philipp Fischer, Lukas Vögtle, Ilia Karmanov, Jose Manuel Alvarez Lopez, Ke Chen, Ibrahim Eden, Sanja Fidler, Elmar Haussmann, Urs Andrew Muller, Timo Eric Roman, Andrew Tao, Tilman Wekel, Nikolai Smolyanskiy
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Patent number: 12608937Abstract: Apparatuses, systems, and techniques to generate labels of objects depicted with in an image. In at least one embodiment, one or more object labels are generated in association with an image frame based, at least in part, on one or more prior frames and one or more subsequent frames.Type: GrantFiled: December 20, 2023Date of Patent: April 21, 2026Assignee: NVIDIA CorporationInventors: Jonathan Howe, Yongxi Hou, Tilman Wekel
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Publication number: 20260057235Abstract: An annotation pipeline may be used to produce 2D and/or 3D ground truth data for deep neural networks, such as autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle perception networks. Initially, sensor data may be captured with different types of sensors and synchronized to align frames of sensor data that represent a similar world state. The aligned frames may be sampled and packaged into a sequence of annotation scenes to be annotated. An annotation project may be decomposed into modular tasks and encoded into a labeling tool, which assigns tasks to labelers and arranges the order of inputs using a wizard that steps through the tasks. During the tasks, each type of sensor data in an annotation scene may be simultaneously presented, and information may be projected across sensor modalities to provide useful contextual information. After all annotation tasks have been completed, the resulting ground truth data may be exported in any suitable format.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 29, 2025Publication date: February 26, 2026Inventors: Tilman Wekel, Joachim Pehserl, Jacob Meyer, Jake Guza, Anton Mitrokhin, Richard Whitcomb, Marco Scoffier, David Nister, Grant Monroe
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Publication number: 20260057236Abstract: An annotation pipeline may be used to produce 2D and/or 3D ground truth data for deep neural networks, such as autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle perception networks. Initially, sensor data may be captured with different types of sensors and synchronized to align frames of sensor data that represent a similar world state. The aligned frames may be sampled and packaged into a sequence of annotation scenes to be annotated. An annotation project may be decomposed into modular tasks and encoded into a labeling tool, which assigns tasks to labelers and arranges the order of inputs using a wizard that steps through the tasks. During the tasks, each type of sensor data in an annotation scene may be simultaneously presented, and information may be projected across sensor modalities to provide useful contextual information. After all annotation tasks have been completed, the resulting ground truth data may be exported in any suitable format.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 29, 2025Publication date: February 26, 2026Inventors: Tilman Wekel, Joachim Pehserl, Jacob Meyer, Jake Guza, Anton Mitrokhin, Richard Whitcomb, Marco Scoffier, David Nister, Grant Monroe
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Patent number: 12525031Abstract: 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: GrantFiled: October 6, 2023Date of Patent: January 13, 2026Assignee: NVIDIA CorporationInventors: Nikolai Smolyanskiy, Ryan Oldja, Ke Chen, Alexander Popov, Joachim Pehserl, Ibrahim Eden, Tilman Wekel, David Wehr, Ruchi Bhargava, David Nister
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Publication number: 20260004430Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: September 3, 2025Publication date: January 1, 2026Inventors: Ke CHEN, Nikolai SMOLYANSKIY, Alexey KAMENEV, Ryan OLDJA, Tilman WEKEL, David NISTER, Joachim PEHSERL, Ibrahim EDEN, Sangmin OH, Ruchi BHARGAVA
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Patent number: 12488235Abstract: An annotation pipeline may be used to produce 2D and/or 3D ground truth data for deep neural networks, such as autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle perception networks. Initially, sensor data may be captured with different types of sensors and synchronized to align frames of sensor data that represent a similar world state. The aligned frames may be sampled and packaged into a sequence of annotation scenes to be annotated. An annotation project may be decomposed into modular tasks and encoded into a labeling tool, which assigns tasks to labelers and arranges the order of inputs using a wizard that steps through the tasks. During the tasks, each type of sensor data in an annotation scene may be simultaneously presented, and information may be projected across sensor modalities to provide useful contextual information. After all annotation tasks have been completed, the resulting ground truth data may be exported in any suitable format.Type: GrantFiled: February 26, 2021Date of Patent: December 2, 2025Assignee: NVIDIA CorporationInventors: Tilman Wekel, Joachim Pehserl, Jacob Meyer, Jake Guza, Anton Mitrokhin, Richard Whitcomb, Marco Scoffier, David Nister, Grant Monroe
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Publication number: 20250327895Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: July 1, 2025Publication date: October 23, 2025Inventors: Alexander Popov, Nikolai Smolyanskiy, Ryan Oldja, Shane Murray, Tilman Wekel, David Nister, Joachim Pehserl, Ruchi Bhargava, Sangmin Oh
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Publication number: 20250316047Abstract: In various examples, automatic labeling of sensor representations for machine learning systems and applications. Systems and methods described herein may receive inputs for labeling one or more sensor representations of sensor data that represent objects or features, and then use those labels to automatically label additional sensor representations that also represent the same objects or features. For instance, and for an object, a user interface may include at least a map indicating a trajectory of the object, one or more sensor representations which represent the object, and a timeline indicating a time period for which the object was detected. A user may then use the user interface to label the object, such as with a bounding shape indicating a location of the object and/or with one or more attributes describing the object.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 8, 2024Publication date: October 9, 2025Inventors: Austin Martin, Jacob Meyer, James Skinner, Tilman Wekel
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Patent number: 12437412Abstract: 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: GrantFiled: December 27, 2023Date of Patent: October 7, 2025Assignee: NVIDIA CorporationInventors: Ke Chen, Nikolai Smolyanskiy, Alexey Kamenev, Ryan Oldja, Tilman Wekel, David Nister, Joachim Pehserl, Ibrahim Eden, Sangmin Oh, Ruchi Bhargava
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Publication number: 20250299094Abstract: In various examples, evaluating labeled training data for machine learning systems and applications is described herein. Systems and methods described herein may determine whether labels for training data are accurate based at least on additional labels for the training data that represent a consensus of how the training data should be labeled. For instance, sensor representations (e.g., images, point clouds, etc.) may initially be labeled using one or more automatic techniques (e.g., one or more machine learning models, one or more neural networks, one or more algorithms, etc.) and then verified and/or updated by users to generate first labels for the sensor representations. Additionally, copies of the sensor representations may also be labeled using additional users to generate second labels, where these second labels are then used to generate the consensus labels for the sensor representations. The consensus labels may then be used to evaluate the first labels.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 25, 2024Publication date: September 25, 2025Inventors: James Skinner, Kartik Garg, Yongxi Hou, Adam Vafaei, Tian Xia, Tilman Wekel
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Publication number: 20250278670Abstract: Approaches presented herein provide for the acceleration of a human review process, such as the review of annotations generated by a human labeler. Annotations (at least partially) generated by a human reviewer can be provided as input to a machine learning model trained to infer a probability of the annotations including at least one error. Annotations with a low probability of including an error can be approved automatically, while annotations with a high probability (e.g., above a threshold) of including an error can be directed for human review. In order to keep the human reviewer engaged, artificial errors may be introduced at various times based on various engagement criteria.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 13, 2024Publication date: September 4, 2025Inventors: James Michael Skinner, Tian Xia, Yi Lu, Tilman Wekel
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Patent number: 12399253Abstract: 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: GrantFiled: October 24, 2023Date of Patent: August 26, 2025Assignee: NVIDIA CorporationInventors: Alexander Popov, Nikolai Smolyanskiy, Ryan Oldja, Shane Murray, Tilman Wekel, David Nister, Joachim Pehserl, Ruchi Bhargava, Sangmin Oh
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Publication number: 20250076070Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: August 28, 2023Publication date: March 6, 2025Inventors: Yixuan Lin, Jonathan Howe, Yu Zhang, James Skinner, George Cong, Tilman Wekel
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Publication number: 20250014186Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: December 27, 2023Publication date: January 9, 2025Inventors: Ke CHEN, Nikolai SMOLYANSKIY, Alexey KAMENEV, Ryan OLDJA, Tilman WEKEL, David NISTER, Joachim PEHSERL, Ibrahim EDEN, Sangmin OH, Ruchi BHARGAVA
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Publication number: 20240410981Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: August 21, 2024Publication date: December 12, 2024Inventors: Nikolai Smolyanskiy, Ryan Oldja, Ke Chen, Alexander Popov, Joachim Pehserl, Ibrahim Eden, Tilman Wekel, David Wehr, Ruchi Bhargava, David Nister
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Patent number: 12164059Abstract: 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: GrantFiled: July 15, 2021Date of Patent: December 10, 2024Assignee: NVIDIA CorporationInventors: Nikolai Smolyanskiy, Ryan Oldja, Ke Chen, Alexander Popov, Joachim Pehserl, Ibrahim Eden, Tilman Wekel, David Wehr, Ruchi Bhargava, David Nister
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Publication number: 20240362935Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: April 21, 2023Publication date: October 31, 2024Inventors: Anton Mitrokhin, Roman Parys, Alexey Solovey, Tilman Wekel