VEHICLE POSE DETERMINING SYSTEM AND METHOD

A vehicle pose determining system and method for accurately estimating the pose of a vehicle (i.e., the location and/or orientation of a vehicle). The system and method use a form of sensor fusion, where output from vehicle dynamics sensors (e.g., accelerometers, gyroscopes, encoders, etc.) is used with output from vehicle radar sensors to improve the accuracy of the vehicle pose data. Uncorrected vehicle pose data derived from dynamics sensor data is compensated with correction data that is derived from occupancy grids that are based on radar sensor data. The occupancy grids, which are 2D or 3D mathematical objects that are somewhat like radar-based maps, must correspond to the same geographic location. The system and method use mathematical techniques (e.g., cost functions) to rotate and shift multiple occupancy grids until a best fit solution is determined, and the best fit solution is then used to derive the correction data that, in turn, improves the accuracy of the vehicle pose data.