Patent ID: 8775063

Claim:
Method for estimating a projected path of travel for a vehicle on a road, the method comprising: monitoring a plurality of sensor inputs; determining in a processor a road geometry in front of the vehicle based upon the monitored sensor inputs, the road geometry in front of the vehicle comprising a road curvature determined by fusing radar based curvature, map based curvature, camera based curvature and yaw rate based curvature, the radar based curvature determined by tracking one or more target vehicles in front of the vehicle to obtain a tracked trail for each target vehicle, comparing each tracked trail to a curvature threshold, and generating a sample mean curvature based on each tracked trail that exceeds the curvature threshold, and a tangent at the vehicle position; determining a vehicle position in relation to the road geometry based upon the monitored sensor inputs comprising determining a vehicle orientation in relation to the road geometry based upon the monitored sensor inputs and the road curvature, and determining a vehicle lateral position in relation to the road geometry based upon the monitored sensor inputs and the road curvature; determining a plurality of particle points in front of the vehicle representing a potential path of travel from the road geometry and the vehicle position; and utilizing iteratively determined ones of the plurality of particle points to navigate the vehicle including omitting ones of the plurality of particle points passed by the vehicle.