Patent Document ID: 10037036
Application ID: 15139554
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for determining safe vehicle trajectories for a vehicle equipped with sensors for monitoring a surrounding environment, taking into account sensing limitations, the method comprising: detecting observable obstacles using one or more of the sensors; determining, using a processor, unobservable areas; adding, using the processor, virtual obstacles in unobservable areas; associating, using the processor, each observable obstacle and each virtual obstacle with one or more hypotheses for objects concealed outside of an observed area in which obstacle detection is possible, referred to as hypothetical events, and assigning an occurrence probability to each combination of obstacle and one or more events; and determining, using the processor, safe vehicle trajectories based on both observable obstacles and virtual obstacles and the occurrence probability of each combination of obstacle and one or more events such that, should a first-probability hypothetical event occur, a first margin is applied to the determined safe vehicle trajectories, and should a second-probability hypothetical event occur, a second margin is applied to the determined safe vehicle trajectories, where the first-probability is less than the second-probability and the first margin is smaller than the second margin.