Approaches for encoding environmental information

A system comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to perform:
• determining sensor data captured by at least one sensor of a vehicle while navigating an environment over a period of time;
• determining information describing one or more agents associated with the environment during the period of time based at least in part on the captured sensor data;
• generating a schema-based encoding describing the environment during the period of time based at least in part on the determined information and an application of a scenario schema to the information describing the one or more agents associated with the environment, wherein the scenario schema is associated with a set of elements that include at least a first element to represent the one or more agents and a second element to represent motion information associated with the one or more agents, and wherein the schema-based encoding provides a structured representation of the environment during the period of time;
• comparing the schema-based encoding associated with the environment with a plurality of other schema-based encodings that provide structured representations of different environments;
• determining that a set of the plurality of other schema-based encodings satisfy a threshold similarity to the schema-based encoding associated with the environment;
• determining scenario information associated with the set of the plurality of other schema-based encodings based at least in part on the threshold similarity determined between the schema-based encoding and the set of the plurality of other schema-based encodings, wherein scenario information associated with a particular schema-based encoding of a particular environment describes one or more scenarios that may be encountered by the vehicle while navigating one or more road segments in the particular environment;
• and
• causing instructions to be provided for modifying an operation of the vehicle while navigating the environment based at least in part on the scenario information associated with the set of the plurality of other schema-based encodings.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform a method comprising:

• determining sensor data captured by at least one sensor of a vehicle while navigating an environment over a period of time;
• determining information describing one or more agents associated with the environment during the period of time based at least in part on the captured sensor data;
• generating a schema-based encoding describing the environment during the period of time based at least in part on the determined information and an application of a scenario schema to the information describing the one or more agents associated with the environment, wherein the scenario schema is associated with a set of elements that include at least a first element to represent the one or more agents and a second element to represent motion information associated with the one or more agents, and wherein the schema-based encoding provides a structured representation of the environment during the period of time;
• comparing the schema-based encoding associated with the environment with a plurality of other schema-based encodings that provide structured representations of different environments;
• determining that a set of the plurality of other schema-based encodings satisfy a threshold similarity to the schema-based encoding associated with the environment;
• determining scenario information associated with the set of the plurality of other schema-based encodings based at least in part on the threshold similarity determined between the schema-based encoding and the set of the plurality of other schema-based encodings, wherein scenario information associated with a particular schema-based encoding of a particular environment describes one or more scenarios that may be encountered by the vehicle while navigating one or more road segments in the particular environment;
• and
• causing instructions to be provided for modifying an operation of the vehicle while navigating the environment based at least in part on the scenario information associated with the set of the plurality of other schema-based encodings.