Automatically detecting unmapped drivable road surfaces for autonomous vehicles
AssigneeWaymo LLC
InventorsDavid Harrison Silver, Ivan Bogun, Romain Thibaux
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Aspects of the disclosure relate to detecting unmapped drivable road surfaces. In one instance, sensor data captured by a sensor of an autonomous vehicle may be projected onto a grid having a plurality of cells. The plurality of cells may be classified by generating a label for each of the plurality of cells. Each label may identifies whether or not a corresponding cell contains a drivable surface. Ones of the plurality of cells may be clustered based on the labels to form a cluster of cells. An area of the cluster of cells may be compared to a map. Whether the area of the cluster of cells is an unmapped drivable road surface may be determined based on the comparison.
Claims20
A method of detecting unmapped drivable road surfaces, the method comprising:
- projecting, by one or more processors, sensor data captured by a sensor of an autonomous vehicle onto a grid having a plurality of cells;
- classifying, by the one or more processors, the plurality of cells by generating a label for each of the plurality of cells, each label identifying whether or not a corresponding cell contains a drivable surface;
- clustering, by the one or more processors, ones of the plurality of cells based on the labels to form a cluster of cells;
- comparing, by the one or more processors, an area of the cluster of cells to a map;
- and
- determining, by the one or more processors, whether the area of the cluster of cells is an unmapped drivable road surface based on the comparison.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.