Method for pitch angle calibration based on 2D bounding box and its 3D distance for autonomous driving vehicles (ADVs)

A non-transitory machine-readable medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations, the operations comprising:

• perceiving an object in a perspective view of the ADV using a plurality of sensors mounted on the ADV including capturing an image of the object using a monocular image capturing device;
• determining a two-dimensional (2D) bounding box for the object and a perceived distance from the ADV to the object based on the image of the object;
• searching, within an image space of the image of the object, for a dynamic pitch angle based on the 2D bounding box and the perceived distance from the ADV to the object by modifying at least a previous extrinsic calibration value to calculate a distance value;
• determining a distance from the ADV to a point on a ground plane of the perspective view of the ADV based on the determined dynamic pitch angle;
• and
• generating a driving trajectory based on the determined distance for the point on the ground plane to control the ADV.

A data processing system, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• a memory coupled to the one or more processors to store instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations, the operations including
• perceiving an object in a perspective view of the ADV using a plurality of sensors mounted on the ADV including capturing an image of the object using a monocular image capturing device;
• determining a two-dimensional (2D) bounding box for the object and a perceived distance from the ADV to the object based on the image of the object;
• searching, within an image space of the image of the object, for a dynamic pitch angle based on the 2D bounding box and the perceived distance from the ADV to the object by modifying at least a previous extrinsic calibration value to calculate a distance value;
• determining a distance from the ADV to a point on a ground plane of the perspective view of the ADV based on the determined dynamic pitch angle;
• and
• generating a driving trajectory based on the determined distance for the point on the ground plane to control the ADV.