Point cloud data compression in an autonomous vehicle

A method, comprising:

• generating point cloud data by a sensor system of an autonomous vehicle, the point cloud data associated with a region at least neighboring the autonomous vehicle;
• generating a lattice representation of the region by a computing compression system of the autonomous vehicle, the lattice representation including three-dimensional (3D) tiles relative to an origin of a defined coordinate system;
• identifying, by the computing compression system, a portion of the point cloud data that corresponds to a first 3D tile of the 3D tiles, the portion of the point cloud data including point vectors expressed in the defined coordinate system, and the first 3D tile having a tile position vector relative to the origin of the defined coordinate system;
• configuring, by the computing compression system, a first point vector of the point vectors as a superposition of the tile position vector and a first offset vector relative to the tile position vector;
• compressing, by the computing compression system, the first offset vector using an integer representation having a defined number of bits, the integer representation based at least on a fixed-point Q-format representation and the compressing including:
• multiplying a first point coordinate of the first offset vector by a scaling factor based on the defined number of bits, resulting in an integer first point coordinate, and
• replacing the first point coordinate by the integer first point coordinate, resulting in a compressed first offset vector;
• and
• storing, by the computing compression system, the compressed first offset vector in a memory device of the autonomous vehicle.

An autonomous vehicle, comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• at least one memory device functionally coupled to the at least one processor, the at least one memory device having instructions encoded thereon that, in response to execution, cause the at least one processor to perform or facilitate operations comprising:
• receiving point cloud data representative of a region surrounding the autonomous vehicle;
• generating a lattice representation of the region, the lattice representation including three-dimensional (3D) tiles relative to an origin of a defined coordinate system;
• identifying a portion of the point cloud data that corresponds to a first 3D tile of the 3D tiles, the portion of the point cloud data including point vectors expressed in the defined coordinate system, and the first 3D tile having a tile position vector relative to the origin of the defined coordinate system;
• configuring the point vectors as respective superpositions of the tile position vector and respective offset vectors relative to the tile position vector;
• compressing the respective offset vectors using an integer representation having a defined number of bits;
• and
• storing the compressed respective offset vectors in a memory device of the autonomous vehicle.