Visual odometry and pairwise alignment for high definition map creation

One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media having instructions stored thereon that, in response to being executed by one or more processors, cause a system to perform operations comprising:

• receiving a set of image frames depicting a local area of a vehicle, comprising a first image frame corresponding to a first point in time and a second image frame corresponding to a second point in time;
• determining a first set of features of the first image frame and a second set of features of the second image frame, each feature of the first and second set of features associated with a respective location within the local area captured by the respective image frame;
• determining a transformation between a first position of the vehicle at the first point in time, and a second position of the vehicle at the second point in time, by:
• selecting a first subset of features from the first set of features;
• identifying a second subset of features from the second set of features, each corresponding to a respective feature of first subset of features, based upon a level of similarity to the respective feature of the first subset of features;
• and
• determining the transformation based upon the respective locations of corresponding features of the first subset of features and the second subset of features;
• and
• updating a high definition map of the local area based on the transformation, the high definition map for use in driving by one or more autonomous vehicles.

A system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media having instructions stored thereon that, in response to being executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to perform operations comprising:
• receiving a set of image frames depicting a local area of a vehicle, comprising a first image frame corresponding to a first point in time and a second image frame corresponding to a second point in time;
• determining a first set of features of the first image frame and a second set of features of the second image frame, each feature of the first and second set of features associated with a respective location within the local area captured by the respective image frame;
• determining a transformation between a first position of the vehicle at the first point in time, and a second position of the vehicle at the second point in time, by:
• selecting a first subset of features from the first set of features;
• identifying a second subset of features from the second set of features, each corresponding to a respective feature of first subset of features, based upon a level of similarity to the respective feature of the first subset of features;
• and
• determining the transformation based upon the respective locations of corresponding features of the first subset of features and the second subset of features;
• and
• updating a high definition map of the local area based on the transformation, the high definition map for use in driving by one or more autonomous vehicles.