Radar based three dimensional point cloud for autonomous vehicles

A system comprising:

• a radar unit coupled to a vehicle;
• and
• a computing device configured to:
• cause the radar unit to transmit radar signals into an environment;
• receive, from the radar unit, radar reflection signals corresponding to the radar signals;
• generate, using the radar reflection signals, a two-dimensional (2D) point cloud that represents an azimuth angle and a distance for one or more surfaces in the environment;
• estimate, using a three-dimensional (3D) matched filter, heights for a plurality of pixels in the 2D point cloud to generate a 3D map representative of the environment based on phase information in the radar reflection signals;
• and
• provide control instructions to the vehicle based on the 3D map representative of the environment.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium configured to store instructions, that when executed by a computing system comprising one or more processors, causes the computing system to perform operations comprising:

• causing a radar unit to transmit radar signals into an environment of a vehicle;
• receiving, from the radar unit, radar reflection signals corresponding to the radar signals;
• generating, using the radar reflection signals, a two-dimensional (2D) point cloud that represents an azimuth angle and a distance for one or more surfaces in the environment;
• estimating, using a three-dimensional (3D) matched filter, heights for a plurality of pixels in the 2D point cloud to generate a 3D map representative of the environment based on phase information in the radar reflection signals;
• and
• providing control instructions to the vehicle based on the 3D map representative of the environment.