An autonomous vehicle (AV) system configured to perform driving operations, the AV system comprising:
- one or more processors;
- and
- one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media configured to store instructions that, in response to being executed, cause the AV system to perform operations, the operations comprising:
- obtaining first sensor data and second sensor data from a sensor unit co-located within the AV, the first sensor data and the second sensor data being representative of an environment around the AV and wherein the first sensor data and second sensor data both comprise a plurality of data points;
- synthesizing the plurality of data points of the second sensor data to reduce a number of the data points included in the second sensor data to be equal to a number of the data points included in the first sensor data;
- pairing the data points included in the first sensor data with the synthesized data points included in the second sensor data corresponding to same time points to generate a set of sensor data, wherein the data points included in the first sensor data are paired with the synthesized data points included in the second sensor data that correspond to same time points as the data points included in the first sensor data;
- generating a mapping dataset based on the set of sensor data;
- identifying a plurality of data elements in the mapping dataset in which each data element of the plurality of data elements corresponds to at least one data point of the plurality of data points;
- assigning a first portion of the plurality of data elements a first structural data categorization and a second portion of the plurality of data elements to a second structural data categorization, wherein:
- the data elements assigned to the first structural data categorization correspond to surface features of objects in the environment;
- and
- the data elements assigned to the second structural data categorization correspond to edge features of the objects in the environment and are assigned based on a contrast in intensity of properties of proximate data points of the sensor data along a continuous line;
- identifying the objects in the environment based on boundaries delineated by the edge features and positioning of the surface features relative to the edge features;
- determining a mapping trajectory of the AV, the mapping trajectory describing a localization and a path of motion of the AV;
- generating a high-definition map based on the identified objects and relative to the mapping trajectory of the AV;
- identifying a region of the high-definition map corresponding to the path of motion of the AV based on the mapping trajectory;
- updating the region of the high-definition map corresponding to the path of motion of the AV to generate an updated high-definition map;
- and
- controlling the AV such that the AV navigates the environment based on the updated high-definition map.