Velocity estimation and object tracking for autonomous vehicle applications

A system comprising:

• a sensing system of an autonomous vehicle, the sensing system to:
• obtain a plurality of return points, each return point comprising a radial velocity value and one or more coordinates of a reflecting region that reflects a signal emitted by the sensing system;
• and
• a perception system of the autonomous vehicle, the perception system to:
• associate a first subset of the plurality of return points with one or more characteristics of a motion of an object, the one or more characteristics comprising a combination of a rotational velocity of the object and a first component of a translational velocity of the object;
• apply a disambiguation scheme to the combination to disambiguate the rotational velocity from the first component of the translational velocity;
• and
• cause a driving path of the autonomous vehicle to be modified in view of the one or more characteristics of the motion of the object.

An autonomous vehicle comprising:

• a sensing system configured to:
• obtain a plurality of return points, each return point comprising a radial velocity value and one or more coordinates of a reflecting region that reflects a signal emitted by the sensing system;
• and
• a perception system configured to:
• associate a first subset of the plurality of return points with one or more characteristics of a motion of an object, the one or more characteristics comprising a combination of a rotational velocity of the object and a first component of a translational velocity of the object;
• apply a disambiguation scheme to the combination to disambiguate the rotational velocity from the first component of the translational velocity;
• and
• cause a driving path of the autonomous vehicle to be modified in view of the one or more characteristics of the motion of the object.