Detecting phantom objects in ranging sensor data

A system, comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing instructions for execution by the processor for:
• receiving ranging sensor data captured by a ranging sensor;
• identifying a set of candidate objects in the ranging sensor data, each candidate object having respective positions in the ranging sensor data;
• identifying an enclosed object in the set of candidate objects having a position at least partially enclosed by a position of an enclosing object in the set of candidate objects;
• determining that the enclosed object has a further distance from the ranging sensor than the enclosing object;
• and
• removing or maintaining the enclosed from the set of candidate objects in the ranging sensor data based as least in part in part on the determination that the enclosed object has the further distance than the second object.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions executable by one or more processors for:

• receiving ranging sensor data captured by a ranging sensor;
• identifying a set of candidate objects in the ranging sensor data, each candidate object having respective positions in the ranging sensor data;
• identifying an enclosed object in the set of candidate objects having a position at least partially enclosed by a position of an enclosing object in the set of candidate objects;
• determining that the enclosed object has a further distance from the ranging sensor than the enclosing object;
• and
• removing or maintaining the enclosed from the set of candidate objects in the ranging sensor data based as least in part in part on the determination that the enclosed object has the further distance than the second object.