Method and device for generating depth map

A device for generating a depth map, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more memory devices storing program code which, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to:
• acquire an RGB color image via a monocular camera provided in a robot system;
• acquire a three-dimensional point cloud via a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor provided in the robot system;
• generate, from the three-dimensional point cloud, a sparse depth map including first depth information for only some points in a particular space;
• input the RGB color image and the sparse depth map into a pre-trained diffusion model;
• and
• generate, based on the diffusion model, a dense depth map including second depth information for all points in the particular space,
• wherein:
• the pre-trained diffusion model is trained by introducing a loss function that reflects confidence, and
• the confidence is a numerical representation of confidence level in a prediction of the pre-trained diffusion model.