Active lighting control for communicating a state of an autonomous vehicle to entities in a surrounding environment

A method comprising:

• accessing sensor data generated by a sensor system of an autonomous vehicle;
• determining, based at least in part on the sensor data, a location of the autonomous vehicle within the environment, wherein the location of the autonomous vehicle identifies a position and orientation of the autonomous vehicle within the environment according to a global coordinate system;
• calculating, based at least in part on the location of the autonomous vehicle and at least a portion of the sensor data, a trajectory of the autonomous vehicle, wherein the trajectory indicates a planned path associated with navigating the autonomous vehicle between at least a first location and a second location within the environment;
• identifying, based at least in part on the sensor data, a pedestrian object within the environment;
• determining a location of the pedestrian object in the environment, wherein the location of the pedestrian object identifies a position and orientation of the pedestrian object within the environment according to the global coordinate system, wherein the position identifies one or more coordinates and wherein the orientation identifies one or more of a pitch, a yaw, or a roll of the pedestrian object;
• determining, based at least in part on the location of the pedestrian object and the location of the autonomous vehicle, to provide a visual alert in a direction of the pedestrian object;
• selecting a light pattern from a plurality of light patterns, wherein a first one of light patterns is associated with a first level of urgency of the visual alert to provide in the direction of the pedestrian object, and a second one of the light patterns is associated with a second level of urgency of the visual alert to provide in the direction of the pedestrian object;
• selecting, from a plurality of light emitters of the autonomous vehicle, a light emitter to provide the visual alert, wherein the plurality of light emitters include a first light emitter located within a first area between a first wheel of the autonomous vehicle and a second wheel of the autonomous vehicle, a second light emitter located within a second area between a third wheel of the autonomous vehicle and a fourth wheel of the autonomous vehicle, a third light emitter located within a third area between the first wheel and the third wheel, and a fourth light emitter located within a fourth area between the second wheel and the fourth wheel;
• and
• causing the light emitter to provide the visual alert in the direction to the pedestrian object, the light emitter emitting light indicative of the light pattern into the environment.