Systems and methods for detecting and modeling curb curves in complex urban scenes

A computing system, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more memory devices, the one or more memory devices storing computer-readable instructions that when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations, the operations comprising:
• receiving a cloud of three-dimensional data points acquired along one or more street locations;
• identifying a plurality of vertical scanlines within the cloud of three-dimensional data points, each vertical scanline comprising an array of three-dimensional data points obtained at a given horizontal location along the one or more street locations;
• identifying one or more curb points in the plurality of vertical scanlines, wherein the one or more curb points are indicative of the potential presence of a curb along the one or more street locations, and wherein identifying one or more curb points in at least one of the plurality of vertical scanlines comprises:
• determining at least one of a slope and a height difference for each of one or more data points included in the vertical scanline based at least in part on a vector describing a spatial difference between such data point and a next sequential data point;
• and
• identifying the one or more curb points by identifying changes in the slope or height difference of the one or more data points included in the vertical scanline;
• generating a synthesized set of non-overlapping curb curves based at least in part on the one or more curb points identified in nearby vertical scanlines to close gaps between one or more of the curb points;
• identifying successive curb curves in the synthesized set of non-overlapping curb curves as belonging to one or more curb segments;
• generating a curb model that fits each of the one or more curb segments to one or more curb model shape representations;
• generating a three-dimensional model of the one or more street locations based at least in part on the generated curb model.

One or more tangible, non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-readable instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to perform operations, the operations comprising:

• receiving a cloud of three-dimensional data points acquired along one or more street locations;
• identifying a plurality of vertical scanlines within the cloud of three-dimensional data points, each vertical scanline comprising an array of three-dimensional data points obtained at a given horizontal location along the one or more street locations;
• identifying one or more curb points in the plurality of vertical scanlines, wherein the one or more curb points are indicative of the potential presence of a curb along the one or more street locations, and wherein identifying one or more curb points in at least one of the plurality of vertical scanlines comprises:
• determining at least one of a slope and a height difference for each of one or more data points included in the vertical scanline based at least in part on a vector describing a spatial difference between such data point and a next sequential data point;
• and
• identifying the one or more curb points by identifying changes in the slope or height difference of the one or more data points included in the vertical scanline;
• generating a synthesized set of non-overlapping curb curves based at least in part on the one or more curb points identified in nearby vertical scanlines to close gaps between one or more of the curb points;
• identifying successive curb curves in the synthesized set of non-overlapping curb curves as belonging to one or more curb segments;
• and
• generating a curb model that fits each of the one or more curb segments to one or more curb model shape representations.