Calibration for autonomous vehicle operation

A method comprising:

• receiving, at an autonomous vehicle system comprising a plurality of sensors, a plurality of sensor measurements associated with an environmental feature, the plurality of sensors comprising an inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor, an odometry sensor, and a multi-beam LIDAR sensor;
• determining a distance traveled by the autonomous vehicle system based on one or more sensor measurements of the odometry sensor;
• determining a velocity of the autonomous vehicle system based on one or more sensor measurements of the IMU sensor;
• identifying an abnormal sensor measurement of the plurality of sensor measurements made using the multi-beam LIDAR sensor, wherein the abnormal sensor measurement is incongruent with one or more other measurements of the plurality of sensor measurements made using the multi-beam LIDAR sensor;
• determining a plurality of calibration parameters associated with the multi-beam LIDAR sensor, wherein at least one parameter of the plurality of calibration parameters is determined based on the abnormal sensor measurement and a statistical computation associated with the environmental feature;
• determining an expectation model associated with the multi-beam LIDAR sensor, wherein the expectation model is configured to output one or more expected sensor measurements;
• generating an expected sensor measurement with the expectation model and using at least one measurement of the plurality of sensor measurements made using the multi-beam LIDAR sensor;
• modifying the plurality of calibration parameters based at least in part on the expected sensor measurement, wherein modifying the plurality of calibration parameter includes generating a modified calibration parameter associated with the multi-beam LIDAR sensor;
• and
• calibrating the multi-beam LIDAR sensor based at least in part on the modified calibration parameter, the distance traveled by the autonomous vehicle system, and the velocity of the autonomous vehicle system.

A method comprising:

• receiving, at an autonomous vehicle system comprising a plurality of sensors, data associated with a measurement made by a multi-beam LIDAR sensor of the plurality of sensors, wherein the measurement indicates detection of an object by the multi-beam LIDAR sensor, and the plurality of sensors further comprises at least one RADAR sensor;
• determining a current physical location of the multi-beam LIDAR sensor, relative to the autonomous vehicle system, using the at least one RADAR sensor;
• comparing the current physical location to a stored indication of an initial position of the multi-beam LIDAR sensor;
• determining a labeled data point associated with the object, wherein the labeled data point is determined based at least in part on an initial calibration of the multi-beam LIDAR sensor;
• retrieving log file data associated with the labeled data point, the log file data comprising one or more contradictory sensor measurements from the multi-beam LIDAR sensor;
• determining, based at least in part on the one or more contradictory sensor measurements, an expected sensor measurement of the multi-beam LIDAR sensor;
• determining a calibration parameter associated with the multi-beam LIDAR sensor based at least in part on the retrieved log file data and the expected sensor measurement;
• associating the calibration parameter with information, identifying the multi-beam LIDAR sensor, in a memory associated with the autonomous vehicle system;
• and
• calibrating the multi-beam LIDAR sensor based at least in part on the calibration parameter and on the comparing.