Building elevation maps from laser data

摘要

Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to generating elevation maps. More specifically, data points may be collected by a laser moving along a roadway and used to generate an elevation map of the roadway. The collected data points may be projected onto a two dimensional or “2D” grid. The grid may include a plurality of cells, each cell of the grid representing a geolocated second of the roadway. The data points of each cell may be evaluated to identify an elevation for the particular cell. For example, the data points in a particular cell may be filtered in various ways including occlusion, interpolation from neighboring cells, etc. The minimum value of the remaining data points within each cell may then be used as the elevation for the particular cell, and the elevation of a plurality of cells may be used to generate an elevation map of the roadway.

主权项

1. A method for generating an elevation map of a roadway, the method comprising:
receiving sensor data, the sensor data including a plurality of data points, each of the plurality of data points representing a position and elevation of a particular location along the roadway; generating, by a processor, a 2D grid of the roadway, the 2D grid including a plurality of cells, each cell representing an area of the roadway; generating a first set of data points for each cell of the plurality of cells based on the positions of the plurality of data points; filtering the first set of data points for each cell of the plurality of cells in order to generate a second set of data points for each cell of the plurality of cells; for each cell of the plurality of cells, identifying a data point of the second set of data points associated with a lowest relative elevation; and generating an elevation map of the roadway based on the identified data points of the second sets of data points associated with the lowest relative elevations.