Segmenting ground points from non-ground points to assist with localization of autonomous vehicles

Abstract

According to an aspect of an embodiment, operations may comprise receiving, from a LIDAR mounted on a vehicle, a first 3D point cloud comprising points of a region around the vehicle as observed by the LIDAR. The operations may also comprise accessing an HD map comprising a second 3D point cloud comprising points of the region around the vehicle. The operations may also comprise segmenting LIDAR ground points from LIDAR non-ground points in the first 3D point cloud. The operations may also comprise segmenting map ground points from map non-ground points in the second 3D point cloud. The operations may also comprise determining a pose of the vehicle by matching the LIDAR ground points to the map ground points and by matching the LIDAR non-ground points to the map non-ground points.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 determining a correspondence between a first point cloud and a second point cloud based at least on comparing one or more first points of the first point cloud to one or more second points of the second point cloud, the comparing being constrained according to whether the one or more first points and the one or more second points correspond to ground points or non-ground points; and   performing one or more localization operations with respect to a machine based at least on the correspondence.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the first point cloud is obtained using a sensor associated with the machine; and   the second point cloud corresponds to map data corresponding to a region in which the machine is located.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the sensor includes a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensor. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of a roll, a pitch, or an altitude of the machine is determined based at least on an orientation of a ground plane determined based at least on the one or more first ground points. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein, during execution of the determining of the correspondence, comparing of one or more first ground points of the one or more first points to one or more second ground points of the one or more second points is weighted differently than comparing of one or more first non-ground points of the one or more points to one or more second non-ground points of the one or more second points. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising segmenting the first point cloud to identify one or more first ground points and one or more first non-ground points of the one or more first points. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein one or more first ground points of the one or more first points are compared to one or more second ground points of the one or more second points separately from one or more first non-ground points of the one or more first points being compared to one or more second non-ground points of the one or more second points. 
     
     
         8 . A processor comprising:
 processing circuitry to cause performance of operations comprising:
 determining a first correspondence between one or more first ground points of a first point cloud and one or more second ground points of a second point cloud; 
 determining a second correspondence between one or more first non-ground points and one or more second non-ground points; and 
 determining a pose of a machine based at least on the first correspondence and the second correspondence. 
   
     
     
         9 . The processor of  claim 8 , wherein:
 the first point cloud is obtained using a sensor associated with the machine; and   the second point cloud corresponds to map data corresponding to a region in which the machine is located.   
     
     
         10 . The processor of  claim 8 , wherein at least one of a roll, a pitch, or an altitude of the machine is determined based at least on a ground plane determined based at least on the one or more first ground points. 
     
     
         11 . The processor of  claim 8 , wherein the determining the pose includes applying a different weight to the first correspondence than to the second correspondence. 
     
     
         12 . The processor of  claim 8 , wherein the operations further comprise segmenting the first point cloud to identify the one or more first ground points and the one or more first non-ground points. 
     
     
         13 . The processor of  claim 8 , wherein the determining of the first correspondence is performed separately from the determining of the second correspondence. 
     
     
         14 . A system comprising:
 one or more processing units to cause performance of operations comprising:
 determining one or more first ground points and one or more first non-ground points of a first point cloud; 
 determining a correspondence between the first point cloud and a second point cloud based at least on at least one of:
 comparing the one or more first ground points to one or more second ground points of the second point cloud; or 
 comparing the one or more first non-ground points to one or more second non-ground points of the second point cloud; and 
 
 aligning the first point cloud with the second point cloud based at least on the correspondence. 
   
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the operations further comprise performing one or more localization operations with respect to a machine based at least on the aligning of the first point cloud with the second point cloud. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein:
 the first point cloud is obtained using a sensor associated with a machine; and   the second point cloud corresponds to map data corresponding to a region in which the machine is located.   
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein at least one of a roll, a pitch, or an altitude of the machine is determined based at least on a ground plane determined based at least on the one or more first ground points. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein, when determining the correspondence, the comparing of the one or more first ground points to the one or more second ground points is weighted differently than the comparing of the one or more first non-ground points to the one or more second non-ground points. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the operations further comprise segmenting the first point cloud to identify the one or more first ground points and the one or more first non-ground points. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the one or more first ground points are compared to the one or more second ground points separately from the one or more first non-ground points being compared to the one or more second non-ground points.