US 11,880,931 B2
High-definition city mapping
Mengda Yang, Sunnyvale, CA (US); Weixin Jiang, Guangzhou (CN); and Chuanchuan Liu, Wuhan (CN)
Assigned to Pony AI Inc., Grand Cayman (KY)
Filed by Pony AI Inc., Grand Cayman (KY)
Filed on Feb. 14, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/168,729.
Application 18/168,729 is a continuation of application No. 17/588,679, filed on Jan. 31, 2022, granted, now 11,580,688.
Application 17/588,679 is a continuation of application No. 17/124,444, filed on Dec. 16, 2020, granted, now 11,238,643, issued on Feb. 1, 2022.
Prior Publication US 2023/0186549 A1, Jun. 15, 2023
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G06T 15/08 (2011.01); G06T 7/70 (2017.01); G01S 17/89 (2020.01); G06T 1/20 (2006.01); G06F 18/25 (2023.01)
CPC G06T 15/08 (2013.01) [G01S 17/89 (2013.01); G06F 18/25 (2023.01); G06T 1/20 (2013.01); G06T 7/70 (2017.01); G06T 2207/10028 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computing system on a vehicle configured to generate a city-scale map, the computing system configured to generate a city-scale map and comprising:
one or more processors; and
a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to perform:
obtaining point clouds at different positions, orientations, or times;
registering, in pairs, a subset of the point clouds based on respective surface normals of each of the point clouds;
obtaining odometry data, the odometry data comprising inertial measurement unit (IMU) data from an IMU and global navigation satellite system (GNSS) data from a GNSS sensor;
determining a position or an orientation of each of the subset of the point clouds based on a constraint associated with the odometry data; and
generating a map based on the determined position or the orientation of each of the subset of the point clouds.