US 12,214,802 B1
Augmenting point cloud data with artificial return points
Gil Shotan, San Francisco, CA (US)
Assigned to Waymo LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed by Waymo LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed on Jul. 13, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/864,181.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/221,716, filed on Jul. 14, 2021.
Int. Cl. B60W 60/00 (2020.01); G01S 17/89 (2020.01)
CPC B60W 60/0011 (2020.02) [G01S 17/89 (2013.01); B60W 2554/40 (2020.02)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method comprising:
receiving, by a data processing system of an autonomous vehicle (AV), point cloud data comprising a plurality of return points, each return point being representative of a reflecting region that reflects a beam emitted by a sensing system;
generating a plurality of artificial return points based on presence or absence of return points along radial paths of beams emitted from the sensing system, wherein the artificial return points are representative of probable free space along the radial paths;
generating augmented point cloud data that comprises the plurality of return points and the plurality of artificial return points; and
causing a driving path of the AV to be determined based on the augmented point cloud data.