US 12,270,914 B2
Point cloud segmentation using a coherent lidar for autonomous vehicle applications
Nicholas Armstrong-Crews, Mountain View, CA (US); Mingcheng Chen, Mountain View, CA (US); and Xiaoxiang Hu, Mountain View, CA (US)
Assigned to Waymo LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed by Waymo LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed on Dec. 11, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/535,933.
Application 18/535,933 is a continuation of application No. 17/087,464, filed on Nov. 2, 2020, granted, now 11,841,439.
Prior Publication US 2024/0134054 A1, Apr. 25, 2024
Int. Cl. G01S 17/931 (2020.01); B60W 30/09 (2012.01); B60W 30/095 (2012.01); B60W 60/00 (2020.01); G01S 17/06 (2006.01); G01S 17/50 (2006.01); G01S 17/58 (2006.01); G01S 17/89 (2020.01); G01S 17/04 (2020.01)
CPC G01S 17/931 (2020.01) [B60W 30/09 (2013.01); B60W 30/0956 (2013.01); B60W 60/001 (2020.02); G01S 17/06 (2013.01); G01S 17/50 (2013.01); G01S 17/58 (2013.01); G01S 17/89 (2013.01); B60W 2420/408 (2024.01); B60W 2554/20 (2020.02); B60W 2554/4029 (2020.02); G01S 17/04 (2020.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method comprising:
obtaining, by a sensing system of a vehicle, a plurality of return points comprising one or more velocity values and one or more coordinates;
mapping individual points of the plurality of return points to respective vectors of a plurality of vectors in a coordinate-velocity space, the coordinate-velocity space comprising one or more spatial dimensions and one or more velocity dimensions;
associating, using a clustering criterion in the coordinate-velocity space, a first cluster of the plurality of vectors with a first object in an environment of the vehicle; and
causing a driving path of the vehicle to be determined in view of the first cluster.