US 12,140,671 B2
Velocity determination with a scanned lidar system
Pranav Maheshwari, Palo Alto, CA (US); Meseret R. Gebre, Palo Alto, CA (US); Shubham C. Khilari, Palo Alto, CA (US); and Vahid R. Ramezani, Los Altos, CA (US)
Assigned to Luminar Technologies, Inc., Orlando, FL (US)
Filed by Luminar Technologies, Inc., Orlando, FL (US)
Filed on Oct. 7, 2020, as Appl. No. 17/065,011.
Prior Publication US 2022/0107414 A1, Apr. 7, 2022
Int. Cl. G01S 17/58 (2006.01); G01S 7/48 (2006.01); G01S 7/481 (2006.01); G01S 13/58 (2006.01); G01S 17/89 (2020.01); G06F 18/23 (2023.01); G06T 7/13 (2017.01)
CPC G01S 17/58 (2013.01) [G01S 7/4808 (2013.01); G01S 7/4817 (2013.01); G01S 13/588 (2013.01); G01S 17/89 (2013.01); G06F 18/23 (2023.01); G06T 7/13 (2017.01); G06T 2207/10028 (2013.01)] 21 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of determining a velocity of an object using an imaging sensor, the method comprising:
generating, by one or more processors, a first set of features of the object and a second set of features of the object using data collected by the imaging sensor during a first time interval and a second time interval, respectively, wherein generating a feature in the first set or second set of features includes detecting a center of a line segment formed by consecutive points in a scan line to identify a flat surface of the object;
computing, by the one or more processors, a plurality of candidate velocities based on differences in spatial positions of features selected pairwise from the first set and the second set; and
computing, by the one or more processors, the velocity of the object based on the distribution of the plurality of candidate velocities.