Methods and systems for ground segmentation using graph-cuts

Abstract

Systems and methods for segmenting scan data are disclosed. The methods include receiving scan data representing a plurality of points in an environment associated with a ground surface and one or more objects, and creating a graph from the scan data. The graph includes a plurality of vertices corresponding to the plurality of points. The method further includes assigning a unary potential to each of the plurality of vertices that is a cost of assigning that vertex to a ground label or a non-ground label, and assigning a pairwise potential to each pair of neighboring vertices in the graph that is the cost of assigning different labels to neighboring vertices. The methods include using the unary potentials and the pairwise potentials to identify labels for each of the plurality of points, and segmenting the scan data to identify points associated with the ground based on the identified labels.