US Patent 11257230 Adaptive feature map anchor pruning

Embodiments include a method for pruning anchor points from a feature map generated from a Light Detections And Ranging (LiDAR) point cloud, the method comprising: receiving, by a navigation system, a LiDAR point cloud from a LiDAR sensor, the LiDAR point cloud comprising data representing one or more objects in physical surroundings detected by the LiDAR sensor; extracting, by the navigation system, a feature map from the LiDAR point cloud, the feature map comprising a plurality of anchor points, each anchor point defined by an anchor box; smoothing, by the navigation system, the extracted feature map; determining, by the navigation system, density of pixels within the anchor box of each anchor point; and pruning, by the navigation system, anchor points from the feature map based on a plurality of factors related to the determined density of pixels within the box of each anchor point.