터널 내 소화기 표시등 검출을 이용한 3D LIDAR 기반 차량정밀측위

Abstract

Vehicle localization is essential for autonomous driving. Basically, the position information of the autonomous vehicle is obtained from the Global Positioning System (GPS). More accurate localization can be performed by using maps and various sensors that are mounted on the autonomous vehicle. GPS receivers cannot receive GPS signals in tunnels, so dead reckoning (DR) is used for vehicle localization. However, the error from DR continuously accumulates. Therefore, this error must be corrected by using vehicle-mounted sensors, such as Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) and cameras. Tunnels have very specific shape information, which is usually an ellipse, and several emergency facilities exist in tunnels. Some facilities are separated from the tunnel wall, which can be detected by using 3D LIDAR. In particular, fire extinguisher lamps are periodically installed at intervals of 50 m, which can serve as good landmarks. First, the point cloud for the tunnel wall must be removed to effectively detect fire extinguisher lamps. This process can be easily conducted by using shape information. After this removal, we detect the fire extinguisher lamps. In this paper, we propose a 3D LIDAR-based vehicle-localization method that uses ellipse parameters and fire extinguisher lamps in road tunnels. These experiments are conducted at the Maseong tunnel in South Korea. The experimental results show that the root mean square (RMS) position errors in the lateral and longitudinal directions were 0.06 m and 0.23 m, respectively, exhibiting precise localization accuracy.