Automatic Calibration of Dual-LiDARs Using Two Poles Stickered with Retro-Reflective Tape

TL;DR

This paper introduces an automatic calibration method for dual-LiDAR systems using two retro-reflective poles, eliminating the need for markers or initial parameter guesses, thus improving flexibility and accuracy.

Contribution

The paper proposes a novel, marker-free calibration approach for multi-LiDAR systems using two retro-reflective poles, independent of environmental info or initial parameters.

Findings

The method achieves higher calibration accuracy than existing approaches.

It is flexible and does not require movable platforms or prior environmental data.

Simulation and experimental results validate the effectiveness of the approach.

Abstract

Multi-LiDAR systems have been prevalently applied in modern autonomous vehicles to render a broad view of the environments. The rapid development of 5G wireless technologies has brought a breakthrough for current cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) applications. Therefore, a novel localization and perception system in which multiple LiDARs are mounted around cities for autonomous vehicles has been proposed. However, the existing calibration methods require specific hard-to-move markers, ego-motion, or good initial values given by users. In this paper, we present a novel approach that enables automatic multi-LiDAR calibration using two poles stickered with retro-reflective tape. This method does not depend on prior environmental information, initial values of the extrinsic parameters, or movable platforms like a car. We analyze the LiDAR-pole model, verify the feasibility of the algorithm through simulation data, and present a simple method to measure the calibration errors w.r.t the ground truth. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach gains better flexibility and higher accuracy when compared with the state-of-the-art approach.